By Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff I am reading a biography of a woman who traveled to Europe by steamer ship in the early twentieth century. She took with her an address book in which she’d entered the names and addresses of recommended tailors and doctors just in case she needed one. The modern parent doesn’t need an address book of names on hand in the event of emergencies because at the touch of a few buttons, we can search for what we need instantly. Or can we? If what we’re looking for is a highly recommended specialist, we might want to take a cue from our foremothers, and invest a little time in building our lists before we enter foreign… Read More

  By Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff It doesn’t matter if it’s summer or the middle of February, at some point a parent stands before her child’s messy room and has to make a decision. And 9 times out of 10, the solution is simple: close the door. From the hall, the mess is gone. To clean or not to clean, is not really the question. The question is how the child finds a matching pair of socks, her homework, and earbuds beneath the upper layer of clothes, books, and unidentified objects. I do have one confession, however. My own desk is a mess. My office? Pretty clean, in the sense that a small toddler could be let loose on the… Read More

By Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff I began my summer by reporting to jury duty. I’d been summoned twice before, and both calls fell shortly after the birth of one of my girls. I got excused for medical reasons; I was more than my babies’ mom, I was their milk machine, and only source of food considering they wouldn’t take a bottle. Now that the kids were older, I had no medical excuse. But the responsibilities of motherhood don’t lessen just because the kids can tie their own shoes. So, with a husband whose work schedule was inflexible, and my regular baby sitters out of town, I waged a desperate search. I finally found two sitters who between them could watch… Read More

How to Stay Educated When Your Focus is on Them By Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff Most Saturday mornings, I am awakened around 6:30am by my youngest daughter. There’s the regular routine of unloading the dishwasher, feeding the dog, making the beds and figuring out how my husband and I will divide and conquer the rest of the day, and rest of the weekend. Last Saturday morning, I woke up around 6:30 and snuck out of the house quietly. We were visiting my parents’ house and it would be my husband and mom who’d figure out the bowl of Cheerios and morning schedule. My father and I were on our way to a conference for biographers. I got to listen to… Read More

Edited by Sarah Vander Schaaff How is your college-aged child going to get from the airport back to campus next fall? Or get to the dentist if he or she needs a filling? Or head into the big city for a job interview when public transportation, mom’s car, or the help of a friend aren’t going to cut it. Taxi? In my own town of Princeton, Uber is said to be giving standard taxis a run for their money. According to the company, drivers who “partnered” with Uber earned 656 million dollars collectively in the last three months of 2014. Just last month, when our high school intern at Mindprint explained how she got from the school campus to our offices in… Read More

By Sarah Vander Schaaff “What parents see is a very bright and intelligent child who can’t pass the grade because they can’t get the homework turned in.” What the child needs, Joyce Kubik says, is to learn simple skills to fit into the linear world when they need to. Kubik is the president of the nonprofit ADHD Coaches Organization, (ACO) a group that serves ADHD coaches and families. As a coach, she brings another level of expertise to her work: she has ADHD, too. For a person with ADHD, Kubik says, “…their brain is wired to be the person who sees everything and reacts to things—they are the movers and shakers.” Still, in a world with linear expectations, such as following… Read More

Note: This is one of a 10 blog series on learning traits. Read about all 10 learning traits here. Working memory is the skill that drives how easily and efficiently you can work through multi-step problems. When we describe someone as a “quick thinker” they probably have strong working memory. Not surprisingly, it is key to academic success. What is Working Memory? Working memory is how easily you can juggle multiple bits of information in your head and use that information to do something. Remembering a multi-digit phone number and then dialing it is an example.  So is solving a multi-step math problem, particularly if it requires mental math. Reading comprehension relies heavily on working memory–you need to remember what you just read to… Read More

  If there is one cognitive skill Americans are familiar with it is this week’s topic: attention. It seems that every parent asks themselves, “Does my have child have ADHD?” And that is largely because the diagnosis of ADHD has risen significantly over the years. According to the CDC, 6.4 million children between the ages of 4-17, or 11%, had been diagnosed with ADHD in 2011.  That is up from 7.8% in 2003. While all cognitive skills are important, attention plays a particularly big role in our contemporary lives. So if you are currently asking yourself, “does my child have ADHD?” you will want to keep reading. Attention Attention is the ability to initiate and maintain focus for learning, work, and… Read More

By Sarah Vander Schaaff Remember “The Opposite” episode of Seinfeld when George realizes, “…that every decision I’ve ever made, my entire life, has been wrong.” He then sets about to turn old patterns upside down—ordering tea instead of coffee and being blunt instead of agreeable in a job interview—and his life radically improves. I sense a similar epiphany in the real-life version of parenthood, but whether we’ll change our ways is yet to be seen. A new study out of the University of Colorado Boulder, says, “…the more time children spent in less structured activities, the better their self-directed executive function. Conversely, the more time children spent in more structured activities the poorer their self-directed executive function.” The senior author of… Read More

By Sarah Vander Schaaff You’re probably good at multitasking. I’m with you. I can address 120 holiday envelops while watching Househunters International and check email while I dry my hair. I can even drive while I negotiate a temporary truce between siblings.  It’s task-switching, though, where I really shine. I’ve gone from downward dog to changing the laundry to returning a call and back again before you can say Tadasana. I can do these things, so I’ve never really understood the downside of multitasking.  But recently, my mother handed me a book called “Conquer CyberOverload” and I decided to put down my phone and read the 74-page book. The author, Joanne Cantor, Ph. D., a media professor with a background… Read More