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As you can see by the dates below, this blog is no longer being updated.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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Young Entrepreneurs Unite!
The Kids Craft Fair at the Boys and Girls Club What if you could find a school that would teach your child applied creativity, organizational skills, project management, math, money skills, entrepreneurship, social skills, and marketing… all in three hours? Look no further than the annual Kids Craft Fair at the Boys and Girls Club…
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The value of creative writing: a spoonful of sugar
Recently, one of my online creative writing students expressed great pleasure at the end of class for having spent an hour “not learning anything.” I let it slide, happy that he couldn’t see me at my desk, laughing at the success of my pedagogic deception. My students are learning—they just don’t know it.
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Living the California paradox
When it comes to our vehicle choices, I don’t call our family a paradox; I call us the new paradigm. Americans had a good, long love affair with the gas engine, and that’s coming to an end. We used to think of driving as entertainment, and that, too, is coming to an end. What starts…
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Gifted Kids: The disconnect between input and output
It’s hard to educate a child who is profoundly asynchronous, as many gifted children are. While a young gifted child may have a high school level vocabulary, they may struggle to hold a pencil. And the disconnect becomes even more pronounced as the child grows and seems to become more mature. When a child can…
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The value of the personal touch….online!
I may not be able to bring snacks for my students, but when it’s done right, online learning creates community just as in-person learning does.