More and more families are traveling during the school year. Here’s how to minimize the impact—and maximize the benefits—of school-year vacations. Last January, my family took an epic 11-day vacation to Oahu, Hawaii. We swam, snorkeled, hiked and—most importantly—bonded. The best part? Our kids, twin boys in fifth grade and a daughter in second grade at the time, only missed …
Read More »Jennifer Marino Walters
Preventing Separation Anxiety for Pandemic Pets
As your family returns to work and school, you can help your pets handle the transition. Whenever Adam Lopuch would leave his house to pick up food, drive the baby to day care or mow the lawn, his Labrador retriever, Bella, would go nuts. She’d bark nonstop. She’d jump on the windowsill, sometimes scratching off the paint. She’d pant. After …
Read More »Stopping the ‘Summer Slide’
At the end of every school year, many parents start to worry about the “summer slide”— the loss of knowledge and skills attributed to summer break. But experts disagree on just how concerned parents need to be. In 2017, researchers from the Brookings Institution examined several studies related to summer learning loss. They found that students’ achievement scores declined by …
Read More »Building Your Prenatal Care Team
You’re pregnant. Congratulations! Before you begin all the fun stuff such as decorating the nursery and picking out baby clothes, you’ll need to make an important decision: Who will help care for you and your baby during pregnancy and childbirth? Learn about your options so that you can put together a prenatal care team that will best meet your needs …
Read More »Encourage Your Kids to Volunteer
In a year that has seemed to drag on endlessly—thanks to the coronavirus!—the holidays have managed to sneak up on us once again. In the midst of all the decorating, shopping, wrapping presents and other holiday activities, many families may be thinking about ways to give back. While the idea is to help others, research has shown that community service …
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