Eight Favorite Books Starring Interesting, Exciting, Daring, Adventurous Girls!

Google is full of girl-empowering book lists. Favorite female protagonists from the classics, like Pippi Longstocking, to more recent heroines, like Katniss Everdeen, abound on these lists, but I wanted to make my own after reading so many children and YA books to curate for recommendations to mother-daughter book clubs. Here are eight of my favorites, and there’s no better way to raise interesting, exciting, daring and adventurous daughters! Read more…

Middle School Survival Kit: Are the Experiences of Middle School Boys and Girls the Same?

This is the final in my four-part series on raising middle schoolers. Read more…

Middle School Survival Kit: The Role of Technology in Parenting a Middle Schooler

During some interviews with grandparents, I found the

universal sentiment that raising children “is harder today” for

their children than it had been for the grandparents. Asked

why, most of them commented on the role of technology,

and when I interviewed current middle school parents, the

majority of their worries were in some way related to just that. Read more…

Middle School Survival Kit: Which is harder, being a middle schooler or being the parent of one?

Sometimes I don’t know what is harder—being a middle

schooler, or being the parent of one. I’ve always felt that the

wounds your child receives cut you more deeply than those

received personally. I often say that seventh grade was the

worst year of my life. Many of my friends echo that sentiment.

But when my daughter was in seventh grade, that was a

brand new exercise in vicarious misery; and while it would be

hyperbolic to say that my child’s seventh grade year was the

worst year of my life, it was certainly wounding to both of us. Read more…

Middle School Survival Kit: Build Strong Supports To Help Your Child Survive Middle Grades Struggles

While I could have written an article about the middle
school years based on my career as a school administrator,
educational psychologist, and teacher, as well as my
observations as a parent, I wanted to get out of my own
head a bit, so I interviewed 15 parents of current middle
schoolers around the country. Many of the parents expressed
much angst, for which I recommend creating the support
systems described below. Let’s consider a couple of typical
parent concerns. Read more…

Categorized as: Middle School