February 2012
Siblings Keep Kids Cool
Last summer, when the temperatures hit 106 degrees, my family and I came up with an idea that would help young kids beat the heat. We decided to start our own charity for underprivileged and homeless kids. Our mission was to give an insulated, 24-ounce water bottle to as many of them as we could. We …
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January 2012
Aspiring to be journalists
A few months ago we were browsing through our keepsakes from second grade. We came across a newspaper from our previous school in Greenwich, Connecticut. We both wondered why our current school, Memorial Drive Elementary, did not have a school newspaper. We decided to ask our mom if we could start a newspaper at MDE.
Our …
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December 2011
Gotta Win ‘Em All
My favorite hobby is playing Pokémon, which is a really cool card game that is intellectually challenging, like chess. It involves building a 60-card deck and coming up with different strategies to beat your opponent. I recently attended the National Pokémon Tournament in Indianapolis and got 11th place out of more than 200 kids in the juniors …
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November 2011
Dancing Queen
The first time I saw a Markette, a member of the renowned Memorial High dance team, I remember being hypnotized by the sparkles on her uniform. My mother, a professional dancer, had instilled in me the expectation to continue in her footsteps from an early age. My sister, an award-winning swimmer, found her claim to fame early on. …
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October 2011
Were you one of those gung-ho Halloween kids? The ones who bravely pushed their way up past the spider webs and creepy music strung on the front porches, despite the fact that some overhyped dad in a zombie costume was going to jump out from a dark corner?
Or maybe you were more like me – the girl in the …
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October 2011
Banana Dance for Dollars
This past year I was part of a club at school that sold peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to raise money for a foundation called Kenya Kids Can, which brings money to starving children.
My fellow co-founders – Scott DeLone, Rachel Owens and Lexi Fink – and I knew that since the kids at our school …
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October 2011
At parents’ night at my son’s school, I could have sworn that when the principal got to the part in her speech about not doing your children’s homework for them and allowing them to make their mistakes, her eyes fastened on me.
All parents wonder at times whether they are doing enough – or too much – for their children. …
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September 2011
Big hugs for little kids
Three years ago, my family became involved in Show Hope, a Christian non-profit that cares for special-needs orphans in China. Maria’s Big House of Hope is a special-care center in China that houses children whom the official state orphanage does not have the resources to support.
After organizing several fundraisers, my family and I were …
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September 2011
Last year, my son and I were introduced to the concept of required community-service hours. He had to do 12 hours of them to pass the sixth grade.
You will, perhaps, not be surprised to learn that we forgot all about those hours until a week before they were due.
During our last-minute search, we discovered many opportunities for kids …
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September 2011
PayPal cofounder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel recently made headlines for critiquing the “education bubble,” the newest ridicule-worthy institution since the housing bubble popped.
Higher education is overvalued, underwhelming and elitist, according to Stanford-educated Thiel. That’s why he created the “20 Under 20” Fellowship. He selected 20 young “visionaries” to drop out of college and receive $100,000 to pursue an …
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August 2011
What’s Old is New Again
I recall my parents shaking their heads at some of my fashion choices when I was a teen, critiquing them as “so old fashioned.”
Now my daughter is hunting through my closet. Too bad for her that I am not much of a pack rat.
It appears I’m not the only one whose yesteryear items …
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August 2011
August is so strange. It’s still 100 degrees outside and sunny well into the evening hours. But somehow we’re supposed to turn our minds to new semesters, school clothes and earlier bedtimes. Even if we don’t have school-aged children, all ads focus on fall, and workweeks get a bit more pumped up.
In my family, our most profound adjustment is …
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August 2011
They are two of life’s certainties – children grow up, and parents worry if they’re making the right decisions about their education. Some pending moms and dads feel compelled to make critical school choices as soon as they learn their child’s due date. The result of this planning is a growing number of older kids in class who have received …
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August 2011
Taking a Tumble in Competitive Cheer
For three years I have been actively involved in competitive cheer. Last year I joined the Memorial Junior Varsity cheerleading squad. The summer before, I had worked so hard to master my full twist – a 360-degree spin in the air. If I achieved my full twist I would finally get to be on …
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August 2011
This is the third in a three-part series on out-of-the-box ways to keep kids busy and happy this summer.
Summer’s winding down, and there’s a big question looming – how are we going to make the last few weeks count? If you’ve already breezed through your summer wish list and vacations are memories in a scrapbook (or if you’re like …
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