Developing play skills is an essential part of childhood. Through play, typically-developing children acquire the skills necessary to communicate with others, express and understand emotions, physically manipulate a variety of items of all sizes, build strength and endurance, and gain the cognitive skills to understand their world. As children mature, their play skills move through four specific stages of play:…
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This is a sponsored post written for LifeLock. The personal experiences shared are honest. At the beginning of this year, I set a personal blogging goal: to attend 3 different blog conferences this year. And not just local conferences, but some of the major national-level conferences. Exciting stuff, but this means a lot more travel than I have done the…
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So your first grader hates to read. In my years as a teacher and private tutor, I have seen two types of first graders: those who are highly-motivated to read and those who have little to no interest in reading. This isn’t based on any scientific evidence, just my observations, but here’s what I think. Birth to age 2, children are…
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My kids and I love popcorn, but I rarely let them get it when out in public because about 90% of all popcorn that is grown is genetically-modified. We purchase organic popcorn to pop at home in a large Dutch oven. I promised my kids an *extra special* treat this morning, so we made this delicious Salted Milk Chocolate Popcorn….
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I love sampling and learning to prepare cuisine from all around the world, including authentic Mexican, Italian, Japanese, Thai, Moroccan, and especially Indian food. While a lot of people will treat themselves to a night at their favorite ethnic restaurant, most home chefs tend to prepare simple dishes for fear of not being able to properly execute more exotic cuisine…until…
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