Author: Julie Meyers Pron

I never need an excuse to bake or be creative in the kitchen, and I love it when my kids join in the fun. Not only does cooking together offer the opportunity to bond with children, but it also helps them to expand their palettes, and it’s an excellent learning opportunity. How to reinforce reading skills while cooking Use Kid-Friendly Cookbooks Have a few child-friendly cookbooks on hand and easily accessible to your children. Encourage your kids to help you create your meal menus by paging through and reading their cookbooks. A few of our favorite books include The Cookbook…

When you’re aspiring to become a better chef, it can be difficult to know where to start, especially when cooking is a hobby and you don’t want to spend a lot of money. Luckily, there are a number of ways you can improve your cooking skills without spending a fortune on classes or specialty cookware. Thanks to mobile technology and applications (apps), you can work on your culinary craft in your kitchen. ChefsFeed App Like any art form, culinary art needs inspiration. Eating at new, exciting restaurants, trying new foods, and researching food trends as well as classic recipes helps…

Tips and strategies for journaling with kids. This post has lots of ideas, journal topics, journal prompts, and suggestions to get kids to write in their journals. Until high school, I never had a teacher set aside time to journal. I kept a diary (just like every other 10-year-old girl) who shared her inner-most thoughts “Jason was so cute today! He wore an aqua-colored polo shirt” and “Sally Green is such a square peg. I learned that term when my dad and I watched a tv show tonight. She has warts!” Yes, sigh. I’m quoting myself. I really did write these deep thoughts…

With the increase in journal-type books that kids have fallen into for giggles and inner-most thoughts (see last week’s post of new journal-style books kids love reading), journaling is something kids are enjoying more. Encouraging kids to write (or draw) in journals helps them to express their feelings and thoughts and gives parents a greater opportunity to connect. Below are several different types of journals for kids to enjoy. Last month, when I purchased a simple notebook for my 8-year-old, I was amazed at how quickly I “lost” him to the process. His pages quickly filled with daily-life-related sketches and…

When connecting with books, most kids look for a character they identify with or aim to be. Images help to tell the stories, and so does the first-person point of view. Reading a story from a child’s point of view makes kids feel a closer part of the book, and the fiction genre’s subcategory of Journal-themed books helps kids related on an even closer level: the narrator is bringing the reader their innermost thoughts and secrets. Many of the books listed below mix reading and illustrations, some more heavily towards reading, others rely on images to tell the story. Most…

Topics and ideas for journaling in school to encourage higher-level thinking. Great ideas for teachers, homeschool, and home. You can use these topics in discussions, too. Children as young as kindergarten should be encouraged to journal on a regular basis. Some teachers have students journal for morning work while others use it as a transition. Alternatively, families can use journaling for after-school or before-school activities, a calming step in the nighttime routine, or a part of the homework hour. No matter when they do it when children learn that writing is a normal part of their day, they begin to…

Journaling (and writing in general) doesn’t come easy for every kid (or everyone). Strategies and journal prompts for home and school journals for writing. I’ve probably always been a writer. It came naturally for me. Others, though, have a lot more difficulty finding the right words and placing them on paper. Some find it difficult, frustrating, and intimidating. Either way, even when it’s difficult, writing can be one of the most rewarding areas of learning for children, and encouraging writing practice on a consistent basis will help children to become stronger, more confident writers. Below are writing prompts to help…

Schools offer less running and playing time for kids, making it so valuable to offer physical activity time at home after a busy day of work work work. But the challenge comes when we’re stuck inside on snow days and rainy days — we need a mix of active activities and calm, peaceful play. On days when it’s too cold or wet for me to kick them outside to play, the kids come home or stay home on a snow day craving excitement and activity, and things can get a little crazy. We try lots of activities–cooking, games on the…

Bloggers can get anywhere from 5-200 press releases and Public Relations outreach pitches each day. So often, I hear bloggers complain about the influx of inappropriate emails or the “zero budget.” As a former PR and marketing professional who currently sits on the side of blogging more than marketing, I wanted to dispel a few misunderstandings in the blogging world. The purpose of a Press Release is to share information with the media The Goal of a Press Release is to Get the Word Out. Period There is a big difference between a press release and other marketing communications. A…

Last week, I was invited to attend a meeting for a local newspaper’s blogging group. Held at their headquarters, I got all dolled up, hired a new sitter, and went to learn how we could work together. I’ll tell you what, I was excited. I anxiously waited to learn just how they wanted to connect my site to their town-hall-style collective. This paper embraced bloggers. They understood that the world of the media was changing, and rather than fight it and sarcastically put down new media, they wanted to collaborate and work together. We went around the room introducing ourselves,…