I’ve been thinking about what it means to be a FEMINIST lately, especially in regards to parenting. It seems others have been thinking about this too. EXHIBIT 1 Annie Urban of PhDinParenting produced a provocative video showing the spectrum from faith-based clothing dictates in Muslim countries to cultural versions in Western countries (“good girl” vs. [...]
Author Archives: Andrea
Growing Child: Praise Junkies
Growing Child has a knack for knowing what my children are up to. This week I noticed that my newly-2 has begun to look at me whenever she’s doing really anything at all – leaning outward on the jungle gym, for example, or filling a cup at the sink – and saying “I do this!” [...]
Posted in Growing Child, Parenting 1 Comment
Growing Child: On Sibling Rivalry
One of the things I struggle with most as a parent is when to be separate from my children’s emotions – when to know better, to counsel, to put things in perspective – and when to wholly empathize, understand where they’re coming from, and trust and honor the intensity of their emotion – and how, [...]
Toys and gifts that require work
There’s a store in San Jose “Treehouse in the Glen” that does not stock toys with batteries, and one in Palo Alto “Play Store” that aims for toys that inspire children to ask “What do I want to do with this?” instead of “What am I supposed to do with this?” (according to an article [...]
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Growing Child: Babies – No Laughing Matter
One of the awesome highlights of 2010 for me was the documentary film Babies. I find I continue to think about it months later, and there’s even a thread about the film on our Q&A site here. I was happy to see one of our favorite parenting experts – Grandma of “Grandma Says” at Growing Child [...]
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New face for the blog
Okay, thanks for bearing with all the construction debris. The new face for the blog – at least phase 1 of the new face – is now complete. Time for the site to catch up, and then I’ll go back and polish off the blog to match… This blog is now using the WordPress framework [...]
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Going plain!
Pardon our new look. Or, rather our un-look. Going to begin to css-ify this blog.
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Traditions
Holidays with young children are a great time to think about traditions. We’re thinking this year about the mix of Hanukkah and Christmas that we want to have in our nuclear family. And, after our first night of Hanukkah, we’re thinking about which parts were wonderful exactly as they happened, and which parts we might [...]
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Gaming as Learning: Keeping children plugged in at school
We know – and I don’t think anyone disputes at this point – that preschool age children learn through play. Playing – exploring, discovering, manipulating – is their work. But what about middle schoolers? Can gaming be a mechanism for “systems learning” at school? What do you think?
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Have you seen Waiting for Superman? Wanna talk about it?
Join with other parents and interested parties to talk about David Guggenheim’s provocative new documentary Waiting For Superman that brings forth many issues on education reform. It’s a movie parents and educators across the nation are discussing in small groups. We welcome you to be part of the conversation in this informal meeting. Refreshments provided. [...]
