How Do Dinosaurs Books Review

Ever since I was young, books have been a huge part of my life.  I have a memory from when I was about five years old walking home from the library with an entire wagon full of books we had checked out.  That little wagon sat in our front room where I could pick a book and look through it or my mom would read it to me.  Before the week was done, I had looked through all the books at least once.  The next week, we took the books back and got another wagon full to bring home.  This love of reading has stuck with me all my life.  I love getting lost in the world of books.  My husband laughs at me because if I'm reading a book, I have no idea what's going on around me.

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Kid Science: Growing Seeds In A Bag

A few weeks ago, I thought it would be a good idea to get some starts going for our garden.  I bought some soil and those little biodegradable pots and used some seeds I already had and then planted two of each kind.  I made sure they were watered, got plenty of sunshine during the day and brought them in at night because it was still pretty cold.  This lasted about three days.  One afternoon, we had a crazy windstorm and guess what got left outside.  My little plants.  My daughter discovered them and came running inside with tears streaming down her face: "Mom!  The seeds!  They blew over!"  She was really sad about it.  Sure enough, there was dirt all over the patio and no seeds to be seen.

Since then we've had some snow and rain and sunny days and I haven't attempted to start any more plants, not sure if it was really springtime yet.  One day, I remembered a time in first grade starting seeds in a plastic bag using a wet paper towel to keep the seeds moist, then sticking it in the sun and watching the seeds sprout.  Duh.  Why didn't I think of this before?  (Answer: Probably because even though I've had a garden for the last few years, I'm still an amateur gardener.)  Turns out this is actually a viable way to start seeds for your garden and not just an elementary school experiment.

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Teaching Your Preschooler Time

Kadie: "Mom, what's for lunch?"
Me: "It's not lunch time, it's breakfast."

Kadie: "Mom, last year I went to Aunt Dani's house."

Me: "Sweetheart, we were there yesterday."

Kadie: "Mom, what's today?"

Me: "It's (insert day of the week)."

Kadie: "Does that mean it's splash pad day?"

If you've ever tried to help a young child understand how many days it is until a certain event or activity, you've probably been met with confusion and frustration that it's not happening right now.  This is because small children live in the present and they have a hard time thinking abstractly.   Time is a very abstract and intangible concept, which is why it is difficult to grasp until they get closer to age 6 or 7 and their brain starts to develop in a way that they are able to begin to understand things such as time.

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12 Fun Ways to Teach Your Child the Alphabet

This post originally appeared on Muddy Little Toes where I was previously a co-contributor.

One of the first songs I remember singing to my daughter was the alphabet song.  I'd sing it while changing diapers, in the car, during bath time, waiting for dinner...pretty much all the time.  When she was about 20 months, she started singing the song on her own with a little help here and there.  By the time she turned 2 years old, she knew the song and could recognize some letters (mostly the ones in her name).  Currently, she is 3 (turning 4 in January) and she knows all the letters by sight, can write about half of them, and knows 3/4 of them by sound.  I'm not telling you this to toot my horn or say that I'm a great teacher when it comes to letters.  But there are some tools I've used that have proven to be successful for my daughter, and my son is starting to catch on as well (he is 18 months).  Check out the list below and see if anything catches your eye!

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