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Arkansas’ Summer Fun Place

Lazy River at Wild River Country

This is a sponsored post by Wild River Country. All reviews and opinions expressed in this post are based on my personal view.

As a new teacher, I’ve relished in my first summer break since I was in college (long, long ago). My kids and I have just been hanging out, having playdates, visiting family, and enjoying lots of pool time. So for my last week of freedom (my school starts mid-July), we decided to go to Wild River Country again. Quinn, Maya, Lucy (Maya’s friend) and I hurried out the door, and we were the first in line to get in when the gates opened at 10 a.m.

Wave Pool at Wild River Country Continue reading “Arkansas’ Summer Fun Place”

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Six Simple Ways to Use Storytelling as Teaching Tools

storytelling book

By Jim Weiss

Stories are spectacularly successful learning tools. Many studies show that children whose parents tell and/or read stories to them from an early age turn out to be better readers and students later on.

Furthermore, you are twenty times more likely to remember information if you learn it in a story than if you learn it simply as data to memorize. In part, the more stories we encounter, the more effectively our brains learn to work within the structure that most stories follow.  We not only absorb the stories’ contents, but at the same time, our brains get used to organizing what we learn into a usable form. We learn how to learn through stories.

Continue reading “Six Simple Ways to Use Storytelling as Teaching Tools”

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Sounds of Summer

playing in wave pool

This is a sponsored post by Wild River Country. All reviews and opinions expressed in this post are based on my personal view.

child playing in poolWhat does summer sound like to you?

  • Crickets chirping while you camp under the stars?
  • A boat motoring across the lake?
  • The beeps and booms of video games?
  • The crunching of grass and rocks under your feet as you hike a state park?

Continue reading “Sounds of Summer”

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Summer is the Season for Kidnappings

kidnapping kid

By: Gloria Marcott, Soul Punch Self-Defense

2017 Statistics identify that the number of children abducted or that go missing every day in the United States is 2,160. That is enough kids to fill an entire large population size school that do not return home every day.

The National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrown Away Children (NISMART) has found that 41% of abductions occur during the summer months of June, July and August. 74% of non-family child abduction victims are girls and 80% of child abductions by a stranger occur within a quarter mile of the child’s home.

kidnapper in the park

Continue reading “Summer is the Season for Kidnappings”

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Tips to Raising Healthy Kids, Starting in the Kitchen

kids in the kitchen

By Joy Stephenson-Laws, JD, Founder

The incidence of children with obesity in the United States has more than tripled since the 1970s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Currently about one in five school-aged children (ages 6-19) are obese. In addition, “about one-third of American youth are overweight, a problem closely related to the increase in kids with type 2 diabetes, some as young as 10 years old,” the CDC reports. And the longer children are obese or overweight, the more likely they are to remain so as adults.

We have to change these statistics. And a recent study suggests the place to start is in the kitchen. Continue reading “Tips to Raising Healthy Kids, Starting in the Kitchen”

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Parents Should Set Expectations for Halloween

Halloween Southern Belle

Parents can avoid transforming into monsters during Halloween by embracing the holiday and establishing clear expectations for their children, says Jill Walls, a Ball State University professor who specializes in child development.

“Halloween can be a fun event for the entire family,” Walls says. “The fun of Halloween is not all about the candy, or at least, it doesn’t have to be. Children get to dress up in costumes, and there are other ‘treats’ parents can incorporate into the evening. Color a spooky picture, carve pumpkins, bob for apples in a pot of water, tell spooky stories or read a book together. In today’s hectic and on-the-go lifestyle, time together can be even sweeter than candy.” Continue reading “Parents Should Set Expectations for Halloween”