My 6th grader made this cute pom pom monster using this fun Klutz activity book. It’s actually made from yarn that is thoughtfully suppled by the kit. You loop it around and around to make the puff balls, then use the other accessories to make your cute monster of choice. The great news is that once you use up the yarn provided, you can easily make more pom pom monsters by raiding your mom’s yarn supply. Or maybe that is just what my child did. Read more…
Delightful Children’s Books is a blog that I’ve just started following and it’s great! She has a wonderful post on International Children’s Picture Books by Country with Crafts and Recipes. She covers all the continents and has great resources on additional book lists. Read more…
The fifth graders at my kids’ elementary school are challenged to try to read all the books for the Massachusetts Book Award. I’ve noticed many of them have won Newbery awards so it’s a great list. I found a breakdown for age appropriateness and have organized the books that way. I am excited about this list because there are beloved and acclaimed authors on the list as well as some who are new to me. Read more…
I met with a nutritionist twice for my oldest child. The first time, she was a toddler and pronounced as too skinny. When she was in third grade, we were sent back to another nutritionist because her weight to height ratio was out of whack. We had gone the other extreme, apparently. Read more…
This is a great reading list from the Newton Free Library system that includes graphic novels, easy readers, non fiction, picture books, poetry and magazines. If you are part of the Minutemen library system, just click on link of book title to reserve. Read more…
I was slow to get her oldest to master multiplication facts. By the middle of third grade, my daughter was tested weekly on multiplication; times twos, times five and times ten were not so hard but then all of a sudden, we had a week to learn x3, then another week for x4, and on and on. Yikes. A fast way to learn multiplication was in order. Luckily, my mom friend was a third grade teacher. She found that some children learn very effortlessly though song. These are the skip-counting songs that she taught in her classroom. Although, my daughter wasn’t that excited to sing these songs, hearing them sung incessantly helped her to master multiplication, and these songs work even better for division.
p.s. Other math posts.
Math Karaoke App for Learning Math Facts
More Multiplication Strategies from Kids That Work
This great list is from the Newton Free Library system. I find that they have great book lists but sometimes there are so many of them that they are challenging to locate on the website. I was at my first Middle School Curriculum night and my daughter’s English teacher (who is her favorite teacher so far!) said that he expects his students to read 250 minutes a week. He wants them to get in the groove of reading because stats show that reading drops off at seventh and eighth grade and he’s hoping that won’t happen if the kids get some momentum. Here’s hoping! Read more…
This week is Child Passenger Safety Week, so in honor of that, here are two links to make sure that your most precious cargo of all is safe. Read more…
Once your child can read Harry Potter, the entire universe of books opens up, but what is age appropriate? I have handed my oldest chapter books that were Newbery Award winners, on the thin side, and with decent size type only to find them a tad too old for her based on content. I have a tendency to steer what I call “Grapes of Wrath” realism to middle school; I think these books are fine for 4th or 5th grade as a classroom assignment because the teacher provides context, but reading for pleasure should be … a pleasure. Read more…
