parenting

Obi-Wan Serena

June 10, 2010

The scene: Serena has downed half a mango lassi, and is refusing to eat her lunch. Dad is playing keepaway with the other half contingent on her putting at least a little broccoli and tofu in her tummy. Serena: My mango lassi ready now? Daddy: I don’t see that food going into your belly. Serena, [...]

Tagged as: serena

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First Gasp Of Summer

May 31, 2010

Oh! Summer! You’re here, and welcome. What a beautiful year it’s been. We had this long gentle spring and then *boom* one day I walked out the door and the roses were in full bloom. This holiday weekend has been a long, sweet introduction to summer, filled with more BBQs, beach outings and birthday parties [...]

Tagged as: beach, beaches, big stick, day, little girls, outdoor recreation, serena, summer, summer beach, water

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Useful Lessons In Repsonsible Adulthood

April 28, 2010

So I celebrated Earth Day by driving more than I normally do in a month, taking my kids to McDonald’s for the first time in their lives, and impulse buying plastic toys. In other words, we went on a road trip. I love road trips, but I’ve been pretty gun shy about doing them with [...]

Tagged as: family, road trip, travel, vacation

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Look, Mom! I Can Ride My Bike!

April 6, 2010

Rio came home from school yesterday bubbling with spring fever. It was our first really warm spring day, and she couldn’t wait to get outside and plant things in the garden, ride her bike, visit her friends…you know, be a kid. I could totally wait to do all those things, because I was sick, sick, [...]

Tagged as: bike, bike riding, bikes, parenting, rio, serena, spring fever, training wheels, warm springs, wheels, wooden bike

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Lions and Toddlers and Bears!

March 30, 2010

So Martin took Serena to the Harvard Museum of Natural History the other day. Before she left, she told me Daddy had promised her they would see a lion. “I think it will be a scary lion, Mama,” she said. “I think maybe that lion is going to eat us.” “No, sweetie. The lion at [...]

Tagged as: parenting, play, serena

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More on the Wonders of Quitting

March 26, 2010

My post on ‘Why I Quit Everything’ is featured on BlogHer today. I love BlogHer. I’m proud to be part of their publishing network, and thrilled that they’re sharing my writing with their readers. If you haven’t seen the new BlogHer site, go there right now. It’s a thing of beauty. If you came here [...]

Tagged as: alternative education, blogher, childhood, education, educational philosophy, feature, free-range parenting, fun, homeschooling, ian, quits, remember, rio, serena, slow parenting, unschooling

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Heading South For the Winter

March 24, 2010

The Southern winter, that is. Martin just bought the plane tickets for our family to spend the entire month of July in Argentina with his family. He grew up there, and was the only one to leave. His parents and three siblings all live within a few miles of each other in Buenos Aires, with [...]

Tagged as: family, family of origin, money, travel, vacation

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Washing the Floors, Cinderella Style

March 22, 2010

The kids and I spent Friday afternoon washing the kitchen together in our bathing suits. Well, they were in their bathing suits. I’m a delicate flower and wore jeans and a long-sleeve T-shirt and a sweater and wool socks and a bemused expression. I’ve washed my floor with a wide variety of mops and gadgets, [...]

Tagged as: bathing suit, cloth diapers, culture, floor washing, green, kids, mop, parenting, simple, slow parenting, washing

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Speaking Of A Room Of One’s Own

March 17, 2010

This post brought to you by Rio. I had another whole screed planned about the business of blogging and how women are being consumed by big media and advertising agencies, but it will have to wait. Rio had a topic request for today. It went like this: Rio said, “What is the New York Times, [...]

Tagged as: family, funny, house project, parenting, rio

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Can’t Sleep Without A Princess

March 5, 2010

Serena’s been a bit of a bedtime rebel lately. She’s mostly sleeping through the night, waking up only briefly to pee and get a glass of water around 2 a.m. But she just not falling asleep at bedtime. She goes through the whole bath-book-bed routine with her dad and sister. Rio drops off to sleep [...]