1. On the advice of the writers of the various books it was decided not to provide answers in the back of each book. The writers believed that some children would short circuit the thinking process when challenged and revert to the answers if they were too readily available. If you wish to have the answers accessible for you and/or children, please feel free to download them from our site.

2. Senior Kindergarten and Grade One

We have not provided answers for these books because we anticipated that most of the children will be doing the activities under the guidance or watchful eye of a parent. We encourage parents to review your children's work at this level on a daily basis.

3. Answers will Vary. One of the features and goals of the Ontario curriculum is the fostering of critical thinking skills. Our books have been created by Ontario teachers to support this goal. The majority of activities will not have exact answers, but responses that encourage thinking and deliberation by your child. Your child will be asked his/her opinion, favourite things, information about him/herself etc. All these responses will vary from child to child. Because the answers vary, this does not mean that parents cannot or should not review the work done by their children. We strongly encourage that you review (not mark) your child's work on a weekly basis.

a. Ask your child what activities he/she enjoyed the most. We provide follow up activities, web sites and books that may be of interest to your child. You might wish to have a family outing that relates to the enjoyed theme.

b. Use the review as an opportunity to dialogue with your child. Where the books ask your child to list his/her favourite things, ask why or what makes it/them special and perhaps share what would be your favourite things. It's amazing what you might learn about your child, and what he/she might learn about you.

c. If your child encounters difficulty in doing an activity, it might be helpful for him/her to receive some tips from parents or siblings. If this doesn't help, just skip the activity. Your child can do it later in the fall on P.A. days etc., likely after the concepts have been reviewed by his/her classroom teacher.

d. Teachable or "Parentable" Moments. You may find some of your child's answer's interesting and worthy of discussion with them. For example, your child's response to "Name 2 healthy snacks" might be potato chips and ice cream. In your review he/she might tell you that the potato is a vegetable and ice cream is a dairy product. Here would be your opportunity "parentable" moment, to talk about the health concerns of too much fat and too much sugar.

5. Dr. Don's Notes. In spite of our best editing efforts, our first edition books have a few errors. These notes show the corrections and in some cases give further clues to solving the questions.

6. Kids are Kids and Summer is Summer All the books were created so that children would enjoy the activities while reinforcing their previous year's concepts and being introduced to some themes that they will be studying in the coming school year. Allow your child to move through the book at his/her own pace. Learning is fun. Your support and encouragement in the use of the Summer Advantage book will help foster this concept for your child.