Bring out your child’s creativity and imagination with more than 60 artful activities in this completely revised and updated edition Art making is a wonderful way for young children to tap into their imagination, deepen their creativity, and explore new materials, all while strengthening their fine motor skills and developing self-confidence. The Artful Parent has all the tools and information you need to encourage creative activities for ages one to eight. From setting up a studio space in your home to finding the best art materials for children, this book gives you all the information you need to get started. You’ll learn how to: * Pick the best materials for your child’s age and learn to make your very own * Prepare art activities to ease children through transitions, engage the most energetic of kids, entertain small groups, and more * Encourage artful living through everyday activities * Foster a love of creativity in your family

Help children draw and think more creatively by inspiring them with interesting and challenging art prompts and questions. Invitation to Draw offers 99 open-ended drawing prompts, each one proposing a question to investigate that encourages children to free associate and problem solve. The perforated pages make it easy to tear out prompts for on-the-go activities or allowing multiple kids to draw at the same time. A blank cake provides the chance to decorate a dream confection, an empty house inspires stories about who lives there, and a grid of triangles supplies the chance to explore abstract art. What might be hiding in that tree? What sort of robot can you design? The possibilities are endless! Drawing prompts inspire and encourage kids to think and draw differently, and sometimes more creatively, than they might when faced with a blank page. By offering constraints such as a pair of eyes or an empty car and asking a question, children begin thinking about the possibilities and answering the question in their heads even before they put pen (or marker or crayon!) to paper. And through the act of drawing and observing the drawing unfold, the brain continues to think and problem solve, opening up all kinds of creative possibilities around that specific idea.

Practical ways to bring the practices of Reggio Emilia to your classroom.

Working in the Reggio Way started a dialogue with educators about the journey involved in both understanding and engaging in Reggio inspired practices. In response to the thousands of educator questions that were shared with my in response to Working in the Reggio Way. I wrote this book using the original research coupled with insights gleaned from the last decade of working with educators as well as learnings from my own personal journey, More Working in the Reggio Way explores aspects of Reggio inspired practice and information from both my years in the schools of Reggio Emilia and the years since. This volume includes: American challenges Looking at assemblea Sopratutto- overarching lessons from inside the schools of Reggio A closer look at documentation and much more. This book is intended to guide educators in a dialogue and assist them on their journey to work in Reggio-inspired ways.

Provides practical strategies for developing children's early literacy skills, and contains information on phonological awareness, vocabulary, narrative skills, and more.

Creative ways to use the garden to inspire learning, for kids ages 4-8 Packed with garden-based activities that promote science, math, reading, writing, imaginative play, and arts and crafts, The Garden Classroom offers a whole year of outdoor play and learning ideas—however big or small your garden. Every garden offers children a rich, sensory playground, full of interesting things to discover and learn about. There's a whole lot of science happening right before their eyes. The garden can also be a place to develop math and literacy skills, as the outdoors offers up plenty of invitations to weave learning into everyday gardening. The garden classroom is a place where plants grow, and where children grow too.