Education

Give Your Family a Worldly Experience: Host a High School Exchange Student Are you searching for a way to expose your children to different cultures or add a little vibrancy to your house? Volunteering to host an exchange student is a great way to experience different cultures and it offers numerous benefits for you and your family. Now is a great time to select a student to host for the upcoming school year. Doing so will allow you to start communicating with the student and preparing for his or her arrival. Who can host an exchange student? From traditional families to single parents and empty-nesters, host families come in many different forms. Host families have high school-aged children, toddlers, or no children...

Five True Crime Podcasts To Binge Next True Crime Podcasts are one of the most compelling podcast genres, offering crime, drama, and a suspenseful murder mystery directly to our ears. To say I am obsessed with crime podcasts is putting it mildly. Below are my most recent five listens. Finding Brittanee Drexel ::  17-year-old Brittanee mysteriously disappears on a secret spring break trip. Listen to exclusive interviews and unprecedented access to details spanning the 13-year investigation. Very Scary People (The Ken & Barbie Killers) ::  In this seven-episode podcast, host Donnie Wahlberg follows the twisted, dark path of the seemingly loving and wholesome couple Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. Unrestorable :: 3-year-old Sarah and her 2-year-old brother Jacob were last seen with their mother, Catherine Hoggle. Their...

Banned Books I Encourage My Teen To Read By definition, book banning is the act of removing materials from a school or library as a result of objections from groups or individuals who say they need to protect others from the difficult information or ideas contained in the books. These controversial topics include everything from sexuality and religious views to information on racial and social injustices. I am a strong believer that for the most part, reading should not be censored. Growing up, I gained a wealth of knowledge and empathy through books. Learning about different views, experiences, and life paths from books has shaped me into a woman and mom who is able to spread my empathy to others around...

Coping With My College Kid Being So Far Away I know it’s often said that parents shouldn’t be friends with their kids. But it happened. My daughter messed around and became one of my very best friends. She was the first person to know me from the inside out. The first person I was fully responsible for and to. The first person who I have experienced their entire life with. She has brought my husband and me so much joy over the past 19 years and while some look forward to sending their adult children on their journey, I have dreaded it. She's a dancer who has always dreamed of living in Los Angeles, but selfishly, I would have been...

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...