Basketball, Legos and Oz: 17 Winter Break Camps in Greater Seattle

You’ve noticed that Christmas and New Year’s fall on Tuesdays this year — fairly fuben, as our friends across the Pacific might say. (That’s Japanese for “inconvenient,” folks.) Nevertheless, parents need to work and kids need to get their rainy winter wiggles out. Fortunately, our regional camp pro

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15 Thanksgiving Crafts and Activities for Kids

Thanksgiving Harvest Royalty Got a house full of young harvest royals? (Don't we all?) Check out MADE's fun idea for making harvest crowns with your kids. They're quick and easy, yet'll offer plenty of creative play! Fabricate your crowns with poster board, fake leaves (or real, perhaps!), and an

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Play Nice! Bullying, Playground Politics and How to Help Kids Make Friends

On the first day of preschool, Issaquah mom Megan Thomas watched as her 4-year-old son, Aiden, tried to make friends. He was “the new boy” — most of the children in his class had been together the previous year. For nearly a month, Aiden was left out during free play time. “He brought it up with my

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Tween 'Tudes: Five Bad Habits We Could Live Without

Psychologist G. Stanley Hall famously described the teenage years as a “storm.” But the teen tempest is foreshadowed by some early storm warnings during the tween years: unsettling new behaviors such as blatant eye rolling, public back talk and peer worship. These wearing attitudes darken the horizo

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The ABCs of Tutoring Success for Kids and Families in Greater Seattle

Whether your child needs support this school year to improve his or her grades, master a new subject or prepare to take the SAT, finding the right tutoring resource, at a fee you can afford, can be a challenge. Here are tips from experts on what’s available in services, how to shop different options

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Five Easy Questions: What You Should Ask Before the Sleepover

There were few things I treasured more than spending an overnight (they weren’t called “sleepovers” in those days) at the home of close family friends. After all, I’d practically grown up alongside their daughter. Together, we’d enjoyed beach days, tree-climbing expeditions and countless games of te

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20 Halloween Lunch Ideas for Kids

  Kooky Spooky Characters Lian Mama Obento features this fun idea for making a Halloween "haunted house" bento box lunch -- with all of the well-known Halloween haunters included! This charming confection is made out of an onion bagel with cream cheese and a hot dog slice for the front door. (Th

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Really scary! How to Handle All That Halloween Candy

Every Halloween, your children drag home huge bags of candy, and you wonder: How much should I let them eat? What should I do with the rest? And how can I protect their teeth? Joel Berg, Ph.D., chairman of the University of Washington’s Department of Pediatric Dentistry, says kids should only eat c

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