This week my girls and I walked to the library for story time. My girls love story time. I think that they’re in awe that there’s a special time when they get to listen to stories, AND sing songs, AND do messy crafts. Wow. As story time was wrapping up, I wasn’t surprised that our [...]
Canada's Budget 2009 – What does it mean for us?
January 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Whew! The specter of a coalition government has finally been put to rest. Canada’s enormously expensive Budget 2009 is going to stand and Prime Minister Harper will get to stick around to welcome President Obama next month. It seems that our parliament is finally going to emerge from chaos and behave itself … for a [...]
Book Review: So Sexy So Soon – The New Sexualized Childhood
January 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment
So Sexy So Soon is a book for parents who want to nurture a healthy sexuality in their children. And it’s aimed at parents of very young children, which surprised me until I read the book and realized the enormity of the challenge in helping our children navigate the new sexualized childhood. . The Problem: [...]
Helping Preschoolers Understand Commercials
January 20, 2009 By 3 Comments
Some of my recent reading has prompted me to become more intentional about helping our girls develop their understanding of media messages. (Note: This is a long term project, and I do not expect my three year old to be critically analyzing commercials within a year! ) Hubby and I have been working with some [...]
Book Review: Born to Buy
January 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Our American (and I’ll assume Canadian) children are the most brand-oriented, consumer-involved, materialistic generations in history, and they’re worse off for it. Juliet Schor knows — she’s read a wide range of material and conducted her own research on the topic, which she shares in a fairly accessible format in Born to Buy: The Commercialized [...]
More things I never thought I'd say
December 16, 2008 By 2 Comments
A new day
November 21, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Today I am especially grateful for a 24-hour cycle that involves a lengthy period of rest. Yesterday was not one of the better days in our household. My 3-year old took every opportunity to push boundaries … or her sister, which was pretty much the same thing. Stern chats, time outs, and lost privileges didn’t [...]
A preschool milestone: First allowance
November 11, 2008 By 2 Comments
This week we’re starting to give our three-year old daughter a weekly allowance. Our long-term goal is to help her manage money better than we have, so we’ve spent a fair bit of time reading, thinking and talking about this. Here are some of the questions we’ve wrestled with, and our answers to them (for [...]
Saturday morning reflections
October 25, 2008 By 2 Comments
Five minutes to be the Mom I Want to Be
October 21, 2008 By 2 Comments
Over the past week or so, Hubby and I have noticed our girls becoming clingy and whiny, which we’ve blamed on the colds that they’ve had. Poor (annoying) things. Yesterday, however, I had an epiphany of sorts. I realized that their whining put me on edge, so that I would try to retreat (unsuccessfully) and [...]
