PregnancyFamilyEducation Blogs
June 25th, 2008
Don't be an island
Hold onto your seats, everyone--this will be another woeful post about being tired and sleep-deprived, at least in part. Last night, between 1:00 and 3:30 a.m., both kids managed--in their own special ways--to send me back into the days of interrupted sleep; those painful nights where all you are allowed to do is doze, fitfully, between bouts of waking up and tending to needs. And if I ever entertained any nostalgic, fleeting ideas of a third baby, that visit back into time last night was enough to quash them all. [more]
June 23rd, 2008
No easy way out
We have cycled into a rut of poor sleep around here lately. Not too long ago, it seems, we were enjoying some lazy mornings and relatively seamless nights, but now we're back to middle-of-the night sleep issues rearing their ugly heads all over again. The other night I was awakened by bloodcurdling screams coming from L.'s room, and then heard the rushing of his feet. He burst into our bedroom, with the dog right behind him (wondering, I'm sure, what middle-of-the-night games were afoot). [more]
June 18th, 2008
Surviving the IEP
A friend of mine, who lives in another state, emailed me recently to ask me some questions about the IEP process. With schools letting out for the summer, many parents are bracing themselves for the big yearly IEP meetings to set up school accommodations and modifications for next year. It's a stressful time, regardless of whether your IEP is lengthy and involved, or short and fairly simple. As a parent, it's daunting and frightening to imagine that you have two or three hours in which to pave the way for your child's success for the upcoming school year. [more]
June 13th, 2008
Who was that masked man, anyway?
I've written before about how we love the children's books in the CD section of our public library. There are shelves and shelves of CDs from books to listen to. We've graduated (thankfully) from Junie B. Jones and even Ramona, and moved on to real chapter books--ones that run hours in length and can easily occupy L. (and even T.) in the car for days. Listening to books on CD jump-started L.'s interest in reading this year. [more]
June 12th, 2008
Lost in translation
Instead of typing up my students' final exam yesterday afternoon, I spent the time googling "speech therapy for kids" and "how to tell if your child needs speech therapy" and then reading lots of Internet articles and advice columns, until I knew more about the topic than I ever thought I would. I'm not an alarmist by nature; worry tends to creep towards me, like a slow-moving wave in the distance. I might keep a watchful eye on it, but I don't worry too much about its approach until it's right on top of me.
June 10th, 2008
Bag of tricks
Each time I click over to Amazon to ogle this book that's just come out with my essay in it (shameless self-promotion), I get a helpful handful of "suggested reading" titles along with it, and lately they've all been about traveling with kids--like this one: How to Fit A Car Seat on a Camel and Other Misadventures Traveling with Kids. [more]
June 5th, 2008
If not sewing camp, what about SLEEP camp?
Last night L. couldn't get to sleep until after 11:00, and then woke up twice with bad dreams. And T., who I hope so fervently is not gearing up for another migraine, woke up several times, thirsty and fussing in the middle of the night wailing that way small children have--the wails that cut through your dreams and shake you awake, to be worried and then grouchy, and then sleepless. I, of course, had to drag myself out of bed at 6:00 (still hoping to accomplish some work in the early morning hours--and look!--I am, I'm writing this post!) and T. proceeded to sleep until 10:00. [more]
May 30th, 2008
Out with the old...
L.'s last day of second grade is today. They've had "last days" all week, really. Monday was a holiday, and then Tuesday was "game day" and the kids got to sit around most of the day and play their favorite games with each other. I was especially jealous of "bring a book and read" day on Wednesday. I had just gone to the library and checked out some good books for myself to read for a change, and the thought of being given a whole entire school day to lounge around in my pajamas with a pillow and some good books made me drool. L. [more]
May 14th, 2008
Lifelong challenges...counterpoint
I like reading Aliki’s posts. We have much different experiences, which leads to our having much different perspectives on the “life and times” of parenting. Different perspectives are good things. While I agree with everything she has to say about the amazing benefits of parenting, I still don’t understand why we have to get so defensive about the study in question. (Which, by the way, appears to be rehashing old data – so, it’s not all that valuable, anyway.) [more]
May 14th, 2008
Lifelong challenges
A favorite blogger friend of mine wrote the other day about a recent study out there claiming that parenthood does not, in fact, bring joy and fulfillment, that children are a source of misery and stress, and that raising them is a "lifelong challenge to your mental health." Where the data for this study came from is anyone's guess, actually, but I thought a lot about it yester [more]
