School Family

Why’d the Pilgrim’s pants fall down?  Because his belt buckle was on his hat!  Nice, right?

That killed ‘em at my house, though admittedly my audience of grade schoolers and below laugh at anything involving pants falling down. 

Related topic:  if you have a similar house to mine, then you might love some of our Thanksgiving printables (we call ‘em “print-and-use tools”) for keeping the kids busy and engaged this weekend.  Word finds, crossword puzzles, coloring sheets — plenty of activities for kids of all ages.  Our entire print-and-use library is here.

Finally, simply, sincerely:  Happy Thanksgiving! May you and your family be blessed this holiday and beyond.

I’ve been a huge fan of this program from the first time I saw it (while muching on some  Goldfish — probably the kids’ snack that i steal the most) and have been meaning to highlight it here for some time now. 

As a parent, coach and former teacher — I’m always harping on the kids to stop expecting the negatives and rather to expect success. I find that that simple attitude change alone can do wonders for everyon’e mood and for their results. Even at homework time, “this is hard, but I can figure it out” is so much different than a frustrated “I can’t do this.”  My kids are tired of me asking my favorite simple question: “Are you being optimistic or pessimistic?”

Which is why I love the fact that someone else is now asking the same question and providing some tools for us parents to bring the point home.  It’s Goldfish’s Fishful Thinking optimism effort, and I give it a hardy 2 thumbs up. I hope you’ll take a look (and, of course, expect it to be good!).

It’s certainly a trend, one this Hartford Courant piece captures well. What is it? Districts (or, more often, supporters of the schools in a district) setting major-league fundraising goals and using much more sophisticated tactics (bye-bye bake sales?) to buoy stressed school budgets. Good trend? Or bad trend? That remains to be seen. From my perspective, it’s hard to see any efforts that bring more support to our schools as a bad thing. Your thoughts?

Welcome to our newest resource for involved moms and dads — schoolfamily.com. 

Today, you’ll find tons of great articles for helping you help your school-aged kids do great and helping you and your family keep school sane.  Over the next few weeks and months and years, you’re going to find lots and lots more.  Think of this site as the central web meeting spot (a portal, if you will) for all things that can help you be a great school parent.

My best advice:  1) Enjoy!  We’re sure having a great time working on all this stuff. Hope it’ll serve you well.   And 2) Relax.  There’s so much to worry about these days, but it’s near impossible to be a good school parent while cowering in the corner.  SchoolFamily.com is about getting that balance just right.

Finally,  a quick thanks to all the folks who work so hard to make this site go.  Our editorial team, the designers, our tech folks and more.  The work does seem a bit lighter when you’re working on such a valuable site.  But it’s work nonetheless, and no one does it better.

On we go…