Adapted with permission from Chicago Park District’s “Once Upon a Day Camp” Guide Go to a park or into another natural setting (e.g. beach, woods, etc.) with your child. Then show your child a letter perfect poem like this one (a poem
What a Character!
Adapted from a post on Minds in Bloom by Rachel Lynette. Used with Permission. “If there is beauty in character, there will be harmony in the home. If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the
“Uno Más” Game Repurposing Post
For those of you who have enjoyed playing our repurposed Candy Land and Twister games, here’s one for another game you probably have in your home that may or may not be collecting dust. UNO! Take the subjects in which
Summer Reading Recommendations for the “Word Smart” Child
Most kids that like flexing their linguistic mind muscles will devour the age-appropriate book lists at your local library over the summer. Here are a few additional suggestions that you may not know yet… All ages: Dark Emperor and Other
Innerspace List Poems
Adapted with permission from the Chicago City Park District’s “Once Upon a Day Camp” Guide, which was adapted from original source “Art & Poetry Projects for Kids”, by Alice George Using a piece of butcher paper, draw an outline of
Paint by Part of Speech
Brush up your budding artist’s English skills by transforming a paint-by-numbers download into a a paint-by-part-of-speech. (Or rhyming words for the little ones.) 1. Download a paint by numbers drawing off the internet (this one came from http://allkidsnetwork.com/color-by-numbers/) 2. Import
Scripted Summer
If your child cringes at the thought of summer reading lists, try having him/her read screenplays with you from some movie favorites instead on http://www.imsdb.com/genre/Family. (Or, if your child is still an early or pre-reader, read a few scenes from
Quick Tips for Error-Proof Writing
A guest post by Brian Patterson of Grammarly For many people, there is nothing more annoying than a typo. Be it a misspelled word in the newspaper or a punctuation problem on a blog post, readers are almost immediately distracted
Remember Which State is Which? Naturally!
Build on your child’s blossoming naturistic and visual intelligence to connect state nature and name. Print out (or purchase) a good sized map of the United States, then decide which of the following to “map” on top of each state:
Skillful Singing
For most adults, recalling the alphabet goes hand-in-hand with singing the tune, as do many of the concepts we learned in school. For musical kids, this effect is even more pronounced. Chat with your child about some of the language

