Author: Pragmatic Mom

I am a mom with three kids and a husband living in Newton, MA. I graduated from Harvard University with a degree in HIstory and Science. I went to The Anderson School of Management at UCLA for my M.B.A.My background is entrepreneurial. I started several companies and currently serve on three boards including for my elementary school and preschool. I was a SAHM for nearly 8 years, and went back to work part-time just recently. Now I work almost full time as a WAHM for a consumer electronics start-up in Boston.My blog is my outlet to read children's literature which is my great secret pleasure, and to document any interesting and/or useful information that I acquire as I parent. My kids are quite active and pursue many interests collectively including soccer, gymnastics, rhythm gymnastics, karate (Chung Kook Doh), ice skating, Chinese, Spanish, flute, piano, T-ball, book clubs, and art. In my free time, I have been doing kickboxing, vinyasa yoga, zoomba, and I am trying to learn Spanish as well.Learning about SEO and how to blog has been a really fun enterprise albeit very time consuming. I started a bloggers group that meets weekly called www.coffeeshopbloggers.com. The S.O.S. on SEO. We share our collective frustrations and knowledge from blogging.Now you understand the Type A parent I am...hence the tagline my blogger friends came up for me for my blog:Type A Parenting for the Modern World
mythology, national mythology exam, national mythology examination, D'Aulaires

The National Mythology Exam: Take the Exam or Just Learn Yourself

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I managed to get the form and check on the last day it was due and the National Mythology Exam folks sent me a study guide. I just wanted to share their book list. I took a class as an undergraduate at Harvard on Mythology, nicknamed “Heroes for Zeros,” which was actually a really great class though perhaps not the most stressful class I’ve ever taken and we read some of these same books; the Lattimore translation of The Iliad, The Odyssey and The Aeneid though I can not for the life of me remember who translated it. There was also a class for Norse mythology. I didn’t take it but some friends of mine did. Guess what that was nicknamed? “Frozen Heroes for Zeros.” Though given the New England weather, it could also be called “Sub Zero Heros for Zeros” just as easily!

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Korean-American Picture Book Teaches Multicultural Lesson

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Juno is a little boy who receives a letter from his grandmother in Korea. He can’t read Korean and his parents are busy with the usual household chores. Despite the language barrier, he is able to understand the letter though his mother eventually translates it for him. The letter is special as are the enclosures — a dried flower and a photo of his grandmother and her new cat. And Juno decides to write a letter back. One that will also transcend their language barrier. He makes several drawings and encloses a very large leaf. And so they write each other back and forth … at least until she comes to visit!Juno is a little boy who receives a letter from his grandmother in Korea. He can’t read Korean and his parents are busy with the usual household chores. Despite the language barrier, he is able to understand the letter though his mother eventually translates it for him. The letter is special as are the enclosures — a dried flower and a photo of his grandmother and her new cat. And Juno decides to write a letter back. One that will also transcend their language barrier. He makes several drawings and encloses a very large leaf. And so they write each other back and forth … at least until she comes to visit!

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5th Grade Book Club: The Uglies

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A Mom Friend hosted my daughter’s 5th Grade book club. The book was The Uglies by Scott Westerfield and the activity was discussing what is beauty exactly using magazines and tabloids. The coup de grace was in looking at before and after pictures of Heidi Montag. We Moms were gratified that our kids thought Heidi looked best in the “before” pictures. In the day and age of media bombardment of unrealistic female body images, we were grateful that our girls accept both themselves and a broad range of images that they consider to be beautiful!

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SAT Vocabulary Words for Kindergarteners from Caps for Sale

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My son’s Kindergarten teacher is really up on the latest ideas on early childhood education. She believes in big words for little people and uses these six new words during daily conversations at school and during activities. We are also encouraged to use them at home and to make a game out using them. So I asked my 6-year-old son what “ordinary” means and he gave me this long winded story about how from one day to the next, the books in the bookshelves of an “ordinary” day would not be disturbed. I think the smile/laugh value of hearing kids relate these words to their every day lives is well worth this exercise. I think the same of my son’s karate class — it’s like an episode of Saturday Night Live, only actually funny.

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