Discovering Discoverer’s Day

Kids have an inherent drive to explore the world around them. At different stages and ages, this manifests in different ways. Sometimes it’s a hard thing to encourage (especially when the desire to explore the world expresses itself in the “must put everything I can find into my mouth and discover how it tastes” stage). […]

Fail, uh, Fall Traditions

We’re all familiar with the traditions that Fall brings, including the end of white shoes, the disappearance of productive work days due to fantasy football, and the first Christmas trees in the mall.   Autumn always makes me think of Aesop’s fable “The Ant and the Grasshopper,” where the lazy grasshopper plays all summer, while […]

When Fall Hands You Apples, Make Applesauce

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. If that were actually true, we would have a much easier time with universal health care! But we shouldn’t let that untruth diminish the benefits of juicy, delicious apples.   The motivation for this post was a super-cute story called “Apple Day” by Kimberly Long Cockroft in […]

Teenage Drama…Handled!

As the mom of a tween who is already on the cusp of sass, attitude, and near-constant hysteria, I found the “Disaster Drill” in a recent issue of Cicada to be immensely helpful. Obviously, disaster has many different interpretations, depending on the context or the person for whom it is occurring. For most people, a […]

Fostering Creative Thinking in Your Children through the Power of Invention

One of the worst things I’ve ever done in my life was to laugh at my husband when he told me about an idea he had. He had imagined a door mat that had some sort of automatic trigger in it, so that when it felt weight, it would ring a doorbell. This would be […]

Compliments Are Free

Your kids are heading into a new grade. Whether they’ll be surrounded by the same faces they’ve known for years, or they’ll be faced with the challenges and joys of making new friends, there are some insecurities they are likely taking with them. Have my friends changed over the summer? Will I have the same […]

Favorite First Lines to Keep Your Kids Reading

A story is only as good as its first sentence. That’s probably why some authors spend as much time crafting the perfect first sentence as they spend writing the rest of the book. If you can’t reel your audience in with the opening line, what’s going to motivate them to stick around for any line […]