This month, with the start of school, we turned over this department to Zibby Andrews, a mother and grandmother with 40-plus years in early childhood education. She defines executive function and why it’s a term we hear so much in our children’s lives. You can find another column from Zibby …

The opening of a new school year is a time to mark change and a time to look forward to the growth that will take place between now and June.

When I went to kindergarten, teachers sat misbehaving children in the corner of the room with dunce caps on their heads. (I also walked to school 10 miles uphill in the snow and 10 miles back — uphill again.) Schools have changed. We know a lot more about how children …

When my children were young we had a small vegetable garden that was a source of anticipation and picking pleasure for many years. The tiny shoots of green would sprout from the soil, optimistically becoming a salad large enough to feed the neighborhood. It was wonderful to celebrate the tremendous …

In the final verse of his poem, “My Bed is a Boat,” Robert Louis Stevenson writes, “All night across the dark we steer; But when the day returns at last, Safe in my room, beside the pier, I find my vessel fast.” Bedtime rituals are incredibly powerful, providing the comfort …

“What did you do in school today?” How many times have you asked that question, only to be greeted with a blank stare or stony silence? You know something happened, but the lack of information has planted seeds of doubt in your mind, and now you need confirmation that the …

When my grandson was 5 years old, we visited Emily Dickinson’s house, which is now a museum. My own association with the famous 19th Century poet is my high school English teacher — a tall, thin, older woman with steel grey hair and a prim and proper bun planted at …

In December, the spirit of giving comes down from the attic with the decorations. We look forward to this month as a time to find the gifts that show our children how much we love them, to teach them about the value of giving and to focus on the traditions …

If you’re reading this blog in late October, I commend you. With one of the biggest holidays of the year on the horizon, I expect that most reading will have to wait for Nov. 1, when sugar-induced highs have receded and your children are sleeping — soundly. From cowboy hats …

This year’s unusually wet weather has apparently created a fungus in many of the trees, which will prevent them from fully showcasing the brilliant colors that are one of the joys of living in Maryland. We can already see a number of leaves falling prematurely, having turned straight to brown …