By Emily Socolinsky

“I like lifting weights because I get stronger,” says Asher Flippen, age 7, of Ellicott City. “It's good to be strong because you can lift heavy things, like a full bottle of chocolate milk. I want to learn more stuff like climbing a rope. I want to lift 25 pounds next!”

By Joyce Heid

While the modern media has helped push the use of performance-enhancing drugs and supplements among professional athletes to the forefront of the public consciousness, the issue dates back further than most people can probably even imagine.

By Annie Morrison

Recently, during a conversation with a single-parent friend, I realized I'd been overlooking a significant segment of my reading audience in this column. Lots of you are raising children by yourselves and might benefit from financial advice specific to your unique needs.

By Sandy Alexander

Whether it's five minutes of yoga, some energetic dance moves, or a few calisthenics, reading and writing teacher Erika Savage says a little bit of exercise during class time goes a long way with her second- and third-grade students at Holabird Academy in Southeast Baltimore.

By Molly Brown Koch

An image of an incident that occurred in a supermarket many years ago lingers in my brain to this day. Startled by the sound of a slap, I turned around to see a little boy, perhaps 5 or 6 years old, with a reddening imprint of his mother’s hand on his face. His eyes darted about as if to see whether anyone witnessed the assault. It seemed to me that he was just as upset over the humiliation as he was the pain. The redness would disappear in time, but I could not help but wonder how long the sense of humiliation would last.

By Lisa Robinson

There is a low, simmering debate in the world of parenting centering on the sensitive topic of allowing our kids to skip school for so-called “special occasions.”

This topic came up again in February when the Ravens won the Super Bowl. Some parents, including friends and colleagues of mine, allowed their children to skip school to attend the massive victory rally for the team downtown, either accompanying them or allowing them to go on their own, joining a crowd that swelled to more than 100,000.

By Kit Waskom Pollard

This past fall, my 6-year-old son, Dixon, had the day of his life when a handful of Baltimore Ravens visited his school to promote the National Football League's Play 60 campaign, intended to combat childhood obesity. Ray Rice, Brendon Ayanbadejo, and several other players got the kids of Stoneleigh Elementary School in Towson pumped up that morning, touting the importance of being physically active for at least an hour a day.

By Charlotte Bohn

I am a big fan of storytelling accompanied by music, so when I received the CD Nanushka: A Russian Children’s Story for review, I was delighted—even more so when I discovered it was the creation of local musician Ina Allen, in tandem with collaborator Barbara Kemp.

When Allen was 9 years old, her family emigrated from communist Yugoslavia, eventually settling in Columbia. She took piano lessons and quickly fell in love with classical music. After graduating from Howard High School in Ellicott City, Allen studied piano at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and went on to earn a graduate degree from DePaul University in Chicago, where one of her teachers, a Russian concert pianist, greatly influenced her.

By Denise Morrison Yearian

Many pregnant women know that maintaining a moderate exercise routine and a nutritionally sound diet can provide both short- and long-term benefits to them and their baby.

But, perhaps less commonly known among them is that routines and regimens that may be helpful during one stage of gestation may be detrimental during another.

By Amy Landsman

Donny the black Lab puppy is welcome just about everywhere he goes.

Every Monday and Friday, his caretaker, Howard County resident Nicole Benyo, takes him with her to her job at United Healthcare in Columbia, where she works as a receptionist. Benyo, 23, says her co-workers love having Donny around. “They bring him toys,” she says. “They bring him treats. On his birthday he got birthday presents.”