Education

Ok, so full disclosure: I'm an English teacher. Like, I have a son named after my favorite literary character ("Atticus") and a daughter named after a Louisiana epic poem ("Evangeline"). So, yeah. To say I love literature is an understatement. Which meant that when I became a mother, one of my greatest priorities was fostering a love for reading in my kids.  Though it hasn't always been easy, my husband and I have made it a point to establish some household guidelines entirely around reading. And I've seen enough episodes of "Intervention" to know that there's a word for our behavior: enablers. We unabashedly enable our kids' addiction to reading. If you're interested in developing reading addicts in your home,...

In response to the recent walkout conducted by teenagers all over the US, people took to social media to express their opinions. This didn't surprise me. What did surprise me were the general themes of what I saw in the responses. The very same people who were voicing frustration just days before, following yet another school shooting, were also complaining about how this specific population chose to act on those frustrations. They saw the peaceful protest in commemoration of the fallen and the effort to generate a national conversation about gun violence as ineffective and an immature attempt to skip class.  I guess that's what they think kids are into these days. Teenagers are often decried as being obsessed with...

I cannot believe it is Dr. Seuss' 114th birthday, making today also Read Across America Day! Dr. Seuss books have always been a childhood favorite of mine and still are to this day. They're fun and easy to read; rhyming words are a win with all children. There is no wonder why we celebrate both Dr. Seuss' birthday and Read Across America Day together. Reading with and to our children is such a magical experience. Dr. Seuss books make it even more so by opening up each child's imagination to worlds and characters that would never have come to mind without him. What about the Who's of Whoville or a fox wearing socks? Taking Advantage of Read Across America Day When we...

Being a stay at home mom, I try to keep some kind of structure and routine to our day. Mainly for my own sanity, but also because I feel like my toddler needs it. Our mornings normally start with breakfast and worship music followed by school. Which brings me to the real heart of this post. While we still use flash cards and one-on-one learning, I found that YouTube is seriously a diamond in the rough for learning. One evening, we just decided to search “ABC’s for toddlers” and the first song we clicked on became a huge hit. It was on repeat for days. It actually reminded me of that one time when I was a kid and was...

On Wednesday, I was planning on starting a silly post listing all the nonsense reasons why I am still awake at 11:30pm on a weekday. It’s a phenomenon I’m sure all moms have experienced. We are exhausted at the end of a long day of mothering, yet we stay up until the wee hours doing nothing, because we finally can. But there was nothing silly about why I was still awake at 11:30pm this past Wednesday night. Since mid afternoon, my heart had been flooded with the pain of the families and fellow students of the children involved in the school shooting in Florida, reaching a paralyzing crescendo when the final death count was announced. Seventeen people. How could this...