I received a Kobo Glo HD to review and it immediately disappeared, snatched up by my kids. We have other eReaders in the house but I had loaded this one with the new Rick Riordan ebook, The Crown of Ptolomy, and more Wonder stories by R. J. Palacio. My son has been waiting for the newest…
Poetry in Sports Books for Kids and the Kid Lit Blog Hop
My son has a poet in residence for fourth grade. For three sessions, he’s learning to write poetry. There are even homework assignments that he agonizes over. He’s had a poetry unit every year — in 2nd grade, he wrote a color poem based on Mary O’Neill, but this is the first year that the poetry seems…
How to Apply to College as a Home-Schooled Student
We hear a lot that ‘home-schooling or ‘Individualized Learning’ is on the rise in the U.S. There is now a stack of resources available to parents who prefer a home-based, one-on-one approach to education. Unfortunately, despite evidence that home-schooled students perform better on tests like SATs, it can still be tricky to get into certain…
Family Vacation in Costa Rica
Getting out of Boston during Snowmageddon was a challenge since we were scheduled to fly out on Sunday during a snowstorm and the next flight out after that was three days later and probably full. My husband spent hours trying to book a new flight, knowing that our flight would be canceled and managed to…
10+ Great Books for Reluctant Boy Readers
Please welcome author David Kelly of the Ballpark Mystery series and also my neighbor here in Newton, MA. We’re not exactly next-door neighbors but we live in the same town! How cool is that? Other notable children’s book authors from Newton include Mitali Perkins (until she moved two years ago) and Karen Day. Jacqueline Davies of The…
How to Make Origami Shirukan Throwing Star
My son was obsessed with learning how to fold an Origami Shirukan Throwing Star. He had trouble cutting perfectly square pieces of paper so I handed him My First Origami Kit which I received from a publisher to review. Unfortunately, the book did not include instructions on how to make a Shirukan Throwing Star but the…
PARCC Resources for Parents
My kids have been taking the PARCC standardized test for the new Common Core standards this past month. They do not enjoy standardized tests but the upside is that the elementary school Physical Education teacher opens the gym early on test days and has them play Pickle Ball. He says the research shows that exercise…