Middle School

Disclosure :: This post is sponsored by Take Note.  The Journey to Impact "We need a school that looks like Disneyland but operates like Harvard," said Chakesha Scott as she began dreaming of ways to change the education landscape in Baker, Louisiana. In 2014, Scott turned her aspirations into reality by establishing Impact Charter School, Baker's inaugural and only locally-based charter school. However, the journey to fulfill her dream was filled with adversity and challenges. As the founder and CEO, Scott describes the process of opening a charter school in Louisiana as "one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life." Through it all, Scott would lean on her "why,” the students. “The children I witnessed suffering in Baker's...

My husband was on his way home with both our girls. I had just arrived home from work, and I began my daily routine of feeding pets and changing into my workout clothes. I sat on the sofa and put on my socks and shoes. I wonder if my bonus-daughter’s phone is in her room, randomly popped into my head. I have never snooped at her phone before, so this thought was new and definitely random for me. But my brain could not let go. Starting to stretch for my evening run, I kept marinating on the idea. So, I said a little prayer, asking God for His wisdom, and I felt an even stronger urge to put my secret...

Property Brothers :: Money, Mercy, and Monopoly Flashback to New Year’s Eve, 2021. That night, we stayed in as Covid cases had spiked and gifted us with the Omicron variant. I would eventually become well-acquainted with Omicron a few weeks later. But on this quiet and cozy evening playing board games, laughing, and enjoying the “Mini Sweet Tooth Buffet” I’d pulled together following a last-minute Target run, I looked around and felt better than I’d felt in months. I could have sworn I tasted a bit of sweet hope intermingled with the sour gummy worms. That night we played Monopoly as a family for the first time. It had been at least a decade since I’d opened the game, and pulling that...

In Defense Of Public Schools Public or private? This seems to be a very hot topic nowadays. It’s easy to see why. We want our kids to have the best of the best, don’t we? We want them afforded every opportunity available to them so they grow into mature, responsible, HAPPY adults, right? That’s the goal! My family and I are very fortunate to live in a great public school district where we know they’ll thrive, but the question of public or private honestly never came up in discussions about education when our kids were babies. After all, my husband and I both went through the public school system and had no solid complaints. So here’s some reasons we LOVE our public...

This Episode Of Bluey Is Called :: Letting My Kids Teach Me To Play I had been begging the kids to get their swimsuits on so we could get out of the house. I felt like Chilli Heeler, gesturing desperately at the open door. "The door. It's right there. We could just – walk through it." But apparently, like Bluey and Bingo, we couldn't get out that door, either. Our younger son (7) was so excited to go he stood like an Easter Island statue glaring at his big brother (10), then started lecturing him in that tone of voice he uses when Someone Has Done Wrong. I felt the same way, and finally snapped at 10, who had shifted from reluctance ("I...