I am usually a pretty easy going person without a lot of ill will toward others, but that changed last week. I was ready to strangle the person who decided automatic flushing toilets were a great idea for an elementary school. What child doesn’t love very loud toilets that go off seemingly on a whim? (If this is a new topic to you, you should know that the sensors for automatic toilets in public places are usually set too high to notice children, so the toilet often flushes while a kid sits on it- terrifying!) My first grade daughter, a normally happy, well adjusted kid, was reduced to tears a few times over her absolute refusal to use the bathroom at school. That wasn’t much of a problem when she was a half-day kindergartner, but now she’s at school for 7 hours which is asking a lot of her bladder.  Read the rest of this post...

I was relieved when my kids reported they would need to bring their own snack to school each day this year.  I resolved to send freshness everyday, following Dr. Sears’ The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood list of amazingly nutritious, energy providing snacks – a complex carbohydrate with a protein.  I started with so many great ideas: ham and turkey roll-ups with cheese cubes, mini whole wheat bagels with cream cheese, tortillas with peanut butter, trail mix.  I even made peanut butter banana chocolate chip bread with whole wheat pastry flour.  Read the rest of this post...

I was traveling down the slippery slope to laughable lunches.  My kids’ lunchboxes were looking like science experiments…gross ones!  Alas, it was time for Spring Break, and a break from packing lunches was  just what I needed.  This is also the time when I treat myself to a new magazine every year.  Standing in front of the display at Whole Foods, a bright cover with some gorgeous freshly steamed asparagus jumped into my foodie view.  I knew I would be devouring this magazine called Eating Well cover-to-cover for the entire week.  Read the rest of this post...

When my son started learning to read, I went to the library and picked up some learning DVDs to help. He was not interested. When he started kindergarten, a mom let me borrow her child’s Leapfrog learning to read DVDs. Both my son and daughter (two-years old at the time) loved them. My daughter now knows all of her letters and sounds because of the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD. And my son started sounding out words and learning reading rules with the Leapfrog Talking Words Factory DVD.

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