Somerville, Mass – Long before I had children of my own, I remember meeting an acquaintance’s bright 10-year-old child, who spent a portion of his summer attending circus camp. I was flabbergasted that a parent would waste valuable time and and…
Heritage Night
Somerville, Mass – Question: When is going to school like a trip around the world? Answer: When it’s Heritage Night This event was organized by the PTA and the arts council at the twins’ school. The tag line was…
Raising Bilingual Kids – Kindergarten
Somerville, Mass – Here we go again. At this time last year, I agonized over the decision about where the twins should attend pre-kindergarten. This year I have been agonizing over the decision about where they should attend kindergarten. The…
Christmas – Here vs There
Somerville, Mass – The twins brought home a worksheet from school that we were supposed to fill out and return. Some of the questions included: My family members come from these countries ____________________________________ During the holidays, we celebrate _______________________________________________ A special…
How Finland Keeps Kids Focused
Somerville, Mass – As a follow-up to my previous post about Free Play, here is another article from the Atlantic about an interesting (and not necessarily intuitive) discovery made by an American teaching in Finland. It’s no secret that I…
Free Play
Somerville, Mass – A few weeks ago, I came across this fascinating article from The Atlantic, The Overprotected Kid, about a new, old kind of playground in Wales, known as The Land. (Thanks also to The Atlantic for the cover…
Tune Out Cable News and Turn Away Fear
Somerville, Mass – Thank you, Rick Steves. (I never thought I would say that.) I just read his excellent op ed in the LA Times from earlier this month. “Fear is for people who don’t get out much, who don’t…
Let’s Talk about Race
Somerville, Mass – We are blessed to live in an ethnically and racially diverse town. The twins’ class of 18 includes students that are African American, Arabic, Iranian, Latino and Sikh. Last year their teachers were from Columbia and Peru, and their babysitters have…
Pre-K
Somerville, Mass – We did it. We completed our first week of pre-K without any tears–at least not on the part of the twins. Upon pickup each day, there was a positive report from both teachers and kids. Yesterday, without…
Finding Neverland
Cambridge, Massachusetts – When I saw this clip of Jennifer Hudson singing a song from Finding Neverland at the Tonys, I immediately bought tickets to take the whole family to see the production at the American Repertory Theater. Later, I…