Q. We had a wonderful summer as a family, but both my kids are feeling pretty apprehensive about returning to the school routine. What can I do to help them adjust?

Children love to learn. Learning is as natural as breathing to them–they absorb every single thing that happens! They learn through play, they learn from the behavior of the children and adults around them, they learn from their own experiments. By all rights, going to school, where there will be new experiences, many children, and a chance to master powerful skills like reading and math, should be exciting and fun for them! Read the rest »

Keeping kids active and learning through the summer months can be a challenge for parents and caregivers. Usborne’s Ten Terrific Weeks Reading Adventure Program could make a difference in your child’s summer by keeping them connected with learning so they don’t suffer the summer “brain drain”. Each exciting program comes complete with books, curriculum and detailed supply lists. Short daily activities encourage creativity, learning and fun. The individual programs are geared toward preschoolers up through middle school and beyond, and offer parents a great alternative. Read the rest »

Is your preschooler showing an interest in the letters of the alphabet? Clever Parents loves 3D Think & Blink Alphabet Flash Cards. Packaged in a reusable cardboard container that fastens with velcro, the pack includes 26 sturdy, brightly colored holographic cards, each one featuring a letter.

On the hologram side of the card, a window alternately displays a letter and an object (i.e. “H” and a picture of a house, “L” and a picture of a lion). By holding the card at a slightly different angle, the letter and the object appear in the foreground or background, respectively. The word describing the object is printed below the hologram. Read the rest »

Since Thanksgiving, most of you have been pulling the decorations out of the attic and setting them up in preparation for the big holiday. While unpacking those boxes of decorations, I’m sure you ran across some of the old Christmas story favorites – Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, The First Christmas, the Nutcracker – the list goes on. Well, we are all very familiar with these stories, so I think many of us allow the season to go by without even dusting them off. Read the rest »

Looking for a clever and environmentally sound way to make learning the letters of the alphabet fun for your kids? Pick up an alphabet tee or two from bioME 5, an eco-friendly apparel company focused on using fashion as a tool for learning. bioME 5, which takes its inspiration from the earth’s biomes, produces a line of 100% organic alphabet tees each emblazoned with a single letter, superimposed with a wild animal representing the letter (’B’ for bear, ‘J’ for jaguar, ‘O’ for octopus…). The animal name is cleverly printed upside-down below the larger letter on the shirt, giving the child wearing the shirt the best vantage point for reading. Read the rest »

The time comes in every parent’s life, whether you’re employed, self-employed, or unemployed, when you must release your firm grasp on the little one and watch him/her begin to exercise their autonomy and enhance their social skills. This era is called starting school (be it preschool, nursery school, or elementary school). If you’re anything like me, this time period could prove to be a difficult transition for you, the child, or even both of you. In my case the transition was one we both had to adapt to.

As a fulltime case manager and a self-employed business owner, I decided it was time for my 20 month old to go to nursery school, a place where I can drop him off early in the morning, have a family member pick him up on the evenings when I must work later, and feel confident that my son is learning the social skills appropriate for his age group. On the first day of school, I prepped my son, letting him know what a big boy he was for starting school. I left him in the hands of the a.m. teacher and quickly walked away before he could follow me. As I exited the school my chest tightened, my breathing became uneven, my eyes got teary, and my hands began to tremble. I was panicking over leaving my only child in an unfamiliar place. Needless to say, that was one of the longest days I’ve ever had to endure! In retrospect, I realize that there are several things parents like myself can do to alleviate the stress that starting / going to school can bring. For this reason I have come up with: Five Simple Wayz to Easy School Dayz: Read the rest »

Summer is here and the long days of relaxing at the pool or the beach have arrived. After two weeks or so with your children being home all day, you may be ready for some new adventures…. Even some educational ones!

As an educator of early language instruction, I am always looking for new opportunities and ways to expose my children to languages. Whether your child is learning a second language for the first time, or perhaps learning a third language, there are many ways to incorporate some bilingual fun into your summer. Read the rest »