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A Real Toy Story

The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that the best toys are not toys at all. Fuzzy blankets and empty boxes rule when you are inside; wild flowers, sticks and rocks for when you are outside.  A blanket becomes a cape or a tent and a box becomes just [...]

Small moments

Last night after dinner, my sons begged and begged to watch a DVD. We don’t have television, and we have a “No DVD on school nights” rule.  I stood firm and upheld the rule. Oh, my goodness, were there tears.  “It’s okay,” I said.  “You can be sad.”  One son, looking outside and seeing the [...]

The Power of Parenting

I’ve been thinking more about the new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the great deal of bad news it has about our kids. For example:  “Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week).” The [...]

Sad news about $esame $treet

Once again, Sesame Street is disappointing me. A few months ago, when many, many people were celebrating Sesame Street’s 40th anniversary, I wasn’t. Check out my post “When did Sesame Street become $esame $treet? “ for more about that.

At tomorrow’s Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, the world will be introduced to Nintendo DS gaming [...]

Seeing Star Wars again - for the first time

I came home the other night to find a small dent in the kids’ bedroom wall. The dent was the size and shape of my son’s forehead. “What happened?” I asked my husband. “Well,” he explained, “We were watching The Incredibles and this guy [one of our sons] was pretending to be ‘Dash’ [the child [...]

Empowered by Play's nomination for worst invention of the decade: "Tween"

There is some debate about where and when the term “tween” first hit the mainstream. There is also debate about the exact tween parameters. Some say tweens are the 8 to 14 year olds; others say 9 to 13 year olds; and others claim 6 to 12 year olds. And now, we even see the [...]

Time for kids to be kids

On Friday I picked up my sons from school – it was the last day of school until January 4th – a nice, long break. As I greeted the school staff, and wished them well, we agreed the break was well deserved for everyone. “Time for the kids to be kids. They grow up too [...]

More on Milk Media

This weekend I spent time thinking about Milk Media and the Milk Rocks! campaign in schools. (See previous posts “The Brawl Begins” when Milk Media meets my son and Troublemakers and Peacemakers for background information.) According to the representative I talked with, the video games and movie previews available on the Milk Rocks! website are [...]

Troublemakers and Peacemakers

Today I am thinking about ways to make a little trouble. I am talking about speaking up when you see something that concerns you and making noise to effect small changes.

Yesterday I had a conversation with an executive at MilkMedia, the folks who brought us the Bakugan/Nintendo milk carton for schools. It was an [...]

Healthy Media Choices: follow-up, reflection and new directions

Thanks to all of you who tuned in on Tuesday to the Healthy Media Choices Hour radio show. It was great fun for me, and talking with Mary Rothschild was a perfect opportunity to cross-pollinate and share ideas. Look on her site for a link to Mary’s blog, too.

We talked about so much, but of [...]