Growing Community: Are we there yet? By Shirley Ritter and Katherine Sand/Special to the Aspen Daily News It may be something of an old chestnut, but nevertheless there is so much to value in the Ralph Waldo Emerson quotation: “Life is a journey, not a destination.”  As human beings, we are constantly striving and moving forward — we set ourselves [...]

The end of the school year, with graduations, continuations and so many other ceremonies and transitions, is a poignant and emotional time for parents. Whether it’s the last day of preschool or high school graduation, parents are always going to be flooded with excitement, apprehension and wistfulness at the passing of time. We find ourselves grasping at both the memories [...]

Welcome to May, The Month of the Young Child. As a community, we’ve celebrated The Month of the Young Child for 31 years. So what were you doing in 1990? Were you a child in the parade? Were you a parent of a young child? Were you working in a child care program? It’s safe to say that quite a [...]

The signs of spring are miraculous (and we’re biased), but more dramatic in the Roaring Fork Valley than almost anywhere. To go from snow and the many shades of brown and grey that succeed it — to the astoundingly vivid green that pops seemingly overnight and sweeps up valley — is an amazing and invigorating annual event. It reminds us [...]

April is known for a lot of things – mud, snow, rain or other forms of moisture, depending on where you live. It’s also known as Child Abuse Prevention Month. We prefer, however, to think of it as “we can all help keep our kids safe” month. Have you noticed the blue pinwheels around town? It’s a fun way to [...]

Growing Community: Old enough to know better One of the challenges of bringing up children here in the Roaring Fork Valley is the fact that many of us don’t have family members living close by. That makes it difficult and expensive to see grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins with any regularity, and means that our children don’t have the experience [...]

Growing Community: Talking about screen time The unifying hazard of modern parenting. It drives parents to distraction. It’s causing the downfall of civilization — destroying reading, polite discourse, innocence, trust and truth. Technology. Devices. Social media. Phones. Video games. Internet. Screens. The fact that we don’t have one name for it and that it has so many facets, positive and [...]

Growing Community: Who needs a parenting class? What’s the one job most of us ever have that we’ll constantly fail at, never feel on top of and which will bleed us dry financially and leave us sleepless for decades? Yes, it’s parenting! Apparently, the concept of “parenting” is quite a recent invention, emerging in the 1970s during a time when [...]

Growing Community: Are we there yet? By Shirley Ritter and Katherine Sand/Special to the Aspen Daily News It may be something of an old chestnut, but nevertheless there is so much to value in the Ralph Waldo Emerson quotation: “Life is a journey, not a destination.”  As human beings, we are constantly striving and moving forward — we set ourselves [...]

The end of the school year, with graduations, continuations and so many other ceremonies and transitions, is a poignant and emotional time for parents. Whether it’s the last day of preschool or high school graduation, parents are always going to be flooded with excitement, apprehension and wistfulness at the passing of time. We find ourselves grasping at both the memories [...]

Welcome to May, The Month of the Young Child. As a community, we’ve celebrated The Month of the Young Child for 31 years. So what were you doing in 1990? Were you a child in the parade? Were you a parent of a young child? Were you working in a child care program? It’s safe to say that quite a [...]

The signs of spring are miraculous (and we’re biased), but more dramatic in the Roaring Fork Valley than almost anywhere. To go from snow and the many shades of brown and grey that succeed it — to the astoundingly vivid green that pops seemingly overnight and sweeps up valley — is an amazing and invigorating annual event. It reminds us [...]

April is known for a lot of things – mud, snow, rain or other forms of moisture, depending on where you live. It’s also known as Child Abuse Prevention Month. We prefer, however, to think of it as “we can all help keep our kids safe” month. Have you noticed the blue pinwheels around town? It’s a fun way to [...]

Growing Community: Old enough to know better One of the challenges of bringing up children here in the Roaring Fork Valley is the fact that many of us don’t have family members living close by. That makes it difficult and expensive to see grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins with any regularity, and means that our children don’t have the experience [...]

Growing Community: Talking about screen time The unifying hazard of modern parenting. It drives parents to distraction. It’s causing the downfall of civilization — destroying reading, polite discourse, innocence, trust and truth. Technology. Devices. Social media. Phones. Video games. Internet. Screens. The fact that we don’t have one name for it and that it has so many facets, positive and [...]

Growing Community: Who needs a parenting class? What’s the one job most of us ever have that we’ll constantly fail at, never feel on top of and which will bleed us dry financially and leave us sleepless for decades? Yes, it’s parenting! Apparently, the concept of “parenting” is quite a recent invention, emerging in the 1970s during a time when [...]