“Be Impeccable With Your Words”

26 Jan

No Name-Calling Week: January 23-27, 2012

It’s No Name-Calling Week, a week dedicated to bringing national attention to the problem of name-calling in our schools. Inspired by James Howe’s young adult novel, The Misfits, GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) and Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing created the No Name-Calling Week Coalition in hopes of starting an on-going dialogue about ways to eliminate bullying.

Since hearing about this initiative at the beginning of the month, name-calling has been on my mind. That was just code for; No Name-Calling Week has triggered my obsessive thoughts. Continue reading →

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10 Reasons Girls & Boys Should Play Together

18 Jan

The following statement is neither profound nor surprising, but here it is anyway: Boys and girls don’t spend a whole lot of time with each other.

There’s no doubt that same-gender peer groups are great, but here are ten reasons why boys and girls would also benefit from playing TOGETHER. Continue reading →

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Lego Friends Misses the Mark on Friendships

12 Jan

I hold my memories of working at Gray Elementary School very close to my heart. It was (and still is) a fabulous Chicago Public School, with passionate and innovative teachers and supportive and forward-thinking administrators. While the learning happening inside the school was quite progressive, the school structure itself dated back to 1911. Remodeling and updating took place over the years, but certain elements of the original facade were preserved – namely, the separate boys’ and girls’ entrances.

Set on opposite ends of the building with words etched in stone above, these doors had long since brought boys and girls into school separately. And the sight of this historical signage never elicited any type of negative feelings from me. In fact, I appreciated the history it represented. If anything, it was a reminder of how far we’ve come (in education and as a culture), and an incentive for continuing to push for change and improvement. Separate entrances for boys and girls – a thing of the past, ancient history, olden times, distant memories….  It’s 2012 now for goodness sakes. It’s a time of inclusion, progressive thinking, and ingenuity.

So could someone please explain to me why an industry that has the resources to be all of this and more has created the likes of Legos Friends? Continue reading →

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Why I Started My New Year’s Resolution on December 19th

2 Jan

While we’re only a few days into 2012, I already have a couple of weeks worth of resolution under my belt. This year, my New Year’s Resolution is to not yell at my kids.

I realized that something had to give when I barely made it through day #1 of Winter Vacation. What started out as a great plan quickly turned into a morning full of screaming: Continue reading →

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Can You Teach Your Kid To Care?

29 Dec

The other night the three year-old accidentally closed the five year-old’s hand in a stepstool, and I had an out-of-body experience. I couldn’t get her hand free for what felt like an eternity (but was likely 5 seconds), and shrieking just escaped from me. Terrible parenting, I know, but I couldn’t control it. I come from a long line of over-reactors, so it cannot be helped. It’s in my DNA.

So what about the fact that the three year-old was crying even harder than her injured big sister? I’ll acknowledge that my hysterics possibly influenced her reaction, but she was truly and genuinely upset and concerned. Continue reading →

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Kindergarten Round-Up

8 Dec

I’ve come to realize that I don’t do well with infinite choices. I can’t stand restaurants with huge, long menus. Picking paint colors for the house has always given me anxiety. And I would never be able to handle satellite TV – way too many channels!! I don’t think I’m bad at making decisions; I just like things to be narrowed down for me.

Knowing this about myself, I realize that I may be in some trouble here with my oldest daughter heading to kindergarten next year. All of a sudden I’m responsible for choosing a school from a very large inventory – a situation I was not entirely prepared for. Continue reading →

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The Playdate

1 Dec

Why is it that “playdate” is not considered a compound word? My spelling skills happen to be atrocious (thank you spell-check for the assist with atrocious), so I typically don’t have a leg to stand on in these matters. But for some reason I feel strongly that playdate should be one word. This grammar/spelling conundrum is somewhat irrelevant, but I would like to share a tale about a playdate, and therefore am prefacing it by stating that I will henceforth intentionally ignore the annoying red squiggly lines. Continue reading →

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Thanksgiving

22 Nov

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love the fall weather, I love the food, I love the non-denominational aspect of the holiday, and I love the classroom writing assignments on gratitude that it elicits. The following is from my daughter’s Pre-K classroom:

Continue reading →

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And That’s What It’s All About

17 Nov

Huge THANK YOU to Ashley Bustamante for contributing the following (fabulous) guest post! Ashley is a Program Coordinator on the Sanford Harmony Program, co-author of the Z-Book Series for the SHP preschool curriculum as well as a soon-to-be published Children’s Author. Her book,  A Lamb and A Llama is available for pre-orders on the publisher’s website – Mapletree Publishing. Continue reading →

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Sleepless in the Toy Aisle

15 Nov

I haven’t slept in DAYS!! I swear my kids are in cahoots – they are taking turns waking up in the middle of the night and switching off rising way too early in the morning. They must have worked out a schedule or something because it all feels very deliberate. Continue reading →

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