By Common Sense Media If you’re spending the waning days of summer prepping your kindergarten-bound kid for the first days of school, you’re not alone. Kindergarten is a formative year for families, as kids acquire the foundational skills they’ll build on for a lifetime (and parents learn the value of healthy home habits and encouraging independence)….
Parenting
These Free Resources Will Help You Raise Confident Digital Citizens
This post is sponsored by Google As parents, we’re constantly reinforcing the importance of being smart, alert, strong, kind, and brave to our kids. The conversations about kindness and friendship we have with them extend beyond the real-life face to face interactions in school hallways, classrooms, and during extra-curricular activities to virtual ones that occur…
4 Important Life Lessons Sleepaway Camp Teaches Kids
What makes a good summer? The answer differs for everyone but for my kids, the hallmark of a great summer is spending more time sleeping in a sleeping bag than in their own beds. I’ve always known that camp experiences were important for our kids, but there are important life lessons sleepaway camp can teach every kid,…
7 Reasons to Try Messenger Kids for Safe Social Screen Time
This post is sponsored by Messenger Kids by Facebook There’s no doubt that screens can be fantastic tools to enhance learning, spark new ideas, and teach new skills. When kids are actively engaging with screens, they’re being productive but where do social interactions on digital devices fall? Any parent who has ever been irritated with…
Sending Your Child to Sleepaway Camp? Read This First!
For parents and kids alike, achieving sleepaway camp status is a milestone but getting kids ready feels like training for an Olympic event. Last week our kids packed up their stuff and boarded a cross country flight for their two weeks of unplugged fun at sleepaway camp. Whether your kids are camp veterans like ours…
How to Talk to Tweens and Teens About Digital Safety and Screen Time
This post is sponsored by Google Family Link and Be Internet Awesome I remember when my kids were toddlers and keeping an eye on them meant ensuring electrical outlets were covered, visually sweeping the floor to ensure there weren’t potential choking hazards lying about, and latching baby gates so they couldn’t accidentally toddle down stairs before they were…
Better Hearing and Speech Month Twitter Chat (5/22): Recognizing Signs of Communication Disorders in School-Age Kids
This is a sponsored post When I taught first grade, my main objective was to teach kids to read. I started each year with beginning readers who transformed into fluent readers during the course of the year. But teaching kids to read wasn’t easy. It was often hard to tell if a stumbling block was…
How to Raise Successful People: Esther Wojcicki Shares Her Advice (Q&A)
As a mom who is on the brink of having two teens in the house, I look at Emily and Thomas and marvel at my parenting journey. There was an over-abundance of parenting advice available to me as a new mom but over the years I learned to trust my instincts resulted in two helpful,…
Why I’m More Excited for the Start of Baseball Season Than Ever
I sat back in my desk chair, shifting my focus from the work on my computer to the dreary landscape outside. It was another gray day where the sun wasn’t even attempting to come out. Cold rain pelted the windows, chilling me to the core and making me question if spring would really arrive. With…
Bake for Good: How We’re Giving Back One Cinnamon Roll at a Time
This post is sponsored by King Arthur Flour Bake for Good I’ve always loved to bake. Some of my favorite childhood memories revolve around baking with my mom. Whether baking a mind-blowing variety of cookies leading up to the holidays, quiche for a family gathering, or the pumpkin bread that’s still a favorite today, the time…
