New Year’s Eve at home with the kids: These 13 festive (and easy!) ideas can make the night memorable.
New Year’s Eve at home with the kids isn’t a new idea for this year. In general, New Year’s Eve parties for parents are more about trying our very best to stay up till midnight (though 10 PM is more like it) and drinking sparkling cider with our kids...
What to send loved ones spending Thanksgiving alone, so you feel just a little more together.
Yesterday, my daughter who is attending graduate school for social work in Denver, called to tell me that she thinks it is best for her to cancel her planned trip home for Thanksgiving thanks to the new COVID warnings and restrictions in Oregon where I live. My first...
Target’s early Black Friday sale, week 2: We pared it down to the good stuff!
Target rolled out their Black Friday deals way early this month, and we’ve been scouring the deals here. If you missed our post on last week’s Black Friday deals, don’t worry! Several of them are still marked down this week, like the Beats Studio 3...
Target dropped their Black Friday deals early! We pared it down to the good stuff.
Target has rolled out their Black Friday deals way early this month, so there’s no need to wait until after Thanksgiving to do your holiday shopping. Which is good, considering we are so down with the retail therapy right now. So we’ve put together the...
Voting help and Election Day resources: All the help you need to find your voting place, watch the polls, report voter intimidation and more.
You might have heard, but there’s this election coming up in the US on Tuesday, November 3 and it’s kind of a big deal. Not just because we’ll be electing the next president, but a lot of Senators, Members of Congress, and important local and state...
Safe trick-or-treat alternatives for a very 2020 Halloween. It can still be fun, promise!
It’s official: I’m writing about safe trick-or-treat alternatives after weeks of putting it off. The CDC has even officially recommended against trick-or-treating during COVID-19, at least in the traditional way, and oof. I need some safe trick-or-treat...
Ways to get kids excited about reading: 8 expert, research-backed tips
Not every kid comes out of the womb loving reading. (Or, even comes out of preschool loving reading.) No matter how much you read to your kids or encourage reading, sometimes it just doesn’t click right away. And that’s okay! After years of writing about...
Helping kids with reading: What we don’t know | Spawned ep 219
Parents have always played a huge part in kids’ reading skills, but that’s never been more true than it is now. It’s not just our toddlers and preschoolers either. Yay, virtual school. (/scarcasm) So we were so happy to chat with ah absolutely...
We found 5 great trick-or-treat signs for candy, for a safe and socially distant Halloween
We’ve had quite a few readers ask for some trick-or-treat-signs for candy to help keep a socially distanced Halloween. This is a time that we may want to hand out candy but uh, maybe in a less-contact way. And hey, we found some great ones, most of them...
Lots of ways teens can get involved in this election when they’re too young to vote
I know that this year, a lot of teens, including my own 17 year old, are even more motivated to get out and do something to impact November’s election. But for socially conscious teens under 18, it can be frustrating that they can’t make a difference at...
Parenting lessons from the first debate: Teaching kids how to have a productive discussion, without bullying or name-calling.
My kids’ eyes flew wide open when they stepped into the living room last night and caught some of the fiasco (or you know, Dana Bash’s more colorful term) that passed for a presidential debate. This morning, our team discussed that while we’re...Hi! We’re Kristen + Liz!
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