The piggy bank has been a staple for U.S. children as far back as the 1800s. The name “piggy bank” actually is derived from the Old English term “pygg,” the red-orange clay from which people would construct jars to hold their extra money before banks became commonplace. Today kids get excited when they receive a [...]
Posted in Back to School, Money, News 
Tags: budget, Financial Literacy, Money, piggy bank, saving 
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When you ask a child what she wants to be when she grows up, she’ll probably mention something she’s been exposed to, something that ignited her spirit, or something she’s seen on TV, in her family, or learned about in school. So, while kids want to grow up to be teachers, doctors, singers, and astronauts, [...]
When we think of Leonardo da Vinci, the “Mona Lisa” and the “Last Supper” come to mind — not a brilliant engineer hundreds of years before his time. What many do not realize is that da Vinci was a skilled engineer who inspired the Wright brothers and conceptualized the helicopter. Da Vinci came from very [...]
Posted in Interdisciplinary, News Tags: Art, Career, Da Vinci, Engineering, Renaissance Comments OffNintendo is an amazingly iconic gaming company. Yes, it does seem everywhere you go, you see a four year-old with a Nintendo DS busily racing Mario around a track. Although other gaming companies have risen to prominence in the past decade, Nintendo remains the most profitable gaming company in the world. Are your kids Nintendo [...]
Posted in Just for Fun, News, technology, Video Games Tags: infographic, Mario, Nintendo, Video Games, video gaming Comments Off
If your daughter has access to a computer or a smartphone, chances are that she is using them to connect with friends via popular social media channels. Facebook alone boasts 845 million active users and roughly 250 million images are uploaded to Facebook each day. This doesn’t even take into account other popular sites like [...]
Posted in Back to School, News, Online Tools Tags: Facebook, Instagram, Online Privacy, social media, technology, Twitter Comments Off
According to Oracle ThinkQuest Education Foundation, women do 66 percent of the world’s work but receive only 11 percent of the world’s income. The number of women in leadership roles is slowly increasing, but it is not even close to 50 percent. Meanwhile, there are 6 million more women than men in the world. And [...]
Posted in Back to School, Games, News, Online Tools, Physics, Science, technology, Video Games Tags: girls in stem, Laser photonics, laser physics, lasers, Sarah Boisvert, STEM Comments Off
Integrated learning seems like a pretty simple idea. Kids don’t get fired up when you say, “Let’s go study some English!” They get fired up with dinosaurs, scuba diving, and iPhone apps. Why? Because English is boring. In the traditional sense, that is. (Unless you’re that one teacher who really digs grammar. Seriously, I [...]
Posted in Back to School, Eclectic Homeschooling, Homeschool, Interdisciplinary, Learning Methods, News, Teaching methods, technology, Unit Study, Unschooling Tags: homeschool, informal learning, Learning, montessori, Project-based learning, unschool Comments Off
Even if you normally follow a rigid curriculum during the academic year, summer is a great time to relax a bit and try project based learning and on for size. Unschoolers typically follow a less regimented approach to homeschooling, and utilize things like project-based learning, Waldorf-inspired lessons, and student-led learning to educate their kids. Doing [...]
Posted in Back to School, Learning Methods, News Tags: blogging, gardening, homeschool, Learning, Project-based learning, roadschooling, summer learning Comments OffWhat a fabulous idea! DIY.org is an online community solely for kids (and their parents) to showcase their maker chops. Free to join, DIY.org gives kids tools to collect everything they make as they grow up and a place to share it. Founded by a group of young men who make all sorts of things, the [...]
Posted in Activities, Make, News, Online Tools Tags: craft, DIY, Do-it-yourself, homeschool, make, Project-based learning Comments Off
Facebook, known as much for its privacy exploitation as it is for mindless games, is now considering allowing children younger than 13 to create Facebook accounts. Currently, Facebook prohibits users under 13 from creating accounts. Under this plan, parents will have to specifically consent, approve all friends, and pay for any games added to the [...]
Posted in Back to School, News, Online Tools, technology, Video Games Tags: cyber-bullying, Facebook, privacy, social media Comments Off
