AtHomeDad.org

I am getting a ton of requests from reporters who want to do stories on dads who are recently unemployed and are now at-home dads.    Apparently, there is a perception that this is the hot story of the day and that there are a lot of guys who get laid off and become stay-at-home-dads.

I'm not so sure that this is actually what's happening.   I haven't noticed a particular surge in new traffic here from newly unemployed dads.    In fact, I think I know of only one or two people that maybe fit this profile out of the hundreds on the site.

Is that because this isn't a real trend, because these guys are especially quiet, or something else?

By Kirsten Olson, Author of Wounded by School: Recapturing the Joy in Learning and Standing Up to Old School Culture

It's the end of the school year, exam time for school age children. Everywhere around the country children are studying (and Facebooking and YouTubing, and searching online while listening to music). Simultaneously.

While most adults support the act studying for children (teaches them discipline! keeps them off the streets!), my own three teenage children report they will be doing a lot of stuff in preparation for final exams that, well, may not be very meaningful in the long run. Their time is occupied, but not their brains. They are memorizing 180 irregular verbs tenses, memorizing Boyle's law, Charles' Theorum, preparing for a 90 item multiple choice test on Indian independence, memorizing the dates of the Chinese dynasties, memorizing all the elements in the periodic table that are soluble.

In education, we increasingly look at learning in terms of how challenging it is cognitively and emotionally for kids. These exercises are low level, in some cases, the lowest level: memorization and comprehension. Although students do need to spend time some time memorizing some information, it needs to be connected to bigger, higher level concepts and challenges or they very quickly forget it. You know that yourself from your own educational life, and just because you had to do it doesn't mean it's good educational practice now. It's a general problem, one that author John Medina, of Brain Rules (http://www.brainrules.net) sums up by saying, if you had to design an environment that was least interesting for the human brain for learning, it would probably be the classroom!

Why is kids' time occupied by school, but not turned on in their brains?

guys,  i need to get some opinions from other dads here.  i've been a SAHD for a year now, and i have a 2 year old little girl.  my wife has a successful career, so money is not the issue here.  i think my delimma is an ethics issue.  IS IT SELFISH OF ME TO WANT TO BUY A MOTORCYCLE?

As Father’s Day quickly approaches the bookstore shelves quickly fill up with books on Dads. Mostly focusing the non-AHD types but heck we still have a lot of ground to cover. One book making its appearance this year is Teachable Moments and Essential Discussions: Twenty-Five Things a Father Should Do With His Son by Nicholas Stavola with Joseph Durso.

LabelDaddy.com has agreed to help the 14th Annual At-home Dads Convention raise some money by donating 20% of all sales from at-home dads to the convention.

Simply click on the graphic above to purchase their affordable and washable labels to put on your kids’ clothes, sippy cups and sports equipment. You’ll never have to guess whose sippy is who’s at playgroup or worry about your kid losing any of his clothes at summer camp. Plus, Label Daddy was created by 2 dads (hence the company name), one of whom is an at-home dad.

This great partnership will allow the convention to charge a ridiculously low rate this year (see www.athomedadconvention.com for details) so there will be no reason not to come to Omaha on October 10. Check it out and help out the convention!

Guys,

I need some help promoting this years event to various media outlets for the upcoming fathers day.  Here's the plan:

I thought you guys might appreciate this article.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-05-04-equal-parenting_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

So imagine two twins whose dad is a homeless, alcoholic roofer who dies alone in prison.  You love your dad, regardless, and want to honor his life.  So you do what any normal children of a home less, alcoholic roofer with drive and ambition would do; you write a script, direct and produce a movie starring an Academy Award nominee, with not a dime to your name AND you do it in a year. If nothing else the concept (and sub-title, "Two brothers, twelve months, and one filmmaking hell-ride to keep a promise to their father") cause you to pause an consider whether it can be done.

About a week ago, our NYC Stay at Home Dads Group was featured on Fox  News channel on a segment titled "No more Mr. Mom - Shattering the Stereotypes." Overall, I thought we demonstrated being an at-home-dad to be exactly what it is - a positive experience, rewarding, fun, and cool! How cool is it to get to spend quality time everyday with your child!
Here is the link to view the segment:

Grass Valley, California, March 20, 2009—Why Not Dad?, the short documentary made about and in collaboration with a group of stay-at-home dads living in San Francisco, will be screening at the upcoming Sacramento International Film Festival.

I was one of a handful of bloggers invited into a conference call with Dr. Ari Brown, a pediatrician, a mother, and author of Baby 411 and Toddler 411. The interview was organized by Amy Pisani of Every Child By Two, an organization started by Rosalynn Carter as an advocacy group for vaccination. Naturally, the subject of the interview was about vaccine safety, and focused on the recent deadly outbreak of Hib in Minnesota.

Check out Jon McP blitzing the Charlotte media with his Dad-skills.  Congratulations Jon!

http://www.charlottemagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6136

Baltimore Dads, a chapter of Daddyshome, Inc., is featured in a new documentary by Loud Communications, LLC. to premiere January 25th, 2009 at 4:00 pm.; at The Creative Alliance at The Patterson, in downtown Baltimore.

guys, go to http://www.break.com/index/stay-home-dad-rap.html and see a funny video about being a stay at home dad. it's a funny parody about a gangsta rapper that's a stay at home dad.