Archive for the ‘Parenting’ Category

Parents, start your minivans -- August is Get Ready for Kindergarten Month. How do you get your child ready for the beginning of their academic career? How do you prepare yourself for this life-changing transition?

Summer is finally here. The Fourth of July is a great opportunity to incorporate summer math games with U.S. history lessons.

We've had a lively discussion in the DreamBox offices this week after someone circulated a recent Science Daily article "Self-regulation Game Predicts Kindergarten Achievement." The article describes early childhood development research (by Claire Ponitz from the University of Virginia and Megan McClelland of Oregon State University) that assessed the effectiveness of a game called the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders (HTKS) task. The researchers discovered that children who did well on this this simple, 5-minute self-regulation game in the fall achieved strong scores in reading, vocabulary, and math in the spring, compared to students who had low performance on the task. The research also showed that the children who performed well on the task scored 3.4 months better than their peers who performed at average levels on mathematics learning.

Our youngest daughter recently came home facing the decision of whether for the next school year she should go into ‘honors’ math class or the regular math class. We haven’t really faced this before, as the right decision for each of our two older children was straightforward, although different for each. I have seen the angst it has has caused in other families. The stress was particularly acute in those cases where placement was decided by a single test result.

Did you know that we beta-tested DreamBox Learning with 5 different releases before making it available to the public? Along with each release came a plethora of feedback. Feedback that is vital to building a product that teaches and engages...

Forget the boogie man under the bed. There’s a bigger problem out there. “My child is scared to try new things that are hard for him.” At DreamBox, we hear this quite a bit. And I believe it’s a problem all parents should attack with muster. Why? Because learning to persevere through a tough problem is a life skill that will serve every child well, now and forever. So how does a parent address this? Every child is different. Experiment with the ideas below and figure out which best suits your child’s temperament.

I am a DreamBox teacher as well as the parent of a pre-schooler. I must confess there are times I have a hard time not helping him play DreamBox. He really enjoys playing and he is learning a lot. But there are times when the games are challenging for him.

If you have children, chances are good that they brought home a box of valentines this week…

A parent recently wrote us saying “I LOVE the diversity in the characters that the kid can choose to represent themselves…” The writer explained that their kindergarten-aged daughter is of Central American descent and both parent and child are well aware of the lack of diversity in most animated shows, video games, and toys. I’d like to thank this parent for her kind words regarding our efforts and bringing up an important issue. Though this is the only email we’ve received on the subject, she makes a salient point regarding how a majority of cartoon and game characters are depicted in popular media. A brief and rough history of animation will show how the philosophy of character design has been evolving over the years.

We had about 25 children in the DreamBox office over the last few weeks, beta testing the upcoming version of our online math learning product, DreamBox Learning K-2 math.

I had the opportunity to talk with a number of parents over the last few weeks while their children were in the office testing the upcoming version of our math learning adventures, DreamBox Learning K-2 Math. And as we often hear, many wise parents told me they limit “screen time” for their children.

A beautiful quote that inspired me: The children know. They have always known.

A few days ago I read an article about gifted kids and the meaning of the word these days. I’m not a parent, but I can understand why many parents want to believe their children are exceptional. However, I think some are trying to convince themselves of that by pushing their kids in various activities from a very early age.

It’s almost Fall and pumpkin season is coming alive. I’ve seen signs for corn mazes, harvest festivals, and of course, Halloween candy out in the shelves at the store. I love this time of year! One thing I love to do in my classroom is explore the anatomy of pumpkins with my students. Even though [...]

Just as parents need to make sure their children eat a mix of healthy foods - with reasonable limits on junk food and sweets - we need to have the same mindset about what our children watch. That’s the message of a recent New York Times article: Limiting, and Watching, What Children Watch, by Lisa Guernsey, and I couldn’t agree more!