Education

From A Public School Mom :: Sending Our Babies To School Should Not Be This Hard School for me as a kid was majorly different. I grew up in Houma, Louisiana prior to Hurricane Katrina. The town was much smaller, Martin Luther King Boulevard had barely any traffic, we had a Ryan’s Steakhouse and a Blockbuster, and my bus driver was this same older woman who I used for almost every grade. I also went to private school almost my whole childhood, attending public school for only one year, 5th grade. If there was any stress with carpool or riding the bus, my parents, admins or teachers did not show it. My teachers showed up to school every day, smiling and...

The Struggle Is Real :: Overworked Educators And Stressed-Out Moms Amidst The School Bus Saga The recent school transportation issues have highlighted a major issue in education: underpaid school bus drivers. This ongoing battle is causing stress and disruption for school leaders, educators, and parents, as they try to cope with the lack of adequate transportation. This battle has exposed how school boards and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education fail to provide adequate support to school systems, leaving students and their families without access to reliable transportation and consequently inadequate opportunities for academic success. The struggle of both educators and stressed-out moms is real, and it's time for real solutions to be put in place. The recent school transportation issues...

Wobbling Toward Grace :: Milestones In Parenting A Neurodivergent Child We took the kids to the West Baton Rouge Library’s Lego Club a few Fridays ago, and as we were trying to corral them to leave our younger son pointed at the ground and went, “AHHH!” That’s his way of letting us know he has seen something out of the ordinary - revolting (a cockroach), surprising (a sock or a package of chips his brother has thrown into his visual range), or delightful (an almost-forgotten toy that has disappeared for a while). I followed his pointing finger to a small beige shape in the dark green industrial carpet weave of the library floor. I squinted at the block and said, “well, let’s...

Honor Roll Mom :: Keep Your Expectations Reasonable My oldest child is smart. Like mind-blowingly smart. At 14, I don’t remember a single time he ever had to study for a test. He’s able to remember vast amounts of knowledge and the adults in his life regularly look to him for guidance whenever they have a question about history or geography. He’s been on the honor roll ever since he was old enough to be on it and I’ve been the proud mom, sitting in the front row cheering him on every step of the way. With a child like this, you get used to seeing the A’s and as much as you don’t want to be “that parent," any time...

Summer Is Almost Over, Are You Ready? Heading back to school means new chaos, new schedules, earlier bedtimes, new homework, new friends, new beginnings. Back to school shopping and uniform purchases, completing summer reading, and keeping your fingers crossed that your kiddos didn’t spend so much time having fun and unexpectedly mushed their academic brains. While this next chapter can be exciting, it is certainly a time of transitions, and you’re probably hyper focused on prepping your little ones with encouragement, expectations, and enthusiasm. But inside of your head, if you’re anything like me, you’re also in need of your own affirmations, strength, and serenity. It's easy to fall into this next school year and, like other years before, unintentionally lose...