Feature Article #1

Ten Tips for a Successful School Year

Parents send their children back to school with new clothes, new shoes and new school supplies. Smart parents send their kids back with a new commitment to work hard and make the most out of the new school year.
Here are Such A Smart Mom’s Top 10 Tips for a Successful School Year:
1. Start strong.
There is [...]

| August 25th, 2009 | Continued

Feature Article #2

Healthy backs need the right backpack

In the market for a new school backpack? Here are some safety tips from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
Kids may be keen on form - backpacks that are cute, colorful and coordinate with school outfits. But smart parents know that function should rule the day, especially for kids who attend middle schools and high [...]

| August 10th, 2009 | Continued

Feature Article #3

Back-to-school supplies: Some for your kids and some for those in need

My daughter and I started plotting out our back-to-school shopping plans yesterday. It’s that time.
Emma and I love our annual shopping trip for binder paper, glue sticks, notebooks, mechanical pencils and on and on. We generally stop at two or three stores before heading home with bags of great stuff for Emma and my son. [...]

| August 5th, 2009 | Continued

Feature Article #4

How to instill drive in your children

Do your children lack drive?
If they seem to be without that strong desire to succeed, veteran educator Janine Walker Caffrey said they have plenty of company.
Caffrey, author of “Drive: 9 Ways to Motivate Your Kids to Achieve,” said members of Generation Me - kids born between 1981 and 1996 - tend to have an [...]

| August 3rd, 2009 | Continued

Feature Article #5

Richard Louv, author of “Last Child in the Woods,” on ending nature-deficit disorder

Our children are nature deprived. The reasons for this are many: fear of stranger danger, fear of what lurks in the wilderness, too little time, too little access.
I recently read “Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder,” a national bestseller by author Richard Louv, and immediately mounted my own campaign [...]

| July 29th, 2009 | Continued

About this Site

Welcome to Such A Smart Mom, a one-of-a-kind Web site “helping smart parents raise smart kids.” I’m Ruth McKinnie Braun, creator of the site, a mother of two teens and a veteran journalist.

I started Such A Smart Mom because I thought it was about time that smart parents, particularly those with kids in middle [...]