Reading Websites

Reading during the early years helps the child in improving his/her language skills. Reading also helps a person be successful in life. It helps a person acquire a lot of information. Reading can also alleviate boredom or even shape a person's life.


Fortunately for us mothers, there are a lot of reading websites that would help us prepare our kids for reading or improve their reading skills.

Starfall.com is a website that teach preschool, kindergarten, and first grade children to read with phonics. This website offers exciting phonics games and online interactive books. It includes songs and a lot of animations for each letter of the alphabet, animated interactive books and other reading exercises. There are also a lot of downloadable materials such as handouts for classroom use from theStarfall.com's Download Center. Although Starfall.com has a free version parents can opt to subscribe for up to three computer at home and teachers can subscribe for their class.

Storyline Online provides interactive  stories read by Screen Actors Guild. Each book includes activities and lesson ideas. 

Kol Jr. Stories has a collection of online story books that are read aloud.

Clifford Interactive Storybooks offers interactive stories and games for early readers. Students has to click on the right word to complete a sentence on every page. 

In PBS KIDS GAMES children can choose reading games, letter games, spelling games, literacy games or vocabulary games among others to develop their reading skills.

Interactive Food Planner

As if obesity causing health problems like diabetes, heart disease, hyperlipidemia is not enough.  ABC news recently had an article about the link between obesity, sleep apnea and cognitive problems in children which reported that according to Researchers at the University of Chicago's Comer Children's Hospital and Pritzker School of Medicine "Cognitive functioning in children is adversely affected by frequent health-related problems, such as obesity and sleep-disordered breathing. Furthermore, poorer integrative mental processing may place a child at a bigger risk for adverse health outcomes."  Not only that, UMHS claimed that obesity causes psychological problems, like poor self-esteem and depression too. Thus, it is imperative for parents to be vigilant so as to have healthy kids considering that there are higher chances of obesity if a child has improper eating habits.

Since diet has an important role in having  healthy children it is kind of reassuring to know that there are interactive tools offered by the government for cautious Moms. In USDA's MyPlate, you can find MyFoodapedia, Daily Food Plan, Food Planner, Food Tracker and Child Cost Calculator.  With MyFoodapedia  concerned parents can have quick access to food information such as food groups and calorie count once the food name is entered in the box. Daily Food Plan is useful if a cautious parent want to know the daily amount of each food group needed. All it takes is entering information such as age, sex, height, weight and physical activity to receive a customized Daily Food Plan.  Like in the Daily Food Plan, Food Planner also necessitates entering some basic information to be able to use the MyPyramid Menu Planner.  After searching for food, a list of the closest matches will appear.  Once  the item is selected from the list a Mom can customize it. She can select the amount she wants to eat and assign it to a mealtime.  After she add this to her menu it will tell how this food and other foods she selected contributed to her daily goal or daily limit. It will also gives her daily menu report, weekly menu report as well as family menu report. Like wise  Food Tracker or MyPyramid Tracker gives parents a fully accessible version of a dietary assessment and planning tool. With  Child Cost Calculator parents can estimate how much it will annually cost to raise a child.



 

Passover Puzzles, Games and Toys

Introducing holidays through play to your children will create fond family memories for both of you. Children learn through play because it is fun. When your children do something fun they obviously want to repeat the activity and with repetition comes mastery. And mastery brings a sense of accomplishment and confidence.

When other family member come over during the holidays it is valuable to have toys and games ready that will smooth the initial awkward moments until everyone warm up to each other. One of the toys that would be fun for very young children is the Seder plate wood puzzle. Since the Seder plate items are named in Hebrew and English everyone will be able to name the items.

If your kids want something fiddle with and want an end result to amuse them, try the walking matzah ball. They would have fun winding it and watch it walk.

 If you are looking for an interactive Passover board games try the Matzahkoman board game.Your kids would have fun with your relatives as they spin the dreidel to begin their turn. Each spin determines movement which can be either backwards or forwards and the amount of resources collected on that turn. Cards that are acquire in different ways during the game can be used at any time to affect movement, free slaves or block challenges. As players collect resources like water and grain they can combine them to make matzah.

Pick Your Own Apple Farms

Going to Trehune Orchards is certainly a long trip. It took us almost 2 hours going there and more than two hours coming back but it is certainly worth it!  They have dwarf apple trees that even my toddler has to bend to pick some apples.

If you are feeling adventurous you can try the corn maze.

There is also a pumpkin patch.

 

There are barns of different sizes. 

There is a little tractor and a big tractor available for children to try. There is even a wooden truck.

There are pony rides but if your toddler is still too young for one maybe he or she can just pet the docile horse in the stable.

Since it is a farm, there are other animals as well such as ducks, goats and sheep.

There are even two cute scare crows under a trellis.

 There are pretty flowers if you and your kids are in the mood for picking them.

Pennings orchard located in 169 State Route 94 South, warwick, New York is another pick your-own apple orchard that has dwarf trees. 

MobiGo Touch Learning System

If you're trying to discourage your kid from playing with your expensive cellphone, why not give your little darling the MobiGoTouch Learning System, an interactive learning device that uses a touchscreen and keyboard to control gameplay. She can clicked to her heart content without accidentally calling your friendsor using your minutes.

The MobiGo Touch Learning System is a next-generation learning device that uses the popularity of modern handheld electronic devices to build skills in young children. It encourages the development of important dexterity-based skills by shifting between touch-based games and keyboard-based games, and it promotes the development of skills related to problem solving, spelling and grammar, observation, and mathematics.




















You can select a wide variety of games for your kid based on skill levels and themes, which makes MobiGo a versatile learning device that will maintain relevancy as a child grows. The MobiGo keeps track of user activity and saves this information under a personalized user profile that a child can set up the first time she uses the device. Although other users can play with the device, only one user profile can be saved at a time. This user can log onto the VTech Web site to download performance information, compare progress with other MobiGo profiles, and earn rewards for a job well done.

Learning to Play Musical Instruments

Children learn by doing and watching. Even when she was just born my husband play clarinet to our daughter. When she can started walking we have to put the clarinet where she can't reach it since my husband has it since he was a kid. Then when she turn two we though of buying her a  recorder so she can play with it while her daddy plays the clarinet. At first she was not able to blow enough air on it then one day she just learn how to use the recorder, granted there is no particular tune but it sounds good to our ears.

Same thing happened with her harmonica. Her daddy has a harmonica so he bought her a harmonica for a day or two she's just moving one end to another across her lips maybe because she watched her daddy moving his harmonica from left to right and back when he plays. One evening she just learn how to use her harmonica . She actually sat on our bed and keep playing for a bit beside her daddy but he was already asleep and he sleep soundly.The sound she produce are kind of faint too. At first I can hear some air in between the notes but she gets better as she keep playing with it. The next day my husband can't just believe it when he heard her playing, but she kept playing almost the whole day so by the time he got home she sounds a lot better.

Interesting Books for A Toddler

Ever read to a toddler? You won't believe how many times you will be asked to read the same book over and over again. A family friend once commented that she would have the story in her dreams after riding with us in the car. I read a book to my daughter again and again to amuse her while we are in the car. This is why it is important to have a good selection of books at hand at home or in the car or even packed in the diaper bag.

The book Toes, Ears, & Nose! A Lift-the-Flap Bookby Marion Dane Bauer is a great book for a toddler. My 19 months old likes lifting the flaps as I read to her. I just wished the flaps are a little sturdier though because she pulled hard and after a few reading one ear got torn. This book is an introduction to body parts and my daughter loves pointing to the particular body parts that corresponds to the part of the body that she uncover by lifting the flaps. She is not only learning parts of the body(toes, ears, fingers, etc.) but things we wear in winter as well like hat, jeans, mittens, coat, etc.

Another great book to entertain your toddler is the book Who's Hiding? In the House: A Lift-the-Flap Book. The book has five two-page spreads with a "Who's hiding?" question on each left-hand page and a flap hiding various animals on the right-hand page. My daughter is fascinated uncovering the animals hiding in the flaps. She is amused as she find a surprise inside the last flap, a mirror that shows her sweet face!

FREE Workshops for Kids and Parents in NYC

The Jewish Museum - High School Video Workshop
In this after-school program, students learn the basic skills of video production including storyboarding, shooting with a digital video camera and editing. Workshop participants collaborate in the creation of an original film. The final productions are shown at a special screening and reception for family and friends at The Jewish Museum.

Kids Creative - Free Weekend Workshops
Kids Creative offers free weekend workshops on music and recording, acting, etc.


Advocates for Children of New York - Trainings and Workshop
Advocates for Children of New York provide parents and professionals information to enable them to advocate on behalf of their children.

Animal Sounds Farm

Your little darling would surely love the Fisher-Price Little People Animal Sounds Farm. Each gate in the barn make an animal sound to guide him where to put a particular animal so it would be fun for him to learn animal sounds as you show him what part of the barn each animal should go. What's more there are two yellow sliding windows on the side of the barn. The upper one shows eggs with mother hen and rooster and when you slide it to the left your child will see eggs hatched, a good opportunity to tell your little one that chicks come from eggs. The lower window show father and mother rabbit then on the right with bunnies with them already which will be a good opening that animals had babies too just like him with Mommy and Daddy. The farm includes Farmer Jed, cow, sheep, horse and pig; the chicken stays attached to the barn.  All pieces can be stored inside. This playset also comes with a special free sampler DVD featuring three charming stories of the Little People friends.

Toy Cell phone

Like having pretend conversations with your baby?  This Fisher Price Brilliant Basics Friendly Flip Phonelets you introduce your baby to telephone conversations. It says hello when he flips it open and goodbye when he closes it. Each time your baby flips the phone open, the screen cycles between three exciting friends for them to chat with. Show your baby how to open and close the phone, and the rewards will encourage an understanding of cause and effect. Pressing the buttons plays one of three ringtones, or musical key tones. This great education toy encourages the development of motor skills. Flipping the phone open and pressing the buttons teaches hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. It also enhances learning through discovery by encouraging you baby to vocalize and develop language skills.

If your child still grab your phone when you are using it or still playing with it when you forgot to put it away then giving him the Motorola Q Dummy Display Toy Cell Phone Good for Store Display, or for Kids to Play

might be a good idea. It looks and feel like a real phone but will not connect to any network so you will avoid all those call to nowhere or accidental dialing of your friends' numbers on your real phone when you let your child play with it.

Toy Remote Control

When your baby already how to switch channels and you are hankering to enjoy your TV programs in peace, buying your growing baby his own toy remote control will be a good idea. The Fisher-Price Sesame Street Silly Sounds Remote let's your baby hear over 35 silly sounds and fun phrases as he presses the buttons just like those on a real remote. He can also make Elmo's eyes open and close by pressing the button on the uppermost right part of the toy.

Books on Manners

If you are looking for a book that would introduce your toddler to sharing, try the I Can Share: A Lift-the-Flap Book. With the simple, repetitive text and adorable toddlers, this playful little book is the perfect way to introduce the concept of sharing. However this book is not about sharing items directly but is instead of sharing experiences such as playing or working peacefully along side a friend without conflict.This book honors your child's feeling instead of indirectly sending the message to her that anyone can just take away her toys away when they ask for it. For toddlers, sharing can be a hard concept to grasp, but with the help of this book, they’ll learn that sharing can also be fun!

If you want a book that promotes social skills and right attitude, try the book Be Polite and Kind (Learning To Get Along). This book introduces the topic of manners, shows examples of manners in actions, as well as the benefits of being gracious with expressive drawings of children and adults from many ethnic groups. The concepts are simply stated and are dealt with in a variety of ways. It encourages kids to think through things themselves. Also, the author shows what happens when we do not use good manners and how we can make amends. The book is about considering options when things don't work out as expected and emphasizing the importance of talking and listening with respect as well as playing fair.