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Family Fun: First Sundays with Ybike at Picnic at the Presidio
So, not only is Off the Grid’s Picnic at the Presidio every Sunday the most fun you might have all summer…but did you know the YMCA is there every first Sunday (as in, this upcoming Sunday Update:...
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650 Square Feet and a Baby: My Tips For Managing the Toy Situation in a One...
One of the most consistent warnings people gave us when we were expecting and adamant that we were staying in our one bedroom apartment was: just wait til you see how much stuff babies need. pssst,...
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Picky Eaters and a Connection with Anxiety
The tale of the picky toddler is a pretty familiar one, with parents nearly always blamed for caving into their toddler’s demands for cheese sticks and crackers. But, as Rachel Rabkin Peachman wrote...
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Friday Link Roundup: Holy Corruption Scandal, San Francisco (and Cute Dresses)
What an exciting week. Bean tested out preschool this week, and I’m not sure there is anything like the first time you witness your baby acting like a school kid. Did she just grab her lunch box,...
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Montessori Tableware for Toddlers & Preschoolers
Practicing Montessori at home takes on a whole new dimension once you get to the dinner table. In “Montessori From the Start,” Paula Polk Lillard and Lynn Lillard Jessen stress the importance of using...
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How to Get Sand Off a Baby: The Baby Powder Trick
Have you all heard about the baby powder trick at the beach? With this heat wave, we’ve practically been treating San Francisco like an overgrown beach town. What else is a populous to do when it’s...
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More Lessons From a Montessori Teacher: When to Intervene in Child’s Play
Every week, I walk out of our parent & child Montessori class with multiple tools to make our at-home life easier and more peaceful. A few weeks ago, the teacher shared her primary rule for a...
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Toy of the Week: Color Mixing with Medicine Droppers
This has been quite the hit around here this week. I actually introduced it last week, and Bean ended up in a puddle of toddler frustration, and then it sat on our shelves for a few days. She had no...
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Friday Link Roundup: SF Crime is Way Up and Pasta Shape 101
How are you all celebrating the last weekend of August? Dave and I will be mattress shopping (fun!) and will probably go to the beach at least once. Because we’ve spent practically every weekend at...
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650 Sq Ft and a Baby: Where Does the Baby Sleep?
With San Francisco rents through the roof, I’m seeing more and more friends and acquaintances having babies in one bedroom apartments. You would not believe how common this has become. Moving into...
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650 Sq Ft and a Baby: How Will We Deal With a Stroller in a 3rd Floor Walk Up??
Becoming a parent is all about suddenly having to figure out a lot of logistics. Basically from the time the kid is born, you are thrust into extreme problem solving mode. And, you know, you...
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Cooking With Toddlers: Outfitting the Toddler Kitchen
Once you’ve decided that, yes, this whole cooking with toddler thing is for me, and the kiddo seems to enjoy it and I only get panic attacks about every other time now…then it’s time to get...
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Handling Birthday Parties and Social Situations With a Food...
As Bean became more mobile and her first birthday approached, an odd panic set in: What are we going to do with her at birthday parties?? Or communal snacks at toddler classes?? Or if another...
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The Crazed Toddler-Life Feedback Loop
On a walk with a friend the other day, she laughingly and exasperatedly told me about her crazed morning with her (energetic, love-hungry) dog. She was sick, her dog responded by leaning heavily...
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When the Teachers are Right: Separation Anxiety Edition
I’m feeling good today, y’all. Sometimes, as life is in the process of happening, I don’t want to write about it because…I don’t know how it’ll turn out. We started Bean in a preschool two months...
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The Montessori Mobile Progression: Age 0 to 17 weeks
One of the most fun things we did with Newborn Bean was the Montessori Mobile Progression. We had read about it in Montessori From the Start, and “from the start” rang true, as the progression begins...
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How Montessori is Different
Friends often ask me what exactly is Montessori? Most people have an idea of a Montessori classroom, with the trays and a pink tower and other assorted Montessori materials. And maybe they’ve seen...
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Halloween, Food Intolerances, and Urban Trick or Treating: What Worked for Us...
As Halloween approached this year, I had less and less of an idea about what to do about the intersection of Bean’s food intolerances and Halloween. Last year, at 1.5 years old, she had enough fun...
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Our Favorite Rainy Day Books, 2015
Rain has become even more important to California this year, and with a possible approaching El Nino, I’ve been trying to teach Bean about the importance of water, and what she might expect once it...
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Do You Let Your Kids Spit Out Food?
I realize that’s a totally random and odd question to ask. But, it’s one of my favorite unintuitive pieces of advice from Ellyn Satter. In “How to Get Your Kid to Eat, But Not Too Much,” Ms. Satter...
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