In my family, Christmas stockings are not just for children! Everybody has a stocking, and we play Santa to each other by stuffing the stockings with little treats when nobody's looking. It's no fair to peek into your stocking before Christmas morning--when we open stocking gifts first thing, before breakfast or even coffee! For the … Continue reading Practical Stocking Stuffers
grade-schooler
Thinking Out Loud
I talk to my kid a lot. He's five-and-a-half years old now and has some interesting things to say, but long before he was capable of conversation I talked to him quite a bit. It wasn't really a conscious strategy, just that I like having a companion sharing my experiences. In my own childhood, I … Continue reading Thinking Out Loud
Christian Children’s Television
I am a liberal Episcopalian now, and I was raised Unitarian in small-town Oklahoma, so I've never felt like part of the mainstream of what's called Christian in America. I've seen a lot of "Christian" media productions that were painfully hokey, heavy-handedly moralistic, hateful, and/or boring. I never in a million years expected that I … Continue reading Christian Children’s Television
Arithmetricks
For this back-to-school edition of Works-for-Me Wednesday, I'd like to share some strategies for learning and doing arithmetic. Some of these I learned in elementary school, and others I picked up later but wish I had known in elementary school! I'm now the data manager of a large social science research study, so I use … Continue reading Arithmetricks
Parental Profanity Policy
Disclaimer: We only have one child. He is unusually observant and tends to pick up social rules fairly easily and accurately. What works with him may not work with every child. We are only two parents, and the two of us share extremely similar values. What is comfortable for us may not be comfortable for … Continue reading Parental Profanity Policy
Pizza Box Stained Glass
My five-year-old son loves to play games , but there's another reason he looks forward to attending the same game convention every year: the individual pizzas in the convention center food court! I think they're not that great, but I'm willing to let him eat one each year. Like many fast-food pizzas, it's served in … Continue reading Pizza Box Stained Glass
My kid can play IceTowers!!!
My five-year-old son has learned several new things this month. He learned how to ride a bike in an impressively short time, and he learned on the same little bike I rode as a kid, so that was a proud and sentimental milestone. He taught himself to make pizza box stained glass. But last weekend, … Continue reading My kid can play IceTowers!!!
Excellent Educational Toy!
One evening last week, my five-year-old was in one of those moods where he makes unreasonable demands. "I have to have my own computer!" he said in an unpleasant tone. "You already have your own computer," I reminded him. He has one of those toy laptops designed for preschoolers; my uncle gave it to him … Continue reading Excellent Educational Toy!
Handwashing Experiment
This would be a fun experiment for any group of kids over 3 years old. It is an activity for the Girl Scout badge Let's Get Cooking, combined with an activity I adapted from the Junior Girl Scout Handbook. My troop did it two years ago at the beginning of our work on the badge. It … Continue reading Handwashing Experiment
Girl Scout Snack Management
UPDATE in 2015: This article is about what I did with my Girl Scout troop, but it applies to any children's activity--and a lot of it also applies to adult activities where you might want to serve a snack! (I'm no longer a Girl Scout leader, but I expect to go back to it someday.) … Continue reading Girl Scout Snack Management
Two Easy Indoor Games
Here are two games that are easy to set up, use minimal materials, and are fun for kids about 2-10 years old at a party or holiday gathering. (See also these knee-bouncing games for entertaining younger kids!) Pass the Parcel You will need a bunch of small toys, costume jewelry and similar trinkets, coins, and/or pieces of wrapped … Continue reading Two Easy Indoor Games
Battle of the Bagel Ballads!
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!
Learning from Old Clothes
Learning about the history of clothing fashions is an activity I've done with Girl Scouts several times. It's part of the Art to Wear Try-It and badge, Listening to the Past Try-It, and probably a few others. It's always been fascinating. Clothing is so intimately a part of our daily lives that thinking about what people like ourselves wore … Continue reading Learning from Old Clothes
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
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!
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!
When Kids Show Up at Your Demo
I wrote this article in 1999, when I was not yet a parent but was noticing that many adults I knew were very awkward when relating to children or actually tried to exclude children from fun activities rather than figure out how the kids could fit in. I mentioned this to Kristin Looney, whose company … Continue reading When Kids Show Up at Your Demo
Fist to Five: A way to reach agreement
My Girl Scouts and I recently learned a new method for assessing group opinions so we can work toward consensus. It looked useful in the book (it's included in the Agent of Change Journey program) but it wasn't until we tried it that I learned how amazingly well it works for me! Fist to Five … Continue reading Fist to Five: A way to reach agreement
An Everyday Educational Game
As we walked along our neighborhood's main street this afternoon, my four-year-old son asked me about a strange-looking contraption on the sidewalk. I explained that it's for the safe, sanitary disposal of cigarette butts. Sadly, Nicholas knows all about cigarettes, even though nobody in our family smokes them, because in our urban habitat we routinely … Continue reading An Everyday Educational Game
Really Only Very Small
This is one of the simplest yet most profound parenting tips I've heard: When your child is driving you absolutely insane, and you wish he'd just get with the program and act like a civilized human being, and you're sick and tired of his getting in the way of all the very important things you … Continue reading Really Only Very Small
The Earthling's Handbook 