Just over an hour a way from San Francisco, the Sonoma coast is one of the most pleasant day trips available in the Bay Area. Explore beautiful scenery, invigorating hikes, excellent restaurants and a variety of shops and wineries.

Mendocino is one of the most popular weekend getaways in the Bay Area! Learn how to best enjoy your time there. A fantastic option for staying in Mendocino on a budget are the Mar Vista Cottages 877.855.3522 (marvistamendocino.com). The cottages are scattered on a field on Hwy 1, right across from a scenic Mendocino Coast beach in the town of Anchor Bay. The rates are great - cottages start at $155 per night. The cottages are impeccable - very well maintained, but expect a vintage, antique-type of feel to the place. There's no room service or dining options on the premises, but some very good restaurants are nearby and the cottages all have kitchens. If you're a foodie, you may be in heaven, as guests are encouraged to harvest food from the organic garden that the cottage owners keep on premises! It included a couple of hens that you can get eggs from.

Don't forget the marriage! A recent New York Times op-ed piece discussed the impact of having children on marriage quality. Not surprising - to some - is the fact that having children may hurt happy marriages.

The web has become a necessary resource in dealing with most health related issues today. By going online, you can discover a wealth of information to help you make better decisions about medical decisions that affect you and your family.

Did you know that over 95,000 men, women, and children are waiting for a life-saving transplant and 35 percent of all patients waiting for a kidney transplant are African-American?

Drop into most Montessori schools across the country and you'll find a trend: not a whole lot of Black kids. Why is this? The Montessori educational philosophy is known for being open and tolerant. In many cases, however, Black parents - who may not have grown up going to Montessori schools - may not know about the Montessori method and the benefits it offers to children. The Montessori educational philosophy was developed by Maria Montessori (1870 - 1952), an Italian physician, educator, philosopher, humanitarian and devout Catholic. While working in the University of Rome's Psychiatric Clinic, she became interested in helping mentally retarded children learn. The Italian Minister of Education was in attendance, and was impressed by her arguments sufficiently to appoint her the same year as director of the Scuola Ortofrenica, an institution devoted to the care and education of the mentally retarded. She accepted, in order to put her theories to proof. Her first notable success was to have several of her 8 year old students apply to take the State examinations for reading and writing. The "defective" children not only passed, but had above-average scores, an achievement described as "the first Montessori miracle." The Montessori method is known for its ability to help children grow and learn through various developmental stages. According to Wikipedia, the main tenets of the Montessori philosophy are: instruction of children in 3-year age groups instead of grades, corresponding to sensitive periods of development (example: Birth-3, 3-6, 6-9, 9-12, 12-15 year olds; children are treated like competent beings, encouraged to make their own decisions; small, child-sized furniture and creation of a small, child-sized environment in which each child can be competent and productive in a self-running small children's world; creation of a scale of sensitive periods of development, which provides a focus for class work that is appropriate and uniquely stimulating and motivating to the child (including sensitive periods for language development, sensorial experimentation and refinement, and various levels of social interaction); and an emphasis on the importance of the "absorbent mind," the limitless motivation of a young child to achieve competence over his or her environment and to perfect his or her skills and understandings as they occur within each sensitive period. Why are people fans of the Montessori method? Many parents believe that the Montessori focus on personal development rather than exams produces more mature, creative and socially adept children. In addition, psychologists have found that across a range of abilities, children at Montessori schools out-performed those given a traditional education. Five-year-old Montessori pupils were better prepared for reading and math, and 12-year-olds wrote "significantly more creative" essays using more sophisticated sentence structures. The 1stFriday.com contains a list of Bay Area schools that follow the Montessori method. Find one near you and pay them a visit!