Archive for August, 2012

ESPN.com has posted an extremely long, yet fascinating article looking at Urban Meyer’s journey to be an engaged family man while coaching at big-time college football program.

You may remember that the dad of three quit as the head coach of the Florida Gators in 2010 saying he needed to spend more time with his family. But about a year later he accepted the head coach position at Ohio State University.

I couldn’t figure out what happened? Had he spent enough time with his family? Was he bored at home?

(This is a pretty snarky blog written when Urban Meyer signed with Ohio State saying he had resigned from his family).

ESPN.com writes that during that year he was on a quest of self-discovery. He wanted to remember why he started coaching and how he could pull back from perfection in football to be a coach, dad and husband.

The story explains that before signing his contract with Ohio State, he had to sign a contract with his family.

And here is is the official family …

Continue reading Parents: Do you need the Urban Meyer work/life contract? »

I was surprised to learn that our middle school does not have lockers for the kids to use. Instead, the students are given home copies of each book. They keep a school copy in a cubby in each classroom and then keep the second copy at home. No more lugging it back and forth in heavy backpacks. (They send them home intermittently at first so the kids didn’t have to carry them all in one shot.)

(Kids are only supposed to carry between 10 to 15 percent of their body weight in backpacks. For more information on what it can do to your child’s body click here.)

It seems like most middle schools and high schools have lockers but I am glad we don’t have them. I remember it being very stressful trying get the locker open. You’re already nervous about starting middle school or high school and now you’ve got to open a safe. One friend posted a shot on Facebook of  her daughter trying to figure out how to open the darn thing.

Even with the locker the kids still have to transport the …

Continue reading Does your school provide lockers or second set of books? »

Is your school administration or your school’s PTA using Facebook to communicate with parents? Are your teachers using social media in the classroom to help teach?

According to one website 90 percent of teachers are using social media in their classrooms or in their professional careers. I think that numbers seems high for in the classroom but I do think there are lots of opportunities to use social media and communicate with kids/teens in ways in which they are comfortable. Buzzom offers ideas for teachers such as:

“Use Facebook apps and groups like Flashcards and WeRead to make learning more enjoyable

• Use Twitter to post supplementary materials and links to articles and videos, so students can learn more about the subject even outside the class

• Follow other educators on Twitter to keep up with the latest teaching trends and get new ideas

• Allow students to use Pinterest for presentations and projects

• Record your lessons and post them on YouTube, so students can …

Continue reading Does your school use Facebook or other social media to communicate or teach? »

The is a screen shot of the Twitter page for So Bad, So Good. The group posted a photo of a model marked up to the proportions of Barbie. You can click the photo to see it full size.

An Australian blog has posted a photo on Twitter of a real woman marked up with Barbie’s proportions. (See a screen shot above. You can click the image to go to their site and the photo larger.)

From The Huffington Post:

“The woman in the photograph is model Katie Halchishick, co-founder of Healthy Is The New Skinny, an organization dedicated to “revolutionizing how we think about, talk about, live in and love our bodies.”

“This is hardly the first time that someone has pointed out how unrealistic a Barbie doll’s proportions are, but it’s still interesting to see the proportions drawn out onto an actual body. Some initial observations:
– Oddly pointy chin.
– A chest about half the width of her chest.
– Giant eyes!
– A neck that seems unlikely to be able to support her head.”

What do you think …

Continue reading What would Barbie’s proportions look like on a real body? »

Most U.S. kids are not sitting safely in cars due to improper restraints and underage kids sitting in the front seat, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine.

In the U.S. car crashes are the leading cause of death for children older than 3. More than 140,000 children are injured in car crashes.

From LiveScience.com:

“Researchers observed nearly 22,000 children and found that just 3 percent of children between ages  1 and 3 who were restrained at all were sitting in a proper, rear-facing car seat, and only 10 percent of 8- to 10-year-old children were properly restrained in a booster seat or a car seat.”

“The difficulty people have in adhering to car safety regulations may show how dramatically they’ve changed in recent years, said the study’s author, Dr. Michelle Macy, of the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. “For parents, it’s not anything they would have done as kids,” she said….”

“The newest …

Continue reading Study: Most kids not safely seated in cars. Is your child? »

All three kids are in school now. So what is a stay-at-home mom who works some from home to do?

For the last 11 years I have had at least one child at home with me for a large chunk of the school day. But now my youngest has headed off to full-time kindergarten leaving me with an empty house from 8 to 2:30  – except for the trusty dog of course.

From age 29 to 40 I have been a stay-at-home mom who worked some from home, but now I am at a crossroads in my life.

Do I go back to work full-time, do I maintain my same amount of work hours from home but keep a very organized and neat home, or do I try to take on more work hours but not quite be full-time?

Just mentioning on the blog yesterday that my youngest had headed off to school started a debate about what does a stay-at-home mom do all day while her kids are in school.

Here are a few opinions from the blog yesterday:

“jarvis

August 6th, 2012
9:44 am

What does a mom with all school aged children normally do during the 6 hours …

Continue reading My baby has started school: What does a mom do now? »

My girlfriend and mother of three is throwing a little mom party to celebrate the start of school.  She’s calling it “Mimosas in the Morning” and has invited about 15 moms over from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. to toast all the kids being back in school.

She’s actually doing it Tuesday morning instead of Monday morning because one friend’s child didn’t start school until Tuesday. That’s just as well because I feel like I have a ton of things to do to get back into the school grove.

My youngest starts kindergarten today and for the first time in 11 years I won’t have a little one at home with me! (More on this to come!! Check out first day of kindergarten and first day of middle school photos on our Facebook page later today. Also post your back to school photos as well.  Also I will be writing tomorrow on this crossroads in my life – no more babies at home, what’s a mom to do?)

I kind of want to sneak in a morning movie this week. We’ll see if I get my other work done.

What are your …

Continue reading First day of school: Is it time for a mom party, mimosas? »

I loved ‘The Brady Bunch’ growing up. I watched it in reruns on TBS, and I had every episode memorized. My kids have never gotten into the original but now CBS is planning a reboot of the show.

From Reuters:

“CBS has placed a script order for a reboot of the classic TV series “The Brady Bunch,” which is being executive-produced by “The Watch” star Vince Vaughn, an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.”

“The reboot will revolve around divorced dad Bobby Brady – the youngest son on the original series – who’s remarried to a woman with children of her own, and with whom he also has a child. On top of it, the ex-spouses of Brady and his wife are still involved with their lives.”

“In addition to Vaughn, the project is being executive-produced by Lloyd Schwartz, son of “Brady Bunch” creator Sherwood Schwartz, as well as his Wild West Picture Show Productions partners Victoria Vaughn (his sister) and Peter Billingsley, and “My Name Is Earl” and “Raising Hope” …

Continue reading Would you watch a ‘Brady Bunch’ reboot? »

Earlier this week, Walsh got mad at me in the pool and told me he was going to run away. He got out of the pool and went inside to pack.

I couldn’t quite decide what to do: Do you not make a big deal about it and say OK see you later. Do you forbid them to go? Do you pull the Carol Brady and assist them in leaving and then tell them of course I’m going with you?

Lilina was swimming with Rose in the pool so I didn’t want her to drown while I was inside checking on his fake getaway but I also didn’t want him heading out the front door without me knowing it.

I gave him a few minutes to cool down, told Lilina to get on the steps and then I went in to check on him. He was coming down the stairs shirt on and with backpack strapped over his shoulders.

I went to the bottom of the stairs to try to stop him and then I looked down. He didn’t have any pants on. I started laughing and said “I think you’ll need pants if you’re going to run away.”

He said “I didn’t have any good shorts …

Continue reading What to do when kids try to ‘run away’? »

Sorry I have been incommunicado for the last two days, we’ve been trying to enjoy the last few days of summer and get everything ready for school.  (Some schools like Decatur have already started and many start next week. We start next Monday.)

We had the middle school meet-the-teachers last night and the elementary school meet-the-teachers tonight.

They just handed out Rose’s supply list last night so I’ve got to head back to the store for Rose’s school things.

Walsh still needs new shoes, a haircut and a new mattress. (He says the springs are poking him through the bunk bed mattress. If I remember right they said the bunk bed mattresses are thinner. Can I replace it with a regular mattress to make it thicker?)

Meanwhile, we’re trying to squeeze in a few more swim dates and catch all the Olympics that we can.  Oh and we also want to finally see the third “Madagascar” movie on Friday.

What’s on your to-do list for the last week of summer? What do you have left to do to get …

Continue reading What’s on your to-do list for the last week of summer? »