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As you can see by the dates below, this blog is no longer being updated.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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The Good Sportsmanship Club
I had a moment of deja vu during John McCain’s concession speech last night. Last winter the editor of Growing Up in Santa Cruz asked me to write an article about Mount Madonna School’s girls volleyball team. They were on an amazing winning streak for a small team. (Read the article at http://www.guisc.com/viewarticle.php?id=165.) I took…
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A Parenting Book List
People who know me know that I’ve had my share of challenges with my kids. They are both very bright in a book-learnin’ sort of way, which means that I seldom worry about things like test scores. In fact, I’m sure I’ll write at some point about my search for schools that are academically rigorous…
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Rain, Rain, Yay, Yay!
It’s November and it’s raining! For transplants from the Midwest like me, those long months without a drop of rain are wearing. We have a memory stored deep in our bodies of the refreshing rain that washes away a sticky hot day. So although I love our foggy summers, and revel in wearing tank tops…
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Favorite Halloweens
Halloweens Past… I grew up on a horseshoe-shaped dirt road in Michigan. Most of the houses on our road had kids in them, and our road was a great place for trick-or-treating. There were only two far-apart streetlights, lots of trees and shadowy yards, and almost every house was open for visitors. My dad would…
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The Homeschooling Attitude
I was chatting with a bunch of other homeschooling moms and the words came out of my mouth before I realized that they were a true insight into our family. I said, “Even before we started homeschooling, we were a homeschooling family.” As with many things I say, I wasn’t completely clear on what I…