It seems like not that long ago, my main concerns for my son were potty training and preschool. Suddenly, he’s in middle school, and time is marching forward faster than I can say “SATs, anyone?”

College costs are marching along, too—upward. And parents need to be prepared, says Ron Goldner, a fee-based financial planner with Wealth Strategies Group, Inc. in Memphis, Tennessee.

A 529 plan can help, he says. And while these are tough financial times, even a $25- or $50-per-month contribution can add up to a nice college nest egg over the years, thanks to compounding of interest.

Looking for an easy-to-understand guide to 529 plans? Check out my article over at MetroFamily magazine. To write this piece, I had to make sure I understood this whole thing myself. So I brought it down to the basics. It’s really not as intimidating as the boring term “529 Plan” would make it seem. Check it out, then pick the plan that’s right for your family. Happy saving!

We parents always hope for that picture-perfect shot of our little ones with Santa — but it doesn’t always work out that way… And you know, those funny photos often make the best memories.

The editors over at Lowcountry Parent magazine came up with a terrific idea: a photo gallery where parents can upload their favorite “scared-of-Santa” pics. This one is my favorite from the gallery so far. I’ll be stopping by often this holiday season to check out the latest photos.

Do you have a funny photo of your child on Santa’s lap? Submit it!

Tired of giving apple stationery, apple earrings and “#1 teacher” sweatshirts to your children’s teachers every holiday season? Imagine how the teachers feel! Here are some parent- and teacher-tested gift ideas that will really make the grade.

°    Think Outside The Classroom. “I like giving something that conveys that you know the teacher is human, too — not just a teacher,” says Lake Forest, California mom Joy Bat. Think sports memorabilia (if you know the teacher’s favorite team), an addition to a favorite collection of bears, dolls, snow globes… The list can be endless if you or your child just happen to listen up when the teacher mentions favorite hobbies and activities.

°    Consider a Gift For the Classroom. As school budgets are increasingly cut, teachers are often asked to supply certain classroom items. So when her child was in kindergarten, Dorothy Foltz-Gray of Knoxville, Tennessee asked what classroom game the kids needed. “The teacher responded as if I were a saint!” she says. Another time, she gave a monetary gift, again to be used for classroom supplies. Jennifer Vena of Manhattan Beach, California gives goody bags full of classroom supplies — dry-erase markers, paper clips, post-its, overhead markers, etc. With many teachers spending their own money on these items, this is a welcome gift. (more…)

I've been reading lately that some schools are banning roller sneakers and Crocs. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, roller sneakers contributed to about 1,600 kids' ER visits in 2006 (the most recent data available on this) and school officials say Crocs can easily slip off and injure kids when they run at recess or play games in gym class.

Another item that is getting the evil eye in some schools is wheeled book bags/wheeled backbacks. Children often struggle to maneuver them through crowded school hallways, and other kids may trip over them, causing them to be banned.

Banning Crocs and roller sneakers? I can understand that. But I always thought of wheeled book bags as a good thing, as opposed to often-overloaded backpacks that can be too heavy for young kids. In fact I've written health-column items on backpacks in the past, and several doctors have said they prefer to see kids with the wheeled version. (Granted, it's best if the kids don't mow each other down in the hallways with them!)

What's on the banned list at your school? And what are your thoughts on Crocs, wheeled backpacks and roller sneakers?

Backpacks and notebooks and clothes, oh my! It's that time of year, and wallets are being stretched thin all across the land. I was happy to hear about a terrific post on back-to-school shopping, aimed at Canadian parents, over at parentcentral.ca.

Staff reporter Madhavi Acharya-Tom Yew offers these tips for keeping the budget under control when you hit the stores:

°    If you shop with your kids, get them involved.
Have them help make the list and determine the budget. Then show them
that to stick to it, you need to make some choices along the way.

°    Put down cash, instead of credit. If you must
use a credit card, the stick to just one. “That’s really going to curb
your ability to spend,” says said Jeffrey Schwartz, executive director of Consolidated Credit Counseling Services of Canada. “If you’ve got five credit cards
in your pocket, you have more opportunity to spend.”

°    Spend no more than what you can pay off within a month or two, if you must use credit.
Many consumers still don’t realize that by slapping that purchase on a
credit card and only paying the minimum, you may end up paying as much
as three times what it actually cost.

Check out the post for many more great tips. Then wander around this website for lots of great parenting information. Good stuff here.

I don't talk about many products on this blog, but I was in Portland, Oregon yesterday, at a wonderful weekly crafts fair called the Portland Saturday Market and I met a talented — and fun — artist that I have to tell you about.

Through his company, Antic, Isaac Bauman's artwork is available on t-shirts, hoodies, scarves, hats and more. I love his "The Boogie Monster" and "These are Kooties" designs. (Yep, I know, it's usually spelled "Cooties." But Isaac does things his way, as you'll see when you visit his website. Just don't get his started on the subject of bananas…)

Got a tween or teen who is tough to buy for? Keep these tees and hoodies in mind for back-to-school shopping (and the holidays).

Vanessa Van Patten is a friend every teen should have. And, strangely enough, she's also a friend every parent of a teen should have. How in the world this talented writer balances both roles is beyond me, but she does it brilliantly over at her blog, Teens Today With Vanessa Van Petten.

Today's post, 10 Things Every Teen Should Know, is one I'm going to save for my 12-year-old son. And it's something I want to share with my readers. What a great checklist of stuff teens should know before they leave home!

It's so easy to get caught up in things like grades and SAT scores that it's easy to forget that a kid should be able to make a pot of spaghetti, use a checkbook and do a load of laundry (without turning his underwear pink) before heading off to college.

Van Petten's blog is loaded with good stuff — and it's addictive. Plan to spend some time there!

Yes, I'll admit it: I'm monolingual. Took Spanish in high school, but that was a looong time ago. And now that my son is taking Spanish in middle school, I'm not much help, I'm afraid.

That's why I was so intrigued by a new book, 7 Steps to Raising a Bilingual Child, by Naomi Steiner, M.D. with Susan Hayes. Steiner is a developmental-behavior pediatrician who works with bilingual families at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, and Hayes is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in Parent & Child, Parenting, Woman's Day and other publications.

There are so many potential advantages for our kids if they know a second language:

°    It's a huge advantage in competing for and succeeding in jobs in our ever-shrinking world.

°    It provides a more complex understanding of other countries and cultures.

°    It makes travel to other countries easier and more enriching.

There is evidence that learning a second language early in life offers advantages for brain development, too:

°    More cognitive firepower is devoted to language.

°    The child is better able to deal with distractions.

°    Learning a second language makes it easier to learn a third language.

°    Knowing more than one language helps improve the memory and leads to more creative use of language.

Really, there's no downside to raising a bilingual child. But where do you start, especially if you speak only one language yourself?

This book answers every question I could think of — and then some. You'll learn about common myths about bilingualism, how to define your language goals for your child, how to decide which parent will speak which language to a child in a bilingual home, making the most of family and community resources, reading and writing in a second language and much more.

If you're even thinking about raising your child to speak more than one language, you'll want to check out this book. For more information, click here.

Ciao!

Today I'm happy to share with you this guest post from Michael Gorsline, M.A. He's a parenting coach and a child and family
therapist who enjoys helping families make life more rewarding.

He
blogs about his approach and strategies at his site, Awareness * Connection, and for the GTDtimes. Michael's post is in response to my post yesterday, "Should We Pay Our Kids to Learn?"

Kids are ALREADY
motivated to learn. It is part of how human beings are wired. Even
chimps will solve puzzles for the challenge without any reward.

The
reason we are tempted to pay students to learn (which the research is
clear is counterproductive) is that we don't go to the trouble to find
ways to show them how the learning we propose is pertinent in practical
ways for their lives.

Doing so takes more work, more skill, and more thought on the part
of both the teacher and the school system. As school curriculum is
arrived at via political processes, and these processes are complex and
bureaucratic in nature, it is not too surprising that we end up with
simplistic solutions, like testing the cr** out of kids to "raise
standards," and coming up with sweeping programs with clever names
designed to look like they are doing something, and which are mandated
while not funded.

The programs are analogous to the Department of
Homeland Security taking your fingernail clippers away to make you feel
safer. It doesn't address the actual problem, but it supposed to look
like it does.

I don't know of any easy answers. I only know from my training and
experience in both education and psychology that the authors (see yesterday's post) are
talking about research that is very well established, and that is
important. I also know that for instruction to be effective you need:

1)
To SHOW kids and discuss with them how the learning in question will be
practically useful to them.

2) Curriculum that is actually
practically useful (there is no help for irrelevant
curriculum).

3) A good relationship with the teacher. You can't
just "deliver" instruction without a relational context. Kids will work
harder for someone that really knows them, and that has a bit of time
to relate to them as a person rather than as a curriculum-swallowing
automaton. Having some time to address how the child actually learns
best is also important.

4) Some choice for kids re how, and
what, they learn. They don't like being told exactly what and how to
learn any more than you want your boss to micro-manage how your deliver
a certain result. In other words, provide parameters and let them make
some choices between those.

Class sizes, size of school and whether you pay a decent enough wage
to attract bright, creative people into teaching are among many other
important variables.