When I’m not with my family or obsessively shopping on the Internet, I’m an educational consultant. And I was just named one of Education.com’s JustAsk Experts. Education.com has some amazing resources, including a community, articles, and plenty of activities.

My daughter and I signed up for the Summer Activities Challenge–just complete 20 activities by August 31, 2009, and you’ll get a certificate of achievement and even be entered to win some prizes.

Summer is a great time for enrichment activities. Free from the daily grind of classes and homework, your child can explore his or her creative side.

Shop for art supplies on sale at local craft stores, or find wholesale arts and crafts supplies online at DollarDays. Many moms have a craft box (or craft closet) full of supplies to keep their kids occupied during school vacations and on rainy weekends.

While some parents splurge on summer art classes and camps, activity books can inspire at a much lower price tag. LittleMissMatched’s The Artist in Me! costs under $12 at Amazon.

I wasn’t bored much growing up. On rainy days and lazy Saturday afternoons, I’d be engaged in some craft project or interesting game. My mother, a teacher, has a gift for finding and organizing fun activities on a moment’s notice. Now that I’m a mom, I appreciate how easy she made it all look.

Some organized moms dedicate entire closets to craft supplies and keep file folders full of craft-ideas clipped from magazines and newspapers on-hand. But if that’s not your style, you can still entertain and educate your children with the fabulous art kits from Eye Can Art.

As part of the Love of Learning Month, Little Partners is giving away 20 Learning Towers (ARV $200 each). Mamanista has one to give away to a lucky reader.  Check the Love of Learning Month to find out which 19 other bloggers are giving away one, too!
In December, Debbie reviewed the Learning Tower, which was one of our Hottest Holiday Toys:
If you love cooking, the Learning Tower from Little Partners is a must have. Kids love to help in the kitchen, and it’s a lot easier if they aren’t perched precariously on …

One of our hot holiday toy picks for 2008, TOOBEEZ are a toy the whole family will enjoy.
TOOBEEZ can best be described as giant Tinker Toys. The TOOBEEZ building system consists of different sized tubes and connecting spheres.
Construction is easy. Just insert either end of the tube into one of the sphere’s 10 keyholes and twist the tube’s rotating end to “lock” it in place.
TOOBEEZ encourage creative open-ended play. While TOOBEEZ come with instructions for building dozens of fun structures, the only limit is your imagination. Your kids (ages 4+) will learn spatial relations as …

Imagine a toy that is reusable, suitable for toddlers, preschoolers, and school-aged children, rolls up for storage, and inspires creativity without any mess–and you’ll have Aquadoodle.  My daughter will draw all day long, but she always wants a clean page.  We save a few of her paintings, but mainly she just enjoys doodling. Since she is not attached to any of her masterpieces quite yet, it seems a shame to fill page after page, wasting all those trees.  So, I was eager to see if she would take to an …

Prima Princessa is a cheerful cartoon fairy who wants to share her love of ballet with your child.  She floats, flitters, and glides through a condensed version of Swan Lake, performed by the Paris Opera Ballet. Interspersed with the dancing are clips of preschool girls learning dance steps, young students from the School of American Ballet at Lincoln Center rehearsing, and toys and animals dancing about. My toddler especially enjoys the critters, exclaiming, “That’s Funny! Flamingo dancing!”
By encouraging activity along with an interest in the arts, this sweet video answers …

The scent of hay, peanuts, and cotton candy immediately brings me back to the circus. I can vividly recall the antics of the clowns, the grace and courage of the acrobats, and the awesome power of the animals.
Our family would take the train into Madison Square Garden and see the whole place transformed into a wonderland of childhood fantasies.  At the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, nothing was as it seemed–in fact, it was much, much better.
As a special birthday treat (for me) this October, I’m going to …

TV viewing by young children skyrockets during the summer months as exhausted parents look for ways to fill the day.  According to the Smart Television Alliance, children’s television viewing during the summer increases 150 percent compared to the rest of the year. 
The AAP recommends no television under age 2 and limited television by children above age 2, but studies published in Parents Magazine show that a majority of parents do not abide by the recommendation. In my experience, TV viewing escalates during the summer months as parents who want the3 best …