Author Archives: Michelle Icard
March 9, 2012
How to Handle Homework One Bite at a Time
My daughter, ER, started middle school this year. As a result I am having a lot of “physician, heal thyself” moments. Having spent the last 9 years of my life working with middle schoolers I have literally written the a book on how to help kids navigate the middle school social scene. Housing a real, live middle schooler under my very roof is at times easier than I imagined and at other times more surprising than I can believe. I would say 90% of the time all is well. But when that meltdown monster rears its ugly head, it’s quite a thing. And believe me, it isn’t always the middle schooler who’s melting down around here.
ER is a hard worker and, much like her mom, a wee bit anal retentive. She likes to be in control and she does not like to be told what to do. I’m not telling you anything she doesn’t already say about herself.
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March 2, 2012
How to Set Up an iTunes Allowance
Imagine this: Your son received an iTunes gift card for Christmas and redeemed part of it on a couple Hot Chelle Rae songs and some fighting apps, leaving the remainder of the gift card balance on the computer (where else?), at which point your daughter bought a Taylor Swift album with the remainder of his gift card. Now imagine a giant, mushroom shaped cloud.
Anyone who has multiple iTunes users in their home knows how difficult it can be to keep track of who bought what on which gift card, and that this can in fact, lead to colossal fights.
February 17, 2012
My Response to Facebook Parenting: For The Troubled Teen
I can’t stop thinking about the newly viral You Tube video posted by Tommy Jordan, entitled Facebook Parenting: For the Troubled Teen. You can watch it below if you haven’t seen it.
So many parents have jumped on this guy’s bandwagon and are responding to his video with verbal “pats on the back” and accolades for being a great dad.
What?!
We can all agree that this teen’s behavior was rude, offensive, and punishable.
I hope we also agree that sometimes our kids can drive us to the brink of insanity and that we might have irrational and outrageous reactions to having our buttons pushed.
Categories:
raising children, Tweens & Teens
February 10, 2012
Dear Mom of a Soon-To-Be or Right-in-The-Thick-Of-It Middle Schooler,
Dear Mom of a Soon-To-Be or Right-in-The-Thick-Of-It Middle Schooler,
For the past 8 years I’ve worked closely with kids in 5th – 8th grade, giving them tools to handle the new, complicated social world of middle school.
From one mom to another, I know understanding this new social scene can be hard for you, too, as you learn to navigate when to “step in” and when to “step out” of your child’s social life.
Have you noticed, kids not only grow up so fast these days, they do it in the weirdest places? Hallways, busses, bathrooms, online…pretty much anywhere you’re not…these are the places where your child will have to make hard decisions about doing the right thing. Wouldn’t it be nice if you knew they had a foolproof process for solving their own problems, so even when you can’t be there your child would have no problem making smart and safe decisions?
February 3, 2012
The Bruce Irons Camp Fund
A while ago I wrote a blog about hearing Geoffrey Canada speak and many people responded by asking “but what can we do?”
If you live in Charlotte, I highly suggest you volunteer your time, and/or make a donation, to the Bruce Irons Camp Fund.
Bruce Irons was a principal at Eastover Elementary who “was deeply committed to the belief that all children should have equal access to educational opportunities and resources, and was always most concerned for those who had the least.” Bruce and his wife frequently spent their own money to send low-income students to summer camps. When Bruce passed away too young, friends and community members longed to help his widow, Edith. She simply asked that they carry on Bruce’s legacy by sending a kid to camp. In 1988, the camp fund was established in his name.
