Jewish Parenting

Columns

Perfect Chanukah gift for kids?

Sharon Duke Estroff -
As every parent and grandparent knows, kids have an incredible tolerance for repetition. They can watch the same Phineas and Ferb episode again and again without flinching; they’d happily consume waffles and French fries three meals a day....
Columns

Teaching your kids about money

Sharon Duke Estroff -
WHEN my son was in first grade, he told me he wanted a Wii game console for his birthday. “Jake,” I replied, intent on giving my son perspective on how much his request would cost, “do you realize that...
Columns

First day of kindergarten

Sharon Duke Estroff -
Preparing a child for the first day of kindergarten is among the most bittersweet tasks of our parental careers. But wistfully tracking down the coolest Batman or Barbie backpack on the market is only a fraction of the...
Columns

Power Tools — helping kids cope with terror

Sharon Duke Estroff -
It was a tough week on the news ticker for parents. First came the heinous attack on an Israeli tour bus in Bulgaria, followed only days later by the incomprehensible tragedy in Colorado. Questions of how to talk to our...
Columns

Send homesickness packing this summer

Sharon Duke Estroff -
IT’S a situation as sticky as a freshly roasted marshmallow. Your child, who’s been looking forward to attending overnight camp since you signed her up this fall, suddenly develops a case of cold feet. She’s no longer buzzing...
Columns

Making sense of your child’s test scores

Sharon Duke Estroff -
Coloring inside the lines didn’t carry high stakes when we were kids.  But for our children — growing up in the era of No Child Left Behind – coloring in ovals with #2 pencils is a primary means...
Columns

A Jewish Mother’s Day confession

Sharon Duke Estroff -
WHEN I was eight, I had names picked out for all of my future offspring (a dozen baby girls). At 13 I had my own babysitting business. After grad school, I was teaching a class full of fourth-graders....
Columns

Raising resilient kids: A Purim lesson

Sharon Duke Estroff -
WHAT is causing 21st-century kids to morph into what researchers have called “bubbles apt to burst at the slightest smattering of adversity”? Experts believe the answer lies among millions of well-meaning parents positioning themselves as human shields between their...
Columns

Must our kids shoot 3-pointers?

Sharon Duke Estroff -
A FEW years back, I had an epiphany in the JCC bleachers. It was the playoffs in the second grade basketball league, and I was having a hard time concentrating on the game because of all the yelling...
Columns

Age-old parenting lessons for new school year

Sharon Duke Estroff -
The back-to-school season is, for all intents and purposes, a period of pure parental mayhem. From tracking down the coolest Batman or Barbie backpack on the block to searching out that elusive five subject, wide-ruled, perforated spiral notebook...
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Latest News

IntermountainSteve Mark -

Professionally Speaking: Eliav Bock, Ramah of the Rockies

It is lunchtime at Ramah in the Rockies, which is considered a sacred time for its camp director. Only a phone call from the supplier of a commercial vacuum cleaner can tear Rabbi Eliav Bock away from his campers. “We just got it, and it’s not the right thing,” says Bock.