Sierra Black's blog
About Sierra Black
Sierra Black is playing in the garden. Follow her personal adventures in parenting at www.childwild.com. Sierra Black's profile
Posted March 23, 2010 - 06:51 by Sierra Black
Diseases & Disorders
Here's an exciting alternative therapy for autistic children. Forget the smelly supplements and special diets. It turns out a massage might help them sleep better and enjoy calmer waking hours.
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Posted March 22, 2010 - 08:42 by Sierra Black
Health
According to new research, most kids eat three meals a day, plus three snacks. Even families that try to eat healthy often wind up letting their kids graze. I was surprised to realize how much my kids snack.
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Posted March 1, 2010 - 05:44 by Sierra Black
Sex Ed
Even I was a little taken aback at a Houston Press article about a recent sex ed pep talk kids at a local middle school received.
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Posted February 22, 2010 - 13:10 by Sierra Black
Health
Researchers in California have identified autism "hot spots" throughout the state and researched the conditions in those areas. The only correlation they came up with was that these "hot zones" feature parents with higher-than-average levels of education and proximity to autism treatment centers. So does parental education lead to autism?
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Posted February 20, 2010 - 04:55 by Sierra Black
Culture
This has not been a banner week for airline travel. The headlines have been peppered with incidents of airline staff and TSA agents being rude, imperious and sometimes downright abusive to passengers. Many of them involve families with young children.
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Posted February 18, 2010 - 03:00 by Sierra Black
Discipline
A professor at Calvin College claims kids who remember being spanked do better in school and grow up to be better-adjusted adults.
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Posted February 12, 2010 - 07:44 by Sierra Black
Nutrition
After her controversial remarks last week about her own daughters' brush with a little too much baby fat, Michelle Obama today rolled out her new initiative to combat childhood obesity throughout the country.
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Posted December 11, 2009 - 10:28 by Sierra Black
Learning Tools
It's becoming clearer and clearer that we need to educate our kids about sustainability. As the climate talks in Copenhagen continue, I've been thinking a lot about how to teach my kids the importance of caring for our earth.
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Posted November 11, 2009 - 23:19 by Sierra Black
New Parents
The baby industry brings in billions of dollars every year. They'd like you to think that having a child means spending thousands of your own dollars on expensive furniture, clothing and gear that will make your precious charge safe, beautiful and smart. It's just not true. You don't need that stuff.
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Posted November 6, 2009 - 08:03 by Sierra Black
Discipline
Not only is yelling nearly ubiquitous in American households, its also the thing moms feel most guilty over. For the most part, our generation of parents doesn't hit or spank our kids. We're there for their school events and their soccer games. We're nourishing their minds, spending quality time and somehow holding down jobs and doing the dishes. But sometimes, when the going gets rough, we yell.
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Posted October 30, 2009 - 08:40 by Sierra Black
Nutrition, Culture
On Halloween Night, after the trick-or-treating is done and the candy has been binged on and the children are snuggled all warm in their beds with dreams of tooth decay and childhood obesity dancing in their mother's head, the Halloween Fairy comes to our house.
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Posted October 26, 2009 - 08:43 by Sierra Black
Learning Tools
In the wake of a recent FTC finding, The Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood has persuaded the media giant to offer a full refund to parents who purchased Baby Einstein DVDs under the mistaken belief that the DVDs would make their babies smarter.
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