Kids

Inside: Painted tree stick is a process art and creative experimentation. It’s colorful, easy, and fun for kids of all ages and their parents.  If sticks are things you step over on a path or something to throw to your dog, consider using them for creative projects. Sticks offer endless possibilities for fun and simple …

Inside: Math can be hard, especially if your child doesn’t have a solid math foundation. Luckily, there is a solution to this problem. We’ve been using CTC Math since 2016, and we think it’s the best curriculum on the planet to help your kids catch up, learn math, and develop mathematical confidence.   If you’re …

Inside: Children’s book suggestion for every day in June. The books on our list cover a wide variety of topics and feature unforgettable stories, imaginative plots, and creative illustrations. Click each month to be taken directly to that list: January, February, March, April, and May.  Summertime!   Swimming, picnics in the park, digging in the garden, …

Inside: Children’s book suggestion for every day in May. The books on our list cover a wide variety of topics and feature unforgettable stories, imaginative plots, and creative illustrations. “The world’s favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May,” said an American naturalist and Pulitzer-prize winner Edwin Way Teale. Each day of the year …

Inside: Children’s book suggestion for every day in April.  The books on our list cover a wide variety of topics and feature unforgettable stories, imaginative plots, and creative illustrations. The name “April” comes from the Latin aperire “to open” because in April everything begins to “open.” Trees sprout buds, buds open into flowers, birds open their …

Inside: DIY stars that glow in the dark are fun and easy to make. All you need is playdough, toothpicks, and glow-in-the-dark paints.     Space, rockets, sparkling stars, and galaxies are among my kids’ favorite things. They love books about space, Netflix space documentaries, and space-themed crafts and activities.     Life among the Stars …

Space is fascinating, and so are the people who study it. That’s why we couldn’t wait to get our hands on Jennifer Berne’s Look Up With Me: Neil deGrasse Tyson: A Life among the Stars, just out last month.   Disclaimer: The copy of this book was given to me free of charge. I chose …

Inside: Children’s book suggestion for every day in March.  The books on our list cover a wide variety of topics and feature unforgettable stories, imaginative plots, and creative illustrations.    The name March comes from Latin martius, after Mars, the Roman God of war, because in Roman times this month signaled the beginning of warfare.   Here …

Inside: Children’s book suggestion for every day in February. A wide variety of topics, unforgettable stories, imaginative plots, and creative illustrations.    February is the shortest month of the year, and in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the last chance to do winter projects and activities. What are your favorite winter crafts and experiments? What are you …

Inside: children’s book suggestion for every day in January. Books on a wide variety of topics, with unforgettable stories, imaginative plots, and creative illustrations.    January is the first month of the year, and its name comes from the Latin word for “door.” Think of January as the time to open doors to new possibilities and …

Inside: can you combine ice and fire in one experiment? You bet! It will look like the ice is on fire, but it won’t melt. Just the activity you need to celebrate winter solstice on December 21st.  Winter solstice occurs when the Earth’s North Pole is tilted farthest away from the sun. In the northern hemisphere …

Inside: a marvelous picture book suggestion for every day of the year. These are the books that will stay with your kids even after they grow up. 365 books are organized by month. Scroll down to the end of the post to find a link to each month.  Do you ever wish there was a …

Inside: no-bake gingerbread man ornaments made with applesauce, cinnamon, and glue. Give it a try! Not only will they look gorgeous on your Christmas tree, but they’re also great for gifting.   Making gingerbread man ornaments is a perfect activity for this time of year. But if you always reach for your tried-and-tested salt dough recipe, …

Inside: 20+ books about cake for kids: delightful and exciting picture books for elementary grades and board books for the little ones. It’s been said “a party without a cake is just a meeting,” and I haven’t met anyone who would disagree with this statement. Do you? Can you imagine a birthday party without a cake? …

Inside: Scientists have identified that the first step in feeling grateful is noticing. Here is a unique Thanksgiving tradition you can start with your family this year to help your kids notice little things that go right in their relationships.   If you are like most parents, one of the things you want to teach your kids …

Inside: Girls can do anything is a book list to inspire your daughter to believe in herself, dream big, and color outside the lines. I like to introduce my girls to books that open their sense of possibilities, stir their imagination, and expand their definition of “brave.” We read a lot of books about those …

 No surprise: We love reading books about trucks. So we jumped at a chance to review a new book by Asia Citro, an educator, mother of two children, author, blogger, and also a children’s book publisher.   Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review. All opinions are my own. We only …

Do you want to clean up your pantry and refrigerator while stimulating kids’ senses and inspiring creativity? Then today’s activity is for you! From turmeric to cocoa, from jam to ketchup, your new art supplies will help you create interesting textures and allow for a lot of experimentation. As a great bonus, you’ll finally go …

A reverse tic-tac-toe is a game you can play using apples and nut butter. The goal is (did you guess it?) NOT to be the person who uncovers three spots in a row. Do you have super energetic kids who can’t wait to finish breakfast so they can run, jump, and cartwheel through your living room, …

Do you need a no-prep game for kids that you can play anywhere? Our Dots & Lines game is great for the kitchen table, any waiting room, an airplane, or any time kids crave a connection.    This game evolved from a classical dots and boxes game that my kids and I found too boring. Our …

Inside: We rounded up the best books about swimming and swimming lessons. These books will get your kids swimming in no time.   If you are like most parents, summer is the time of the year when you plan a trip to the beach and enroll your kids in swimming lessons. Depending on your children’s …

Do you sometimes wish you could have a delicious, freshly made, healthy, homemade chocolate cake the moment you want it?   What if you could have the cake and teach kids some science at the same time?     It’s possible with our 3-ingredients, 1-minute chocolate cake!   Mix 2 tablespoons of hot cocoa with an …

  Do you have a set of pencils and a food storage bag? Yes? Then you are all set for this no prep science activity that is a great introduction to molecules.   No matter how many times we do this project with my kids, they find it entertaining. What kid doesn’t enjoy filling a …

Inside: this Star Wars game makes practicing doubles and near doubles so much fun your kids will beg you to print out more game pages   When I tell my homeschooling friends that I follow Common Core State Standards, they gasp in horror. Isn’t the main reason to homeschool to get away from that despicable …

Inside you will find how to make a simple Darth Vader wind vane and discover  the science behind wind vanes (why a wind vane points in the direction from which the wind is blowing, cardinal points and spatial reasoning, and what Medieval history has to do with wind vanes)   I recently came across this …

Inside: your guide to making a Robot Cat as a Unique Mother’s Day Gift. The easy way! Are your kids fascinated by robots? Do they express interest in building their own robot but don’t know how to start? And when they ask you for help, do you have to tell them you don’t know where …

Inside: a pupil dilation experiment you can do at home with kids. It’s a hands-on way to discover how quickly our eyes adjust to a variety of light conditions.  Do your kids have an eye exam coming up? Is it going to involve pupil dilation to examine the back of the eye?   We recently …

You try to make math fun for your homeschooled kids.   You try. And try.   Some nights you spend more time thinking about their math curriculum than sleeping. Is it just me?   One of the reasons I wanted to homeschool my kids was my desire to create learning experiences that nurture a love …

“Why haven’t we done any dragon experiments yet,” asked my 9-year old son closing one of the Dragon Masters books.  My oldest two kids are crazy about this series and have read all seven books a few times.    “What kind of science experiment do you have in mind?” I asked cautiously.  I was still …

Are you looking for fun and free learning resources to use this summer with your kids? Education.com offers a wide range of worksheets, games, workbook, activities, lesson plans, songs, and even guided lessons for many ages. I’m thrilled to feature their Blindfold Sorting activity in a guest post today. I tried it with two of …

“I don’t like math anymore,” announced my 8-year old son taking another plate out of the dishwasher and carrying it to the pantry.   “Where does this come from?” I spun around in surprise, “You said you liked math!” It was such an unexpected revelation I forgot that I was measuring ingredients into a bread …

Do you have a child who wants to make “the best Valentine’s Day card ever” and asks for your help? We have tried many different ideas in the past and this one turned out very cute.    First, we shuffled through my collection of graphics looking for just the right design, then my daughter arranged …

What were your favorite dragon books when you were growing up?  When my kids asked me this question, I was stumped. I’ve been reading about one hundred books a year ever since I remember, but I couldn’t remember reading one single book about dragons.    After I pondered it for a bit, I came to …

There it is again! That horrible stink!  I retrace my steps, stop in front of the living room window, and sniff the air.  The narrow space behind the squat, leather arm-chair is difficult to squeeze into, but that seems to be the only spot in the room I haven’t checked.  I tug on the heavy …

Children are innately curious about the world around them, especially when those things are a little mysterious.  Shadows satisfy both these requirements by being part of our life and by creating suspense. Is it a monster or a teddy bear shadow?    Over the years we have collected a few exciting books about shadows, but …

Inside: This apples and pennies science experiment is a delightful twist on the traditional inclined plane experiments. Can you get an apple up the inclined plane using pennies? How many pennies does it take to get an apple up an inclined plane? Kids are born fascinated with inclined planes. Take a baby to the park, …

Pirates offer many fascinating science topics – boat engineering, star navigation, cartography. We greatly enjoy looking closely at different aspects of pirates lives and doing related hands-on activities. As you can see from our pictures below we had a lot of fun. And you will too! Besides our own activities, I included the best science-related, pirate-themed activities …

During one of our art classes, my daughter noticed an artist at the back of the room making a profile portrait of a school owner’s daughter from a phone pic. With practiced movements, she drew freehand steady beautiful lines and curves directly with acrylic paint on canvas. The lines were black and the background was light and …

Inside: Use LEGO and sand to study physics with kids. Grab a bucket of sand and some LEGO bricks for a quick demonstration of a Brazil Nut Effect. Have you noticed that beach trips aren’t what they used to be when you were a child?   When I was a kid, a beach trip was …

Did you take time to watch a sunset this summer?  For most people with small kids the answer is probably no, unless they just went on vacation.  And it’s a pity considering that sunsets are not only beautiful, but also very educational.  Educational, you ask?  That’s right, the colors in sunsets are the realm of …

The question of how to make LEGO airplanes fly came up in our house at regular intervals ever since my kids started making them. “There got to be a way to make it move through the air without me holding it,” kept insisting my oldest son. There might be quite a few ways to do …

Fruits and vegetables are important and useful. And your kids might possibly find them more appealing after you explore them together. Kids are natural scientists and they are drawn to activities that use their observational skills. So next time you come back from a grocery store look carefully at what you brought home. The bigger the assortment …

If you are still looking for a perfect online math curriculum, this review of CTCMath is for you. I received a complimentary one-year Homeschool Membership for review purposes and I’m happy to share our experience.     CTCMath CTC Math is an online subscription math program, created by Patrick Murray, a math teacher and a …

When I mentioned to our librarian my post Who needs another Cinderella Book, she asked what I thought of Cinderella as a boy version. I didn’t think anything because we have not come across it yet. Apparently, we were not through with Cinderella. Upon further investigation, we discovered a whole new treasure trove of Cinderella …

Lately, we’ve been spending most of our evenings surrounded by piles of LEGO® bricks scrolling through The Unofficial Guide to Learning with LEGO®. We’ve been sent a free copy of this book for review purposes and my oldest son is determined to get through all 100+ activities before winter. Too ambitious? You don’t know my …

Inside: Looking for creative ways to teach symmetry? We have over twenty interesting ideas to inspire you and your kids. Dig in!    Symmetry permeates every aspect of your life. Not a day goes by when you are not being exposed to, influenced by or being part of symmetry. There is symmetry in the houses …

Inside: use our printable mats and LEGO® bricks to practice patterns and symmetry. Oh, the things you can do with LEGO® bricks! You can practice number sense and addition, sorting and measuring, alphabet and sight words, and even science.       “A mathematician, just like an artist or a poet, produces designs.” G. Hardy   Learning …

For the past two weeks we were doing a unit study on Symmetry for Little Kids.  I found that I could talk all I want about symmetry, but until kids got a chance to do a hands-on project there wasn’t a fire of understanding in their eyes.  This project was super fun for all ages …

After my kids learned that wolves can smell a prey from two miles away they asked me to come up with some ideas for exploring the sense of smell.     Can you imagine two miles!? We have a favorite cafe that is two miles away from our house. Kids walked this route multiple times (we love to walk) and …

There are many reasons I am drawn to Waldorf education. I love the idea of honoring children and letting them learn at their own pace. I embrace the emphasis on educating the whole child – physically, emotionally, spiritually – and not just filling the mind with “knowledge.” And I’m particularly tickled about how nature is …

The International Giraffe Day is coming up. It’s on June 21. It’s only appropriate that on the longest day of the year (or the longest night depending on your hemisphere) we celebrate the tallest animal in the world.  On this day many schools, organizations, and of course, zoos around the world hold events that provide …

Summer is the best time for outdoor science experiments. We always seem to tackle harder science topics in the summer because the days are longer and the minds are sharper from all that extra time spent outside. Twisting Soda Can experiment is a fun way to twist an empty soda can without touching with hands, …

Anyone who watches Olympic sports is bound to be puzzled: the athletes often seem to defy the laws of science that limit the rest of us. What you see is, of course, a result of thousands of hours of training, but there is also a bit of tricky science in it too. Earlier this week …

The Summer Olympics start in 60 days and I’m very excited.  Like most Russian girls,  I once dreamed of a career as a professional gymnast.  I was born unnaturally flexible and when I was four years old my parents were offered a place for me in a special training school.  I would have been living …

To be honest I haven’t thought much about goats until I got an invitation, along with some other kid bloggers, to participate in International Goat Day Blog Hop.  Once we started researching goats with my kids, however, we came up with enough ideas to last us a week.  First we checked out every goat book …

International Goat Day is coming up in June and to do our share in learning more about this little-understood animal (no, goats do not eat tin cans, they are actually very intelligent) we have gathered the best books about goats we could find. We included mostly picture books with a few non-fiction titles thrown in for …

Inside: Want to improve the balance and the coordination between both sides of the brain? Put aside plastic toys and create a collage with natural materials.   Are you tired of plastic, flashy, noisy things that pass for toys these days? Then it’s time to encourage your children to start playing with natural materials like …

Hello my friends! For the past week I’ve been hard at work putting together a special subscribers only resource page.  I always thought it would be nice to reward my subscribers with something special and original and now I finally launched it!  For starters I put together the first in a series of unit studies for …

The classic story of The Three Little Pigs is about priorities, doing one’s best and the fact that hard work wins the day. The first two little pigs built their houses in a hurry to have more time to sing and play and end up dead, the third little pig puts more thought and effort …

In the middle of our defying gravity experiment my 3-year old walked into the room and saw Luke Skywalker hanging upside down on a paper clip connected to a magnet (photo below).  “Why is it not falling?” he demanded, his eyes wide with wonder.  Even a 3-year old has a pretty good notion of how …

It’s believed that William Shakespeare died on the day of his 52nd birthday, on April 23rd, in the year 1616 and this makes this year 400th anniversary since his death.  I don’t know about you, but I haven’t yet met one person who hasn’t heard the name William Shakespeare.  And I am not aware of any other poet …

On our recent trip to the library we stumbled upon The Boy who Drew Birds: a story of John James Audubon.  We enjoyed reading the book very much and decided that we wanted to learn more about this inspiring painter and ornithologist.  Imagine my surprise when the following week my friend, and creator of popular …

Do you want to make green pancakes without artificial colorings? We stumbled upon a perfect solution last year when we were experimenting with extracting plant juices and making natural green dyes. The first time we tried to use chlorophyll, or green pigment from spinach, to color our pancakes green, it didn’t work. Even though the …

Dollar Stores are great places to discover unexpected items that become my kids’ favorite toys. Last year I bought a bag of flat marbles for $2.99 and they’ve been getting a great amount of use. From budget math manipulatives to fine motor play, from art tools to game pieces, I want to share with you …

St. Patrick’s Day gives us an excuse for a month-long celebration. We decorate our house in green, design Leprechaun traps, paint rainbows, make green pancakes and host a small St. Patrick’s Day party. And no, we are not Irish. We just use any excuse to make March, typically known in Chicago as Nope-no-Spring-in-sight month, more …

Looking for a colorful art project? We got your back. This surprising art with flat marbles is sure to fit the bill.    We stumbled upon this art activity by accident.  It was a quiet day. My 3-year was throwing flat marbles in a cup of water (he thought it was fun), while the older two kids …

When I walked into the library last week and noticed a new Cinderella book on the display shelf I knew exactly what I had to do.  No, I did not, scream and run away. Nor did I cover my kids’ eyes and stir them in another direction.  I skipped towards the display shelf and merrily grabbed …

An improbable balancing act is a common theme running through many Dr. Seuss books, from The Cat In The Hat to Ten Apples Up On Top.  Remember?  “With a cup and a cake on the top of my hat! I can hold up two books! I can hold up the fish! And a little toy ship! And …

If you usually toss shoe boxes in a recycling bin without a second thought, you are missing out. Shoe boxes are amazing for creativity and imagination. There are so many things that can be made from a simple shoebox: parking garage for match cars, LEGO box, and a treasure chest.     Your kids will love …

We are big on holiday decorations any time of the year, but especially during winter when we welcome any opportunity to celebrate.  As soon as Christmas decorations come down, we start decorating for Valentine’s Day and the day after Valentine’s Day we put up St. Patrick’s Day décor.  Ever since we discovered that melted crayons …

Our best projects are usually the result of experimentation.  We started with a lesson on shapes for the benefit of my preschooler and ended with a marvelous textured paint collage that even my second-grader calls “the best art ever” (until the next best art ever that is).  It’s fun for kids of all ages to play …

Last week our annual marker chromatography experiment didn’t go as usual.  I’m blaming the new fancier (read more expensive) brand of markers we used.  Instead of separating, the colors simply spread.  It looked pretty and judging from my kids’ excitement not altogether disappointing, but I started to wonder what other chromatography experiments can we do at home. It had …

If you are looking for a great Valentine’s Day Craft, we’ve got it.  This beautiful, 3D heart is fun and easy to make with your bare hands. It’s especially enjoyable if you like messy projects.    We invented it by chance.  Last week as we were standing in the kitchen, looking at the wet, colored kitchen paper towels …

Turn your toilet paper rolls into bowling pins with a bit of wrapping paper and glitter. Add numbers 1-10 to your pins and it becomes a fun math practice.   Toddlers can practice rolling the ball toward the target and calling out the number of pins they knocked down. Preschoolers can start the game by …

Winter is all about snowman for my kids, but this year we haven’t had snowman-making snow yet. We compensate by doing lots of snowman crafts.  I have told you earlier about my love of paper-mâché projects, so don’t be surprised when I tell you that when I saw an empty apple juice bottle in my …

It’s the middle of winter, the time of the year when we are looking for ways to burn energy without leaving the house.  This active math game allows us to be active while learning some math at the same time. I have a long list of active math (and reading) games that help us survive …

 Inside: develop early math skills with fun counting books and hands-on activities.  Counting books are so much fun for little kids and when you add related math activities you got yourself the making of a fantastic math curriculum.  Not only it’s a fun way to learn, but also this approach allows to develop mathematical understanding …

  Arctic for Kids is our Winter Sensory Play idea that is great a year round, but we tend to do it more often when the temperatures start plunging and horrid winds begin to howl outside.  In a warmer weather there is no end of activities to do outside.  Sensory bins are one of our favorite …

Do you want to practice decomposing number 10 with the LEGO characters? Decomposition is a skill that requires practice. In an earlier lesson we decomposed number 5 (click here), today we are moving up to 10.   Math for little kids is about laying a strong foundation. They might know what number 10 is, but …

Once your child learns how to count to 10, it’s time for decomposition. Decomposition is a fancy word that means breaking down the numbers into their subparts. Eventually, when kids can count to 100, they will be decomposing numbers into tens and ones. But for now, they only need to understand that numbers can be …

The old question of “can I teach my kids mathematics?” that haunts many homeschooling moms never bothered me as much as “am I going to hate teaching mathematics?”    All through the school years and beyond, I loathed math. Since I was a business major in college I had to take a fair amount of math classes – statistics, …

  Inside: Quality time on Thanksgiving Day doesn’t have to be limited to food and games on TV. You can spread the cheer and chase away stress by reading funny Thanksgiving books.   Writing about funny books is intimidating. I feel the extra pressure to be funny. It’s not easy because Thanksgiving is not funny. I can hear …

Do you have a pair of paperclips, a LEGO character, and a magnet? Then you are all set to send your favorite LEGO character on a skiing trip in a Winter Wonderland! And if your kids cover your kitchen in glitter in the process, don’t worry. It’s a small price to pay for all the …

                  Sparking interest in reading has always been right at the top of my To Do list as a parent.  Not only because it’s great for knowledge, memory, focus, concentration, mental stimulation, and vocabulary, but because books are a great bonding experience.  Being together in the same house or even in the …

  “What if” questions often lead us to wild science adventures.  (Admittedly, my definition of “wild” changed slightly since I had kids).  So recently when we successfully extracted chlorophyll from maple leaves (read about it here), the natural “what if” question that floated to my mind was “what if we take the extracted chlorophyll and put it …

Pirate Princess by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen is a fun, rhyming book about a brave princess who didn’t want tea parties and fancy dresses, but wanted a life of adventure.  When she did end up on a pirate ship her first job was to wash the decks.  It wasn’t her dream pirate job, but she did it …

It has been observed by many wise men and women (the names elude me now) that laughter is the best medicine. It has even been recorded that laughter can prevent stretch marks, cure diarrhea and fix a bad case of halitosis. I haven’t actually seen these records, but I only have to look at my kids to …

  Something interesting happens when you throw maples leaves in a blender, then add alcohol.  Do you want to hear what?    I will start at the beginning. One day I was sitting in a backyard watching my 2-year old wash maple leaves.  After the leaves are thoroughly washed, they are usually dried with towels.  …

Inside: Edible LEGO pieces made with gelatin and water in LEGO shaped molds.  If I want to bring up a topic to engage my kids, I don’t have to look too far. LEGO is always one subject that excites my kids and a question like, “Can you tell me something about [this]?” can keep them …

Inside: Your ultimate guide to apple activities this fall. Apple science, apple crafts, apple sensory play, apple unity study, and more!  What is the first thing that comes to your mind when I say “apple”? Quick! Don’t think about it!  What did you say?   Our experiment We asked this question of 100 people, and …

Inside: Make those cute yarn apples to decorate your house or your backyard. It’s a fun and easy craft to make with your kids this fall.   We have five trees on our property, and we like to decorate them all year round. Since it’s apple season now, we decided to decorate our trees with …

            Apples are fascinating.  Four thousand years old they are the earliest cultivated fruit in the history of the world. Egyptian pharaohs liked them, the ancient Greeks praised them, the first Botanical Encyclopedia created by Bartholomeus Angelicus in 13th century called apple tree “noble” with a fruit “gracious in sight and …

Airplanes offer endless fascination for children.  How do airplanes stay in the air?  Why do they not fall down when it rains?  Why do they make so much noise? What happens at the airport? And why don’t airplanes flap their wings?  Luckily there are many wonderful books about airplanes to answer all these questions and more.    …

Inside: detailed instructions on how to make an airplane out of a soda bottle and newspaper WITH KIDS. And then how kids can use it to travel the world. I will tell you about one thing that was in abundance in the Soviet Union.    Newspaper!    It was everywhere: in huge unsteady piles in …

Inside: shark science for kids. This simple shark experiment helps kids understand how oil in shark’s liver helps them float.  Are your kids crazy about sharks? Then they would love this experiment!  In contrast to other fish, who have bladders filled with gas, sharks have liver filled with low-density oil that is similar to vegetable …

    One of the great things about kids is that when they get crazy enthusiastic about something it rubs on you and you develop a sudden deep interest in a subject that you never cared about before.  Before kids it didn’t occur to me to give sharks much thought.  Like everybody else I watched …

  Are you looking for a fun and unique Easter eggs project? Then make DIY Faberge Eggs.   Egg decorating is a treasured part of my family’s spring tradition. My children always eagerly anticipate this project and even though it can be lengthy it’s a time well spent.    A Bit of History Faberge Eggs …

I create our literature units to bring excitement and fun to learning math, to enrich our reading experience, and to have something fun to do with our books.  I discovered that children’s books offer great opportunities to learn about history, math, science, geography, human relations, and of course, language arts.  I find that literature units …

I create our literature units to bring excitement and fun to learning math, to enrich our reading experience, and to have something fun to do with our books.  I discovered that children’s books offer great opportunities to learn about history, math, science, geography, human relations, and of course, language arts.  I find that literature units …

Got some pennies and a few trucks?     We got a fun science experiment that boys and girls of all ages will love.        You will need books a long board (a closet shelf worked for us) 2 small yogurt containers or plastic cups a piece of string two toy cars of …

  I have learned that there is an alternative to the “Are we there yet” soundtrack playing in the backseat of my car. It’s called audiobooks. Not only they prevent “Mom! He is breathing my air!” squabbles, but also my kids are exposed to books that are well above their reading level, learn new vocabulary, …

  The objective of this unit is to introduce small children to the topic of Russian Tsars and to expose them to new words and concepts.  The outline of the unit:   I – Introduction to Tsars II – Russian Tsars Math  III – How to make an Imperial Russian Crown IV – Story Bag …

  It’s a quick filler activity that can be used in a wide variety of situation. It works well when our schedule gets disrupted (read: naps don’t happen). Or when the baby is about to wake up from a nap and there is no point in starting a longer craft session/ board game. Or even when …

Crowns have been around since prehistoric times. If you wonder why look at the animal kingdom.  Lion’s mane.     Photo Credit: Kevin Pluck/Wikimedia Commons  Deer’s antlers.     Photo credit: Bill Ebbesen/Wikimedia Commons  Hoopoe’s crown of feathers.     Photo Credit: J. M. Garg/Wikimedia Commons Russian Boyars   Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons  There is something majestic about impressively …

Inside: are you looking to learn more about the history of Russian food, what Russian tsars liked to eat, and what authentic Russian foods you can buy online today? You are in the right place! Read on for this and more.          In the famous play by one of my most favorite Russian writers …

Would you like to learn more about Russia by reading engaging children’s books with your kids? You can’t go wrong with any of our favorite books about Russia. Disclaimer: this post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I will get a small commission. Thank you!    The Keeping Quilt, Patricia Polacco With …

Have you ever wondered how trees get their water?  It’s amazing really. I was just reading a book about Appalachian Trail by my favorite writer Bill Bryson and learned that some large trees lift several hundred gallons of water a day from its roots to its leaves without noise or fuss, “imagine the din and …

    If you are looking for a quick, fun activity with relatively little clean up then try our Ooey-Gooey art.  My kids love to play with stuff they can moosh (is it even a word?) and squash with their bare hands, but if your kids are squeamish about having to touch stuff that is sticky, …

     Happy Earth Day!  We just finished English, Math and Science for the day and to honor the Mother Earth and everything it provides us we will spend the rest of the morning picking up the garbage on the streets and will start the seeds for our vegetable garden in the afternoon.  I always …

  We have had our share of spring showers this year.  One day watching the raindrops sliding down the kitchen windows my 6-year old exclaimed, “Imagine if each rain drop was a different color!”  So, we decided to do just that – create a rainbow rain!   For this project you need an easel and …

Inside: do you want to build a Titanic? Are you looking for engaging Titanic resources to celebrate this year’s Titanic Day? We have Titanic books, games, math and more. Today marks the 103rd anniversary of the Titanic disaster. On April 10th, 1912 the “unsinkable” Titanic started on her maiden voyage with 2,223 passengers and crew. …

Do you want your kids to learn probability while eating ice cream? Then you will love this game! The purpose of the game is to figure out the probability of ice-cream being a flavor picked. This sounds much harder than it is. It’s actually very simple to play and even very young kids can happily play …

Do your kids finish all the milk in their bowl of cereal? If not, you can put that milk to good use and teach your kids some science.   What you need milk food coloring in different shades liquid dish soap Q-tip (optional)   What to do Pour milk on a dinner plate. (I get my …

  My kids love everything Titanic: books, puzzles, youtube videos… So I came up with a Titanic Math Game, a cooperative board game that uses their fascination with boats and sinking to teach some math skills, a sense of time, even a bit of spelling and writing if they choose to write things down. The extra …