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Invent It Week 6: Tweak It!

The 2016 Spark!Lab Invent It Challenge is off and running. This year, kids ages 5 to 21 need to identify a real-world health problem and come up with a solution to the problem. Each entry must follow the seven step invention process spelled out by our partner, the Smithsonian’s Spark!Lab. This week we will focus on Step 6: Tweak […]

Stories To Read on World Read Aloud Day

Today is World Read Aloud Day! Most of us don’t really need an excuse to read aloud to our kids, but just in case the struggles of coordinating dinner time, bath time, homework, and extracurricular activities have kept your family from indulging in this sweet and cuddly pastime as much as you’d like, here are […]

From Page to Screen: The Adaptation Agency

As we start talking Oscars, I thought an appropriate topic to blog about would be my books-to-movies obsession. In my house, even more than “Eat your vegetables!” you’ll hear, “Did you read the book first?” It’s become so automatic that this was an actual conversation between my youngest and me: Her: “Can we go […]

Join Us on a Trip to Istanbul Through Time

A few years ago, I decided it would be a great learning experience—for me and for readers— to focus an issue on a specific city and trace its history from ancient times to the present. DIG has now being doing just that, and it’s been great fun. Among the cities featured thus far are Rome, […]

Celebrating African American Inventors

For the past 6 weeks we’ve been discussing the Invent It Challenge in which we ask kids ages 5 to 21 to think about a real-world health problem and come up with a solution. Individuals or teams of students become inventors, follow the Smithsonian Spark Lab Steps of Invention, and submit their invention idea as a […]

Ice Cream with Einstein

“What would you say to Einstein if you could sit and have a cup of tea with him?” MIT physicist Max Tegmark answered that question in the November/December 2015 issue of Muse magazine. Tegmark studies the structure of the universe, which means that he really gets Einstein’s theory of general relativity. “General relativity makes reality […]

Meet Grandfather Gandhi

By Elizabeth Huyuk “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” Mahatma Gandhi Mahatma Gandhi was a great leader who worked to free India from British rule in the 1930s. Gandhi taught a new way of fighting— without violence. He and his followers simply refused to […]

For the Love of Sport: The 10 Commandments of Coaching

Children love to play! They are often happiest when they are moving. From the time they take their first steps, their love of walking, running, jumping, and dancing begins — and grows! As their love of movement grows, they soon discover the joy of group sports, of throwing, catching and kicking balls, and playing together […]

Presidential Pardons

The third Monday in February is when we typically celebrate President’s Day. In my experience, this holiday has been reduced to the following: An excuse for retail locations to have a sale, An opportunity for teachers to force kids to write an essay on George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, and Yet another Monday everyone […]

Invent It Week 5: Try It!

The 2016 Spark!Lab Invent It Challenge is finally off and running. This year, kids ages 5 to 21 need to identify a real-world health problem and come up with a solution to the problem. Each entry must follow the seven step invention process spelled out by our partner, the Smithsonian’s Spark!Lab. For the next 7 weeks or so, we […]