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Louisiana Flooding: Helping their Schools, Teachers and Students
We found out recently that several schools in and around the Ascension Parish would be delayed in opening/starting due to the recent flooding in Louisiana. Watching the news and reading the papers you feel it and you see it – just not the way those that are living there do. With getting my own children ready for school I had not even thought of “the schools” and how they were affected. I had seen mostly the displacement of families and pets and too many people losing everything. Left with unimaginable horror at what those in the area were dealing with and going through. It was during this time that a…
- Awareness, Books, Creativity, Culture, Entertainment, Giveaways, Kids, Parenting, PBS Kids, Play, Relationships, Slideshow, Writing
READING IS FUNDAMENTAL TAKES PART IN PBS KIDS’ SUMMER LEARNING INITIATIVE
SINCE 1966, RIF HAS DISTRIBUTED MORE THAN 412 MILLION BOOKS TO 40 MILLION CHILDREN NATIONWIDE, IMPROVING THEIR ABILITY TO READ, LEARN AND GROW. PBS Kids: Learning Goes Beyond the Classroom This Summer with All-New Programming, Digital Resources, Partnerships and Community Activities Available this Summer As kids spend time outside the classroom this summer, PBS KIDS will release all-new content and resources to help keep them active and encourage exploration at home and outdoors with their favorite characters. As part of its annual summer learning initiative, PBS KIDS will air all-new specials and episodes from ODD SQUAD, NATURE CAT and READY JET GO! beginning in June,…
- Awareness, Creativity, Culture, Family Travel, Parenting, Play, Slideshow, Southern California, Travel
Mummies: Secrets from the Tomb
I love history. And my children are quite interested in happenings of the past, too, so it’s turning out that we make a pretty good team of explorers. So this year as part of our social studies, I purchased the Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer. Story of the World comes in four volumes: Ancient Times, The Middle Ages, Early Modern Times, and the Modern Age. We started at the beginning with Ancient times and kicked things off with cavemen. Recently though, we’ve been finishing up our lessons about Ancient Egypt and the Pharaohs. I happened to check the website for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles…
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Parenting :: Planting Seeds
photo by Stacie Isabella Turk/Ribbonhead.com The child’s thinking is neither more limited nor inferior to that of an adult. It is different. The child thinks with feelings and not with the intellect. That is why communication is so complicated. And speaking with children is a difficult art. ~ Janus Korczak Beliefs are potent seeds that, once planted, grow roots quickly and become part of the long-term fabric of the psyche. Sometimes a child’s beliefs about him/herself get planted without our realizing it and much like being a (fake) redhead (take it from this one,) it is the hardest color to get and the hardest color to get rid…
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Parenting :: Safe from the Summer Slide
You have definitely heard these two warm weather catch phrases: summer reading and summer slide. Nationwide, in both educational and literacy circles, parents, teachers, librarians and elected officials discuss ways in which to keep children actively learning throughout the summer months, especially as it relates to reading and math. There is definitely something to be said for the idea of keeping the brain active and not wanting kids to “forget” all of the skills they learned during their 180 days spent in school (as a stay-at-home mom for many years, I can relate…insert “mommy brain”). The amazing part to me…study after study reveals the same thing. And the…
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Education: Gershwin and Mission Read
It’s hard to remember life without it…I, like many of you, am a part of a generation of students who grew up without the Internet – or even computers. While in elementary school in New Jersey, our teachers and librarians taught us to use the Dewey Decimal system to locate books. Remember those — the actual (paper index) cards with numbers and stamped dates! One assignment in particular stands out – we had to read a biography of a person we found interesting and then write a book report. My Lifetime Love Affair with George Gershwin: I went to a small elementary school and the set of biographies…