Avant Parenting Archives
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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As you can see by the dates below, this blog is no longer being updated.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…
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Our neighborhood schools: what makes them attractive?
Yesterday I posted a critique of what’s going on in the Soquel School District, as described in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. I suggested that perhaps people quoted in the Sentinel were wrong in blaming overt racism for the fact that parents are clamoring to get their kids into Main Street School, which is only blocks…
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What are we going to do about neighborhood schools?
Today someone sent me a link to this article in the Sentinel. The article is about how there is a discussion in the Soquel school district about what to do about the lopsided enrollment in their schools. Seems almost everyone wants to go to Main Street, only one family wants their kid to transfer into…
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Our modern life: garbage
A couple of weeks ago, our son’s class had a project to count all the garbage their families made in a week. At the outset, that seemed pretty simple. We put checklists over the major garbage cans and recycling bins in the house and attached a pen to each. Theoretically, we’d be able to count…
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The learning lifestyle: spinning and mixing
My friend Heddi of the Educational Resource Center likes to talk about “living the learning lifestyle,” and what that means for families. (She also has a new blog here!) We had a good example of it the other day. My daughter saw that one of her favorite things was in at the Resource Center. They…
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Recognizing childhood asthma – do you know the signs?
With this year’s entry into the flu season early, we’re already well into the yearly spike in hospitalizations for kids with breathing problems. Reflecting on a friend’s recent experience and our learning curve with our ten-year-old’s asthma, I thought it might be useful for parents who don’t think that their kids have asthma to educate…