Grasshopper New Media Presents...

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, […]

Summer is in full swing in our neck of the woods.  The weather has been great, not to hot, not too cold.  We have had trips to the beach, a trip to the water park, a trip to a state park for some camping and fishing.  And yet, even with all this wonderful weather going […]

In August it will be two years that we’ve lived in East Central Illinois.
We left behind the water and the trees and everything familiar to begin our beginning in the middle - four years into our marriage, with one child in tow, my husband went back to graduate school as a full-time doctoral candidate and […]

It’s been August in June here in New England, and the air conditioners are blasting. I am not complaining. I vowed all winter long not to complain about extreme heat this summer. I can not wait to hit the beach, both Sebego Lake and Maine’s spectacular coast.
But alas, I must […]

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 […]

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 […]

We’re scheduled to finish our lessons in two weeks, and then summer vacation will commence. I do have some academic plans for the summer months, but they’re very light-weight and shouldn’t take more than a few minutes after breakfast. If we keep fresh on all they’ve learned then my hope is that next […]

As a kid, I can remember long lazy summer days, filled with books. In reality, I don’t think that my summers were all that lazy, but it sure felt great to have a break from the school year routine. My mom, actually kept us pretty busy in the summers. We took […]