Education

5 Ways to Thank Your Child's Teacher All Year Long {Teacher Appreciation Week} This week is Teacher Appreciation Week at our school and several others around town, and many other local schools will be observing in the coming weeks. In years past, Teacher's Appreciation Week has caught me off-guard as I rushed around frantically to buy and wrap acceptable gifts and get them to school in one piece. I mean, do busy moms really need one more thing to do? I think not. But this school year, it feels different. Maybe it's because my oldest has had some behavioral challenges, but his teachers have been so patient with him. Or maybe it's because my baby is now in preschool and is so comfortable around his...

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Confession:  I have a crush on the library. Yes, the library, our library, the East Baton Rouge Parish Library.  I think about it when I’m away from it.  I plan ways I can go to it and spend time there. I brag about it to my friends and family. Why? Because I believe there is enough to go around and that your life can be just as enriched as mine.  Permit me to tell you a few reasons why I am in serious like with the local library: 1. An oasis in the chaos. Your local library branch offers a quiet refuge in the busyness of life.  Tables in the children’s departments are set up with coloring pages and crayons.  Computers at...

Childhood Cancer. These are scary words, but until recently they have not held any real meaning for me. I would see commercials for St. Jude; those commercials with celebrities playing with sickly yet smiling children. I would say a quick prayer for those children and their families, and perhaps donate when extra funds were available. I never thought pediatric cancer would touch my circle. Until it did. A short three weeks ago my friend took her daughter to the doctor because she had hurt her leg. We had a homeschool co-op class the day before the appointment, and we gave our well wishes, and said we’d pray it wasn’t something major like a break. April and her toddler daughter, Laina, went into...

Protecting your child's teeth from cavities can be as easy as following a few simple recommendations.  If we're successful at instilling good behavior early in life, those habits will provide them with a healthy mouth that will keep them smiling indefinitely. Dental caries (cavities) is a chronic, infectious, transmissible disease resulting from tooth-adherent specific bacteria, primarily Mutans Streptococci (MS), that metabolizes sugars to produce acid which demineralizes tooth structure over time. The disease of Early Childhood Caries (ECC) is the presence of one or more decayed, missing, or filled tooth surface in any primary (baby) tooth in a child under the age of 6. According to the CDC, this is the most common chronic childhood disease. It’s 5 times more...