MSI Press Blog

  As a child, I imagined that the year 2020 would feature flying cars, magically calorie-free food, teleportation, and pets that were actually robots. What the actual year 2020 has brought is a complete dumpster fire. At the time of writing, we’re only halfway through, and so far we have experienced increasingly dangerous political divisions, major earthquakes, civic unrest, actual locusts (really), the deaths of cherished public figures, continuing protests for racial equality, massive fires, and murder hornets. We can’t forget about the murder hornets. Oh yes, as if all of this wasn’t already enough, we’re also facing an unprecedented global health crisis in the form of the coronavirus, otherwise known as COVID-19. The WHO first reported a novel virus on January 5, 2020, after a series of cases in Wuhan, China originally thought to be pneumonia proved to be from the same strand of a new disease. [1] The first cases outside China were reported on January 13. On January 20 the U

  The following excerpt comes from Parenting in a Pandemic , an award-winning book by Liz Bayardelle. Although the pandemic is past, thankfully, at least for now, some of the topics in this book are generic and apply at any time. Chapter 3: Bouncer Parenting is filled with many moments of intense emotional connection. Other times you get to watch your precious little flower unfold as they learn new things and master new skills. There are other times when it’s really just crowd control. Don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe that parents should be as engaged as possible and attempt to make every moment into a learning experience, but show me a parent who swears they’ve never just wanted their kid to sit quietly for a few minutes, in one room, without wrecking anything and I’ll show you a darned liar. Newborns are stationary for a few blessed months, but after that kids are irritatingly mobile. Babies crawl everywhere and possess a mystical ability to find the single solitary lego left on

  Excerpt from Parenting in a Pandemic by Dr. Liz Bayardelle Chapter 2: Personal Trainer Exercise is important for everyone, but it’s even more important for kids. Kids who get at least some activity on a regular basis are less likely to be overweight, have lower risk for degenerative diseases, have more confidence, do better in school, and are more successful when they finally become adults. [1] Who doesn’t want this for their kids? That’s why we usually make sure they participate in PE class, put them in sports, ensure they have time to play at the park, let them run around with their friends, and do fun family activities like go to a trampoline park or some other playplace. But wait, due to the rampaging virus we can do exactly none of those things. Great. Even when all you want to do is hand your kid an iPad and get about your quarantine day, it’s important that we still ensure our kids are getting at least a baseline amount of exercise. Before I go into how to do that, let me in