Search Results for: blog making a big move with children

Little Hands = Big Help

Know how you can save money around the house?  Put your kids to work. Many parents shy away from assigning household jobs to their young children rationalizing that it takes less time and energy if they simply complete the tasks themselves.  Of course, a child is never going to learn how to make a bed, clean a toilet or fold laundry if his parent doesn’t allow him to get hands-on experience and make mistakes along the way.  Most kids learn from their errors, though that’s little consolation to the mom who has to refold an entire basket of clean laundry … Continue reading →

Black Friday Moves to Labor Day

And next year it’s moving to April Fools’ Day. No joke. Well, maybe. But, very few parents are laughing. News that several major retailers are planning to move the start of the Christmas shopping season to Thanksgiving evening rather than wait until Friday morning is no laughing matter for millions of parents who are employed by the likes of Sears, Wal-Mart, Target, and Kmart. Those working moms and dads were the same ones who initiated a public outcry last year when their employers opened at midnight on Thanksgiving. You know, the holiday that is traditionally set aside for families to … Continue reading →

Talia’s Makeup Tips are a Big Hit on YouTube

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Talia Joy Castellano is 13 years old and has about four months to live. She has two different types of cancer. One thing that brings her some joy is the YouTube videos she creates where she teaches people how to apply makeup. She wants to continue them as long as she can. Not all parents will allow their 13 year old daughter to wear makeup. This is one of the most common fights that parents and pre-teens, or teenagers, have. The teen or pre-teen wants to look cool, and feels the need to visually indicate that she is not a … Continue reading →

Making Your Dreams Into Reality

As children we are told to dream big. The equal rights movement showed us that as women, we could do anything we put our minds to. Women like Florence Nightengale, Clara Barton, Amelia Earhart, and Sandra Day O’Connor have paved the way and given us hope to reach those dreams. As we become mothers, those dreams are often put on hold to care for our children. As single mothers, those dreams may seem almost unattainable, as you are working to support your children on your own. At the end of the day you are far too exhausted to think about … Continue reading →

Making a List, Checking it Twice!

A few months ago I took a class on the sociology of the family. Our first assignment was to write about our expectations in a spouse. I remembered making a list as a teenager. My future husband was going to be perfect, I just knew it! Prince Charming was going to come sweep me off of my feet, we were going to ride off into the sunset, and live happily ever after. Sound familiar? Of course, things didn’t turn out quite so nicely. My ex is no Prince Charming, and happily ever after never really happened. So when I started … Continue reading →

The Conclusion to My Big Time Mess Up As a Parent

My fellow blogger Michele Cheplic, reminded me of an unfinished end to a blog I had written about a huge mistake I had made with my daughter. There was an uncertainty to her future and where she would end up for high school. To recap, the county I live in has a terrible school system. It gets worse by the time children make it to high school. So my boys were put into another school district by what is called “open enrollment.” When it came time to sign my daughter up for open enrollment, I apparently failed to put on … Continue reading →

Making Creepy Look Cute

My daughter is the antithesis of a girly girl. Forget about dressing up like a shimmery snow queen or glittery glam, perfectly Pinkalicious princess for Halloween. No way! Rather, my girl craves flesh and willingly dresses the part to satiate her carnivorous desires. This year she has moved on from being a bone-gnashing lizard king and morphed into a man-eating shark. Her Halloween getup is designed to make it look as though she is being devoured by a ravenous shark. No gender stereotyping going on in my house. Not surprisingly it is easier than ever to find disgustingly gross costumes … Continue reading →

The Big Dive

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Our son is steadily getting himself into increasingly dangerous situations as time goes on. The strength of his little legs combined with his toned arms is making every area of our little home particularly susceptible to becoming a dangerous, child-crippling jungle gym. This new situation has had my wife and I on edge (particularly when our son situates himself perilously close to a step leading directly to a tile-floored head injury). This is exactly the situation we found ourselves in earlier this week. You see, our son likes playing with everything except his toys. Yes, I’m sorry to inform all … Continue reading →

The Big Picture: Addressing Challenging Topics With Your Preschooler

The world can be a deeply scary place. Death, terrorism, climate change, extinction…do you tell your preschooler the details, or do you shield your preschooler from all knowledge of these events? I tend to be a tell-all kind of gal, with a focus on making the information accessible to a preschooler. Sometimes I wonder if I’m doing the right thing by talking about the “big scaries” at all, though. When my daughter asks me if I will die, we have a good discussion about it. I don’t try to scare her, but I do try to be realistic. I will … Continue reading →

Get Moving! Pre-Reading Skills for Kids Who Love to Move

I’m a kinesthetic learner. That means that I love, love, love to learn by moving. When I teach, I bounce around the classroom, flying like a bird and hopping like a frog. It also means that when I’m shown a picture of something and asked to do it, I absolutely cannot compute. I need to see the practical and physical applications of math or reading in order to do the task. Often, we don’t think of reading as a movement activity. However, when our preschool-aged children are beginning to read, some of them will learn best through movement. How can … Continue reading →