Surviving At Home

Do your kids like to read during the summer break? My daughter is a very good reader but she doesn’t pick up a book during the summer because it resembles schoolwork. Why not “kill two birds with one stone” as they say and reinforce good reading habits while learning some history?

The Magic Treehouse books by Mary Pope Osborne are a great source of adventure, even for kindergarteners. The main characters are Annie and her brother Jack who discover a strange but magical treehouse filled with books. Simply by opening the books, they are transported to another time period for a new adventure.

This summer your kids can join the adventures of Annie and Jack by collecting stamps in their very own passport. Simply go to the Magic Treehouse website to download and print your personal passport, read the books, answer questions online, and collect your stamp to add to your passport.

There are also free printable pages, information about the author, and even a writer’s lesson plan for your young Shakespeare.

Yet another way to make reading and learning during the summertime fun!

Aren’t you surprised that I chose the patriotic red-white-and-blue theme for this 4th of July week?

As we celebrate our country’s 231st birthday, it’s a great opportunity to refresh our own memories and teach our little ones about our wonderful country’s history.

This book is a great way to teach children of all ages about the 50 states of our country. Preschoolers will enjoy learning the names of the states and finding their home state on the map while older children can brush up on their geography. No need to read the book in order. Start with your home state and plan a pretend car trip around the country using the front page map. Then read about the states that are on your “trip”.

 Young preschoolers will enjoy learning their states while they develop their manual dexterity with United States jigsaw puzzles.

Older elementary students will enjoy the challenge of chasing Carmen Sandiego around the world in a variety of computer games. Yes, she’s a thief, but your child plays the “good guy” and has to answer lots of clues about various places in the world in order to collect clues for finding her. Some of the questions asked were tough for me to answer!

I hope you all have a happy and safe holiday this year! Enjoy the time with your familes and little one!

I have discovered that my preschooler loves to do whatever her older sister is doing. If big sister is involved in finding clues to a puzzle or trying to solve a problem, then little sister wants in on the fun.

Blue’s Clues is probably the most popular mystery show for preschoolers and mystery doesn’t have to mean spooky or gorey. Any problem that requires logical thinking or finding missing pieces can be considered a mystery.

In addition to the show, I’m sure you know about all the merchandising toys that also have the Blue’s Clues logo and they even have their own games over at www.nickjr.com. I know at one point we even had a Blue’s Clues board game but I’m sure those pieces are long gone.

If you don’t watch the show or want to spend money on toys, how about making up a scavenger hunt for your preschooler? Simply make a list of things you might find on your walk around the neighborhood and watch your child look carefully for every last item to complete the list.

I’m a big fan of the I Spy books although they can be a little tough for preschoolers (and for me!) to find the objects but they can help improve your child’s ability to search for small details. You can even give your child a small notebook and ask him/her to find objects around your house that begin with the same letter sounds. This is great kindergarten preparation while being fun at the same time! Charades is a fun and crazy game where you act out certain things while your child uses his/her thinking skills to figure out the act.

Favorite detectives for the younger crowds include Nate the Great, Cam Jansen, and Geronimo Stilton books. These are written more for the early elementary age kids but she loves them, just like her big sister did. Obviously, I read them to her but we have fun trying to figure out what will happen next in the story.

Check out the games at Nate the Great’s website and there are some fun riddles and game ideas at Cam Jansen’s website. 

…I hereby proclaim this first week of summer break (at least for us in the northeast) to be Mystery Week.   

My favorite genre of books to read are mysteries and I credit my early days of reading Nancy Drew books for instilling that need to try to solve the mystery myself with critical and logical thinking. Unlike my daughter, I can’t wait to see the new Nancy Drew movie. Growing up I read almost all her books from the library and I was giddy when the Nancy Drew television series started (although the cutie pie Hardy Boys quickly won my allegiance!)

In an effort to increase an interest in the books again for their 75th anniversary, there’s a contest going on right now at Reading is Fundamental for an iPod Nano and some other prizes in honor of the Nancy Drew movie. If your kids are like my oldest daughter and they’re more interested in watching a movie or playing with electronic gadgets rather than expanding their vocabulary by reading a good book, RIF has a website especially for the 6-12 year old age groups called Reading Planet. It’s a great introduction to the mystery genre with a mystery detective poll and a chance to add their own mystery ideas and characters to The Case of the Missing Manuscript.

The coolest section of Reading Planet is called Crack the Case. The junior dectectives in training (your kids) are required to read 3 specific items (including Nancy Drew, yay!) and then they proceed to the Junior Detective Academy to begin their training with various games, including interviewing “suspects”, breaking alibis, and analyzing fingerprinnts. I can’t wait to get my 10-year-old working on this!

I’ll keep searching for mystery books and games for the preschool age group. Tune in tomorrow for those results!