Stringing beads, lace up cards, even picking up cereal - these are all wonderful ways to help your child develop fine motor skills and strengthen hand muscles. In turn, these skills will aid your child in learning to write and even cut with scissors. Providing ample opportunities for your child to practice is important during the Toddler Years.
My boys love to eat - just one look at them and you can tell! While getting them to eat isn’t a problem, though, getting them to eat the things I want can be. Here are some fun ways to spruce up mealtime for your kids! Read more…
Last April, my husband and I moved from a man-to-man defense to a pure zone defense. Or, to put it another way, our third child entered the world and our family. We quickly became aware of just how outnumbered the “parent team” had become! Recently, I got to experience a more-then-normal lopsidedness to our household balance, because my DH headed out of town for a few days. Read more…
During the wintertime, I have a battle to get fruits into my kids. Fresh fruits are almost always not an option as my kids tend to like the “good” fruit of summer and fall, and not the grown-in-a-greenhouse crop of winter. So, I look for ways to get fruity things into my kids without adding a whole bunch of extra sugar.
Fruitsicles are one of our favorite things to make during the winter months. Granted, we live in the South, and we have balmy days during the wintertime that make popsicle eating quite normal, but even in chilly weather, kids are bound to love this snack. And, if it is cold outside, perhaps their fruitsicle won’t melt as quickly! This recipe is easy enough for any child to at least help, if not create, on his or her own. Read more…
I went to the birthday party of one of my dearest friends’ daughter this past weekend - her first birthday. It is a monumental occasion, those first birthdays. It is a reflection of the past twelve months, of the accomplishments and milestones that have been crossed, of remembering that amazing moment when parent and child first lay eyes on each other. And, in Addy’s case, it was extra-sweet: she had been born nine weeks early, spent six weeks and NICU and overcame some pretty big obstacles along the way. Here she was, a year later, diving into a applesauce-sweetened spice cake and smearing pale pink icing from ear to ear (and not necessarily just her own ears!). Those first birthdays are definitely a major milestone.
It was time to turn on a bit of the think-tank to come up with a present for Addy; after all, there were over forty other people in attendance (don’t freak out - they were all mostly relatives) and all bearing gifts. Your typical tub toy or outfit wouldn’t hold a candle to this crowd. So, I sat down and created a list of some ideas for gift-giving to be a little bit “different”. Read more…
