Bedtime marks the transition between one day and the next.  It’s an important chance for you to connect with your child and get them off to a good night of sleep.

Common Pitfall – Bedtime gets too stretched out

Ever feel like bedtime isn’t really a time in your house?  Someone’s up, someone forgot to brush, someone lost track of what you told them to do, and still – nobody’s in bed.

Solutions – I’ll confess, this is an area we still struggle with at times.  However, I have found a few strategies that help me and my kids hit pretty close to the bedtime most of the time.

The morning brings a new day with new opportunities.   You can’t predict what the day will hold, but you can get your family off to a great start.

Common Pitfall – Too much rushing around

The morning hour is the launchpad for your kids’ school day.  Often, this critical time of the day is stressful and full of crankiness.  Lost school papers, iffy breakfast, no clean clothes, and pressure to make it on time.  How can you get out of the rushed-morning rut?

Homework is a necessary part of school for most kids. You may be able to escape this if you have a Kindergartner, but even my first grader has a spelling test

Parents, how are you doing with your school routines so far this year? Are you gliding along smoothly or has the cart fallen off the road a few too many times?

For those of you who grew up with a lot of family chaos and pain, you may wonder how the rest of your life will pan out. Do you have concerns that you’ll lash out uncontrollably like your mom did at you? Do you fear developing an addiction like your brother? Do you wonder if you will lose touch with reality like your dad?

Play Is The Work Of Childhood

I just read an article on how early kids are starting school in Canada – got there by a link on one of the comments from my post on red-shirting kids for kindergarten.

How well do you know the kids your children hang out with? How easily would you recognize some of your children’s classmates if you saw them in your neighborhood?

I heard about this fascinating topic on the radio and scrambled to find out more. Since I’ve enrolled my own kids in school, I’ve noticed parents being concerned about their kids’ ages as they got ready for kindergarten. Would they be ready when school started? Would they be one of the smallest kids in their class? Perhaps another question is this – how much does their kindergarten age really matter?

The fall is my favorite time of the year. It’s not just the beautiful colors or the change of weather – it’s the family traditions that get me charged up.

Girls have known this for a long time – boys aren’t the only ones who know how to bully. But how many of you ever thought of reporting the girl who was cruel.