Tag: Family & Education

Our Screens Unite and Divide US

By Lori Borgman From Tribune News Service Every day my inbox fills with emails from public relations firms, angling for a plug for an author’s book or a new study on children. I delete most of them as quickly as they appear, but I nearly always read the ones on youth and mental health. Suffice…


Moral Tales for Children From McGuffey’s Readers: Castle-Building

This is the fifth instalment in our McGuffey Readers series, in which we reproduce some of the best moral tales from the classic 1800s schoolbooks that sold an estimated 122 million copies by 1960, the largest circulation of any book in the world next to the Bible and Webster’s Dictionary. McGuffey’s Readers played an important…


Today’s Kids Have No Idea What They’re Missing

By John Rosemond From Tribune News Service I grew up in the “You’re Making a Mountain of a Molehill” era, also known as the Age of “Children Are Starving in (fill in the blank with some remote place),” and by golly, I’m a better person for it! First, some historical context: I am a baby…


Meet Ryan Zurn, a 10-Year-Old Baseball Announcer

By Eric Sondheimer From Los Angeles Times Los Angeles– The young voice on the public address system at La Mirada High baseball games makes you turn your head to see if the voice matches the person. It does. Ryan Zurn, the 10-year-old son of head coach Jimmy Zurn, handles the job with the professionalism of…


Due Date Is Looming for Grandmother’s Hand-Stitched Quilt for Her First Grandchild

By Debra-Lynn B. Hook From Tribune News Service I am an over-the-moon, first-time grandmother-to-be who can’t seem to do what many have done before me. That is, make the baby a quilt. The baby’s 89-year-old great-grandmother made one. By hand. She apparently sat in front of the TV for weeks and stitched together dozens of…


The Joys and Amusements of Old Age

Amusement is rarely a word associated with aging. After all, the great majority of those who have passed their three-score-and-ten years face physical ailments, declining mental powers, and the certainty that they are sailing ever closer to the end of life. Though a relative newbie to this milestone, I find myself fitting right in with…


Paying It Forward Helps to Build a Better Brain

By Barton Goldsmith Tribune News Service   We are all being made much more aware of how we have to exercise our brains to keep them in shape for the long term. Many people do puzzles like crosswords and sudoku, but I have a suggestion for another means of brain building that will make your…


Creating a Homeschool Portfolio

Even though my two kids are grown and have long since graduated from our humble homeschool, the memories and experiences play vividly in my mind like cherished home movies. That’s why I’m so thankful we created portfolios for our kids each year. Whether or not you live in a state or region that requires a…


How One Teacher’s Time Capsules Are Inspiring Students to Treasure Memories of Their Childhood

The last few weeks of school can be brutal if you let them. For me, they were my favorite time of the year. They were a time of nostalgia, a time to tie up loose ends, a time to look back, and a time to make memories that last forever. The unsaid truth about the…


Music to My Years

By Jerry Zezima Tribune News ServiceTribune News Service When I think of the legendary concerts in music history — the Beatles at Shea Stadium in New York City; Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and other rock giants at Woodstock; me as the guest triangle player for the Stamford Symphony Orchestra — the one I remember as the…