education
From The Archive: The Star Ring Story
This story originally appeared on the blog in 2021. The world feels a little heavy at the beginning of this holiday season, so I thought it was a good time to bring back this hopeful, heartwarming story of a true encounter that happened in our little town. Enjoy. On a rainy Tuesday morning, I found myself doing something I hadn’t done in probably 20 years. I warily stepped foot inside a high school gym. It was pretty much as I remembered it: that elusive smell with undertones of body odor, the squeak of shoes on the floor, the marks on the walls from errant balls, and so many backpacks everywhere.…
From The Archive: 5 Ways To Help Transition Kids To A New School
Editor’s Note: It is back-to-school season and I thought it would be a good time to reshare this classic post from the blog archive. I hope it helps any parents who have children starting a new school this year. I wish you and your children all the best. Need ideas on how to help transition kids to a new school? You’ve come to the right place. The start of a new school year is always full of promise. There’s always a chance that we’ll never be late for school. That no lunches will be forgotten. That no parent will lose their ever-loving mind no one will get frustrated during homework time…
Books My Kids Are Reading Part 13
It has been a good long while since I published a Books My Kids Are Reading post. My kids are 11 and 14, so they don’t want to sit on my lap reading stories like they did when they were younger. Also, they are a little too big to sit on my lap now. *sniff, sniff* I’m not crying. I just have a speck of dust in my eye. Because of our current life stage and the fact that I had a speck of dust in my eye, I almost clicked delete on an email from a book publicist before I fully read it. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed,…
What is the Best Constructive Criticism You’ve Ever Received?
What is the best constructive criticism you’ve ever received? Or has it all just been plain ol’ criticism of the regular variety? I’d love to know! As a blogger, I’ve received my fair share of criticism over the years. That’s always fun. *sarcasm alert* However, the most caustic environment I’ve ever been in was not work-related. It was while serving on the PTA at my kids’ school. That was a tough crowd! The best constructive criticism I’ve ever received was in college. I was 19 or 20 years old and had secured a prestigious marketing internship with a well-known company in Portland, Oregon. It was the gold standard for internships because they gave their…
Books My Kids Are Reading Part 11
It has been longer than usual since my last “Books My Kids Are Reading” post. We’re still consuming stacks and stacks of books, but not as many that I’m reading out loud to the kids. In fact, there are only three in this list that I read aloud to the kids and there’s a reason for that. My 3rd grader needed to work on reading comprehension. Since I am a sucker for reading “just one more page” when the kids ask, it was cutting into his nightly independent reading time. We did a nighttime reset so that he has a solid 25 – 30 minutes of independent reading time. When…
An Original Poem for Poem In Your Pocket Day
Tomorrow is Poem in Your Pocket Day. I think more of us are into poetry than we might realize. Many of those short sayings that get passed around on social media are actually poems or portions of poems. A perfect example of this is one of my favorite poems by William Butler Yeats. Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by W.B. Yeats Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread…
Maybe I Was Wrong About My Child Playing the Recorder
My son is in 3rd grade. If it’s been awhile since you’ve been in 3rd grade, let me refresh your memory. Being in 3rd grade means he’s learning multiplication and division. He’s spending time writing long stories. He’s no longer learning to read. He’s reading to learn. He’s also learning to play the recorder. If this blog had music that last sentence would be followed by a ‘dun, dun, duuuun!!’ sound. Handy Husband and I both recall learning to play the recorder in school at about that same age, so it has been part of school curriculum in many U.S. schools for a good long while. If you want to…
Books My Kids Are Reading Part 10
I’m back on this lovely Cyber Monday with the tenth installment of what my kids have been reading lately. My kids are 8 and 11 years old. That’s 3rd and 6th grades. I have one kid who goes to school with a book to read on the bus. I have another child who is ‘forced’ to read 25 minutes a day for homework. It’s a bit of a mixed bag in our household, but I still LOVE to read out loud to my kids and they enjoy that too! All of these books should be available in your local library. If you’re shopping online for children’s books this holiday season, please…
Does Owning an Ant Farm Make Me a Farmer?
This is a legitimate question. Does owning an ant farm make me a farmer? Or just crazy because I have live ants in my house? Ants that I PAID MONEY to bring into my home and that I’m feeding and watering. You’re right. I drew the same conclusion. It definitely makes me a farmer. Glad we cleared that up. We recently took the kids to a place in New Jersey called Insectropolis. It is a self-described bugseum, which is a pretty great name. It was also a pretty great place to spend a couple of hours. We saw thousands of bugs and even touched a few live ones including a…
Books My Kids Are Reading Part 9
It’s been awhile since I updated you on what my kids and I have been reading together. How have you survived without this list?! My dad is out there right now saying, “I survived just fine!” Hahahaha! Before I get to the book list, I want to share my library receipt with you. I promise this is interesting. Our library recently started indicating on the receipt how much you saved by checking books out instead of buying them. On this trip we saved $262! Isn’t that a clever marketing idea? Alright, onto the good stuff. Our summer schedule has been pretty loosey-goosey and I felt like we haven’t been reading…
