Carolyn Savage
Carolyn is a professional writer, proofreader, and editor living in Bend, Oregon with her husband and two pre-teen daughters. She has a background in wildlife management but switched to writing and editing when she became a mother. With her experience working for a small publishing company, as a freelance proofreader, and as a mother she shares insightful stories that support parents and grandparents.
She is the daughter of Raising Families co-founder Rick Stephens and holds the rank of black belt in taekwando. In her free time she loves reading fantasy novels, learning to craft from her enormously talented children, and then teaching what she’s learned to her enormously talented grandmother.
Posts by Carolyn Savage
Building Strong School Partnerships: A Parent’s Guide to Supporting Your Child’s Success
Age: 5+Time: variesMaterials: phone or email accessFocus: communicationSchool involvement, like so many parenting topics, can be divisive. Some find it an exciting opportunity while others find building strong school partnerships to be another bullet point on an already crippling to-do list. When the new school year rolls around, most of us are already juggling seventeen different things before we've even had our morning coffee (mushroom, classic drip, pod, or otherwise.) The thought of being "involved" at school can feel about as realistic as completing a home renovation project in a weekend. But here's the thing: despite your packed schedule and the
5 Easy Planning Tips for Your Family Picnic
Age: 2+ Time: 30+ minutes Materials: food and picnic supplies Focus: family teamwork Summer is the perfect time to plan a family picnic. With the longer days and warmer weather, it’s a great opportunity to get outside and let the kids run around while you enjoy some family fun. Whether it’s in your backyard or at a local park, the community pool, a beach, or a lake, you’ll be creating memories that can last a lifetime. Planning Made Easy for Your Family Picnic Make planning your picnic easy peasy when you follow our five tips and use our family picnic
15 Simple Ways to Spread Happiness
Age: 2+Time: 1+ minutesMaterials: depends on activityFocus: ways to spread happiness in your communityMarch has a lot of days that have to do with happiness (World Compliment Day, Share a Smile Day, National Let’s Laugh Day, and International Day of Happiness). With this in mind, we thought it would be a great month to spread happiness within our communities.Why Is It Good to Spread Happiness?When we spread happiness, we have the potential to change someone’s outlook on their day and our own. Research shows that putting a smile on our face, even when we wouldn’t normally smile, can make us
4 Easy Steps for Sharing Responsibility at Home
Age: 2+Time: 15+ minutesMaterials: paper and pencilFocus: working as a family team to care for shared spacesSharing responsibility at home for the spaces everyone shares will make your life much easier and teach your kids an important life skill. So, if you spend time each night picking up after your kids, keep reading. It doesn’t have to be hard to implement sharing responsibility at home, especially if you start when your kids are young. It can be as simple as letting your young child know that one activity needs to be put away before another can be started, especially when
5 Simple Ways to Show Gratitude and Appreciation for Your Community
Age: 2+Time: 15+ minutesMaterials: depends on activityFocus: showing gratitude for community membersFamily Bonding Challenges focus on building stronger connections within your family while helping your children learn important life skills. When you subscribe, you will get a fresh calendar each month filled with ideas for celebrating fun family holidays and unique weekly activities.Ways to Show Gratitude and Appreciation in Your CommunityThe holidays are a perfect time to show gratitude and appreciation for people who help your family in your day-to-day activities and make your community run. You don’t have to do much to acknowledge how much someone helps your family
