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Remembering Dr. DeBow Freed

ONU/Ada is a better place because the Freeds left their mark
Posted by Fred Steiner on Monday, February 10, 2020

By Monty Siekerman
Dr. DeBow Freed died on Feb. 8, 2020. For his obituary click here.

How would Dr. DeBow and his late wife Catherine (Kitty) Freed like to be remembered?

They lived by the mantra “Students come first.” While at Ohio Northern, the couple worked tirelessly, always putting students first because educating students is the whole purpose of the institution. The faculty, staff, buildings, equipment, landscaping, and all else were to benefit students. That was the institution’s singular goal during his tenure as president.

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Lowdown on cloth diapers... they've come a long way

A mother's musing
Posted by LizGH on Wednesday, February 5, 2020

By Liz Gordon-Hancock
Bambino Mio, GroVia, Fill Your Pants, bumgenius, AppleCheeks, and Rumparooz - these are all brands of cloth diapers.

Cloth diapers have had a total revamp. I'm not talking about the big terrycloth squares that you perform a type of origami on, and then use giant safety pins to secure around your baby.

Cloth diapers nowadays come in dozens of different types, materials, shapes and colors: all-in-one, prefolds, envelope-style, pocket diaper with inserts, and choice of snaps or velcro closures and so on.

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Who was Miss Muffet anyway?

Why we read nursery rhymes to our children
Posted by LizGH on Wednesday, January 15, 2020

By Liz Gordon-Hancock
Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man. Bake me a cake as fast as you can...
Humpty dumpty sat on a wall; Humpty dumpty had a great fall...

I'm reading these Mother Goose rhymes to my two-year-old, as part of his bed-time stories.

Have you ever stopped to think about these nursery rhymes and what these stories or words mean?

So many of these rhymes just don't make sense: Hey diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle. The cow jumped over the what?

Others are a little sinister, like the one about Peter, the pumpkin eater, and whatever he did with his wife.

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My season of motherhood

Diapers, sleep deprivation and dancing chickens
Posted by LizGH on Thursday, December 19, 2019

By Liz Gordon-Hancock
To everything, there is a season. And I'm not talking about the fall, winter, spring, summer... or even the Christmas season, but the seasons that come with motherhood. These seasons are typified by little things, like diapers or high chairs, soccer balls or pom poms.  

If you have a teenager, you may be in the season of door-slamming and hormones. If you have a growing boy, you may be in the season of monthly shoe-shopping, as you try to keep up with your son's ever-growing feet.

For me personally, I'm in the season of diapers, sleep deprivation and a dancing chicken toy.

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When to lie to your children

A mother's musings
Posted by LizGH on Wednesday, December 4, 2019

By Liz Gordon-Hancock
When is it appropriate to lie to your children?

The reason I'm even asking myself that question is because my father-in-law has severe dementia/Alzheimer's and there are scenarios where lying to him is actually the best thing to do for him, in that moment.

When my father-in-law first went into the nursing home, he was perpetually panicky about the cost of his care and would demand my husband tell him how much was in his bank account. In this case, lying to him was the best thing to do.

So, when is it appropriate to lie to your children?

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Teaching idioms to first graders?

Posted by LizGH on Wednesday, November 20, 2019

My kids bring a lot of papers home from school.

Amongst these papers was a sheet of practical activities to do at home to encourage literacy, logic, character-building and math skills. Under the language section, it suggested counting how many idioms my first grader could think of, as a sort of game.

You're pulling my leg, right?

First off, I think today's first graders are learning far more than I was taught at that grade level. For example, my first grader was learning to spell advanced words such as special, barbecue, and rhythm. She just turned seven. So - today's first graders have the potential to know far more than I did at that age.

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