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Category: home/living

Today’s Home Work: Eric Bulmer, “Science Guy”, Owner and Program Director of Pow!Science!

Today’s Home Work: Eric Bulmer, “Science Guy”, Owner and Program Director of Pow!Science!

[ 1 ] 2.16.2012 |

We love getting to know parents in our community. In our Home Work series, we ask moms and dads how they juggle their work while raising kids, hoping to get some insight on how to better balance our own work/playtime while being introduced to our neighbors and their cool businesses. Today Elyse Major interviewed Eric Bulmer. Meet the “Science Guy.” He is the Owner and Program Director of Pow!Science! a leading provider of Elementary Science enrichment programs in Rhode Island and Southern Massachusetts with two locations that are part toy-store and part-workshop/party space.

Kidoinfo: What inspired you to start your business?
Eric Bulmer (EB): A couple of things. Although I loved classroom teaching, I was not enjoying the administrative aspects of the job and felt I was being held back. Teaching to a test has never been my style. Also, during my last year as a classroom teacher, I began performing science birthday parties and workshops for another company and saw the potential to take science “performance” a lot further. When Keith Michael Johnson, one of RI’s top enrichment performers, told me I “had the stuff” to go it on my own, I believed him.

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Parenting Simply: Love and Gratitude

Parenting Simply: Love and Gratitude

[ 3 ] 2.13.2012 |

In the busy-ness of life, we often move, move, move forward without noticing the time or the space or the feelings that we’re moving through. But what happens when we stand still? When we relax for a moment, and breathe, and notice what is happening around us while we stand still? Everything changes.

One simple ritual that helps me is pausing in my day to express gratitude. It can be as easy as pausing while I’m washing the dishes to look out the window and feel gratitude for the sky and the trees. I breathe deeply, feel gratitude and then return to my chore. But I am calmer and happier as I finish those dishes.

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Montessori: The Solution for Boys?

Montessori: The Solution for Boys?

[ 1 ] 2.9.2012 |

Dr. Montessori believed that “the hands are the tools of the mind” and created an approach to learning which engages each child in the two-fold process of purposeful activity and intellectual development. In Education for a New World, Dr. Montessori recognized that,

“Mind and movement are two parts of a single cycle; and movement is the superior expression. … If through force of circumstances the child cannot use his hands, the child remains incapable of obedience or initiative, lazy and sad, whereas the child who can work with his hands shows firmness of character.”

Being a father of a nine year old boy and a Montessori educator, I read with great interest what has become a popular theme growing both in notoriety and credibility, schools at every level of education are failing boys.

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DIY Valentine Craft Projects for Kids

DIY Valentine Craft Projects for Kids

[ 1 ] 2.3.2012 |

Whether your children make valentines for their entire the class or a handful for their grandparents and best friend, giving (and receiving) a handmade valentine is super special no matter how big, small, simple, or detailed the heart is.

Making a large number of valentines for your child’s class can seem daunting, but choosing a project that is simple to oversee and appropriate for your child’s skill and age level can be fun and rewarding. When my boys were toddlers, I precut hearts out of paper or used heart-shaped doilies and let them paint or put stickers on each one. Now that they’re older, it’s helpful that they have a longer attention span and can sign their own cards.

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The Herd of the Elephant Mothers

The Herd of the Elephant Mothers

[ 0 ] 2.1.2012 |

For families with kids in transition from one phase of school to the next, midwinter is application and registration time. As families get down to the brass tacks of the school choice process, I am riveted by the conversations you’re having about what’s next educationally for your kids. Yes, I am listening to you three at the corner table at Seven Stars, huddled over coffee and obsessing about which kindergarten will be the best fit for your four year olds, wondering about the unknowns of public schools, the price tag of private schools, the lottery-driven gamble of charter schools, or the possibility of moving to a new town “for the schools.” I am shamelessly eavesdropping, and sometimes I will ask to join in, because I am fascinated with parents’ motivations about their educational choices that they make for and with their children.

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