Aunties everywhere now have a wonderful book to check out on how to be the coolest aunt in the world! Melanie Notkin, founder of www.savvyauntie.com, has a new book, released last week, called “Savvy Auntie The Ultimate Guide for Cool Aunts, Great-Aunts, Godmothers and All Women Who Love Kids” (William Morrow, $24.99, ISBN 9780061999970). What…
Monica Singh Haley knows a bit about keeping people happy. She ran the 60-person animation department on the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. And she’s a mother of two. Released yesterday, Haley’s new company, Happy Apps (www.thehappyapps.com), uses Eastern knowledge to assist us frenetic Westerners. Her father, a native of India, helped influence her interest…
The statistics are staggering – a recent study from the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that millions of American 4th graders cannot read at their grade-level proficiency. Why is that? Are our teachers bad? Are we using the wrong methods to teach reading? Maybe it’s because so many kids make it through their early…
If King Charlemagne were alive today, he’d be happy. One of his dreams was to connect Amsterdam with the Black Sea via the river-ways. He would have had to wait a while. The river systems were finally all connected in 1999. From that, a new way to travel has risen in popularity – river cruising….
While Family First likes to stress how to stay together better as a family, the inevitable does happen. A commonly quoted statistic suggests 50% of all marriages will dissolve, with subsequent marriages failing even more often. Interestingly, during recessions, divorce rates actually decrease as folks stick it out during tough financial times. If divorce does…
Have you ever found yourself saying “That’s a classy lady” or “He’s one classy guy?” What does that mean exactly? Don’t we all hope to be described that way? Don’t we want our children to know what that mean too? Etiquette and communications expert Gloria Starr can tell us what it means. “What you do…
When medical bills, lay-offs and furloughs hit Sarah Cook’s house, she turned the family’s “belt-tightening” into some great life lessons for her kids. Cook is the founder of Raising CEO Kids and the mother of three young entrepreneurs. Each of her children have figured out ways to bring in some extra money for themselves while…
Between the computer, television, your cell phone or smartphone and all the other media you observe each day, have you ever thought about what portion of your life all that actually consumes? Admit it – you’re playing with your kids’ game players too sometimes… What about your kids? Do they have a cell phone, computer…
Tony Little spent last year’s Christmas in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with his month-old sons, Chase and Cody, who were born extremely premature. This year, the one-year-old boys are home and getting stronger every day. Little is ready for holidays home with his family because, like so many things in his life, he…
It’s hard to believe our modern-day Christmas traditions are really fairly young, relative to the modern settlement of our country, when you walk through the aisles of your local discount store and see the breadth of all the decorations and gift ideas. The Puritans who helped found this country didn’t think excessive celebration was appropriate….