Archibald Experiments Fall/Winter 2025-26
The Family Lab
It’s that time again, for an update of the experiments we’ve been trying in the Archibald home. In this edition, I talk about our latest new kitchen-cleaning system, our weekly family cleaning projects, our dinner menu system, monthly check-ins with the kids, family meetings, a college tour, fall sports, my son’s hat business, a home organization project, water aerobics and more! You can find my son’s hat business on Instagram
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Teaching Kids Self-Reliance
The Family Lab
Welcome to Season 8! This whole season we’ll be talking about how to teach our kids to eventually take care of themselves on their way to becoming self-reliant, responsible adults. This episode will help you take the first step: evaluating what your kids are already taking charge of and where they have room to grow. I introduce you to the system I’ve been using with my own kids for years, and show you how you can use it to help your kids progress from helpers to workers to managers. Then I talk to my son and some of my nephews about what they learned from their own...
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Top 5 Christmas Traditions: A Teen Perspective
The Family Lab
Ever wonder which of your holiday traditions are actually the most meaningful to your kids? For this episode, I went straight to the source and I asked five (incredible) teenagers what traditions they love the best: from that pesky elf to the jolly old elf himself, family bonding and family fights, re-enacting the nativity, and sibling sleepovers. It’s an episode filled with music and merriment. Here are more Christmas episodes you’ll enjoy!
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Beyond the Bins: Home Organization Strategy with Jen Martin
The Family Lab
A conversation with organization genius Jen Martin, founder of Reset Your Nest, about how to align our home organization with our goals, values, and routines; how to set up different organizational zones in our kitchens; and how to create systems for our comings and goings, among other organizing tips. You can find Jen Martin at and on Instagram And for another great conversation with Jen, check out: How Jen Martin Organizes
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Zoom Out: Thinking Strategically about Household Systems
The Family Lab
Stuck in the never-ending logistics of running a home? It’s time to shift to a strategy-first perspective so you can build systems that work. This episode talks about how to shift your thinking. Hence, you start with a strategy, then consider all the different tactics that could accomplish your strategy, and finally think about the logistics of getting it done. For episodes with lots of great ideas about different strategies and tactics, check out: How She Plans Meals: Workshop: How You Do Laundry
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Emotional Regulation with Emily Hamblin
The Family Lab
Tired of meltdowns? And I’m not just talking about your kids! Emily Hamblin is here to help us deal with our big emotions and teach our kids to deal with theirs. She gives practical tips about how to talk to our kids about their emotions, how to identify the skills they’re lacking, and how to teach emotional regulation and empathy. Then we both share experiments you can try at home. For more resources from Emily, check out .
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Top 5 Halloween Costumes, with the Dayton Sisters
The Family Lab
Join a coven of Halloween experts--my mother and her three sisters--for a costume parade through history as they reminisce and share photos about Halloweens past. We talk about the antics of my Grandpa, the Halloween king, and his legacy of papier mache and discuss useful skills like how to black out your teeth and create a lifelike beard with nothing but vaseline and coffee grinds. 😂
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Archibald (and McGavin) Experiments: Summer 2025
The Family Lab
My friend Ashley McGavin and I share all the experiments we tried this summer–in Ashley’s case with a brand new baby! We talk about feeding kids in the summer, keeping them entertained, summer jobs, chores, personal development, a senior trip, and how to achieve a throwback 80s and 90s summer. We both have 5 kids, but our families are in very different stages. My kids now range from 10 to 19, and her kids now range from four months to 14 years old. Join us at our weekly Open Labs! Tuesdays at 10:00 MT
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Top 5 Rollover Meals
The Family Lab
What’s for dinner tonight? How about tomorrow? This episode helps you answer both questions--with favorite rollover meals from me and my guests Andrea Clark and Hillary Hess. Rollover meals allow you to take parts of one meal and roll it into another meal, to save time, money, and the tedium of leftovers. Hillary Hess shares great recipes and resources at helpingofhappiness.com Andrea Clark offers courses and printables at apurposefulhome.com Andrea 1. Chicken and Rice/ Hawaiian Haystacks/Fried Rice 2. Tacos (Pork or chicken) to Nachos 3. Scrambled Egg and Sausage/Breakfast Burritos 4....
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Archibald Experiments: Back to School Roundup
The Family Lab
Archibald Experiments: Back to School Routine Roundup https://youtu.be/vRngguIVeas Transitioning from a lazy summer schedule to a back to school routine is no joke. So I went through past podcast episodes looking for experiments we’ve tried here in the Archibald home to make our morning, afternoon and bedtime routines run more smoothly during the school year, from waking kids up to getting them into the car, to cleaning up that car, to connecting with them during the after-school runaround. Here are links to listen to the full episodes about our past fall...
info_outlineThis week, I invited my four siblings--Cassie Gadd, Brad Singley, Brett Singley, and Hayley Kirkland--into the studio to talk about our top family movies. We intended to each share 5 favorite movies from our childhood and then in our own families, but we definitely got carried away. I'm going to list our childhood movies and then our current favorite family movies by the person who recommended them. I'll omit the ones that we mentioned but do not recommend. (Sorry, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang)
We also talk about how we make family movie nights happen and what they look like for each of us.
Of course, check ratings and Commonsensemedia.org to decide if these movie are appropriate for your families.
Movies from Our Childhood (80s and 90s)
Musicals: Sound of Music, Singing in the Rain, Music Man, Fiddler on the Roof, Newsies, Meet Me In St Louis, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (proceed with caution), Peter Pan (with Mary Martin. Definitely niche), Alice in Wonderland (made for TV movie), Into the Woods
All ages: Three Amigos, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Nacho Libre, Princess Bride (Teen? Those ROUSes are pretty scary), Hook, Sandlot, Three Ninjas, Swiss Family Robinson, That Darn Cat, Flight of the Navigator, Sister Act
Teens: Happy Gilmore, Goonies, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, So I Married An Axe Murderer, Life Is Beautiful
Suspense: Rear Window
Top Movies for our Own Families
Whitney: Dan in Real Life, Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Hitch, Hunt for the Wilderpeople (language), The Truman Show, Castaway
Cassie: Jurassic Park, Blackbeard's Ghost, Remember the Titans, Princess Bride, Night at the Museum, National Treasure
Brad: Safety Last, School of Rock (language), Fantastic Mr. Fox, Hunt for the Wilderpeople (language), The Red Balloon, What About Bob, Raising Arizona
Brett: My Neighbor Totoro, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Surf's Up, Three Ninjas, All Lego Movies
Hayley: School of Rock (language), Princess Bride, Hook, Singing in the Rain, Music Man, Newsies, Paddington 2, Napoleon Dynamite, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Weekly Open Lab: Wednesdays at 10 am MT (through April 30 2025, then resuming in September)
Join Whitney in her virtual studio to share ideas, solve problems, craft experiments, chat about past and future episodes, discuss this quarter's book, or just drop in to say hi!
https://riverside.fm/studio/listener-ideas?t=880793c622433a15fcce