This is an especially difficult time to be a parent. Before COVID-19, parents, living far from in-laws and friends who could help with childcare, faced few options for quality care. Many companies provide little to no benefits for parents. An on-site daycare, even at a large corporation, is a scarce luxury. And then, there are parents who live in childcare deserts, with a hugely limited number of seats per child. Then, with COVID-19, companies demanded that parents complete full-time jobs while watching their children and educating them. Parents are in a double-bind, not enough time to spend with their children and few resources available when they need to be away to earn money to feed, clothe and educate them. 

The best reading programs for kids, reviewed by tens of thousands of parents, tested with a group of a dozen kids (and approved for “fun factor,”) and vetted by trained teachers and child life specialists. If you’re looking for a great reading program for kids,, these are the best ones we’ve found to help them learn to read - and love learning to read.

Discover how to help families and kids struggling from the impact of the pandemic on food insecurity, mental health and k12 education. These are three organizations where you can donate or volunteer time to make a major impact for families and kids. #givingtuesday

According to Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, children learn through modeling - and especially by watching and copying you, their primary caregivers and role model.  So what better opportunity to model empathy and persuasive communication skills than a Thanksgiving diner, especially if you’re fortunate enough to come from a family with a wide range of political views. Even luckier if you have a family member whose political or religious views - and the manner they express them -  makes you especially irate!  

Besides the obvious boost to your kid’s future resume, learning to code offers many benefits including developing creativity, problem solving skills and resilience. With the emergence of hackathons, coding can also be a highly social activity in a time where all of us are longing to connect.

Modular Learning can be a supplement or a replacement to school. When a family does Modular Learning, it means they have decided to take ownership over their child’s education, choosing from a variety of modules (curriculum, teachers, classes, social groups) to design or enrich their child’s education. A module can include school if that is of benefit to their child’s education and social, emotional and intellectual well-being. Or school can be replaced with other modules such as trips to the library, a well-designed curriculum led by a teacher, parent or childcare provider a learning pod or a compilation of classes.

In the typical classroom model, teachers start with a lesson and then give students homework/problems to solve to reinforce learning. What if we did the opposite, starting with homework, then giving lessons or pointers as needed?

Rather than taking place at one institution at one time using a standardized curriculum. Modular learners set their own goals for their children’s education, childcare and social life, creating a unique mosaic of resources , drawing from digital apps, workbooks, teachers, experts, other families, local classes, community groups, cultural organizations and even world travel. It’s a diverse and inclusive community of teachers, artists, makers, investors, healthcare workers, techies, community activists applying innovative education techniques as they emerge and pioneering the future of education starting with their own children.

Best summer camps in San Francisco with space available for 2021

An overview of teaching strategies for parents and caregivers. These tools can be used to help kids with homework, engage them in learning all the time and improve communication.

In the Reggio Emilia approach, the environment is considered to be the child’s third’s teacher (the first being the parent and the second the classroom teacher).   With 71% of children doing remote learning this fall, it’s vitally important that we provide children with the support they need to thrive in this new hybrid environment of home and online classes.`Here are the tools we recommend for parents and teachers seeking to create an enriching learning environments online.

We polled 200k parents from around the world which educational apps their kids can’t live without and then tested them with 30 Modular Learners between the ages of PreK-12th grade. We were specifically looking for mastery-based apps that made learning fun and challenging at the same time. The very best apps went a step further by personalizing the experience for the child as they played (as the app learns about their interests and learning style) Another factor we were looking for is that these apps were ones that children could pretty much do independently while parents were working (after their parents had downloaded the app and helped them get get oriented). Here are our 50 favorites. Let us know if you have any you think we should add to the list.

We tested dozens of different conferencing platforms, tablets, headphones and other devices and software solutions to find the best devices to support teachers and young children learning together online. Here are our favorite devices, software, web conference tools, headphones, glasses and more…

Did you know that there are just as many homeschooling families who are poor or near-poor as the normal population? And even better, they've spent decades developing creative ways to provide exceptional educational opportunities to their kids on a shoestring budget. Here are some of the best strategies they've shared with me.