What you think does matter

From City Streets to Country Fields: A Lesson Plan on Change, Courage, and Finding Home When kids pick up a book, they don’t just read words—they step into someone else’s shoes. In this chapter of "Secrets of Whisper Pine: The Missing Moo" , we travel with Emily, a city-loving thirteen-year-old, as she gets dropped off at her aunt and uncle’s farmhouse for the summer. Suddenly, skyscrapers are replaced with silos, sirens are swapped for crickets, and neon lights give way to moonlight. (* Read free chapters @ The Missing Moo ) It’s not just a change of scenery—it’s a lesson in courage, adaptability, and learning how to make the unfamiliar feel like home. So, how can parents and teachers use this chapter to spark meaningful conversations and activities with kids ages 10–14? Let’s break it down. ✨ Lesson Theme: Adjusting to Change and Finding Comfort in New Experiences 📝 Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students should be able to: Identify Emily’s emotions as...

STOP THE BLAME. Is COVID-19 the real reason your child is failing at school? Can you help your children become better readers and learners? It's easy to look back at the past few years and point to the pandemic as the singular cause of all our current educational struggles. Indeed, the disruptions caused by school shutdowns and virtual learning were unprecedented, leaving many students behind academically and socially. But as a society, we often find it convenient to assign blame to a major event rather than to confront the long-standing issues that have been building for years. While Covid-19 certainly exacerbated existing problems, it didn’t create them from scratch. The decline in a love for learning and reading, as well as a waning interest in education itself, has been a trend for decades. As parents and guardians, we must take a hard look in the mirror. We can't simply blame a global health crisis for our children's lack of interest in reading when we've allowed s...

T he academic comeback we’ve all been hoping for since the pandemic is proving to be a long and challenging road, especially for our middle school students. A recent report from NWEA, a well-regarded K12 assessment and research organization, brings this reality into sharp focus. Their findings, which are underscored by recent data from the National Assessment on Educational Progress (NAEP), confirm that the average eighth-grader today requires nearly a full academic year of additional reading instruction to catch up to their pre-pandemic peers. This is a significant gap, and it highlights a critical issue: many students are simply not prepared for the complex reading demands of middle school and beyond. The data from the NAEP, which shows that a mere 30% of eighth-graders are performing at or above proficiency, paints a clear picture of the challenge. According to researchers, this learning gap is not just a side effect of disrupted schooling, but a symptom of a deeper issue: a lack of...