On playgrounds and in classrooms, there's always excited talk about who went to Walt Disney World and what they did each day-or minute. It has become almost a rite of passage to visit America's most popular travel destination, and kids can be wonderful sources of information.Every area and attraction of Walt Disney World is covered, with kids' honest reactions and impressions included. There is a whole chapter devoted to each of the theme parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios, and Disney's Animal Kingdom. Another chapter describes the rest of Walt Disney World, including Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon, Fort Wilderness, Downtown Disney, and dining spots with kid appeal. The book is updated annually, and the 2011 edition features new insights and tips from young Birnbaum readers-our esteemed junior Disney Experts. The book contains kid-focused descriptions of what's what at Walt Disney World, including theme parks, water parks, resorts, and sports; tips on how to find healthy meals and sweet treats-not to mention veggie burgers, caramel apples, and pizza. The younger set will also love "Magical Memories"-a scrapbook chapter devoted to preserving Disney memories that includes special pages meant for Disney characters to autograph. Now kids can help plan the family vacation!

    Grow geodes in eggshells, make a bouncing ball out of slime, and build a rubber band solar system!With kid-friendly experiments and crafts, science becomes pure fun and the scientific method is put into practice. The clear photographs and fact-filled spreads make following along with the experiments' step-by-step instructions easy, and keeps budding scientists entertained for hours.Maker Lab makes learning a blast!

    Shumway created a series of math routines designed to help young students strengthen and build their facility with numbers. These quick 5, 10, or 15 minute exercises are easy to implement as an add-on to any elementary math curriculum. Understanding Number Sense: Students with strong number sense understand numbers, how to subitize, relationships among numbers, and number systems. They make reasonable estimates, compute fluently, use reasoning strategies, and use visual models to solve problems. Number Sense Routines  supports the early learner by instilling the importance of daily warm-ups and explains how they benefit developing math minds for long-term learning.Real Classroom Examples: Shumway compiled her classroom observations from around the country. She includes conversations among students who practice number sense routines to illustrate them in action, how children's number sense develops with daily use, and math strategies students learn as they develop their numerical literacy through self-paced practice.Assessment Strategies:  Number Sense Routines  demonstrates the importance of listening to your students and knowing what to look for. Teachers will gain a deeper understanding of the underlying math skills and strategies students learn as they develop numerical literacy.Shumway writes, "As you read, you will step into various classrooms and listen in on students' conversations, which I hope will give you insight into the power of number sense routines and the impact they have on students' number sense development. My hope is that going into the classroom, into students' conversations, and into their thought processes, you will come away with new ideas and tools to use in your own classroom."

    An experienced therapist offers groundbreaking and compassionate techniques for helping chronically inflexible children, who suffer from excessively immoderate tempers, showing how brain-based deficits contribute to these problems and offering positive and constructive ways to calm things down.

    Once again, the Bird and Bee are up to their antics, but this time they're younger. In It's So Amazing!, these reassuring characters reflect the many moods of children age 7 and up: silly, serious, curious, embarrassed. Their voices echo the thoughts, questions, and concerns of a younger audience.

    Nationally recognized naturalist and artist Clare Walker Leslie has been igniting kids curiosity about nature for more than 30 years. Her unique approach combines directed observational activities with journaling and field-note prompts that are designed to nurture the next generation of nature lovers and environmentalists.The Nature Connection is an interactive workbook chockfull of creative exercises for kids ages 8 to 13. Leslie begins simply by encouraging children to look out the window and record what they observe: What color is the sky? What shapes are the clouds? Are there any birds? What kind? Are there signs of what season it is?Once outdoors, kids are prompted to record the sounds they hear, the ground plants they see, the direction of the wind, the shape and direction of their own shadows, and how each of these change from day to day, season to season.The Nature Connection offers dozens of fun things to do during every season: write a poem; make a sketch; tell a story; record the daily sunrise and sunset times for the next month; draw a local map and mark the spots where trees, rocks, animals, and other nature sights reside (and identify each one); keep a moon journal; learn the constellations; or collect leaves and bring them home to sketch and identify.Sure to engage the whole family in outdoor fun and year-round nature activities, The Nature Connection will also stand as a permanent record of a child's unique sightings and experience with nature.

    This Special Collector's Edition celebrates 100,000 copies or the book in print, and the book's on-going importance and popularity.

     The Stone Marshall Studio is developing a new series: Legends & Heroes A hybrid of comic-book style illustrations and short stories. Each issue is fun, challenging, and engaging. These interrelated stories follow a series of characters on a journey through life in Minecraft. Relatable characters, thrilling action, and colorful illustrations will suck in readers and leave them excited to read the next adventure! Secrets await! Solve the puzzle, uncover secrets! The Blacksmith and The Apprentice: Issue 1 The ancient art of blacksmithing is a thing of beauty. A lot of hard work goes into the process. It’s very complicated, really. Stoking the flames to many small, contained fires—making lumps of metal into differently shaped items of metal—hitting said lumps of metal with hammers to turn them into different weapons. You can shape metals into whatever item you want. Okay, it might not be a very interesting job, but apprenticing with the best blacksmith in the kingdom is a huge opportunity. Blacksmiths make the tools everyone needs to get about in their day-to-day lives. It’s a very prestigious and impressive position, although this honor is lost when the position is held by Dane, a youthful boy who dreams of greater adventure! Luckily, Dane has a skilled master to reign in his daydreaming. Viegar has quite an interesting past. From his years on the Royal Guard to his close relationship with the previous king, he’s quite a friend to have on your side. There is one other apprentice, Snip, who is much more passionate about his duties than Dane. Between the three of them, they churn out powerful weapons and protective armor, usually with no thanks to Dane. Of course, no cast of characters would be complete without the big man in charge—in this case, a king. By almost anyone’s account, he’s a good and fair ruler, but there is no one in power without enemies. Though Viegar and his workers only want to help their wonderful king, there are still plenty who wish to do him harm. But Dane can only imagine such things. It’s not as if he’d ever be in the position to really make any sort of difference or be in any place of power. Right? And though his apprenticeship is mundane and boring, the young man gets a few moments of excitement. Every once in a while, his master Viegar lets him venture out past the village to visit the caravan, where he can trade and buy supplies. It’s the most excitement Dane ever gets in his line of work. Sometimes, he gets to meet interesting people. Sometimes, he hears interesting things. And maybe, just maybe, he sometimes hears of a new opportunity for himself. But who would want to give up such a life as an esteemed apprentice? But of course, destiny and desire are not always what you expect . . .

    What could possibly go wrong? In this honest and wry memoir, popular blogger, author, and former child actor Quinn Cummings recounts her family’s decision to wade into the unfamiliar waters of homeschooling – the fastest-growing educational trend of our time -- despite a chronic lack of discipline, some major gaps in academic knowledge, and a serious case of math aversion. (And that’s just Quinn.) Quinn’s fearless quest includes some self-homeschooling – reading up on education reform, debating the need for “socialization,” and infiltrating conferences filled with Radical Unschoolers as well as Christian fundamentalists (and even chaperoning a homeschool prom). Part personal narrative, part social commentary, and part how-not-to guide, The Year of Learning Dangerously will make you laugh and make you think. And there may or may not be a quiz at the end. OK, there’s no quiz. Probably.

    In this truly groundbreaking book, nationally respected educator Alfie Kohn begins instead by asking "What do kids need — and how can we meet those needs?" What follows from that question are ideas for working with children rather than doing things to them. One basic need all children have, Kohn argues, is to be loved unconditionally, to know that they will be accepted even if they screw up or fall short. Yet conventional approaches to parenting such as punishments (including "time-outs"), rewards (including positive reinforcement), and other forms of control teach children that they are loved only when they please us or impress us. Kohn cites a body of powerful, and largely unknown, research detailing the damage caused by leading children to believe they must earn our approval. That's precisely the message children derive from common discipline techniques, even though it's not the message most parents intend to send. More than just another book about discipline, though, Unconditional Parenting addresses the ways parents think about, feel about, and act with their children. It invites them to question their most basic assumptions about raising kids while offering a wealth of practical strategies for shifting from "doing to" to "working with" parenting — including how to replace praise with the unconditional support that children need to grow into healthy, caring, responsible people. This is an eye-opening, paradigm-shattering book that will reconnect readers to their own best instincts and inspire them to become better parents.

    Pedro captured his experience between the pages of a journal. If he did not return alive perhaps someone, someday would find it and learn of his incredible journey to the New World.

    It helps you learn how to astound kids with easy and inexpensive experiments like: Bubbling Lava Bottle; The Incredible Can Crusher; The Screaming Balloon; and, many more.

    In each case she describes a child's transformation from destructive troublemaker to responsible citizen of the classroom community. Readers will learn how to apply Montessori methods to virtually any early elementary environment.

    Each festival such as Christmas, Candlemas and Martinmas has its own, well-illustrated chapter. There are also sections on Birthdays, Rainy Days, Convalescence and a birthday Calendar. The perfect present for a family, it explores the numerous festivals that children love celebrating.

    This breakthrough book demonstrates how parents and teachers can join forces to inspire kids to be self-directed, self-disciplined, and responsive to the wonders of learning.