To all you newly minted empty nesters out there: How’re you doing? If you’re feeling blue, here’s a missive of hope from one who’s been there. Happy days will be here again. There is Life After Kids Leave! Human beings are incredibly adaptive. So you’ve spent the last 18+ years directing your primary energy to […]
Are We There Yet? by Dan Santat A family is invited to their grandmother’s birthday party which is out of town. It’s a long trip: like 1000 miles long. To the little boy in the backseat, minutes seems like hours, hours seem like days…it feels like a million years. But wait! He’s actually gone through […]
This is for all you parents out there whose baby is going off to college. The Parenting Life Some or all of this may sound familiar: You gave up alcohol for 9 months during which time the smell of onions sent you rushing to the bathroom to puke. Or you could barely make it out […]
Here’s a reprint to remind and encourage you to donate donate donate books. You’ll do a world of good! My bookshelves are full to bursting. I use the library a lot but there are not so infrequent times when I purchase a new book for keeps. It sits on my nightstand for a while. Then […]
Oldie But Goodie The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman This was the 1996 Newbery Award Winner. Prince Brat thinks he’s all that. He has whatever he wants, including his own whipping boy, Jemmy, who gets spanked every time Prince Brat behaves badly. But one day, the Prince and his whipping boy steal away from the […]
When my kids were little, they loved to read. Well…when they were very little they loved to be read to. And, later they loved reading on their own. But one daughter went through a struggle in the transition. The process of learning to read was hard work. During that period, the fun of reading waned […]
This week we’ve been talking about summer vacations in the country. We’ve also been talking about introducing our kids to their civic rights and duties. Wanna combine the two? Summer camps for this year are winding down. But if you want to get a head start thinking about next year, check out these camps! Fun […]
When I was a kid we went camping on weekends – took to the road in our Ford station-wagon, sang car songs, played the license plate game, probably drove our parents nuts with our chatter. Hours after the start, we would pile out at our campsite in the woods and spend a couple of days […]
And then there were two…candidates for the presidency, that is. The 90-day race is on. Our lives will be filled with opportunities for discussion of the issues. There will be debates, TV commercials, town hall meetings, news articles, and tweets. These are all fodder for dinner table discussions, water cooler gossip, and schoolyard shouting matches. […]
As I watched Hillary Rodham Clinton accept the nomination for President of the United States last night, I had flashbacks to scenes from my childhood. You know how memories, especially those from the long ago past, come at you in splintered pieces? Almost like still photos or film clips. Miss America and Girls in the […]