Life with toddlers. It’s so simple, really. For them. Their world is pretty much black and white. They have no hidden agendas (or at least ones so hidden that an adult can’t pretty easily figure them out). They have two speeds: high gear (for running on the playground and eating birthday...

This was a B.W. (Big Weekend) in the Cooksey household. Finally, after over a year, Jack started sleeping in his big-boy bed. Yes, it took over a year. From the battlefield, here are some lessons learned the hard way on the transition process. These actually apply to any difficult transition, I’ve...

Child development experts have different theories about the best way to encourage learning in your children. Some believe that you shouldn’t constantly correct children, because that can lower their self-esteem and make them less motivated to learn and explore on their own. Others believe that...

How well I remember my carefree 20’s. Well, they didn’t seem carefree then; I was trying to work through a failing marriage while making a start on my career. But, looking back from my vantage point of right now – with kids, a mortgage, aging parents, and a (different) husband with a cholesterol...

Barney, the Purple Dinosaur, is not the first example that comes to mind when thinks of intelligence. Einstein? For sure. Ben Franklin? Yep. Bill Gates? Absolutely. All would come to mind before the big, fluffy green-spotted reptile. Even among children’s characters, he would not be the first...

Gravity is something most people don’t think a whole lot about on a daily basis. It is introduced during school in science class, and then (for most of us) once the test for that class is over, your knowledge of gravity is limited to the image of the apple falling on Newton’s head. His Law of Gravitation...

When I started in consulting . . . (for a top-tier-strategy-consulting-firm-that-will-remain-nameless), one of the first things they taught us was to “Ask Why 5 Times”. This, they taught us, is the key to getting to the REAL answer, to the root cause. And it does work. Take this illustration: “Our...

Jim and I recently went on a short overnight trip to celebrate our fourth anniversary.  (Yes – only our fourth…two babies, four houses, and four and a half jobs later, here we are!) When I was describing to our son Jack why we were taking this trip, I found myself talking about marriage. ...