A while back, I was listening to this episode of the Bravewriter podcast, when the mother being interviewed mentioned a family tradition that sounded incredible. She took each child out to dinner the day before their birthday. Just the two of them. Additionally, she would ask the child the same ...
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DIY Hollow Book Secret Hiding Place
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My 2nd grader is really into detectives, spys, and secret agents. (Check out his secret plans for his latest mission.) Ever since he started reading the detective series, Nate the Great, he likes to turn everything into a case or a mystery. When I was a kid, I went through a Nancy Drew phase, so I ...
Ruckus Junior
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My 3 year old and I sometimes have issues. Yes, I know...if I can't get along with a 3 year old, it probably says more about my maturity level than it does about his. However, I have to say that this game (Ruckus Jr.) is really helping our relationship. Product: Ruckus Junior Company: Imagination ...
Escape the Room: Stargazer’s Manor
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I didn’t use this game at all as intended, but even so, I think it is fantastic! Although I'm sure it would be fun, we did not use this game at a party or with a time limit. Instead, my 7 year old son and I just did it off-and-on one Sunday afternoon. I LOVED that he was so eager to work hard for ...
Generic Game Board
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Have you ever thought, "If I could just turn this into a GAME, my kid would learn it no problem." Kids are like that, aren't they? Ask them to clean their rooms and they'll fall on the floor at the injustice of it all. Turn it into a game and they'll be transformed into little cleaning machines. ...
No Stress Chess
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I've always loved the idea of chess...an intellectual game that requires strategy, forethought, anticipation, and practice. I'm a complete math nerd. I should be all over chess. However I never learned. Even if I had learned, I didn't have anyone to play with. Now, ever since reading and watching ...
Homemade Spinning Brushbot
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What better way to get kids interested in science and technology than fun, hands-on projects that move on their own? This simple, homemade, spinning brushbot was inspired by the book How to Build Robots. This book recommends taking apart a battery-powered, electric toothbrush to get the parts for ...
Origami Flapping Bird
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When I was in 4th grade, I got a chance to fly across the continental United States. The only reason I didn't go out of my mind with boredom during that nearly 6 hour flight was that my aunt taught me how to make this origami flapping bird on the plane. I probably made nearly 100 birds during that ...
Reading Log Train
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I LOVE to read. Growing up, I hid a book in my desk at school in case the lesson was boring. If there was a social gathering, I would find a quiet place to hide and read. If we were driving home late at night, I would read snippets of my book by lamp post (which, let me tell you, is pretty ...
Enchanted Forest
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For the past month, this memory-based game has replaced Busytown as our favorite go-to family game. My 7 year old is the one that likes it the best, but I enjoy it and my 4 year old can definitely play too. Even the 2 year old can sort of pretend to play, though he's messed up the board a couple ...
Michelle has a PhD in Engineering from Stanford University and a Bachelor's Degree from the California Institute of Technology. 