Avant Parenting Archives

  • Avant! Welcome to my parenting blog archives

    Avant! Welcome to my parenting blog archives

    As you can see by the dates below, this blog is no longer being updated. However, there’s lots of good stuff here, much of it as true now as when it was written. Please feel free to browse, or follow these links: One last piece of parenting advice: Enjoy today even if it’s a rough…

  • How to fix our schools? First, ask the right question.

    A friend forwarded two articles about the state of education in California and all the political wrangling: How do we best improve our schools? How do we get more federal money? What is the effect of teacher’s unions on reforms? What is the effect of charter schools on kids and on neighborhood schools? I realized…

  • Violent trailers at kids' movies have got to stop!

    Yesterday we went to see Fantastic Mr. Fox at the 41st Avenue Theater. The movie was great, probably a bit much for the younger set (in my opinion), but perfect for the kids I went with, aged 7 to 10. The only thing that made me cringe was their use of “cuss” for the obvious…

  • Mr. Know-it-all

    Before we had kids, my husband used to have a standard joke that he needed to get a business card that said “Mr. Know-it-all.” He has one of those encyclopedic brains, and he reads voraciously. So even though we don’t watch TV or listen to most popular music, if I say, “who is that person…

  • Happy Chanukah!

    When my husband and I were talking about having a baby, one of the things he said that was important to him was raising our kids Jewish. I said, “That’s fine with me, but what does that mean to you?” Eleven years later, we’re still working on the answer to that question. My husband, like…

  • The year in review: Energy Girl rocks!

    It’s nearing the end of the year, and I’m starting to feel nostalgic. Also, my daughter just turned seven, and somehow that seems very momentous. It occurred to me that I’d like to publicly thank all the people who have helped her this year. It’s been an amazing year for her, full of growth and…