Recent Articles
Mom's passion is working with teens
Christina Conte remembers the eye-opening discovery she made when her daughter entered her teen years. "I was shocked to see how little respect teens receive in our country and how intimidating they are to most adults," Conte says. So Conte, a self-employed advertising and design art director
Read More »Organizations teach teens how to protect planet
Gig Harbor mom of four Victoria Purnell has a teenager who truly wants to save the world. Her 13-year-old daughter Nicky is obsessed with helping animals and protecting the environment, and Purnell has begun the process of looking for organizations that will help her daughter translate her idealism
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Creating a family spirit of giving
The kids are making their wish lists and checking them twice -- to the tune of hints, cajoling or outright whining. Whether they celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanza, for many children, the holidays can easily be all about the loot. Meanwhile, their parents may find themselves wondering if they'r
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Wisdom Commons: a sprout from Seeds of Compassion
As parents, we want our children to be happy. We want them to achieve great things. But we also want them to be good people. We want to be as proud of their kindness, generosity and integrity as we are of their achievements. How do we help them get there? Moral development Research shows us
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Is compassion catching on? Tracing the impact of a historic event
Fifteen-hundred children jump to their feet, clapping wildly and screaming with joyous abandon. The floor shakes; the walls of KeyArena seem to expand with electric energy. At the heart of this whirlwind, his image projected on the jumbotron overhead, stands an elderly monk in maroon robes. He is be
Read More »The greening of our schools
Throughout the Puget Sound area, school colors — whether orange and blue, purple and gold or red and white — are gradually becoming green. At home, kids put paper, glass, plastic bottles and cans into their specified containers without a thought. Some even haul the big green bin out t
Read More »Giving back with your tween
On Saturdays, when many tweens can be found on soccer fields, plugged into their iPods or playing with video games, 12-year-old Nick Hall, his 7-year-old sister, Robin, and his mom, Jennifer Thames, are out restoring an urban forest in the West Duwamish Greenbelt with other volunteers. Thames got
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Taking Treehouse to School
When 9-year-old James was removed from his home last summer, he had just enough time to toss his stuffed monkey, a pair of pajamas and a few days’ worth of clothing into a plastic garbage bag. He left everything else behind. As the new school year approached, James needed everything — from clothing
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