Hey! I hate to toss you outta here on your keister, but I have another guest post over at Mamapedia today, and I’d love for you to read THAT. (It’s about parents and teachers working together.) So go! Leave! Vamoose! See ya! Asta la bye bye! (But please come back tomorrow!)
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The Focus Is On Family, As Usual.
Focusing on family this holiday season won’t be any different from the norm around here; we usually spend the eight days of Hanukkah doing lots of family activities: board games (Risk, Life, etc.), movies, entertaining, and all that kind of stuff. We don’t focus on the gifts–and in fact, for the last many years, it’s been like pulling teeth for the grandparents to get my kids to make wish lists because they hate doing that–but still, we usually have a loose budget for the holidays. Not this year. Although we are totally fine (really), our belts are tightened this year when it comes to extras, and we join so many…
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Do It For the Kids
Large groups of people are always interesting to me; I’m a people-watcher. Observing others and how they react with loved ones can be really fun. It can also be a little sad, and sometimes a little confusing. I had an experience today that was all of those things. Each year, our classroom at religious school has a family program. The kids bring one or both parents (or in some cases, a grandparent) for a special craft project. The idea is to create something together, and to spend quality time together. I’ve been doing this project for years (and years) (and years), and I am not sure I’ve ever really taken…
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Sometimes the First Bite Is Also the Last.
Most parents have a strategy for getting their young children to eat foods that they don’t want any part of. If we never pushed our kids to try new foods, they’d grow up on Gerber applesauce and pureed carrots, after all. Some parents make their kids eat one bite of the new food for every year of their age. Some parents make their kids try just one bite. Some parents make their kids clear their plates, and some parents avoid the issue entirely by making an alternate meal for their finicky kids. I am fairly certain that, growing up, I just had to have a taste of the foreign foods…
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At The Very Least, NOBODY Likes Being Taunted By A Teddy Bear…
Back in December of 1996, Jim found out that he would be attending a week-long conference in San Francisco, for work. To our surprise, his boss at the small company he worked for at the time told him that he should bring his family at the company’s expense. (Does that even happen anymore? Doubtful.) We were thrilled beyond belief as we packed up what was necessary to go away for a week with an almost-two-year-old and a four-year-old. Being the Type-A person that I am when it comes to everything vacation planning, I did my research on San Francisco (we had never been there before) and made lists upon lists…