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Traveling takes courage. Packing. Organizing. List Making. Traffic. Lines. Airports. Germs. Crowds. Weather Issues. Disgruntled People. Delays. Etc. I’m not a fan. One thing I do to offset the negative travel woes is pack a “Dinosaurs Living in My Hair” book and throw it in my backpack. Most times there is a perfect opportunity which presents itself for gifting it to an unsuspecting child. The “DLIMH” book, always wrapped with a bow, has a way of putting a positive spin on an otherwise not-so-fun activity. #CreateSmiles #KidsLoveBooks #WrappedWithABow #GiftsBringJoy #BePrepared #StayPositive #MakeMomentsCount #RoseValleeChildrensFoundation #EncourageKidsToRead #DinosaursLivinginMyHair #BackinNYC

One might wonder how DLIMH ended up in Hulett, WY, 1,297 miles away. The answer is a good friend named Keagin Broadway teaches at the elementary school there and she invited us. That’s all it takes. One simple invitation. There is no direct flight so I flew from Detroit to Denver and then on to Gillette, WY. Weather was clear in Detroit. The photos below show how the weather in Gillette was snowy. Brilliantly I rented a large SUV which helped with the 1.5-hour drive. On my way to the hotel, I drove past Devil’s Tower. It was surreal. The...

November 2018 was filled with a fun visit to PKS in the Florida Keys. I read to K-3rd grades and introduced the DLIMH books to over 200 students. I arrived at the pink school with the greeting "Welcome to Plantation Key School Where the Future is in Progress." I followed their mascot panther prints painted on the sidewalk into the building.       PKS was preparing to move into their new school after the winter holiday break, so there were boxes lining the halls, classrooms being packed up, and the library where I read was half empty. That didn't stop the...

DLIMH makes second visit to ULS. Heather Mertz makes her debut appearance as co-presenter with author Jayne Rose-Vallee.  I challenged the older students to think about creating a video production to leave as their legacy before they head off to middle school. Knowing ULS as well as I do, I thought their resources would allow them to tackle the bullying issue and community inclusiveness with an audio-visual approach. We premiered a video we created with Maya Angelou showing one of her famous speeches talking about "Being a Rainbow in Somebody's Cloud." We hoped this would motivate or spark some imaginative within them....

Dinosaurs Living in My Hair 2! touches on bullying. The intent was to start a conversation between the reader of the book and the child about bullying. It gives four examples a child can do to ward off bullying attempts. Stand up straight. Make eye contact. Throw mean words into the trash. Tell an adult at school. Teaching children to “stand up straight and make eye contact” is critical. These two simple acts show confidence and self-assurance. Children are less likely to be picked on if they exude strength. This needs to be practiced and reinforced often. Adults should use...