Everday words

From laptops at home to tablets at school, kids use technology daily, and device use is beginning at an earlier and earlier age. In fact, parents are letting toddlers and even infants play with their phones and tablets.

Role of the Father in the Breastfeeding Family

Many men mistakenly believe that breastfeeding is strictly confined to women and babies. They see their role as that of a passive or neutral outside observer who has little influence on the process. A common complaint from fathers of breastfed babies is that they tend to feel excluded from the intimacy of the nursing dyad. But fathers actually have tremendous potential to either facilitate or undermine the success of breastfeeding.

J: I have the answer and it is a genius answer.

K: Please don’t keep me in suspense.

J: I keep my sons' artwork for precisely as long as it takes to snap a photo with my phone and throw it away.

K: Okaaaaay…

J: Storage required: 0

Time required: .9 seconds

Thoughtful memories preserved: all of them

Do I have a folder in my Photos app called "Jake Art"? Yes, I do.

Do I have tubs full of awkwardly stacked cardboard pictures and pipe cleaners and googly eyes and glitter? HELLLLLLL NO.

Adding your child to the family mobile plan has become a new tech-oriented milestone, but for parents, it may also mean higher data costs. Unless you’re willing to pay for an unlimited data plan, you’ll want to have a serious discussion with your kid about data usage.

Realistically, a single chat won’t do the trick for most kids. Instead, you’ll need to model, educate, and regulate — and possibly pay the occasional overage fees when things don’t go as planned.

Homeschooling for Multiple Intelligences

How Can I Teach You? Let Me Count the Ways.
There are as many ways to homeschool as there are ways for children to learn. Parents usually start with the traditional classroom model, because that's what they know. A curriculum is purchased from one of the leading curriculum vendors, and it outlines everything the child will study in the coming year. Many curriculum packages contain all the textbooks, workbooks, and related materials, as well as telephone support.

Substance Abuse on Campus

Visiting College Campuses

If you're the parent of a college-bound student, you're probably shaken by the tragic news stories involving kids, drugs, and alcohol that crop up every year across the country. Although you can't control the kind of decisions your 18-year-old is going to make once he or she is on her own, you can determine how seriously a school views its role in monitoring and preventing substance abuse.

Great Books for Boys

The Stupids Step Out, by Harry Allard
The Stupid family and their dog Kitty have a fun-filled day doing ridiculous things.

Patrick's Dinosaurs, by Carol Carrick
When his older brother talks about dinosaurs during a visit to the zoo, Patrick is afraid, until he discovers they all died millions of years ago.

Homeschooling and the Power of Play

By Elizabeth Kanna, contributing editor-at-large, Homeschooler Network

The Cleavers were America's favorite TV family in the 1950s. Mrs. Cleaver was a stay-at-home housewife and Mr. Cleaver was the breadwinner. They lived with their two boys in a modest suburban home, and spent lots of quality time together as a family. My family's lifestyle is very different in almost every way.

Between years of pandemic disruptions and modern elementary education’s increased dependence on screen time, online learning videos are more popular than ever. Family Education took a closer look, searching for kid-friendly YouTube channels that offered engaging educational content for kids ranging from kindergarten to junior high.

As the country slowly reopens, parents are trying to figure out the annual summer vacation. With social distancing still imperative, backyard camping makes for an ideal family staycation.

While you might not be able to camp in the forest, or make new friends over a nightly campfire, you will avoid noisy campsite neighbors, enjoy an extremely inexpensive “getaway” and have access to indoor plumbing. The trade off might not be so bad after all.

Homeschooling Isn't One-Size-Fits-All

Isabel Shaw