While most of the reading we do in our family is the turning the page kind, we occasionally like to listen to stories as well. Sometimes we listen in our car while driving to a destination far away. Sometimes we gather in our family room. It’s fun to laugh together at funny lines and discuss [...]

New Moon Girls magazine is such a great publication for girls. Most of it written by young girls, and they focus on topics meant to empower girls and counteract some of the dubious messages printed in fashion and teen magazines about healthy bodies and relationships. I recently got a message from the publisher that subscriptions [...]

Today is Drop Everything and Read (D.E.A.R.) day, a wonderful time dedicated to the joy of reading. When my daughters were young, they had D.E.A.R. time every day in elementary school. In middle school this time was known as SSR or Silent Sustained Reading. Not nearly as fun as D.E.A.R. right? D.E.A.R. makes me think [...]

Kelly Beatty and Dale Salvaggio Bradshaw are the authors of Firestarters: 100 Job Profiles to Inspire Young Women. The book is a resource that can help girls see the possibilities of different careers and get an idea of the skills needed to work through a day on the job. It also helps them see the [...]

I recently discovered a nice site on parenting called Pragmatic Mom.com. The author is a mom of three who lives outside Boston, and she writes about books, schooling, cooking and other issues. I really like her list of books for reluctant boy readers. It’s pretty extensive, and while I’ve read a lot of the books [...]

When I started to date in high school I didn’t know anything about what to expect from a boyfriend, which meant that determining what was good and not so good in a relationship wasn’t all that easy. Thank heavens I’ve learned a lot since then, and I’ve spent time talking with my daughters about healthy [...]

I’m thrilled that Book by Book: The Complete Guide to Creating Mother-Daughter Book Clubs is featured at Grown in My Heart, An Adoption Network. As the article says, “Family is all about connections,” and so are mother-daughter book clubs. You can also expect to find other parenting information at Grown in My Heart, not just [...]

This week Catherine is working on several projects for the Oregon Humane Society. She’s on her way to logging 40 hours to earn her Girl Scout Silver Award. She’s doing the work, of course, but that doesn’t mean I get a free pass to work on my projects while she’s working on hers. She’s sewing [...]