Games you can play as a family with multi-age appeal.
By Nathalie Kunin
Playing games as a family is lots of fun, but sometimes it can be a bit challenging: too many ages, too many instructions, too many parts, takes too long…and parents who are just too tired! Here are 6 games that you can pull off the shelf that combine multi-age appeal, education and just plain old fun! The games are travel-friendly and easy to learn. Only one has a game board, and the others fit in the palm of your hand. All can be played in teams and promote family bonding. (more…)
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, High school athletes account for an estimated 2 million injuries each year. Overuse injuries are responsible for nearly half of all sports injuries to middle and high school students. Since 2000 there has been a fivefold increase in the number of serious shoulder and elbow injuries among youth baseball and softball players.
A day in the life of a tween can be stressful. Keeping up with schoolwork, extracurricular activities and friends are hard enough without having to worry about your skin. Many busy girls come home from school, do their homework, eat dinner and go to sleep without washing their faces before bed. As a result, they can suffer from breakouts and may not know the cause. 
“Something’s gotta give,” Anne ponders after looking at her overwhelming schedule. She has to leave the office by 5 p.m. to pick up her son. Knowing that she can’t fit in everything, Anne cancels her lunch and moves the dentist appointment to tomorrow. She has to rearrange her priorities to make her day work.
When life gets crazy, it’s easy to miss opportunities to nurture our youngest children. In fact, statistics indicate that very few Americans truly understand the impact of a child’s earliest years. In California, the state’s financial commitment to early care and education declines with each successive round of budget cuts.
Total Time: 5 minutes
Marking the beginning of fall, this tasty dish is delicious served both at room temperature and warm. It is not only sweet and savory, but also filled with nutritious ingredients. Couscous is low in fat, filled with protein, potassium, and the antioxidant, selenium. Raisins are fat-free, cholesterol-free, low in sodium, and high in fiber. Butternut squash has fiber, potassium, vitamin B6, and is low in fat, making it a heart-friendly “power food”. 
Getting your children caught up on vaccines before school is extremely important. Starting last year, adolescent vaccinations came into the spotlight with the new requirement for all 7th graders to be up to date on the Tdap (Tetanus and Pertussis) vaccine after the large pertussis outbreak in 2010. There are other vaccines that adolescents should have as well, including the meningococcal vaccine (Menactra or Menveo). 
Slowly, yet ever so surely, a new revolution is emerging in this country as a response to our declining educational outputs. This revolution is being driven by parents who are tired of trying to navigate local school bureaucracies just to get their children a quality education. These parents come from all walks of life and are challenging the education status quo to listen, embrace innovation and be open to change. This new parent voice couldn’t come at a better time.