Easy-to-follow patterns, beautiful photographs, and colorful step-by-step drawings help the projects come together quickly----many in less than an hour. Whether they are created in kimono silks or in contemporary cottons, these tiny boxes, purses, decorative toys, incense pouches, and good luck charms all make delightful gifts.

    His goal was to help shift the focus in Japanese education from memorization to critical thinking, by adapting some of the techniques he had learned as an elite McKinsey consultant.He was amazed to discover that adults were hungry for his fun and easy guide to problem solving and decision making. The book became a surprise Japanese bestseller, with more than 370,000 in print after six months. Now American businesspeople can also use it to master some powerful skills.Watanabe uses sample scenarios to illustrate his techniques, which include logic trees and matrixes. A rock band figures out how to drive up concert attendance. An aspiring animator budgets for a new computer purchase. Students decide which high school they will attend.Illustrated with diagrams and quirky drawings, the book is simple enough for a middleschooler to understand but sophisticated enough for business leaders to apply to their most challenging problems.

    It will also explore the pressures of modern-day teaching, revealing exactly what it takes to wrangle a chaotic classroom (or seven) on a weekly basis. From the absolute characters found in the staffroom to school-trip mishaps and everything else inbetween, Put A Wet Paper Towel on It is a must-read for teachers and parents alike.So sit up straight, four legs on your chair, fingers on lips and get ready to take a trip down memory lane. And remember – when in doubt, just put a wet paper towel on it.

    This story introduces the trainer, Pokemon expert Professor Oak, Professor Oak's nephew, and others, who try to capture all the Pokemon to complete the collection -- and win a series of duels against other Pokemon trainers.

    It shows parents and day-care providers how to prevent boredom during the longest stretches of indoor weather, stimulate a child’s natural curiosity with entertaining math, language, and motor-skills activities, encourage a child’s physical, mental, and emotional growth, celebrate holidays and other occasions with special projects and activities, and keep toddlers occupied during long car trips or while running errands. The Toddler's Busy Book is written with warmth and sprinkled with humor and insight.

    Following hot on the heels of the hugely popular Creative Play for your Baby, this is the ideal resource for modern parents who want their children to expand their creativity and imagination through play. Discover child development according to the Steiner theory, which helps toddlers realize themselves both naturally and holistically in mind, body, and spirit. Each chapter deals with a different element of your child's growth and includes an expert summary of the theory that goes behind it. You'll find step-by-step instructions for making over 20 beautiful toys from natural materials to help your child develop resourcefulness, originality, awareness, and confidence.

    Prone to fantasy and unruffled by inconsistency, preschool children are frequently baffled by the first lessons of early schooling. Trained to gently resist the child's illogic, teachers sometimes create just the incomprehension and anxiety they mean to avoid. In Wally's Stories, Vivian Paley shows that none of this need be so.Wally's Stories is itself a story: the story of the evolution of a kindergarten classroom in which Paley learned to stop fighting childish fantasy and instead make use of it to stimulate the very best brand of thinking her five-year-olds can muster. Stories also lie at the heart of her classroom: stories that are first told by one of the children, then transcribed by the teacher, and then acted out by the class in dramatic productions of their own design. Paley shows that in the course of creating their own dramatic world, five-year-olds are capable of thought and language far in advance of what they accomplish in traditional classroom exercises. The children's stories also become a vehicle that they can use to explain themselves to their teacher and to one another. Together, teacher and children develop an unusual environment, one that is logical and literate, based on rules of fairness, friendship, and fantasy.Vivian Paley's book is as refreshing as her teaching method--a new kind of book about a new kind of classroom.

    And every year, colleges are becoming more competitive. Throw the weakened economy into the mix, and it creates a perfect storm for Up Your Score: a book of invaluable test-taking wisdom, the only book written by "been-there-done-that" kids, the only guide that kids will enjoy using. It’s proven to work—the students who created Up Your Score all nailed the SAT and went on to the colleges of their choice, including this year's 2,400-scoring guest editor.A guerrilla guide that's a perfect complement (and reality check) for the student who has already tried Princeton Review or Kaplan, Up Your Score injects real-life humor and attitude into the dry business of test prep. Its vocabulary is rich and lively with examples that kids will relate to, and with proven tricks to make definitions memorable. It covers the eight main issues of math, with test-wise, problem-solving techniques. To help students ace the writing section, it addresses the 13 most important grammar rules to know. And it shows how to "psych out" the test: How to think like the SAT. How to prepare the essay in advance. The best ways to fill in answer circles and other strategies to save precious minutes. Plus, tips for maintaining concentration, why it's always better to guess than to leave a question unanswered, and a recipe for energy-boosting Sweet & Tasty 800 Bars (and how to smuggle them into the testing hall).FREE: An iPod download to help users learn the 600 key vocabulary words.

    With just the simple tools around you—your imagination, basic art supplies, household objects, and natural materials—you can transform your family life, and have so much more fun! Amanda Soule has charmed many with her tales of creativity and parenting on her blog, SouleMama. Here she shares ideas and projects with the same warm tone and down-to-earth voice. Perfect for all families, the wide range of projects presented here offers ideas for imaginative play, art and crafts, nature explorations, and family celebrations. This book embraces a whole new way of living that will engage your children’s imagination, celebrate their achievements, and help you to express love and gratitude for each other as a family.

    Padawans can learn how to fold R2-D2 and C-3PO, draw Jabba, and even build a fully functioning ChapStick rocket! Other Force-mastering activities include: “Kellen’s Guide to Cool Letters,” “Mike’s Complete Rules and Tips for Pencil Pod-Racing,” “Rhondella’s Tips for Photographing Origami,” and much more! With Tom Angleberger’s goofy sense of humor and accessible art style, Art2-D2’s Guide to Folding and Doodling is sure to satisfy and inspire the millions of Origami Yoda and Star Wars fans. May the doodles be with you! Includes 16-page color insert with 10 pages of colored pull-out origami paper; instructions to make Yoda, Darth, C-3PO, Admiral Ackbar, and R2-D2; a section on photographing your origami creations, and two Star Wars backdrops to photograph them against. Praise for Art2-D2's Guide to Folding and Doodling "Once again, Angleberger’s humor, which presents itself in the text through characters from the series, in both human and origami form, connects with middle-grade readers. 'Art2' and the other 'Origami Yoda' books are the ultimate example of the by-a-fan/for-the-fans format, which succeeds if executed properly. This did he.” —Florida Times-Union "Excellent activity-book offshoot of Angleberger’s bestselling Origami Yoda series… The banter and tongue-and-cheek humor of the previous books is present, along with encouragement." —Publishers Weekly "The presentation’s offbeat attitude, ingenuity, and wit, many libraries will want to stock this high interest book..." —Booklist "Fans (and nonfans, if there are any) of the “Origami Yoda” series (Abrams) and website will find new opportunities aplenty for foolery in this spinoff compendium of progressively challenging hands-on instructions for drawing, folding, and goofing around with (mostly) Star Wars characters." —School Library Journal

    But their owners, Danny and Griffin, don't treat them the same way. Pancakes has a lovely new home to play around in with wheels and tunnels. Waffles only has a small box. But when Waffles and Pancakes meet up again, they realize that there are more important things than material possessions.

    Once they are mastered, these skills allow reduced adult supervision.

    It provides the very best information that we have about girls growing up today – and, alongside, interactive tasks and self-exploration practices that will help you to put this into practice. These interactive tasks are simple questions for you to respond to. They immediately get you thinking about your own life, your family and, of course, your daughter. This book grew out of the growing concerns of parents about health issues being faced by their daughters – such as:• feeling inadequate• suffering long periods of deep unhappiness• embarrassment about their developing bodies and appearance• experiencing friendship struggles• feeling alone in their struggles• unsure about their sexuality.This is a whole new book on girls, and it has grown out of years of onlinediscussions. It is a reflection of the issues that parents want to explore in more depth. Many of these are new. The information in this book will help your daughter to develop the necessary emotional and mental skills to keep her healthy throughout her whole life.

    You’ll learn how to set up an art space, how to talk to children about their artwork, how to choose the best art supplies (without breaking the bank), how to repurpose and organize the piles of art created, and even how to use kids' art activities to soften everyday transitions.  The more than sixty engaging kids' arts and crafts projects included here are accessible and developmentally appropriate for one- to eight-year-olds, and they’re a far cry from the cookie-cutter crafts many of us did in school as kids. From bubble prints to musical chairs art, these kids art activities allow children to explore art materials, techniques, and ideas as they grow more creative every day. With activities for downtimes, action art for releasing energy, and recipes for making your own art materials, this book is your guide for raising an artful family.

    This unusual school had old railroad cars for classrooms, and it was run by an extraordinary man--its founder and headmaster, Sosaku Kobayashi--who was a firm believer in freedom of expression and activity.