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Topic Archives: Parental Involvement

What’s Your Seminal Parent Moment?

October 21, 2015

  “Thank you, Mrs. Ferguson,” I said to myself  walking out of the building. After finishing 10 parent-teacher conferences for two middle schoolers, my long but very good day was finally over. Don’t get me wrong, not all of the feedback was positive. Yes, there was room for improvement, different things for different kids. But there was one common praise across all of those conferences and both of those kids: your child is very self-sufficient. Any child psychologist will tell you the importance of teaching children independence if you want them to grow into successful adults. Parents hear it constantly. But what they are missing are the details. How in the world does a parent know how much responsibility to give and when to give… Read More

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Raising Emotionally and Socially Healthy Kids: An Interview with Dr. Eileen Kennedy-Moore

September 21, 2015

We are supremely fortunate to share with you this week insight from a leading child psychologist Dr. Eileen Kennedy-Moore who has great advice on how to handle some sensitive parenting moments. Dr. Eileen Kennedy-Moore has a private practice in Princeton, NJ, where she works with adults, children, and families. In addition to co-authoring Smart Parenting for Smart Kids and The Unwritten Rules of Friendship, she has a new video series for parents, produced by The Great Courses: Raising Emotionally and Socially Healthy Kids. Your Great Course lectures cover 12 topics that touch on different challenges of parenting. Is there an overriding principle or philosophy you might say parents today should keep in mind as they approach their roles as parents to growing children? The… Read More

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5 Common Misconceptions about Teens and Sleep

September 12, 2015

We hear it all the time. Teens need more sleep. They burn the candle at both ends, with early start times for school followed by hours of after school activities and homework. When I taught high school, I saw my students in first period at 7:45 a.m. and dismissed the last class 2:45 p.m. And guess what? These teens were exhausted at both ends of the day. They wanted coffee. Did you drink coffee in 10th grade?! As adults, many of us empathize with the adolescent’s desire for more sleep. We’re tired, too. But do we really understand the unique problem teens face when it comes to their sleep deficits? Because in reality, the teen brain is very different from the… Read More

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Your Labor Day Digest

September 4, 2015

By Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff We’re keeping this one simple. You’ve been through a lot. You got the last glue stick, the right calculator (or maybe the wrong one), the pencils, the graph paper, and the new backpack. You’ve convinced everyone that getting up before 7am is the new normal, and lunch is a meal, not the time by which to change out of PJ’s. Or, if you’re like me, they don’t start until Tuesday and you’re looking forward to 8:01 am. Either way, I hope this roundup of some helpful posts takes a little labor out of your Labor Day. I’m focusing on the transitions in the tween years: starting middle school, supporting the emotional life of preteens, a… Read More

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What Parents Can Learn from Carly Fiorina’s (not) Primetime Success

August 13, 2015

by Nancy Weinstein No doubt Carly Fiorina was supremely disappointed those first days of August when she didn’t make the cut for the primetime Republican debate on August 6th. She was effectively relegated to the “B Team” or, as most Americans perceived it, the candidates who were out before the race really began. And yet, she clearly didn’t give up. Instead, she swung for the fences. And the consensus from the pundits is that she knocked it out of the park in Cleveland. Not only is she considered the clear winner of the “Happy Hour” debate, but, according to some, she won the primetime hour as well. While polls of Republicans before the debate showed only 40% even knew who… Read More

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Who’s In Your Rolodex?

August 13, 2015

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

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It’s Creativity, Mom

July 30, 2015

  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

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Jury Duty

July 2, 2015

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

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Parents: What is Your Take-Back?

June 12, 2015

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

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Drive your Child Everywhere? Uber May Replace You

June 5, 2015

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

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