Few afternoons are as fun as the ones when my kids bring home the Scholastic Books Catalogue from school, its pages colorful and bright, boasting all the books they have yet to read, all the posters and prizes and spy kits they do not yet own, all of the things they also need to get for their siblings as early birthday gifts. And by “fun,” I mean, really

The first time I had a friend sleep over in high school (after years of not being allowed to have sleepover company), I remember being nervous that we would run out of things to say. For some reason, I thought you had to talk every possible moment of time together, a pause would be too awkward, and so I talked, straight, until we went to sleep. “You’re so

My back hurt from hunching over to secure the bike. It was my second evening, running back and forth along the road with my five-year-old daughter, and it was the most exercise I had gotten all summer. I wiped the sweat off my head with the back of my hand, and begged to take a break. “Run with me, mommy!” she pleaded, and, after a moment

One of the biggest challenges facing my clients–and quite frankly, most of us–is time management. Family time is often the area that suffers and needs the most attention and adjustment. Spending time with one’s family is essential. It is in these moments that we share ideas and feelings, note upcoming events and, most importantly, model

“Mommy! Mommy! Can you check if my frog is dead?” my daughter bursts through the front door, ignoring the fact that I am talking to a vis­itor, and has a look of sheer panic on her face. “It’s like this!” she says, and tips her head to the side at an odd angle, her tongue dangling out of her mouth. It doesn’t take a near-death-ex­perience of a

My kids are tense. They huddle on the floor, in a corner of the family room, trying to focus on a game of Monopoly, but there are loud booms every few minutes that shake the house and make the lights flicker. They look up at me, searching for the silent reassurance that everything is okay, that this is okay—that the violent thunderstorm will pass.

There is an

I once had a student who after spending a year studying in yeshi­va in Israel came back to visit. We discussed how his year had gone and he described that it was very successful, he felt really inspired. In par­ticular there was one sefer that really impact­ed him.

“Rabbi,” he said, “you know you should re­ally learn this with your students; it’s an

I do not believe in words at times like these, and so I remained silent. I listened to the news, for five minutes? Ten minutes? An hour?

I do not believe in understanding at times like these. And so I did not try to grasp it, or to comprehend what it could possibly mean.

Only 24 hours ago I heard the words of our boys’

The rate at which children learn lan­guage varies substantially from child to child. Some children show rapid vocabulary growth before they go to school, while others learn so slowly that they can end up six months to a year behind their peers.

Surely this doesn’t really matter, does it? We all learn to speak well enough eventually, so we could be

It’s that time of year again, the time where we are forced to spend hours of our lives at­tending scintillating graduations. Some are more boring than others; some have speeches, some have songs, some have the painfully shy kid who can’t face the crowd. Well, most graduations that I go to have this kid, because it is usually my own.

Which is why I was

Here’s a pretty common scenario: Your child comes home from school. You ask him, “Who did you play with today?” The answer you often get is, “Nobody.” Before you panic, thinking your child has no friends, and that the answer always seems to be the same, take a step back, and think about the following: Your child may need a while to unwind after a long school

I hope I am not stoned for saying this, but I really like snow days. I have waited to make this confession until spring has arrived to not anger those people who are outdoors, knee-deep with a snow shovel, or home with kids who are going stir crazy. Or those who have baked so many cookies, the only flour left in the house is a thin dusting coating every