If you’re a stay-at-home parent or homeschooling your kids, being a physically active parent might not be top on your ranking criteria. From keeping the house situated, running errands, and teaching your kids, life gets pretty busy. It’s understandable to be completely exhausted and not know the best ways to keep you or your kids active. It’s equally important to understand that every single day doesn’t have to be perfectly structured. Whether it be exercise, what’s on the meal plan (if there is one), or having family fun, each day or week doesn’t have to be set in stone.

The Oracle Code is a wonderful graphic novel from DC Comics that explores themes where asking for help, learning to overcome adversities, and believing in who you are exceedingly important for anyone to see. Writer Marieke Nijkamp crafts a story centered around Barbara Gordon and her new life after being paralyzed from a gunshot. Nijkamp not only excels at clearly identifying Barbara’s frame of mind after the attack, but helps readers understand that life changes do not mean they have any less value than before. Seeing all of the changes our kids have experienced over the past few years makes this an excellent option for older kids to read, let alone every adult.

Being a parent means approaching life in a way that you want your own child to follow. Once my wife and I knew we were going to parents (about 10 years ago!), I realized the old adage, “Do as you’re told, not as you see,” was problematic. I have sometimes felt incapable of sharing my feelings or I’ve bottled things up, uncertain of how to deal with certain aspects of life. Whether it’s talking about my feelings associated with being sad or frustrations with my own failings, I wanted to do better, so my kids would feel comfortable coming to us whenever they wanted. Fortunately, I’ve come to rely on Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) in many facets of my life.

Scooby-Doo! Betrayal at Mystery Mansion is a tabletop game that will take you and your kids on an adventure in and around a haunted location where the gang must solve a mystery. This game accommodates 3 to 5 players, and with a minor tweak in the rules, you can figure out a way to play with two players – more on that to come! Let’s dive into why this game earns the win for my kids and why it’s a big hit for Scooby-Doo fans.

My kids were extremely fortunate to receive a Nintendo Switch as a Christmas gift from their grandparents this past year. This is their very first gaming system where they could play on their televisions – and that’s a big deal! They’ve played games on tablets and were lucky to have older Nintendo DS units passed down to them, but playing a game from your TV is a really big step forward (in my humble opinion).

The James Webb Telescope is a perfect example for parents to highlight to their kids how ideas, dedication, and patience are useful tools to achieve their dreams. The Webb Telescope is a monumental collaboration between several organizations, including the European and Canadian Space Agencies, the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) which already performs the science operations for the Hubble Telescope and will do the same for Webb, and many more organizations.

Today’s Geeky Parent Guide is aimed at helping parents find entertaining activities to get them through the rest of the school year. Whether you’re homeschooling or trying to find extracurriculars when you’re all home together, STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) and artistic endeavors are a great way to learn something fun to do.

The holiday season is the perfect time of year to amplify a kid’s creativity, so I asked my kids to write a short story. In creating a story of their own, I asked the kids what they would want to get out of their stories. Who will the main character be? What obstacle or adventure will be had? What do you want another person to learn from the story?

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring this month, it’s apparent that this amazing film will always be an outstanding look at wonderful fantasy and friendship. Although the live-action film is a bit too mature for my kids (aged 9 and 7), it’s quite apparent that the characters within The Lord of the Rings have all the heart one could ask for when looking for acceptable role models. It also presents viewers with the longstanding notion that mistakes do not have to define a person in their efforts to do good.

Baking with the kids is something I thoroughly enjoy, and despite the struggles we’ve all felt the past year and a half, this one thing has brought me a lot of joy. It’s exhausting, because I’m trying to relinquish a bit of control while not being a major helicopter parent as my kids take over with whatever baked goods we’re concocting.