Parents with Agendas: Back Away from the Lemonade Stand
July 24, 2014
By Sarah Vander Schaaff And so we have come to this, a headline: “Let’s stop trying to turn lemonade stands into MBA programs.” In the post in Fortune that followed that headline last July, Dan Mitchell says, essentially, “enough already.” Mitchell’s argument is more nuanced than the headline but his point is blunt: let the games of childhood serve their own purposes. The only thing to squeeze into an afternoon pitching refreshments to the neighbors is a bag of lemons, not lessons in profit margins. Mitchell refers to Michal Lemberger in Slate, who in her post, “Down with Lemonade Stands” debunks the idea that lemonade sales teach entrepreneurship because customers don’t actually compare prices and the quality of the lemonade…. Read More
eeBoo: A Game to Hold onto
July 18, 2014
By Sarah Vander Schaaff I had a good hand. A couple of giraffes, some elephants. My six-year-old opponent was going down in this game of animal rummy. I played my hand, went out, and then she showed me her cards. “Oh,” I said, looking at the cards she’d squirreled away and not wanted to part with. “Actually, you won,” I told her. And so it goes when you play with the foxes. And sheep. And fish for that matter, when each animal is beautifully painted as they are in a deck of eeBoo animal rummy. If one has to lose, at least it can be done with great art. Mia Galison started the unique company eeBoo 18 years ago when… Read More
Summer with the Boomers: Grandparents who Rock
July 10, 2014
By Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff Sometimes you send Grandma up with the kids to read books at bedtime and they spend all their time watching the Beatles on YouTube. My six-year-old now knows the words to “Twist and Shout” and, like her grandmother, thinks Paul is a heartthrob. Perhaps this is going on in your house this summer. The odds are good. As of next year, 60% of all grandparents will be Baby Boomers. Consider for a moment the reality of Generation Z, (or Generation i, or Generation 2K, or if you prefer, Generation Homeland) hanging out with their Boomer grandparents. These post-millennials are called digital natives, having spent their entire lives connected. I’m pretty sure it was my six-year-old… Read More
What to Expect, When You Have No Idea What To Expect: Tweens to Teens, part II
July 3, 2014
By Sarah Vander Schaaff Continuing our series on What to Expect When You Have No Idea What to Expect (raising tweens to teens), we hear from a mother of two girls and a boy, whose ages range from 15 to 17. If the theme last week was to listen to your growing children, this week’s may be to give credence to what they say. They may not tell you much, but behind those bits of expression, may be deep concerns. Our featured mother’s screen name today is: Cobblestone 1. How would you describe the process of raising a child from early tween to teen years? Difficult. We, too, experienced a difficult time for our girls (and boy) during these years…. Read More