Mom & Baby Issue
Growing Families Through Surrogacy; Postpartum Angels Lighten the Load; Raising Emotionally Competent Kids; Summer Camp Guide
Learning En Français
The Burlington School District has announced that it will partner with the Embassy of France to explore offering dual-language french immersion programming in Burlington schools. Why was Burlington chosen? The city’s “proximity to Québec and the prevalence of French in this region certainly played a role,” said district communication specialist Russ Elek. Burlington schools are…
Kicking It New School
In December 2018, the Renaissance School, a private elementary school in Shelburne, closed with little warning, leaving parents scrambling to find classrooms for their children midway through the school year. A group of those parents approached Teresa Davis, asking if she would consider starting a K-2 school. Davis is the founder of the Davis Studio,…
Milestones: A Mother Celebrates Her Young Son’s Development, While Grieving Her Precious Daughter
Since my son, Manny, was born four years ago, I’ve marveled as he’s gracefully sailed through developmental milestones, navigating the world with grace, ease and confidence. Recently, Manny, my husband, Dave, and I were hanging out in a local coffee shop. After our son gobbled down his giant chocolate chip cookie, he noticed his hands…
A Helping Hand
My daughter, Mira, turns 12 this month. She rocks lavender Doc Martens and big hoop earrings and is partial to sayings like “Yas kween” and “Badass,” but it doesn’t feel like so long ago that she was a newborn. When we arrived home from the hospital a few days before Mother’s Day 2007, my mom…
Fun for Everyone: Partners in Adventure Helps Young People With Special Needs Experience the Joy of Camp
Thirty-one years ago, Debbie Lamden’s priorities underwent a seismic shift when her son, Ari, was born 16 weeks early, weighing just 1.5 pounds. Lamden, who lives in Charlotte, put her career as an artist and owner of a home furnishing shop on the back burner in order to care for Ari, whose premature birth caused…
How Can I Best Support a Friend Through a Miscarriage?
In the four years between my older brother’s birth and my own, our mother had two miscarriages. In those four years, she carried, loved and grieved the loss of our would-be siblings. She was eight weeks pregnant when she miscarried the first time. The second time, she was nearly 18 weeks along. She told me…
Bittersweet: A Novel’s Protagonist Struggles With Gender Identity and Financial Hardship
Jo Knowles credits reading Robert Cormier’s young adult novel The Chocolate War as a teenager with inspiring her to become a children’s novelist. Later, after they met at a writing conference, Cormier offered the budding novelist a burst of confidence when he read a draft of her first book. Now, when Knowles visits schools, she…
Going on a Frog Hunt: Turn Searching for Croakers Into a Springtime Ritual
May is a great month to look for frogs. For starters, they’re making a lot of noise at this time of year. That’s because now is when many species are trekking through the woods to the nearest body of water to mate and lay eggs. The males are calling out to females: “Here I am!…
Gnocchi With Spring Vegetables: An Italian Main Course to Make Together
For as long as I can remember, my daughter’s favorite Italian dish has been gnocchi (pronounced NYOH-kee), a fluffy pasta dumpling usually made with potato. She simply can’t get enough of it. In her more poetic moments, she has referred to it as a happy little party in her mouth. We have chosen restaurants to…
How Do I Know If My Baby Has Tongue-Tie?
The benefits of breastfeeding through a baby’s first year are well documented. Breastfed babies are at lower risk for asthma, type 2 diabetes, obesity, gastrointestinal infections and Sudden Unexpected Infant Death, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And mothers who breastfeed lower their risk of breast and ovarian cancer, type 2…
Bee Prepared: Meet UVM’s Jacques Bailly, Pronouncer of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
Jacques Bailly knows firsthand the intense pressure facing the 550-plus students who, once a year, stand on stage in front of him as they try to spell obscure English words while an audience of millions watches live on TV. Bailly, who’s been the official pronouncer of the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2003, won the…
Raising Emotionally Competent Kids: Vermont Consultant Creates a Toolbox to Support Lifelong Skills
Alyssa Blask Campbell is on a mission to help parents, teachers and caregivers raise emotionally intelligent humans. Emotional intelligence — self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy and social awareness — is the greatest predictor of success in life, she says. Campbell, a former preschool teacher and childcare center director with a master’s degree in early childhood education, started…
Team Effort: A Vermont Agency Brings Intended Parents and Surrogates Together to Create Families
There’s a photograph that Jes Stumpf keeps in an album in her bedroom and thinks of fondly. Taken almost four years ago, it shows Stumpf the day she gave birth for the third and last time, while serving as a surrogate for a couple who could not have children. Stumpf lies in a hospital bed…
Mom Takes Notes, May 2019
Almost two years after giving birth, many of the changes that becoming a mom brought out in me are wearing off. I no longer wake up in the middle of the night to even the tiniest sounds or constantly scan new environments for spots to feed my daughter or change her diaper. However, one thing…
Pedal Party
Cyclists of all ages are invited to bring their wheels to the third annual Human Powered Parade and Festival in Bristol. Inspired by the bike-central culture of the Bay Area, cycling advocate Melanie Kessler dreamed up the event as a way to spread the positivity of this lifestyle to Vermonters. “A parade is a great…
Mothers’ Helpers: Volunteers Lighten the Load During the ‘Fourth Trimester’
“Mothering has been the richest experience of my life,” writes Anne Lamott. Her memoir of solo parenting an infant, Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year, resonates with readers not because it paints a sentimental picture of motherhood, but because Lamott’s humorous and heartfelt musings capture the joys and difficulties that accompany being…
