Every parent has a few unique tips and tricks that really work! We’ve asked parents and caregivers to share their favorite parenting ideas. Read through the entries below—you’re sure to find a few helpful suggestions.

Dough Alphabet
Elisabeth Garland
Altoona, IA
1 child: age 4

My daughter is starting kindergarten next year, and I wanted to find a fun way to help her practice the alphabet. I found it! I give her a piece of paper with all the letters of the alphabet printed on it. Then, I give her some soft clay or dough. She makes each letter out of the dough and tells me the name of each letter she made.

Making Time for Reading
Bob Murphy
Wichita, KS
3 children: ages 3, 6 and 8

Our household takes trips to the library every Saturday. We check out enough books to read every night before bed. These habits have given the kids a real love of books.

Math Flash Card Fun
Blair Bass
New York, NY
2 children: ages 7 and 9

To help my 2nd and 4th graders remember their math, I bought addition and multiplication flash cards. Each week, I give them one minute to correctly answer 20 cards. If they do it, they get a special treat that week, like a movie night or a trip to get ice cream.

Educational TV
Michelle Jackson
Corvallis, OR
1 child: age 10

My daughter and I watch an educational TV program once or twice a week. We like the Discovery Channel, National Geographic or Animal Planet. We talk about what we’ve watched afterward.

Summer Journaling
Elise Shumway
Centerville, UT
4 children: ages 6, 8, 9 and 11

My boys keep a summer journal. They write in it every few days—usually about the things they have done that day or week. Often, they like to read to me what they have written.

Curiosity List
Jeremy Potts
Narberth, PA
2 children: ages 4 and 6

When summer starts, I help my kids make a list of things they are curious about. We pick out one thing from each kid’s list, and I tell them what I know about it. Or we look up information on the computer.

Letters to Grandparents
Ginny Wolfe
Middletown, CT
2 children: ages 7 and 11

Grandpa and Grandma live in California. We’re on the East Coast, so the kids have gotten in the habit of writing to their grandparents every one to two weeks. They write about their summer, and my parents are happy to get the letters.

Library Contest
Ann Elgin
Amherst, MA
2 children: ages 6 and 9

My children love the library’s summer reading challenge. Every summer they get a piece of paper with a path on it. For every book they read, they get to fill in one of the squares on the path. The kids end up reading a ton, and they get prizes along the way and at the end.