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Parenting subjects from a dad's point of view, because I said so.Looking for something different to grow in the garden this year? Here's something simple and fun for the kids: Grow a green bean tepee. Stick garden stakes in a circular pattern an inch or so into the ground and tie them together at the apex, omitting one to leave space for an entrance. Cross-pieces will help strengthen the structure and encourage the vines to fill in between stakes. Plant green beans at the base of each stake. Last year I made a grievous error of buying a variety of green bean that grew into a low bushy plant rather than climbing as a vine, which resulted in something that …
My six-year-old daughter, a kindergartener at Catonsville Elementary School, was inordinately excited when our Giant, on Wilkens Avenue, took down the sign on the front of the supermarket last week. “I think this is it,” she told me when we saw workers in cherry-picker trucks in front of the store. “It’s happening!” For years, the supermarket has been the subject of a story that I first made up more than 20 years ago when my oldest son was a toddler. The story has been told and retold again and again, passed along from sibling to sibling, with each child adding their own details and …
“Daddy, I'm bored,” the six-year-old says while traveling in the car. “Sweetie pie,” I say into the rear-view mirror, “Daddy cries himself to sleep at night. Sometimes boring is good.” “Daaaadeeee,” she repeats with emphasis, in case I missed it the first time. “I'm booored.” Okay. It's times like this that parents earn their stripes and pull some fun out of thin air. The problems with spending time on the road is that you can't read together or play a game with a lot of little parts. Fortunately, I know a game that is an entertaining time-killer that can be modified for any age group and …
