The selection of today's Thoughtful Thursday offering, "The First Book" by the celebrated poet Rita Dove, was inspired by yesterday's post about LeBron James' wonderful new IPromise public school in Akron Ohio. The school is designed to inspire middle school students who are performing below their grade levels. Helping them with reading skills will surely be an important part [...]
LeBron James may have taken his talents to the LA Lakers, but he is leaving something very valuable behind in Ohio: a chance for 240 at-risk third and fourth graders in his hometown of Akron to get a brand new public school designed to help them achieve. James and his LeBron James Family Foundation have partnered with The Akron [...]
GCP Parents, hope you and your families are having a great summer! Now is a good time to focus on making sure that your children start the school year right. Have you been combatting summer slide with your children? If not, there is still time. Wherever you are in this process, we've got tips to make it easier. Several [...]
Did you know that today is National Summer Learning Day? (We didn’t either, and thanks to Bill Lewis for bringing this to GCP’s attention.) With over 6 weeks to go until the end of August, there is still plenty of time to encourage your son or daughter to focus on sharpening his or her skills during the summer. No [...]
The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released a statement encouraging parents to ban direct screen time (television, movies, and any portable screen device) for children under two years of age. The Academy explained, “This updated policy statement provides further evidence that media — both foreground and background — have potentially negative effects and no known positive effects for children [...]
How many times have your heard your child say "Ugh, I can't get this!" or "This will never work!" and throw down his pencil in dismay? While your first instinct might be to rush over to try to help fix the problem, or to encourage your child by saying "you're so smart, you can figure it out", researchers say [...]
You may have heard about “ summer slide”, where over the summer students can lose two to three months of progress in math and reading and fall behind when they return to school in the fall. But did you know that by the time a student gets to the 5th grade, the summer learning loss can add up to [...]
Hello GCP'ers! Yes, it has been a while, and while it is not actually Thursday, (let's call it "Thursday Plus") here is a lovely Thoughtful Thursday poem for you all, "Blessing the Boats" by the renowned African American poet Lucille Clifton (1936-2010). Born in Depew, New York in 1936, Clifton's first book of poetry was published in 1969. She [...]
If your child tells you he wants to be a famous rapper, tell him he should be paying lots of attention in English class. In a recent interview with David Letterman, Jay-Z credited his sixth grade English teacher with fueling his love of language: "Her name was Ms. Lowden, and I just loved the class so much. Like reading [...]
Today's Thoughtful Thursday offers a break from the sadness and sorrow that surrounds us in the aftermath of the horrific Florida school shooting. Here are a delightful hodgepodge of poems to read aloud to your little ones as you tuck them in at night. We hope you have shielded them from the bulk of the coverage, but even the [...]