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Birthdays

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My son is obsessed with birthdays (I suppose I am too since I love to bake). The little guy is only two and his own birthday experience is quite limited (I doubt that he actually remembers his first birthday). However, he has helped celebrate many birthdays in his short two years (and nine months) … sometimes the same birthday twice! Since we have moved back to our home town where most of our extended family lives, we have had lots of birthdays to celebrate. Birthdays of aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and mom and dad and himself. There is one thing … Continue reading →

Interactive Family Trees For Kids To Use

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Young children tend to want to try doing the things that they see their parents and grandparents doing. If you are a genealogist, then your child, or grandchild, will want to “help” you to do that. One way to let them do that is to find some fun, interactive, family trees that are designed for kids to fill in. Genealogists tend to want to share the things that they discover about their ancestors. Little kids tend to want to “help with” the activities they see their parents and grandparents doing. While it can be exciting to see that your family … Continue reading →

Simplifying Birthdays

Ah, the birthday party. We had one yesterday, in fact. Full of delicious cakey goodness, lots of hyped-on-sugar children, and general fun. Add in a few overwhelmed tears for good measure and you have a recipe for childhood delight, an introvert’s horror, and a parent’s desire to head for the hills. I am not fond of organizing birthdays. This is ironic because I do it for a living, at least in part. One of the programs I organize at work is the birthday party. However, when it’s your own child’s birthday party the stress level does tend to increase. Yesterday … Continue reading →

Going a Little Crazy Over Birthdays

I’m struggling a bit over here. You see, I am debating how much I want to participate in the birthday party circus. That’s circus, literally. I am debating whether to take my daughter to Cirque Du Soleil for her birthday. We tend to be fairly minimalist about birthdays around here. Last year, we got our daughter a mini trampoline using coupons, and the entire birthday party and gift cost around $150 for ten kids, ten adults, food, a trampoline, and a fifty dollar donation to the local reptile society (don’t ask). We didn’t do presents from children, and we asked … Continue reading →

In a Rush to Graduate Your Kids from Homeschool?

My family had a conversation last night about when we would graduate the kids from homeschool. We started talking about SAT scores for my son that we should receive on Tuesday and the fact that we couldn’t graduate him next year if he took the PSAT and qualified for the National Merit Program (he took the SAT first as a practice for the PSAT). Because the PSAT had to be taken in your Jr. year to qualify for the National Merit program, we were trying to figure out if he had to wait another year to graduate even though he … Continue reading →

How Old Is Too Old For Kindergarten?

My five-year-old is the youngest kid in her kindergarten class. The rest of the kids are six (or will be by the end of the month), and if I read the birthday list correctly, one of her classmates will be seven in May. A seven-year-old in kindergarten? Am I the only parent who thinks it strange that a seven-year-old is playing with paint and glue with a bunch of kids he towers over? Never mind how I feel about the situation. I wonder how he feels about being called “the giant” and “Big Buddy?” According to most schools in the … Continue reading →

Inspiration for Famous Comic Strip Mommy Dies

Sad, sad, sad. The woman who served as the inspiration for the mommy in the world famous “Family Circus” comic has died. Thelma Keane was 82. According to news reports, Thelma, who was the wife of “Family Circus” creator Bil Keane, died of Alzheimer’s disease last Friday. I happen to be a huge “Family Circus” fan. I started collecting the comic when I was 7 years old (decades ago). I would use all the money I would get from Christmas and birthdays to fund my addiction to the small paperback books that followed the lives of two good-humored parents and … Continue reading →

Birthdays: Who Should be There?

Every single parenting situation is different. In my case, my son’s father and his family are not involved in Jonathan’s life at all. They have never even seen Jonathan with the exception of his aunt, who accidentally stopped by to visit my brother at his house when we were there. When she realized we were there, she quickly left again. In our case at this time, it’s easy to decide who should be there. Because every situation is different though, this isn’t the case for everyone. I think first and foremost, because it is the child’s day, the child should … Continue reading →

Thinking About Other Parents

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Some birthmothers and adoptive families observe the second Saturday in May as Birthmother’s Day. I find myself thinking about our birthmother on this day, although I still haven’t figured out what I’ll say to my daughters about it. Some adoptive families light candles or toast the birthmothers; probably I’ll just pray for their birthmother and foster mothers at our family bedtime prayer. While I comfortably wrote about my daughter having Three Mothers— her birthmother, her foster mother, and me—in practice, I have to admit that talking about it with my daughters is less comfortable. In short, I sometimes have trouble … Continue reading →

Birthdays at School

Having a birthday on a school day can be very exciting for a child. The class sings happy birthday and often parents send cupcakes or cookies. Most students’ birthdays in my class have gone rather well. However, there have been a few times that the day could have gone better. For those days, I have some advice. If sending birthday party invitations to school, please send enough invitations for the entire class or at least invite either all of the girls or all of the boys, depending on the gender of the child. Too often, invitations are sent to school … Continue reading →