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Monthly Archives: January 2015

Do they shed tears with those timed math quizzes? Here’s help.

January 30, 2015

Never The First to Finish: Why Pace Matters By Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff.  This post originally appeared on the Getting Smart website as part of a series of blogs written by parents called, “Smart Parents.” Remember how it felt to be halfway through a math quiz and a classmate gets up and turns it in to the teacher? Maybe that other student rushed, or maybe he or she just happened to be super speedy. Either way, I always came to the same conclusion: I’m just never going to be that fast. Years have passed since I’ve had to take a math quiz. As an adult, I’m comfortable with my own strengths and weaknesses and the time it takes me to do… Read More

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SPECIAL EDITION: TOP 10 THINGS TO DO WITH KIDS ON SNOW DAYS (inside)

January 26, 2015

By Sarah Vander Schaaff It’s going to snow. So we’ve been told. I hope you’d stocked up on milk, bread, batteries and sleds. But for those moments when the kids are inside recovering from building snow forts, here is our top ten list of things to do inside. (Most require electricity, but not all.) So, grab a mug of hot chocolate and let’s get started! 1. Watch a great musical. There is more to a snow day than “Frozen”, pardon the pun. And every kid should know the words to 76 Trombones before he or she heads off to college. Some of my favorites are: The Sound of Music, West Side Story and My Fair Lady, but a great list… Read More

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Too Gifted: When It’s Not a Back-door Brag

January 23, 2015

By Sarah Vander Schaaff One of my favorite lines form “30 Rock” is when Jenna tries to explain the concept of back-door bragging, giving this example: It’s hard for me to watch ‘American Idol’ because I have perfect pitch. And so it might seem when parents of a profoundly gifted child talk about the problems they have finding the right stimulation, peer groups, and emotional support for their child who, from the outside, is just “too perfect” for everyday life. But the concerns are just as deep, and at times frustrating or painful, for parents of the profoundly gifted as they are for the rest of us. At the end of the day, we all want our children to reach… Read More

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What are you teaching your children about hard work?

January 16, 2015

By Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff A few days ago, thanks to Twitter, I stumbled upon an article on the Little League official website that shared an interview with Charles Jeter, the father of the former Yankee shortstop. I don’t often spend my time reading about Derek Jeter. Really, I don’t. Not even in the checkout lines. I also confess that I am much more likely to be sitting in a theater than on the bleachers at a little league game. But the first tip the post shared from Charles Jeter, based on an interview he’d done for Growing Leaders president Tim Elmore, was this: “Never let anyone outwork you. Derek said he watched his dad work relentlessly as a substance… Read More

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The Newest Bloggers on the Block

January 9, 2015

By Sarah Vander Schaaff Watch out, there are some new bloggers hitting the scene. They blog about soccer, gymnastics and toys. And they are really good at integrating photos into their posts. And they are six years old. When I was in first grade, I think my primary tools were pencils, some paste, and maybe a very blunt pair of scissors. My first grader types on a Mac and reads and comments on her classmates’ posts using an iPad. Sometimes it feels like the educational environment our children are in moves at the speed of light. And it begs the question: is this a good thing? I am not prepared to argue the deeper question about screen time. Many parents… Read More

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