Raising Kids

As globalization is affecting the workplace, more parents are training and preparing their children to be able to compete in the global marketplace. In New York City, for instance, many of the preschoolers are being tested for gifted programs. The Department of Education is raising an awareness of the program with handbooks to the elementary schools and community groups. Once again, the programs seem to be becoming less and less ethnically diverse over the years, as white children comprise 46...Read Full Story

Today, Monkey graduates from Preschool. Today, he and his little classmates will celebrate the end of a great Preschool year, and look forward to beginning a new chapter in their lives: Kindergarten! Today Mommy has been crying. As I dropped him off for his last official day as a Preschooler, knowing that he has been practicing hard for the ceremony tonight, I became emotional. His teacher, who is wonderful, sincerely thanked me for all I had done for Monkey and his classmates this year. I...Read Full Story

To get a full picture of who I am, I must spend some time introducing you to the members of my family. SH and Princess Sprout have all been properly introduced in no given order of importance. For sure, Prince Charming Wildman sprout needs such a long name to encompass all that he is. The other day he said to SH , "Daddy, you might know this...even though you're not a mommy..." All innocent and sincere, he looked a little confused when mom fell on the ground laughing. Of course there was the...Read Full Story

Image by Gurney via Flickr A female nanny may have adverse effects on the development of your child. Especially men would develop less respect for women and consider them rather as objects of desire. That's what says psychiatrist Dennis Friedman in his book "An unsolicited donation: why we do what we do". When a boy gets at very early age 2 women in his life, his biological mother and his nanny, the natural link with his parents will be disrupted. He gets used to several women in his life...Read Full Story

Farm and ranch worksites present lethal hazards to young children. According to data from the Canadian Agricultural Injury Surveillance Program (CAISP), from 1990 to 2000 there were 109 fatal agricultural injuries to young children (aged 1 to 6 years) in Canada. Over 84 percent of the children were related to the farm owner/operators. Of those killed, 79 percent were boys. Across Canada, three causes of injury accounted for almost 79 percent of the fatal agricultural injuries to children...Read Full Story

Puberty actually begins already in childhood and ends only when the children are twenty-eight. That is the conclusion of some Australian psychologists. All educational models assume that puberty starts around the age of twelve and ends when we are twenty-one. Wrong, say Australian psychologists. In their opinion puberty already starts at eight years old and continues until you're eight twenty. If the allegations of the Australian professors are correct, this could give a seismic shift...Read Full Story

See this face? Every single decision I make, every thing I do, is because of him. He is a precious gift from God. He is mine to cherish and to protect. And guess what, that ugly old teacher will not be seeing his sweet face again. That's right. He is officially finished with summer school, and it was his choice. He made the decision and we backed him up. Yesterday when I picked him up from summer school, his teacher started in with, "He didn't listen to me or the other teachers at all. When...Read Full Story

Well, Graduation is over. See that grin? It never left his face all night long! When it was Monk's turn to walk down the aisle to the stage, I slipped out of my seat and knelt down at the end of the aisle to get a picture. When he saw me, he barreled into me, giving me a big hug and letting me kiss him (which does not happen often). He walked onto stage and took his seat. One little boy started acting out on stage, then the other boys joined in, but not my boy. He and one other little boy...Read Full Story

I have been teaching children how to play the piano for the last four years now and I am amazed at how fast they learn. My most recent student is a six year old girl with meningitis. She asked her rmother if she could take piano lessons, but her mother felt she should sing instead because of her illnes. So, her mother looked on line for a voice teacher and came across my web-site. When she called to arrange the voice lesson, she recounted to me the conversation that she had with her daughter...Read Full Story

The concept behind KinderBach may be a little new to some people. I mean teaching piano by DVD is a new and undiscovered field. Some may have difficulty understanding the makeup of our program.Well first off, to make it simple, I’ll explain each aspect of the program. The first thing that sets KinderBach apart from everyone else is the fact we teach by DVD. The DVD is just like going to a piano lesson but with more features. There is a regular teacher, games, crafts, puzzles but most...Read Full Story