Family

Ae you considering homeschooling your children? While there is more information out there about homeschooling than ever before, you may not know where to start. So let's take a look at homeschooling, from a beginner's perspective.

"Homeschooling" in a legal sense means that one or more children of not more than 2 families are instructed by parents or legal guardians, or a member of either household. The laws that define homeschooling vary from state to state, and country to country.

My toddler walks, climbs, can run faster than me and has eight teeth. She feeds herself with a spoon whenever she is hungry and runs to me for milk whenever she is thirsty.

Yes, milk. Breastmilk. My daughter still nurses and consumes the only milk in the world that is perfectly produced especially for her.

News reports about teenage boys are usually gray, if not outright black, these days. I want to tell the brighter kind of story that does not get much attention from the media. It's about my 16-year-old son and several of his peers.

About 6 years ago, I traveled with a busload of ladies on a trip to Dallas, Texas. While on this trip, I complimented a woman on her lapel pin. It was a tiny set of infant feet. She immediately took it off and said, "Here, I want you to have it."

What do your kids do for fun? If you answer "watch TV" or "play video games," your kids may be facing a serious health challenge, especially later in life. Obesity and inactivity are sharply up among today's children, and while schools are trying to reverse the trends, the real battle is on the home front. You have to get them moving, and you can't depend on your child's school to do it for you.

You have a baby on the way? Congratulations! This is a momentous occasion for more than one reason. According to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, the average middle-income family will spend nearly $300,000 on their child (and that's just one).

Now don't let this get you down. Having a baby is a wonderful thing, and if money were the only issue to consider our population would have slowed considerably already. Obviously, you will need to prepare for the financial impact of having a baby. Here are some things to consider.

My daughter loves doing craft projects. Every day, I hear "Mommy, what can I make today?" Our house is covered with crayon drawings, paintings, collages, paper and felt flowers, sand art, and many other beautiful but space-consuming objects d'art.

School is opening and with it comes the barrage of extra curricular activities. Talent shows. Science projects. Homework. Dance class. Basketball practice. Violin recitals. Book reports. When is enough too much?

A friend of mine tells me her 15-year-old daughter has insisted on participating in almost every extra cirricular activity that came down the pipe. She has become snippy with her siblings and looks tired. I think she knows that she took a large bite this time.

Transforming ordinary clay pots into works of art is fun and easy. One of these projects will work for any child old enough to hold a paintbrush.

You'll need various size terra-cotta pots to begin with. If you use pots you already have, scrub them well so you've got a clean surface on which to design. Different crafts use different additional materials, but a newspaper or other cover keeps your work surface neat.

It begins to creep in slowly and then seems to overtake you--stacks of books, math manipulatives in the bathtub, colored pencils in the silverware drawer. And the papers...ALL of the papers. Your kitchen begins to look like a mad scientist invaded it and you can't find the door to the fridge because of the layers of Art Projects and A+++ reports on "Birds of Prey." (Thank heavens they outgrew that topic!)

I experienced every parent's nightmare when my then-eight-month-old daughter Kymberlie ended up in the Intensive Care Unit at a local hospital for 24 hours. Kymberlie has literally been attached to me since birth, and we were both fortunate to be able to continue attachment parenting while in a hospital environment.