When quality time is in short supply, this practical parenting book will help you give your child the best possible start in achieving essential skills and developing greater understanding of the world around them. From brushing teeth to growing a sunflower, simple activities with illustrated instructions will help you guide your child in developing and exploring their senses, co-ordination, language skills, numeracy and science interests.

Forget the 10,000 hour rule— what if it’s possible to learn the basics of any new skill in 20 hours or less? Take a moment to consider how many things you want to learn to do. What’s on your list? What’s holding you back from getting started? Are you worried about the time and effort it takes to acquire new skills—time you don’t have and effort you can’t spare? Research suggests it takes 10,000 hours to develop a new skill. In this nonstop world when will you ever find that much time and energy? To make matters worse, the early hours of prac­ticing something new are always the most frustrating. That’s why it’s difficult to learn how to speak a new language, play an instrument, hit a golf ball, or shoot great photos. It’s so much easier to watch TV or surf the web . . . In The First 20 Hours, Josh Kaufman offers a systematic approach to rapid skill acquisition— how to learn any new skill as quickly as possible. His method shows you how to deconstruct com­plex skills, maximize productive practice, and remove common learning barriers. By complet­ing just 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice you’ll go from knowing absolutely nothing to performing noticeably well. Kaufman personally field-tested the meth­ods in this book. You’ll have a front row seat as he develops a personal yoga practice, writes his own web-based computer programs, teaches himself to touch type on a nonstandard key­board, explores the oldest and most complex board game in history, picks up the ukulele, and learns how to windsurf. Here are a few of the sim­ple techniques he teaches: Define your target performance level: Fig­ure out what your desired level of skill looks like, what you’re trying to achieve, and what you’ll be able to do when you’re done. The more specific, the better. Deconstruct the skill: Most of the things we think of as skills are actually bundles of smaller subskills. If you break down the subcompo­nents, it’s easier to figure out which ones are most important and practice those first. Eliminate barriers to practice: Removing common distractions and unnecessary effort makes it much easier to sit down and focus on deliberate practice. Create fast feedback loops: Getting accu­rate, real-time information about how well you’re performing during practice makes it much easier to improve. Whether you want to paint a portrait, launch a start-up, fly an airplane, or juggle flaming chain­saws, The First 20 Hours will help you pick up the basics of any skill in record time . . . and have more fun along the way.

A step-by-step program that shows parents, simply and clearly, how to teach their child to read in just 20 minutes a day.

A surprisingly simple way for students to master any subject--based on one of the world's most popular online courses and the bestselling book A Mind for Numbers A Mind for Numbers and its wildly popular online companion course "Learning How to Learn" have empowered more than two million learners of all ages from around the world to master subjects that they once struggled with. Fans often wish they'd discovered these learning strategies earlier and ask how they can help their kids master these skills as well. Now in this new book for kids and teens, the authors reveal how to make the most of time spent studying. We all have the tools to learn what might not seem to come naturally to us at first--the secret is to understand how the brain works so we can unlock its power. This book explains: Why sometimes letting your mind wander is an important part of the learning process How to avoid "rut think" in order to think outside the box Why having a poor memory can be a good thing The value of metaphors in developing understanding A simple, yet powerful, way to stop procrastinating Filled with illustrations, application questions, and exercises, this book makes learning easy and fun.

This expanded edition of Barbara Doscher's seminal vocal pedagogy work includes a new introduction by John Nix as well as a new appendix with reflections and practical insights from singing teachers. This classic text describes the anatomy and physiology of breathing and phonation and examines acoustics for an understanding of resonation.

WHAT IF YOU COULD BECOME AWESOME AT (ALMOST) ANYTHING? It's not as impossible as you might imagine. If you're the kind of person who thinks ... I need a special type of brain to do math You're either good at sports or you're not I don't have a musical bone in my body Challenge the beliefs that hold you back Whatever you want to be good at, the right mindset can help you achieve your dreams. Times journalist, two-time Olympian, and bestselling author Matthew Syed demonstrates how grit, resilience, and a positive mindset can help in every aspect of your life--from school to friendships to sports to hobbies. Using examples of role models from Serena Williams to Mozart, You Are Awesome shows how success is earned rather than given, and that talent can be acquired through practice and a positive attitude. Practical, insightful, and positive, this is the book to help you build resilience, embrace your mistakes, and grow into a more successful, happier YOU

Following up on her acclaimed Teach Students How to Learn, that describes teaching strategies to facilitate dramatic improvements in student learning and success, Saundra McGuire here presents these "secrets" direct to students. Her message is that "Any student can use simple, straightforward strategies to start making A’s in their courses and enjoy a lifetime of deep, effective learning." Beginning with explaining how expectations about learning, and the study efforts required, differ between college and secondary school, the author introduces her readers, through the concept of metacognition, to the importance and powerful consequences of understanding themselves as learners. This framework and the recommended strategies that support it are useful for anyone moving on to a more advanced stage of education, so this book also has an intended audience of students preparing to go to high school, graduate school, or professional school. In a conversational tone, and liberally illustrated by anecdotes of past students, the author combines introducing readers to concepts like Bloom’s Taxonomy (to illuminate the difference between studying and learning), fixed and growth mindsets, as well as to what brain science has to tell us about rest, nutrition and exercise, together with such highly specific learning strategies as how to read a textbook, manage their time and take tests. With engaging exercises and thought-provoking reflections, this book is an ideal motivational and practical text for study skills and first year experience courses.

For the first time, Basic Montessori opens the celebrated philosophy and method to a more general public. David Gettman has devised a clear and modern explanation of Montessori's revolutionary ideas about early intellectual development, and provides a step-by-step guide to the Montessori learning activities most commonly used with under-fives. These include activities for introducing reading and writing, counting and decimal concepts, science, and geography, as well as activities that help develop the child's practical and sensorial skills.

Teaching Myself to See deals with Tito's struggles to participate in a world full of visual details. As a person with autism, Tito is visually selective, processing the myriad of details seeping in through the eye rather than the whole. Tracing Tito's experiences to learn to see in his own, "hyper-visual" way, through art, through magazines, through everyday life, Teaching Myself to See is a work of auto-anthropology, capturing in words, sentences, paragraphs, poems, a way of seeing that might seem so bewildering that doctors and psychologists told his mother he wouldn't be able to think. This book proves otherwise. By teaching us to look through his eyes, Tito shows us the miracle and immense complexity of sight, of neuro-atypicals and neuro-typicals alike.

Ellery’s grief over the loss of her younger sister is pushing her down a dark path in this heartwrenching story of loss and the journey to hope that’s perfect for fans of Girl in Pieces and All the Bright Places. Ellery doesn’t want to live anymore. She’s unable to bear the pain of losing her younger sister to a car accident she blames herself for, or face the rest of her broken family. So, she’s made a plan—bought the gun, arranged for her funeral, and picked the day. Everything has fallen into place. Then, on the day she intends to take her own life, she meets Colter, a boy who recognizes her desperation and becomes determined to stop her. Ellery won’t be swayed so easily, but as she struggles with her hopelessness it becomes clear Colter has good reasons for his vigilance—deep, personal reasons. And whether Ellery likes it or not, he can’t let go.