Q: My second grader is always at the top of her class. The teacher has recommended that she be tested for the district’s gifted program. I know it is really excellent as several of my friends have children in it.
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Family Matters
Doing Without
By Denise Pamudji
My daughter does without a lot of things I see in baby nurseries and stores. She doesn’t have a lot of toys or clothes. She has one DVD of things we recorded off TV. Her room doesn’t have a theme and I never got a matching bed set for her crib. She has one small playset in the yard (a slide) that we bought for a song. And I’m okay with it. (more)


It Figures
Irish Lore & Shining Stars
By Cynthia Washam
Facts and figures about four-leaf clovers, child wonders, etc. (more)


Parent Points
Topics covered: support group for children born with heart defects, diaper rash, tooth decay, dog bites, favorite couples, cystic fibrosis website, toys damaging children's hearing, helping children learn to read, and 2008 JPS job fair. (more)


Baby-Maternity Marketplace
We’ve reviewed several of the newer products designed to make life easier for moms. From feeding to soothing and prenatal care, there are a multitude of products out there. One of our favorites, a book called the Baby Gizmo Buying Guide will help you unravel the mysteries of how to choose exactly what you and your baby need. (more)


Bosom Buddies
The 411 on Breast Changes You Can Expect During Pregnancy
By Leah Ingram
If you’re like many women, your breasts told you of your pregnancy long before the line on a home pregnancy test turned solid. Seemingly overnight they grew larger, became tender, felt lumpier than usual, and appeared to have more veins below the surface of the skin. (more)


Celebrate Earth Day All Year Long by Greening the Family Computer
(and lots of other Hi-Tech Toys)
By Carolyn Jabs
This month, most American families will spend time thinking about how to reduce their carbon footprints. Happily, the family computer can help, for example, by cutting down on the time spent commuting or comparison shopping, by storing information that would once have been printed on paper, identifying sources for locally grown food (localharvest.org) and helping you figure out what a carbon foot print actually is (whatsmycarbonfootprint.com). (more)


Childhood Obesity
The Social Implications for Your Chubby Child
By Kara Kimbrough

"Children can be cruel." It’s a comment often made by parents as they recount the taunts made to their child by classmates on the playground. What the parents of some children with weight problems may not realize is that some obese children report being teased about their weight as early as age three. (more)


Featured Events
Information about Kidfest! and Pickin' & Paddlin' Outdoor Festival. (more)


It Takes a Village
Garner Support to Ease the Challenge of Caring for a Newborn
By Cynthia Washam
More than 10 years after an outcry against “drive-thru deliveries” led to a law lengthening most postpartum hospital stays to 48 hours, some mothers still feel they’re being pushed out the door. Nearly 12 percent of 4,300 mothers surveyed nationwide said they were discharged before they or their babies were ready. (more)


John Rosemond's Advice for Mississippi Parents
Interview with the noted family psychologist and a nationally-known parenting expert
By Katie Shelt
John Rosemond has been a noted family psychologist and a nationally-known parenting expert for over 30 years. He writes a weekly syndicated column that appears in over 250 newspapers, and travels around the country giving hundreds of seminars and talks for many different groups. The author of eleven bestselling books, he has recently published Parenting by the Book, which advocates biblical wisdom for child-rearing. Katie Shelt recently spoke with him about his new book and his advice for Mississippi parents. (more)


Lose Your Baby Fat
Here's a Reality Check on Losing Weight After You've Had a Baby
By Leah Ingram
I can still remember the shock of stepping on the scale five days after my second child was born. I'd delivered a nearly 8-pound baby, yet I weighed only 6 pounds less than I did at my last prenatal visit. I couldn't understand what was wrong with me. Turns out, I was perfectly normal in my consternation over my weight. (more)


New Moms Beauty Guide
Keep looking lovely during and after pregnancy
By Leah Ingram
You probably expected pregnancy hormones to wreak havoc on your body, but not on your hair and skin. Just because you’ve just spent nine months on a hormonal rollercoaster—and your skin and hair may have paid the price—there’s no reason that you can be a glowing, gorgeous new mom or mom-to-be. Our New Mom’s Beauty Guide will show you how. (more)


Parenting by the Book Returns to Child-Rearing Practices that Work
By Katie Shelt
In the last thirty years, parenting has changed from being a fairly straightforward task to a difficult chore that yields stressed-out parents and kids who don’t behave themselves. John Rosemond’s Parenting by the Book is based on biblical wisdom and old-fashioned parenting values. Rosemond takes a serious look at why modern parenting has, to a great degree, been a failure. With a healthy dose of humor, he examines what happened to get us in this predicament, and what it will take to get us out of it. (more)


Postpartum Mood Disorders
Understanding the Spectrum
By Joe Knight
It’s 3:00 AM. Your ten-day-old baby has been lying in her crib for over an hour crying. You lie there, wondering why you can’t stir-up the motivation to see if she’s OK. You don’t understand it—you were thrilled when you found out that you were pregnant. Now that you’re home, you just don’t seem to care. As you wonder what’s wrong with you, your little baby continues to cry and cry. (more)


Parents & Kids Magazine Calendar
April 2008
Upcoming events for April 2008. (more)