Spain Dad, a baby blog

We continue our series on dads talking about sending their kids to school in a foreign country. Teal Rapp says one of the hardest moments of his life was dropping his two daughters off at a French elementary school in Aix en Provence for their first day of school, knowing his girls didn’t speak a [...]

We continue our series on dads talking about sending their kids to school in a foreign country. Phil Graf lives in Amsterdam with his five children. He talks about the importance of a democratic household where children are involved in making decisions, including schooling. Watch Starting School in a Foreign Country (Phil Graf) on Vimeo.

Last night Alleke and I hiked down to the beach to the look at the stars. We lay there in the sand side by side looking up at the sky, spread out in front of us like a map of a million cities. Eventually I turned over and asked Alleke,”Can you count the stars?” She [...]

Hud McWilliams, a psychologist who specializes in families living abroad, begins our series on dads talking about sending their kids to school in a foreign country. Alleke will be starting preschool in the mornings this fall, so I went looking for some dads who could give me advice about how to handle this transition well. [...]

The stroller was parked at the front door, and I sat on the couch stuffing a backpack with Alleke’s things when she walked over and handed me her blankie. “Put this in the backpack,” she said, “because I want to sleep with it on the bench tonight.” I’m sure I would have had no idea [...]

Welcome back to Alleke’s Cooking Show. In the spirit of summer, Alleke would like to show you how to make a cold pitcher of fresh-squeezed lemonade. Like all toddlers, Alleke’s recipe includes carefully counting all the lemons, licking the sugar off her fingers, and of course taking the first glass to mom for a taste [...]

I woke to someone tapping my shoulder. I opened my eyes and blinked in the darkness. April must have come to bed, I thought. I felt the bed shaking underneath me. Is she laughing? I wondered. April leaned over my shoulder and whispered in my ear, trying hard to get out a few words between [...]