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    As you can see by the dates below, this blog is no longer being updated.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…

  • On choosing a career

    When I was a child, I was really good at math, but I loved books and writing. I will never forget my disappointment when everyone at my elementary school took an assessment that was supposed to predict good career choices. The test said I was supposed to be a mathematician. My dad, I knew, thought…

  • WWDFS: The college scandal hits close to home

    My husband and I are both graduates of Stanford University, though the university we went to bears little resemblance to today’s Stanford. I was in one of the last classes admitted under “Dean Fred”—the amazing Fred Hargadon who knew that although test scores are nice, a truly great student body is made up of diverse,…

  • What are your kids watching?

    This one school year, I have had more students referencing violent memes, more students taking part in destructive and deceptive communities, more students writing about violent fantasies. Do you know what your child is watching?

  • Young writers’ reading list

    The most important thing that young writers can do to develop their skills is write, write, and write some more. In conjunction with writing, young writers should read great writing: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, jokes, text messages…. The form doesn’t actually matter. The more great writing they read, the more the rhythm of language will take…

  • “I Am Jazz” Community Reading

    “I Am Jazz” Community Reading

    This month Santa Cruz families will come together to read a book at the library. Yes, this happens all the time, but not with this book and this message. “I am Jazz” was published in 2014, co-written by 14-year-old Jazz Jennings, a transgender activist whose life had been profiled in a television documentary. Although the…