Opening Minds

Opening Minds is a wonderful resource full of materials for parents of elementary and middle school children who want to expand their learning at home. Though not a replacement for the standard curriculum of the grades, it provides parents with a variety of tools to promote and engage children’s thinking outside the classroom.

When schools, libraries, daycares, and playgrounds closed during the pandemic, children were forced to spend a lot of time at home. These closures left parents responsible for providing educational opportunities for their children to ensure they did not fall behind academically. Today, even with schools and other centers of learning reopened, it is clear that online, in-home learning is here to stay.

Opening Minds is a wonderful resource full of materials for parents of elementary and middle school children who want to expand their learning at home. Though it is not intended to replace or be a substitute for the standard curriculum of the grades, it provides parents with a variety of tools to promote and engage children’s thinking across various curriculum areas – critical thinking that can serve children at any grade level and give them a leg up to deal with whatever they will face.

Preface

Introduction

1. Opening Minds: What’s the Big Idea?

2. Getting Started

3. Thinking Operations: Those Higher Order Mental Tasks That Engage Minds

4. Introduction to the Thinking Activities: More Than You Wanted to Know

5. Preparing

6. Thinking Activities for Pre-and Emerging Readers

7. Thinking Activities for Middle Grade Students

8. Conclusion

Bibliography

About the Author