My daughter just reached another “milestone” in her life. She is now twenty one. Her reaching adulthood is bittersweet for me. It is great to see how she is tackling college and preparing for a successful career in teaching. It is not so great to see her less and less. She is…
Some of you might be wondering what in the world I could be talking about—Spring Break Blues?! I mean, who doesn’t LOVE Spring Break?! Well, if you’ve ever taken little ones out of town, you’ve probably experienced at least a little bit of the madness that can occur during a long ride in a car…
As a parent, you are your children’s first and often most influential role model. Your kids are constantly watching you and learning from your behavior (whether you like it or not!). Though you’re probably very conscious of making sure to properly model good manners and choosing right from wrong, things like modeling good reading habits might…
My family has been through some struggles over the past two years. My wife went to the hospital for a vicious bacterial virus. I was in the hospital twice. Once for a closed esophagus and then to be brought back to life from cardiac arrest (I was dead for ten minutes). We have also dealt with my father in…
Babies are very cute, but they sure are needy! If you have a newborn at home, there’s a pretty high likelihood that your “me-time” has substantially diminished or even become non-existent. It’s your responsibility to make sure that your baby is fed, bathed, happy, diapered, well rested, stimulated, and kept alive. That doesn’t leave time…
As children write, they become aware that the written letters and words have meaning, and they start to see the relationship between written and spoken word. Because of this, writing is one of the five early literacy practices that help children become ready to read. The holidays present a number of great opportunities to practice…
If you haven’t heard the big news, the Washington-Centerville Public Library has been awarded a $100,000 grant to teach kids and teens about financial literacy! The majority of the grant money has been used to create an interactive exhibit designed to teach kids and teens about earning, saving, and spending money. This exhibit, created with…
We’ve all heard the joke: what are the three best reasons to become a teacher? June, July, and August. And it’s funny because it’s (partly) true. This summer was my first real summer “off” with my kids, and I enjoyed it immensely. We took a vacation to Florida, visited parks and the library, and crammed…
Granted: We are huge fans of both Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2 at home. {And if you haven’t seen them yet, don’t worry – this isn’t a trilogy that requires being viewed in careful order.} But when the opportunity arose to catch a sneak peek of the new Minions movie, I knew we had to “Beedo…
It turns out that you do not have to travel to the most exotic places in the world to explore caves. You have plenty right here in your own backyard – Ohio that is. Right here in Ohio there are caverns waiting to take you into their depths and show you a whole new world!…
