by Ari Yares | Feb 13, 2017 | The Innovative Dad Blog
I have a three-year-old at home, so we have a lot of interactions that go like this: “Please [insert age-appropriate, reasonable request].” “Why?” “Because [insert age-appropriate explanation].” “Why?” It keeps going until his curiosity is satiated, he feels like...
by Ari Yares | Feb 6, 2017 | Executive Functioning, School Psychology, The Innovative Dad Blog, Video
There is a lot of talk about executive functioning and it has nothing to do with how well the CEO of a company is doing. Instead, executive functioning (EF for short) is how your brain manages the resources that it has to work with. You can think of EF as the manager...
by Ari Yares | Jan 30, 2017 | Design Thinking
On a recent family trip, we visited a pretzel factory (many of our family vacations involve touring food factories) where I learned two interesting things about the classic hard pretzel. First, it’s a relatively new innovation. All pretzels were soft pretzels...
by Ari Yares | Jan 23, 2017 | The Innovative Dad Blog
I hate driving carpool. There. I’ve finally said something that we are all thinking. Shlepping your own kids around town can be painful enough, but when you throw in two or three of their friends, it can be a downright miserable experience. And, yes, I’ve wanted to...
by Ari Yares | Jan 16, 2017 | The Innovative Dad Blog
“I’m bored.” Two words that every parent learns to dread. The conversation continues with: “There’s nothing to do.” Yet, you look around and see a house full of toys, crafts, and games that if you had free time would keep you occupied for hours. First, you need to...
by Ari Yares | Jan 8, 2017 | The Innovative Dad Blog
Recently, a colleague shared the exorbitant rate that her children were getting for losing a tooth. My jaw dropped. “Five dollars for a baby tooth?” I sputtered. At that rate, each kid would be earning 100 dollars just for having their teeth fall out naturally. How...
by Ari Yares | Dec 20, 2016 | The Innovative Dad Blog
Recently, my oldest daughter informed us that she did not want to change her younger brother’s poopy diapers. On the surface, it seemed like a reasonable request. After all, I wanted to avoid changing his diapers too. Then, it hit me. Was she changing his...
by Ari Yares | Dec 15, 2016 | Mindfulness, The Innovative Dad Blog
Bedtime rituals are incredibly important. We treasure our memories of reading to our children, getting snuggles and kisses, and carefully tucking them into bed. Yet, in many households, these rituals end up by the wayside in the rush to get the kids asleep so the...
by Ari Yares | Dec 7, 2016 | The Innovative Dad Blog
I never particularly cared for the cliché that “curiosity killed the cat.” It has always struck me as a way of conflating curiosity with senseless risk taking. The cat wasn’t killed because it was curious; it died because it made poor choices when assessing a...
by Ari Yares | Nov 24, 2016 | The Innovative Dad Blog
Many parents view parent-teacher conferences as a necessary evil. Frequently, they are inconveniently scheduled, causing you to take a day off from work (either to attend or to watch your kids). And they are short because the teacher had to get through a whole bunch...
