My mother-in-law asked me, “How do you get your kids so excited about being outside?” With the trend and allure in our culture of living a more screen-filled existence, it can be tough figuring out how to prioritize being outside.…
Unschooling: An educational method and philosophy that advocates learner-chosen activities as a primary means for learning. As a teenager, I dropped out of mainstream education. I was thirteen, and my mom and I decided I could take a "break" for…
Next week is Earth day. At my children’s school, we had big plans. We were going to dedicate the garden in front of our school with a plaque, officially confirming its status as a Monarch Waystation. We were going to…
Being stuck in our homes, with limited access to personal outdoor space, can be challenging. While most grocery stores are stocked with the items we need to eat, it’s a good idea to plan ahead and think about what you…
Photos from The ARC of the United States All Oklahomans are feeling the impact of this global crisis, including people with disabilities and the incredible staff and organizations that support them. However this important community is being overlooked when it…
Photo from The ARC As Oklahomans, along with the rest of the world, focus on the present COVID-19 health crisis, we could soon be faced with another health challenge in Oklahoma depending on the choices our state makes regarding Medicaid…
At Tulsa Advocates for the Rights of Citizens with Developmental Disabilities (TARC), we fight for the rights of those we serve year round. We take stock of those successes and celebrate them during Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month in March. Much…
Dena Drabek and her cousin Teresa March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, and it marks the third month into my new job as the Vice President of External Relations for Tulsa Advocates for the Rights of Citizens with Developmental Disabilities…
Edge of a waterfall There is a term we use at Under The Canopy, my nature explorers program, called “meeting your edge.” When you meet your edge, you are working on the uncomfortable feeling of being new at something. Taking…
I wonder what it was like for the indigenous Osage people of Oklahoma to walk through the forest of Northeast Oklahoma prior to white colonization? Washington Irving, an author and explorer, wandered through Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma) in 1832 and…
I first heard of BioBlitz!es when I was studying sustainability and nature in college. The idea intrigued me, but I left it at that, an idea to come back to one day. A BioBlitz! is an intense period of biological…
Fall is one of my favorite times to hike in green country. One of the best places I know to experience deep nature connection while staying within Tulsa city limits is Oxley Nature Center. If you continue up the winding…
My family before our Disney World Trip So, this is my last Guest Blog post for this summer. I have really enjoyed this job, and I’ve decided to wrap up my time here writing for TulsaKids with a post that…
I recently noticed that a house in our neighborhood has a mini-library. Not one inside their house, but a sort of mailbox/birdhouse that sits out by the curb. You can take a book and then return it, just like at…
So, the summer’s more than halfway over now. It always flies by so fast. And now that the prospect of school is somewhere on the not-so-distant horizon, you’re probably having to push your kid/tween/teen to read those last few books…
So, I’m going to start off by saying that this post is going to be a little different than my other ones so far. This one is especially near and dear to my heart, and has a little more about…
So, last week I talked (well, wrote, actually) about tweens working to make money. This week, it’s all about the other kind of work: volunteering! Kids, tweens and teens volunteer for different reasons. Some have to get service hours for…
Have you ever thought about money? I think it’s interesting how money is only valuable because we make it valuable. For instance, dollar bills are made of cotton paper and ink. Those things aren’t super rare! But bills also represent…
As I’m sure you know, this past Sunday was Father’s Day. And even though, yeah, Dad’s special day is over now, there are still lots of fun activities for kids to do to spend some quality time with their paternal…
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a grassroots gun violence prevention organization, has a program called Be SMART that teaches adults how to store firearms responsibly and prevent unintentional shootings. My last column discussed the “R” part of…
We love to hear from people of all walks of parenting. If you'd like to be a guest blogger for TulsaKids, please send an email to tara.rittler@gmail.com.
