Have you ever been to a Scholastic Warehouse Sale?

If you love books and bargain shopping, this is the sale for you.

Yes I blogged about this sale last year and I am sure I will blog about it next year.  I simply do not want anyone to miss out on such a good deal.

For my Minnesota readers, the Scholastic sale in Brooklyn Park begins on Wednesday, May 5th and lasts until Wednesday, May 19th (follow link below for more details).  For those of you in other states, check out the Scholastic link to find a warehouse near you.

MN Scholastic Locations and Information

Scholastic Warehouse Locations

On the website it says that it is exclusively for teachers and school employees.  However I have never been asked to present “teacher” identification.  Also they advertise the sale with signs on the road, therefore it appears to be open to the public.  Many people I know in the area go each year and they are not school employees.

Tip of the Day:

Check out the Scholastic Warehouse Sale.

Almost all books are 50% off and many are discounted even more than that.

It is a great way to shop for birthdays or even the holidays.

When you hear the word, learning, what is the first thing to enter your mind?

Books?  Notebooks? A classroom?

If you have a preschool and/or elementary child, I hope that when you hear the word learning you think of playing, field trips, arts and crafts, etc.  Young children are constantly learning new words, skills, ideas, games and much much more in any and all situations.  Most often the majority of their learning is outside of the classroom.

As a child gets older and begins learning the letters in his/her name, how to count to 100 and learning to spell, some parents often think it is time for flashcards or that they need to set aside a special time in the day for “academics”.  This is not true.  Parents can teach these concepts anywhere, at any time of day.

Idea of the Day:

Use the Question Game to teach basic facts and/or concepts.

Most children love a game, no matter what it is.  Therefore I simply call it the Question Game.

Basically what I do is ask them a question that they must answer before they can start a new activity.

For example your child may have to answer a question or set of questions before playing computer.  Or if your child needs help tying shoes, you can say you will help them if they answer your question.

Examples:

When I was trying to teach my daughter her first, middle and last name I used this activity.  Although she knew her full name when I broke it up into specific questions, she sometimes was not sure.

As I would help her out of the car I would simply say, “Hello little girl, what is your middle name?”  She had to answer correctly in order for us to get out of the car.

With my son I will say, “For 100 points, how do you spell (insert weekly spelling word)?”  For some reason he loves when you say that something is worth points.

Another fun why to do it is if you take them by surprise, give them a big hug and say, “You have just been captured by an evil queen and you must answer my question to be freed.”

There are so many different situations in which a parent can use this idea.  Simply use your imagination and make learning fun!

Can you recite the alphabet backwards?  Can your children?

What sounds like a simply activity is rather challenging.  From a young age, we have been repeating the alphabet over and over.  The letters are ingrained in our memory in an A to Z format, not Z to A.

According to the website Braingle, the reason this is so difficult is that the alphabet is taught using serial-learning.  This means that each letter is a cue for the next letter.  Therefore when you hear, “D” you automatically think “E” not “C”.

My kids and I have been working on learning the alphabet backwards after we found a fun website of songs, one of them being the backwards alphabet.

It is much easier to learn the letters to a song and/or rhythm than it is to simply say the letters.

Idea of the Day:

Learn the alphabet backwards with your children.

Here is a fun song by SongDrops.com, to help you with the activity:

The CDA Song

Have you started planning your family’s summer travel plans?

Whether it is traveling to the cabin, visiting relatives or taking a trip across the great U.S.A, many of us will find ourselves in the car.  Car travel with children can be pleasant or extremely painful depending on the day, hour or minute.

Anyone traveling with small children needs to be prepared with music, books, games, snacks, vomit bags, clean up supplies and a ton of patience!

License plates can be a great distraction and a fun resource for various activities in the car.

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Do you do a letter of the day activity?

I have been working on lowercase letters with my 3 1/2 year old.  I have yet to find a “great” activity or idea to keep letter recognition fun and interesting.

While watching Sesame Street today with my daughter, it hit me.  Keep it simple.  Do a letter of the day.  Sesame Street has been doing a letter and number of the day for 40 years.  It seems to be working well for them so I am going to give it a try.

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