Today is our first day of summer break.  I am so glad to see so many cool summer activities from last week’s Mom’s Library, because I will need all of them.  I was quite amazed at the number of activities you can do with pool noodles, from racing ramp to light saber, from backyard noodle game to noodle painting, …  check out the post pool noodle play ideas.  In a hot summer day, try these ice chalk play ideas and activities with water balloons. Have you… Read more

The Buildo Museum is an interactive sticker book. It  allows your child the opportunity to create their own scenes inside a spooky museum. They have three options to choose from: 1. The gallery floor where they can hang paintings (or perhaps stage a heist!). 2. The dusty museum attic full of cobwebs and discarded artifacts. 3. The creepy museum basement where maybe monsters are created Each of these places is the potential backdrop for the scenes your child can create with digital… Read more

I recently came across an app called Book Creator for iPAD. Just like the app title suggested, it is an app kids can use to create digital books. I reviewed some other apps with similar functions, like StoryKit. Comparing to StoryKit, both apps have the basic functions like adding pictures and text, recording voices and sound effects. Book Creator is more versatile than StoryKit. Some neat functions I liked: 1. Kids can resize the picture and rotate the picture into… Read more

Are you ready for summer?  While, ready or not, it is here.  What are you going to do with the kids, now they stay home most of the time?  Are you concerned about them forgetting what they’ve learned during the year?  It is a long break for them.  I have read articles about how important it is to help kids retain what they’ve learned in the summer.  But summer is meant for fun!  How can we, as parents, build in the learning activities into… Read more

It is time for Mom’s Library! Are your kids still in school?  We have two more weeks of school before the summer starts.  There will be so many things we can do with the kids in the summer, and a lot ideas were shared in last week’s Mom’s Library.  Today I am featuring summer learning activities. Summer is here. It is great we can learn and play outside. Here are some fun learning activities you can do with kids: Catch… Read more

While it is getting warm, I start collecting ideas on activities we can do outside.  I found a FREE app called Curiosity School. It has instructions on making a water wheel with egg carton. We did it over the weekend.  It is very easy to make and we all had a good time making it. While running the water wheel, we had opportunity to talk about how energy can change its form, and how we can change the natural energy into… Read more

It is time for Mom’s Library! Are you working with your kids to make sure he/she is kindergarten ready? Today I am featuring kindergarten ready learning activities and materials. Talking about kindergarten ready, it is helpful to know first if your child is ready, if not, what skills are needed. This Free Readiness Evaluation sheet will be a great tool to use. More than we can realize, many preschool learning activities can be based on simple materials that we can find at home. Here are… Read more

On iGameMom, we have reviewed a couple book reader apps.  You can think a book reader app as a book library or book store, where you can find many books, and pick which one you want to read or purchase.  Recently, Bethany from No Twiddle Twaddle told me about an app from Sylvan Dell.  As soon as I looked at the app, I felt in love with it right away.  In Sylvan Dell, all the books are science and math… Read more

Finally, an app ALL of my kids love!  What a joy as a parent to find a place, toy, activity, or game that all of your kids can enjoy together.  Well, I bring you an app the whole family can enjoy.  What makes Toy Story: Story Theater so great is everything your kids bring to it.  It requires you as a parent to be an audience member.  But getting to see the vastly different stories each child created is a happy… Read more

It is time for Mom’s Library again. Today I am going to share some very neat mother’s day craft ideas that kids can do.  We will also have a very cool giveaway that all moms will love – a photo collage creator program, valued at $29.99. We are going to pick 20 winners. First let’s take a look at what we got from last week’s Mom’s Library. The first thing caught my eyes is this Are you my mother craft, it is… Read more

We had a lot great articles shared last week.  Since it is spring, a lot families are planing yard works.  I am featuring some gardening activities with kids. First let’s learn why do we want to do gardening with kids.  Here are ten reasons why your should plant a garden. Next we can follow the Save the Monarch project, see how did they plant Milkweed to get seed… I thought it is very interesting to see pumpkins grow inside a pumpkin. There are tons of learning activities… Read more

When people think about apps, they usually think they are for screen activities. In fact, many apps are used for screen free activities. Today we share some fun apps designed for kids to have screen free activities. All are educational activities too. These are great tools to break kids from screen and have them start moving. These can be used for the yearly Screen Free week, as well as any week of the year! Apps Encouraging Kids Screen Free Activities… Read more

We have reviewed 3 book apps in the Human Body Detective (HBD) Series.  As I found out, HBD series also offers learning activities designed based on the apps, and the activities are aligned with school curriculum. Our reviewer Piwi Mama reviewed the materials. Today she is sharing her experience with the curriculum as part of our “Off Screen with App” features. The Human Body detectives (HBD) series tells stories of two sisters, Merinn and Pearl, as Human Body Detectives. After reading a… Read more

With the weather getting warm, and the celebration of earth day, I am featuring articles on nature and Earth day celebration. The best way to be close to nature is just to be there, don’t have to have any activities planned. The nature itself has so much to offer – with a open mind, you will be able to take in more. See what happens when you just be there and how kids can enjoy nature when just being out… Read more