Giving New Meaning to Parenting

Every culture has a tradition of oral storytelling. The 35,000-year-old paintings on the walls of the Lascaux Caves are our earliest recorded evidence of storytelling1, and Aesop, a 6th century BC greek slave, wrote tales which even today are used to teach moral behavior to children. Stories are a means to pass [...]

As parents, we all want what’s best for our kids in all aspects of their lives. We can use our parental guidance, creating a path for them to take, until they’re ready to take off running on their own.  That path begins in the home when we parents are their entire world, but how do [...]

Next week my girls will start Kindergarten. They are ready for the classroom experience. Everything they do right now is a game associated with something new they are learning. When we went to the museum last week they counted the steps. At home they are playing “store” since their Dad taught them about pennies, dimes [...]

I knew this day would come, eventually. In 4 weeks my twin daughters start Kindergarten. They are ready, especially Copy Cat, but I don’t know if I am. They are both ready to be challenged and their desire to learn has really gained momentum over the past 6-9 months. Copy Cat is always asking questions [...]

Our Universe is amazing. My grandmother and I used to lie on the lawn and she would tell me the names of stars, and all about the speed of light, and the enormous distances in space. It is difficult (it’s impossible, really) to visualise just how vast it all is. I remember my grandmother telling [...]

Being a tech geek, and having earned some disposable income, I bought an iPad.  This has been cause for much discussion and anticipation around our house, not only from me, but from the little geeklings I am raising.  My 11 year-old has actually been saying he is *sure* I will need the 3G model, in [...]

My middle schooler seems to be down in the dumps.  Nothing specific, but a general sense of tiredness.  He says everything in school is fine, and his grades are okay.  He says he has a lot of work to do, and he isn’t crazy about school because of the work.  When prodded, he says that [...]

My little second-cousins-once-removed came with their mum to visit us last weekend. It was lovely: I love Joanna, and having a pair of toddlers in the house for four days made me appreciate the fact that my boys are growing up and I no longer have to be present for every wiped bottom! Toddlers really [...]

For months I have been debating about whether or not I should put my girls in full-day or part-day kindergarten. I was leaning toward part-day mainly so that I could enjoy one more year with my girls before they started school. When the school had a kindergarten information session I couldn’t attend because it was [...]

I went to my favorite conference recently: Educon. It’s held in Philadelphia at the Science Leadership Academy, a Philadelphia Public “magnet”-type school with an emphasis on just what it says- Science, Leadership and Academics. What’s amazing about the conference is the superstars of education and education reform that come every year, and the [...]