Happy Fourth of July!
I hope you're already enjoying the rare occurrence of a Fourth of July that also falls on a Saturday. It won't happen again until 2037, so make the most of it!
We've got a short one this week, showcasing the Independence Project entries alongside some tips, tools, and trends to buoy your summer learning.
- Charlie (the OpenEd newsletter guy)
P.S. Fall applications are closed for the general public, but we are holding the door open through July 10 for friends and family (that means you!).
Life, Liberty, and a LEGO Bird
We asked you to share something your kids were building or making for America's 250th. Here’s a sampling of what came in:
Vienna turned a craft idea into a real business: an Etsy shop called MinisbyVi and a table she talked her way into at the local farm market.
Gracelyn painted an American flag with fireworks bursting overhead.
Clare set up shop at the one stop sign in her town, selling strawberry starts from her garden bed.
Andrew baked an American flag cake to mark the country turning 250.
Ronan also baked an American flag cake and shared it with his family.
Dulce drew Lady Liberty passing the torch to young America.
Easton constructed a bird out of LEGO – representing freedom and flying to new heights.
Of course, the American experiment in independence is never finished – you can still submit any summer projects you want us to feature in an upcoming newsletter.
This Week in Open Education
Tools
Practical-life skills that build a preschooler's confidence. (Montessori From the Heart)
A July reading list built for kids - not a curriculum committee. (Raising Lifelong Learners)
Khan Academy's guide to the early-learning apps (Khan Academy)
Five sensory bins preschool moms keep coming back to. (Anya Montessori)
A boredom-busting summer to-do list built for the exact moment "I'm bored" starts on repeat. (Julie Bogart)
Trends
Mike Rowe puts the "can AI actually fix our schools" question to the founder of the Alpha School’s 2-hour school day. (Mike Rowe)
Plumbers are cashing in, but new numbers show the odds may still stack against workers who skip the degree. (Joanne Jacobs)
Homeschool hot takes on unschooling, curriculum overload, and why starting later might be fine. (Christy-Faith)
What if "gifted" is the label that's actually failing gifted kids. (The 74 Million)
A simple writing prompt turns into a case for why gratitude has to be taught, not assumed. (Fordham Institute)
PODCAST: Third Grade Is Too Late to Wait
Not every summer read comes easily. If your child slows down, guesses at words, or reads a sentence three times and still cannot tell you what happened, it is worth a closer look, and you do not have to wait for Fall to do it.
We recently sat down with Faye Casell, a licensed dyslexia therapist who spent two decades in special education.
Highlights:
Why waiting for the standard third-grade diagnosis timeline cuts a struggling reader's odds of catching up in half, and stretches the time it takes to fix threefold
The ten-minute test Faye Casell says any parent can run at the kitchen table tonight, no referral required
Why a child who's acing every level of her reading app can still freeze on a word as simple as cat when there's no screen between her and the page
We also turned Faye’s advice into a resource list any parent can use this week:
Fourth of July Trivia
Which two founding presidents died on the same day - the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration?
That's all for this week!
