Tag: guest post

Guest Blogger: Summertime Educational Field Trips

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Jennifer Wolfe

Are your kids starting to get bored with summer already? Are you wondering how to spend your vacation in a meaningful way? I hope you enjoy today’s guest post, and find something to do that makes your summer special!

Some people take vacations to get away from the stress of their everyday lives. Others like to take trips that will teach them something. If you have children, taking educational vacations is a great way to keep your child learning, especially during summer vacation.

You can find educational vacations in every part of the world. The following are just a few suggestions.

1. Historical Sites
Places such as Washington DC, Philadelphia and St . Augustine all have historical landmarks that you can visit to learn more about history. Most of these locations have buildings that are still around, and some even have tours that you can take to learn more information. These types of vacations are a great way to keep your family educated, and it’s a great place to learn about the history of our country, and even the history of some other countries. You can opt to visit famous historical landmarks, or you can opt to visit those lesser known ones, depending on where you’re traveling.

2. National Parks
Taking trips to national parks is another great educational vacation. The Grand Canyon, the Rocky Mountains and even Death Valley are all national parks that offer an array of education and enjoyment. You can hike, take tours, take pictures and even camp out at most national parks. If you’re lucky, you’ll even get to see plants and animals in their natural habitats, which is an experience unlike any other.

3. Zoos
Though it may not seem like a vacation, taking trips to the zoo is another educational trip. Zoos offer a great deal of information about the animals, from their evolution to basic habits to habitats and much more. Plus, taking a trip to the zoo is far less expensive than taking a trip out of state, so you can provide a great deal of education to your children without spending a great deal of money. Most zoos will have information around the zoo that you can use to learn, or you may want to pick up an educational brochure or indulge in a guided tour of the zoo to learn as much as you can.

4. Large Cities
If you live near a large city, you may be able to find some education there too. Most large cities have historical buildings or have experienced historical events, and these are great to see, tour and simply learn about. Some just have great stories and great sights to see.

The best way to gain some education from a large city is to take a tour. Some tours are by bus while others, such as Chicago, even offer boat tours. If you visit a large city in your state, you may be surprised at the events that took place in your town throughout the years, and it will captivate you to learn how old certain buildings are.

If you’re interested in taking an educational trip, you have plenty of historical and national landmarks that you can visit, or you can simply take a trip to your local zoo or large city to experience a new wealth of knowledge.

Ben Myers is a college English professor. He is currently grading a huge stack of essays on Of Mice and Men. In his spare time, Ben likes to study about learning methods and learning disabilities.

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Jennifer Wolfe

Jennifer Wolfe, a writer-teacher-mom, is dedicated to finding the extraordinary in the ordinary moments of life by thinking deeply, loving fiercely, and teaching audaciously. Jennifer is a Google Certified Educator, Hyperdoc fanatic, and a voracious reader. Read her stories on her blog, mamawolfe, and grab free copies of her teaching and parenting resources.

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On Life & Childhood Dreams: A Lesson I Learned After 23 (Long) Years

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Jennifer Wolfe

Do you remember that moment when you knew what you wanted to be when you grew up? Please enjoy today’s guest blogger, Anne Mercado, as she shares her story of following her dreams.

“There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.” -Deepak Chopra

As adults we view childhood dreams in two ways. The first as an uncanny certainty of what a child wants despite her tender age. The second as a changing desire of an impulsive and creative young mind. For the latter, how many times have your children proclaimed their inner-most desire to become a spaceman, only to have this change the following week. What do they want to be now? The next Picasso. It’s for this very reason we initially dismiss childhood dreams as anchorless ships that sail off into the vast blue sea, never to return again.

But that’s not how it was for me.

I always knew I wanted to write. In fact, I was always writing (and reading) as a child. My younger self – during the time when I could barely spell “chicken” right – would pound away on a typewriter, basking under the sun. I wrote about nature-inspired poetry, fictional news reports and stories produced by a hyper-active imagination. I spent my after-school hours in the backyard taking in fresh air while observing chicken, dogs, grass, leaves, trees, and yes, even creepy-crawlers. These were often the subject of my writing. As I got older my intensity for writing grew with me. Pen and notebook in hand, my thoughts would materialize into words etched into white pages. I wrote more poetry, fictional news reports and stories about scientists using the moon’s magnetic field to hurl missiles at approaching meteors. There was even once when a magazine published my writing.

You’d think that with such a desire for it, I would end up just as I had always wanted to be.

Wrong. I was advised against pursuing my dream and chose a career path that had little to do with writing anything creative, unless you consider reports and contracts as page-turners. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending how you view it, I couldn’t seem to find fulfillment from the jobs I had. In retrospect, it was because what I really wanted was to churn out words. I wasted 6 years of my life, excluding college. 6 years I could have spent honing my skills as a writer. But hey, now I’m back writing. Starting from scratch, which by the way is wrought with challenges. A bumpy road indeed, but what path isn’t? If there’s anyone who claims to have had a silky-smooth road to their dreams, they deserve to be ostracized from the rest of humanity for risk of spreading false hope.

Now for the takeaway.

“The things which the child loves remain in the domain of the heart until old age.” – Kahlil Gibran

Once my child told me he wanted to be a chef. Fine with me. Now he wants to be a lawyer. Nothing wrong there except I’d rather have him pursue another career (the reasons are my own and irrelevant to this post). I was thinking about our conversations and realized that my objections shouldn’t prevent him from following what he wants. It’s not my life to live after all, but his. And if defending those in need makes him fulfilled, who am I to prevent him from that? Now that we have children of our own, let’s not be so quick to smirk at their childhood dreams. These aspirations should be taken seriously and nurtured because those who love what they do often excel. Why? Because one of the best things about being human is the feeling of fulfillment and purpose that comes from passion. Passion is an endless supply of fuel, one of the greatest motivators there are. So for my child who has recently turned 5, my promise is to help him lock-down the sometimes elusive childhood dream and help him reel it in. That way, he never has to “work” a day in his life because he’ll be doing what he loves, whatever that is. As long as it’s legal, of course.

Photo Credit: Creative Common from Linda Cronin

Anne Mercado is the quirky author behind Green Eggs & Moms, which offers clever parenting tips and news to keep moms with young kids sane. When she’s not hunched over the computer working, you can find her either counting down to ten to get her kiddo to move faster, or reading a horror book. She also loves vampires and zombies.

Jennifer Wolfe

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Eating Fresh Fruit

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Jennifer Wolfe

Guest Post by Shelly Garcia

A few months ago, my friend’s father passed away. She says she was not really that close to him, but he was still her father. I wanted to show some respect, so I decided I wanted to send her something.

I was very indecisive about what to get her. I checked online because I wanted to have it delivered to her house. I checked for flowers, candy, food and I finally decided on a fruit gift basket.

There are many different styles of gift baskets to choose from, but I found the perfect one for her. It was big enough that she could share with her family, yet not too big. I didn’t want something so big that the fruit would go bad before someone could eat it. The one I chose had a variety of fruit. Also had some chocolate hidden in there, too. What goes better with fruit than chocolate, right?

She was very happy when it was delivered. She said it was fresh and tasty and like it was just picked from a garden. I think that’s the most important thing when sending a fruit basket. It needs to be fresh, and for me, full of color. I would appreciate that someone sent it to me, but if I received one that had rotten, smelly fruit, I think I would be a little upset. The fresher the better, right?

Something else that I like to look at is the basket it comes in. You can reuse those baskets for plants, mail, coffee filters, and, in my case, make-up. Some people put plastic fruit in them. That’s not my style. If I put fruit out, I want it to be real. I don’t want any guests coming over to grab something out of the basket and take a big bite only to find out that it is a plastic apple. I would feel so embarrassed, wouldn’t you?

Jennifer Wolfe

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Justin Cox: A First Time Dad We’re Having A Baby!

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Jennifer Wolfe

There are moments in life that never seem to leave our memories. For newlyweds, finding out about a pregnancy is one of the most incredible experiences there is. Please enjoy today’s guest blogger, my friend and fellow writer Justin Cox, as he shares his emotional experience of learning he will soon be a father.

Bianca and I got married on August 6 of last year. From that day forward, we began fielding this question semi-regularly: “So, when are you gonna have a kid?”

Bianca’s answer always came before people could even finish asking. “We’re going to get a Golden Retriever before we have a baby!” she’d say with confidence.

After a few months of listening to her answering this way, I started doing the economic math on the situation, which is this: We currently live in an upstairs apartment, and although I’m super excited by the idea of owning a dog, I’d rather wait until I can provide it some ground upon which to scamper freely. Given the reality of our lives and the trajectory of our careers, that could take some time.

I wasn’t telling Bianca that I wanted a baby right away; I just wasn’t sure I wanted to wait until we had a dog first, which was the plan we hatched together in the early months of our engagement. When I put it this way to Bianca, she fully agreed. It’s as if she had gotten caught up in her own Golden Retriever excitement. Or she just enjoyed answering the baby question this way. Either way, we happily moved forward in the absence of a plan (both in terms of babies, backyards or Golden Retrievers).

And then we went down to her family’s house in Orange County for a Christmas vacation.

We had been down there for more than a week, and although we absolutely love her parents, we were ready to go back home. We decided we would cut our trip short and head back up north for new years, via Big Sur, where we would camp for a night.

The evening before we left Bianca’s family’s place, I was standing in their kitchen talking to Bianca’s dad, Oscar, who was swirling a glass of red wine and conversing loosely. While we had this conversation, a 9-month old baby girl, Evelynn, was bopping around somewhere in the house (or she was sleeping). Evelynn is Bianca’s brother’s baby – Oscar and Nuria’s first grandkid.

With that being top of mind, Oscar initiated a very casual conversation about babies. Not my future baby; just babies in general. He probably doesn’t even remember the conversation.

He told me about his brother and sister-in-law, who had kids while they were quite young, although I’m not sure how young. He said that this allowed them to raise their children while they had plenty of energy and then, years later, it freed them up to enjoy their empty nest when they retired.

That wasn’t something I had never thought about. I’ve always been so focused on enjoying my life and furthering my education and doing my job well that I’ve always felt like I was just a few steps away from being prepared to support a child. I mentioned this feeling to Oscar, at which point he told me something I already knew, deep down: You’re never really ready. You just do it.

The bottom line is this: You work with what you have and you allocate your love and energy in the right direction. That’s it.

Now, before I get to the part where my wife becomes pregnant – Ahhh! – let me acknowledge that everybody lives life on their own timetable. My mom was 10 years younger than I am now when she had me. Many people wait much longer Bianca and I are. Others choose not to have children at all. Every option is totally legitimate. I can only tell my own story, so here it is:

We escaped Orange County early and were excited to drive up the coast, camp in Big Sur, and then have a low-key New Year’s back home in Davis. While sitting next to a fire outside of our tent-cabin and drinking wine from plastic water bottles that we had cut in half with a pocket knife, I told Bianca about my conversation with her dad, which made her laugh and smile. But it resonated with her in the same way that it did with me. We also laughed about the Golden Retriever plan. We fell asleep that night with a total openness to the idea of starting a family.

I’ll skirt the nitty-gritty details here and get to the part where Bianca suspects pregnancy. (Safe to say: This happened a bit faster than we had anticipated). She was sitting on a couch in our living room when she told me she was a day late with her period. She then added that she had a feeling she was pregnant, and that she hoped that was the case. We drove to the Co-op and bought a pregnancy test that evening, but decided she would take it the following morning, because that’s what the test recommended.

She woke up at 6 a.m. and told me she absolutely had to pee, and she asked if I wanted to come to the bathroom while she took the test. I told her to go ahead pee and to tell me right when she was done so that I could get out of bed and watch the + or – show up on the test. (I imagined her shaking it like a Polaroid picture and staring at it for a while until it showed up).

Shortly after she started peeing, she said, “Do you want to come see?”

The + was written all over her tone, which carried a blend of surprise, excitement and shock at how rapidly the test had delivered an answer. I popped out of bed and went in to give her a hug and to see the + for myself.

It was a very exciting morning. We went back to our bed and talked about the uncharted territory that now awaits us. She was almost a month pregnant at that point. At the time of this writing, she’s three months in, and just now feeling the first signs of pregnancy: She’s consistently tired. I keep assuming I have nine months to prepare for my baby’s arrival, but the truth his I only have six. And that’s crazy!

When we told Bianca’s parents about it, they were extremely excited to have another grandchild in the family. Her dad laughed when I told him that he was the one who nudged us in this direction. When we told my parents the following day, their excitement was more emotional, I think because this will be their first grandbaby.

Now we’ve seen an ultrasound and we’ve heard a heartbeat. Bianca told me yesterday that the baby is currently the size of a peach. When we took our first ultrasound the baby was the size of an olive. And when we took that pregnancy test, it was the size of a poppy seed.

Soon, it’ll be the size of a baby!

Justin Cox is a writer and editor of Davis Patch. He enjoys playing music, reading, and eating two-scoop ice-cream cones.

Jennifer Wolfe

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3 Fun and Easy Ways to Encourage Your Child to Write More- guest article by Jacob Maslow

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Jennifer Wolfe

As a teacher, parent, and writer, I know firsthand the importance of written communication. Today our children are learning in a different world than we did, and that can mean some adaptations need to be made to our way of thinking about learning how to write. The stakes are high-if you’re wondering about how to make writing easier for your children, read my guest post today by Jacob Maslow. He’s got some great ideas!

Strong writing skills are crucial for success in high school, college and beyond. Parents can help their children develop their writing skills by reading to them, providing a wide variety of reading materials and encouraging them to practice their writing skills. However, even the most avid reader can be a reluctant writer. Here are a few ways to help make writing less intimidating and more fun for your child so that they get the experience that is necessary to develop into fluid writers.

Make the Act of Writing Easier

Writing by hand is hard work! Many children shy away from writing simply because of the time and energy involved in putting pencil to paper. Like any skill, handwriting becomes easier the more that you practice, but getting your child to practice is often easier said than done.

Parents can make handwriting easier by helping their child develop the fine motor skills that are necessary for writing. Puzzles, modeling clay and dough, stringing beads and lacing and other games can exercise these muscles and help develop hand-eye coordination without seeming too much like work.

Start small when encouraging your older children to practice their handwriting so that they can develop stamina without being too discouraged. Even a few minutes of practice a day can help them improve their handwriting skills. Help them make captions for their artwork or ask them to help make shopping or to-do lists. Play games like hangman, Boggle or Mad-Libs that incorporate writing in a fun way.

Keyboarding and typing are useful skills for older children, but should not take the place of handwriting practice. Writing by hand helps children develop neural pathways that are important for their future learning. Keyboarding should only be introduced as an aid to writing after handwriting has been firmly established.

Use Imaginative Play to Help Your Child Develop Narratives

Imaginative play is popular with early childhood educators because it’s one of the best ways to help children increase the complexity and structure of their inner narratives. Pretend play helps children develop rich inner narratives and to learn how to communicate them to their playmates.

While younger children can’t write down these narratives, the practice they get in composing inner narratives will help them as they advance in school and have to call upon their imagination to compose sentences, paragraphs and essays. Parents can help their child play imaginatively by limiting screen time and providing props (toy kitchens, costumes, puppets, etc) that can help support their child’s imaginative play.

Older children can be encouraged to take their pretend play further by asking them to write out scripts for a performance. Set up a small puppet theater or stage for your children so that they can perform their creations for friends and family. Puppets work especially well since they allow your child to practice writing things from multiple points of view without requiring a large cast of actors. If you have a video camera, older children can also write their own movies, television series and commercials to be filmed to share with family and friends.

Make Writing a Part of Everyday Life

Again, the more opportunities that your child has to practice, the easier writing will become. Formal writing instruction is important, but it’s usually not enough to make your child completely comfortable with writing and often comes with a lot of pressure that makes writing seem like a chore instead of a useful tool.

Here are a few ideas to incorporate writing into your child’s daily routine:

Give them a notebook or journal for writing down their thoughts. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but often something that seems fancy or grown-up to a child can capture their imagination. Special diaries with locks or invisible ink are irresistible to most children.

Encourage them to send letters, cards and artwork to family and friends. They don’t have to be distant friends – dropping off a handwritten card to an elderly neighbor or classmate can be just as special and provide immediate feedback that will motivate your child to write more.

Let your child help you with your daily writing tasks, such as making grocery lists, writing down measurements and jotting down reminders on the family calendar.

Many children enjoy writing their own comics and picture books. Combing writing with art is an excellent way to help your child’s creativity grow while they practice their writing skills. Provide a wide variety of art supplies and look for books that help your child learn how to improve their drawing skills.

Find toys that encourage writing that they can use as props in their imaginative play. A whiteboard or chalkboard or easel can be used to play school, be a menu board for a restaurant, a for sale sign, an advertisement for their play or a danger sign.

Let your child make and display handwritten signs for their room.

Give your child prompts to help them come up with their own short stories or poems. Allow them to read them to the family at the dinner table or during family time.

Help your child get an advantage in school and career by giving them plenty of opportunity to practice their writing skills in a way that is fun and natural to them. Even a few minutes of writing practice each day can be enough to help them become comfortable and fluid writers.

Jacob Maslow is a father of five who has had a lot of practice in helping children learn how to write. He works for online retailer, Today’s Concept: which sells a wide variety of educational and fun toys that ignite children’s imaginations, including the always popular line of Melissa and Doug puppet theaters and puppets.

Jennifer Wolfe

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