School & learning, explained the way a teacher would at pickup
Is my child on track? When do kids actually learn to read, or tell time, or stop counting on their fingers? And what does that "new math" homework want from us? Short, practical answers for parents of Pre-K through 6th grade kids, written by two sisters, Emily and Samantha, who have taught and tutored this stuff for years. 117 articles so far, a new one most days.
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School Life & Milestones
What kids learn in each grade, kindergarten readiness, homework routines, report cards and everything else that comes with school life.
40 articles →
Reading & Writing
How children learn to read and write: phonics, sight words, spelling, handwriting and the jump from picture books to chapter books.
39 articles →
Math, Time & Money
From counting to times tables: telling time, money skills, math facts fluency and practicing at home without a battle.
38 articles →New this week
Reading fluency: why speed and expression matter more than you'd think
Series books: why reading 40 Magic Tree Houses in a row is fine
When your child's best friend moves away
Kindergarten, transitional kindergarten or one more year of preschool?
Decimals and money: the easiest way into tenths and hundredths
'Sound it out' isn't always the answer: what to say when they're stuck on a word
Halloween at school: costume rules, the parade and the kid who hates it all
Left-handed writers: what to watch, what to ignore
Geometry in elementary school: shapes, angles and why the pattern blocks matter
If you only read six
- When do kids learn to read? A realistic timeline by age
- Is your child ready for kindergarten? What teachers actually look for
- Homework without the nightly battle: routines that stick
- Times tables: the order that makes multiplication facts stick
- When do kids learn to tell time? (And why analog clocks still matter)
- How to get real answers out of “How was school?”
Two sisters, one kitchen-table project
Mokifun started as a shared notes file between two sisters. Emily taught kindergarten and first grade and kept getting the same questions at pickup: is it normal that he still guesses at words, should she know her letters by now? Samantha tutored upper-elementary math and fielded the other half: why is 7×8 so hard, what on earth is a number bond, how do I help with homework I don't understand myself.
The notes file became a website. It's still just the two of us, writing in the evenings after our own kids are in bed, and we still argue about the Oxford comma. More about us and how we work →