When my oldest was a preschooler, my wife Beth took her to a weekly music group at the Catholic church, called “Making Music, Praying Twice.” Yes, Catholics are terrible at branding programs (ever hear of the Catholic “Fortnight for Freedom?”), but there’s a reason for the clunky title. The name refers to a saying attributed to St. Augustine: The one who sings, prays twice. Is that just a nice-sounding sentiment? Actually, no. It points at a subtle but crucial difference between Catholic and Protestant spirituality. Both can be good, but I think it’s worth looking at them more closely. Protes ..read more

This is the first of a series by Maryrose Wood. Beth read these to our kids a few years ago, and I’m repeating them now that my two youngest are old enough to enjoy it. I expect that any parent with several children can relate to the story of a young governess tasked with forming gradeschool children who have spent the past few years being raised by wolves. Along with being playful and well-written, this book is a good old-fashioned moral tale in the spirit of Jane Eyre and Bleak House. Maybe a little romantic, but I’ve always been a sucker for that type of thing. Anyway, the irreverent humor ..read more

Happy Moon Landing Day! Since the 50th anniversary two years ago, this has become something of a holiday in our house, just a great chance to celebrate adventure, and science, and America, and beauty, and achievement, all rolled up into one spectacular event. My apologies up front that a lot of what we do is from things we’ve bought, rather than creative fun like the cut-out one of my kids made for the fridge in the picture above. But I’m not drawing money from links or anything, this is just what we do. • For the third year in a row, we’re watch the Apollo 11 documentary from 2019. This was ..read more

I was really really tired of cleaning up crayons. My Presbyterian church has a little tree at the entrance to the sanctuary with busy bags full of little coloring books and crayons, and we used to grab three or four of them on the way into Sunday morning worship. It’s a simple and inexpensive way for a church to help families keep young kids occupied and quiet during sermons. But with my four kids, it still felt like a lot of work. My kids sat on the pew in heaps of crayons, looking for a certain color and then complaining that a sibling would’t share it. They would snap crayons in half. They ..read more

Novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tells the story of when she arrived at her U.S. college from Nigeria, and her American roommate was surprised that Adichie knew how to use a stove. The roommate commented on how good Adichie’s English was, not realizing that English is the official language of Nigeria. When she asked to hear her “tribal music,” Adichie pulled out a Mariah Carey album. Adichie says this series of exchanges happened because the roommate only knew a “single story” about Africa. When we only hear one kind of story about a group of people, we start to assume they’re all the same–w ..read more

“You’ll go to the Bad Place,” said Mary Jane Broom. “My mother says anybody who doesn’t go to church or Sunday School will go straight to the Bad Place when they die.” Eleanor turned pale. “The Bad Place?” she said. “You mean…?” “I’m not supposed to say that word,” said Mary Jane primly. Eleanor’s little brother, Edward, swung his lunch box around in a big circle. “She means you’ll go to Hell,” he said. Quite a start for a gradeschool children’s novel! I confess I was a little nervous reading Jane Langton’s The Astonishing Stereoscope to my kids, but I am glad I did. It does not shy away fr ..read more

“Daddy, what do you have to study to learn to be a teacher?” Beezus asked. Ramona had been wondering the same thing. Her father knew how to read and do arithmetic. He also knew about Oregon pioneers and about two pints making one quart. Mr. Quimby wiped a plate and stacked it in the cupboard. “I’m taking an art course because I want to teach art. And I’ll study child development––” Ramona interrupted. “What’s child development?” “How kids grow,” answered her father. Why does anyone have to go to school to study a thing like that? wondered Ramona. All her life she had been told that the way t ..read more

“Have no fear, little fish,” Said the Cat in the Hat. “These Things are good Things.” And he gave them a pat. “They are tame. Oh, so tame! They have come here to play. They will give you some fun On this wet, wet, wet day.” For my money, The Cat in the Hat is still one of the best for doing daily practice with an early reader. My six-year-old is past Bob Books, but he can get frustrated if he has to read too many big words. Dr. Seuss did a great job here not only of writing a charming story that adults can enjoy along with their kids, but also of using bite-sized words that early readers ..read more

I stumbled across an excellent opinion piece today about kids and potential. Psychologist Steven Hayes tells how his son, who was diagnosed as a little kid with a muscle-weakness disorder called hypotonia, went on to become a MMA Black Belt in high school. Hayes’s point is not that every kid can become anything they want, but instead that things like diagnosed disorders, standardized tests, and personality types only tell us averages, they don’t magically predict the future. In short, he says, “People are individuals, not averages.” I’ve written about this before in this post, and I think it’s ..read more

After Eleanor and Edward fell asleep in the magical room in the attic, they woke up facing a mirror where they could see reflections of themselves extending back to infinity. As they approached, they found themselves walking through that mirror, then facing a choice between two more mirrors. Both mirrors reflected their every move, but they were slightly different. The mirror on the right showed them as they were, but in an agreeable mood; the mirror on the left showed Edward with a slightly unpleasant stubborn grin, and Eleanor wearing thick white powder to cover the freckles that led her to ..read more