While I have had friends mention that their first introduction to “The Wild Robot” by Peter Brown was through the movie. But I have often encouraged them to read the book! It offers a perfect balance of accessibility and depth for middle school readers even more than it offers entertainment for younger listeners. This seemingly…
Picture this: It’s 9pm and I’m loading my kids into the van for a surprise trip to see The Wild Robot movie on opening night. Why? Because they’d devoured the book three times and I wanted to create a unforgettable learning moment they’d never forget. Despite nearing midnight that night, all of my children were…
The warmth of a good book is sometimes better than a friend. The words hit nerves to inspire and encourage us, the stories embrace our curiosities and comfort our pains, and they help connect us to the truth that the human experience is not all that different from person to person. Stacks of books tuck…
In case you haven’t heard, but you probably have, there will be a major total solar eclipse this year on April 8, 2024 just like the last major one on August 21, 2017. Eclipses of the sun are fairly rare to happen over the same city, but they do happen regularly in different parts of…
For many, December is all about Santa and the North Pole, which gets all the attention of the holidays. But beyond Christmas and into the winter months there are so many fun winter-themed projects. The Snow Must Go On by Molly Wigand that inspired me to create a cardboard South Pole. I have done it before:…
I admit, I threw my hands up in the air and walked away after 13 times my daughter declared that West was actually South. What the heck had I gotten myself into? How did I think I could teach my own child, especially abstract concepts? I knew good and well she was just as stubborn…
Sitting in a local ice cream shop, my kindergartener refused to share her ice cream. She refused to give up even a single bite of her precious treat to her sister. “But she’s a baby. She doesn’t eat sugar yet.” Those words. She was just repeating what she had heard me say far too often…
My oldest is a hands-on girl. Many time she needs to be working with a concept in her hands in order for her mind to fully grasp it. It’s how she’s wired, so when we tackled basic graphing skills, of course, the obvious choice was to make it something that worked her fine motor skills…
Elections are coming, elections are coming! And it’s an exciting time we live in. We have had our first African American president and now we have the first woman to run for president from a major political party. Plagued with ads on television, on the highway, and everywhere we turn, it’s apparent even to young…
My daughter can easily add and subtract; however she only consistently can identify numbers 1, 3, and 8. She’s ready to learn more in depth concepts and topics; however, her learning style and needs dictate what we can do. So instead of spend a lot of money on a pre-constructed kindergarten curriculum kit, I did my…
Life with toddlers is difficult isn’t it? The precious little babe you once had is now a tantrum-filled toddler that seems to rage at what seems like nothing. Each day is new, beautiful, and a little bit scary. And maybe what worked yesterday is falling flat today so you feel like you’re troubleshooting toddlerhood and…
We’ve all said it. “Good job.” But what does it really mean and is it even effective in helping raise our children? The truth in the matter is that praising our kids more and more doesn’t help enable them, nor does it boost a child’s self-esteem.