Earth Day Web Resources

Earth Day Network estimates that 500 million people from 4,500 organizations in 180 countries will participate in Earth Day events during the month of April.

Resources for Pen Pals

My daughter's second-grade class is exchanging letters with a class on the opposite coast. Her excitement over receiving a reply from her new pen pal brought back my own wonderful pen-pal memories. Of course, nowadays pen pals aren't limited to pen and paper. Here are five worthy resources to help you connect safely with email pals from around the world.

Last year 43 million Americans hit the road for a long weekend vacation over Memorial Day, but this year with stay-at-home orders still in force in many places and lingering COVID-19 concerns, AAA isn’t even issuing a travel forecast for the first time in 20 years.

More: 3 Quick and Easy Memorial Day Crafts for Kids

Every working parent has time management challenges. Most of us have systems that we rely on to manage our family and work responsibilities (thank you Google Calendar and Wunderlist!). One of those systems is our schools.

Thousands of those schools have closed their doors due to COVID-19. Many parents are working remotely, and many of us are wondering how to structure our days. Teachers have been tasked with developing remote learning plans and using them to keep students on track. The organizational challenges we are facing at home and in our schools are unprecedented.

Day care centers

Day Care Centers and Preschools

Day Care Centers

Balancing parenting and working from home amid the coronavirus pandemic is difficult enough, but throwing homeschooling into the mix can bring a whole new set of potential complications. Specifically, if your kids are refusing to take you seriously in a schooling at home capacity, it can make things all the more frustrating.

No one is prepared for the transition to homeschooling and remote learners. Both teachers and parents have been thrown into this without warning. Let’s work together to do what is best for our kids. Let’s tell each other what we need, and help each other however we can. Here is what parents need teachers to know:

More: At-Home Learning Resources for the COVID-19 Outbreak

Helping Younger Children Celebrate Valentine's Day

Affairs of the Heart
Valentine's Day is a wonderful opportunity to show appreciation for people we love. But many of us also approach this holiday as though we are facing the fate of St. Valentine, the Christian martyr who was beheaded on February 14, giving the holiday its name.

One day you find yourself making breakfast, getting dressed for work, packing lunches, and sending your child off to school. The next moment you find yourself working from home (if at all) and becoming your child’s teacher for an indefinite amount of time. Talk about a shock to the system! As a teacher, please know that you can do this! While this abrupt transition has rocked everyone’s world, here are some things that teachers want parents to know about online learning.

Write a Letter of Appreciation

Editor's Note: We know raising kids can be hard. That's why we're dedicated to making your life easier with the latest and greatest parenting advice and products. We wanted to let you know that if you chose to purchase one of the items featured in this post, we may receive a small commission for it.

Are You Qualified?

Making the Transition from Parent to Homeschool Teacher

Parents often tell me, "I'd love to homeschool my kids, but I don't think I'm qualified." Other parents are intrigued by homeschooling, but couldn't possibly imagine themselves as both parent and teacher. Is it possible for average parents to take on the enormous job of educating their children?

Editor’s Note: We know raising kids can be hard. That’s why we’re dedicated to making your life easier with the latest and greatest parenting advice and products. We wanted to let you know that if you chose to purchase one of the items featured in this post, we may receive a small commission for it.

This is your ultimate guide to celebrating International Women’s Day with kids. We’ve got everything from themed food to activities, books, TV shows, movies, and online resources.

I never planned to homeschool, and I know I am not alone. Like many parents across the country, taking on the responsibility of teaching my kids wasn’t optional. I was a middle and high school English teacher for eight years, and I have a MA in English Education. When COVID-19 shut down our schools, I thought: I’ve got this.

Boy, was I wrong.

Brought to you by the
National PTA®.

More: Teachers, Here's What Parents Want You to Know Right Now

Using the Web as a Research Tool

How do you do research on the Web?
First, figure out key words to use in the search. To find sites on the Penobscot Indians, for example, think of other words to describe them. If you just type Penobscot, you'll miss tons of information and get some really off the wall stuff. Instead, try to think of more common, less specific words: Native Americans, American Indians, Native American tribes, etc. Next, I choose a search engine on the Web.

Grade Your Kid's Math Class

"What to Look for in a Math Classroom" is reprinted with permission from the Annenberg/CPB Math and Science Project.

A math class should teach practical experiences in mathematical skills that are a bridge to the real world of jobs and adult responsibilities. This means going beyond memorization into a world of reasoning and problem solving.

Our world changed drastically, seemingly overnight. As the coronavirus emptied our streets, closed our businesses, threatened our lives, and isolated us in our homes, we have experienced profound losses. In response, our grief is deep, complicated and many layered—it is normal, natural and necessary to grieve.

More: 5 Tips for Parenting Anxious Kids During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Homeschooling can be stressful for the entire family, but it doesn’t have to be. Now that schools in many states have shut down, parents all over the nation have become their children’s teachers and many have never done anything like this before. Diving into something new and unfamiliar is bound to cause some level of anxiety, but there are a few things parents can do to make crisis homeschooling less straining on everyone in the family.

With everybody stuck at home during quarantine, many of us are facing kids eating us out of our house and home! We wonder how they could possibly still be hungry when day after day they are constantly running to the kitchen, scavenging the cupboards and pestering us for something to eat.

My yoga teacher Tiffany Wood loves to say, “You may not be in control of every situation, but you can always take charge.” It took time for this teaching to sink in, and becoming a mother gave me a whole new perspective on being out of control. Parents are handed a tiny human with their own agenda and pretty strong opinions out of the gate. It’s physically and emotionally exhausting and it only gets harder when your child is old enough to look you in the eye and shout, “NO!”

Mental health has come to the forefront of our culture, and that’s a good thing. More and more people, celebrities, athletes, and politicians are speaking out about their personal struggles with mental health, thus shining a light on anxiety disorders and depression.

More: Talking to Children about Their School Anxiety

This summer parents have been waiting anxiously for their school districts to release reopening plans. Afterall, until we know what school will look like, we can’t help our children get ready! It’s hard to plan when you don’t know what you are planning for. Some schools opened their doors last week, and over the next few weeks more schools will begin (whether online, in person, or a combination of both).

More: At-Home Learning Resources for the COVID-19 Outbreak