Today is Earth Day!  Started in 1970 and led by the actions of Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, Earth Day was created to draw attention to the polluted state of the air, forests and rivers in the U.S. Each year focuses on a specific theme and the theme for this year year is "The Face of Climate Change". 

Climate change can seem like a remote problem for our leaders, but the fact is that it's already impacting real people, animals, and beloved places.  

Planning activities outside of your normal schedule to recognize Earth Day may be a tall order for some parents, so how about taking your kiddos on a Virtual Field Trip to an exotic location like Antarctica or explore the vast solar system? 

Have you heard of Minecraft? If you have a gamer in the house, you may be familiar with it, as it’s one of the most popular games of all time, having sold more than 20 million copies. Considering how simple the concept is, and compared to some of the stunningly realistic visuals of many modern games, this humble 8-bit building game might seem like an unlikely best-seller. But in fact, gamers of all ages have been engrossed by it. The concept is simple: players build with 3D cubes (a bit like virtual LEGOs) in an infinite “sandbox” game world, with no specific goals or levels to beat.

Players simply explore, find natural resources, build, and craft tools. In survival mode, players need to make sure they find food and other necessities, while protecting themselves from monsters. But in creative mode, the sky is the limit, with endless resources and health, no enemies, and the ability to fly freely around the game world.

There is no denying that to help our kids grow up happy, healthy  and develop into successful adults, we need to encourage them to be physically active and incorporate fitness into their everyday lives in a fun and challenging way so they can grow up with an already established routine that incorporates healthy habits.  

A quick Google search on “exercise and children’s learning” will provide you with a ton of information about the various studies done proving that regular exercise and physical activity among children will not only improve their overall health and fitness, it can also improve their learning capabilities in school, including their comprehension and test-taking skills.

With data like that available, it’s shocking that so many school systems are cutting physical education programs.

As I was driving my ten year old daughter to one of her many activities a few weeks ago, she asked me a question that made me break out in a sweat…

“Mom, have you heard of Fibonacci?”

“I’m sorry dear, have I heard of the what?”

“The Fib-O-nacci sequence, Mom.”

As we sat there in a longer than acceptable awkward silence, I racked my brain trying to figure out what it could be. My daughter is quite the fashionista – so maybe it’s an Italian fashion designer? Or maybe it’s some slang term the young kiddos are using nowadays.