As the editor of Click, I test every experiment published in the magazine. Our goal is to present simple, hands-on activities that will inspire children to think, wonder, learn, and have fun! But some experiments just don’t work out the way you plan. Consider, for example, the short activity on page 16 of the […]
October 1st marks International Music Day, which made me think of all the goodness that music brings into our lives. Is there anything else you can think of that has the ability to bring people of all ages, sizes, and cultural backgrounds together in harmony? Well, maybe chocolate, but besides that? Whether you make […]
We’re all familiar with the traditions that Fall brings, including the end of white shoes, the disappearance of productive work days due to fantasy football, and the first Christmas trees in the mall. Autumn always makes me think of Aesop’s fable “The Ant and the Grasshopper,” where the lazy grasshopper plays all summer, while […]
Labor Day snuck up on us, school has started, and the peak travel season is over. What does that mean? To me, it means road trip! As soon as the summer crowds start to dwindle and the temperatures moderate, I’m ready to hit some of the best tourist spots in my local area. Whether your […]
An apple a day keeps the doctor away. If that were actually true, we would have a much easier time with universal health care! But we shouldn’t let that untruth diminish the benefits of juicy, delicious apples. The motivation for this post was a super-cute story called “Apple Day” by Kimberly Long Cockroft in […]
As the mom of a tween who is already on the cusp of sass, attitude, and near-constant hysteria, I found the “Disaster Drill” in a recent issue of Cicada to be immensely helpful. Obviously, disaster has many different interpretations, depending on the context or the person for whom it is occurring. For most people, a […]
Want to turn a regular Saturday into something special? A good chance is coming up on September 19, which is also known as International Talk like a Pirate Day. It may sound a bit silly, but it is just this type of silliness that often inspires the best family fun and fires a child’s imagination. […]
Ladybug celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary this month. For twenty-five years, the magazine has tried to reflect the world of young children—and make it a little broader—through stories, poetry, art, and activities. Each issue encourages kids to take a closer look at the people and places around them. Ladybug invites children to bring their whole selves—their […]
One of the best things about being the editor of Cobblestone is the opportunity for my knowledge of a subject to deepen when I work on an issue. Take the September issue where we focus on the Louisiana Purchase, for example. It is easy to think of the Louisiana Purchase as simply the sale of […]
My day went from “ho-hum” to “wow” in the space of about 15 seconds this morning when I heard this story on NPR about how archaeologists have discovered the bones of an early human-like species buried deep in a cave in South Africa. Making the story even more interesting was that the cave can only be reached […]