Engaging the student, utilizing knowledge of various senses, taking advantage of free online tools, my son’s fourth grade social studies teacher did all these things when she showed the kids the following in class today:

I read an interesting blog post by Dan Brown, a teacher and author of The Great Expectations School: A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Jungle. He is the also the author of an education blog called Get in the Fracas. Here is an excerpt: “I have a clutch of students who read for pleasure, yet [...]

For a summer trip, my family is going on a two week road trip to Canada. I painstakingly planned all aspects of this trip, which I know will provide an invaluable experiential learning opportunity for our three kids - now it is less than a week away. Needless to say, we are all getting excited. However, [...]

Whether you send your child to public school, private school, or whether you home school, your community no doubt has some treasures – museums, historical societies, science centers, or parks. Here in Virginia, the communities are rich with such treasures, but very few take advantage of these opportunities to learn. When I conduct presentations for [...]

What would you do (assuming your children go to school and are not home-schooled) if your school switched to a four day a week schedule? Last summer’s gas prices caused more schools than ever to switch to a four day schedule, and especially in rural areas, the four day school week has caught on as an [...]

Scientists have shown what we all intuitively know, as parents, that enrichment such as musical instruction helps kids’ learning in other areas (such as math and reading) as well. This is great news for those of us who can give our children those experiences. But in a time when schools are going ‘back to basics’ [...]

Can kids learn anything if they are exposed to a subject for only half an hour a week, with no homework?  Many educators say yes, if you’re talking about language learning. “The kids getting [foreign language instruction] for 30 minutes [a week] won’t become fluent, but that’s not the point of those programs,” said Julie [...]