Wonder Box: Hands-On Learning Activities for Kindergarteners, from Education.com

Monday, June 4th, 2012

Is your preschooler starting kindergarten this year?  Just in time for summer, prepare your little one for class with the fun learning activities contained in a Wonder Box. Created by Education.com, which provides helpful content about preparing for kindergarten through college, Wonder Box is a subscription-based monthly service designed to enrich and entertain children ages 3 to 6. (A monthly subscription starts at $19.99.)

Each month, a box with a different theme (science, crafts, etc.), 3 projects, and other extras (coloring pages, sticker books, etc.) are hand-picked by Education.com experts with the goal of developing your child. The boxes are sent to homes with provided instructions and information about accessing an exclusive website for more activity ideas.

Recently, I got a sneak peek at the first available Wonder Box, which has a “Once Upon a Time” theme.   The 3 projects includes a cape to enhance gross motor skills, a puppet to help with shape and pattern recognition, and a pack of story cards to increase reading skills.  A story book of “Stone Soup” is included with crayons for coloring.

For busy, on-the-go parents, Wonder Box provides easy, convenient access to a variety of activities and crafts.  Families can have quality time together and kids will satisfy their curiosity about the world around them.

PBS Labs Offers Edutaining Games, Activities, Apps, and More

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012

There’s no doubt PBS KIDS is great at entertaining and educating (“edutaining”) young children, and they are continuing to boost children’s development with (free!) new games, activities, and mobile apps at PBS KIDS Lab (www.pbskids.org/lab).

Launched at the end of last year, PBS KIDS Lab seeks to blend the latest technology with 50 games to encourage children’s math skills (numbers, counting, addition, subtraction).  Games are related to popular PBS KIDS shows such as Curious George, The Cat in the Hat, Sid the Science Kid, etc., and further categorized by skills, age (3-5, 6-8), and device. Recently, a Spanish version of PBS Labs was launched (pbskids.org/lab/es), along with new resources and tools for teachers and parents to make learning fun inside and outside the classroom.

What I love best about PBS Labs are the mobile apps (pbskids.org/mobile) associated with some of the games, in particular Fetch! Lunch Rush with Ruff Ruffman. This unique game uses augmented reality, an extension of virtual reality, where objects in the real world (in this case, printout sheets) are recognized by the downloaded mobile app and integrated into the game.  By downloading the app onto an iPad and placing it in front of the printout sheets, kids must figure out how much sushi to order for Ruff’s crew.

But you don’t need an iPhone or iPad to help your kids become math whizzes.  PBS KIDS also offers these simple but fun ways to get kids to love numbers:

1. When driving in the car, count the trees as you pass by.
2. Call out street signs and identify their shapes.
3. Count aloud the seconds it takes for a child to brush his/her teeth.
4. Cook with the kids; count ingredients.
5. Play grocery store with household items. Count out the change.

Happy counting!

A Kids’ Gift That Keeps on Giving

Monday, December 6th, 2010

In order for an activity or toy to be a hit with both my 5- and 2-year-old daughters—because these days they only want to play with whatever the other one has—it must meet nearly all of these criteria:

1. It has to be challenging enough for the 5-year-old but not too hard for the 2-year-old
2. It has to involve crafts and/or coloring
3. It has to have enough pieces to form some sort of “collection”
4. It has to have enough elements so that both girls can play with it at the same time

And bonus points go to anything with stickers.

Obviously, I don’t find a whole heck of a lot that fits my specs. But a Grasshopper Kit landed on my desk not too long ago, and I busted it out one recent rainy weekend. Whoa. These kits are basically little suitcases filled with fun-making (and educational) objects. The one my girls tried contained a set of alphabet tracing cards as well as 20 mini crayons (meeting Needs 1, 2, and 4), 30 magnetic fish with a magnet-tipped fishing rod (Needs 1, 3, and 4), letter cards with letters that can be overlaid with stickers (Need 1 plus bonus points), and more (Need 4).

I was impressed, and the girls were happy. And occupied. A winner all around!

You can find these kits here or at Barnes & Noble or FAO Schwarz.

Time for Turkey!

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Believe it or not, Thanksgiving is around the corner—literally, it’s next week. I have a particular fondness for autumn crafts, when kids can run into the backyard to gather their supplies (sticks, pinecones, bark, etc.).

Check out the November issue of Parents where we made a centerpiece from sticks, napkin rings from acorns, and trivets from wood rounds. We also featured this precious turkey place card (let’s call him Max), made from corks, feathers, and other simple craft supplies (including feet fashioned out of bobby pins!).

After you figure out your most important task (the menu planning) then begin to gather your craft supplies so that you and your little Pilgrims can decorate a memorable Thanksgiving table!