I want to have a little fun today. Last night, I took my kids to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. For those of you who live across the pond, CEC is a pizza place/kids gaming establishment. There are some video games and other activities that kids play to win tickets. They exchange the…
Meet Meeker. Meeker is an eleven-week-old Siamese mix kitten. He joined our family last Saturday. We’d been talking about getting a kitten for a couple of months, since one of our adult cats died. The remaining adult cat, Lily, seemed happy to be by herself, but it didn’t take long for the kitten talk to…
Have you seen this movie yet? If not, go see it. Do it now. I’ll wait. Because I may or may not post spoilers. It’s probably trendy to write posts about the movie right now, but I don’t care. I have thoughts about it. Thoughts that I think will help parents and teachers make the most…
Have you looked at a picture of yourself, and you swear you don’t look like that? That’s because we generally have an inaccurate perception of ourselves. Part of it is because our mirror images are always reversed. I think the rest has something to do with the inability to control the elements around us. Like…
I’m writing this post on my phone and in the darkness of my room. See? Dark. My boys think I’m asleep. There’s no school today or tomorrow (I want to kiss whoever decided teachers don’t have to deal with roomfulls of kids on Halloween. That is true mercy.) Anyway, I don’t have to be up…
This week is Banned Books Week, a week to contemplate the various works of literature that for whatever reason have historically been deemed too dangerous for public consumption. Where the Wild Things Are, The Diary of a Young Girl, and The Old Man and The Sea are among them. The one that surprised me the…
Ah, fall. Tis the season of cooler weather and changing leaves and Halloween costume planning. It’s also the season where every kid and teen enrolled in a public or private school becomes the temporary employee of The Fundraiser. Or in some cases, The Fundraisers. Plural. At the same time. Don’t get me wrong. I work for…
I’m writing on this topic with the permission of Dennis McLoughlin, educational speaker and founder of High Trust (website here). You’ll notice the site is very colorful and includes scrolling headlines and squares bouncing off the sides of the screen. I imagine this is what the inside of Denny’s head feels like most of the…
The first day of school for students in one of the districts in my area was yesterday – yesterday. August 1st. I think I blinked and missed summer. My kids have a couple more weeks before the first day, so all the kids in my area either have their bottoms in the chairs of their…
I know it’s only June, but my family and I have been talking about Halloween. It’s kind of a big deal. See, we participate in an event our church hosts every year called Trunk-or-Treat. I’m sure you’ve heard of similar events. The idea is to decorate your car trunk and presumably dress up to match…
Allison Maruska 