My guys are into numbers lately. My eldest, especially, is big into number crunching and playing with the calculator. He spends a lot of time on, well, time.

Just last week I had a funny “aha” moment when his brother asked to play Star Wars Legos with him first thing in the morning. He said, “Well actually I need fifteen minutes to eat my cereal and stuff.”

His brother, not quite four, innocently inquired, “Well how long is that?”

Little Math man responded by saying, “Well, it is 15 times 60. You know, 900 seconds.”

I was dumbfounded, then I ran to check to see if he was right. I knew that my brother-in-law had given him a calculator to play with over the summer, but I had no idea that he was sooo into math. When I asked him about it he told me, flat out, that he wanted to go to a school that taught only math and soccer. So, I decided to check out some good websites for budding mathematicians, stuff that he would really get into and seem like a lot of fun and a small bit technical too, to challenge him a small bit. (more…)

This topic idea was born out of necessity in our house. My very precocious 4 year old has run the gamut on dangerous and costly experiments, always conveniently performed in the space of 90 seconds or less. When he finally stopped up my toilet with an entire double roll of toilet paper I decided it was time to stimulate his devious mind with something a bit less destructive than an inch of water splashed across my tile floor and a pipe so stopped up we needed a plumber. I powered up the computer and began to show him the ropes. Within a few weeks he had a basic grasp of dragging, dropping, clicking, and closing. Together with my boys, and with the help of a few other moms, I have compiled a list of the top ten websites for preschoolers and their parents that do more than just entertain, they educate too! (more…)

Toddlers between the ages of one and two love to explore their world. They are delightful and exhausting, funny and fearless, and without common sense about the many dangers they will encounter within even the most carefully baby-proofed home. From the time your darling baby takes her first steps until she is finally ready for school, you will probably be quite anxious about safety, and rightfully so. A good way to channel your toddler’s curiosity and energy is to begin teaching her some chores, because regardless of how much you invest in toys, your inquisitive toddler will always want to be in your business.

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As a mother of three very young and inquisitive little boys I am guilty of hiring the electronic babysitter while doing laundry, making dinner, and talking on the phone. And I am sure if I did an informal telephone interview with other mothers I would find this to be true for most everyone. I know that excessive T.V. watching without adequate interaction will cause verbal delays. That’s just common sense. We don’t just plop our kids down in front of the television for hours on end and then just walk away. So in lieu of the recent Baby Einstein shake up I thought I would take a moment to jot down a few very successful non-television activities that my boys and I have done together this summer. They both have busy little minds and are often easily bored so I have to get creative quite often to keep them occupied.

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As the 110^th Congress begins to take a second look at the reauthorization of Public Law 107-110, we need to consider one very small population of public school children that is being left behind. The much needed NCLB (No Child Left Behind) act covers the immigrant child, the special needs child, the minority child, the child that lives in an urban school that is under-funded and under-performs, the child whose needs cannot be met in the school district for which he lives…. Or does it?

What if that very same child was also gifted, functioning two or three grade levels above his peers and soaking up new knowledge like a sponge? There are currently no provisions for such a child, nor is there funding, as the NCLB act has forced many states, including Illinois, to reallocate funds from gifted programming toward achieving better test scores among at risk populations [1]. (more…)