Produced and directed by Tracy Droz Tragos, who previously directed Rich Hill, Independent Lens, and Abortion: Stories Women Tell, the film shadows the four kids — Sadie, Jaxon, Simone, and Brittany — as they venture from local high schools in Wyoming, Orlando, Maine and The Bronx to equivalent schools in Finland, South Korea, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Viewers will hear firsthand from the students about their experiences, and their thoughts on what the American education system gets right… and gets wrong when it comes to preparing them for their respective futures....

A great way to do that? Host a fun, chill, non-stuffy gathering outdoors, either at your place or another family-friendly venue. The trick is setting up a space and light activities that’ll keep the baby and other children at the party entertained while not subjecting your adult guests to endless games and other token kids’ party kitsch they can’t escape. Here are 10 ideas for throwing a fabulous first birthday party outside....

Create A Road Tape And Car Playset With all the duct tape you have lying around, you’re probably pissed you didn’t think of this first. Give the gift of 36 yards of sticky 2-lane pavement with the Create A Road tape and car set by Donkey Lab. Yeah, those little cars are pretty dinky, but this street will work with any Hot Wheels-sized toy. Because despite what Back to the Future predicted, we still need roads....

In any case, being a stay-at-home mom is an enormous task, one that requires everything a woman has. So, in addition to understanding the big picture, what are some small things stay-at-home-moms wish their husbands would do more often? We asked a group of moms just that. Their answers ranged from the small-but-meaningful (Text More! Stop Assuming I Have Everything Covered!) to the hilarious-but-still-meaningful (I Smell Diapers All Day So Don’t Fart Near Me!...

Place names strike the delicate balance between unique and familiar – you’ve heard the name before, but not necessarily on a person. You probably don’t know many people with place names, but when you hear them, they just sound right. And they can easily carry special meaning. Name your kid after the place you grew up, where you met your partner, or just someplace that sounds pretty. From states to small towns to cities, counties, and even mountain ranges, place names are everywhere if you’re willing to look....

1. Going to the County Fair “Our county fair happens in the summer, and it’s one of our favorite things to do as a family. Ever since the kids were little, they’ve loved going to see the animals, ride the rides, and eat junk food. It’s actually gotten a lot nicer in recent years, too. They’ve started bringing in bands and musicians. They’ve added a bunch of tents and local vendors, and brand new rides....

Since the film’s release in 1996, spacejam.com had been an extremely 90s website, even offering visitors a download for a Space Jam screensaver for Windows 95. Over the 25 years since the Michael Jordan film, the website had never been updated or changed, making it almost feel like a time machine that took us all back to when the internet was not nearly the dominant force in our lives that it has become in the decades since....

During our test-drive of the Ascent, we drove it onto a beach. Which meant, naturally, we tried to get the Ascent stuck. We drove like jerks, basically, spinning wheels, twisting the wheel, and flooring it. No dice. With 8.7 inches of ground clearance and a fairly venerable AWD system, the Subaru just kept plowing forward like an eager malamute. During another drive with the 2021 Subaru Ascent, a friend riding shotgun who drives a rival crossover, looked around kind of snootily and said, “Wait, this is a Subaru?...

One question centers around whether forgiven student loan debt would be taxable. While it’s not going to be taxed at the federal level, state tax law can occasionally be very different than federal tax law, and at least a dozen states seemed primed to tax forgiven student loan debt. This is despite the fact that Senator Chuck Schumer added a provision to the American Rescue exempting student loan cancellation from federal tax laws until 2025....

Be as Present as Possible There’s always going to be another deadline, another assignment that needs to be done. What doesn’t last forever is the time you get to spend with your kids. “I wish I’d taken more time, both staying home from work and not working as much,” Jeremy, 44, admitted to us. “Whatever I accomplished didn’t matter in the long term compared to that incredibly precious and fleeting time you have when they’re little....

The recall was announced on January 19, 2022. If you have either of the two pacifier models, you should stop using them immediately, Mushie & Co says on their website. Which Pacifiers were recalled and why? The two pacifiers recalled on Wednesday, January 19 include the FRIGG Silicone Pacifier Classic and the FRIGG Silicone Pacifier Daisy models. The pacifiers were sold in over 40 colors and came in two sizes: for infants 0 to 6 months and infants 6 to 18 months, according to the U....

The best books about adventure, survival, and the natural world aren’t sea-sprayed boast-fests, but all about humbling self-discovery under extreme conditions. Even then, they end up being less about individual toughness and more about our shared resilience, whether that sense of connection and rescue comes from other people or from the particular peace that settles on the solo traveler, deep in the wilderness or way out at sea. The best outdoor adventure books are about the incomparable beauty of the natural world and the absolute necessity of other people....

For every 13 COVID-related deaths, a child loses a parent, according to a statistical model from researchers at Penn State University. Because of the coronavirus, about 20 percent more kids have grieved a parent’s death compared to a normal year. Most of the children who lost a parent were adolescents, but about 25 percent were elementary-aged. “When we think of COVID-19 mortality, much of the conversation focuses on the fact that older adults are the populations at greatest risk....

Merge 6DoF Blaster Following up on last year’s handheld hologram, the Merge Cube, the VR/AR specialists at Merge Labs are back with the 6DoF (“Six Degrees of Freedom”) Blaster. Simply slide an iPhone in, start the app, and you’re ready to do battle in virtual reality. When you run, jump, and duck around the house playing this first-person shooter game, it runs, jumps, and ducks on screen with you ⏤ no goggles required....

It’s also good to teach kids that play isn’t the opposite of work. And there’s no harm in making chores fun. Here, then, are six games that are not only fun to do as a family, but that will ultimately make your home look nicer. The Chore: Cleaning Up Toys The Game: Pick It Up, Put It Down Before the game begins, determine a drop-off point where each player will collect their items and then assign points to certain categories of items that they would each find on the floor throughout the house....

The reality, as documented by scientists and experts the world over, is that babies arrive at development milestones at different times and in different orders. That’s why the word “milestone,” which connotes linear progress, is so unhelpful. People love the idea of a path. But typical developmental markers are intended only as broad waypoints, pointing the direction toward healthy development. Baby Milestones Are Broad Targets Milestones, as they relate to navigation, are markers along a path that give a traveler an indication of precisely how far they’ve advanced toward a fixed destination....

Turns out, many of Dahl’s stories are packed with cruelty, racism, and misogyny. He’s written some adult works in between his children’s books that are total NSFW headscratchers (read on if you dare!) And there’s plenty of evidence that he was actually a total weirdo in real life. It’s time we rethink our unconditional love of Dahl, and approach his work with all the caution of an Oompa Loompa who’s seen one too many children disappear inside Wonka’s factory....

“We know what factors are related to women making better or worse income, and each of those factors is directly linked to the quality of her relationship with her father,” says psychologist Linda Nielsen, who has studied father-daughter relationships for decades (and wrote a textbook about them). “It’s her graduation rates, her interest in STEM jobs, her assertiveness, her willingness to accept challenging, difficult, and scary tasks, and the sense that you’re responsible for what happens to you....

So, how do celebrate Shark Week with much after kid-friendly stuff? Here are six movies streaming on Disney+ that just happen to feature killer shark and are less likely to give your little ones shark-infested nightmares. Sharks of Lost Island This 45-minute documentary exists on Disney+ thanks to their partnership with National Geographic. This is a fairly bloodless documentary, and also focuses on some real-life pirate history, too. Good for kids who are okay with understanding that not all pirates were hilarious, and not all sharks are friendly....

But between too many and too few chores, there is a goldilocks zone. In order to get there, parents need to find their way through these common myths that may be holding the whole family back from the benefit of chores: Myth #1: Little Kids Can’t Do Chores Children as young as 3-years-old can start doing chores, which will likely come a shock to parents who believe their preschoolers are only adept at making messes....