Magnetic Alphabet

Magnetic Alphabet is an app that will help your little ones to learn the alphabet and numbers and your children in elementary grades to practice their high frequency and spelling words.Your children could also use the numbers to learn about place value, addition, subtraction, etc. The app is a great source of creativity and fun to help your children learn and practice new skills. It comes in a lite free version and in a full version with plenty of useful features for $9.99. There's also an intermediate version with limited features for $1.99.

A Great APP

This app, developed by Zientia, will keep your children entertained, practicing their fine motor skills, and using their tablets in an absolutely meaningful way. First, you must download and print the coloring pages from their website. After the children have colored the pages, they use the app to create the story and listen to it. So you're a bilingual mom (or dad) and you want to use the summer for your child to practice their Spanish? Good news, with this app they can read their stories in either English or Spanish. More good news, is that this app is compatibe with iOS and Android tablets or smartphones.

Parenting in the Tablet era

Hello All, I am so glad to be back and connecting again with my readers and followers. I've been extraordinarily busy being a teacher, a mom, and a wife (not necessarily in that order) but you know how it goes. Although I no longer have young children at home, I do deal with a handful of boisterous first graders 180 days a year. This year my students have been absolutely delighted by having the opportunity to use tablets in the classroom. It has been a challenge for both teachers and learners to use them in a engaging and meaningful way. I must confess that in spite of my love for technology, I find the App universe absolutely challenging with hundreds, if not thousands, of apps available. What's more, tablets have become so affordable that more and more parents are able to provide their children with them, which of course post the challenge of how their children can use the tablet with educational purposes. Often parents ask me about appropriate Apps for their children to set in their brand new tablets. The App universe is so vast that it seems impossible to keep up with it.  If you are a parent I recommend for you to check these. If you are looking for some apps your children, go here.
I hope you find them helpful, I will continue posting more resources as I find them!

Is your Child Gifted?

Do you have a Gifted Child? Most parents tend to see their children as not only the most beautiful but also the brightest. Although, truth be said, that’s not always the case, many children do have above age abilities or are just truly gifted on one area or another. Maybe your child’s teacher has mention it to you…Whether your child has, or not, been identified as a high achiever/talented or gifted child, there are some things that you as parent could do to further his/her interests and abilities. First of all, if you have truly believe that your child has special or above normal talents, talk to his/her teacher. Your child’s teacher can not only give you additional insights, but he/she can offer special assessments to confirm if your child is truly talented. Your child’s teacher can also recommend activities to support his abilities: readings, projects, or even groups for you and your child to further his/her talents. Yet even if your child is not as talented as you believe he/she is, be sure to provide extra -curricular activities to spur his/her natural curiosity. For instance, as the weather improves, trips to the neighborhood park are a great opportunity to explore the outdoors and the wonders of nature. Allow your son/daughter to study the change of the weather, form of the clouds, the speed of wind. Look for and identify the great variety of trees, leaves, sprouts, flowers, bugs, insects, etc. Then take your child to the library and encourage for additional research in books. Teach your child the value of the internet for learning and finding information. These are just a few suggestions to stimulate your child’s creativity. Do you have others? How else can we as parents support our Gifts of Life (a.k.a. our children)?

Online Reading

Do your children spend long hours at the computer? Probably they do, and as you know it is very important that you supervise the sites their access and all their online activities. However, not all is bad online, in fact there are many great sites that offer children the opportunity to have fun and learn simultaneously. One of my favorites is We Give Books at www.wegivebooks.org At this site children will have the opportunity to read wonderful stories, and while practicing their reading skills they will support a campaign to donate books for different causes. Children's Storybooks Online http://www.magickeys.com/books/ also offers a great selection of stories for young children. Storynory at http://storynory.com/ has free audio stories that include the classics and new stories from around the world. Between the Lions, from PBS Kids - http://pbskids.org/lions/stories/ has wonderful folktales that will definitely entice and entertain your children.