Smart kids love solving the mysteries presented in the Encyclopedia Brown series of books by author Donald J. Sobol. As a parent, I like Encyclopedia Brown books because they encourage kids to read carefully and to notice and remember the details of what they are reading.  I also like that our hero, Leroy “Encyclopedia” Brown, is celebrated for [...]

      This kids book list includes books for preschoolers first learning about shapes, plus books for early elementary students learning geometric concepts. A Cloak for the Dreamer by Aileen Friedman Architecture, Shape by Michael Crosbie and Steve Rosenthal Baby Einstein: See and Spy Shapes by Julie Aigner-Clark Block City by Robert Louis Stevenson Cubes, Cones, Cylinders & Spheres by [...]

The past few weeks have been difficult for many families in Georgia as flood waters have devastated homes and tragically taken lives.  As my kids watch the evening news, it is unnerving for them to see disaster hit so close to home.  I can only imagine how painful and scary it must be to those kids directly [...]

               With apologies to 30 Rock, The Office and other Emmy-nominated comedies, I think the funniest show on television might be SpongeBob SquarePants. So, while there were a handful of good kids DVDs released this week, for me, it’s all about SpongeBob.  The newly released DVD collection  SpongeBob SquarePants: The First 100 Episodes includes every episode from [...]

The Sony Pictures animated 3-D movie Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs opens today.  Rated PG for brief mild language, the movie is based on the 1978 children’s book of the same name written by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett.  In this action-filled comedy, young scientist Flint Lockwood (voiced by SNL’s Bill Hader) invents a machine that [...]