Education | PulseonParenting

I Almost Got Scammed: How to Avoid Falling Into the Trap

Aug 31 2023

It sounded too good to be true…but. The site looked legit…the business logo was spot-on, the photography professional, and the item descriptions well-written. The discounts were crazy good, so my daughter and I filled our virtual shopping cart and clicked the “checkout” button. Then there it was: scam written all over the payment screen. They nearly had us. I Almost Got Scammed: How to Avoid Falling Into the Trap. So close, yet so far… I had a weird feeling about the site when my daughter told me about it. One of our favorite athletic clothing brands was discontinuing a style…

Aug 17 2023

The email was clear and straightforward. But it seemed to be missing a critical detail. Scholarship applications for university* were due on this date. Resident hall applications were due on that date. But what about the applications to university itself? Did we miss an email? An important deadline? Did we completely screw this up with our American bias?!? (Insert mini freak-out here) The answer, thankfully, is no. The road to uni is different here and we had a lot to learn. New Zealand College Admissions: the Process is Surprising. University for all: all who make the cut, that is. Students…

May 04 2023

We have been cultured to believe that drinking coffee is a bad habit. And that sipping tea is the healthy way to go…think how herbal tea is labeled: antiinflammatory, immune-boosting, calming. However, there is a large body of powerful research that supports imbibing in a different kind of brew. Coffee drinkers rejoice: java is now good for your health. A Guilty Habit? Many of us agree: coffee is delicious. And I like it strong and black, thick enough to stand a spoon in. A couple of mugs every morning, and I feel my day is off to a good start….

Be brave enough to suck at something new.

Mar 31 2023

What’s your passion? Let’s find your passion! I’m passionate about… Plenty of well-meaning people use the word passion to describe that “thing” that makes them come alive. But I hear passion and my stomach clenches like I’ve heard nails on a chalkboard. Passion was a trigger word frequently used in the multi-level marketing business (MLM) I was briefly an “independent contractor” for. The idea of finding their passion as a part of the MLM drew people in, enticing them with community, a white Mercedes and a fabulous high-heeled lifestyle. Passion manipulated people and kept them cogs in a money train…

New Zealand kids don't graduate. Here's what they do instead.

Feb 16 2023

I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. The quality, the vibe, that makes New Zealand different from the U.S. Then, on a car ride along the vibrant Tasman coast, my mother-in-law hit it on the head. Life is simpler. Not as a euphemism for backward, far from it. Simpler as in less burdensome, less effort to keep up with the Joneses. Things just are. In an authentic, take-it-or-leave-it manner. I wrote last week about my boys’ Last First Day of school. In less than a year, their senior year (or as it is called in New Zealand, Year 13)…

Twins may mean "instant family" but make saving for college a challenge.

Sep 15 2022

I know. Ugh. The alphabet soup of savings plans…ROTH IRA’s, 401 A and B’s, 529’s. I don’t know if any of these examples of savings funds are even REAL, that’s how bad I am at anything beyond my personal checking account. (Oh, this just in: those funds ARE the real deal.) But I did some research. 529’s are a great way to stash money away for higher education. So stop, drop and open: start saving for college now. What are 529 Plans? 529’s (AKA Qualified Tuition Programs, or Section 529 Plans) allow you to put away money for educational purposes:…

Take AP classes in subjects that interest you.

Aug 25 2022

AP Courses. College Classes. On my son’s orientation night, that’s all the high school principal could talk about. It was enough to make anyone’s head swim. On and on. Why? The hard sell made me suspicious, especially as I had a less-than-stellar experience with AP as a high school student. Which then made me wonder if much has changed with AP (Advanced Placement) in the last few decades. So are AP courses worth the anxiety? Read now and decide. My AP experience (and therefore, my bias) I went to a small midwest high school and was in an “honors” English…

Feb 19 2021

“She’s nice.” “Niiiiicccce!” says my son, ogling the Rolls Royce parallel-parked outside a downtown Boston McDonald’s. (Yup, really….) Nice. (Sarcasm oozing, eyes rolling, when we witness someone else’s blunder.) That was a kind thing to do! Often we consider “nice” and “kind” to be interchangeable descriptors. But let’s try a quick experiment. Try replacing “kind” for “nice” in each of the first three statements above. “Kind” only works for the first, but not for the second or third. We would not describe an expensive car (or any other pricey, stylish object) as kind, or, at least in current vernacular, use…

“But I Just Know MY People are COVID-Free”: Human Nature Fails Us Yet Again

Oct 22 2020

Don’t shame me, if I want to rent a house and lay on the beach with twenty of my fabulous friends from across the country, that’s what I’m going to do. I thought about this for a moment. Shaming. I didn’t know about her latest vacay plans when I told her about my grandmother’s lonely suffering in a care facility after three surgeries and the death of her daughter, that my own child was at-risk for severe COVID symptoms, and that my husband sees people in hazmat suits every day he goes to work. I’ll give her that: providing a…

Oct 15 2020

I’m really worried. It’s not a secret that our twin boys are the miracles of science. After three rounds of in vitro fertilization, and the mourning of many of our embryonic children, on our fourth attempt our boys were conceived. I had morning sickness like clockwork. I remember the weird little vibration in my abdomen while I was doing charts at work, the boys’ first movements an absolute wonder. The ultrasounds seem like just yesterday. From the first furious fluttering of their little 6-week-old hearts to Baby B turning sommersaults at 20 weeks. He still has that kind of energy…

My name is Heidi Black and I have it all... Maybe not in the traditional sense of the phrase but I do feel I have it all: three beautiful, healthy children, a devoted husband and father and the privilege of being a Domestic Engineer. (I used to call myself a SAHM but that just doesn’t fit when my day is filled with coordinating 5 schedules and preplanning their execution, all up to a week in advance.) And now, indulging in a not-so-secret desire to write, and following the advice “write what you know” I am ready to share what I have learned from this ironic life journey and along with you, discover answers to those many questions related to parenting.

Category - Education

I Almost Got Scammed: How to Avoid Falling Into the Trap

New Zealand College Admissions: the Process is Surprising

Coffee Drinkers Rejoice: Java is Now Good for Your Health

How to Know When You’ve Found Your “Thing.”

New Zealand Kids Don’t Graduate. Here’s What They Do Instead.

Stop, Drop, and Open. Start Saving for College NOW.

Are AP Courses Worth the Anxiety? Read Now and Decide

The Kindness Series: No More Mr. Nice Guy, Be Kind Instead

“But I Just Know MY People are COVID-Free”: Human Nature Fails Us Yet Again

In Vitro Fertilization Grows Families: #ThanksIVF