By Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff Yesterday, my six-year-old announced that she and her good friend had swapped lunches for the week, pretending to be one another. “I had a salami sandwich and no pickles. And she had a bagel, cream cheese, yogurt and two pickles.” The pickles were a key part to this story. It’s evidence that each girl had embraced their alter ego’s preferences with full commitment. My daughter has had her regular order of a bagel with cream cheese, yogurt and two pickles for most of the last 100 plus days of school. Had I suggested she mix it up a bit, I’d have been met with a firm “no.” She really likes pickles. But when she pretended… Read More

By Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff According to the nonprofit Reading is Fundamental, “Children who do not read over the summer lose more than two months of reading achievement.” And because reading loss is cumulative, the organization says that by the end of 6th grade, “children who lose reading skills over the summer will be 2 years behind their classmates.” So, what’s a busy family to do? One inexpensive, engaging and fun way to keep nonfiction reading comprehension skills sharp is to encourage children to start the day with a morning newspaper. A mature high school student may be just find reading the entire “A section” of The New York Times, but I’m not a fan of handing it over to… Read More

Kaylie Crosby is the project manager overseeing a team of 134. Using the special technology of the auto industry, VDP (Vehicle Development Process) she and her team of engineers are working on making a Chevrolet Camaro more fuel-efficient while “retaining the vehicle’s performance, safety, and consumer appeal.” Kaylie’s a fourth year student at the University of Alabama. Yes, she’s still in college. While some of the work on this multimillion-dollar project is integrated into course work, the large majority of it is in addition to her studies in the University of Alabama’s 5-year STEM path to the MBA program. I spoke with her on the phone a few days ago to learn more about what this mechanical engineer and her classmates are… Read More

By Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff Today, we have a Q&A with a man some of you may know best as Dr. Scott from the PBS show, Dinosaur Train. His full name is Scott D. Sampson and he has a new book out this month: How to Raise a Wild Child, the Art and Science of Falling in Love with Nature.  As a father, he gives practical advice on how to get back to nature with your kids. And as a scientist, he explains why it’s essential.  What inspired you to write How to Raise a Wild Child? Why this book at this moment? Inspiration came from a pair of compelling insights. First, the present disconnect between kids and nature threatens the health of… Read More

By Sarah Vander Schaaff March 14 is Pi Day and Albert Einstein’s birthday. For a town like Princeton, it’s a particularly special moment in time with the date, 3.14.15 coinciding with the digits in the irrational, never-ending digits in pi: 3.14159…. And if there was ever a celebration of the inquisitive, intellectual, mathematical and academic, this is it. The official party in this college town (also called Einstein’s alley) is Saturday, but set your alarm clocks, folks. The party starts at 7am. It starts with a Walk a Pi Day, (yes, that’s 3.14 miles), then, there’s a Pie Eating Contest, An Einstein look a like contest; A 9.86 bike tour (3.14×3.14), but perhaps the most dramatic event takes place at 1pm… Read More

By Sarah Vander Schaaff Parents such as Jean and John Gianacaci are examples to many of us in how to love a child. They lost their daughter, Christine Gianacaci, in January 2010, when an earthquake destroyed the hotel she and fellow students from Lynn University were staying in the country of Haiti. Instead of looking at the trip as the end of their 22-year-old daughter’s life, they express her journey and ultimate death as a culmination and fulfillment of her calling, “…in her short life, Christine achieved something many of us never achieve; she found a purpose and a calling that gave her true happiness and purpose. She died doing what she was meant to do. She died doing what… Read More

By Sarah Vander Schaaff The time to underestimate your own potential is now, my fellow parents. It’s February, yes, and I hear the groundhog saw his shadow, but summer will be here before you know it. At least the week of camp you really hope to send your kid to will be filled up or canceled before you know it. Some may adhere to a laissez faire approach to June through August, and I’m all for less hustle and more restoration of balance for the body, mind, and academic load. But I have learned two things over the course of nine years of parenting. The first is that days off from school are not days off from meeting the curiosity… Read More

By Sarah Vander Schaaff It’s going to snow. So we’ve been told. I hope you’d stocked up on milk, bread, batteries and sleds. But for those moments when the kids are inside recovering from building snow forts, here is our top ten list of things to do inside. (Most require electricity, but not all.) So, grab a mug of hot chocolate and let’s get started! 1. Watch a great musical. There is more to a snow day than “Frozen”, pardon the pun. And every kid should know the words to 76 Trombones before he or she heads off to college. Some of my favorites are: The Sound of Music, West Side Story and My Fair Lady, but a great list… Read More

By Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff A few days ago, thanks to Twitter, I stumbled upon an article on the Little League official website that shared an interview with Charles Jeter, the father of the former Yankee shortstop. I don’t often spend my time reading about Derek Jeter. Really, I don’t. Not even in the checkout lines. I also confess that I am much more likely to be sitting in a theater than on the bleachers at a little league game. But the first tip the post shared from Charles Jeter, based on an interview he’d done for Growing Leaders president Tim Elmore, was this: “Never let anyone outwork you. Derek said he watched his dad work relentlessly as a substance… Read More

By Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff I don’t have an answer to the question many women are asking about their relationship with the NFL. I cannot say, however, that I ever assumed that the NFL particularly valued women. The fact that the most prominent women on the field are cheerleaders, who are paid $500-$700 per season but reportedly generate one million dollars in revenue, has something to do with that. We can rightfully lambast the way the league disciplines its players who’ve broken the law, not only with violence against women but also other offenses. But the sport is violent, and instead of focusing on how the league handles what happens after a player has assaulted a woman, I’d like to… Read More