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It’s rather well-known that reading aloud to children is one of the best things you can do to promote literacy.  While simply hearing the story has its benefits, really building literacy, comprehension, and vocabulary requires conversation off the page.  Here is an example of some of the conversation that took place as I recently shared… continue reading

I was just sitting down to write a post about making your family your first priority when ironically – or perhaps serendipitously – my oldest son woke soon after going to bed, crying in pain with an earache.  So the laptop quickly closed, and I spent the next few hours curled up with a warm… continue reading

In my most recent list of Weekend Reads, I linked to a wonderful post from Janet Lansbury, 10 Secrets to Raising Good Listeners.  A friend of mine posed what I thought was a very good question.  “What about the ways adults can do a better job of listening to kids?”  It got me thinking.  So here’s my list.  I’d love… continue reading

I’m really excited to share this guest post with you from Rachelle Doorley of Tinker Lab:  When it comes to outdoor play, kicking a ball around, cooling off in the pool, or spending hours at the park probably come to mind. But how often do we consider making art outside? Outdoor art making is one… continue reading

Water is a fascinating topic for exploration!  At this time of year, it’s particularly exciting to explore water in the form of rain.  If you’re enjoying some April showers, you might want to build some connections with the children you love and teach by jumping into some of these great books and activities. Rainby Manya Stojic… continue reading

  “Arts and crafts” is a common label in the early childhood world.  And while the label implies that they are two different but similar categories, it is unfortunately used too often as one overarching label.  But the two have subtle differences: the difference between process and product, creativity and the created, following inspiration and… continue reading

Last Friday, I spent about 8 hours in a technology classroom earning credit toward the renewal of my teaching license.  The topic was podcasting, and of course, if I’m doing work I prefer to make it count for as much as possible, so I thought I’d focus my project on something you could enjoy.  I… continue reading

Alphabet books are a great way to reinforce alphabet knowledge, one important piece of emergent literacy.  One of the beautiful things about exposing children to the alphabet through books is that it provides a rich, meaningful, and varied context in which to place these otherwise abstract characters.  Learning letters is ultimately about reading, so what… continue reading

This is a repost of one of the very first blog posts I wrote.  Since there were only about three of you reading here back then, I thought it might be time to revisit! Buried Treasure Muffins, Grandma’s Cookies, and of course, scrambled eggs, were some of the first things I learned to cook as… continue reading

For the next few Mondays, I’ll be writing a series of posts focusing on creativity – why it’s important for our children and how we can foster it –  for the folks over at Willow Creek Pediatrics.  It’s a topic I’m very passionate about, so hop on over and check out this week’s installment.  Here’s… continue reading