Scissors Card stock Glue Markers  To make one, first cut a 1 3/4- by 8-inch strip of colorful card stock. Holding the strip horizontal, fold each half of the strip down at a right angle at the strip’s center, as shown. Next, use shapes cut from colored paper or card stock to […]
 PICTURE THIS: a family outing that’s great for all ages, affordable, and (shh!) educational too. Sound too good to be true? Not if you’ve got a digital camera and a sharp eye for letter shapes, as my family recently discovered they have. My 10-year-old, Ava, and 5-year-old, Harry, loved going on an I Spy […]
 These colorful, perforated window decorations can really brighten up a room when sunlight shows through all the pinholes.  Card stock Corrugated cardboard Pushpin Thin string or thread  To create one, simply cut a sun shape out of the paper or card stock and place it atop the cardboard.  Have your child pierce […]
Letter X is a very unreliable letter that make the sounds:     /x/ as in x-ray     /ks/ as in six     /z/ as in xylophone 1. Present a capital and lower case X to your child. See if she knows the name of the letter and the sound it makes.  This is a tricky […]
Materials: Plastic eggs, small dinosaurs and “sand goop” (recipe below).  “Sand Goop” Recipe 1 cup sand 1/2 cup cornstarch 1/2 tsp. alum 1/2 c. water.  Cook on medium heat stirring until thick. Cool to touch.  Put dino into the plastic egg and cover with “sand goop”. Place in “nest”. On Monday, talk […]
The family refrigerator is happy to moonlight as an art gallery, but your in-house studio may be churning out more work than a couple of magnets can hold. Our kid-level display uses Velcro to make the most of a sticky situation: a small piece stuck to the back of the artwork means that it can […]
1. Present a capital and lower case U to your child. See if she knows the name of the letter and the sound it makes.  Explain that U is one of the letters that can make different sounds. One sound it makes is the same as the name of the letter. Give examples of hard […]
I want the kids to learn that art is about losing your inhibition, expressing yourself, about not looking around the room to see if you’re doing it the right way,” says Marion. For those of us hoping to nurture that creativity in our own kids, here are some of her secrets and tips, plus five […]
