A father reads to his pre-school children.

You know, don’t you, that being a parent or a caregiver to children is the most important job in the world.

Yet kids don’t come with “how-to-raise-me” training manuals.

The can help you. It is a kind of tool-box for all families with children under the age of ten. It makes parent involvement meaningful and fun.

To see what it looks like, click here.

Using the Journal and doing the FREE FAMILY ACTIVITIES together can have great benefits! They can:

Here’s how to use the system to help you make the most of your time with your kids:

1) Buy a copy, if you don’t already have one. Order here.

2) Read the Guide to Using the that is inside. It explains why reading aloud to children is so important, and it tells how to use the five sections.

3) Each month, come back to this website and download a new FREE Family Activity. Do it with your children.

4) Keep your in a place where children can easily reach it. Encourage kids to write in it, add to it, decorate it, show it to others – be proud of it. It is a record of your family’s life together.

We want to tell you a bit about the FREE FAMILY ACTIVITIES. They were written by parents and grandparents who at one time were also classroom teachers.

It doesn’t really matter what order you do the FAMILY ACTIVITIES in, but we recommend you try them all. (We use numbers on them to identify them, not to show any sequence.) The first two FAMILY ACTIVITIES are basic ones and always available on the website. The others change each month. Whenever you start is just fine.

Some activities you’ll want to do over and over. Others might be one-time adventures. Some activities build language skills – vocabulary, reading, writing, reflection, understanding. Some activities teach children to observe. They all are intended to help you and your children converse together about what you think, feel, notice, do, or want.

We hope you do the FAMILY ACTIVITIES with an attitude of fun. If you want to change them around a bit, go ahead. If your children resist an activity, it’s okay to pass on that one. But we suggest you read it for yourself anyway, because you might think of a different way to accomplish the same goal.

There are other helpful things on this website, also.

For example, if you want to acknowledge your child for reading a certain number of books, or achieving something else, you can download a Certificate of Achievement and fill it out with his or her name. Click here to see one.

Or if you’re looking for a suggestion for a good book to give a child, check our Best Books page for ideas. These lists were made up by an expert in children’s literature. We also have a list of links to other great educational web sites. Click here to view our Links Page.

You know, many people say that parents are a child’s first and most important teacher. We agree with that. And we expect you want to invest your time where it counts, where it really counts. That’s in your kids.

So please use your with loving and fun. It can give your children the advantage.

We also suggest that you grown-ups occasionally sit down with the Journal and look through it and acknowledge what you’ve done together with your children.