The Answer Sheet: Parents


Posted at 09:30 AM ET, 09/24/2011

Parent involvement centers to close for lack of funding
By Valerie Strauss
For 16 years Parent Involvement Resource Centers have helped low-income families, school districts and state governments nurture high-quality parent involvement programs. But more than 60 are now set to close for lack of funding.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:30 AM ET, 09/24/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Parents

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 01/12/2011

How to talk to kids about violence
By Valerie Strauss
High-profile acts of violence can scare and confuse children. Here is advice on how to talk with them about the Arizona shooting rampage.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 01/12/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Parents | Tags:  arizona shooting, gabby giffords, gabrielle giffords, jared lee loughner, loughner, school psychologists, talking to kids about violence, tucson shootings

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 09/01/2010

Why paying parents to attend school events is wrong

By Valerie Strauss
Veteran teacher Larry Ferlazzo writes about two new programs to pay parents to attend school meetings, explaining why this is a bad idea and what schools can do instead to promote parent engagement.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 09/01/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Parents, Parents, Parents | Tags:  daniel pink and drive, larry ferlazzo, parent university, paying parents, paying parents and schools

Posted at 06:26 PM ET, 06/24/2010

Parents fight -- literally -- at kindergarten graduation
By Valerie Strauss
A kindergarten graduation is interrupted in California because parents turn an argument into a physical fight.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:26 PM ET, 06/24/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Parents | Tags:  brawl at graduation, graduation brawl, kindergarten graduation and parents and fight, parents argue at graduation, parents fight at graduation

Posted at 03:00 PM ET, 05/14/2010

California may jail parents if kids are truant
By Valerie Strauss
The California Senate passes a doozy of a bill that would send parents to jail for up to a year if they can't get their kids to school enough of the time. Really.

By Valerie Strauss  |  03:00 PM ET, 05/14/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Parents | Tags:  california considers sending parents to jail, california passes truancy law, california's truancy bill, parents and jail and kids and truancy, senate bill 1317, truancy, truancy and california

Posted at 06:05 AM ET, 05/07/2010

Naval Academy prof wins Maryland parent involvement award
By Valerie Strauss
A U.S. Naval Academic history professor who helped lead an effort to reform two Anne Arundel County middle schools--even though his five children are too young to be middle schoolers--won Maryland’s statewide award for parent involvement. And a Montgomery County parent is one of the finalists.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:05 AM ET, 05/07/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Parents | Tags:  Comcast Parent Involvement Matters Awards, Comcast parent involvement, Maryland and contest and parents, Maryland contest for parents, Naval professor wins award, parent involvement, parent involvement award

Posted at 09:43 AM ET, 01/14/2010

Talk to kids about Haiti tragedy
By Valerie Strauss
Every time there is a massive loss of life somewhere in the world, and pictures are being beamed on television and over the Internet, the question arises about how and when to talk to kids about the tragedy. Today the news is about the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Trying to keep bad news away from children (except especially young ones) is an exercise in futility. Here are some tips about how to address the issue--inside and outside of school--according to the age of the child.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:43 AM ET, 01/14/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Parents, Parents | Tags:  talking to kids about tragedy

Posted at 01:11 PM ET, 01/08/2010

Tread carefully when snow flies

By Valerie Strauss
A few words to those parents who are griping because their kid’s school opened late this morning or was closed for the day: Knock it off. It has become almost a sport among people I know to complain every time the weather turns lousy and school system officials decide that conditions are severe enough to alter the regular school routine. “The snow barely touched the ground,” you might hear.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:11 PM ET, 01/08/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Parents | Tags:  school closures, weather

Posted at 11:00 AM ET, 01/07/2010

Should parents volunteer at affluent schools?

By Valerie Strauss
So a mother writes a blogpost saying that she is sick of volunteering at her sons’ school. Why? Not because she does it too much and nobody says thank you. Because the school is relatively affluent and, thus, parents who volunteer in places like this are ignoring real social problems. AND because schools requests for volunteers most often fall on women and thus are “cavalier about women’s time and worth.” Hmmm.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:00 AM ET, 01/07/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Parents | Tags:  volunteering in school

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 10/22/2009

When do kids need cell phones? Maybe never

By Valerie Strauss
There is no issue that gets me more exercised than the one that currently looms large in the life of my 6th grade daughter, and many of her peers: When is the right time to get a cell phone? My preferred answer is age 16 or 17, when a young person hopefully is mature enough to use a mobile phone properly, independent enough to actually need it and earning enough money at an after-school job to pay for it.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 10/22/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Parents | Tags:  cell phones for kids

Posted at 02:48 PM ET, 10/20/2009

Should teachers tell kids the truth about the Tooth Fairy?

By Valerie Strauss
This actually happened to my editor: It was Sunday morning and his 8-year-old daughter woke up fully expecting the Tooth Fairy to have left a gift. Craig and his wife forgot, and here’s what he said he did: “I panicked, tried to slip a dollar bill into her bed and GOT CAUGHT. Then, of course, I desperately lied, and reasonably well, but suspicion remains...” Afterward, Craig started wondering if he should have come clean at that point.

By Valerie Strauss  |  02:48 PM ET, 10/20/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Parents, Parents | Tags:  Telling the Truth to Kids

Posted at 12:30 PM ET, 10/16/2009

THE LIST: How NOT to Raise Kids
By Valerie Strauss
THE LIST: How NOT To Raise Kids. 1) When you have the chance to drag your three young children into a reality television that is, for example, called “Wife Swap, jump at it! 2) Tell your kids they’re allowed to cuss inside the house but not in public--then let them make a curse-laden rap video and post it on YouTube.....

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:30 PM ET, 10/16/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Parents | Tags:  balloon boy, parenting

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 10/12/2009

Every Parent's Nightmare
By Valerie Strauss
A 5-year-old boy named Gavin Salinas was mistakenly put on the wrong bus at his school in Alexandria and then dropped off, alone, at an unfamiliar stop. Not knowing what to do, he wandered around the streets, crying. Luckily he was returned to his parents unharmed. But Rodney and Taryn Salinas were not satisfied with last Monday’s happy ending. They want to find out who was responsible--and to make sure this never happens again to anybody's child.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 10/12/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Parents | Tags:  Alexandria City Public Schools, boy put on wrong school bus

Posted at 03:22 PM ET, 10/01/2009

Moms: Which Years Would You Like to Stay Home?
By Valerie Strauss
Stay-at-home moms are “more likely than” than working moms to have an infant or preschooler in the house. That piece of information is one of many in new census statistics that my colleague Donna St. George wrote about today in a story about stay-at-home moms in The Washington Post. If you could choose, which years would you stay at home with your kids--when they are young or when they are in older?

By Valerie Strauss  |  03:22 PM ET, 10/01/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Parents | Tags:  Parenting, Stay-at-home moms

Posted at 11:30 AM ET, 09/30/2009

Packing School Lunches for Picky Eaters
By Valerie Strauss
My mother was a magnificent cook invited into the kitchens of the finest chefs in France. Every dinner was a delicious experiment. But she insisted that my two sisters and I eat the lunch served at school. Now I know that my mother didn’t pack us lunches because she didn’t want to. It was too annoying a task.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:30 AM ET, 09/30/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Parents | Tags:  parents, school lunch

Posted at 09:13 AM ET, 09/09/2009

School Fashion Issues Start Early--And Don't Go Away
By Valerie Strauss
When I was in junior high school it seemed that everybody but me had cool Villager skirts and designer shirts. My family went to Sears to buy back-to-school clothes, and I tried to replicate “the look” but it looked like...

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:13 AM ET, 09/09/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Parents | Tags:  Back-to-school clothes, Parentings

Posted at 11:30 AM ET, 09/01/2009

Stop Sending Sick Kids to School
By Valerie Strauss
Let’s have a show of hands: How many of you have sent a child to school when you have suspected (I’m being polite here) that he/she was not well and might be contagious? Maybe it will help if I...

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:30 AM ET, 09/01/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Parents, Parents | Tags:  school work, sick kids, swine flu, teachers

Posted at 12:00 PM ET, 08/31/2009

New Rules for Back- to-School Night

By Valerie Strauss
This really happened: An administrator at a school in Montgomery County welcomed several hundred parents at back-to-school night by relating his extensive experience as an educator and as a soldier. Then he said, “So you can see I am...

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:00 PM ET, 08/31/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Parents, Parents | Tags:  back to school night, parent, teachers