Archives › Kids’ Activities
Lesbian Mom Expelled from Boy Scouts Speaks Out
I wrote the other day about Ohio mom Jennifer Tyrrell, whom the Boy Scouts expelled as den leader of her son’s Cub Scout troop because she is a lesbian. Now, her Change.org petition asking the Boy Scouts to reconsider their policy of not permitting gay Scouts or leaders has gained nearly 130,000 signatures. Tyrrell also [...]
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Boy Scouts Kick Lesbian Den Leader Out of Son’s Den
The Boy Scouts of America has recently told Jennifer Tyrrell, a lesbian mom in Ohio, that because of her sexual orientation, she can no longer serve as the den leader of her son’s local Cub Scout chapter. Although parents of the other boys in the den supported her, the local Boy Scout council revoked her membership. After the jump, find out what Tyrrell and the other parents are doing in response, and how you can help.
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IKEA Gets to the Root of Family with Inclusive Carrot Toys
Yet another in my occasional but ongoing series on why I love IKEA. This adorable carrot family shows that what matters is love and happiness. The gender of the parents doesn’t matter–or can be imagined to be whatever the child wants them to be.
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Did Your Kids Get Holiday Presents You Regret?
Now that we’ve all had a little time to recover from the holidays, let me ask: Which of your children’s holiday presents are you most glad they got? Are there any you regret? And do they feel differently? Speaking for myself, I have no regrets. We seem to have progressed past the age when he [...]
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“Girls” Toys and “Boys” Toys: Some Progress and Some Cautions
The winter holidays always seem to highlight that the world tends to divide toys into “girls” and “boys” varieties. Most of us here, I think, would agree that no one should be forced into particular types of play based on real or perceived gender. Over at Skepchick, Natalie Reed has a great article on “Guyliner, Murses, [...]
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Birthday Gift Ideas Needed
OK, let’s have a little group participation on this one. I need to get a birthday present for a classmate of my third-grade son. The boy is friendly enough to invite my son to his party, but not in the “best friends” category. I’ve never met the boy or the parents. Other than “Star Wars,” my [...]
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Parenting Funnies at Autostraddle
Lesbian news and entertainment site Autostraddle is terrific, but perhaps not the first place you’d turn for parenting information. If you haven’t read executive editor Laneia’s posts on “How to Live With Kids: Toys & Entertainment” and “How to Live with Kids: Food & Cooking,” however, you’re missing two of the funniest yet most truthful [...]
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A Book for the Sneaky Kids in Your Life
My eight-year-old son is on a secret agent kick right now. He runs around the backyard talking into an old, bulky, non-working digital watch I gave him, and plots the overthrow of evil villains. I’m pleased to say our backyard is villain-free. (Unless you count the mosquitoes, but I think they’re the henchbugs of a distant insect overlord.)
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New Summer Camp For Kids with LGBT Parents
There’s a new summer camp for kids with LGBT parents! Camp Highlight joins a small list of other such camps, and has burst onto Twitter with a flurry of posts in the last day or so. I don’t have any personal experience with it, but I’m happy to pass along the information so you can [...]
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Science in Your Inbox
My son is always complaining that his school doesn’t do enough science. It’s the result, I believe, of the much maligned No Child Left Behind educational policy and its focus on core math and reading skills to the neglect of science, social studies, history, and other subjects. Not that the core skills aren’t important—but I firmly [...]
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Harry Potter: Get a Clue
One of the joys of the holiday season around our house is new board games, because we’re geeky like that. We spent the entire first night of Hanukkah (after the candles and an obligatory dreidel round) playing Clue: Harry Potter Edition. Now, I’m usually a skeptic when it comes to movie-tie-in versions of games. Just [...]
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What Fictional Parent Are You?
It’s Monday, so let’s do something light and fun. Which fictional parent do you most resemble (in character or appearance)? Alternatively, which fictional parent would you most like to resemble? I’m afraid that reading Harry Potter with our son of late—and now starting the movies—has made me unable to think of anyone other than Mrs. Weasley. I’m [...]
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Lego Lesbians in Love
Harry Potter Lego Sets to Include Suspiciously Short-Haired Quidditch Coach
With Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe making the cover story of Out magazine, I’d be thinking about Harry even if I wasn’t in the middle of reading the series with my son and playing the new Lego Harry Potter Wii game. (And I’m not the only queer parent to be doing so, as Paige Schilt’s [...]
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What Are You Doing for Summer Fun?
Time for this week’s discussion thread. Now that Pride is almost over and the hot weather is upon us, what summer plans do you have for you and your family? Our son is in a few local summer programs for July, but we’re hoping to do family stuff in August, so I’ve left that pretty [...]
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“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 108
Helen and I discuss out wild domestic lifestyle of camping, gardening, and playing video games with our son. What lessons can such activities teach kids? (If the embedded video above doesn’t work for you, try it at Dailymotion.) Brought to you in partnership with After Ellen.
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Kids’ Poems, LGBT and Not
April is National Poetry Month, for no reason I can discern except that this glorious weather seems a perfect inspiration for writing poems. The Academy of American Poets site has everything you’d ever want to know about the celebration, but I’m going to share a couple of additional resources because we’re almost all parents and/or [...]
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“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 101
Helen and I bring you the Nature Edition of our vlog this week, with a look at what we’ve been doing outdoors with our son as the weather turns slightly warmer. This leads us to a discussion of science, education policy, and what happens when life imitates video games. Mombian: She Got Me Pregnant, 03-11-10 [...]
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“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 95
In our first vlog for the new year, Helen and I show off the new Wii Santa brought our son. (Clever Santa.) We discuss the communal nature of today’s video games, setting video game limits with kids, and violence in Legoland. Helen also talks about a wonderful and slightly gender-bending new children’s book about Emily [...]
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Lesbian Moms Rejected as Leaders of Son’s Cub Scout Troop
Cate and Elizabeth Wirth, a lesbian couple in Vermont, were told by a Vermont district director of the Boy Scouts that they could no longer volunteer for their son’s Cub Scout troop after it became known that they are a couple. According to the Rutland Herald, Richard Stockton, Scout executive for the Green Mountain Council, [...]
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Kids Have an Itch to Program? Scratch It!
Do your kids like to use computers? Do they linger in the computer areas of science museums, playing with the demos? Do they eye the Lego Mindstorms robot sets until you see the nearly $300 price tag and quickly usher them away? Here’s good news: Scratch, a programming language designed just for kids, is absolutely [...]
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Legos and Marriage Equality
Long-time readers know we’re nutty about Legos here at the house of Mombian. I was intrigued, therefore, by an article in The Morning News (via Make) in which author Giles Turnbull discusses Lego terminology. Different families, it seems, have different names for each of the little pieces, usually driven by what the children call them. [...]
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Moneygami Marvels
My spouse Helen recently stumbled across the fascinating world of moneygami, origami using paper money. Some of the more clever designs even highlight the portrait of the person on the bill. It seems to be one of those niche hobbies that the Internet facilitates, although I am sure it far predates the Web. Helen has [...]
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“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 76
Helen and I explore the importance of imagination, with a look at how modern media and toys stifle kids’ creativity and what parents can do to change this. Are Lego bricks a force for good, or have they gone downhill since the time of our childhood? Helen also demonstrates a whirling homemade toy that could [...]
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Tour the Moon, No Rocket Required
Here’s a fun one for the kids (and grown-ups, too), in honor of the 40th anniversary of the moon landing: Google has launched an upgrade to its Google Earth software with information and activities about the lunar landings. According to Google, you can now: Take tours of landing sites, narrated by Apollo astronauts View 3D [...]
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