Science Activity: Oil, Water, and Color Mixing

Science Activity: Oil, Water, and Color Mixing

Here’s a quick and simple way to add a color-mixing element to a classic oil and water activity.

Vintage Christmas List

Vintage Christmas List

It’s the first week of November.  The stores are already pulling out the Christmas gear, and like most parents, you’re getting serious about the kids’ wish lists. While you’re perusing Toys’R’Us’s list of must-have battery-operated junk, it may occur to

Hands On History: Egyptian Senet

Hands On History: Egyptian Senet

Kids just love studying ancient Egypt.  I never have a hard time getting them fired up about studying pyramids and mummies, as you can see from the KWL chart my 8th graders started below: (As a side note, I always

Preschool Math: Compare Whole Numbers

Preschool Math: Compare Whole Numbers

What the hand does, the mind remembers.  — Maria Montessori Our son is really into card games lately.  He loves “Go Fish” and “War” especially, but while playing “War, he was having a tough time looking at the cards and

Literacy Games: Bananagrams

Literacy Games: Bananagrams

We love the game Bananagrams, which is essentially Scrabble without a board.  We come up with lots of little activities to use the letters and work on our early literacy skills. The other day, we tried something new.  As we

Puzzles for Baby

Puzzles for Baby

We loooooove puzzles at our house, but how do you know when baby is ready for puzzles and where do you start? First of all, puzzles require fine motor control.  If your baby can put together MegaBlocks or something similar,

Montessori: Honor the Work of Childhood 

Montessori: Honor the Work of Childhood 

Several months ago, I began doing some research on Maria Montessori’s methods.  Her writing is rich with insights, not simply about teaching, but about the ways we think about and interact with our children.  I have made a few deliberate

Preschool Math: Making Groups of Ten

Preschool Math: Making Groups of Ten

Here’s a quick and fun activity to introduce pairs that add to ten — important math facts to memorize early!  We used our Unifix cubes, but Duplos, Legos, or any other connecting blocks would work as well. I made stacks

Boundless Energy: Awesome Preschool Science Activity

Boundless Energy: Awesome Preschool Science Activity

This week, our marble set has been working overtime.  We engineered a wall of pipes and tracks to run our marbles down, and we’ve been using it to explore how potential and kinetic energy work.  We began with a short