The gear shift between the pre-holiday rush, the post-holiday haze, and the 0-to-60 pace of a full week back to school has left our house feeling road-worn with a mix of waking up to an alarm you didn’t expect. While I think we appreciate the routine and getting back to the friends and our extracurriculars,…
It is hard to talk about “Betwixtmas,” what Urban Dictionary defines as “the week in-between Christmas and New Years Day,” without sounding like I-need-a-vacation-from-my-vacation guy. But, when Googled, there are survival guides, articles, hashtags and, of course, there is a full week of winter break left in the Edmonds School District. If you’re looking for…
Last week, on social media I saw an article about how “Holiday Magic” takes its toll on women. It immediately made me think of the Lifetime Christmas Movie I saw this month called On Strike For Christmas with Daphne Zuniga, who you likely either remember as Jo Reynolds, resident of Melrose Place or Princess Vespa, resident…
It took more than one try to get our first picture with Santa, now 13 years ago. I used the trick where you hand the kiddo to Santa while keeping eye contact and smiling while the photographer jingles the bell for further distraction. Santa is picture perfect and my son is mostly smiling. Over the…
When all my parenting was hypothetical, my biggest perceived school-age deficit was math. With the invention of apps like Photomath (it’s free, shows you not only the answer, but the steps, and I already depend on it for 5th grade math), it hasn’t been as tough as I expected. (Though to be fair, I co-parent…
When my kids were small and the costumes were still toddling spiders or mini firefighters, my main goal was to get as much use out of costumes as possible with the most amount of pictures. Once the kids started school, their yearly school event added an indoor option, which has a photo booth, so I…
About a year ago, the Rotary Club of Edmonds announced it would suspend the Edmonds Waterfront Festival. The event had run for 31 years at the Port of Edmonds Marina. Then-president David Kaufer explained the group decided to take that step “after carefully evaluating and analyzing the return on investment, both in capital and volunteer…
Thanks to a new zero period and lack of previously expected transportation, we’re adjusting to a new back-to-school routine. With more moving parts, there are more days of the week where we repeatedly call out things like “homework,” “PE clothes,” and “turn that off now” as if we’re auctioneers or playing some sort of parents…
With each report of a luring attempt, we’re reminded of that heart-sinking feeling and the anxiety involved in approaching and teaching our children how to stay safe. Social media, multiplayer video games and the internet in general have expanded the conversation about the appropriate way to interact with people we don’t know. But in the…
In an email I got from the Foundation for Edmonds School District, I found out that over the last year, the Celebrate Schools 5k grants funded projects benefiting thousands of students, across all grade levels. For example, it went to “afterschool reading and math tutoring, a Festival of Cultures, 5th Grade Law Day, Family Math…
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I don’t want to break the seal on “Back to School” topics and not because I’m an eternal summer kind of person, but because that means it’ll be Christmas at Joann’s and Michael’s any minute. Plus, I am still recovering from seemingly endless 4th grade book reports and jockeying Skyward/Canvas/Google Classroom as the parent of…
I recently went to my first school board meeting. As someone who has carefully avoided manning the games at our school’s Harvest (read: Halloween) festival since 2011, that is certainly not something I could have forecasted, but there I was taking my three minutes during a public comment portion. The road from occasional, reluctant classroom…
Last summer, we piled into the van and headed to the Granite Falls Library for Hogwarts Summer School. We ate snacks, watched a magician, and the kids made Harry Potter-themed crafts. Since it was about a 45-minute drive, we turned it into a bit of a day trip, stopping on the way home at Funko…
After my middle schooler suffered a concussion in his main sport this winter, we found out just how important exercise and, additionally, a team sport/group activity was for him. He went from hour-long practices twice a week and a game on the weekend with locker room time before and after, to not only no sports,…
This week, I am writing my column about summer reading inside the library. I’d like to say that it is because I am going to cover all of the local summer reading options and the fun Sno-Isle Explore Summer events and I wanted to immerse myself in the environment that I was writing about, but…
All it took was hearing that a friend’s third-grade daughter has been playing basketball in their driveway to get me woozy at the thought of her signing up for a basketball team. I loved playing basketball and being on that particular team in 9th and 10th grade. What is different about my basketball experience and…
The Edmonds School District 2019-2020 Family and Community Calendar was released Friday. This is the one with all the shapes denoting which days are holidays, half-days, teacher conferences, or the snow days we are using all of this year. I print this calendar and post it in the kitchen every year, and while I still…
As a sure sign of summer on deck, we’ve reached the point of the school year where we’re counting the total number of days left — I count 21 1/2 days with the final day of school being a half day on June 26. Another sign is that the Hazel Miller Spray Park at City…
Let’s talk about soccer! Soccer seems to be the gateway sport for a large number of kids. It was the first shot we took at a sport with both of my kids before landing on hockey, and lacrosse and skateboarding respectively. We started out my oldest on Lil’ Kickers and then Kidz Love Soccer, which…
There is so much stuff to do this weekend, it’s hard to know where to start. It’s less of a ‘What is there to do?’ weekend and more of a ‘How much can we fit in?’ kind of weekend. The fun starts on Friday night at the Edmonds Historical Museum with their second Archaeology at…
According to my weather app, the next 10 days will have varying degrees of sun in them and as of today, I don’t see any rain in the forecast. This forecast of 10 days of sun/not rain is just the kind of thing that makes the next bout of rain so annoying. It’s not so…
Spring break and when family come into town are two times we become tourists in the place we live. Being as we had family in town during the beginning of this spring break, we have visited a lot of local places we wouldn’t necessarily see on a regular ol’ weekday/weekend. Since we were in Monroe…
In the times of online reviews, word-of-mouth available social media posts and the “hive mind,” it is easier to make an at least somewhat informed decision when it comes to our kids. Whether it be the interventions or apps recommended in the groups I follow for kids with dyslexia or dysgraphia, to the camps/classes/trips my…
In making plans for the summer, I sometimes slip back into thinking that my pre-child pipe dream of lazy summer days filled with sleeping in, low-maintenance backyard play, and just a little too much TV is the plan. The problem is, the 1980s summer montage that plays in my head is not consistent with our…
At my oldest son’s Quad Concert for band, the high school director announced that the Edmonds School District’s Summer Music School was now open for registration. Admittedly, I had already called them to see when I might be able to register, so I was happy to hear the official word that it was time to…
