Author: Julie Meyers Pron

I can be such a mean mom. Really, just ask my kids. For about a week now, I’ve had an Alpha-Bits Cereal box sitting out on my kitchen counter, teasing the kids. They’ve heard, No! You can’t have that for breakfast! My SD-Card is in the computer! And Snack?! You want Alpha-Bits for a snack? But I need to do an activity with it! Sigh. Such is the life of a blogger. Yesterday afternoon, camera in hand, I greeted Little (age 4) after preschool with a snack she loved: a bowl of dry Alpha-Bits. “But you said it’s crafting time!” she said. “It is!”…

While teaching community to my second-grade students, I introduced them to Dorptown, and the children worked on creating their own community. Our currency was based on the Dorp, which was designed by one of the students. All the children became contributing members of the community–taking on jobs such as realtor, banker, and shop owner (they made their own product line.) The most popular shop in Dorptown was the pizza shop–one student brought a toaster oven to school, as well as supplies like English muffins, spaghetti sauce, and cheese. He was well on his way to being the Dorpenairre, the richest…

It happens one morning each summer. One of the kids wakes us early on a Saturday, dressed, pepped, and ready: It’s Neighborhood Garage Sale Day! This year, it was Middle who was prepared. He had collected old toys and clothing in boxes and on Friday night placed them all by the door. We put him to bed that night, hoping he’d oversleep or forget. But forget he didn’t, and he was ready to sell about 2 hours before the official beginning of Neighborhood Garage Sale Day. Big joined in. He collected books that he felt the family was finished with.…

This time of year, everyone’s running off to make New Year’s Resolutions. This makes it a great time to teach your children about setting goals and can be done in a few segments. Define Resolution Enhance your child’s vocabulary by talking about the meaning of the resolution. Discuss what it means to resolve to do something and how you set goals. This is a great opportunity to express that not all goals are reached but that if we work hard and try, we make huge steps. Goals For Children Should Be Small And Reachable There’s nothing more discouraging than setting…

Yesterday, I lost my iPhone and, therefore, my impression of humanity. You see, I’m a sunshine and happy days type. I nearly always have a smile on my face, and I’m always finding the silver lining. There’s good in everyone. And we all live in a safe place. So, today, when I got to the gym and realized that I accidentally left my phone on the hood of my car, and it (shocker!) wasn’t there or in any bags or anywhere in the car, I turned around and drove home–retracing my drive. And while I didn’t find it on the…

A math fact: It’s not fun to do flashcards after flashcards with your kids. Math facts have been nearly deleted from first and second-grade teaching curricula, yet children are still expected to know their math facts. In Pennsylvania, standard 2. OA.2 requires students to “Fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies. By the end of Grade 2, know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers.” The responsibility to teach this falls on the parents, and parents are often asking, how can I make Math Facts more fun to learn? Here are online math fact games and applications for your smartphones and tablets to…

Transferring to a new school will be stressful for both children and parents. There are steps you can take now to help make your family’s transition smoother. Whether it’s a week before or two months before, take the time to get the following in order so that your switch will run with ease. Paperwork Many schools now have new student paperwork available online, and if yours does, download your papers as soon as possible and begin completing them. Do not wait until the day of the move to file the paperwork, as you’re likely to find you need papers to…

I went to college in the early 90s. A writer and communicator by nature, I never would have considered entering the Junkins building at SMU, where the School of Engineering was housed. Neither would the majority of my sorority sisters or female friends. I’m scratching my head thinking about it… I can’t remember more than one female in my sorority house who pursued an engineering background. Yet, day after day, engineering is around us, a part of our lives. In this creative field, often based on science, engineers are problem solvers, helping the community and bettering the lives of others.…

I can’t tell you the number of times I shouted in glee this holiday season, “squee! another great shot! Check out the bokeh!” or “Look at the crisp, vivid color of this shot!” or “Wow! I can’t believe how focused I can be on exactly what I want now!” You get my point, right? Photography lessons with the DSLR brought me a long way this fall. And love all I’ve learned and am learning. Over vacation, I learned something new: how to get the yellow, sierra tone out of pictures taken at night by setting a custom white balance. But…

I’ve been playing around on my adorable little Lenovo Yoga Pro laptop for the past 2 hours as I fly over the country (Hi! I’m looking down and waving to YOU!) on my way to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. While I have loved using the Tablets (and so have my kids), the addition of this little laptop has made a huge difference in my every day. The switch to a desktop You may recall that a little over a year ago, when my laptop’s second battery had died, and there was little to be done to save the computer from…