Childhood is a time of profound change and development. It is exciting and cause for trepidation at the same time. When it comes to our children, we must strive to ensure change is a growing opportunity that will stand them in good stead for the future. The fact that our kids will inherit all the…
Tis the season of orders! It feels like we all just finished unpacking that final box and hanging that last picture but many military families will soon or have already received word that they will be moving to a new duty station in the coming months. It might be a dream spot, like Italy or…
They sit there on the counter…the math assignment, the library book that’s due today, the worksheet she worked so hard on the night before…forgotten, left behind as she ran out the door to catch the bus. What was the distraction that caused her to forget this time? Was it Spirit Day and she spent her…
If your spouse is like mine, he or she never takes vacation. In fact, at one point my husband built up more than 100 days of leave. That’s a ton of days where I could have been lying on a beach or hiking or skiing or even sleeping in for a staycation. But around the…
My parents recently came down with serious colds. I found myself at the grocery store late in the evening buying them a round of feel-better-soon foods: a roasted chicken, orange juice, whole fruit, Gatorade and a quart of soup. As I filled the cart, I started thinking about how often my mother had taken care…
My first grader brought home a slip of paper with his lexile number on it following a recent standardized test. He said that he should be reading books at that number. Can you explain what “lexile” means? Why shouldn’t he just read whatever he wants to read? Lexile is a number developed by The Lexile…
Studies have shown that children have an easier time reading words that they already know than words that are foreign to them. In addition, the more words a child knows, the better she is able to comprehend what she’s reading. So, it seems to follow that building a child’s vocabulary is an extremely important part…
My daughter’s school has decided that it will no longer offer designated days for parent-teacher conferences but instead, just have parents and teachers work out when to have a meeting. How do I decide when to do that? Consider your daughter’s past school experiences and the challenges that have been typical for her. If the…
The other day, my kids and I headed to Home Depot to buy two items that, in most parts of the country, you’d never need to purchase at the same time. We bought a bag of rock salt for de-icing our driveway and a bag of charcoal for cooking on the grill. As we waited…
Daughter: “Sign this so I can be on my school’s student council.”Me: “Oh, ok. You don’t have to have an election or anything, you’re just on it?”Daughter: “There’s an election, but I’m going to win!” Actually, everyone in the class was running for third grade student council (except for the five or six math club…
