April Foolin’

April Fools is nearly here! As you prepare yourself to weather your kids’ jokes, pranks and tricks on April 1st, here are a few safe and easy tricks you can keep up your sleeve to fight back!

Short Sheet: Before the kids head to bead, sneak into their rooms and fold the flat sheet up from [...]

Treasure Hunts

Whether you celebrate Easter or not, spring is the perfect time to mix family and fun with a little friendly competition. With the grass finally reappearing and the clouds heading out, ’tis the season for treasure hunts!
Tiny Trekkers
For the youngest of explorers, you can create an exciting scavenger hunt by leaving a trail of photo clues. To get [...]

Magical Magic Tricks

As part of this month’s birthday celebration for legendary magician and escape artist, Harry Houdini, JumpStart Times is cooking up a little magic of our own. Magic is a great way to get your family working together to awe audiences while making magical memories in the process. Everyone in the family can play an important [...]

Moms and Dads Online

Just a nice sunny afternoon, hanging out with friends over a leisurely cup of coffee and catching up… Does this sound like your life? Probably not. If you are like most parents, between coaxing tangles out of hair, curing boo boos, shuttling kids to ballet and cooking up a tasty dinner, it’s nearly impossible to [...]

More Tips for Learning Reading and Spelling

The following information is from a series of parent tips by Knowledge Adventure. The tips are meant to be used as fun ways of bringing learning into the home and everyday life. We hope you enjoy them!
Make learning fun by practicing spelling with the following tips. With practice, your child will become a better speller [...]

Fight Off Those Pesky Colds

It’s no fun for anyone when your child has to be cooped up inside all day waiting for a cold to pass. Plus, if that cold means your child is missing school, his learning could suffer as well! We caught up with Registered Nurse (RN) and Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Joann Blum, to find out the [...]

Ask a Teacher: Writing Reports

Question:
My son is having trouble with writing book reports and I was never very good at it myself (he is in 2nd grade). Where can I get some help to help him?
Answer:
You might check with your son’s teacher for any specific instructions on writing a report. The teacher might have certain details that he or [...]

Easy Science Lessons

From the random fact files of the JumpStart team comes today’s random fact (drumroll):
According to some sources, on this day in 1515, Leonardo da Vinci designed the first parachute!
In honor of this not so monumental event, we thought it would be fun to share with you a few quick, fun and not too messy lessons [...]

Leprechaun Craft

Your luck is about to change! In this craft, you’ll be making a wee little leprechaun that is sure to bring the luck o’ the Irish to you straight away. He may even be able to lead you to the pot of gold!

Supplies:

1 candle cup bead (recommended size: 1/2” hole) for body
1 medium round [...]

Teaching Good Sportsmanship

We’ve all heard about the horrors of “that parent” who chews out the referee and shouts criticizing remarks to his kid or the opponents on the field. With more than 50 million kids in the United States taking part in some sort of organized sport (U.S. Census Bureau), teaching your kids how to be a [...]