PregnancyFamilyEducation Blogs
November 20, 2009
Box Day
For weeks now T.'s excitement about the upcoming holidays (Christmas and her birthday in January--an event which should be a national holiday, as far as T.'s concerned) has been building and building. It's difficult for most small children to get as excited about Thanksgiving, as they do about the thought of getting lots of gifts over the holiday season. My students, on the other hand, have been thinking about Thanksgiving for weeks and weeks now. [more]
- Tags: Parenting, Lesson to Live By, Holidays, Family, Early Learning, Children
November 18, 2009
The popularity factor
My L. has always been a party-planner. While he’s not a fan of parties in general (too noisy, too many people, too much food), he likes to plan a party, especially when he can be in control of every single detail. But it’s been awhile since he’s shown any interest in planning any type of party, and we’ve been sad about this. Last year was a rough year for him, and he withdrew socially for most of it, and regressed quite a bit. This year is different, though, and we're keeping our fingers crossed, and watching it all unfold. [more]
- Tags: School Daze, Parenting Advice, Parenting, Moms, Dads, Children
November 17, 2009
Soap Box Tuesday
Years ago, when we lived in our old neighborhood, we visited the base school there as part of our kindergarten shopping for L. The school was nice, and clean, but large; still, we had an open mind. Part of the “plug” or gimmick, if you want to call it that (we have grown very wary of all the gimmicks so many of the magnet schools offer in our particular county—each one with a new and interesting spin on education and learning. [more]
- Tags: Teaching, School Daze, Parenting, No Child Gets Ahead, Education, Children
November 16, 2009
The family that plays together...
What makes a Sunday morning even better? Flipping hot pumpkin pancakes over the griddle while listening to your kids play Monopoly with your parents. L. loves the game, and could play it uninterrupted for hours if given the chance. When I was growing up my brother and sister and I would set up a game on the dining room table and play and play until we had to clear it all up for dinner. I still love a good Monopoly challenge, but let’s face it, the game goes on forever and I seldom have the time to set aside hours to play it to its completion (who does?). [more]
- Tags: Toys and Games, The Games Kids Play, Parenting, Moms, Greece, Grandparents, Dads, Children
November 13, 2009
Photo finish
There’s a Junie B. Jones book that begins with Picture Day at Junie B.’s school. She’s horrified that the photographer snaps her picture just as she’s squeezing one eye shut and making a horrible face. The picture is so bad, that poor Junie B. hides it under her bed to scare the monsters away. [more]
- Tags: Recipes, Parenting, Kindergarten, Food for Thought, Cooking, Children, Baking
November 12, 2009
Eureka
By 10:00 on Wednesday, several friends had already e-mailed me the links to this story on a new study directed by the Motion Analysis Laboratory at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, MD. [more]
- Tags: Writing, Special Needs, School Daze, Parenting, Homework, Children
November 11, 2009
To the cleaners
All the sunny, blue sky weather we’ve had for the past few days vanished last night. We woke up yesterday to heavy gray skies, and rain. The perfect day to wear my new raincoat, a spiffy black Ann Taylor coat I bought for $15 at my favorite thrift store last week. Except I had taken it to the dry cleaners on Friday and hadn’t picked it up yet. [more]
- Tags: Parenting, Memories, Family, Children, Character Sketches
November 10, 2009
The pen is mightier...
People who know me would say that I am a very non-confrontational person, sometimes to a fault. I am a fixer-of-things, and a mediator. I prefer to look for the painless solutions, the ones you can reach with a minimal amount of emotional outpouring, or ugly exchanges, or hurt feelings. I also prefer to do battle on paper, and to outline my thoughts in writing before having a face-to-face discussion. [more]
- Tags: Teaching, Special Needs, School Daze, Parenting, Children
November 9, 2009
Three things from the weekend
Did you have spectacular fall weather like we had this weekend? I spent most of it outdoors, making up for all the sick, couch-ridden days from the weekend before. We raked, finally put away the Halloween decorations (it’s so much easier and exciting to put them up, isn’t it, then to take them down?), and T. and I spent some quality time in the hammock, watching the leaves spiral down from the blue, blue sky. I felt some of my old energy coming back—not all of it yet, but enough to make me feel like myself again, and not some recovering invalid. [more]
