Yesterday I spent the afternoon with my grandchildren. I was happy to join the family for dinner. As we were eating dinner the second grader said, “We might be having world war three.” “Why do you say that?” I asked. “A boy in my class said that.” The granddaughter who…
What happened in Washington D.C. last week? The constant drumbeat for impeachment continues and headlines the news. There are many topics, news relevant to parents and families to report. Congress has many issues that should be addressed for the people. On November 14th an event took place on the Washington…
Hans Christian Anderson wrote fairy tales that I read as a child. Recently one of those stories has come to mind. In The Emperors New Clothes swindlers approach a self-indulgent King with a proposal. They have devised a very clever lie with their plot. They tell the King that the…
Patience is a virtue, worth cultivating in ourselves and our children. Some years ago I read an article by Pamela Druckerman that extolled the way French parents teach their children to wait. In her article, Why French Parents Are Superior, Druckerman pointed out that children who have learned patience are…
Attorney General Bill Barr gave a speech to the law school at the University of Notre Dame on October 11, 2019. In that speech he said: “For anyone who has a religious faith, by far the most important part of exercising that faith is the teaching of that religion to…
At the back of the book there are 57 pages of notes. Erik Larson has written a meticulous history based on government documents, letters and diaries. The book, In the Garden of the Beasts, provides a view of Nazi Germany through the eyes of the American ambassador. William Dodd was…
During WWII children were being evacuated from France and Paris. I just finished reading Until We Find Home, a historical novel by Cathy Gohlke. It is a story of unexpected hospitality. When Claire arrives at her aunt’s home in Windemere England with five French Jewish children she completely surprises her…
We lived in troubled times and sometimes it is difficult to discern truth. It is hard to know how we should respond to things happening around us. Looking back over the centuries, this has always been the case in human history. It is thought that the writer of the book…
As I looked through a local newspaper I saw an editorial cartoon that seemed to equate the measles with polio and Nazis. Something to fear. There is a hysteria about the measles that doesn’t jive with history. We cannot let fear control us. On this same day I received the…
Parents today have difficult issues to confront. As I was driving home from Michigan today I was listening to Janet Parshall on the radio.She was discussing a case that was decided by the Supreme Court of British Columbia. It hit me hard because a friend of our family recently disclosed…