Archive for the ‘Parenting’ Category

When I received that first email from DreamBox, I couldn’t believe my eyes. What an outstanding surprise! All my prayers had been answered. It was like manna from the heavens. My wishes had come true. Well, that might be an exaggeration, but let me tell you, I sure was excited. If you’re anything like me, [...]

My son will be 6 in October, and my daughter is 3 ½. I don’t think it will come as a shocker when I admit that I’ve been flying by the seat of my pants at this parenting thing. Sure, I’ve gotten better over the years. I’ve read the books and magazines, talked with friends [...]

Recently a parent of a kindergartener sent us an email expressing some concern that her child (Julie) was working with two digit numbers but hadn’t received any place value instruction. The parent was helping her daughter “answer” the lessons and she was concerned that DreamBox might have an instructional sequencing problem. This gave us a wonderful opportunity to put the [...]

What’s the temperature outside? Want a present that the whole family can enjoy? Buy an outside thermometer! It’s a great way to use real-life math. Place the thermometer in a place that your child can easily see it. Teach them how to read it. Show them how you look at the top of the red [...]

As a child I used to reread great books. I rarely do that now. So little time, so many great books. However, I just finished Po Bronson’s and Ashley Merryman’s NurtureShock and I’d give it the rare classification of worth rereading. Whether you’re a teacher, parent or both, this book is a fantastic collection of [...]

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...