Can You Teach a Child to Spit? (And Other Parental Challenges)

When we decide to embark on the joys and challenges of parenthood, many of us have no idea what we are getting ourselves into! We imagine rocking our beautiful, cherubic baby or taking them off to their first day of school, we may even prepare ourselves for changing diapers and getting to doctors’ appointments if we are realists. There are dozens of tasks and challenges, however that we may not even fathom. It does not take long for a parent to start to wonder “How in the world am I going to teach them THAT?” In my parenting journey, there … Continue reading →

Ask Your Child Hard Questions Too

There are times when our children can throw us for a loop with their tough, complicated questions. Many of us realized our children were leaving the baby stages behind when they started asking us “why” and “how” for everything. The children are not the only ones who can ask the hard questions, however, and it is actually stimulating and good for our children if we ask them some challenging questions once in a while too… Instead of automatically explaining or teaching our children as we go along, asking them questions and encouraging them to come up with the answers is … Continue reading →

Maneuvering Through the Preschool Pressure

As many of you know, I have recently been working with my two eldest daughters to help them make a plan for college. Things are starting to relax around here now that they have both applied to and gotten accepted into schools and are starting on their college paths. I have to say, however, that I had plenty of preparation for the pressures of college hunting and it hearkens back to trying to find a good preschool and get my children accepted and enrolled! When I was a child, preschool was something SOME KIDS did and it was either short-term … Continue reading →

Dealing with Parent Cliques at School and Activities

We focus on our child’s socialization and trying to help them maneuver the often stressful world of school, sports, the neighborhood and other activities but as parents, we may have our own minefield to maneuver. Many of us have come up against the “clique” at the PTA, the soccer team or other exclusive groups. It can be just as painful and frustrating for us as it is for our child. I cannot count how many times I have been on the exclusion end of a pack of clique-y parents. There have been soccer teams where my child was “welcome” to … Continue reading →

Summer School by Choice

When I was young, summer school was the kiss of death—it was something you had to go to if you flunked a class or did poorly in the year and it was not a reality that anyone wanted their friends to know about. With my children’s generation, however, summer school seems to be just another educational option and there are kids who take advantage of summer school to get ahead or to take electives that they do not have the time to take during the regular school year. This summer my son is going to summer school by choice—he wants … Continue reading →

Learning is What we Think, Know, Do and Say

As parents, most of us think of ourselves also as teachers and we are concerned with what sort of lessons our children are learning. I think it is good to remind ourselves that learning is more than just being able to recite the alphabet or writing symbols on paper and turning in our homework. Real learning involves everything—it is what we think, what we know, what we do and what we say… While we may understand that learning is a process, it is important to remember that it is often not a linear process. I know in watching my own … Continue reading →

Graduation—Part Six—Thank You’s and Appreciation

We have talked about paperwork, we have talked about party planning, we have talked about all sorts of realities and details that come up when one of your children is graduating. In the end, after the ceremonies and the parties, we still have to get out all those “thank you” cards and make sure we let everyone know how much we appreciate their participation… While I do think that graduating student needs to take a big role in the sending and sharing of the “thank you’s,” I am also not naïve enough to think that it will all get done … Continue reading →

Graduation—Part Five—Planning the Party

Yesterday, in my series on Graduation and all of the tasks, trials, and joys that come along with it, I wrote about the decision-making process of whether to even have a party or not. You might think that a party is obligatory, but it’s not. I think it is really up to the graduating student as to what he or she wants to do. If you have decided to have that bash, however, you now have to come up with a plan—the theme, budget, menu, decorations, etc. Planning the party can be a challenge in the midst of everything else … Continue reading →

Graduation—Part Four—Managing the Invitations and Announcements

In the old days, I like to think that it was a much simpler process to announce a high school graduation. In fact, I think things were pretty homogenized when I graduated and I simply had to order the announcements through the school—everyone’s looked alike and then I can’t remember if I addressed them and mailed them out or my mom did (I’m pretty sure it was me.) Regardless, it seemed a fairly easy and painless process. With my daughters, however, the invitations/announcements have been a bit of a bigger deal. First, my daughters decided they wanted to do a … Continue reading →

Graduation—Part Three—to Have a Party or Not

Since I am living through the intensity of high school graduation—double-time (with two daughters moving on to college)—I have been writing about some of my challenges and observations. One of the big ones for us was deciding whether to have a party or not, and then figuring out what sort of a party, how to invite people and even coordinating the “when” was a big deal… Once my daughters decided that they could and would have a party together, they were both on board. At first, they just weren’t sure. There are so many other parties going on and one … Continue reading →