I have great news for the toddlers you live with – Word Party is back! I have awful news for you adults who tend to those toddlers – Word Party is back. That’s right, Jim Henson’s most cursed content returned, slapping us all in the maw with its cuteness as it made its jubilant (far, far too jubilant) season 5 premiere on Netflix, March 2nd.If you aren’t familiar with the program, let me break it down for you: human toddler-aged animals clad in diapers, sleep, eat, play, and bicker as dictated by one Clickety Clack, a clock with a face who is their god. Once every ten minutes, they learn a new word, a confetti cannon goes off, and there...
The children are up in our business as we try to make dinner. Normally, they’d be downstairs in the family room watching Netflix. But tech, particularly tech with screens, has been banned in my house for parents and kids alike. And that means the children are under our feet — whining, arguing with one another, asking questions. It feels wildly claustrophobic, which was not what I’d expected when our analog week started.Don’t get me wrong. I knew that our devices and screens were really good at creating distance. My wife and I have long used the television to tether our two boys to another room so we could get things done without being hounded. But I also understood that cell...
I recently shared this DIY polkadot wall project I did in the boys’ new shared bedroom on socials but I thought I’d include here with a step by step too. It was so super easy and as a non-crafty/creative person, I was quite proud and smug with myself afterwards. If I can do it, anyone can! Charlie and Seb loved it and thought Mum was really clever! I do like to keep the boys’ bedrooms quite classic and calm as they have all the colour and all the toys in their playroom (where would this neat freak mum be without that?!) but I loved the idea of this fun paint feature on one wall, especially as it’s the one they...
The following was written for The Fatherly Forum, a community of parents and influencers with insights about work, family, and life. If you’d like to join the Forum, drop us a line at TheForum@Fatherly.com.More On Parenting And The 2016 Presidential Election: Special Report: How Parents Feel About The 2016 Election How To Explain Political Ads To Kids During This Crazy Presidential Election I’m A Parent And Here’s Why I’m Voting For Donald Trump A Cheat Sheet Of All The Presidential Candidates’ Family-Specific Policies We’re watching the Republican National Convention on the night of Donald Trump’s big acceptance speech. We’re into politics, our family. We watch the debates, the big speeches, the inaugurations. We talk about policy and campaigns at the dinner table,...
Though he’s 16 years old and a new California Baptist University graduate, Michael Friederang won’t call himself a “genius.” “I’m a visual learner. I don’t even know if I have an ‘above average’ memory,” said the Corona teenager, who graduated from the private Riverside university Wednesday, May 4, with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. “I’m good at connecting the dots, I would say.” The teen’s next stop is the Chemistry Department at UC Riverside, where he will pursue his doctorate — with a quarter-million-dollar scholarship — starting in fall. Michael Friederang isn’t the only high achiever in his family. California Baptist University graduate Michael Friederang, 16, center, and sister, Eliza, 11, pose with their parents, Michelle and Steve Friederang, after...
