Reading Kingdom Blog https://blog.readingkingdom.com Teaching the World to Read English, One Child at a Time Sun, 08 Mar 2026 19:42:30 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://blog.readingkingdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/favicon.ico Reading Kingdom Blog https://blog.readingkingdom.com 32 32 Recent discoveries on the acquisition of the highest levels of human performance https://blog.readingkingdom.com/recent-discoveries-on-the-acquisition-of-the-highest-levels-of-human-performance/ Tue, 26 May 2026 17:00:00 +0000 https://blog.readingkingdom.com/?p=24624 by Arne Güllich, Michael Barth, David Z. Hambrick, and Brooke N. Macnamara The authors analyze the career trajectories of top performers across multiple domains, including Nobel laureates, elite chess players, Olympic gold medalists, and more. Their central finding challenges a common belief. Intensive, single-discipline training at a young age does confer an early advantage, but this advantage fades over time....

The post Recent discoveries on the acquisition of the highest levels of human performance appeared first on Reading Kingdom Blog.

]]> People living alone with pets kept their mental sharpness just as well as those living with family. https://blog.readingkingdom.com/people-living-alone-with-pets-kept-their-mental-sharpness-just-as-well-as-those-living-with-family/ Tue, 19 May 2026 15:38:00 +0000 https://blog.readingkingdom.com/?p=24472 Findings In this cohort study of 7945 participants 50 years and older, pet ownership was associated with slower rates of decline in verbal memory and verbal fluency among individuals living alone, but not among those living with others. Pet ownership offset the association between living alone and declining rates of verbal memory and verbal fluency. Meaning These findings suggest that...

The post People living alone with pets kept their mental sharpness just as well as those living with family. appeared first on Reading Kingdom Blog.

]]> Reading can slow cognitive decline https://blog.readingkingdom.com/reading-can-slow-cognitive-decline/ Tue, 12 May 2026 17:15:00 +0000 https://blog.readingkingdom.com/?p=24937 As we age, our brain slows down, and cognitive tasks that we may have once found easy, such as remembering a name or a house number, may become more challenging. But according to a number of studies, reading could help slow down or even prevent cognitive decline, and it may even help stave off more severe forms of cognitive impairment,...

The post Reading can slow cognitive decline appeared first on Reading Kingdom Blog.

]]> Best & Worst States to Raise a Family (2026) https://blog.readingkingdom.com/best-worst-states-to-raise-a-family-2026/ Tue, 05 May 2026 14:40:00 +0000 https://blog.readingkingdom.com/?p=24891 By Adam McCann, WalletHub Financial Writer Some states provide a more supportive environment for raising a family than others. The best states combine affordability with safety, strong job opportunities, and access to quality education, healthcare, and entertainment. To identify which states offer the most family-friendly conditions, WalletHub evaluated all 50 states using 50 key indicators. Our data set includes factors...

The post Best & Worst States to Raise a Family (2026) appeared first on Reading Kingdom Blog.

]]> Sit Still or Move More? The Impact of Fidgeting on Creativity https://blog.readingkingdom.com/sit-still-or-move-more-the-impact-of-fidgeting-on-creativity/ Tue, 28 Apr 2026 16:56:42 +0000 https://blog.readingkingdom.com/?p=24866 A study by Marily Oppezzo, Daniel L Schwartz, Rocky Aikens, Jessie B Moore, Joss Langford, Michael Baiocchi, James J Gross, Ilsa Dohmen AbstractMany modern classrooms impose constraints on student movement, both physical (e.g. stable, upright chairs) and psychological (e.g. norms that “being still” signals paying attention).. We conducted two separate studies on 32 6th grade (11–12 year old) and 43...

The post Sit Still or Move More? The Impact of Fidgeting on Creativity appeared first on Reading Kingdom Blog.

]]> What is Zipf’s Law – and how can you use it to help teach reading? https://blog.readingkingdom.com/what-is-zipfs-law-and-how-can-you-use-it-to-help-teach-reading/ Tue, 21 Apr 2026 16:25:00 +0000 https://blog.readingkingdom.com/?p=24611 Zipf’s Law states that in any language, a tiny handful of words are used all the time (“the”, “of”, “and”), while most words are used very rarely. In fact, the frequency of a word is roughly inversely proportional to its rank: the 2nd most common word appears about half as often as the 1st, the 10th about a tenth as...

The post What is Zipf’s Law – and how can you use it to help teach reading? appeared first on Reading Kingdom Blog.

]]>