I hope that my book is used as a sort of ‘play recipe book’, which you can get down from the shelf, prop up on your kitchen table and look through with your child to decide what you’re going to do today. As you would with recipes, I’d also like you to experiment with it. If one of the activities doesn’t quite suit your child, amend it, just like you would if there’s an ingredient in a cake recipe that your child dislikes or you haven’t got in your cupboard. I’ve added suggestions for ways you can extend and adapt each activity but feel empowered that you are the expert on your child, and you will know the best way to make these activities work for your family. It may be that your child has a visual impairment, for example, and the activity is to look for coloured objects, so you could choose to adapt it to find items of different textures instead. Or if your child has colour-blindness, for this activity you could choose the colours that they can differentiate between.

A step-by-step program that shows parents, simply and clearly, how to teach their child to read in just 20 minutes a day.

HERE ARE OVER SEVENTY GAMES TO HELP YOUR CHILD LEARN TO READ--AND LOVE IT. Peggy Kaye's Games for Reading helps children read by doing just what kids like best: playing games. There is a "bingo" game that helps children learn vocabulary. There is a rhyming game that helps them hear letter sounds more accurately. There are mazes and puzzles, games that train the eye to see patterns of letters, games that train the ear so a child can sound out words, games that awaken a child's imagination and creativity, and games that provide the right spark to fire a child's enthusiasm for reading. There are games in which your child has to act silly and games--sure to be any child's favorite--in which you do. Easy to follow and easy to play, these games are ideal for busy, working parents. You can read a game in a few minutes and start to play right away. You can play on car trips, while doing the laundry, or while cooking. These games are so much fun for the whole family that you may forget their serious purpose. But they will help all beginning readers--those who have reading problems and those who do not--learn to read and want to read. Games for Reading also includes a list of easy-to-read books and books for reading aloud, and a "Note to Teachers" on how to play these games in their classrooms.

The ultimate collection of DIY activities to do with your kids to teach STEM basics and beyond, from a wildly popular online dad. With more than 3 million fans, TheDadLab has become an online sensation, with weekly videos of fun and easy science experiments that parents can do with their kids. These simple projects use materials found around the house, making it easier than ever for busy moms and dads to not only spend more quality time with their children but also get them interested in science and technology. In this mind-blowing book, Sergei Urban takes the challenge off-screen with fifty step-by-step projects, including some that he has never shared online before. Each activity will go beyond the videos, featuring detailed explanations to simplify scientific concepts for parents and help answer the hows and whys of their curious children. Learn how to: explore new fun ways to paint; make slime with only two ingredients; defy gravity with a ping-pong ball; produce your own electricity, and more! With TheDadLab, parents everywhere will have an easy solution to the dreaded "I'm bored" complaint right at their fingertips!

Solve toddler challenges with eight key mindshifts that will help you parent with clarity, calmness, and self-control. In Why is My Child in Charge?, Claire Lerner shows how making critical mindshifts—seeing children’s behaviors through a new lens —empowers parents to solve their most vexing childrearing challenges. Using real life stories, Lerner unpacks the individualized process she guides parents through to settle common challenges, such as throwing tantrums in public, delaying bedtime for hours, refusing to participate in family mealtimes, and resisting potty training. Lerner then provides readers with a roadmap for how to recognize the root cause of their child’s behavior and how to create and implement an action plan tailored to the unique needs of each child and family. Why is My Child in Charge? is like having a child development specialist in your home. It shows how parents can develop proven, practical strategies that translate into adaptable, happy kids and calm, connected, in-control parents.

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.