Summer fun for little ones
Glow Run/Walk 5KMay 11, 7-9:30pm Fri. Hosted by the Ronald McDonald House Teen Council. $30 for adults 18 and up; $20 for students 12-18; free to kids 12 and under. rmhc-centralillinois.org. 528-3314. Hope Pavilion, Southwind Park, 4965 S. Second St., 788-2310. Community Car Seat Check May 11, 9am-12pm Fri. Learn about child passenger safety and…
Visiting an art museum with kids
Whenever we take a family outing to St. Louis, I always yearn to visit the St. Louis Art Museum, but it never ends up happening. The reason? Precisely because it’s a family outing. I’m afraid that looking at art will make the kids bored and whiny, and nothing torpedoes a family outing like bored and…
Little hands, big kitchen
It had been a while since I’d drunk a hot cup of coffee. Every morning I’d brew a cup, and there it would sit, usually forgotten under the coffeemaker while I bustled around making my five-and-a-half-year-old’s breakfast and packing her lunch. Punctuated by chores like unloading the dishwasher and letting the dog out for the…
The village of Capital City Parent
It takes a village to raise a child. We all have a village. Some are big and traditional (large extended family who live nearby, helpful neighbors who know and love and look out for your kids) and small (one parent and a babysitter or teacher). Most of us have something in between – and can…
Helping students navigate college
Deanna Blackwell, director of the TRIO program at Lincoln Land Community College, got word that a student had a serious medical issue so she got in her car and went to the hospital. As Deanna says, “We provide refuge and support to our students.” Going to see the student just seemed to be the right…
What’s making our children sick?
Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.” –Hippocrates “Pill for ill” medicine is how pediatrician Dr. Michelle Perro describes most of the training that occurs in medical school. After 15 years in pediatric emergency medicine, she concluded that the medical system is devised to treat acute rather than chronic problems and is…
Teaching children religious tolerance
A hate crime is committed every hour in the United States, according to Tolerance.org, a web project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Of particular concern to parents is the fact that young men under 20 are the perpetrators of half of these violent acts. Biases are learned during early childhood, explains the Leadership Conference…
Speaking to your children about money
If you’re the parent of a grade-schooler, you’ve probably introduced your child to the tooth fairy. But what about allowances and understanding wants and needs while at the toy store? Likewise, if you have a teenager, what about conversation starters on debit cards, compound interest and Facebook’s stock price? Feeling unprepared? Not sure where to…
