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By Robert Lewis and Joe Hong | CalMatters When the pandemic closed schools in March 2020 – abruptly ending classes and stranding children and working parents – leaders in Washington and Sacramento scrambled to provide relief. The result was a series of stimulus measures that allocated $33.5 billion in state and federal funds to California’s K-12 schools to address the devastation of the pandemic. It was a staggering amount of one-time funding for the state’s cash-strapped schools, equal to a third of all the money they got the year before the pandemic. Imagine your boss giving you a check equal...

Not surprisingly, the number of depressed mothers has increased during the pandemic. But research shows that this trend has been happening all around the world consistently for years now. Psychotherapist Diane Barth thinks one likely reason is that many women, including a number who dreamed longingly about having children, find that the experience of motherhood is very different from what they expected it to be. Often because all the parents they've met prior to having their own baby were just hiding all of their frustration behind fake smiles and saying "Everything's fine." So in an attempt to remedy this issue,...

PE Can Do Much More Than Keep Children Fit PE is often forgotten about when it comes to school. People place importance on the core subjects, as they are fundamental, but they ignore the benefits of physical education as well. It turns out, that PE is a lot more than just exercise. Physical education, in the early developmental period of a child’s life, can nurture important skills. In this article, we are going to take a look at some of the benefits of PE beyond fitness, so we can better understand our child’s educational needs. Benefits of PE Improved Coordination...

Summer is here at last! We may be a bit biased but there is no better place to be this time of year than the PNW. The weather is ideal; there are endless opportunities for outdoor activities like hiking and kayaking; and, we’re happy to report, the 2022 calendar is packed with events and festivals designed to celebrate the season to the fullest. We’ve included a mix of events in the heart of Portland, plus a number of festivals in Central Oregon, the Hood River area, and Southwest Washington — and a few a bit further out, like Seattle and Lincoln...

Zach Parrish knows a thing or two about what it takes to make a phenomenal work of animation. The director of the moving Disney short film "Us Again," Parrish recently served as the animation director on the upcoming Netflix animated epic, "The Sea Beast." The story of a swashbuckling monster hunter and his crew as they face down their most challenging adventure yet, "The Sea Beast" comes from director Chris Williams ("Bolt," "Big Hero 6," "Moana"), who brought on Parrish to help bring the film to fruition. "The Sea Beast" is a larger-than-life project that required some larger-than-life talent to pull...