Browsing the colorful aisles of a toy store or pages of an ecommerce site, you could easily think that vibrant hues, flashing lights and lots of noise are required for every baby toy.

Whether going off to school for the first time or starting another year, experts agree that a child who feels capable and secure is set up for school success. 

The best backyards have a few things in common: they offer kids a place to explore, experiment, run, jump, learn and collaborate in a safe, familiar environment. The best part: it’s easy and inexpensive to create a backyard space that’s exciting and fun for your child.

In this episode of the "Dear Highlights" podcast, Christine French Cully, Editor-in-Chief, and Hillary Bates, Director of Purpose and Impact, are joined by Highlights CEO Kent Johnson.

Handwriting is so much more than just being about to write a sentence or your name. Here are 7 reasons why handwriting is key to academic and personal success.

We cannot be the best versions of ourselves and form the best bonds with our kids if we are completely exhausted. Good sleep is crucial for both parents and children.

From homework to open houses and everything in between, keeping up with your child’s school year can often feel like a full-time job. 

Does your kid seem to want everything delivered on a silver platter? Learn how to identify entitled behavior from our panel of experts: 

In this Dear Highlights podcast, Christine French Cully, Highlights Editor-in-Chief, and Hillary Bates, Director of Purpose and Impact, talk with Dr.

As children grow, it’s normal for them to experience ups and downs day-to-day, depending on what’s happening at school and with friends and family.

Holidays are times of joyful gatherings and fun traditions for families all over the world. From special meals to funny characters to celebrating the values that unite us, each culture brings its own flair to the festivities — during the winter holidays and throughout the year.

Gratitude is the appreciation of good things in our lives and in the world, accompanied by a sense of thankfulness and a desire to express it. Nurturing gratitude helps children develop empathy, resilience, and a positive outlook—skills that benefit them throughout life.

Let’s admit it: In many ways, summer is as much a relief to adults as it is to kids. But as we enjoy the lazy days of swimming pools and sleepovers, there may still be one little worry in the back of our minds: the so-called “summer slide.”

Christine French Cully, Highlights Editor-in-Chief, and Hillary Bates, Director of Purpose and Impact, sit down with Dr. Emily Oster, an economist at Brown University, to discuss how to understand data to improve decision making for parents.  

Kids need time to prepare emotionally and physically for the first day of school. This back-to-school guide provides 5 tips to help promote school readiness, as well as fun and engaging Highlights products that will set kids up for back-to-school success.

Every parent has experienced it. The anticipation of catching up with your child after a long week, the mental planning of questions to keep dialogue going. You begin the conversation with an easy ask, hoping to grease the wheels for a long discussion: “How was school today?” 

For years, the National Education Association, the National PTA, and other experts have been actively campaigning for schools to take a more moderate approach to homework

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is a very important time for me and my children. When my kids were little, I often asked them, “Where are GongGong (grandpa) and PoPo (grandma) from? Where is MaMa from?” 

The word on the street for many parents of school-aged kids is that kindergarten is the new first grade. It’s no secret that kindergarten today is much more academically rigorous than kindergarten used to be, with less play and longer hours.

Raising a reader in an increasingly screen-filled world can seem like an impossible and, sometimes, unnecessary or obsolete pursuit. But don’t give up: Reading will always be a timeless pleasure and the foundation of all learning. 

There are few things more adorable than a stack of colorful and engaging board books waiting at home for your baby.

But board books are much more than a design accessory.

Playing with a pal is not just board games, backyard soccer, slime, bikes and lemonade stands. It’s actually shoring up your child’s mental health, banking trust and developing security that can be drawn on for years to come.

Got a kid who thinks the grass is always greener in their best friend’s yard? Here's how to help.

This Dear Highlights podcast discusses navigating friendships, both the fun and the challenging. Highlights receives more mail about friendship, a vital part of a kid’s social-emotional development, than any other subject. 

True or false: Teaching good manners should begin when your children are babies. 

True. The ways parents and babies relate to each other, such as by playing games and eating together, lead to developmentally appropriate group behavior, also known as good manners. 

I love sharing the traditions of Hanukkah with my children and extended family because it’s important to me to pass down the rituals of Judaism that my ancestors have been following for thousands of years.

The internet was made for posts about cats and kids. But it’s also a massive network storing information about all of us, including kids. How should we think about kids’ privacy online?

Hanh Bui fled her homeland of Vietnam as a child. She remembers the challenges of arriving in a new country, with new customs, language and expectations.

There is no perfect formula or kindergarten readiness checklist to follow, but understanding what kids learn in kindergarten, what they do during their day, and how early childhood learning happens can help parents decide if it is the right time to enroll.

Kids love to imagine what could be – like traveling to mystical lands or exploring the furthest reaches of our universe. 

No matter the kid, late toilet trained or early, older child or youngest sib, most preschoolers delight in potty talk. They pontificate on poop and blab about butts anytime and anywhere. There are three big reasons why:

Kids are proud of what they can do. 

A first grade assignment encouraging students to write about something they knew well sparked a literary career for Nia Mya Reese. 

Let’s be honest: Parenting isn’t all sweet birth announcements and adorable family photos. Being a parent means being there for those messy moments in between — like midnight bed wetting, toddler meltdowns and pre-teen attitudes. 

It all started with a bag of plagues.

When you volunteer as a family, you give kids an up close and personal way to observe life’s complexities and to see how the world looks from another perspective. Here's how to get involved and enjoy volunteering together.

In this “Dear Highlights” episode, Christine French Cully, Editor-in-Chief, and Hillary Bates, Director of Purpose and Impact, talk with Nelba Marquez-Greene, founder of the

While homework in elementary school is usually minimal, your child has many years of studying ahead of them. Teaching study skills to kids now – in age-appropriate ways – can pay dividends later as they progress through middle and high school.

While there’s no single childhood trait that guarantees a happy, healthy adulthood, scientists increasingly believe that kids who possess self-control may have a leg up on the competition.

The magic of the holidays is here! Or it will be as soon as you can somehow magically summon up ideas for yet. another. list. of gifts for kids.

As November approaches and election conversations surround us, conversations about politics can be intense. Children are not immune.

In this “Dear Highlights” episode, Christine French Cully, Highlight’s Editor in Chief, and Hillary Bates, Director of Purpose and Impact, welcome back parenting educator Jennifer Miller to talk about social aggressi

In this “Dear Highlights” podcast Editor-in-Chief Christine French Cully and her guest, educational psychologist Michele Borba, EdD, discuss how the pandemic has affected children as thei

A great outdoor space for a baby or toddler doesn’t have to be huge or cost a fortune. All you need is a safe, obstruction-free patio, porch or grassy patch with a shady area nearby where your cutie can test new skills, investigate, play and experiment.

Caring for a sick child can tug at a parent’s heartstrings, but doing so while trying to also juggle the demands of a job can induce feelings of anxiety or even panic. A meeting vs a doctor appointment. A scheduled shift vs the necessity of being home with your child.

For parents, few school-related things are as painful as seeing your child excluded. You worry that being left out could lead to emotional problems and other consequences down the road. Although you can’t outlaw cliques, there are moves to make to help your child cope.

Finding the perfect gifts for kids can be tough. What they like today, they might ignore tomorrow. Unfortunately, this means holiday and birthday tokens often end up unused, gathering dust in a closet or toy bin.

For 75 years, Highlights magazine has received thousands of letters and email from kids every year, and we answer every single one. “Dear Highlights” has always served as a way to help ease children’s concerns and help encourage them to become their best selves.

Kate Swenson is the owner of the blog, "Finding Cooper's Voice." In this very personal essay, Kate shares the advice that she wants every parent of a special needs child to know. 

One of the most memorable parts of raising a child is recounting all the hilarious things they say when they’re little. Whether it’s pronouncing “blueberry” as “boodiddy,” or giving you advice on how to do your job, kids come up with some pretty funny stuff.

Go ahead. Pump up the volume. We’ve found tunes for all seasons and reasons.

Few parents have heard the term “school refusal,” but many families are experiencing it. In fact, since the pandemic, it’s a big problem. Missing a lot of school causes cognitive–academic, social and behavioral deficits for students.

Books are a perfect way to broaden your baby’s horizon and vocabulary.

Hot toys come and go, but classics like the 6 listed here will never slip out of fashion. We scouted the shelves for the best of the best to create this timeless list of must-have developmental toys for curious babies and educational toys for toddlers. 

Here are simple ways to boost kids’ interest in food, desire for adventure and appreciation for what goes on in the kitchen.

It’s no secret that Highlights has some of the best puzzles for kids. But where do they come from? How are puzzles made?

Don’t be afraid to let your kids get a little wild with rough-and-tumble play. A little horseplay helps them grow!

These 5 tips will help you feel at ease when cooking with kids, while also helping your child feel at ease shopping for and chopping veggies, measuring ingredients and helping you cook and serve dinner. 

Tell us more about the history of Juneteenth.

Kids write to Highlights to tell us how they feel about their bodies. And the news is not good. When most adults are also unhappy with their bodies, how can we help kids to relate to their bodies, and to food, in a positive way?

When experts talk about executive function, they’re referring to the set of mental abilities that are essential to kids learning at home and in school. Children aren’t born with these mental abilities, but they are pre-wired to develop them. 

There are many reasons why the holiday season can hurt. We see ads and movies depicting this time of year as joyful and connected. But some families are experiencing hardships – the loss of a job, or a devastating illness or grief after losing a loved one.

Even before they invent spelling based on sounds, preschoolers are starting to grasp rules about how letters go together to form words.

The new Highlights CoComelon mini magazine combines two childhood favorites into a one-of-a-kind monthly subscription that encourages families to smile, snuggle and sing together.

 Dear Highlights,

Some days it seems as if mass shootings, toxic spills and natural disasters are making news with alarming frequency. And chances are your school-age child will learn about these shocking global events and tragedies, whether you discuss them at home or not. 

Try these 6 simple eating tips for raising a real foodie under your roof! Here are simple ways to boost kids’ interest in food, desire for adventure and appreciation for what goes on in the kitchen. 

No matter where or how your child uses High Five magazine, it’s all a positive literary experience. Here are 5 reasons why High Five magazine is great for your preschooler: 

In 2017, Darius Brown watched the coverage of hurricanes Harvey and Irma and noticed that so many dogs needed help. The disasters displaced the pups, and the dogs overwhelmed animal shelters. 

Sand and sun – here you come! You’ve got your beach trip booked and are already dreaming of blue skies and boardwalks. BUT – you’ve still got your to-do list standing between you and the soothing sound of lapping waves. 

When school lets out, a whole new world opens. For some kids, that means splashy pool days, sidewalk chalk and stacks of library books. For others, it means quiet days at home, skipped lunches and fewer chances to learn or play. That gap isn't fair.

As soon as young adults step foot on a college campus, they’re flooded with credit card offers. Many sign up for them and immediately max them out. Others might sign up for one and barely use it — avoiding spending money they don’t have. 

For many parents, a child talking back or being rude is met with immediate anger or sternness—perhaps an instinctual response from their own upbringing or beliefs about respecting our elders.

From the time they’re born, babies are driven by an overwhelming (and, OK, self-centered) desire to eat, cry, coo, giggle, roll over, stare (at you) and swipe at anything that looks remotely appealing.

It’s a me-first existence—but one that will change.

I was born and raised in Mexico City and ironically, as soon as I left my country 17 years ago, I started paying more attention to how I celebrate my Mexican traditions, like Day of The Dead, and magically they got a whole new and powerful meaning.  

Raising children to be empathetic and kind toward other people — beyond just friends and family members — can feel like a daunting job for many parents.

Parents Trent and Carly Shepherd join Christine French Cully, Highlights’ Editor-in-Chief, and Hillary Bates, Director of Purpose and Impact, on the Dear Highlights podcast to share more about a major lifestyle chang