Avant Parenting 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As you can see by the dates below, this blog is no longer being updated.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…
-
More than just clouds
The other day the kids and I were driving along the highway marveling at all the types of clouds we were seeing: cirrus, nimbus, cumulus, stratus! It was an unusual parade of meteorology across our usually tranquil October skies. I think about my childhood in Michigan and I imagine that some California kids might think…
-
Dangerous season for quirky kids
It’s that time of year again: School has started up. Families are getting busy doing whatever they do. And the holidays are marching toward us. It’s an especially hard time of year for those who have children with special needs. First of all, we’re dealing with our kids’ education. Some of us are fighting for…
-
So what’s with the marshmallows?
I love reading studies about the brain and how it works, and especially as they pertain to raising kids. Studies like these range all over the map from serious, in-depth, well-designed work by professionals to headline-grabbing, seriously flawed studies by people who think they know what they’re doing. In either case, the results from these…
-
An Ode to the Fair
I was telling my kids about the major memory I have of our yearly county fair. I grew up in a place that was rife with both artists and farmers, and I am guessing that our fair had plenty of worthy stuff to see. But here’s what I remember: Eating cotton candy, which makes me…
-
Local books for Santa Cruz kids
Ever since my husband and I read The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet*, which is set in Pacific Grove, to our son, I’ve had a passion for snooping out books with local flavor. It’s such a passion that I was sure I’d written about it before. But having searched my files, I have to…