Part 3: What Are the Five Tools of Attachment Parenting

Attachment parenting is a very personal decision, but a parenting method that I highly recommend. Parents who practice attachment parenting sometimes get criticized for putting the baby first, which confuses me, since I see this as a normal part of parenting a young infant. I have been discussing the five tools of attachment parenting, as laid out in The Baby Book , by Dr. and Mrs William Sears. So far, we have discussed for previous tools of attachment parenting. Now, let’s discuss the final tool, and the one that may be the most controversial. 5 “Share Sleep with Your Baby” … Continue reading

Baby Blog Month in Review: July 2008

Two of my three children are summer babies. That is, they were born in the summer and had their first months surrounded by sunshine streaming in the windows, the sound of birds chirping, and days spent wearing nothing but a diaper and a “onsie.” I made sure that they had Fourth of July outfits ready, even though one of them arrived a week after the holiday. I guess he just wasn’t interested in the parade. Do you have a summer baby, too? We had a lot of new information to share this past month, such as recall notices and new … Continue reading

Learning to Read: Stage 2 Blending Sounds

In my last article I started a discussion about children and learning to read. In the last article I discussed the first stage of learning to read. This stage includes letter recognition and letter sounds. After children master several letter sounds, they are ready to begin what is called sound blending or word blending. In this phase, children begin to put sounds together to make words. Children can begin this step even when they do not know all of the letter sounds. Work with the letter sounds that the students do know. CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words are the most … Continue reading

Putting It Into Practice – part 3

Yesterday, during my quiet time, I was encouraged after praying for healing and strength for a dear friend and his wife, to come across this line in ‘Streams in the Desert.’ It said ‘Perseverance in prayer is necessary to prevalence in prayer.’ In the passage for the day the point was made, that it is by praying we learn how to pray more effectively. In other words it comes back again to putting it into practice. When I conduct writing workshops I often tell my students it’s no good saying they want to write, or reading about writing, or even … Continue reading

Putting It Into Practice – part 2

There’s a lot about the writing life that reminds me of the Christian life. As writers not everything we write will be accepted and published. Rejection, struggle and knock backs are part of most, dare I say all, writers lives. It’s how they are handled that makes the difference. It’s like I wrote about the other day – attitude. Our attitude can cause us to give up when rejection comes or to dig our toes in and think, ‘I’ll show you.’ This sort of attitude keeps us pressing on with determination. Sometimes that’s exactly what we need to do in … Continue reading

Confessions of a Life Story Worker – Part 2 of 2

This artice is the follow on article from Confessions of a Life Story Worker: Part 1. Whose job is it to do the Life Story Work? When I began doing Life Story Work I was worried that I may be breaching statutory laws. I saw the work as belonging solely to Child Safety Officers. My Australian experience with Child Safety workers told me that they were too busy and spent minimal time on their case loads and Life Story Work wasn’t being achieved. Also, their understanding of Life Story Work appeared to fit within a Freedom of Information framework – … Continue reading

Siblings Sharing Parents Experience Lifelong Effects

Did you get along with your siblings when you were a child? What’s your relationship with them like now that all of you are adults? Researchers have discovered that brothers and sisters who share parents can have a very different experience from each other. What they found can help parents of today make their kid’s relationship with their siblings into a more positive experience. An article at Medical Daily was written by Chris Weller. In it, he points out that each kid that has to share his or her parents with their siblings has a different experience – even though … Continue reading

7 Ways to Manage Kids’ Sport Fees and Costs

There are so many reasons to give your kids the opportunity to be involved in sports, and one big one not to do so–the costly fees. Before you decide to give up the sports altogether, consider trying the following strategies that will help you manage kids sports fees and reduce the amount you spend. 1. Get some perspective Parents can get a little crazy when it comes to sports. They all want their kids to succeed and will provide them with all of the extras that they think will make this happen, such as extra training or lessons, top of … Continue reading

GenealogyBank Adds 17 Million Records

Recently, I came across a genealogy website called GenealogyBank. I followed some links, and ended up using it to locate the obituary of one of my relatives. Today, I learned that GenealogyBank has added 17 Million records. Unfortunately for me, those records cannot be accessed for free. I have been working on putting together my family tree in my so called “spare time”. The going is slow, mostly because I have way too many other projects right now. Another thing that is slowing me down is that I keep running into genealogy websites that appear to be free to use, … Continue reading

Medi-Cal Continues to be Problematic

The Medi-Cal program in California is a public form of health insurance. There is a history of problems with the program, primarily with the reimbursement rate that doctors get for treating patients who use Medi-Cal. These problems are continuing, and new problems have formed. Medi-Cal is part of the Medicaid program in the state of California. Just like with other state’s Medicaid programs, it is paid for in part by the federal government, and in part by the state government. It is a public form of health insurance that is used by people who are low-income, people who are disabled, … Continue reading