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    Julie Meyers Pron

    Julie Meyers Pron

  • Parenting Guru: Summer is like a River

    Summer.

  • Parenting Guru: Make a bubble blower with your kids

    Here's a simple, inexpensive 5-step process to make a bubble blower. It's a great activity for kids ages 2 and up... my 7-year-old is even hooked on it! You'll need: small plastic cup drinking straw (cut in half to make smaller) hole punch rubber band thin, disposable dish cloth, like H

  • Parenting Guru: Father's Day gift ideas

    Father's Day is less than 3 weeks away. You have plenty of time to shop. Make your shopping easier with this guide of favorite gifts. For the casual dad: Reef Men's Fanning Flip Flop We gift this to my husband every single year. It's like his rite of summer, and it's now an expectation. Before I bo

  • Parenting Guru: Baseball books for your little leaguer

    Years ago, when I was a kid, little league meant township t-ball and softball. I never knew about this huge international Little League association. Or foundation. Or... whatever. But with boys? We have fundraisers and practices and games several times a week. They've been practicing and this week i

  • Parenting Guru: Break-up the boredom this vacation

    Because we're all expecting to hear the dreadful "Moooooooooom. I'm boooooorrrrreeeeeddd. What are we gonnnnnnaaaa dooooooooo?" over the next several weeks of spring break, Memorial Day weekend and, inevitably, summer vacation, we parents need to be prepared. Whether travelling or staycationing, her

  • Parenting Guru: To my principal, you made me a better parent

    Dear Karen*,It's been a while, hasn't it? 8 years ago this spring I was preparing to leave our elementary school. I think the feeling was mutual. I wouldn't return. Neither of us was unhappy.

  • Parenting Guru: Tales of Teeth

    The Tooth Fairy has only visited 3 our family three times. Only 2 of those times have been to our home. We're late-bloomers. Big lost his first tooth at age 7, this summer in Maine, on the docks, in the lake.We never retrieved that tooth, though we looked and looked and looked and looked. We expect

  • Create a cyber-safe environment for your young child

    It's the internet. It's user friendly. So friendly, in fact, that I had to explain to my son's teacher the other day how one of his classmates could have possibly ended up on YouTube when she turned her back for 15 seconds. The teacher was horrified. The kids? They'd been there before.My kids are ho

  • Parenting Guru: On parenting... and love

    My three children fill my days with highlights and excitement. We see tempers flare and filter. They wrestle, stomp and scream. They laugh. They cry. They love.Children are blessings. They're also unedited emotions, unbiased devotion and unending love.

  • Parenting Guru: Dreams for my daughter

    7, 8, 9, 10... it was always my dream to be a cheerleader. I'm not certain of a reason, perhaps because of the attention, or the drama, or the fact that fairy tales make cheerleaders out to be so perfect. This isn't a surprise for most. I'm not perfect, but I'm spirited, usually have a positive outl

  • Mom Chic: Add some sassy to your outerwear

    Its time to spice up your winter outerwear! Even when bundling up, we all need to look chic. Here, a few ways to beat the mid-winter blahs and add some sassy to your outdoor style.You need a coat. A warm coat. In fact, you probably want more than one. There's the ski/snowplay/shoveling coat:

  • Parenting Guru: Dreams and our future

    Have you ever tried sitting down and discussing something with your children, only to learn that their definition of the topic you are discussing is so remotely different than your's that you have to sit back and just listen to the amazing conversation that follows?It happened, recently, in my home

  • Parenting Guru: Our favorite family music... this week

    While I'd prefer to listen to the news or a discussion show on the radio over music, having kids I've given in to beats and singalongs. The challenge has been finding music that I'm willing to listen to, again and again. With a 6-disk CD-player in the car, here's what's playing this week.

  • Kindness all around

    I was crazy, going to the mall on a Saturday in December with 2 kids.... to make returns. We ran into a problem. We got hungry. So we ventured to the food court. The very busy foodcourt. I made it "simple", ordering food for all 3 of us at the pizza place. Balancing all 3 slices, plus two drinks, on

  • Amazon's hottest toys the Sunday night before Christmas

    This is the 3rd week that I've reported Amazon's most popular toy sales in the 23rd hour on Sunday night. I did this as a psuedo-experiment. I started out wanting to know what the real most popular toys would be this year, versus all of the gift guides and hot toy lists. But its also turned out to b

  • User post: Sunday's hottest toys at Amazon

    When I posted last week about Amazon's hottest toys, as reported Sunday night, I was pretty sure the list would remain consistent through the holiday season. This week, about half the list is the same. I'll be very interested to see what's hot next Sunday, the final weekend before Christmas. Here ar

  • Parenting Guru: Holiday stress? Breathe in...

    Stress. Do you feel it? In your neck? In your shoulders? Taking over your body? As I listen to my 16-month-old call out "Mom" after her too-short nap, I feel it. I've felt it the past few days. Because I am stressed. Really. Like every other mom, I'm shuffling schedules, preparing meals, workin

  • User post: Amazon's Hottest Toys This Weekend

    With so many Best Gift Gift Guides being posted ( I'm posting a few gift guides on Just Precious, too) full of opinions, its pretty helpful to know what people are actually buying this season. I found a listing of Amazon's most popular selling toys of the moment: Sunday, December 5 at 9 pm EST. Perh

  • Thanksgiving Craft: Thankful Turkeys

    Kids driving you turkey this Thanksgiving? Here's an activity I used to do with my elementary school class and now do at home with the kids.

  • Call for AB Negative Blood in the Philadelphia Region

    Local (Philadelphia area) readers, this is really important. There's a Chester County toddler who was recently diagnosed with APML (Leukemia). He's in need of AB Negative blood (the really rare form). His parents are asking anyone able to donate AB Negative blood to please go to your nearest American Red Cross Donation Center and give. Reference: Kieran Dowd.For more information about donations and helping, please visit the Chester County Moms Blog, where my good friend Sarah has created a form for platelet donation.Please share this with your friends and family. ...