Image courtesy of Wikimedia

In honor of the back-to-school season:

• Elmo is the answer: New study reports kids were more likely to eat vegetables if the package had Elmo’s (or Mel-mo, as my daughter calls him) face on it. Good Bento Box ideas here.
• Bic You!: Amazon UK reviewers are pissed about the gender labeling behind the new BIC “For Her” pens. As one reviewer wrote, “All my life I have written predominantly with black, blue, clear plastic, or, occasionally, metallic coloured pens. It never felt right. My sense of womanhood was deeply impacted by the lack of gender defined stationary.”
• Nice STEMs: These tips from PBS may help you cross the math and science threshold with your girl. (More good stuff here.) The start of a new school year may be just the clean slate you need to encourage an interest in Science Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).
• Be prepared: And just because life is not always a picnic, links on bullying and sexual violence prevention.