Mardi Gras masks! You'll have to pardon this post, because I am ending up the week with a cold and three sick little boys. (The littlest boy was sick over the course of the week, but was he sick with what we've all come down with today or with the last mild cold that passed thr...

Week 6: Valentines, Valentines, Valentines:   Katydid, wearing her rose-colored glasses (they actually are rose-tinted, to help with her headaches) looks very Valentine-ish, doesn't she?   Most of the Valentines this year involved large amounts of glitter.  I think this is Pip&...

Favorite drink(s): chocolate milk  Favorite food(s):  macaroni and cheese Favorite tv show(s):  dora and diego Favorite movie(s):  "bzzzzz. a bee movie. that you, me and e1 went to last night" (it was actually last summer and I am surprised she remembere...

TwitterMoms in partnership with Care.com is having a contest. The charge:  What’s the rudest comment from a stranger you have ever gotten about your parenting style?  Not. A. Problem. The hard part is — which story should I choose? Is it bad I have too many options? Here goes: My daughter ...

Weeks 3, 4, and 5 are being lumped together as cabin fever weeks.  I think we did actually do something, and I have a few pictures to prove it, but mainly winter insanity took over. This week (week 5) ended up a little better than I expected, after a disastrous Monday on which I in...

Most young kids’ play is sedentary A study looking a three-, four- and five-year-olds enrolled in community-based preschool programs found that 89 percent of the kids’ physical activity could be described as sedentary activity, while 56 percent of activities were sedentary during outdoor playtim...

I found this schedule in my homeschooling records. Younger son's prek-4 year schedule was a combination of meeting his needs and him begging to 'do homeschooling'. My preferred plan of following the advice of Charlotte Mason and the advice of unschoolers was thwarted by my son's determination and de...

We're having a bit of a problem getting back into a groove again.  While we made it through the holidays without getting sick, a couple of colds hit hard after New Year's.  Last week was a run-down sort of week.  Nobody had very much energy, although I doubt you would...

A: A preschooler. All right, I apologize for slandering all of the world's under-6's. There are plenty of wonderful preschoolers out there, including one of my own. But even the wonderful ones aren't always inclined to be so. Sometimes they resort to violence to get what they want. They hit or push ...

Theresa writes: "Anyone else have a rough week last week now that the holidays are over?  My son (6) was back to school, I was back to the miserable commute, the babysitter (whom he loves) was back - and by Thursday we were in full-blown tantrum mode (we haven't been there for a while...