It’s hard to think about fall and winter preparation when the temperatures are above 100 degrees. The fact is that in about six weeks, fall is here. Actually, all I want to do is think about staying cool. It is time for fall tasks though, which is part of our preparing for winter. This is
“You don’t know how lucky you are.” Once again I had my three children lined up on the couch after another bout of sibling mayhem. “I would have given anything to have had a brother or sister. I don’t understand how you can be mean to each other. Your siblings are a gift.” The looks
Summertime is here. Yet many of us still want our children to continue learning. What better way to learn than getting our hands dirty? Dirty in the garden. A garden is full of many lessons from how a plant grows to cooking the harvest. Like so many good things, gardening can sound like one more thing
Last night we were at a neighborhood bar-b-que and the children were running around enjoying being outdoors without adult intervention. As we were watching the joy of these children, maybe even wishing we could join in, a woman pointed and said, “Look at those boys. They’re are throwing dirt in the air. Why do boys
The other day my cat was stuck in a tree. He had no idea how to get out. How does that happen? He didn’t get to play in trees when he was a kitten. We lived in coyote country. Not just a few howls at night, I mean where coyotes wandered through the property during
This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure statement for more details. Dr. Martin Luther King said, “Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of a true education.” Character does not consist of a single statement or a random act, it is those qualities and dispositions that we practice consistently—both good and bad.
This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure statement. We writers have a lot of demands on our time: marketing, social media, and blogging. Frankly, most of us want to just write. There are many reasons writers don’t take advantage of having a blog. One is technology. We are creative thinkers and for many
Someone once said, “If you’re not sure where you’re going, any train will get you there.” Recently I took a train trip to New York City. I knew where I was going and what train to use to get there. I had a specific destination. I even had a specific destination, my hotel, once I
(This post contains affiliate links. See my disclosures for more information.) It amazes me that preschool has come to dominate much of the education conversation. The media has become a PR outlet for those who advocate formal, away-from-home preschool experiences. Based on vague notions and buzzword, such as “ready to learn,” parents are clamoring for
It’s baking time. It’s gift-giving time. Many of us combine the two traditional activities by baking cookies and giving them as gifts. How often, though, do we bake ourselves into a frenzy on one day? Not enjoying the experience with our children. How often do we put those cookies on a pretty plate then rush