(This article focuses on helping kids with virtual school. If your child is going to a physical school, please see this article instead)

What a surreal start we are having to school this year, right? The best of Hollywood script writers wouldn’t be able to come up with the situation we find ourselves in!

This pandemic of 2020 has changed the way schools run, perhaps irrevocably. Schools across the country have moved from in-person to remote learning practically overnight. Teachers and parents alike now find ourselves facing new challenges as many of us look toward a virtual school year ahead of us.

With over three decades of traditional teaching between us — Jen Collins and Julie Harding — we have had to muster all of the technology, energy and creativity we could for this virtual school year. With a little flexibility and collegial support, and a lot of hard work, we have been able to make it work.

In our years of experience working with kids, we have learned some neat tricks along the way that we’d love to share with you so you can use them in your own families and help your kids be successful with the new virtual schooling way of life, too. [Read more…]

(This article focuses on helping kids who will be attending school physically. If your child will be in a virtual school, please see this article instead)

Pens. Pencils. Paper. Folders. Typically, in the heat of July and early August, teachers, parents and kids alike are browsing the store shelves, hunting for that perfect piece of classroom decor or locker accessory.

This year is different. 

As a teacher and a mom of two sons, I’ve watched this summer fly by faster than any other. Our days are made of lazy mornings and warm New Jersey weather, but our peaceful retreat has been interrupted by the approach of what has officially become The Most Dreaded School Year Ever. 

Even after nearly 20 years of teaching in New Jersey’s public schools, the beginning of a new school year still makes me nervous. This year, I don’t even know what I should worry about!

Should I worry about having enough hand sanitizer and PPE in my classroom, or should I buy scrubs to wear, like some of my colleagues? Should I focus on the habits of my 12 year-old son, a young man who is bright, but stopped completing assignments near the end of last year’s remote learning?  Or on the needs of my 3 year-old, who has qualified for the district’s handicapped preschool program?  

Pandemic parenting is hard, and it’s getting even harder as we approach the fall. As we hurtle closer to the ceremonial first day of school, major questions about our schools in the COVID-19 era have not yet been settled, including whether students will arrive at buildings on the appointed day, or pull up a chair at the dining room table to continue the virtual learning that took place during the spring.

So, in the midst of so many unknowns, the question arises: How can I prepare my students, my own kids and myself for school in the middle of a pandemic? As a parent and a teacher experiencing both sides of these challenges, here are some things I am doing that might help  your family prepare, too. [Read more…]

Before we dive in, take a moment to just breathe, okay? I know race is a touchy and important subject, like talking about the birds and the bees (that’s code for sex – for those of you who were spared that analogy as children) so it’s natural to have some anxiety about how or what to say and how your child will receive it.

This isn’t relevant to just one race. It’s not a “how-to” guide for a specific group. So if you thought, “Oh, this isn’t for me,” I assure you, this is for everyone.

Imagine you’re a mother to a beautiful, curly-haired 8 year old with glowing brown skin, and you love him enough to move mountains for him.

I mean, why wouldn’t you? You literally let him reside, RENT FREE, in your body for nine months and then endured 16 hours of labor for him!

You spend nearly every waking moment thinking about how to make certain he grows to be the best version of himself, while ensuring he enjoys his childhood.

Then — all of a sudden — that very same bundle of 9 months pregnancy, 16 hours of labor and 8 years of unconditional love of a brown boy who turns to his strawberry-blond friend sitting next to him in the backseat of your car and says, “Sometimes I wish I was white like you.” As if it were nothing, as if he were simply saying, “My favorite ice-cream flavor is strawberry.” [Read more…]

Vegetables and beans may not always be an adult’s first choice when deciding on a meal, let alone a child’s.

I found this to be true for my very own little and big ones. Using all my creativity, I investigated attractive ways I could encourage my own family to become enthusiastic healthy eaters.

My philosophy is that excitement, great taste and love around healthy food results in good health. Planting your own food in a kid-friendly garden can do wonders in achieving such a result.

With our busy schedules, such time-consuming undertakings ordinarily take the back seat and never reach completion. In many cases, they don’t even begin.

Being at home with our children during this time of social distancing, we now have the opportunity to create a kid-friendly garden and initiate this entertaining and enlightening practice.

There is more to learning than numbers and letters. Although these are important, let us use this time we have been given with our kids to teach them more than just academics. [Read more…]