Growing up in Baltimore with a teacher for a mom, I believe I’ve visited every historical, cultural or educational site within three hours of home. For the most part, I enjoyed these childhood cultural expeditions. However, I didn’t always enjoy the subsequent quiz. Dubbed “the ice cream quiz,” this oral …
Read More »Erica Rimlinger
Can You Spell Like a Bee Winner?
Here are the winning words from the last 10 years of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. 2007: serrefine 2008: guerdon 2009: Laodicean 2010: stromuhr 2011: cymotrichous 2012: guetapens 2013: knaidel 2014 (tie): stichomythia and feuilleton 2015 (tie): scherenschnitte and nunatek 2016: Feldenkrais Read about a 2017 Catonsville contestant.
Read More »Catonsville Middle Schooler Is Baltimore’s “Spell-ebrity”
Shaheer Ali Imam of Al-Rahmah School represented the Baltimore region in the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee this week—for the second time in his 13-year life. How does a good speller become a spelling champion? Hard work. “Three hours a night on a school night,” Shaheer says. He trained with …
Read More »Food for Thought
Food is fuel to any athlete, and never is that more apparent than when young athletes have an evening sports practice. Most parents will tell you they are not so much making dinner those evenings as they are fueling their child in a tornado of effort to get everyone out …
Read More »The Bennett Blazers
Olive Weidenhammer’s mother Elizabeth recalls her three-year-old daughter’s excitement before joining big sister Willow’s basketball league. But Elizabeth could tell Olive was also a little nervous. Whatever fears Olive may have harbored, they appeared to dissipate the moment Olive saw her new teammates. “Mom!” Olive exclaimed. “Everyone here’s in a …
Read More »Genetic Testing: Is It Right for You?
Michelle Pursel, mother of Tatum, was pushing her daughter on a baby swing at Meadowood Park when the mother next to her asked Michelle a question she’d never forget. “What’s wrong with her?” the other mother asked, nodding in Tatum’s direction. “What do you mean?” Michelle asked, worried that …
Read More »The Clutter-Free Home
When my editor asked me to write 750 words on parenting without clutter, I had to fight an impulse to write HAHAHAHA 750 times. Any parent of a Lego aficionado can probably relate. I consider myself an organized person, but based on the number of Legos I’ve stepped on—always in bare feet—I concede defeat to …
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