Throughout my life, I have used creativity to ease my mind, reduce stress, and turn off the world for a moment.
I enjoy oil painting, for example, and love how I can get lost in the mixing of paints and the strokes of my brush on canvas.
Oil painting, however, involves a lot of prep work, and sometimes, I don’t want to be bothered.
Sometimes, I just want a quick and simple way to express myself artistically.
Enter the Buddha Board, an art and meditation tool, I was introduced to a few weeks ago.
The Buddha Board enables the user paint freely using only water. No need to find paints or clean brushes between strokes. All you need is your brush and good ole H20.
After a short time, your creation evaporates away leaving a blank canvas waiting for your next moment of inspiration.
My son groaned loudly. He got disconnected from his virtual school meeting, again. At the same time, my husband was on a video conference call, and I was working on a writing assignment.
Three people. All needing Internet access at the same time. All dealing with the limitations of this still very much new technology.
Though somewhat limited by what our area can provide, my family has choices; we can, and have paid for better quality Internet; and as a writer, I can schedule my time online to be when my kids and/or husband are not in virtual class or meetings.
Many families, however, have little or no access to at-home Internet service. What once might have been shrugged off as unessential, is now very much a necessity. Adults and children alike need steady, reliable internet to work, study and participate in society.
EveryoneOn is one organization who believes all families, especially those in low-income and marginalized communities, deserve access to affordable internet, computers, digital skills training and more to bridge the divide in society and build a prosperous future for all.
By working directly with internet service providers, EveryoneOn helps family find the best and lowest cost internet service they can find. Many of their featured providers are now offering special COVID-19 rates in response to the number of families financially impacted by the pandemic.
EveryoneOn’s flagship program, Connect2Compete, which helps K-12 students and their families receive internet service, is important now more than ever as virtual learning is a reality for many students across the United States.
By supporting EveryoneOn, you can help families afford broadband routers, home internet service, and the empowerment internet connection brings.
Let’s work together to create a more connected world.
It is a privilege to be able to homeschool your kids.
Yes, it is also a lot of hard work and sacrifice.But, in the end, if you or another trusted adult is able to devote a significant amount of time on your child’s education, that is a privilege.
A privilege which was thrust into a big bright spot light because of a pandemic that forced our schools to close.
For the first time homeschooling wasn’t a choice, it was a mandate. And as the weeks and months went on, we heard story after story of parents struggling to manage the new normal of working, raising a family and educating their children.
Many parents just asked the bare minimum of work from their kids, others just threw in the towel, believing (hoping) they would get through this until the school year ended.
Well, now summer is here in the United States, and families have to face the reality that “school” will be much different if and when they reopen.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to limit much of the activities many Americans can do as a family. And with many summer camps cancelled, schools closed or closing, parents are left wondering what to do with their kids all summer.
In between hiking and playing with the sprinkler, why not let your kids exercise their creative muscle with the Story Pirates.
The Story Pirates are a hilarious troupe of comedians, musicians, authors and teachers who produce content that honors the creativity and ingenuity of children. The widely popular Story Pirates podcast, takes stories written by kids and turns them into songs and sketches with the help of special guests including Billy Eichner, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Dax Shepard, Bowen Yang, Claire Danes, John Oliver, and Lake Bell.
My own kids just submitted their own story to The Story Pirates, and are eagerly awaiting to hear back. I mean, who wanted to hear a story about a dog, cat and sloth driving themselves to the vet, but I digress. Even if their story doesn’t get accepted, the process allowed them to excercise their creative muscle. Continue reading →
“Will G-d punish me?” My son asked after admitting he had lied to me earlier that day.
The question caught me off guard, because, while my son does have a strong moral compass and feels ashamed when he makes a mistake, never before had he pondered G-d’s involvement in his own life.
I am all for intense philosophical and theological debates on the existence of a higher power, and what, if any, role said power plays in the shaping of human existence.
However, when these questions come from your own child, no amount of scholarly texts or Biblical excerpts will ease their fears.
Before I could approach my son’s question, I needed to take account of our current reality and it’s impact on my children and indeed all children around the world.
We are in the midst of what maybe the most frightening experience thus far for many of our children. Certainly, this is the case for mine.
And, even if we as adults do our best to keep COVID-19=related news to ourselves, our childre are smart. They can sense our fear and worry. They see us donning masks to run errands. They conduct their studies via video meetings. They wave to their friends from across the street.
They know life is far from normal.
Take ten minutes to peruse online parenting groups, and you fill find countless cries for help, frustrated commenters and moms and dads at their wits end over their kids’ behavior. Continue reading →
Every so often I come across a post about some company’s generous policy of allowing new parents to bring their babies to work with them. Usually the praise for the family-focused policy is accompanied by a picture of a smiling baby, happily sitting in a baby seat while mom goes about her office tasks.
These policies are touted as a wonderful solution for new parents who have to return to work and can’t or don’t want to rely on outside childcare.
The reality, however, is much different.
While some babies are calm enough to allow you to get your work done, others demand a lot of attention. Some babies are colicky, need to be held constantly. They need to be burped, changed, cleaned, and on and on.
And, then there’s the feeding.
If you are nursing, you may need to feed your baby as often as once every hour, and if you consider how long a feeding session is, that doesn’t leave much “baby free” time to get work done.
This can be daunting if your job requires you to meet certain daily or weekly deadlines, you have a customer-centric career, or you have a job without flexible hours.
Though, I was working from home, I still found it challenging to balance my job and my baby without outside support. I often found myself working in the middle of the night or very early in the morning to catch up on what I had missed caring for my son during the day. I imagine those who bring their babies to the office have to do the same. Continue reading →
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