Moms Inspire Learning

A Trip to Philadelphia, Part 3

It was Ben Franklin who said:

"A penny saved is a penny earned."

His resting place is right next to The US Mint, and people leave pennies on it. Did you know, though, that Benjamin Franklin did not live to see an actual U.S. penny? He died in 1790, which was 2 years before The Mint in Philadelphia was built. According to The US Mint timeline, it was the first Federal building erected under the Constitution, and the very first US penny was not ready for circulation until 1793.

A Trip to Philadelphia, Part 2

Photo taken at The Franklin Institute.

One of the highlights of my summer was our family trip to Philadelphia. If ever there was a perfect place to immerse yourself in American history, this city has got to be it!

With everything our country is going through right now, I can't help but think that we all need to just rewind for a few moments and think about why we're all here. When we bump into a Ben Franklin statue a few times, just the thought of all he did for this country should help us put things back into perspective.

Lyle Cogen Sets the Stage for the Fight Against Bullying

Isn't it amazing how music can bring out so many different emotions in a person? It can make you happy or sad, scared or peaceful, whether it contains words or not.

When my children were preschoolers, we used to listen and dance to many different kinds of music together. Music has always been a big part of my life, and the right song can make a bad day seem a whole lot better. Especially when you're listening to it with your kids!

That's why, when we have to talk about serious things like bullying and internet safety with our children, it can really help to turn to music. It's exactly what the extremely talented Lyle Cogen did when she created her one-woman musical play, Sticks & Stones.

Friday Photo Fun: Waiting to Get Your Feet Wet

There's something to be said for sitting back and watching.

At some point, though, you'll want to get your feet wet.

No matter what wave you catch...

 

I hope you fly!

Enjoy the weekend.

Christopher Columbus and the Age of Exploration

I'm pretty sure that I've mentioned to you before that history was a dreaded subject for me throughout school because it was pretty much taught out of a textbook. Little did I know it at the time, but one textbook is pretty much like one piece of a very large puzzle. How can a person possibly be expected to see the whole picture if most of the pieces are missing?

Textbooks have come a long way since then, but it's still almost impossible for any one resource to cover the entire range and scope of any given topic, even if you have the most enthusiastic teacher. That's why, when I started to seek out children's literature to teach the subject, what was once dread suddenly turned to fascination!

A World of Literacy in a Big Universe

I'm pretty slow to warm up to new technology. Early in my accounting career, I can remember first hearing about email. I thought, what is that, and why do I need it, when I can just pick up a phone? Later on, just after I had my second child, everyone was all abuzz about shopping online. Well, we didn't even have an internet connection at home yet, and I was so busy with the children and working part-time that I thought the last thing I needed was another distraction. I didn't even get an iPod until years after it had been released.

Well, now all that has changed. I'm certainly not on the cutting edge of technology by any stretch of the imagination, and I still think that too much of the "plugged in" stuff is never a good thing. After all, too much of anything, even if it's something that's supposedly good for you, can be harmful in the long term. It's all about the balance.

So, with more and more online resources available every day, how do we choose the few that will be the most useful for our children? Well, for me, it's always about making informed choices.

Don't Miss Reading Rockets' Ed Extras!

Oh my gosh, I just had to write a quick post today to tell you about Reading Rockets' Ed Extras. It's a fantastic, free monthly service that offers you so many different one page articles. They're available as PDF or Word documents, in both English and Spanish.

Thank you so much, Terry Doherty of The Reading Tub and Scrub-a-Dub-Tub blog, for telling me about this amazing resource!

By the way, I just added a link to the kidsfinance.com web site  that goes along with the book Money $ense for Kids! that I mentioned in All About Money, Part 2.

I hope you were able to check out the great nonfiction links in Nonfiction Monday, Part 3.  It turned out to be quite a list of wonderful book reviews. I'd like to express my sincere gratitude to each and every one of the kidlit bloggers and authors who participated.

Have a great week!

Nonfiction Monday: All About Money, Part 1

In picking up where I left off with my When Coins and Picture Books Collide series, I'd like to continue on with a picture book and a chapter book that will prompt you and your children to think critically AND creatively about the topic of money. I will tell you about our trip to the US Mint in Philadelphia sometime later this week.

You all know that I LOVE books that wrap many different subjects into one creative package. Well, I was able to find two such books which integrate the subjects of math, literacy, art, science, AND social studies!

If you ask your children what money has to do with social studies or science, what do you think they'll say? What would YOU say? Take a moment to think about it...

Nonfiction Monday: All About Money, Part 2

Did you ever take a close look at a dollar bill? A $5 bill? A $20 bill? It's hard to believe that we all carry around so much history with us every day, but many of us barely even notice it!

Get out those American bills and coins and read Money $ense for Kids!, by Hollis Page Harman, along with your 9 to 12 year old child. This wonderful resource will inspire you and your child to enjoy many hands-on math activities together, while learning a lot about history along the way.

Nonfiction Monday, Part 3: Links for You!

Today I'm introducing "Nonfiction Monday!" It's the first time I'm participating in this weekly event. Many bloggers in the kidlitosphere take part in this event every Monday. Find out more at the Picture Book of the Day blog.

If you are a blogger, please include your link in the comments section and I will add it to the body of this post sometime during the day. I will update this post every hour or so.

If you're a reader who's interested in reading more nonfiction reviews, and discovering some new blogs, please be sure to take a look at the following blog posts: