It seems like every time I am out somewhere with my kids we run into friends of theirs from school and the same thing always happens. The kids get to talking and want to plan to get together. The moms and I try to exchange information. “Do you have an email account?” “Do you text?” “Are you on Twitter?” There are so many ways to get in touch with each other and most of them are more efficient than the phone numbers listed in the student directories.

Because of this, I am loving the new Mommy Contact Cards from Kodak. You can include whatever information you most want friends to use to contact you. I would include my email, my cell phone, my Twitter, my Facebook, and maybe even my blog site. It’s like a business card only more personal. And you can get 50 free Mommy Contact Cards right now (although you do need to pay shipping and handling). Get them in a variety of colors and add your kids’ pictures to them so the parents will be able to put a name with a face.

No coupon code is necessary, but this special will surely end soon. Click here to visit Kodak and get more information.

My family saw Toy Story 3 last weekend and loved it! It definitely hit all of the right notes from comedy to suspense to good old-fashioned values. One of the best parts for me was the use of recognizable toys but giving them personalities. Ken was a new character this time and was fabulous in many ways. One of the jokes revolved around the fact that Ken is just a “girl’s toy.” Of course, Ken sees himself in a completely different way. He even renames the Barbie Dreamhouse as “Ken’s Dreamhouse.”

Here’s a cute video that Disney/Pixar did in addition to the movie. It’s an “interview” of Ken that doesn’t go exactly as he would have liked.

If you have kids under the age of 10, chances are pretty good that there is talk in your house about the new Toy Story 3 coming out this month. Personally, I loved the Toy Story movies, so I am excited about this one, too. The premise is that Andy is going off to college and the toys are being donated to a day care. Disney has been getting creative with their advertising, even making fake commercials for some of the new characters in the movie. But this new video that features the Toy Story toys using Google is really cute. It’s one of Google’s “Search Stories,” essentially a commercial that tells a story through the use of various Google searches.

Watch the video a few times to catch some of the more nuanced things like the fact that Andy needs extra long twin sheets for his college bed (I remember those days!). The voices are familiar and the video definitely appeals more to adults than kids. I love the end where they toys not-so-subtly encourage Andy by typing “bring your toys to college” into Google! What did you catch in the video that others may not? Does it make you more likely to want to see Toy Story 3?

Your kids can get a free book at Barnes & Noble this summer when they read 8 books and track them on the “Passport to Summer Reading” at Barnes & Noble. A parent or guardian will need to sign the Passport when it is complete. Passports can be turned in anytime between May 25 and September 7 and exchanged for a free book from a list of paperback titles. The list is actually pretty good and is broken down by grade level.

The program is being presented in conjunction with “The 39 Clues.” Click here to visit the Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program website for more details.

Up until a couple of years ago, the books I read with my daughters consisted mainly of picture books and Dr. Seuss. Although I love to read, I tended to read short books to my girls and not anything that really interested me. Then came Harry Potter. It completely changed the ways that my daughters and I read books both together and apart. I started reading less business books and more fantasy (I also more than quadrupled the number of books I read in a year!). My daughters started reading chapter books before bed. Before long, we were all getting interested in the same things. Now we find ourselves reading series like Kingdom Keepers and Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief–each of us trying to finish faster than the other.

We also discovered that our friends enjoyed the same books as us. Over time, we started sharing books with other mothers AND daughters. After a few months of this, we decided that it might be fun to try a mother-daughter book club. Now, I’ve never even been in a regular book club. Starting a mother-daughter book club should be interesting!

Cindy Hudson’s Book by Book: The Complete Guide to Creating Mother-Daughter Book Clubs is where I will be starting. In addition to the basic information (whom to invite, how big the group should be, where and when to have meetings), Cindy discusses issues that I would never have even thought about. For example, how can you tie in community service projects to the book that you are reading? What kind of expert can you bring in about the book? What will you do at meetings besides just talk about the book?

I had not thought about any of this when I envisioned our book club. I just imagined that we would read a book and then grab a pizza and talk about it for a couple of hours. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg of what you can do. You can really use the book club as an opportunity to learn and grow with your daughter. It can also be a good way to strengthen your bond with the other mothers and daughters in the club.

Another great thing about the book are the book suggestions. Cindy breaks down age groups and gives you ideas about different books that you might want to use and what the themes of those books are. It’s a great starting point for choosing your early books that should then help you find more books later as your group progresses.

As I read this book, I became more and more excited about starting my group. I’ve touched base with a couple of other moms and am now eager to get the process going! You can pick up Book by Book: The Complete Guide to Creating Mother-Daughter Book Clubs at Amazon or other book retailers.

Ever tried having a discussion with your teen daughter about dating, having sex, drinking alcohol or being exposed to drugs? If so, you may have discovered that she puts up a wall against these types of conversations.  She may be too embarrassed or too afraid to reveal what she and her friends are doing, even if she has questions.

You may also be reluctant to bring up topics like these. What do you do if she asks about your own experiences and you don’t want to share them? Yet these are important issues. Talking with their moms can give girls crucial information that may keep them safe and help them make informed decisions when their peers engage in risky behavior.

This is where books can really help. When you read the same titles your daughter is reading, it gives you an entrée to talk about themes that appear in the pages—without the pressure of discussing either of your own personal details.

For instance, when the girls in my daughter’s mother-daughter book club read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, we were able to talk about date rape and how alcohol plays a role in it. We brainstormed ways the main character could have acted to keep herself safe while at a party. This was a non-confrontational way to discuss situations the girls may face as they entered high school and started socializing with friends more and parents less.

You also benefit when you listen to concerns you daughter and her friends have. Discussing actions by a character in a book may bring up topics you never even knew they worried about. Talking about these actions is a non-threatening way to gain insight into your daughter’s world and issues she may face.

Another plus is that you may hear of the topic again months later, when your daughter encounters a similar situation in real life. Once you’ve broken the ice, it’s easier for you or your daughter to refer back to an earlier discussion. And that keeps the lines open for honest communication about even more issues in the future.

Cindy Hudson is the author of Book by Book: The Complete Guide to Creating Mother-Daughter Book Clubs (Seal Press, October 2009). She is the founder of two long-running mother-daughter book clubs, and she lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two daughters. Visit her online at www.MotherDaughterBookClub.com.

If you are a Disney Rewards member (it’s free to sign up!), you can now get a Free Disney Enchanted Call. You will need to visit the special promotion page and get the code (ENCHANTEDCALL) to be able to redeem for it. Once you do, you will then get to choose the character and type of greeting that you would like.

The one thing that I was disappointed in was that there was not a call for an upcoming Disney trip. I was hoping to do one of those to get my kids excited about our vacation coming up. There are, however, many other calls to choose from.

Click here to get your free call!

For the first time this year, I sat down and watched the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards with my kids. They were never very into it before, so it wasn’t a big deal at our house. But I figured that at 7 and 9, they would probably be the ideal demographic for the show. We settled in with some pizza and ice cream and made it a family night.

The show itself was fine, but not very well written. The jokes fell flat for me, and even my kids seemed confused by some of them. But overall, the girls had a good time watching the show. My problem was mainly with Twilight. Don’t get me wrong; I am a really big Twilight fan. In fact, I own an entire Twilight merchandise website. However, my daughters are not allowed to read Twilight or watch the movie yet. It just isn’t appropriate for their age.

It’s not just me that thinks Twilight New Moon isn’t appropriate for “kids.” The Motion Picture Association has rated it PG-13. And yet at the “kids’” choice awards, Taylor Lautner won for Favorite Movie Actor and “Jacob & Bella” won as “Cutest Couple.” Have these kids all seen the movie? The average age of the kids in the audience seemed to be about 8 and they were all screaming and swooning every time Twilight or New Moon were mentioned.

I’ll admit that my daughters voted for Taylor Lautner, but only because they had not seen ANY of the movies in the best actor category because 3 of the 4 of them were rated PG-13 (including Transformers and 17 Again). Why did Nickelodeon have 3 of 4 movies rated PG-13 in an awards show that was supposed to be for kids to vote?? I’m irritated by this and disturbed that apparently so many of those kids had seen all of those movies.

Am I being too prudish in this? I don’t think of myself as one of those moms that shelters her kids from everything. On the other hand, shouldn’t we let the kids be kids while they still can and save these movies for when they are really old enough?

Common Sense Media is offering a free one week trial of the Disney Digital Books if you sign up for their site. Common Sense gives parents expert advice as well as age-appropriate reviews of movies, television, websites, music, and books. I know that most of us try to keep an eye on what our kids are watching, but the bottom line is that we don’t always know what the shows are about until we sit down to watch. I’m anxious to take a look at this not just because of the Disney Digital Books trial but also because my girls are of that age that are learning about media at school that I have never heard of, and I could certainly use some advice!

I tested out the site by looking up their review of the movie “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.” They listed out what you might want to look out for in terms of Messages, Violence, Sex, Language, Consumerism, and Drinking/Drugs/Smoking. They gave specific facts about what was in the movie so that a parent could decide if it was appropriate for their child. They didn’t say “this movie is too scary for kids” but rather gave ratings based on age and let parents report back if their kids were scared. I like this approach.

Do you have any experience with Common Sense Media or Disney Digital Books? Click here to find out more!

As the owner of a number of sites that appeal to kids (Wizards of Waverly Place, Percy Jackson, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, etc.), I get a lot of comments on my blogs from kids. From the most part, they are either complaining about their parents not wanting to buy things for them or are asking for more information about celebrities. What worries me most, however, is the kids giving out personal information.

The other day I had a little boy leave a comment on my Diary of a Wimpy Kid blog that was clearly meant for the author. He didn’t understand that it was just a fan site. He told the author that he was hoping that the author would send him a t-shirt for his birthday. He gave out his full name, email address, date of birth, and mailing address. Thankfully, I do not allow the comments to autopost. Even more thankfully, I am not an online predator now sitting with all of that information.

Parents need to teach their kids not to give out ANY information about themselves at all. Many sites like Webkinz and Club Penguin help limit the information that can be given. But kids with access to the general Internet need to understand what happens when they leave blog comments or sign up for “contests” online.

And don’t think that your kids just won’t get online. They will find ways to get onto the Internet at some point–at home, school, or even a friend’s house. Instead of just blocking them from it, teach them how to use it appropriately.