With the end of the school year quickly approaching, Engineering the ABC’s makes a wonderful teacher or classroom gift.  And for a limited time, you can purchase personalized copies with FREE Shipping. Just click on either the title or the word “purchase” to reserve your copies today!

Some ways Engineering the ABC’s can be used in the elementary classroom are:

• Colorful, large pictures with independent blocks of text make the book a versatile read-aloud book for Preschool-3rd grade

• “Let’s Discover” math/history questions & cultural trivia bits extend the learning beyond English &Language Arts

• Math/History questions & cultural trivia bits offer text to self and text to world connections

• Wide range of topics makes ABC’s well suited for further reading and deeper research projects

• Powerful text to world/self connections when used in combination with hands-on engineering activities

Engineers are not born, they are inspired.  I am an engineer, but did  not grow up taking things apart, then putting them back together; OR helping my dad with fix-it jobs around the house; OR playing with Legos.  What I did grow up with was a natural curiosity for the world and a love for solving puzzles.

I was not born an engineer, I was inspired – by a movie when I was 14.  I had not a trace  of consideration for engineering before seeing that movie.  I had 9 years of school and over 4500 days of living -plenty of opportunities to be inspired – before seeing that movie.

My 6 year old daughter was not born an engineer.  In fact, most people look at her older brother and say he has “engineer” written all over him.  My daughter is the creative one and my son is the analytical one, yet my daughter is inspired by our comments – “you are a very creative paper engineer.”

What are some ways you can inspire the engineer within your child?