The Marble Jar Channel

Hi, everyone!  This is  Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll share how I've helped my kids set up Trello to organize their high school assignments and school work. I've been testing out 2 organization systems in parallel for my grad school work -- Trello and Todoist.  They are both great applications, but different.  Based on their preferences, one of my high schoolers is using Trello and the other is using Todoist.  In this video, I'll share how you can set Trello up to help you organize your high school assignments and work. I have a massive pet peeve about high school and the way assignments are given.  In middle school, assignments were given out day by day, but there was quite a bit of hand holding and some leeway to make sure students got things done.  In college, professors are required to give their students a syllabus at the beginning of the semester with the entire four months already entirely plann...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll share the rules that I developed to determine what information I can tell other parents while being careful not to break the expectation of confidence with my kids. I have teenagers -- and they are great kids.  But they ARE teenagers, which means, by definition, that they push the boundaries of what is allowed -- as do their friends.  Our code word for this is "risky behavior."  This is an umbrella term that covers everything from breaking major rules, to use of elicit substances, to pushing sexual boundaries, to straight up criminal behavior.  As much as I would like to just shut down all of this talk with a "never do that!", I know this isn't really realistic -- and would totally end any meaningful conversations that I might have with them about decision making and peer pressure.   I'd like to stay engaged with them so that I can contribute to the con...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll give you my main take-aways from the horror of middle school.   Both of my kids will be in high school next year, which means that I can safely say that we survived middle school.  It was honestly touch and go there for a while.  My son's experience was easy and uncomplicated.  He had a good group of friends going into middle school, he wasn't too high up in the status hierarchy, nor was he too far down, and he was a boy.  He had some friends who floated up in status, but the majority of his elementary school friends actually stayed together and there wasn't much drama.  My daughter was a totally different story.  I'm not authorized to give too much info -- and it's not my story to tell, but it was a tough two years.  Like something you'd see on an after-school special.  She came out the other end with more solid friendships and with he...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today’s video we’ll go through the conversation you should have with your older teenager about consent.  Okay — with the #Metoo movement raging on right now, consent is definitely a hot topic.  The story that recently broke about Aziz Ansari is particularly relevant.  First a quick definition of sexual consent in this context.  All it is — is the agreement by two parties to participate in a sexual activity. This activity does NOT have to be sex — this also covers touching or kissing.  And yes, I will acknowledge that this is an embarrassing conversation to have with your kids, but I think it’s important that we do.  And here is why — consent requires direct and open communication about an awkward topic.  If we are too wrapped around the axle to talk with our kids about this, how can we expect them to communicate well with each other? And the other thing?  It is ...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar Channel and in this video, I'll talk about my system for dealing with all of the paper that comes into my house. This is part of a series on my ADHD brain and all of the systems that I use to compensate for a lack of internal structure and organization.   In the overview video of this series, I mentioned that information comes into my life in one of two ways: electronically and by paper. I spent the last six videos talking though my apps and systems for dealing with digital or electronic information, which is by far the bulk of what I receive. This video will be a shorter and a little more obvious and will deal with how I handle paper information. It eventually feeds back into the same systems.  Single Stream How does paper come into your house?  Probably the same way it comes into mine:  Snail Mail Stuff from the kids' schools Paper detritus from everything else (flyers, business cards, chec...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and today I'm going to talk about why I quit Facebook.  I joined Facebook back in the early days and was immediately delighted by the ability to instantly contact people from different eras of my life.  I never posted much, but I was a promiscuous friend acceptor -- accepting requests even from people I couldn't place immediately. My rationale was that my memory is terrible, so I probably knew them, right?  I soon amassed hundreds of friends -- each from different eras of my life. Which brought me to my first problem: Diversified Audience  - I believe strongly in tailoring my message to my audience. This might sound inauthentic, but I believe that it is easier to build understanding by first establishing common ground.  For me, there were too many disparate groups among my Facebook friends. I grew up in a rural, conservative area -- and as a result many of my high school friends hold v...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and today I'll discuss using Blue Apron as a Culinary school in a box for your kids.  I would like my kids to be competent cooks.  They are 13 and 15.  I'm not looking for next contestant on MasterChef Junior, but I want them to be able to find their way around a kitchen and make some reasonable meals. To this end, I have tried a bunch of systems with varying degrees of success starting when they were in early elementary school.  Let's see if I can remember some of the highlights: I joined a monthly mail away cooking club that sent these adorable cookbooks and little kid-sized kitchen implements, I created a summer cookbook for the kids to work through with easy recipes for lunch, I've signed them up for pricey classes at our local culinary school, I assigned them weekly nights to sous chef for me, and most recently, I implemented a Kids in the Kitchen Night once a month where they took ove...

Hi, everyone!  It's Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video I'm going to tell you about my military style solution to bowls and towels everywhere courtesy of my kids.  Two years ago, I basically lost it. I do laundry once a week on Thursdays and this time I washed and folded -- I kid you not -- 21 TOWELS.  18 bath towels and 3 beach towels. For a family of four -- this was beyond ridiculous.  Particularly when I noted that my husband, my daughter and I only had one towel a piece. That means my son managed to use 15 bath towels in one week.  Again, this strains credulity since this is the kid who requires incessant nagging just to get in the shower once a day.  Maybe he was using a different towel for each body part? His problem is a combination of forgetfulness and laziness. After showering, he leaves his towel in his room -- generally on the floor although we DO have hooks to hang them in each kid's room.  But he the nex...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in this video I'll discuss why you should talk to your kid about the fuzzy line between cheating and not.  First off -- I don't think your kid is cheating. I don't think my kid is cheating. That is -- I don't think they KNOW that they are cheating.  The reason I think this deserves a conversation is because life is so different now than when we grew up. Technology makes everything faster and easier and there IS an impact on our kids' perception of some basic schoolwork dos and don'ts.  We assume our kids know not to lie, cheat or steal, right?  But these are not the absolutes we would like them to be -- with each tere is a range that goes from okay in some circumstances to totally unacceptable.  Let's take stealing for example. We can pretty much all agree that stealing is objectively bad. If there was a dollar bill laying on the counter in an office kitchen, most people would not ...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and today we are going to discuss the dreaded "sex talk" with your kids.  I am by no means the perfect "sex talk" parent model -- and certainly not from the beginning. I knew that I wanted to have an open dialog with my kids about sex eventually, but I was squeamish just like everyone else.  For the longest time, I let my kids think that babies came out of an incision in the mom's belly.  I had had 2 c-sections and, to be fair, they only asked specifically about their own births. When they were in early elementary school, I got shamed into doing a better job because our local Anglican priest, who's kids were around the same age, had already had this very specific and detailed conversation with his kids. And I refused to be bested by an Anglican priest! Now -- I'm a sex education teacher at my church. The church that I belong to is very liberal and takes the view that sexual educatio...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and today we are talking about giving an allowance to kids.  This is the last of a 3 part series.  Part 1 went over the allowance basics.  Part 2 covered how to do it with a minimum of fuss.  In this last one, we'll give some tips for teenagers and allowance.  My kids are both youngish teenagers now (15 & 13) and the issues we have now are different from the ones we used to have -- in every way -- allowance is, of course, no different. I'm figuring this out as I go, but I'll share some of the things I've decided on -- for now at least: Dining  - This has been a little tricky. My kids as middle schoolers have liked to walk to Chipotle after school with a bunch of kids. This gets pricey and is not within their means if you figure a $10+ burrito 4 times per month.  The problem is that I do feel obligated to feed them, so I agreed to pay for half of meals.  It used t...