By Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff Why are these children protesting in front of their school? Oh, wait—their parents are there, too. And their teachers. And their principal? One of them was Brooklyn mother, Jody Alperin. She has a first and fourth grader in PS10, a school that draws students from Park Slope, Windsor Terrace and…
By Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff A twitter follower of the On Parenting blog asked: What happens when your kids are in school & have a lack of control (over) what & when they are told about tragedies? Several years ago, when I first started teaching, I had a student discuss how he learned about the attacks on…
By Sarah Vander Schaaff The Educated Mom blog launched a year ago this month. And because we have some new readers and because I love year-end lists, I thought it would be interesting to take a look back on some of the themes we’ve covered. Perhaps the blog topics reveal a bit about what’s it…
You might not know that Mindprint founder Nancy Weinstein is really into games, but I’m here to tell you that she is. Quite. I’m talking about board games, the kind you played as a kid, and the kind many parents forego as they search the app store for electronic equivalents. And while Nancy and the…
October is, among other things, National Dyslexia Awareness Month. But today’s blog post is timely no matter the date, because a delayed diagnosis of a child’s learning difference exhausts every resource a parent might have. If have a concern about dyslexia, we strongly encourage you to have your child tested. This is a service schools must provide…
By Sarah Vander Schaaff I am not sure if a song can inoculate a child from the bad feelings and dangers of being bullied, but if one could provide fortification, or resistance, then it might be “Bully, Bully” by Shine and the Moonbeams. The tune was recorded a few years ago, but it was just…
by Sarah Vander Schaaff How do we keep from over-scheduling our children this school year? The first step, one I believe many of us only half-heartedly embrace, is that we have to want to keep from over-scheduling our children. When you look around the Internet, there are many posts suggesting tips for limiting activities and…
By Sarah Vander Schaaff Last year, I interviewed a teacher just before the start of middle school. She gave us some great advice and framed her discussion with this point: This is a time where kids are tested, especially socially, and they begin to solidify who they are as people. So with back to school already…
By Sarah Vander Schaaff I wonder how many readers remember their first day of high school. I don’t think about that day often, but when I cleared away a few summer distractions, my memory of it came back. Yes, I know exactly what I wore. My priorities as a fourteen-year-old were a bit out of…
By Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff Disney World is probably a bit crowded this time of year, but that’s not the reason some school districts have decided to bring the themes of the company to their own communities. We’re not talking about riding the spinning teacups, we’re talking about customer relations and morale. According to the…