9-12 years

I have been as sick as a dog–sick as a dawwwwg— for the past few days, but today I had a little spring in my step because it was National Grammar Day. And this old gal, though she may have …

      It’s been busy here for the last few days, with our insane weather and with FutureCity, Toy Fair, and National Center for Families Learning Summit all in the last week. But somewhere in between all of this …

It’s been snowing a whole lot over here for the last few weeks, and in fact, this week, about 15 inches of the white stuff were dumped on us. So this mama has had to pull out the stops when …

The snow and freezing cold temps has cause my three kids to be on energy overload lately. They need to burn steam. They need to run, jump, skip, hop, spin, and then do it all again. They need to loosen …

I love the idea of doing some sort of service project for the community to honor Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy.  Imagine how great the world would be if every family did something small for others to celebrate Martin Luther …

The following guest post is written by Natalie, of Afterschool for Smarty Pants.   Natalie shares ways she enriches her daughter’s learning at home, after school.  Check it out. —————————— As you can guess from my blog title, Smarty is a …

While the kids are busy shakin’ their party shakers or rockin’ out to some Bingo Bonanza, the adults can have their New Year’s Eve fun, too. Actually, everyone can have fun with this homemade game of 20 Questions.     No …

    For any occasion, books are my go-to gift. From baby showers to birthdays, graduations from preschool or highschool, for well-wishing or comfort-giving, books are a rockstar way to show people you care. This holiday, my pal Allie and …

Halloween is traditionally a time for sweets, sweets, and more sweets, but who says kids must eat candy from dawn till dusk just because that’s how it’s always been done? This year, though my kids will certainly have their fair …

It has been such an amazing summer.  I am desperately, terribly, incredibly sad to see it go. But here we are.  Marching forward. At my kids’ request, I whipped up another batch of lunchbox love notes.  This time, they’re silly, …

We’re week three into our tabletop surprises, and this week, we rocked some sneaky math, literacy, and creative thinking. The kids woke up to some easy activities and ones that required more thinking—and two that required more movement. Sign language …

    What happens when you put a bar of Ivory soap in the microwave? Really. Ivory soap. Plain ole sweet-smelling, plain-jane white bar o’ Ivory soap? In the microwave. Try it. Your kids will think you’re a rockstar, and …

    Summer is kicking us hard over here. Actually, swim and dive are kicking us hard over here, like always.  And at five weeks in, between meets, practices, relays, pep rallies, and team events, our family has run a …

Some children are able to easily read the words on a page but cannot remember a lick of what they read. Believe it. Whole paragraphs, pages, chapters can sometimes decoded–words read, even fluently–but nothing.  The child remember nothing.  Frustrating right?  …

It’s actually hard for me to type this title after years and years and years of math drills that made my elementary-school head want to explode. Can learning math facts be fun? Is it possible that learning these facts can …

While we were at the craft store this past weekend, picking up some supplies for Maddy’s after school club and for Cora’s Butterfly Birthday Playdate this weekend, we stumbled upon this AWEsome springtime craft. Beautiful, easy homemade flower barrettes. So …

We are big into managing our kids’ screen time over here, and that’s no secret. Though we truly value all they can learn with the help of technology, and we also know that they need a whole lot of time …

It’s been a busy few weeks for us, between school, sports, Blogalicious, Halloween, and my parents coming down to spend time with the kids while I attended the NAEYC conference this past week. But when I returned Saturday night to …