These biographies of Latino/a/x/é and Hispanic-Americans will inspire kids to follow their dreams. National Hispanic Heritage Month is September 15-October 15, but books about Hispanic and Latino/a/x/é luminaries are great to read any time of year. Most of the books on this list are picture book biographies, focused on a single individual, but a few...
46 Biographies of Hispanic-American and Latino Luminaries
110 Screen-Free Activities for Kids: Toddlers to Tweens
When kids get a little stir crazy and start to whine about being bored, it's so tempting to power up a screen. However, instead of turning to technology, try these brain-boosting, screen-free activities that will nourish your child's imagination, improve their problem solving skills and inspire their natural curiosity. This list of easy screen-free activities...
DIY Whirligig Toy for Old-Fashioned Childhood Fun
On a trip to a historical house museum, one of the toys for kids to try was a whirligig spinning toy. The kids loved playing with this wooden, old-fashioned toy and watching it spin around as they twirled and pulled the string to watch the spinning action. As it turns out, it's easy to make...
Toddler Hammering Activity: Pounding Practice
The never ending quest to distract your toddler when they start to get whiny sometimes leads to the strangest activities. Now, there's nothing new about a toddler's love of using a hammer, but when what starts out as a fun hammering activity turns to poking dress shirt collar plastic tabs into styrofoam, that's when you...
Books like Alex Rider: Thrilling Adventures!
It's not hard to see why young readers love Anthony Horowitz's thrilling Alex Rider book series. The series begins with Stormbreaker and continues for more than a dozen books! When they read the end of the series, readers will be asking for more books like Alex Rider. Whether kids are looking for something to read...
Reading Freedom Coloring Page and Bookmarks
With the increase in book bans and challenges, parents, educators, librarians and good people everywhere must redouble thier efforts to ensure our children have reading freedom! Melanie's latest coloring page shares a message that literacy is a key foundation of freedom. It features the Statue of Liberty and a group of children holding up books...
31 Clothespin Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers
When you want some fine motor activity ideas there are few items more useful than the simple clothespin. Fit these clothespin activities into your child's day for some independent, screen-free play time that counter-acts excessive screen use and helps them develop the hand strength they will need for handwriting and other practical tasks. This list...
Alphabet Sensory Bin for Playful Learning
An alphabet sensory bin combines a tactile experience with a literacy activity, allowing children to learn through play. As we all know, children learn best through play! Hunting for letters in a sensory material, especially when reinforced by reading a lot of great alphabet picture books is an excellent, hands-on way to help your kids...
Creative Stacking Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers
You'd be surprised how entertaining the simple act of stacking is for toddlers and preschoolers. In fact, parents should be encouraging their kids to engage in these fun stacking activities! Stacking activities are good for fine motor development, hand-eye coordination, reasoning skills, learning the concepts of balance and strength, and problem solving. Not only that,...
Fruit Ripening Science Experiment with Pears and Apple
How disappointing when a trip to the grocery store for a favorite fruity treat results only in a bag of unripe fruit! Turn that disappointment into an opportunity for science with this fruit ripening experiment! Fruit Ripening Experiment This fruit-based science experiment is very easy and the best part is the tasty treat reward for...
Easy DIY Ramp for Toy Cars Provides Hours of Free Play
One of the best diy toy car activities on our list of 20 toy vehicle play ideas for kids is a ramp that you can set up in no time flat. This easy diy ramp for toy cars and all the variations is an amazing way to add some fun to your child's screen-free play...
Diverse Back to School Books to Help Everyone Feel Welcome!
A just-right read aloud book about going to school can help calm first day jitters and back-to-school anxieties. These back-to-school picture books feature children from diverse backgrounds and school environments. These stories and illustrations show children that school is a welcoming place filled with helpful teachers and smiling friends. School is depicted as a safe...
Tween Romance Books (Ages 9-12): Sweet Stories of First Love
What is a romance book for tweens, anyway? Certainly, they are very different from young adult romances. Most of the time the book ends in a (very tame) first kiss. Sometimes there is no kiss at all, just a realization that maybe two characters like like each other. In most of these tween romance books,...
25 Books Like A Series of Unfortunate Events
If your kids liked Lemony Snicket's 13 book series A Series of Unfortunate Events, or the Netflix series about the misadventures of the Baudelaire orphans, they will loves these books featuring snarky narration, quirky characters and dastardly deeds. All of these books are laugh-out-loud funny and gasp-out-loud surprising so they will be sure to keep...
Best School Poems for Elementary, Middle and High School Students
Poems about school are great teaching tools in the classroom! A silly school poem is a fun ice-breaker for back-to-school. A long, classic poem about school is useful for a lesson on expressive language. A good school poem is able to capture all the contradictory feelings children have about school life. Some hate it and...
18 Books Like Frog and Toad: Friendship Stories
When your beginning reader is starting to gobble up books, a bookshelf full of books like Frog and Toad Are Friends is just what they need to develop and master their reading skills. This book list includes classic easy reader books, as well as brand-new selections. Frog and Toad Are Friends, voted #15 in SLJ's...
Telling Time Activity Using Travel Times
Learning to tell time on an analog clock face is a right of passage. Once kids learn how to tell time they love to show off their skills, but mastering how to read a clock face is not always easy. This telling time activity uses travel times and real world experience to help kids be...
Handmade Watercolor Bookmarks: Easy Gift for Kids to Make
Handmade watercolor bookmarks are great gifts for kids to make for teachers and classmates. Bookmarks are useful so they won't collect dust or be put in the give away pile! These artistic, diy bookmarks are easy for kids to make and the watercolor resist technique means kids can personalize the bookmark for the recipient. Note:...
Lacing Activities: Fine Motor Skills for Toddlers and Preschoolers
These good ideas for lacing activities are an easy way to incorporate fine motor work at home with your your toddler or preschool. Even if your child doesn't require occupational therapy for fine motor delays or deficiencies, adding these lacing activities to their independent play time at home has many benefits. Lacing activities help develop...
Exclusive Mermaid Paper Dolls Printable and Coloring Page
Faithful followers of our free coloring pages will agree that Melanie Hope Greenberg has outdone herself this month with printable mermaid paper dolls based on her popular children's book, Mermaids on Parade. This is a brand-new, exclusive mermaid paper dolls illustration! Note: this post contains affiliate links. Mermaid Paper Dolls to Print and Color DOWNLOAD...
Apple Stamping: Classic Fall Craft for Kids
When you want to get in the autumn mood, you and your kids must do apple stamping, a classic fall art and craft project. If you've never tried it, don't wait another moment! In fact, to tempt you to try this food stamping art activity, we have two different ways to make colorful prints with...
32 Children's Books about Hair
It can be long, short, straight, curly, red, brown, blond, or rainbow, easily controlled or with a mind of its own. It can also be absent, abundant or covered. It's hair! These inclusive children's books about hair celebrate the glorious mane in all its diverse, wonderful and fascinating manifestations. Picture Books about Hair These children's...
How to Make Fog in a Bottle: Weather Science Experiment
Here's an easy science experiment for kids to help them learn about the weather: make fog in a bottle! Best of all, it requires little prep time, almost zero cleanup time and no special materials so it's a good at home science experiment. So next time your kid writes his name in the bathroom mirror...
Physical Disability and Difference in Middle Grade Books
The current emphasis on inclusion and diversity in books means that today's middle grade readers have a much wider selection of books featuring disabled protagonists than did readers in the past. This is great news, although more books are welcome! Our list of children's novels featuring physically disabled characters is a mix of contemporary stories,...
20 Strong Princess Chapter Books and Middle Grade Novels
When your kids want a good book to read, these princess books are exciting, suspenseful adventures with strong protagonists! They feature princesses who aren't content to stay at home and wait for Prince Charming. Instead, these princess chapter books and novels for kids feature strong warriors, runaway adventurers, and independent thinkers. This princess book list...
12 Children's Books About Picnics (Printable List)
Picnic books are lots of fun to read during the summer months when eating al fresco is on the agenda. And what goes best with a basket of food on the grass? Why, reading of course! These picture books about picnics are great for preschoolers but even bigger kids will enjoy their gentle (and sometimes...
Fine Motor Skills Craft Project: "String Theory"
This is an easy art and craft project that is great at helping kids develop their fine motor skills and dexterity. The instructions are simple, and other than gathering the materials, there is virtually no prep time. We like to call this craft project "string theory" because we like word play and are very silly...
21 Funny Audiobooks for Kids and Families
When you need family-friendly entertainment there's nothing better than a funny audiobook to bring everyone together! Whether you're traveling and need an audiobook for a long road trip, or enjoying a quiet afternoon at home on a rainy day, listening to an audiobook definitely counts as reading! Some of these audiobooks are laugh-out-loud, rolling-in-the-aisles funny....
Exploding Fireworks Coloring Page
It's doesn't have to be a holiday to celebrate with fireworks, especially if you print out out this fireworks coloring page! Sure, you can save the coloring page for Independence Day picnics or New Year's Eve parties, but ordinary days deserve celebrations, too. This free, printable fireworks coloring sheet features brilliant pyrotechnics, exploding firecrackers and...
Painting with Magnets: Amazing Science Art Project
Painting with magnets is a unique art project that mixes science exploration with art and design, the perfect STEAM activity! IMPORTANT NOTE: Magnets can be dangerous. A responsible adult MUST supervise this activity. Magnets can be harmful when ingested. If a child ingests a magnet, seek medical help immediately. NEVER allow children to use magnets...
Quiet Time Activity Jar Ideas (With Printable List)
A quiet time activity jar, or boredom jar, filled with screen-free activity ideas designed to keep kids quiet and calm is one of the most useful tools parents can have. What Is an Activity Jar? An activity jar is a container filled with activity ideas written on slips of paper or craft sticks. When quiet...
Puffy Paint: Art Project Test Results of Two Recipes
Kids love puffy paint. It's a unique painting experience and the result is that your art work pops off the page. Puffy paint adds a cloud-like texture to art projects and puffy paint recipes are very easy and quick to make. We tested two different puffy paint recipes and had wildly different results. Puffy Paint...
Civics and Government Books for Middle School
Teach your middle school aged children (ages 10-13) about their rights and responsibilities as citizens. Each of these books is a specialized lesson on an important area of civics. They focus on voting rights, civil rights, fundamental documents of democracy and how to use the privilege of citizenship to prop up democracy and promote positive...
67 Best Books for 10-Year-Olds They Will Love!
A 10-year-old is a lucky kid. There are so many excellent books waiting to be read! This list of the best books for 10-year-olds includes choices from across many genres from realism to fantasy, even graphic novels and nonfiction. There are long books, short novels, verse novels, mysteries and sports stories. In short, something for...
18 Hispanic and Latin American Folktales for Kids
This list of Hispanic and Latin American folktales includes both indigenous tales and stories with post-colonial influence. The books range from legends, trickster tales, pourquoi stories to myths from present day countries like Mexico, Cuba and Brazil as well as geographical areas like the Amazon, the Andes Mountains and Mesoamerica. Because folktales are descendants of...
Exclusive Animal Coloring Pages: Free, Printable and Fun!
Kids love animals of all kinds, and while they may not be able to have a whale or a tiger as a pet, they can fill the gap with these adorable, free, printable animal coloring pages. As with all our coloring pages, the following illustrations of dancing dogs, waddling penguins, leaping unicorns and more were...
Hands-On 1-10 Counting Activity with Error Control
This 1-10 counting activity with built in error control gives kids a way to practice counting, an important and necessary pre-math skill. It also helps preschoolers and kindergarteners with subitizing because they are visualizing quantities to ten. Subitizing is the ability to visualize quantities without counting. Your child does not need to turn on a...
50 Folktales for Kids from Around the World
Folktales are traditional stories that stand the test of time. Folktales, fairy tales, legends, myths. All of these are are names for a type of story with origins in oral storytelling traditions. The stories frequently include a moral lesson and are ways for each generation to pass on its values and knowledge to the next...
T Puzzle (Boggle Your Mathematical Mind)
When you want to make math fun, ditch the worksheets and drills. Instead, use brain teasers and puzzles like this classic T Puzzle to encourage out of the box thinking. If you are following along with our summer math camp schedule, the T Puzzle is the perfect addition to shapes and geometry week. What is...
Math Memory Game: Turn Over 10
Turn Over 10 is a clever, mathematical twist on the classic memory card game, making it a great game for kids who are practicing their math skills. Anyone with a child learning math facts knows that making math practice fun with games and activities is very important! That's why so many teachers and parents use...
