Parenting is not rocket science, but this is one not-technical mama's experiment in raising curious, adventuresome explorers.
People are scared of taking babies on airplanes. Good reason for that. There are horror stories. Kids are just a wild card. Loose canons, let me tell you. Enough craziness goes on in our own home, with all the beauty of structure and schedule (and privacy!). Add condescending looks and long exaggerated sighs to the …
We're living the jet-setting life for the next week as we head to Denmark with our rocket babies. Are we excited? Yes, definitely! But, while I tend to love the idea of traveling while it's still in theory, the reality makes me stressed and nervous. Jonathan knew he could get me to say yes with …
One reason I do not qualify as particularly adventurous is because adventure, by definition, means you don’t know what’s going to happen next. And I like knowing what’s going to happen next. I like routine, “normal”, expected activities. I would rather avoid the stress of trying something new and all the unknowns that come along …
Last month we got to travel back to the mid-west, where most of our immediate family lives. It was a treat to be there as fall was beginning to show signs of its beautiful arrival: the leaves starting to yellow and redden, golden fields, a little crispness in the air. While we're spoiled in the …
I'm not extremely aware of taking full advantage of reward programs for brand loyalty. I get that it's nice to get extra benefits for choosing how I spend money, but I tend to just be downright forgetful. Who has enough time and brain space to read up on this frequent flyerr reward or that credit …
We all want our kids to be good problem solvers. It’s kind of integral to adulting. A necessary skill. We’re all on the same page. Problem solvers are creative, mature, successful, contribute to society, are self-sufficient. Then why do we spend so much our day and parenting energy trying to foresee any problems and solve …
Kids are natural scientists. They may not be very methodical, but they make up for it with sheer curiosity and lack of inhibition. Add to that their limited understanding of cause and effect and extremely basic think-before-you-act reasoning, and you might start to see why we parents are so quick to shut down their experiments. …
A couple of years ago, The Martian film made botanist hearts soar as fictional astronaut Mark Watney, stranded on Mars with slim odds of survival, said defiantly in the face of starvation: "I don't want to come off as arrogant here, but I'm the greatest botanist on this planet.” My husband, the resident rocket scientist, …
Isn’t astronomy an exciting science? There is so much wow-factor in the celestial: planets with rings and moons and all kinds of colors, comets, meteor showers (a.k.a. shooting stars--I mean, let’s not let such a lovely, whimsical name go to waste for the sake of being accurate!), constellations, mysteries like black holes, and spectacular events …
Everyone knows toddlers ask lots of questions. The “why?” phase is dreaded right up there with the “terrible twos” or the thought of having a “threenager”. One study found mothers are asked nearly 300 questions a day (article)! That’s an average of one question every 2.6 minutes. Honestly, that statistic feels a little conservative if …
Launching Rocket Babies 