Parenting Touchstones

Three Back-to-School Tips You May Have Missed

admin — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 22:18:54 +0000

It’s in the air: alarm clocks ringing, the hum of school buses at the ready and moms flapping about getting all the various details of back-to-school life together. While some moms gleefully embrace this time of year, others mourn the loss of carefree flex time together as a family. Yet no matter what camp you’re in, here are some back-to-school tips that can make the new school year more enjoyable for all. Back-to-School Tip #1 – Put Limits On Your Extracurricular Activities Far be it for me to be an extracurricular party-pooper but here I go: too much of anything, even fantastic programs, are just plain too much. Many kids really ought to have their own stunt double to help them perform in all the multitudes of sports, music and other classes (crayon making anyone?) that are scheduled into their school days. So before you start to flip through the Read more

Parent Sabbaticals and Parenting Perspective

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 03:22:29 +0000

Dear Mum (and the few great Dads who read this too ), Despite many rumours, I have not run away from this blog for good! It’s true: I often recommend that my clients temporary run away from home…but only for an afternoon, or weekend, and of course while the kids are being taken care of by some loving person. But the fact is, when we don’t take the time, life and our emotions, get the better of us. Remember, “When mom ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!” We all need a parenting sabbatical now and again, and few of us get, or ever take them. Recently, I have been in rehab with a physiotherapist for some chronic back issues, and it has been a good reminder to me to slow down (once again!). Thus, I have taken a bit of a sabbatical–unplugging from much of the outer world (like emails, facebook Read more

The Best Child’s First Pet You Can Get!

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 04:10:24 +0000

While innocently, putting my hand into our refrigerator searching for some fresh veggies, I catch something moving out of the corner of my eye. Yikes! I realize our child’s first pet has just hatched out of it’s cocoon and there are nine more to come. We are a bit unprepared! Fortunately, unlike the Dr. Seuss book, Horton Hatches the Egg, these 10 pets are incredibly low maintenance, can be left for months at a time, and don’t even need to be fed. Despite being live bees (yes, I repeat LIVE bees), they are incredibly safe child’s pet–I give you my parenting promise! It all started when I read, Fruitless Fall, a brilliant book which weaves a non-fictional tale of the current plight of the worlds’ bees, in such a compelling way, I just couldn’t put it down. It was like reading a murder mystery that taught fascinating horticultural trivia at Read more

Compassionate Charity: Teaching Our Kids to Litter in Schoolyards

admin — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:25:23 +0000

“Why would our teachers punish us with something that is so good?” asks my very insightful eight year old charge. In an attempt to teach the two blind brothers, I took care of for over seven years, how to give back to their community; I regularly took them out to their schoolyard on weekends and summer vacation to do a bit of litter patrol on the way to our playground. It was easy to get them on board, especially after we learned about how marine animals will often mistake, plastic garbage for food and then get sick. As their school was close to the beach, the wind blew the garbage blocks down to the beautiful pier at the waterfront. But on this particular day, Grant had more on his mind than preventing injured sea creatures. Beyond perplexed, he suddenly realizes the irony of his well meaning teachers who regularly used Read more

School of Hard Knocks: Teacher Taped Her Student’s Mouth Shut

admin — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 03:46:25 +0000

Our teachers are perhaps, the most beloved AND the most detested. There are some like the PS22 choir teacher who can inspire their students confidence to soar to outstanding heights; and then, there are those few (and most of us have had at least one during our school career) who brutally strip away a child’s confidence (even our own). Sometimes the school of hard knocks comes to us from life outside the classroom, and other times, it comes to us from within the walls of an actual classroom. This week, a mother in one of my homeschooling yahoo groups, shared an especially difficult classroom discipline issue that had her son in tears. It seems, her son’s best friend had his mouth duct taped in class, for talking during math. Her son, a concerned friend, brought it to the attention of his principal, but nothing was done. So this past month, Read more