Nicholas is almost five years old now and getting even better at making up rhymes. As the Hanukkah decorations appear around our neighborhood, we've been inspired to make up more bagel songs to the tune of "Dreidel, Dreidel". Walking to and from the grocery store last Saturday, we took turns singing them and trying to … Continue reading Battle of the Bagel Ballads!
Parenting
Knee-bouncing Games
These two games have been enjoyed by little children in my family for at least three generations. They worked for me when I was little, they've been favorites of my four-year-old son since he was about nine months old, and I look forward to trying them on his younger cousins this Thanksgiving! These are the … Continue reading Knee-bouncing Games
Perceived Stress Scale
Although I am discussing my work here, the point of view is my own, and this is not an official statement of the Pittsburgh Youth Study. I recently helped write a book about the research study for which I am the data manager. We analyzed data collected from 1,009 boys over 13 years, and we … Continue reading Perceived Stress Scale
Early Encounters with Variables
I'm a research data manager: I spend my days working on various levels of the process of converting people's responses to questions into numbers in the computer. It's not the career I expected, and it's not a career most people immediately understand (the scene at my high school reunion: "So Jason is a police officer, … Continue reading Early Encounters with Variables
Explaining the G-20 Protests to a Preschooler
It's been one week since Pittsburgh hosted the G-20 economic summit. The demonstrations against it and the police reactions to those demonstrations were a lot milder than they have been at previous summits in other cities, but there was some violent conflict and questionable conduct on both sides--check out the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette or Pittsburgh City … Continue reading Explaining the G-20 Protests to a Preschooler
A Four-year-old’s Treasures
Nicholas loves stuff. He's constantly collecting things that he wants to keep. I get frustrated with how little he uses most of this stuff and how much it's underfoot or visually cluttering our house. But last night I noticed a little box of his treasures that he'd left on the dining table before going to … Continue reading A Four-year-old’s Treasures
Great Chapter Books for Kids!
It's Works-for-Me Wednesday! We started reading chapter books to our son when he was 2 years 9 months old. Two years later, they're an important part of his daily life. I read to him every day on the bus going to and from preschool, almost always from chapter books because they're more convenient: more story for … Continue reading Great Chapter Books for Kids!
Making Pants into Shorts
This week's Works-for-Me Wednesday is a special edition for organizing tips, so I'm linking to my old articles about the rule of One Thing and Three Things and how to organize your Girl Scout troop records, as well as posting this new article that isn't an organizing tip but works for me! This past spring, my … Continue reading Making Pants into Shorts
Swinging for Fitness
How do you like to go up in a swing, Up in the air so blue? Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing Ever a child can do! Those are the opening lines of a poem from one of the My Book House books that I loved when I was a little girl. It … Continue reading Swinging for Fitness
Seven Reasons Not to Circumcise Your Son
by Daniel Efran Well, I figure if my girlfriend and my parents are discussing my penis on the Internet, I'd better chime in! The subject, specifically, is routine circumcision of infants--whether it should be routine, whether it should have been done to our son (which it wasn't), and whether it should have been done to … Continue reading Seven Reasons Not to Circumcise Your Son
Circumcision: The Earlier Generation
My article on why we didn't circumcise our son mentioned that when my partner Daniel learned more about circumcision, he felt "that he was mutilated without his consent simply because of tradition and ignorance" and was so upset that "he wouldn't speak to his parents because he feared he would yell at them." As I tried … Continue reading Circumcision: The Earlier Generation
Hammer Festival
Here's a funny story that I just found in my archives. One day when Nicholas was three years old, we passed an art center with a banner outside depicting silhouettes of movie cameras on tripods. Nicholas saw them as hammers. "Look, Mama, they're going to have a Hammer Festival! I want to go!" "Oh? What do … Continue reading Hammer Festival
Circumcision
Our son is four-and-a-half years old and has his entire foreskin intact. We have never regretted for a moment our decision not to have him circumcised. I always was a bit skeptical of the idea of surgically removing healthy tissue from newborns. My father explained that the foreskin can't become infected or cancerous if it … Continue reading Circumcision
Tie-dyed Socks!
My son, who is officially four-and-a-half years old today, loves colors and enjoys wearing a variety of colors. He was quite annoyed last fall when we went shopping for new socks and found that the choices offered were white, white with gray toes, black (but only thin dress socks), brown (same), and a variety pack of … Continue reading Tie-dyed Socks!
An unscheduled Take Your Child to Work Day
Wednesday night, we had several hours of heavy rain. Yesterday morning, Nicholas and I arrived at his pre-school and found that all the furniture in his classroom had been moved out or stacked in the reading loft, and large fans were blowing across the damp floor. Rainwater had leaked in under the door to the … Continue reading An unscheduled Take Your Child to Work Day
Toilet Training Tips
Start with nights. Let him go naked some of the time so it would be easy for him to observe his functions. Nylon pull-on diaper covers worn over underwear make great training pants! Use a sticker chart.
Hear now the Tale of Job!
My four-year-old son and I were in our car on the way to Trader Joe's last Wednesday when this Seatrain song telling the Biblical story of Job came up on the CD my dad made for me. I turned off the engine right after the line, "Long, long they journeyed until they found Job in … Continue reading Hear now the Tale of Job!
Semi-disposable sippy cups
You might be surprised to see EnviroBecca touting the virtues of anything disposable. After all, I'm all about cloth diapers and hankies and reusable menstrual gear and real dishes even at picnics and just generally reusing everything! Notice I said semi-disposable. The sippy cups we prefer are lightweight polypropylene similar to those Gladware and Ziploc containers … Continue reading Semi-disposable sippy cups
Growing a Gamer Geek
Daniel and I are gamer geeks. Our first memory of spending time together (we met gradually, both being members of a fairly large student organization) is a party where we played Nomic. We started to hang out together more when I came to the game nights he and his housemates hosted. Attending a gigantic game … Continue reading Growing a Gamer Geek
Come Here! Go Away!
My dad used to play this game with me when I was little, and now I play it with my son: Place your child in a swing and stand in front of it. Frown. Say, "Go away!" and push the swing. Now open your arms and smile. Say, "Come here, Nicholas!" [or, for best results, … Continue reading Come Here! Go Away!
The Earthling's Handbook 