Elementary: 5-9 years

When your bedtime is before the sun sets, it can be tough to observe the ACTUAL stars. This is the hazard when studying the stars with preschoolers. In How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers, a young boy tries to capture a star from the night sky, only to discover one…

Despite reading countless books and exploring stars with several activities, the concept of the solar system remained an abstract, almost mythological, concept for my preschoolers.  This was never more evident than on the 4th of July – while waiting for fireworks, I started pointing out the planets in the early night sky…

We love sensory bags at our house.  Ever since I made our first sensory bag, Jumbled Snowman, over a year ago, they are always a guaranteed hit.  It is a great way to provide hands on play for toddlers and preschoolers. So of course our Study of the Stars would not be…

When I was a kid, I put a set of glow in the dark constellations stickers on my bedroom ceiling.  They were still up there glowing away when my parents sold the place this year. All kids love stickers, glow in the dark, and as I’ve discovered this summer, studying…

Want a cheap but chic, quick and easy DIY patriotic decoration for summer? You may have caught our kid-made burlap banners for Halloween and Christmas. And just before Memorial Day, we shared a sneak peek of this kid-made July 4th Banner on our weekly installment of Facebook Live. How To Make July…

For weeks now, ever since I made the Star Gazing Discovery Bottles for my monthly post on Pre-K Pages, the girls have been full of questions and fascinated by stars.  Now that preschool is out for the summer, studying stars was at the top of their request list.  To kick things off,…

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #FreeToBe #CollectiveBias School is out. The kids are home. And before breakfast is done they are clamoring for the day’s entertainment.  With just a few basic supplies, let them be free to compete in their…

Sprinklers. Bush forts. Spitting watermelon seeds. Chasing the ice cream truck.  Playing ‘Colored Eggs’ in the pool. Those are the throwback kids activities for summer I remember from my childhood.  And oh, how memorable they were.  I want to fill my kids’ summers with just as awesome memories.  For the month…

My mom once told me, “People will talk about your children in one of two ways: ‘Wow, your kids are so well behaved,’ or ‘Wow, please don’t ever bring your kids here again.’”  And while no one ever wants to be, we’ve all experienced moments of the latter. As parents, we…

Warmer weather is finally here to stay… and so it’s time to take the Architecture and Engineering for Kids series outdoors! The girls get total credit for this one: who knew race cars could provide such a great engineering lesson? Engineering in Action Baby M got these fun, pull back race cars…

My mom is retiring this year after more than 30 years as an early elementary educator. A parent is throwing her a retirement party and via the beauty of Facebook events, the outpouring of congratulations and appreciation from her former students and parents has been incredible to read! But don’t wait…

I received complementary product from Stickerkid to facilitate my review.  As always, opinions remain 100% my own. With kids, comes stuff.  And with summer, more of their stuff just seems to get lost or left behind.  Schools, parks, playgrounds, pools – wherever kids congregate – are always littered with lost…

I received complementary product from Circle with Disney to facilitate my review. My opinions remain, as always, 100% my own. My girls are still young at 4 and 2.  But monitoring their screen time, and what they access while they use their iPads, already keeps me up at night!  What…

I received complementary product from Start Engineering to facilitate this review.  The opinions presented remain, as always, 100% my own. “When I grow up, I’m going to be a Princess Ballerina.” That has been my preschool daughter’s adult aspirations for going on two years now. I am all for encouraging pursuit…

Starting the seeds for our garden on Earth Day is quickly becoming an annual tradition in our family. The wonder and awe the growing process inspires in young children makes gardening even more fun!  To turn our garden into a season-long learning process this year, I created a Preschool Garden…

I received complimentary product for my review from Crayola featured in this post. The content and opinions expressed here remain 100% my own. Engineering for kids is a fascinating area of study because it feeds their natural curiosity.  Taking things apart, wanting to understand how things work, and a desire to bring their imagination and…

What better way to celebrate Earth Day than to get your hands in the dirt and start a garden?  That’s exactly what we did last year, when we started our seeds… which launched a whole study of seeds and germination.  This year, we are kicking things off in the garden…

My preschooler has been reading the Corduroy series at school, and it has become the bedtime story of choice lately.  A recent flurry of Corduroy book activities and my friend Nell’s Teach Kids to Sew with Burlap, inspired our latest Busy Box fun: Sew Buttons for Corduroy!  Sew Buttons for…

A fast favorite from our collection of Architecture and Engineering Books for Kids was Roberto, The Insect Architect.  The girls made me read it every night for two weeks, taking turns over who got to take it to sleep with them at night… and it wasn’t long before they asked if…