Social media enthusiast. Inquisitive. A little quirky.
If you feel like you are ‘all work and no play’ these days, you’re not alone. With so much going on, how can we really maximize the time we are spending engaging with our kids, especially those parents who are flying solo? I’ll give you five ideas to do just that. Read more at my [...]
It happens every autumn. Millions of young children start school for the very first time. They carry backpacks, lunchboxes, pencils, sometimes a grin on their face, but more often, a look of trepidation about what school will really be like. They wonder: Will my teacher be nice? Will I have friends? What if I can’t [...]
Teaching a child to read gives them the gift of a lifetime. The National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) states that there are five components of reading: Phonemic awareness is the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words. Phonics is the relationships between the letters (graphemes) of written language [...]
Experts in literacy and child development have discovered that if children know eight nursery rhymes by heart by the time they’re 4 years old, they’re usually among the best readers by the time they’re 8. (Source: Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever) There’s a reason we learn nursery [...]
“The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.” – Abraham Lincoln It is important that your child understands the meanings of words and concepts to communicate effectively, express ideas, and follow directions. Three activities to do at home: Explain It [...]
Chick lit: A genre of fiction that often recycles the following plot: Girl in big city desperately searches for Mr. Right in between dieting and shopping for shoes. Girl gets dumped (sometimes repeatedly). Girl finds Prince Charming. This Is Not Chick Lit is a celebration of America’s most dynamic literary voices, as well as a [...]
My parents loved to read books to me and my siblings while we were growing up. Some of my favorites were (pretty much every single book from) the Dr. Seuss book list and part of the Golden Books classics — The Pokey Little Puppy, Scuffy The Tugboat, The Little Red Caboose, Tootle — now my children [...]
