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Monthly Archives: February 2014

What are we searching for?

February 28, 2014

By Sarah Vander Schaaff I’m not sure any of us would want to explain a recent log of Google searches, a trail that out of context might make us out to be anything from hypochondriacs, stalkers, or really, really devoted bargain hunters. But perhaps as parents the most sensitive searches we make relate to our children. Last month, The New York Times published a piece by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, “Google, Tell Me. Is My Son a Genius?” (January 18, 2014) that revealed an apparent gender-based fear in parental Google searches. According to Stephens-Davidowitz, “Parents are two and a half times more likely to ask, “Is my son gifted?” than “Is my daughter gifted?”” And the trend holds, he says, for other queries… Read More

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Escape to the Land of Toys

February 21, 2014

By Sarah Vander Schaaff This past Wednesday, Nancy and I broke from our regular routine of packing lunches, hunting for missing mittens, and heading to our office in Tiger Labs, and made our way to Manhattan where we explored the 412,000 square feet of the American International Toy Fair. We walked the aisles, showcasing more than 1,150 toy company exhibits, on the hunt for toys and games with an educational bent. Mindprint Learning CEO, Nancy Weinstein, was intent on meeting the inventors behind the games as well as finding new products to review and add to our database. It was my first experience at the Toy Fair, and after I reminded myself that I was not an eight-year-old let loose… Read More

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Life is an Open-Atlas Test

February 12, 2014

By Sarah Vander Schaaff Ok, I admit it, I don’t know where Azerbaijan is on a map. I know where it is not, generally speaking, and where it is most likely, generally speaking, but that does little good when your eight year old turns to you during the Olympic Parade of Nations, and asks, “So, Mom, where is that country?” “Hum. That’s a really good question. Oh, look, it’s Matt Lauer!” As my husband pointed out, the fact that the delegations were arranged in Cyrillic alphabetical order only added to the appearance of our parental ineptitude. I say “appearance” of ineptitude; my children may have a different opinion. While it may be a little late, there are still several more… Read More

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