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 [...]

I’ve never really been one for New Year’s resolutions.
Ok, so I do make them, but I rarely make it until February keeping them.  However, I don’t have much problem encouraging others to make resolutions themselves.  So here it is, my suggestion for this year’s resolution-  Read to your kids every night.
I know, I know.  Every [...]

Last week I talked about summer reading. Yesterday we ventured back to our local library. I was on a quest to find some books to read with my almost first-grader that wouldn’t bore me to tears and that he would enjoy reading as well.
I am just so angry I could spit. Pffft. [...]

It’s *gulp* the end of July and we are finally getting into the swing of summer. One of the activities that we let slide for the first bit of summer was reading. It wasn’t intentional, but bedtimes were pushed back, company was plenty, and routines were discarded in favor of freedom. [...]

For the second year in a row, I have helped organize the Book Fair at our local elementary school. We use a local shop, rather than Scholastic, and the Fair always has amazing books I’ve never seen before. This is not a fund raiser for the school- we pass on the discounts to [...]

Should summer vacation be a full on vacation from learning or should parents try to work some educational activities in there? What about actual school work, such as math workbooks or non-fiction reading? How do you handle summer vacation with your children?
I really believe that three months is too long to go without any structured [...]

My friend Sue (or more officially Susan E. Goodman) is the author of a large bookshelf of impressive children’s non-fiction books. She’s written about poop and pee and skyscrapers and cookies and 5 different books about the craziest field-trips ever taken. On a side note, she also bakes the most phenomenal biscotti on [...]

My son turns sixteen in a few days, and the admiration I have for him is boundless.
Let me tell you a story: I fell in love with my wife just about 8 years ago, when her divorce was being finalized. Among other things that resulted from her first marriage was the conception of two beautiful [...]

18 years and a husband and 3 kids ago I explored Boston as a college freshman. I wore Doc Martins with tattoo tights and a biker jacket. I rode the T and smoked cigarettes and hung out in Harvard Square listening to street musicians. I created things. I drew and cut [...]

Cabin Fever
The days are frosty
make me want to cry loudly
but I am quiet.
the crazy kids move
like they are on a playground
although they are not.

the sun glows brightly
mocking the low mercury
it shines in my eye.
the girl whines at length
and I can do nothing right
the boys burst their seams
I think of their dad
or some other distraction
to drain [...]