It all started simply enough: I needed to get my children passports so we could visit their aunt in Germany. As we went through the process of applying for our passports, I thought it might be fun to give my children their own version of a passport that they could use, as it is safe to say I wouldn’t hand my 4-year-old his official passport for the day.

That simple idea started my family on a global adventure, one we were able to take without ever leaving the couch!

Deciding on a method of education for a child can sometimes feel as frustrating as blindly throwing darts at a wall. While the decision of how to educate your child is one that should be pondered, discussed and researched, it can quickly become overwhelming.There’s so much you want to know–need to know– yet you’re unsure of where to get this information. Do you trust the meddling family member who swears your homeschooled child will be ruined for life? How about the neighbors down the street who homeschool? Should you believe that everything is always peaches and cream?

Summer is gone and Fall is finally in full swing. There’s nothing like curling up under the covers with a good book when the air is growing crisp and the days are growing short.

Now isn’t the time to pull out Summer paperbacks of beach escapades and vacations; you need meaty books that make you want to read by flashlight all night.

Autumn’s books are sure to not disappoint; now all you have to do is figure out which one you’ll read first.

Raise your hand if you remember, as a child, sitting through a science lesson while staring blankly into a textbook. The best pages were always the ones with pictures on them; they just made the subject come alive more than any words could ever do.

Part of Everyday Learning’s objective is to make learning FUN! The world is an exciting place and there’s so much we can see, do and learn about during our time here. While it is always fun to go out and see things for yourself, sometimes the closest we can get is through a book.

When I was ten years old, I read Lowis Lowry’s excellent book, “Number the Stars.” At ten, I thought I knew everything and was surprised I had never heard the story of the Holocaust before. Although this book is fiction, it opened my eyes to the struggles of millions of people before me. What I found most intriguing about that time period was that some of these people I had read about were still alive…most of them my grandparents’ age.

If your child loves getting mail and you’re just fresh out of pen pal ideas, consider a magazine subscription. From the frivolous to the serious, there’s a magazine for every child out there– including toddlers.

While Summer is definitely time for playing (and exploring), sometimes what we all need is the chance to sit down with our own new literary discovery and go to a far away place, even if just for a little while…and some of the best books for doing this are the middle grade novels. Books bring us on the vacations we didn’t take, introduce us to friends we haven’t yet met and make anything seem possible