Archive for 'Uncategorized' Category

Are French mothers superior?

So, I was going to write about the new, overhauled lunch standards for American schools this week. But then quite a few bloggers became enamored with “Bringing Up Bebe,” a book due out Feb. 7, by former Wall Street Journal reporter Pamela Druckerman.
Like several other writers (Judith Warner, formerly of The New York Times, and [...]

New Year’s Resolutions

Welcome back everyone! I hope you enjoyed the holidays and got a chance to spend some quality time with your family. We went to Hawaii and had a blast. But now that we’re back, reality is starting to set back in. My oldest is tired after long days at school and after hours. Her sister [...]

Making Memories for Grandmas and Grandpas

My children’s grandparents are a big part of our life. My husband’s parents live a 20-minute car ride away from us and help with watching the girls after school. By contrast, my family lives in Paris, France, and mostly interacts with my daughters via Skype, though they usually also visit in person every year or [...]

The Problem With Teaching Children Self-Esteem

Dear Friends,
Whenever I’m asked if we sell educational toys or books that build self-esteem, I wince a little inside.
As parents, we all want academic excellence and healthy self-esteem for our children. But when I hear about parents feeling pressured to “enrich” their children’s lives with systems to teach babies to read or DVDs that “teach” [...]

A Christmas Wish List

It’s that time of the year again, when, if you’re like me, you start making compulsive lists of all the presents you need to buy for everyone: family, friends, co-workers, and so on. Usually, all that takes place while battling some form of winter cold, or taking care of a child who is fighting off [...]

21 things to love about our signature Handprint Cookie Cutters

One of our best selling items for the holidays is our Handprint Cookie Cutter, which takes an outline of your child’s hand and transforms it into a personalized tool for creating your favorite holiday treats. Since they’re custom crafted, they take a few weeks to prepare, so if you want to order them this is [...]

Photo Contest Time!

If you have any Jake & Ella goods in your house, time to get out the camera.

Time for a New Notch in the Wall! We Just Had a Growth Spurt!

Notice anything new about Jake & Ella?
We’ve grown a size or two — with a treasure trove of new toys, parental pampering treats, books and more! We spent months finding, selecting, testing and curating these additions to our collection, and we’re so excited to share them with you. The first crop is out today, and we’ll [...]

How to Talk About Sept. 11 With Your Children

School’s only been back in session for three days, and of all the questions I have for my daughter’s teacher “Are you going to talk about 9/11?” is pretty much at the top of the list.
I am not worried about my youngest, who is only 2. But my oldest is 6 and in first-grade. We [...]

Why Having Few Vacation Days is Bad for the Environment

So perhaps to get us to cut back on the amount of carbon we burn on vacation, we should get more time off. Then we could feel less pressure to get away from it all when we are not working. A three-day weekend spent at home, rather than on the road, would be just fine.