Boys Built Better

Laughing Buck FarmToday I am chatting with Rosemary Graff owner of Laughing Buck Farm in Fort Collins. Five or so years ago, a friend introduced me to this little gem in Northern Fort Collins and my children have been going there in some capacity ever since. Laughing Buck Farm is home to a farm preschool, home-school classes, summer camps and more.I am so grateful for the time my youngest spent at farm preschool. He started when he was just three and was lucky enough to attend for three years before transitioning to kindergarten. During that time, he fed the animals, worked in the garden, rode horses, climbed hay bales and explored. He worked in the rain, in the heat of the early school year and even showed up all bundled with a thermos of hot chocolate when it was 20 degrees.And do you know what? He is more resilient for it.Today we are discussing farm life, the reality of chores how you can (or cannot) build work ethic and growing boys who love to be outside.Live in Fort Collins? Check out the programming a

What on Earth do you get a 12-year-old boy for XMAS?!This is what I typed into my search bar this weekend. He just had a birthday and he couldn’t even tell me what he wanted for that, now XMAS? In a way, I am glad. He understands that he already has what he needs and seems to appreciate those things. That’s awesome. But I still need to find at least something to put under the tree, right?With that in mind, I opened my computer and combed through multiple articles on “What to get your 12-year-old boy”. Did you know those articles existed? If you haven’t already searched the same thing, let me tell you there are hundreds of them! But here is what I found on my own search, none of them are very good. The links that I clicked came up near the top of my search and what I noticed is that none of them seemed to written by actual parents of boys!!!!I want Christmas morning to be special, and I want the interest in those gifts to last longer than those few hours. Despite how quickly my kids rip through the packages, I

Today I am chatting with Shana Kagan, founder of Jedi Tedi about her son’s Complex Regional Pain Syndrome diagnosis.Since November is CRPS Awareness Month, I thought I would help shed a little more light on Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. This is something that my son was unfortunately diagnosed with this time last year after a competitive soccer injury. After days of not being able to bear weight on his leg after the injury, we saw a local sports medicine doctor who x-rayed my son’s leg. Although swollen, he did not find any significant injury: certainly nothing that would cause the amount of pain he was in. An MRI came back clear as well...In the doctor’s office, after the MRI, we were given a diagnosis of CRPS. For my son, the symptoms were pain disproportionate to the initial injury, inability to bear weight on his right leg, inability to bear any contact with his right leg and cold to the touch body temperature below the affected knee. We were sent on our way and told to let the doctor know if he didn’t

If there is one thing that has been in the news lately, it is boys and sex.The focus has been on violence and men behaving badly, right? Well, as a parent how do you combat that? How do you teach your own son to do better?  It starts by talking about sex and that conversation needs to happen earlier than you would expect.Today we are talking to Kori Wilford, a public health educator with the Larimer County Department of Health, on how to raise sexually healthy boys and how to initiate that conversation early and often.From the definition of sexual health, to today’s research, to what to teach at all ages, this episode is not only fascinating but filled with great information and practical tips on how to tackle this conversation no matter how old your child is.Things I never knew until this interview:* Sexual Health is like skin care, it’s never too early or too late to start* Research shows that a comprehensive approach to sex education delays your child’s first sexual experience* Young children who can prope

If I could go back in time: Sleep Apnea and TonsillectomiesRaising kids is full of ups and downs and there are definitely things I wish I could have done differently along the way.  If I could, for example, I would have changed the way I handled video games at an earlier age.  But even though I have some regrets about that, it’s nothing I couldn’t change now if I wanted to.  There is one thing, though, I didn’t handle well and now that it is done, I cannot undo the consequences.My middle son, most likely had undiagnosed sleep apnea for 4 years.  I noticed the first symptoms at 1 year of age and his tonsils and adenoids were removed at 5.  In between, he was chronically unrested which led to behavior issues and academic delays that I believe still haunt us to this day.Unfortunately, there isn’t much I can do about his journey. But, with my youngest just being ordered a sleep apnea test, I thought I would tell our story so others may avoid all the difficulties we had.Show NotesArticles on Sleep Apnea* Stanford

In the last of our series on transitioning to schools, today I am chatting with Alexis Karasek, a mom whose son just graduated high school.  In our other transitioning episodes, we focused on making a one-grade leap.  Since high school spans a lot of change maturity wise, today we are talking about your child from 9th-12th. Want more transitioning episodes?  Check out our episode on starting elementary school and our episode on middle school. Show Notes* Parenting with Love and Logic* Parenting with Love and Logic for Teens* Are you a lawnmower parent? Here’s a link to the article we talked about if you haven’t seen it. Timestamps* Why talk about high school as a whole instead of just 9th? (3:44)* First two/ last two years of high school (4:47)* Learning to Drive (8:59)* Looking Back with Perspective (11:40)* Bad Decisions (13:52)* Letting your son find himself (17:33)* Personality vs. Parenting (21:59)* Don’t save him (25:40)* Fail and Figure it out (26:51)

Chatting with my friend Erin Dirvonas about transitioning to middle school. Since I have two kiddos making transitions this I have been thinking a lot about them.  Today I am chatting with my friend Erin about middle school and making the change easiest on everyone.Show Notes* Cooler Lunch Bag* Locker Shelf* Locker White Board* Bike rackTimeStamps* The sixth-grade experience (5:50)* Similarities to Elementary? (6:44)* Teacher Communication (7:54)* Developing Independence (10:07)* Lunch Questions (13:14)* Dealing with the locker (14:24)* Time Management (15:45)* Learning to speak for yourself (17:25)* Picking an instrument (19:36)* All the girls (22:50)* Changing throughout the year/ grades (25:20)* What to prepare for ahead of time (29:22)* Learning to contemplate and expand ideas (31:14)* Devices and social media (33:41)* Parenting through middle school (36:14)

Chatting with my friend Sydney Smith about transitioning to kindergarten. I’ve been thinking a lot about getting my own son ready for kindergarten and moving to such a big building.  We discuss academics, independence skills and tips to make the transition easier. Show Notes* Sydney’s favorite thing: Guardians of galaxy CD* Jessica’s favorite thing: Hose reel* Recommended workbooks to prep academically* Easier way to tie shoes* Easy to open(and pack!) lunchboxTimeStamps* Our current favorite things (1:23)* Getting to know this week’s guest (3:30)* Thought on becoming a mother later in life (4:29)* Kindergarten overview (5:58)* Waiting a year (8:22)* What you need to know about academics (10:14)* Zippers, buttons and pants, oh my! (19:04)* The joys of new kids and peer pressure begins (24:54)* Carpool Etiquette (29:05)* Thinking about Lunch (30:58)

Solo Episode, chatting about all things summer! Organizing yourself and your kiddos, fun activities, keeping up with academics and staying sane!!Tip 1- Get OrganizedTo Do Sheet – A few years ago, I used a “No Screen-time Until” sheet to this one to get us organized. I customized ours to reflect the things I wanted my kiddos to do each day. Here is a link to a great example. https://www.yourmodernfamily.com/no-screen-time-until-free-printable/Mom Bucks – Last year I used a more elaborate system of currency during the summer. My kids could earn “mom bucks” for doing chores, reading, spending time outside and then could spend the bucks on time playing video games, a special treat, or could save up to exchange for real dollars. The blog I based my system is this one. http://faithfilledparenting.com/mom-bucks/Organizing a summer with a Planner – This year, I am using an individual planner to keep my big kids organized. They are filling it out with daily and once a week chores. Check out my blog about using the pla

Interview with Kyle Douglas, chatting about the mental health of boys with tips on how to raise boys to be mentally well and also information about what therapy is and when to utilize it.Show NotesChildren’s book about taking care of yourself so you can take care of others (https://amzn.to/2IzZoR0)Calm down toy to use during tantrums (https://amzn.to/2KER4f2)DIY calm down toy (https://childhood101.com/calm-down-bottle/)Brene Brown Ted Talk on Vulnerability https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerabilityWant more from Kyle? Check out his website. (http://www.kyledouglastherapy.com/) TimestampsMen in therapy today (5:21)How to raise boys that are aware of emotions (9:32)Coping skills for children (14:37)What to expect in therapy (28:00)Length of therapy (34:00)The stigma of therapy (36:28)When to seek therapy (38:20)What to look for in a therapist (40:55)

Last Fall, at my oldest son’s 11 year checkup, the pediatrician mentioned the onset of puberty. Sounds silly, but I hadn’t really thought about it before and I certainly didn’t know about the changes my son was about to go through. (If you need a great puberty resource, check out the book I bought for my son and I here.)Want to know more about your own son’s development? Today I am interviewing Dr. Roy Benaroch and we are chatting about the development of boys from newborn baby through to puberty with parenting tips for each stage of growth. Show NotesRoy’s blog is www.pediatricinsider.com and follow him on Twitter at @pedinsiderSearch for Roy Benaroch at www.thegreatcourses.com to learn more about his Medical School for Everyone video courses Time StampsRoy’s number one parenting tip (1:38)Parenting Babies (7:19)How parents treat boys and girls differently (8:38)Toddlers are little scientists (13:37)Developing Independence in Preschoolers (15:44)School age boys (18:32)Early Sexual Development (23:59)Unders

In this episode you will learn a little more about Boys Built Better and its host, JessicaCrow. Jessica is a mom to 3 boys aged 5, 9 and 11 who decided to get into podcasting after aparticularly hard year as a parent.The Boys Built Better podcast is a bi-weekly show designed help all parents raise theirboys, better.For more Boys Built Better follow us on Twitter @BoysBuiltBetter, Facebook atfacebook.com/boysbuiltbetter and sign-up below to receive email updates.For more information about the art project mentioned in the show, check out our blogpost about it here:https://boysbuiltbetter.com/arts-and-crafts/getting-started-with-perler-beads/