Rusty and Rosy Learn with Me Blog

Do you find your child is fascinated by the change in weather? If she’s inside or outside, she is probably curious and ready to explore. “There are many ways to acquaint children with Earth-related phenomena…For instance, students can start to keep daily records of temperature (hot, cold, pleasant) and precipitation (none, some, lots), […]

Alex has started to pick out letters everywhere. Last night, when he was pulling on his pajamas, he said, “Look, mom! It’s an f.” He was pointing to the fly on his pajamas. Sure enough, from his perspective, looking down, the seam of his fly curved around to make an f. On a walk the […]

Rusty and Rosy comes with a lovely little mouse pad. I thought with the new computer mouse and the new mouse pad, we were ready to go.
Alex was thrilled to have his own equipment, just as I predicted. He gets great pleasure out of having “mine own” mouse and mouse pad in his room. He […]

When I tried to figure out whether Alex (age 3 yrs. 3 mo.) was ready to use the computer, I had him play some free games on the Internet. What a mess?! He was frustrated. I was frustrated. He knew exactly what he wanted to do, but he could not get the mouse to point […]

Alex began using Rusty and Rosy Learn with Me last week. He loves it. I probably could have started him a little earlier, but I wanted to wait until I was certain that he could work independently. Alex is 3 years and 3.5 months old.
I had tried a few computer games with him when […]

This activity uses simple objects in your home such as dried beans, grapes, candies, toothpicks, etc. to help your child visualize the concept of adding. Begin with three to four beans or other objects. Put them in a pile together on the table or even in your child’s hand. Have him randomly divide the objects […]

“Counting is a foundation for students’ early work with number.  Young children are motivated to count everything from the treats they eat to the stairs they climb, and through their repeated experience with the counting process, they learn many fundamental number concepts…” (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000. Principles and Standards for School Mathematics). […]

Scientists usually learn about science by asking questions and then following a process to investigate an answer to their questions. (I’m sure you’re thinking that your child is a great little scientist with all the questions she asks!) In previous Science posts (“Feels Like”, Taste Test, Living or Nonliving Walk) we have encouraged parents to […]

Marie Clay, author of Early Detection of Reading Difficulties, states that learning something as simple as direction (left to right and top to bottom) can be very confusing for young children, but this skill is significant in teaching your child to read. You can provide many fun opportunities for learning and practice; here are some […]

Listening for and recognizing individual sounds in a word is key to learning to read and write. Reading alliterative picture books with your preschooler is a fun way to recognize letter sounds. (Alliteration is the repetition of a leading sound in a phrase.) A common example of alliteration is “Peter Piper Picked […]