Lunch Lessons: New Calorie Limits Add Healthier Items, Higher Costs to School Cafeterias

Montgomery and Prince George’s county schools serve more fruits and vegetables, but students may not be eating them.

Every day at lunch, children across Prince George’s and Montgomery counties may be facing what conventional wisdom says is one of their worst nightmares. No, it’s not monsters hiding under their beds or behind their closet doors. It’s not zombies chasing after them, either. It’s fruits and vegetables. After Congress passed a nationwide law limiting the amount of calories schools are allowed to serve at lunch, schools in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties are adhering to the rules and serving up more healthy options for students. “Before this year, each student had to select three out of five items,” said Marla Caplon, Director of the Division of Food and Nutrition Services at Montgomery County public schools. “This year, the student …

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What To Do With the Kids During Winter Break in Montgomery County

The county Department of Recreation offers half and full-day programs.

  Aside from summer break, winter break may be the most highly-anticipated event for kids during the school year. But for many parents it is also one of the most stressful. Finding care for children can be challenging. In Montgomery County, the Department of Recreation is offering a few different programs. Coach Doug Club Holiday Parents can select from the 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. half day program, or the full day program, which runs until 3:30 p.m. Located at Cabin John Middle School, the program is designed for children age 3 to 13, runs Dec. 26-28 and allows children to select from sports like soccer, basketball and kickball, or from non-competitive games and activities. Cost: Full day—$113 for Montgomery County residents, $128 for non-…

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Update: Clash Accuser Recants Allegations of Sexual Impropriety

Although Kevin Clash, of Dundalk, took a leave of absence after accusations of sexual impropriety, the accuser recanted his statement, according to The New York Times.

Update, Nov. 13: The man who accused the Elmo puppeteer of allegedly having sex with him as a teen has now recanted his statement. According to The New York Times' Brian Stelter, the 23-year-old accuser stated that he had sexual relations with Kevin Clash, a Baltimore native, when he was only 16. Although Clash denied the claims, he took a leave of absence from his job with Sesame Street earlier this week. Yet, the man recanted his statement today through his Harrisburg, PA attorney's office, Stelter reports, saying it was a "adult consensual relationship." Clash said in his own statement, he is “relieved that this painful allegation has been put to rest.” At this time, it is not known when Clash will return to work. Original Post, Nov. 12…

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Top Tips for a Safe Halloween

Keep your children, pets and house safe this October 31st.

Oct. 31 is the one day a year on which kids (and many adults) let loose and have fun – dressing up as their favorite sports and music personality, movie star or the more traditional zombies, vampires, ghouls and ghosts. The Montgomery County and Prince George’s Police Forces and Fire Departments as well as the ASPCA have issued a number of tips for keeping children, adults and even pets safe this Halloween. For trick-or-treaters: For Halloween party-goers: For pets:

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Mom's Corner

Explaining Question 6 to a 7-Year-Old

Question 6 might not be a big deal for you but it's a HUGE deal for our family.

  “Mommy what is this… vote for Question 6?” my youngest says to me on our way out of the door to school. “Um, it’s a yard sign. Come on we are running late. Get your book bag.” “But what does it mean? What is Question 6?” he asks with urgency. I pause. It seems like every important conversation happens when we are rushing out the door or driving and I can’t focus. This time I stop in my tracks because I realize in this moment that school can wait; this is an important conversation for our family. It deserves my full attention. “You know how when you take a test, there are a bunch of questions?” He nods, his eyes are on me, and he’s paying full attention. I take a deep breath unsure of how exactly I’m going to explain this, and in a split …

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Dangerous Consequences to Leaving Children, Pets in Hot Cars

Even leaving a child or pet alone in a hot car for a few minutes can result in serious injury or death.

We’ve all climbed into our cars on extremely hot days when temperatures hit the triple digits and complained that it feels like being in an oven.  What many don't realize is that temperatures in cars on hot days can reach almost 200 degrees, meaning they are actually hot enough to cook certain foods, Christine Delise, a public affairs spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, says. Delise says it’s important to get the word out that cars can become very dangerous in the heat and remind people that they should never leave a child or a pet unattended in a vehicle.  “It’s enough of a safety concern that many safety advocates and officials have put together campaigns and are working on getting the word out,” she said. Heat stroke, which can result …

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Chevy Chase Dad Launches Humorous Parenting Website

We've all had those forehead-smacking moments when we can't believe something we've done, or forgotten to do, around our kids. A Chevy Chase father wants to help us laugh about them.

Over the course of two or three weeks last spring, Josh Freeman, a Chevy Chase father of two, was struck by the similarity of several conversations he'd had with other parents. They were funny, self-deprecating tales of parenting misadventures, and they almost always finished with a variation of the expression, "That was a real mother-of-the-year-moment."  Freeman, a digital media executive, realized that this common theme could be the start of something. "I just heard it so many times, it got stuck in my head," he recalls. "We all have these moments, when we've gone to a job interview, turned off the cell phone, and then missed the call from [the school principal] that we've forgotten to pick up our kindergartener." And so, with the help …

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A Family Affair

Facebook Wants Your Tween: Will You Let Your Child Get an Account?

Is your child ready for social networking?

One evening, I logged into my Facebook account, looking, as usual, for new pictures of my nephews and nieces, updates from friends and relatives and anything untoward from my ninth-grader. She knows I read what she posts; it was a prerequisite for her membership. To be honest, her exchanges are typically adolescent—sometimes charming, sometimes banal and only rarely eyebrow-raising. Even then, they're really not all that bad, and in general, although I admit I might be biased here, her posts are more entertaining than some of my long-lost acquaintances who announce that they've just finished drinking the best cup of coffee they ever had or completed some peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches. She's done well with the responsibility, and so I …

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A Family Affair

Need Help with Your 21st-Century Child?

Ron Taffel delivered compelling parental advice to several hundred people in a joint B-CC-Whitman presentation.

"Well, you know it's been a bad week," a friend of mine once laughed. "I've ordered three parenting books from Amazon." Many of us have been in her shoes—at a loss and searching for expert parenting advice—and in that respect alone, we are unquestionably different from parents of previous generations.  According to Ron Taffel, a nationally acclaimed child-rearing expert who spoke a few weeks ago at Walt Whitman High School's auditorium, this is not surprising: Our children are the products of a profound shift in cultural dynamics that was decades in the making. We, as parents, experienced that shift first-hand, and now we face new, 21st-century challenges.  And you thought it was just you. Several hundred parents, many fresh from the …

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