Can Your Kid Find Canada On A Map?
I love the Winter Olympics. I love the way only the Olympics brings together the world for two weeks.
But if you are watching the Olympics with your kids, I bet they don’t know where Estonia is. Or Lithuania? How about The Netherlands? Or even Finland? Egypt? Australia? Japan? Can you find all of these countries [...]
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The Idiot Proof Valentine’s Day Card
Everybody gets so fancy when it comes to Valentine’s Day and to be honest, I think it stresses out both kids and adults. Here is an easy Valentine’s Day little something that most everyone can make.
Materials:
Two pieces of different colored paper
A pencil, pen or marker
Glue
Scissors
Fold one piece of paper the long way (the “hot dog” [...]
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Teach Your Kid What You Love
One of the most important and rewarding activities for you, as a parent, is to introduce your kids to topics that YOU find interesting. The subjects don’t need to be part of the school curriculum or even something your kids will eventually study in school, but they need to be something that you feel passionate [...]
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Playful Learning: Letter Writing with Younger Children
I think letter writing is one of the best ways to encourage kids to write. They can choose to write a full-blown letter or a simple postcard.
Either way, Mariah at Playful Learning (www.playfullearning.net) has some terrific tips for doing this type of activity. She also has ready-made paper that you can print right from her [...]
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THe MystEry OF CapitAliZatIon
i knOw A LoT of Adults wHo gEt confUsed as to wHat To capitAlize. Here aRe the basics to help explain it your kid:
1. Someone’s name or their title, when used before their name:
Otis
President Obama
Doctor Herdez
2. The name of a group of organization:
San Francisco Giants
The New York Times
The United Way
Stanford University
United States Congress
3. At the [...]
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How To Help Your Kid’s Writing Without Fighting – Grades 3-5
Can’t stand to watch your kid make the same error over and over again but every time you try to correct them they swat you away with a third arm that has the strength of an alligators tail and the skin of a shark. You fly across the room, but being a parent, you crawl [...]
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A Very Cool Home-Made Holiday Gift
Finding cool Holiday gifts that kid’s can make is challenging.
I read a great idea on the Eensies blog on how to solve this problem. Jennifer at The Write Start, posted an activity that she did with her son. Trained as an Occupational Therapist, Jennifer always considers fine motor skill development in her posts. This time [...]
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Cranky Kid? Four Ideas to Change A Funky Mood
Everybody gets cranky. It’s just a part of life but when your kid is grumpy and you have things to do, it can seem like a monumental problem. Here are a few ideas to try out that I use in the classroom to put the skids on crankiness.
Don’t Yell. Tell Them How You Feel.
I try [...]
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Our Dreams for 2010
I like to encourage children to write poetry about their dreams and aspirations. A poetry activity that I do in my class near the end of the year is about hopes and dreams for the coming new year. This is how I structure it:
First we do a brainstorm of all of the positive feeling words [...]
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A Great Conversation Starter: “Change The World For Ten Bucks”
My friend Sarah sent me the book, Change The World For Ten Bucks, to see what my students would think about it. They loved it.
This book is filled with a variety of activities for to do with your kids to help make the world a better place. Everything from a postcard to write a friend, [...]
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