Parenting Report

There aren't many kids (or many adults) who don't like pancakes. And your basic pancake recipe, made from scratch, is easy enough to whip up on a lazy Saturday or Sunday morning, especially with a kid or three to help. I favor this recipe from Pioneer Woman blogger and cookbook author Ree Drummond, but you can certainly substitute another recipe or even use your favorite boxed pancake mix. There are some good tips for producing perfect pancakes, but when cooking with kids, it's more fun (and helpful) to concentrate on edible and fun, and cooking together. Read more

When people say that they would rather celebrate ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and any other factor every day instead of during a designated month (or week, or even day), I’m on board. It’s ridiculous to not include so many amazing Black (or women, etc.) inventors, leaders, revolutionaries and visionaries within our history books. It’s repulsive that Christopher Columbus has his own holiday when there are so many unsung legitimate heroes that truly deserve to be honored.

To celebrate Black history today and every day, here are a few ideas.

Include diverse authors in your daily reading. Pick books that represent people of color. Use traditional-oriented stories, such as Papa Do You Love Me? by Barbara M. Jossee as well as modern ones like Barack by Jonah Winter. Read more

Do you take your infant to swim lessons? I certainly thought about it. I took a handful of lessons as a child but stopped when our instructors went on strike (hey, even kids shouldn’t cross the picket line!) and never really took it back up.

As much as I love the water, I wish that I were a proficient swimmer, and intend to help my daughter become one. So we did enroll her for swim lessons when she turned two, and she had a blast—a real water lover ever since. Read more

Fun countdown calendars aren’t just for the major holidays. One of our favorite advent themes is Valentine’s Day! You can make it however you like—a red and pink paper chain, a bunch of envelopes with hearts on them, etc. We took a clear plastic craft box and cut out a couple of section dividers to make it have exactly 14 sections. (Of course, today you can actually buy them with moveable sections, too.) Read more

When my sisters and I were little, we got a kick out of those Disney sing-a-long videos. Are you familiar with the series? They’re basically compilations of Disney’s biggest hit songs from everything from Winnie the Pooh to Mickey Mouse to the classic films to Disneyland’s daily 

songs and dances themselves! Like a karaoke video, each set features the words to the songs at the bottom of the screen with a bouncing ball to help crooners along with the lyrics. It’s so much fun to do, and it’s a great way to get some kids together for a themed play date. Read more

Last autumn when Manuela Maier signed her children up for an all-day school program in Germany and went back to work, she was "ostracized" by everyone in town.  They called her a "Rabenmutter, or raven mother, after the black bird that pushes chicks out of the nest."  (I guess that's the opposite of a "helicopter parent.")

For over 250 years, school for German children has ended at lunchtime.  This of course required a parent at home to care for them.  As opposed to America, for example, where all-day (or most-day) schooling is the norm, and both parents can take jobs outside the home.  A single mother in Germany is in big trouble, unable to accept full-time employment because she has to be home when the kids get out of school at noon.
Read more

Tess Under House ArrestFacebook has been used by possibly nefarious parties to secretly find out the color of your underwear, to take sides in the disputed Iranian election, and is now being used by a 15-year-old to protest being grounded by her parents.

Her crime was simple: she went to a party with alcohol present and was late for her curfew by one hour. Her parents responded quickly to their daughter’s crimes with a swift and possibly harsh judgment: they grounded her for five weeks.
Read more

With the kiddos at home today, you might be wondering what to do with them so soon after holiday break. Sure, you could let them sit in their PJs and watch cartoons or play video games, but what’s the fun in that? Instead of another boring day off school, why not make it a fun day by celebrating the reason they’re off—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sometimes it’s hard to celebrate people—it’s not exactly the same as celebrating a cartoon character or commercial holiday where plenty of activities and decorations are readily available. How can you make Dr. King and his message accessible to your kids? Here are a few ideas to get you started. Read more

Tomorrow is Winnie the Pooh Day, a perfect day for sharing your love and affection for that roly-poly honey-colored (and honey-loving!) silly old bear with friends and family alike. Though created by A.A. Milne in children’s book form in 1926’s Winnie the Pooh, “Pooh Bear” is just as popular with adults as he is with children these days. In fact, if you ask many adults, they will tell you their favorite character, from Owl to Rabbit to Piglet, Eeyore, or many people’s favorite, Tigger. (My daughter loves piglet while I’m a Kanga fan, myself; we like the classic version of the tale and cartoons, though many modernizations have been created since.)

To celebrate Pooh’s special day (which also happens to be Milne’s birthday), here are a few ideas. Read more

What a fun day to spend with your students, children, or anyone who’s into making new things! If you think inventing is boring, think again—from slime to bouncy balls to paper airplanes to rockets, you can go far beyond the traditional (but still fun, in my opinion!) erupting volcano.

Spend January 17 inventing something new. You could probably think of a thousand things on your own; how about some of these to get you started?

Get a kit to make anything from bouncy balls to car race kits to grown crystals. These kits are amazing and always make my birthday list. (No, not my kid’s, my own!) Read more