Grasshopper New Media Presents...

I’ve never been one to bash public schools. My son attended public school for kindergarten and first grade and had great success. I have no complaints about the education he received while he was there and I only pulled him out of public school because I had quit my job and was able to teach […]

The Fourth of July is just around the corner. What fun have you planned for your family? We’ll be doing lots of eating, playing, and watching fireworks. And then eating some more. We all agree that holidays are about the food, right? No? Dang.
If you’re looking for something more than just potato salad (and why, […]

Once again, it is the close of another school year, and those last gasp projects are rearing their ugly heads. One child had a book report, but the "project" part of it was to design/redesign a board game so that it reflects your book in some way. Child #2 read a fun book […]

When I decided to do a triathlon, the sport I was most confident about was swimming. After all, I swam competitively from 4th grade through college. What was 400 yards in the water for a triathlon when my best event used to be a mile? Never mind that fact that I’m going […]

I’ve been pulling together some resources, to share with parents, about kids who use the internet. This is not an article about safety, but if you aren’t sure how to approach that, you should do a quick Google search. There is a lot of great information available. This is intended more as […]

My kids are taught in the public school system, which means that summer vacation is soon to arrive.
Now, most kids would want to use that time as a vacation from *all* learning. But just like a car that’s not being used, you need to start the engine every once in a while or it’ll […]

Summer is here and your kids are ready to get outside and have some fun. Why not sneak a little learning into their fun and games? Make yourself feel like Super Mom by keeping the kids happy and making their little brains work at the same time.
One way to ensure that the kiddos will have […]

For the second year in a row, I have helped organize the Book Fair at our local elementary school. We use a local shop, rather than Scholastic, and the Fair always has amazing books I’ve never seen before. This is not a fund raiser for the school- we pass on the discounts to […]

Should summer vacation be a full on vacation from learning or should parents try to work some educational activities in there? What about actual school work, such as math workbooks or non-fiction reading? How do you handle summer vacation with your children?
I really believe that three months is too long to go without any structured […]

I was really fortunate to speak with Jenifer Fox this week for the LD Podcast. Jenifer is the President of the Purnell School, an all-girl’s boarding school, and the author of Your Child’s Strengths- Discover Them, Develop Them, Use Them. We talked about a range of subjects, but the most important one of […]