Can Food be “Toxic”?
“Toxic” is such an overused word these days. Yet it’s hard not to slap it on anything mildly unpleasant because it’s so […]
Learning to Read Aloud While Reading to Young Children
Most schools of recent decades noticeably lack preparation in public speaking. Attending an event at which average, college-educated adults are called upon […]
A “Mama Sabbath” for Rediscovering Joy
In her book A Mother’s Rule of Life, Holly Pierlot offers practical suggestions for bringing order to life with small children. Rather […]
Making Bread and the Small Marvels of Homemaking
It is an everyday miracle to make sourdough bread. From water, flour, a little salt, and natural yeast growing quietly in a […]
The Simplicity of Distance
Caryll Houselander includes in her mesmerizing illustrations of My Path to Heaven a mountain on which a child climbs stairways to be […]
Practically Speaking: To Reclaim Order Begin with the Kitchen Sink
In the vicissitudes of life, there are patterns of accumulating order and destruction at play in every stage. Forever forward progress in […]
Teaching By Example: Does it Actually Work?
Childrearing is often treated in our culture as a competitive sport. Parents become overinvolved coaches running drills. The relationship between parent and […]
Surprisingly good life advice from child predators
Some social groups seem less likely to offer sound principles for living the good life than others. High on the list of […]
Common sense and sense experience
The socially acceptable posture in life these days is perpetual waiting: waiting for the relevant studies to emerge before making a decision. […]
The indulgence of self-loathing and William Blake’s “mind-forg’d manacles”
Recognizing oneself as inadequate and unsatisfactory has an appealing allure of maturity and self-awareness, but it is childish indulgence. Everyone knows people […]