parenting
back-to-school shopping with three crazy-cool kids
After our crazy-successful Smart Summer Challenge, I needed a little week-long offline vay-cay to say the least! Our Smart Summer Challenge was a smashing success (woo-hoo!), but blogging daily for ...
why I love back-to-school shopping (especially with kids)
Thank you to Crocs for sponsoring this blog post. Please click here to learn more about Crocs’ new Back to School line. I was selected for this sponsorship by the ...
playing with pixie–poem-writing, picture-creating
Maddy has loved using Pixie ever since Kindergarten. Her school has it installed on all of the computers in the lab, and when I asked her what she wanted to ...
easy, frugal, backyard water fun
It’s H-O-T. Hot, hot, Hot with a capital ‘H’. I know I’ve been a total complainer, but I really don’t care. So rather than complain any more, I thought I’d ...
smithsonian museum of natural history: a fabulous, family-friendly field trip
Talk about a smart–hot! balmy! muggy! ridiculous! oppressive!–summer week we’ve had! It has been all about hangin’ out inside for the latter part of last week for us, with degrees ...
how to teach kids to search the web: read, research, evaluate
We see the same beautiful apple tree every time we walk to or from the pool. And we often talk about how beautiful the tree is and how much we ...
wolf trap’s theater in the woods
This week’s Smart Summer Challenge week has a Forest Friendly focus, so it’s a perfect opportunity to write about the time we spent at Wolf Trap’s Children’s Theater-in-the-Woods. The Theater-in-the-Woods ...
smart summer challenge fun learning ideas: week 4
It’s almost week #4 of our Smart Summer Learning Challenge–the campaign we’ve created to let all parents know the important–and totally fun–role they play in their children’s summer learning! These ...
backyard fun: dissecting, examining, and learning about flowers
Dissecting flowers–totally pulling them apart–is a little bit funny for some kids. At least it was for mine. We tell them they can’t pick the flowers in our gardens unless ...
backyard science: our very own baby house wrens
We have fallen hard over here for four sweet, tiny babies–four chirping, tweeting, insect-eating, feathered friends–little house wrens. Their mom made a nest in our hanging basket, beautiful red geraniums, ...
outside fun: park explorer playkits (me on pbs parents!)
Today you can find me on PBS Parents sharing an absolutely awesome, incredibly fun outdoor activity: Park Explorer Playkits. Park Explorer Playkits are earth-friendly and kid-friendly, and Maddy, Owen, and ...
