a peek inside the fishbowl

At what age should a child be taught how to slice a banana? It’s something I found myself thinking about as I was chatting with Pat Gere, the director at OMS Montessori. Studies show that kids crave and thrive when given age-appropriate responsibilities, yet we find ourselves in a society that is becoming increasingly fearful of kids walking […]

I’ve had cause to think a lot about Our Central Tenets of Parenting lately. I should have a list of Central Tenets written down somewhere, but since I don’t, I will mention two for now: 1) We encourage our children to try new things. 2) We encourage our children to explore their options. Number one is […]

It’s Valentine’s Day, and we woke up to the sound of a squirrel desperately trying to gnaw its way out through our rafters. The bad news is that it was trapped in there for a couple of days. The good news is that it has been removed. Still alive. But I shudder to think about […]

Before I launch in to this post I need to state for the record that I am (a) tapping this out on the Chromebook pictured above at my neighborhood Bridgehead and (b) it was sent to me with no strings attached via Staples Canada and as always, my opinions are my own. If you follow […]

Someone here at Casa Fishbowl is starting ninth grade tomorrow. I am pretty excited for her. The parent orientation day took place back in January so I’ve had a few months to get accustomed to the idea. There was a tour of the building, and lots of great information to bring home and consider. The […]