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My husband and I thought we were done having kids after we had our first two. Then when our youngest was 3 and we had just celebrated chucking the diapers—surprise!—pregnant! We rolled with it, and now I can’t imagine life without our three kids.
We have a video baby monitor because I’m a crazy nut job who has to know if my kids are really sleeping or if they’re just laying their quietly waiting me out to see if I’ll come in and check on them. They’re crafty children. After I lay them down, I check the monitor every 5-10 minutes or so just to see what they’re up to.
Sometimes they’re talking or laughing. Sometimes they’re screaming or playing nicely in their cribs.That’s not super interesting. It’s kind of cute, but I see them laugh and play and scream all day.
Watermelon season is back in full swing! When you go to the store to get your family their favorite summertime fruit, don’t struggle to figure out which melons are ripe. It can be difficult to tell with watermelon’s hard exterior, but there are tricks that instantly let you know if the watermelon is ready to eat. Watch the video below and learn these three tricks for yourself!
Greater support in special needs education, moving Singapore from tolerance to greater acceptance and the active inclusion of children with special needs and their families by society – these are some of the hopes of parents of children with special needs, a survey has found.
Sure, people bothered me. I’d been in arguments and even a few physical altercations, but even then I never truly lost my shit. Then I had children, and my dormant crazy bitch came bubbling to the surface.
People have a lot of opinions about breastfeeding in general, but they have even more to say about extended breastfeeding. Nevermind that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends nursing throughout a baby's first year (and for as long afterward as both the mother and child want to continue) or that the World Health Organization suggests breastfeeding for at least two years—to some onlookers (including friends and family), nursing a toddler is just plain weird.
We all love BBQ pork ribs, but we don’t always have the time to cook it in the smoker and depending on the season (or if you live in a place where you can’t use a BBQ) your slow cooker will be an ideal alternative that will only take you few minutes to prepare!
"When people are bullied, especially children, they feel horrible inside and sometimes don't show or tell others how they are feeling."
“Oh my god!” the mother squealed. “Baby, are you OK? Did that hurt? What hurts, baby? What hurts?” The little girl commenced sobbing as what I deemed a nice save turned into a tragedy warranting a call to 911.
New book focuses on the importance of grit in children and adults. Millennials, who grew up with helicopter parents, may lack resiliency, co-authors say. Colleges across the country now teaching resiliency on campus
Who here is a parent to a toddler who has not given a smartphone to her child to keep him occupied? If that question were asked in a room full of parents, we'd be surprised if a lot of hands went up.
About 100 pre-schoolers spent their Saturday afternoon at the weekend colouring at Suntec City Convention Centre in celebration of World Kids Colouring Day. The event, organised in Singapore for the ninth year by writing products manufacturer Staedtler, saw the children colouring pictures on the theme of "funny animals".
What makes you, you? Psychologists like to talk about our traits, or defined characteristics that make us who we are. But Brian Little is more interested in moments when we transcend those traits — sometimes because our culture demands it of us, and sometimes because we demand it of ourselves. Join Little as he dissects the surprising differences between introverts and extroverts and explains why your personality may be more malleable than you think.
Kids attempt to explain the secrets of life -- and it's hilarious!
The New York Times journalist Nick Bilton once asked the late Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, the following question during an interview: ‘It seems that your kids are crazy about the iPad, right?’ He got the following, unexpected answer: ‘They don’t use them. We limit the amount of time they are allowed to use iPads at home.’ There’s certainly something to think about here...
The other day, I reached out to a friend I hadn't spoken to in two years. "Where have you been, Jennifer? What have you been up to?" she asked. I thought about these questions long and hard. Physically, I had been in Colorado, and I had been working on my own business, but I couldn't tell her what I'd been doing. The truth was, the last year had been total, sleep-deprived blur.
Storm-Manea Ellyatt is calling bull on the facade of parenthood displayed on social media. Instead of posting a highlight reel of her life, she’s getting real about the daily struggles she faces as a mother — and she invites everyone to join her.
“All those cute bonds ads, miniature Nike shoes, adorable baby shower gifts, baby spam on Instagram, squad dates with your mum posse and those god damn laceylaners lied to me,” she wrote on Thursday, listing her failed expectations about parenting based on how it’s conveyed by ads, TV and online.
“Not once did I see an ad with a mum locked in her cupboard crying in her leaked stained pjs from 3 days ago, covered in sweat and vomit, praying to every god imaginable for the strength and patience to go back to the s**tshow that is now their life,” she wrote. “The once calm, poised, patient goddess, who could sling cocktials, swear with sailors and dance uninhibited until tomorrow afternoon, can bearly hold a conversation, hold her eyes open or the tears back from this new found ‘bliss.’”
A bite from a single mosquito can result in fever, headaches, and pain. Severe cases can experience a multitude of symptoms including bleeding, shock, organ failure -- and potentially death. There is no treatment or vaccine and no real means of protecting yourself in countries endemic for the disease.
A study from University College London found that people who perceived their parents as less psychologically controlling and more caring as they were growing up were likely to be happier and more satisfied as adults.
I love magnetic letters and I recently bought myself some lowercase magnets and decided to create some printables to use as mats to place over cookie sheets and turn them into wonderful magnetic free choice activities. Lowercase letter magnets are so versatile and no matter what level your child is at I have a printable or two that will work perfectly. But before I link the free printables I want to share with you some of the benefits of using these manipulatives in your class or homeschool program
You want your child to know how to manage his emotions and control his impulse to throw a tantrum. A child with self-discipline, for example, understands he needs to wait after dinner to have dessert. How can you teach him patience and self-control?
A college professor in Kentucky is getting a ton of online praise after a photo of him babysitting a student’s kids so she could take her final exam went viral.
"I got to sit down to dinner and hear all the stories from the day with the kids. I got to give them a bath and hear their squeals and giggles. I got to snuggle and love on them for 3 hours more than he did. He is the one sacrificing, not me.”
There’s nothing better than a spotless house. But, to tell the truth, for many of us cleaning our house is not on our list of our favorite ways to spend time. Today, we would like to share some ingenious tricks to help you make your living area sparkling clean. You’ll be amazed at how many household items double as cleaning products and home improvement tools.
Seriously, why are they even posing better than me?
Here's what happens if you don’t “baby talk” to your baby and instead speak like a regular adult.
Preschool children expand their vocabulary and become more articulate at expressing their thoughts every day and if you do something more frequently in the very early years, it will help shape their character for years to come.
Parenting a toddler while I was pregnant was not as simple as I thought it would be.
I imagined in that last trimester as my stomach housed a whole human, that I'd be able to sit on the couch and rest while instructing my two-year-old how to engineer towers with blocks.
Laugh on.
Practical solutions for real parenting problems - 3 Guiding Principles for Parents
One of the most fascinating things of parenting is watching your children learn and develop. From the moment they are placed in your arms their little minds are absorbing knowledge and information from the world around them. They’re always watching, always listening (even when you wish they weren’t!) and all the time, their minds are expanding. There’s no ‘off’ switch when it comes to toddler’s learning. From the minute they wake in the (very) early morning their brains are little sponges; soaking up whatever their environment has to offer.
Delay tactics. Calling out in the middle of the night. Ending up in your bed before daybreak. If this describes your toddler’s sleep habits, and you’re not happy with your family’s quality of sleep, it might be time for some sleep training.
Gifted children come in many types - a diverse group with many different exceptional gifts and talents; e.g., mathematics, language skills, music, sports, etc. Whatever form their gifts may take, gifted children are passionate about their interests once they discover them. They are known to focus tremendous energy on the topics that absorb them, often to the exclusion of other activities.
Parents are their children’s first teachers and therefore have incredibly important roles in their development. Whether you’re a stay at home parent or work many hours outside the home, the interactions you have with your children are vital as their first and primary teacher. So often, however, many focus on the role a mother has in their child’s development.
For a decade and a half, the big chocolate makers have promised to end child labor in their industry—and have spent tens of millions of dollars in the effort. But as of the latest estimate, 2.1 million West African children still do the dangerous and physically taxing work of harvesting cocoa. What will it take to fix the problem?
We've somehow decided that little kids can't understand these complex topics, or we want to delay exposing them to injustices as long as possible (even though not all children have the luxury of being shielded from injustice).
However, young children have a keen awareness of and passion for fairness. They demand right over wrong, just over unjust. And they notice differences without apology or discomfort.
Racial identity and attitudes begin to develop in children at a young age. Two- and three-year-olds become aware of the differences between boys and girls, may begin noticing obvious physical disabilities, become curious about skin color and hair color/texture, and may also be aware of ethnic identity.
5 Elementary Strategies
1. Use children's literature: There's a wealth of children's books (check out here: http://www.adl.org/education-outreach/books-matter/#.VwQW3_krLcs) that can be read aloud and independently to approach the topic of bias, diversity, and social justice.
2. Use the news media: Find topics and news stories that bring forth these themes and discuss them in the classroom -- like the nine-year-old boy who was banned from bringing his My Little Pony backpack to school because it was the source of bullying.
3. Teach anti-bias lessons: Social and emotional skill development lessons are the foundation, and then teachers can move to lessons on identity, differences, bias, and how bias and bullying can be addressed individually and institutionally.
4. Give familiar examples.
Take advantage of children's interest in books, TV shows, toys, and video games, and use them as opportunities to explore diversity, bias, and social justice.
5. Explore solutions: Re-think the concept of "helping others" to include discussions about the inequities that contribute to the problem and consider actions that can address it. For example, while it's useful to provide food to homeless people, we want to deepen the conversation to convey a social justice perspective and a wider lens with children. Therefore, discuss the stigma and stereotypes of homeless people, learn about unfair housing policies, and reflect on solutions that will reverse the problem in a lasting way and encourage students to take action.
Children or teens who are “revved up” and prone to rages or—alternatively—who are depressed and apathetic have become disturbingly commonplace. Chronically irritable children are often in a state of abnormally high arousal, and may seem “wired and tired.” That is, they’re agitated but exhausted. Because chronically high arousal levels impact memory and the ability to relate, these kids are also likely to struggle academically and socially.
Despite parents’ best intentions, many are raising today’s children to be selfish. That was one of the revelations of a recent Harvard study that found a discrepancy between what parents ranked as their top priorities when it came to instilling values into their children and what children said their folks had actually taught them..
Most of us modern parents worry at some point (maybe daily!) whether we are parenting our kids the right way. At a time when we see countless examples of helicopter parenting and entitled children who can't cope with setbacks, there are plenty of reasons to be asking ourselves if we're firm enough with our kids.
It’s June Holidays! While it’s a great time to kick back and relax, it’s also an excellent period to explore your kid’s interest and take advantage of the multitude of holiday programmes and activities. We’ve shortlisted 13 must-check-out-programs for you!
You're a working mom. That very likely means you've left the house nearly every day feeling guilty about your decision to be a working mom. "Am I selfish for abandoning my child?" "Is it cruel to put my baby in day care every day of the week?" "Are all the stay-at-home moms right?" But in honor of Working Parents Day tomorrow, stop the second-guessing and pat yourself on the back for making a decision that you very likely already know is best for your family.
You don’t find school reformers talking much about how we need to train more teachers in the arts, given the current obsession with science, math, technology and engineering (STEM), but here’s a list of skills that young people learn from studying the arts. They serve as a reminder that the arts — while important to study for their intrinsic value — also promote skills seen as important in academic and life success...
This FREE Farm Animals activity includes 8 farm animals that children have to match to their beginning letter sounds. Includes both uppercase and lowercase letters so you can choose which one is right for your child.
You’ve probably heard the arguments in favor of early toilet training. They train early in Europe! Toddlers are more compliant than three-year-olds! Diapers are bad for the environment! Perhaps you’ve even read scientific studies concluding that children who train later are more likely to end up having accidents.
Here’s one Father’s Day craft we know both Dad and your kids will love. Do you remember Shrinky Dinks from when you were little? They were so fun! Well, they make blank Shrinky Dink sheets now that you can use to create your own projects with.
I was on the phone with my friend Elizabeth when I heard her 9-month old daughter Poppy screeching in the background.
“Ooooh!” I winced. “Is Poppy okay?”
“She’s not crying. She’s laughing!” Elizabeth explained. “Greg’s playing Tickle Monster with her.”
A few years ago, when our child was still waking up at night (he was two at the time), I went into our Doctor’s office with this complaint… “My 2 year old is still waking up at night .” Her advice changed our nights!
Every parent has lost their temper with his or her child. In fact, researchers say there are signs parental yelling is on the rise. Sue Shellenbarger has the latest research on how to avoid blowing up, and mother of two Leigh Fransen shares her story.