Here is a simple, elegant, wonderful game that’s great for: • Story-building • Fostering imagination • Putting events in sequence • Inspiration for writing a story • Staving off boredom while you’re waiting at a restaurant • General all-round silliness. There are nine dice. Each one has six simple pictures. For instance, a happy […]
Tag: gift ideas
Taboo Buzz’d will get ’em reading
Here’s a really fun game that will get your kids reading, and they won’t even knowing they’re practising their reading. Best of all, this game is electronic, which will make kids like it even more. Taboo is a popular board game–Taboo Buzz’d is an electronic version of it. You have to get your partner(s) […]
Bored reading to your child? Here’s one you’ll both love
The best way to “get kids reading” is to read to them. Sit them on your lap with a good book—as often as possible. But sometimes that can get a bit tedious, especially when what the child wants to read isn’t particularly interesting to you. Here’s a book that will […]
uKloo: Riddle Edition — another great uKloo literacy game
uKloo: Riddle Edition — another great uKloo literacy game
beezi: the s-p-e-l-l-i-n-g game for ages 8 and up
If your kids could use a little brush-up on their spelling, beezi might be the game that does it. My son and I took the game for a test drive. He figures he’s a better speller than his mother (who is a writer by trade, a-hem). We really enjoyed beezi. For off, it […]
Big on literacy… big on gross
GROSS-ABULARY is very up-front about what it is. It’s a literacy game that’s gross. And we all know that kids—okay, especially boys—love gross. If your kid is “one of those,” then GROSS-ABULARY will be right up his alley. It’s a game about building gross sentences, using starter concepts like belch, armpit and […]
Plucky picture-book heroine defies descrimination
“In The Bag!” by Monica Kulling, illustrated by David Parkins Here is a lovely, empowering book you should read with your kid for a couple of reasons. First, it’s a terrific book, a good story with wonderful illustrations. Second, it’s empowering for girls. It teaches a young generation—that sometimes can’t believe […]
Why your kid needs a bookshelf
My bookshelf and my books have been held captive in my attic for eight years. Last week I hired a professional organizer. Long-story short, my bookshelf is now where it belongs – in my home-office, with all of my favourite books on it. There’s the Pelican Shakespeare, with the tissue paper leaves; The […]
Squishy literacy fun with Cookie Monster
I’m a big believer that if you want kids to understand words and letters, they’ve gotta get their hands dirty. If there’s something to feel, touch, throw, squish and otherwise interact with — kids are going to get the message on a whole different level. (It’s called kinesthetic learning, but […]
Scrabble – Alphabet Scoop game
Caution: Don’t eat actual soup while you’re playing this game. (We did – it was an issue. I’ll tell you at the end.) Scrabble – Alphabet Scoop is a fun new game that you can play with kids who are at different levels of literacy and of different ages. It’s […]