Saturday, February 26, 2011
Borders is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. E-books are revolutionizing the publishing industry. Regardless of how it all shakes out, good storytelling is the real legacy we should pass along to our kids.
I have always loved books. I get lost in them. I can spend hours on the couch absorbed in a story, or sink into my pillow and read until the wee hours of the morning. It was my daughter who deepened my love of reading. She was born the year Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was published. I was alone during my pregnancy and read a lot of books during those months, including Harry Potter. When I learned that J.K. Rowling was also a single mother and penned Sorcerer's Stone in a coffee shop while her infant daughter napped in a baby carriage – that was it. I was hooked. Years later I read to my daughter until she was able to read independently, and her grade school teachers have continued to foster her love of books. Reading is an …
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Hedda Sharapan carries on TV legend's legacy with upcoming Winnetka workshop on kids and anger.
When my 10-year-old confides in me about a bad day at school or asks me to help her sort out her angry or hurt feelings, it’s easy to forget her much younger years when communication was esoteric and challenging at best. During those years I often joked that I felt like Rain Man’s mother. Toddlers and preschoolers are just starting to process language and are “me”-centric, and it’s impossible to communicate with them in a linear or logical way. Instead, you have to get inside of your child's world and find your way around. I didn’t always do that successfully, but I was fortunate to have good daycare providers who used simple techniques to encourage healthy emotional patterns among the kids in their care. I learned a lot from observing …
42.108306
-87.73257
Winnetka Community House
620 Lincoln Ave, Winnetka, IL
/articles/lessons-from-mister-rogers-coming-to-your-neighborhood
1704198
/locations/3165458
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Getting organized in the New Year? Want to learn how to cook everything? Yeah, there’s an app for that.
As much as I love computers and gadgets, I’m kind of a neophyte with my iPhone. Other than texting out-of-state friends, sending email and making calls, I don’t use it much. This is where apps come in. A well-designed app (application abbreviated) is a delight, especially when it makes life easier. There are hundreds of useful apps for parents out there, too many to cover in a few paragraphs. Below are my personal top five. I use them regularly, sometimes daily, for things like managing my home, assigning chores, cooking and shopping. They range in price from free to $4.99. HomeRoutines Price: $4.99 | Free version: No One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to get organized, and this app is helping me meet that goal. The idea behind it is …
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
The magazine apologized for and swiftly corrected an inadvertent omission of Avoca District 37. New to the survey this year is an efficiency rating.
North Shore school districts topped the Cook County list in Chicago Magazine's Best Elementary Schools survey this year. Nine area schools, two in Glenview, took positions in the top 10 while several others claimed slots in the top 20, out of 500 in the county. Chicago Magazine publishes the Best Elementary Schools list, which examines schools in the City of Chicago and its collar counties every few years. The last ranking was published in 2006. To determine rankings, magazine staff review and analyze three key criteria: Illinois Standards Achievement Test scores (ISATs), student/teacher ratios, and instructional spending per student. When the story was first published in Chicago Magazine's October issue, the two schools in Avoca District …
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-87.751459
Carleton Washburne School
515 Hibbard Rd, Winnetka, IL
/articles/north-shore-rules-cook-countys-elementary-schools
1286168
/locations/2228127
42.106293
-87.745987
The Skokie School
520 Glendale Ave, Winnetka, IL
/articles/north-shore-rules-cook-countys-elementary-schools
1286167
/locations/2228128
42.098661
-87.721791
Greeley School
275 Fairview Ave, Winnetka, IL
/articles/north-shore-rules-cook-countys-elementary-schools
1286165
/locations/2228129
42.10113
-87.746639
Crow Island School
1112 Willow Rd, Winnetka, IL
/articles/north-shore-rules-cook-countys-elementary-schools
1286164
/locations/2228130
42.136756
-87.775094
Glencoe West School
1010 Forestway Dr, Glencoe, IL
/articles/north-shore-rules-cook-countys-elementary-schools
1287281
/locations/2228131
42.131453
-87.759507
Glencoe Central School
620 Greenwood Ave, Glencoe, IL
/articles/north-shore-rules-cook-countys-elementary-schools
1287283
/locations/2228132
Monday, October 11, 2010
Some local parents ask for donations to local charities in lieu of birthday gifts. Here are a few tips on how to incorporate this into your party planning.
My daughter has been to a lot of birthday parties since she was in preschool. One that's always stood out in my mind is the birthday of one of her second-grade classmates. The celebration itself was a lot of fun. It was at Georgia Nut Company (which just changed locations from Glenview to Skokie Oct. 1). The kids learned how to make chocolate pizzas and other confections and got to bring all of their creations home. What was different about this party was the note on the invitation: Please bring a grocery bag of food donations in lieu of a gift. I'd never seen anything like it before, but I thought it was a wonderful idea. Now more than ever, with widespread reports of the languishing and sometimes worsening economy, a gift to a nonprofit…
Monday, October 4, 2010
Patch columnist Katy Heider talks to Nell Minow about her roots in Glencoe, her love of movies and her approach to her movie reviews.
Most of us know Nell Minow as the "Movie Mom" from her call-in segments on WGN AM 720's Nick Digilio's radio show. More than just a movie maven, she is the eldest daughter of Newton Minow, FCC Chairman under John F. Kennedy, and has had an accomplished legal career in her own right. She is Editor and Co-founder of the Corporate Library in addition to keeping a movie review blog, which she started as a personal web page in 1995 before the word "blog" had even entered the lexicon. A Glencoe native, she lives in Washington, D.C. with husband and high school sweetheart David Apatoff. Nell has fond memories of growing up in the area, from the Vernon Avenue playground that her parents and neighbors petitioned the Village to build in the 1950s, …
Monday, September 27, 2010
Local mom, author Diane Falanga talks about her first book, 'P.S. I Hate It Here! Kids' Letters From Camp.'
Diane Falanga's first book, P.S. I Hate It Here! Kids' Letters From Camp, is more than just a collection of letters. It weaves a tapestry of shared experiences: the initial homesick hours and days at a "sleepaway camp." It's also about children putting pen to paper and reaching out to Mom and Dad in a raw moment. It's about parents saving precious and often humorous mementos of their kids' early years. "Why do we save camp letters?" Falanga asked. "Because we know at the time they're precious but also because they're often the only handwritten communication we have from our children, especially in this day and age of instant messaging, e-mail and tweeting." Falanga's daughter, Bianca, was the original source of inspiration for the book …
