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As you can see by the dates below, this blog is no longer being updated.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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Halloween sad-face
When raising children there are those milestones you look forward to, and then there are the ones that pass a bit more poignantly. When your children reach the teen years, it seems, you start getting more and more of those poignant ones! This year marks the official end of our family trick-or-treating. Insert sad pumpkin…
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You’re not the boss of me!
There is one phrase that kids in my part of the world inevitably seem to say—usually sometime around 6 or 7: “You’re not the boss of me!” The first time one of my children said it to me, I was a bit taken aback. At that point, most of his verbal style had come from…
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The comfortable closets we live in
We parents are drawn to trying to fulfill our own children’s needs, but everything we do to make their lives better helps advocate for the wider community. I am deeply indebted to Hoagies’, SENG, my gifted homeschooling group, Great Potential Press, my state and national advocacy groups, and probably other organizations I am forgetting to…
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A grown-up Harry Potter for me and you
Some years ago my husband was reading a book he’d bought on the basis of a good review. He was sitting in his chair chuckling, and occasionally he would say, “You have to read this!” and then “I mean it, you’ve really got to read this!” “OK, dear,” I said, and back to my own book. Then I…
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Teach your children well
I always hold out hope that the homeschooling movement will get serious attention from people who make educational decisions in our country, but I know that often we are dismissed as ignorant or worse. It’s heartening to know that people like Madeline Levine are coming at it from the opposite direction, giving legitimacy to basic…