Category: Advice

All Aboard the Charity Train!

As we approach the holiday season, I thought it would be fun to present a few interesting and fun opportunities for charitable support in the Dallas area.  Sure, we can all give cash contributions to our favorite nonprofits and, if we’re feeling crazy, adopt a water buffalo from Heifer International during this season of giving.  And we should, especially the water buffalo part.  But some organizations go to great lengths to devise unique development strategies that provide donors with an unconventional vehicle (pun intended) for support.  The Ronald McDonald House of Dallas’s Trains at Northpark exhibit is one such opportunity.

For more than 30 years the Trains at Northpark exhibit has been a mainstay for North Texas families. Visiting the holiday trains has always been a tradition for my family, and it was years before I realized that Trains was a Ronald McDonald House of Dallas fundraising event.  It’s easy to get swept into the amazingly detailed scenery and holiday chaos of the space and forget that the work is done in support of an amazing local nonprofit providing a much-needed service to kids and their families.

The Ronald McDonald House of Dallas provides families with a home away from home.  Their 62,000 square foot facility includes nearly 60 rooms and transplant apartments where patients and their families can live, play, and relax while undergoing medical treatment at one of Dallas’s elite pediatric medical facilities.  The staff and volunteers at RHMD are extremely dedicated to the experience they provide clients, and the House is warm and inviting for kids and their grownups.  Shiloh, the precious House therapy dog and Chief Cheer Officer, is a personal friend of mine and often visits my classes.  (www.rmhdallas.org for more information)

The Trains at Northpark exhibit has raised over $13 million for RHMD, and it raised (net) more than $300,000 last year alone.  The event is a tremendous undertaking for the organization as it requires coordination of artists, engineers, and volunteers during an otherwise very active season.  The cost of the custom locomotives varies with the entry-level train car starting at $175.  So, for a relatively small gift amount, you get to support a deserving organization and you get an awesome, display-worthy memento to show for it.

The best thing is that you can direct the artists to paint whatever messages or images you want on the cars.  And they’re beyond talented.  I’ve seen cars with Disney characters, elaborate holiday images, and intricate logos so you can be creative with your design and vision (they have started limiting the number of alphanumeric characters though, so no crazy, long messages allowed).  Many local businesses purchase trains for display and some even send them as holiday gifts to clients and customers (maybe we need a Being Bon Mot car next year!). Did someone say corporate philanthropy? A RHMD train also makes a great holiday gift for those impossible-to-buy-for people in your life. We all have one – I know you’re trying not to think of them right now.  And the brilliant thing about getting a train, especially as a gift, is that they make fun decorations in subsequent years.  If you’re really dedicated, you could get an engine and a few cars over a period of time then build an actual train track around your Christmas tree.

If you purchase a train before October 15, it will be ready to ride the rails when the exhibit opens this November.  Seeing our trains at the exhibit is always a holiday highlight for the kids.  If you plan ahead and ask nicely, you can often get the engineers to put your train car on the tracks for your visit.  And soon after the Trains at Northpark close for the season in January, your personalized car magically appears at your house (or other designated address) for safe keeping.  Our RMHD trains always serve as a reminder of our love for holiday traditions and our support for the community.  If you’d like to learn more or order a custom railcar, visit http://www.thetrainsatnorthpark.com.  All aboard!

Obviously these ideas are relatively unhelpful for folks outside of North Texas, but I submit that similar opportunities exist around the country.  I hope that you’ll seek out those opportunities in your community. And when you find them, please share information about what you’ve

Top 5 Kid Bands for Grown Ups

Check out these kid jams that help make carpooling and road tripping much more groovy!

**This post contains affiliate links.  As an Amazon Associate, I earn commissions from qualifying products at no additional cost to you.

____________________________________________

Our family is really into music.  I mean, we’re really into music.  We’re always singing loudly and busting into impromptu dance parties.  But people are often surprised that my kids rarely listen to FM radio or popular music.  Instead, my husband and I try to curate their music because, let’s be honest, it’s pretty jarring to hear a six-year-old kid sing a song about a one-night stand.  And, in my opinion, a fifth grader has no business bopping along to lyrics with curse words that demoralize women, even if edited and sung via Kids Bop.  Nonetheless, we owe it to our kids to teach them about good music.  Most of us started exposing our children to music in utero (headphones on your baby bump, anyone?) with the hope of growing well-cultured offspring.  Whether we mean to or not, we shape our kids’ musical tastes. I can still sing along to most every song by Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Little River Band because that’s the music I grew up on (there’s a bad moon on the rise NOT a bathroom on the right, thank you very much John Fogerty).

My kids weren’t born requesting Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 or, much to my jazz-loving husband’s chagrin, selections from Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue.   But they pay attention to what we’re listening to in the car and at home.  And, when they like what they hear, they ask to play it over and over and over again.  We listen to kids channels on Amazon Music and Pandora, and we love absolutely everything about SiriusXM’s Kids Place Live.  I’m not a music reviewer; I don’t have a degree in music or any real musical appreciation standards, but I know what makes my kids sing along and demand we turn it up.  And in those moments, I make mental notes about what we should add to our ever-growing playlist.

It goes without saying that there are some great grown up musicians who are suitable for kids too. Thankfully the likes of Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Imagine Dragons, and even the Beatles are cool enough for everyone in the family.  But even some of their songs aren’t necessarily appropriate for young ears.  I struggle with spinning funky beats that are groan-proof and suitable for kids that are four years apart in age.  We share pop music and show tunes and lots of classics and absolutely delight in landing on an artist or song that falls in the family music sweet spot.

In our quest to find family-friendly music from various sources, we’ve come to love some children’s musicians that I think grown ups will love too.  I’d encourage you to take a listen and share with your budding music lovers.  A note of caution about kids’ music though – it’s clever and silly and the lyrics are meant to stick in that part of your brain that’s difficult to silence (a.k.a. the dreaded phonological loop).  And remember it’s music made for kids so manage your critiques accordingly.  Here are my TOP 5 (well, actually, six) for your consideration:

  1. Okee Dokee Brothers –

Not-really-brothers Joe and Justin write and sing folksy songs about everything from canoeing to mosquitoes to the illusive Jackolope.  Their trilogy of Grammy-nominated albums follows their many adventures in the outdoors, and the harmonies and clever lyrics are most prominent. It’s hard to say which album is best, and even though Can You Canoe? won the Grammy, we have favorite songs from all of their albums.  “The Great Divide,” “Lighten Your Load,” “You You You” and “Campin’ Tent” are standouts.

  1. Parry Gripp

My apologies in advance for this awesome recommendation, but Mr. Gripp is a master of the earworm.    His novel kid songs (mostly about animals and food) haven’t really been combined into album form because he introduces them mostly through YouTube, but they’re worth downloading individually.  Some of our favorites include: “Space Unicorn,” “Raining Tacos,” “Black Hamster,” and “Do You Like Waffles?”, but tune to his Pandora channel or ask Alexa to play his songs and discover your family’s favorites.

  1. Laurie Berkner Band

Laurie Berkner is the OG of kids’ music.  She’s been stomping around like a dinosaur since 1997 when her first album Whaddya Think of That? was released.  People magazine called her, “The queen of children’s music,” and it’s a title well-deserved.  Her music is probably most suitable for younger kids (my son insists he outgrew her music at eight), but we still play her holiday album on repeat without any complaints. Her dance remix album injected a new twist into some of our old favorites like “Victor Vito” and “The Cat Came Back,” but the originals are still as fun as they’ve ever been for me.

  1. Recess Monkey/Anything by Jack Forman

These teachers turned kiddie rockers know a thing or two about catchy lyrics.  And they’re impressively prolific.  They’ve released an album every year since 2009, and you’ll find family favorites on all of them.  In the interest of full disclosure, everyone in our family loves Recess Monkey front man, Jack Forman, and his Sirius XM Kids Place Live Show, Live from the Monkey House!, so we may be a bit biased here.  But Jack’s solo stuff including “Yodeling Yoda” is definitely also worth a listen.

  1. TIE – Lori Henriques & Gustafer Yellowgold

The number five spot on this list was a source of great debate in our house.  I lobbied vehemently for Lori Henriques, but the kids thought Gustafer should take the Cakenstein.  So we declared it a tie…

Lori Henriques’s music is jazzy and artful and just plain fun.  Lori is an absurdly talented musician with a distinct sound in the kid music genre. “How Great Can This Day Be” should be mandatory morning music while “The Poop Song” (yep, that’s right) and “Vocabulary” are sure to delight the entire family.

Gustafer Yellowgold (Morgan Taylor’s alter-ego), on the other hand, is the kind of artist and musician that is difficult to categorize.  His songs are skillful accounts of well-imagined schemes with evil foods and vivid adventures.  His “Cakenstein” and “Baconstein” are our obvious favorites, but Gustafer’s prolific audio and video offerings are a sure winner for long roadtrips and kitchen dance parties.  Also, if you get the chance to see him live, go and take the kids.  You won’t regret it.

I hope you’ll consider giving a few of these talented artists a listen.  Maybe you can jam to “Raining Tacos” on the next Taco Tuesday or surprise your kids with “Baconstein” over breakfast.  If you do, let me know what you think.  And I love learning about new children’s artists and songs so please share your favorites here.

“Where words fail, music speaks.”
-Hans Christian Andersen

How to Succeed in College in Five Easy Steps

Advice from a college professor.

This fall nearly 20 million students will head off to college.  All of them toting their newly sharpened pencils, pristine notebooks, and shiny laptops ready to soak up all the knowledge available to them in the campus environment.  They’ll walk confidently into America’s lecture halls and seminar rooms ready to learn. Um… not quite.

I’ve been teaching at the college level for more than 15 years, and I still love the energy the fall semester brings.  I love school so much that I’ve never really left it.  But I’m also aware of how panic-inducing a new school year can be.  I see the simultaneous excitement and fear on my students’ faces as they start to noodle through their semester and the impending doom of course requirements.  They often get so overwhelmed by the prospect of the new semester that they immediately fall behind in their classes. But here’s the thing – once you figure out a system that works for you – a system of studying and keeping track of due dates and balancing the freedom of college life – things get easier.  And they keep getting easier every semester.

So here’s my best advice on how to develop useful systems to help you succeed in college.  It’s not specific advice on how to ace your physics exam or write the perfect term paper.  Instead what follows are my general tips for whether you’ve just moved into the dorm for the first time or you’re on your graduate-school victory lap.

  1. Treat Your College Experience Like a Job

I give this advice to anyone who asks and even some who don’t.  One of the most logical ways to adhere to the vast number of tip lists like these is to ‘work’ a certain number of hours per week on being a college student.  It’s generally accepted that for one hour of in-class lecture, you should spend nearly two hours preparing.  In other words, going to class is a great idea but so is reading and preparing.  If you consider a full work day, five days a week as your goal, you’ll allow for plenty of time to get your classwork done and leave plenty of time in the evenings to soak up the college experience. A 9:00 to 5:00 day gives you 40 hours of work time a week, and on balance, that’s about how much time you should be spending studying and attending class.  So set your alarm and try getting your work done during daylight hours instead of frantically burning the midnight oil.

Footnote: I realize that many college students have obligations outside of school.  Some have to work and others, like student athletes, have very little freedom with their time.  The point here is to set a schedule, a consistent schedule, that works for you.

  1. Visit Your Professor (Really!)

Office Hours are one of the most under-utilized tools available to students in college, especially undergraduates who are cultivating skills and trying to navigate campus life. With few exceptions, I only see my students during office hours when they’re fearful of failing my course or desperate for help on an assignment.  These are fine reasons to visit with your professors, but I would encourage you to make a point to stop by and introduce yourself early in the semester in order to personalize your relationship (and help them learn your name and face).  Bottom line: Office hours exist for a reason, and your professors won’t bite.

  1. Use Your Laptop for Good Not for Evil a.k.a Listen & Take Notes

Many behavioral studies show that our attention will go towards the most interesting thing in a room at a given time.  What’s more, when determining which sensory input to prioritize, we tend to focus more on things that are applicable to us personally.  So if you’re using your laptop, tablet, etc. to take notes during class and your email and messaging applications are also open, you’ll likely be distracted away from the professor’s lecture whether you choose to reply or not.  Your mind could wander anytime to that new pair of shoes you need to buy or pressing online to-do list item even when you know the material you’re hearing will be on the test.  Understand that I fully appreciate that laptops and tablets are useful for students, but they should be treated like one-dimensional digital spiral notebooks during class, not the interactive (distracting) tools we appreciate them for outside the classroom.  This is why many of my colleagues have banned them, and why I always struggle with banning them myself. So do everyone a favor and use that laptop for good during class time, and shop for shoes after hours.

  1. Communicate Professionally

Most of us have succumb to the limited character, short-attention span means of communication by way of text messaging and/or social media.  I fully acknowledge the need for efficiency using those vehicles. You should, however, use your college experience to either develop or grow your fluency in professional communication.  Using greetings and salutations, proper capitalization and punctuation, and an appropriate tone in email to your classmates, professors, and even your parents will help set you on a path to success.  These things are important and often serve as people’s first impressions of you.  Communications with your professors, internship advisors, and future bosses should never include “btw” or “OMG” or even “LOL,” no matter how many beers you’ve had together.  Plus, let’s be honest – shortcuts imply laziness, and you never want to send that subtext to your potential employer or even your mom.

  1. Sleep, Eat, and Hydrate

I’m really not trying to parent you here but taking care of yourself is extremely important, especially for physical and emotional development during prime college age (read: early 20s).  I see it happen every semester right around midterms – students burn out.  Balancing school work and college life gets exhausting, but it becomes too late to push the pause button to rest, hydrate, and regroup. Part of consistency and scheduling involves reliable sleep schedules and meals.  We know so much about the link between healthy eating habits and sleep and brain function that it should be a given, but sometimes we need a reminder to rest.  So rest. Make time to rest, buy a cool refillable water bottle, and treat yourself to fresh fruits and vegetables as often a possible.  Your body (and brain) will thank you.  And wash your hands too because new semesters mean exposure to new germs.  Don’t get me started…

There are so many other tidbits I thought about including here – this certainly isn’t an exhaustive list. Are there things you find/found especially helpful during college or graduate school?  I’d love to hear about your tips, tricks, and good study habits!