We’ve heard it again and again that the best gift we can give to our children is the love of reading. But what can parents do to make kids enjoy reading and enjoy books? There are so many ways, and every parent is doing it differently. Here are some we’ve done that worked well for us. I’d love to hear your ideas and the books you used. How to Help Kids Enjoy Books at a Young Age Start from a… Read more

We all know today’s kids facing a changing world, that the knowledge base of human being grows faster and faster. It is crucial for kids to have the skills to be a self-learner. They can gather information from different sources and decipher the information, connect the dots, and form their own knowledge base and opinions on subjects they need learn. One big building block in this self-learning process is reading non-fiction materials. Reading non-fiction is very different from reading fiction… Read more

Are you learning a foreign language? It is not easy. English is not my first language, and I can tell you based on my own experience, that the hardest part is not vocabulary or grammar when you are studying in the classroom, the hardest part is when you think you’ve learned enough and try to communicate with the native speakers, and find out that you can hardly understand anything they are saying and can hardly make yourself understood by others… Read more

Not many of us will be able to actually go to the rainforest to explore the wild animals, so this app, WilderQuest is a wonderful tool for kids to experience the nature and learn about wild life. It makes you feel you are really there, letting you explore on your own. It is a free app from NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service from Australia. If you don’t have a mobile device, you can play with it on the website… Read more

Every time when we travel I like to ask my son to keep photos and to make a travel journal by the end. While doing this, he practiced his presenting and storytelling skills. In the meantime, we have a keepsake for us to review and remember what we’ve done for each vacation. It’s been fun for us. I introduced some best storytelling learning tools for kids, and today I have one more to share — Shadow Puppet. Shadow Puppet is… Read more

While school coming to the end for the year, I start looking for fun games for the child – fun yet mentally challenging brain games. I just find out the free app of the week on Apple Store is a fun one — Quetzalcoatl fits my criteria of challenging brain games for kids. I have seen similar game concepts before, but the overall design of the game play is much more smooth in Quetzalcoat. It require visual identification of shapes… Read more

Every year kids bring home a lot art works from school. We had a closet just to store child’s art. Yet quickly we ran out of space. A couple years ago I found this app called ArtKive, and was so glad that I can just keep all the art works digitally to save all the space. Plus I can pick some of the art to make them into art books, for keepsake or for gifts. ArtKive is an app that… Read more

Drum sets are expensive, even just a small set of almost toy size, it is still a lot money. It also takes a lot space at home. If you have a child who likes to beat drums and make noises, you can now use this wonderful app and hand the iPad to your child. iAmDrums is a drum app simulating the real drum set. The sound effect is as good as real, if not better. When you start the app… Read more

Toca Nature is another wonderful app from Toca Boca. Like all Toca Boca apps, this app is again an open-ended play with no levels, no goals, and no scores. Kids use the tools provided to create a nature world and observe how elements in the nature connect to each other and interchange together. It is a great tool for kids to explore the nature and appreciate the nature. It is available for both Apple and Android devices. It is free… Read more

Recently I found a wonderful website DKFindOut. It is an online interactive encyclopedia for kids, covering many topics like earth, math, animal, space, … Kids can just explore and learn on their own. It is still in beta stage and it is completely free. You don’t even need sign up for a free account. From what I have been experiencing, all the interactive features work on iPad as well. An easy way to quickly access a website on your mobile… Read more

Are your kids tired of memorizing words for school? Do you feel like trying something new to spark their interest in learning new words or spelling? You may want to try this fun app — Guess the Word with Art. It is not designed for student or any school curriculum, but it is fun to play. Players guess the word based on the letters they get and the picture they see. Each picture is original art and is funny in… Read more

I remember when I was young I liked tracing pictures on comic books or picture books. It was soothing for me. Now thinking back, it also taught me drawing and most importantly the portions between parts of a picture. Tracing Paper is a simple app that lets you do just that — pick a picture from your device’s photo albums, and the app gives you an translucent canvas on top of the chosen picture for you to trace it. It… Read more

Have you tried to vacation without kids? How old was your child when you first did it? How did your child do while you were away? Parents vacation without kids, if plan well, could be beneficial for both parents and kids. Depends on child’s age and maturity level, there are different ways to help kids to get ready for the time away from parents. Usually it is suggested that parents can start leaving kids with trusted caregivers for an extended… Read more

Algebra is an important part of math, and it marks a new stage of math thinking. It requires more abstract thinking than the type of math kids learn in elementary school. That is why most schools won’t start algebra till 7th or 8th grade. Does it mean that kids in elementary school can’t grasp algebraic thinking? The answer is no. Younger kids can still gain the type of thinking that’s needed for algebra study. An perfect example is DragonBox Algebra… Read more