1995, in my early Over the Shoulder Baby Holder® days Dear fellow wonderer, A stat to consider: There were five times as many parenting books published in 1997 as in 1975, when the word “parenting” was not yet a classification and books about childrearing were listed under “Children–management.” –Anne Cassidy, Parents Who Think Too Much [...]
Shelf in a china cabinet I inherited from my grandmother containing all sorts of goodies: a prayer book from her childhood with a gold-edged prayer card from 1909; dolls from my other grandmother; a postcard of my hometown; matchbooks from my honeymoon; and an earthquake-broken ballerina that I can’t bear to throw away. Dear fellow [...]
Dear fellow wonderer, A stat for you: After increasing steadily from the 1950s on, American children’s creativity began to decrease, beginning in 1990. Declines have continued, year after year, research tells us, until at least 2021. Likely, you have questions. According to who? How was this creativity measured? What do you mean by creativity anyway? [...]
A cabinet of remedies by artist Inés Ixierda that captivated me last year at the Hella Feminist exhibit at the Oakland Museum Dear fellow wonderer, Have you heard the term wunderkammer? Translation: room of wonder or wonder-room. Also known as a cabinet of curiosities. These began as collections among 16th century aristocracy. Mini museums, rooms [...]
Dear fellow wonderer, Welcome to my new newsletter! (I’m posting it here on my website; it will also live on Substack.) I’d like to jump right in by taking you back, back to 1990, back to the classroom of the people in that photo, those magnificently expressive thirty third-graders (plus two more not pictured!) and [...]
how we’d circle, back in the day Hello friends, For years I’ve dreamed of building an online community made up of parents, educators and all-around curious people of different ages and experiences. I’ve attempted this in various eager ways in the past few years, but nothing has quite panned out. By way of telling you why [...]
Hi there! I’ve been thinking about you, dear Wonder Farm reader. Of course, I finally get around to writing now, in this U.S. time of waiting and clenching. But hey, maybe you could use some distraction. So here’s a little story. When H. was born, I decided I would not be Mommy. It’s what I’d [...]