Do you love music?  Do you believe in the importance of music in our lives?  Do you want your children to love music, too? It may seem hard to believe, but you really can get your children to love and appreciate music with something as simple as kazoos.

Sometimes we think that if our child doesn't show signs of musical talent or we can't afford music instruments and/or music lessons that it will be hard to involve them in music and help them appreciate all that music has to offer. 

When I was a kid, we didn't have musical instruments. We were lucky if we had money for musical toys. But we always had combs and waxed paper and so we always were able to make our own kazoos.  Kazoos are really great ways to introduce kids to the wonders of music!

So you have an introverted child. Now what?  If you're an introvert yourself, your child's behavior is probably not very puzzling to you, but if you're an extrovert, you might be wondering what's "wrong" with your child. You might be thinking your child is having problems socializing. Maybe, you think, it would be good for your child if you try to push her out of her comfort zone, get her out of her room, spend more time with friends, lots of friends.

So what do you do with your little introvert?  Well, one thing not to do is push her into lots of activities with lots of other kids. Let her enjoy her time alone and give her a chance to recharge her emotional batteries. That's one tip, but there are other things to keep in mind as you raise your introverted child.

Words!  Words!  Words!  I LOVE words.  But then I'm a linguist, so I guess that explains it. I love language and everything about it -- that includes words. So how could I not be thrilled about Thesaurus Day?

I thought it might be a good time to suggest a few thesauruses for kids.  Wait...is it thesauruses or thesauri?  Don't you hate those words with plurals that seem to be a mouthful?  Why are some people unsure about such plurals? "Thesaurus" is a Greek word and traditionally when English borrowed a word from another language, the plural was formed using the method of forming plurals from the language the word was borrowed from.

The plural of Greek words ending in -us is formed by changing the -us to -i.  That's why the plural of "nucleus" is "nuclei."  Wouldn't it sound odd to say "nucleuses"?  Well, maybe not to everyone.  Anyway, the plural in Greek of "thesaurus" should actually be "thesauri." Eventually, though, what happens with words borrowed from another language is that people begin to use English rules to form plurals. That's why we get "thesauruses."  That's a mouthful, though, so people get a bit uncomfortable with it and sense it's not quite right.  But it is.

Whether you say "thesauruses" or "thesauri" is not really the point, though!  The point is that you want to help your child expand her vocabulary or nurture his love of words and getting a thesaurus for your child is a great way to do that!

Sometimes I think that the National and International focus days were created with me in mind. But then maybe it's just that I focus on those days of interest to me. Maybe it's a little bit of both! Anyway, today is Kid Inventions Day! Inventing is related to creativity - at least I think it is! But I'm not the only one who thinks so. Creativity and invention are closely related because an inventor needs to be able to view the world with an open mind. But what does that mean? It means that a potential inventor needs to be able to see the world and its problems with an open mind and come up with new ways to solve those problems. It doesn't matter how big or how small the problems are. What matters is how the problems can be solved! Is your child creative? Open minded? Is your child able to recognize problems and ponder solutions? If so, you might want to help your child think about how to be an inventor!