Parenting

Two-Week Check-In (Mary’s Version)

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

It’s been two weeks since my son officially became a second grader and so far, things are off to a good start.  Thank goodness.

Last year was a bit of a mess. The first two months of his first-grade year were tumultuous, with frequent reprimands and constant negative feedback from the teacher. He started to loathe going to school, feeling like he was a bad kid and couldn’t do anything right. And then she abruptly quit, leaving his class to have a substitute teacher for the next three months. Turns out there were more kids in the same boat. Fortunately, the school was able to find an amazing educator who brought back his love of learning and school in the second half of the academic year.

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A Bundle of Nerves: Kids and School Anxiety

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

If you saw Inside Out 2 over the summer, then you know that Anxiety is the main antagonist but not necessarily the villain. The film does a great job explaining this complex emotion and why it has a notable presence in our kids today. Being former gifted kids, we’ve definitely felt academic anxiety in high school; but is this really occurring for our elementary kids?

Fears and worry are typical for kids as they grow and experience the world, especially when it comes to school. A 2023 survey reported that 86% of school-aged children worry, mostly on a regular basis (once a week or more), with majority of their concerns (64%) being school-related.

Although the term anxiety has become a catch-all for any emotion related to apprehension or unease, it’s helpful to know the variations and their differences:

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Ugh, Read a Book…

| Patti Webb

The way kids get their literary fix these days looks different from when we were growing up. PBS was life then, exposing youth to books from Reading Rainbow to Wishbone. Reading was incentivized and celebrated with the Pizza Hut Book It! Program and D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read). Scholastic Book Fair day was the BEST!!! It was a great time to read.

Then it kinda changed. This may be purely anecdotal, but reading for fun stopped being a thing. Outside of Harry Potter and Twilight, academic and athletic achievement took precedence. Then loud TV shows from Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, then smartphones and social media entered the chat. I have five younger Gen Z cousins and all of them pretty much bemoan reading.

As Millennial Moms, the thought of our kids not loving to read actually hurts. So how do we cultivate the love of reading outside the classroom?

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Child(ish) Reads: The Learning Game

| Patti Webb

Obviously for #backtoschool, we’re going to review a learning title. I requested The Learning Game from NetGalley earlier this year.

Personally, I may have gotten to a point where parenting books are starting to be redundant. I don’t usually post bad reviews, preferring to just skip over them and share something better. However, I think I’m due for a little rant…

The Learning Game: Teaching Kids to Think for Themselves, Embrace Challenge, and Love Learning by Ana Lorena Fábrega.

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Tone of Voice and Parenting

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

You know when you tell your kids to do something repeatedly and it falls on deaf ears. And then you end up yelling at them because you’re at your wits end? Then how about when your spouse says the exact same thing and they do it right away? Okay, great. I’m not the only one.

While my children appreciate my animated vocals during play or a soothing one when they need a cuddle, they definitely don’t hear my tone as one of authority unless I’m screaming to the top of my lungs. This got me thinking about how kids interpret tone of voice.

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