Graduation—Part Two—the Paperwork!

I wrote yesterday about the challenges of organizing and negotiating around family dynamics during graduation time. While this is definitely a consideration, for many of us, we first have to wade through the miles of paperwork, forms, and write those checks in order to get our child graduated an on to the next adventure. I confessed yesterday that I have two of my three children who are graduating and moving on this spring. I cannot count the times I have wondered how much easier it would be to manage one graduation, one college application, one financial aid process, etc. instead … Continue reading →

Graduation—Part One—Family Dynamics

middle school graduations with my children, and my own college stuff, I was not nearly as prepared as I had hoped for the pending high school graduation. What has complicated things for our family is that my second daughter decided that she was ready to be done with high school too and went and got her G.E.D. in a matter of weeks and is now enrolled to start college this summer too. So, I’ve suddenly got two daughters graduating at the same time! In addition to managing all the pounds of paperwork and trying to figure out how to celebrate … Continue reading →

Helping Kids Learn to Find Balance

We parents and adults talk a great deal and work hard to achieve some semblance of balance in our lives. We try to balance work and family, and even balance the time we spend with different loved ones and the time we are able to set aside just for ourselves. Since we are so busy working on trying to achieve balance in our own lives, we may not think about how we can help our children learn how to have some balance in their lives too. Balance is important for kids too–even small children can really benefit from having a … Continue reading →

When a Child Hates the Daycare Center (or Babysitter)

We parents go to a lot of trouble to find the right babysitter(s) or daycare center—often touring, interviewing and checking references to find one that meets our standards. When our child doesn’t “take” to the new arrangement it can be incredibly frustrating, and hard to know exactly what we should do about it… The first step is to try to determine if the issues are related to the daycare, a specific childcare provider, other children, or separation anxiety. Of course, it could be attributed to other reasons too, but doing the investigation to figure out why and what is going … Continue reading →

Chatting with a Family on a Pan-American Bicycling Adventure

When Nancy Sathre-Vogel left a comment on one of my articles in Pets, she had no idea how much she piqued my interest when she left a link to her website. But she did. It prompted a request not only to interview her about her plans to take their family dog on their Pan-American bicycle trek from Alaska to Argentina, but I also interviewed her for Homeschool. Now I’m here to present one parents might appreciate. Courtney Mroch: Have you always been a biking family? Nancy Sathre-Vogel: My husband and I have always been cyclists – in fact we met … Continue reading →

Spelling Matters for Parents Too

As focused as many of us parents are on our children’s education, we can sometimes be slackers with our own. Just because we have managed to get through high school or even college does not mean that the learning and improvements stop. How can we set an example for our children if we just throw up our arms and say “I’m a bad speller” or “I can’t do math”? We can still work on improving our skills and encouraging our children while we do so. I am not a naturally great speller. Fortunately, I do a lot of reading and … Continue reading →

Teaching Children How to be Good Listeners

I think that the best communicators I know are those people who are the best listeners. Having good social skills and being a strong communicator does not mean that we talk longer and louder than anyone else or that we jump into conversations with everyone. We can teach our children how to listen and how to be good listeners, and their communication and social skills will improve… Good listening schools do not just pay off in improved communication. Children and individuals who are good listeners are also better learners in school since they are able to absorb the information being … Continue reading →

Should You Stop Checking Homework when They Ask You To?

There was a time when homework and schoolwork was a family affair. My kids would settle down at the dining table and we would work on things together or, if they did the work at some other time, they would inevitably ask me to look things over or help in some capacity. Somewhere around the end of middle-school, my role quickly diminished and by high school, it is very rarely that my kids ask me for help with anything. It is generally just requests to sign things or get certain items or materials they might need for a project. I’m … Continue reading →

Can You Bring What They are Learning Elsewhere into Family Life?

Children are most likely to learn and remember things when there is repetition–practice, reminders, etc. For this reason, if children are being introduced to new concepts in school, or learning something in church or sports or another extra-curricular activity, as parents we can reinforce that learning at home to make it more likely that the child will retain it. Of course, this parenting approach means that we need to take an active interest so that we know what the child is learning elsewhere. Talk to the child, pay attention when you are sitting on the sidelines at soccer practice or … Continue reading →

Learning Disabled or Sleep Deprived?

The other day, I was sitting at my desk–totally overdosed on caffeine and absolutely exhausted; I couldn’t concentrate, I felt sick to my stomach and my eyes were blurry. It hit me that if a person walked in on me, they might think that I had some sort of a learning disability and it reminded me of when my kids were little and how they would inevitably get into trouble at school if they were not eating right or getting enough sleep. I couldn’t help but wonder how many children who are diagnosed with learning disabilities or learning problems might … Continue reading →