July 26, 2020, will mark the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination based on disability. Earlier this year, my teen daughters and I watched a powerful new documentary available on Netflix called Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution. The film explains how the disability rights movement evolved across decades. Though Crip Camp was released before the recent Black Lives Matter protests, its themes have much to teach parents at this critical cultural moment. The documentary focuses on Camp Jened, a 1971 summer camp for teens with disabilities. Many … [Read more...]
Video Games Bond Fathers, Sons Through the Generations
These are the words every father must say at some point in his life. “Don’t worry about your schoolwork. This is more important.” My 12-year-old puts aside his math and follows me into the living room. I sit on the couch and hand him the second player game controller. He smiles. Game on, bitches. “OK, Dad. Where are you at?” he asks, a touch of superiority in his voice. I don’t like him to see me in a moment of weakness, and I have to remind myself that there is no shame in showing emotion. “It’s the cave, son. I can’t get past the cave.” “On it.” And like that, we jump into one of … [Read more...]
Homeschooling Schedule Issues: Too Ambitious vs. Too Lenient
Homeschooling is here indefinitely, and there's lots of logistics to consider. The biggest for many of us being how to make sure that the kids are learning, and that their homeschooling schedule meshes with our own home/work schedule. We attempted to have our 11-year-old son follow an academic schedule of sorts at the start. That worked a little, but there was so much crying and whining and "NO, I can't possibly use THAT pencil!" that I'm not sure how we are going to survive. Here was our original homeschooling schedule, the idea was for 25-minute segments with 15 minutes for resting. It … [Read more...]
Explain Religions of World to Children with This Book
“How did you explain people’s different religions to your kids?” a fellow dad asked me recently. Short answer: I didn’t. But my children and I learned together by reading Mary Pope Osborne’s One World, Many Religions: The Ways We Worship. You and your little ones may already be familiar with her work because Osborne is the author of the Magic Tree House series. One World, Many Religions is written for grades 4 and up, and it introduces the seven major religions of the world: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. Throughout the book, Osborne’s tone is … [Read more...]
End Any Argument with Your Teen with This 1 Trick
You know how it goes: Even the smallest disagreements with your teen can turn into yelling, doors slamming, feelings hurt and evenings ruined. But there’s a trick to preventing these regular altercations from escalating. Ask your teen if they actually enjoy what’s happening during the fight. Most of the time, they don’t feel good about it, so they’ll redirect their anger before it gets out of hand. Let me break down how this works to end any argument. End any argument with this question The ultimate phrase that will end any argument in its track is, “Do you like where this is … [Read more...]
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