Parenting

Creating Christmas Magic at Home

This post was sponsored by Amazon as part of an Ambassador Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own

Christmas is by far my favorite holiday. For me, it’s not so much about the shopping and gift giving as it is the opportunities to make lasting memories. The holiday season in our house is synonymous with love, kindness, and fun. This year my 3 youngest are right at that “visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads” age. It makes me feel like a kid to explore with them this season of joy, imagination, and creating Christmas magic.

Creating Christmas Magic with No-Fuss Decorating

You know what kids love? Glitter. Their daddy? Not so much. Thankfully, he is a good sport this time of year. John even goes so far as to help them with every sparkly, sticky gluey craft I come up with. In a few years my house will be empty and I’ll have a beautiful Christmas tree with matching decorations. For now I’m content to let the kids adorn our tree with their awkward crafts.

This year we have a new addition to the home, and she’s a tremendous helper at making spirits bright and filling our home with laughter. Meet our Echo Dot Kids Edition! The kids call our device “Alexa” (I bet you can guess why ;). At their age, music and singing play an important role in their development. Alexa sits in a central part of the house so the kids can call on her to play a Christmas carol, tell them how many days until Christmas, and even put in a call to Santa!

Creating Christmas Magic while Learning

Of course this teacher mama is going to incorporate learning activities with the holidays! We keep a collection of Christmas books that only makes an appearance this time of year. Some of them are the fun, pop-up kind. Others are more traditional, like Clement Clarke Moore’s Night Before Christmas. In her compact, kid-proof case, Alexa has a wealth of children’s stories on Audible. All you have to do is ask, “Alexa, tell me a Christmas story!” The Echo Dot Kids Edition comes with a year of FreeTime Unlimited, which includes over 300 Audible kids’ books, kid-friendly (and ad-free) radio stations and playlists, and Alexa skills that help kids learn without even knowing they’re doing it! When we get bored, we just ask Alexa to play a game. Little do my kids know, they’re working on Common Core listening skills while they play.

Creating Christmas Magic that’s Filled with Surprises

You know that feeling you get when you find out your favorite fast food place has a secret menu? That’s what it’s like living with Alexa. No kidding! We love asking her questions and trying to find ways to stump her. For example, I asked Alexa to tell me a Christmas fact. She told me how many gifts you would actually receive by the end of the “12 Days of Christmas”. But the best part was her closing sentence, “Gadzooks! I think I’d be happier with a few good books!” Haha! When I run out of things to ask Alexa, I visit the Amazon Kids and Family Facebook page for more inspiration.

As the oldest of 6 kids, I grew up in a home filled with Christmas traditions. Some of these have carried over to how I raise my own kids and others rest peacefully in my memories. I’m raising kids in a very tech-centric day and age, so it’s good to be familiar with trending devices like the Echo Dot Kids Edition. In ten years my kids may not remember the device, but they will remember the songs and stories that Alexa played for us that brought our family closer together.

This year Alexa has helped us write letters to Santa, played music so we could sing carols, and even found great Christmas cookie recipes for us! I rest at ease knowing that my kids are enjoying their device safely, thanks to the parent controls with FreeTime on Alexa. The Echo Dot Kids Edition’s kid-friendly case and 2-year worry-free guarantee make this device a no-brainer for me! Alexa and the Echo Dot Kids Edition are available on Amazon.

Breakfast with Santa 2018 and the Christmas Parade

We had a busy Saturday. To start it off, the kids got up much earlier than they usually do. This ended up being fine because we had big plans for the morning: Our Breakfast with Santa! This is an event that our church puts on every year. There are crafts for the kids, carols, silly games, a fantastic hot cocoa bar, a hot pancake breakfast, all topped off by a visit from the big guy himself. It’s such a treat for our little guys!

Breakfast with Santa 2018

The crafts this year were really cute. Johnny made a “baby Jesus” swaddled in a blanket while Madeline and Emily worked at another table making fruit loop necklaces. The strings were licorice ropes, so the whole thing was edible. Those did not last long! By the end, one more girl had made a baby Jesus and all 3 decorated pinecones with glitter and other crafty add-ons.

We thought the pancake breakfast was a hit. The centerpieces included photo booth-style props that kept the girls entertained. I took half a dozen photos of them holding up various holiday props. The group game was to dress someone at your table as a Christmas tree, and somehow Madeline was nominated to be the tree. I bet if you stood her next to the tree in our living room you wouldn’t know which is the fir and which is the girl, right? 😉

After all that food and fun we were so excited to see the jolly old elf. After all, he is the most important part of the whole breakfast with Santa event. It all went by so quickly, I didn’t get a chance to hear if the kids confessed to being naughty or nice. I’ll vouch for them though, they’ve been nice almost all year long. Related: Last Year’s Breakfast with Santa, titled “We Only Behave for Santa”

Personally, the busy morning wiped me out. I’ve been fighting a bug anyway, so the rest of the afternoon was spent lazily working on decorating our tree and watching Christmas movies. There’s no rest for the weary though, because soon it was time to head to the Christmas parade!

I loaded up kids, hats, and gloves into our wagon that I take everywhere, and rolled everyone the half-mile to main street. It was so much fun watching the parade that I didn’t get many pictures, so here’s a short video!

As I write this, the first day of December is coming to a close. I am so looking forward to the next 24 days of the holiday season and all the fun we’re going to have! Happy holidays, friends!

Sanity-Saving Tips for Busy Moms

When I first started blogging, I had newborn twins, a full-time job, and a 9-year-old with a packed extracurricular schedule. To say I was busy is an understatement! Since then, we added another bundle of joy to our family. I’ve learned a lot over the years about managing a growing family while working full time. With a little planning and these sanity-saving tips for busy moms, you’ll be more cool, calm, and collected when you’re out with your little ones.

Bring Snacks

Kids burn through a lot of energy. If you’ve seen mine, you know that they hardly ever sit still! If we’re planning on being gone for more than an hour or so, I always bring a little something for the kids to snack on. It doesn’t have to be a big gourmet meal. Most of the time a baggie of sliced fruit or some string cheese is enough to keep our energy up until we get home. For longer trips to the park, beach, or hanging on the sidelines of big brother’s soccer game, we strap a cooler to our wagon to keep our snacks chilly.

Busy Moms Pack Lightly

Even though it is a good idea to bring snacks and toys with you to keep the kids happy, you don’t want to bring so much stuff that it takes 2 trips to the car to unload it all. For us, gone are the days of stuffing everything under the stroller seat, although that was a great way to lug all our extra stuff around. Now we keep a wagon in the trunk of the car for trips when we’re bringing lots of stuff. This 3-in-1 Tailgater Wagon from Radio Flyer folds flat for easy storage in the back of the car.

Don’t Wear Yourself Out

When I get home, I do not want to be more exhausted than the kids are from a day of errands! As the mom, my job isn’t over once we’re home. That’s when the real work starts: making dinner, tidying up, putting away everything we brought with us in the car… So I don’t want to use up all my energy on the outing. We usually bring a backpack with water bottles and snacks on our short errands. When we need more storage we take our awesome wagon. Our 3-in-1 Tailgater Wagon™ has a cooler caddy to carry all our snacks and drinks. There are also 2 cup holders on the front to tote the kids’ water bottles, and a canopy to give them a shady place to sit. It’s so easy to pull, I had no trouble taking them to a lakeside picnic. And since everything was strapped to the wagon, I didn’t have my hands full juggling toys and drinks!

Ok, I know some of you are probably wondering, where did you get that awesome wagon and how can I get my hands on one? My suggestion is to find it at Walmart. We got ours for a very reasonable price, and it has the most bells and whistles available! I love how the side wall can zip transform to bench mode so it can fit all three little guys. They love riding to and from places in it!

Ever since the girls were born we’ve had several on-the-go days each week. With lacrosse meets and soccer games and church events, there is always somewhere we have to be, especially on the weekends! Busy moms, have you been there? Where your life is crazy busy and you are just amazed at how you handle it all? Hopefully these sanity-saving tips can encourage you, because I bet you’re probably doing them already. Hang in there, mama. You’re doing a great job!

How We’re Raising Literate Children

Now that the girls are in school, I have a lot more time with my 3-year-old, Johnny. He’s not in preschool yet, and I want him to be on track for kindergarten in a few years. Kindergarten is not at all the finger painting and nap-taking class that it was when I was little! These days, kids leave kindergarten already reading. My teacher training gave me some starting points for teaching little pre-readers. Hopefully these tips can inspire you to help your little one develop strong literacy skills.

Raising Literate Children

At Johnny’s age, reading stories is about much more than just the cute characters. Children can even learn social skills and develop empathy from listening to stories being read to them. In preschool and kindergarten, their little minds are also coming to grips with the world around them. One of the best gifts we can give our young children is exposure to books and text. This week we tried out the Mrs. Wordsmith program. I love that it makes it so easy for parents to raise literate children, by supplying monthly deliveries of colorfully designed, print-rich vocabulary building activities. Whether you choose to buy a curriculum like Mrs. Wordsmith or work with your child on your own, try these easy and fun ways to encourage reading skills.

Understanding Concepts about Print

Concepts about print is a fancy term for a simple skill. Basically, it’s knowing that “f” is a letter and “”funny” is a word. It’s knowing that you turn the pages of a book from right to left and read across a page from left to right, from the top of the page to the bottom. Parents can help their children develop concepts of print by reading stories with their child. For “homework”, try writing your child’s name and counting how many letters are in it. Or use magnetic letters to build your child’s name and words for familiar objects. If you choose to use Mrs. Wordsmith, you can use the picture cards in your monthly kit to identify letters and words. The kit’s Word of the Day Activity Book also has different things children do with words, like find the letters that appear in a word, tracing around the word, and drawing pictures to show what a word means.

“Reading” the Pictures

All good children’s books have pictures. Pictures help early readers figure out what’s happening in a story when they don’t fully understand the vocabulary. If I’m being honest, I get bored of reading the same story for the millionth time. But this actually helps children grow as readers. When the story is predictable (especially if they’ve heard it read a million times), they can use the pictures to retell it to you. Retelling is a hugely important skill in young readers. It gives children an opportunity to use the vocabulary from the story and shows that they understood it. After having heard the Mrs. Wordsmith stories a few times, Johnny was readily using words like “collaborate” as he summarized the story for me.

Asking and answering Questions

When you’re reading to your child, do you ask them questions? The questions don’t have to be deeply philosophical. While Johnny and I read our Mrs. Wordsmith stories, I ask him to look at the picture and tell me how the character is feeling and other simple questions about the plot. When in doubt, use the 5 W’s – who, what, where, why, when… and how 😉 . Encourage your child to make predictions about what might happen next. Connect it to their lives with, “How do you feel when that happens to you?” On each page of the Mrs. Wordsmith stories there is a question to ask your child. I asked Johnny how he knows he is hungry, and his adorable response was, “when I’m hungry, my tummy rumbles”. Awww….

Using Grown-Up Words

Vocabulary and reading go hand in hand. U.S Department of Education studies have shown that a child’s vocabulary in the early grades directly impacts his reading performance in the upper grades. I sometimes catch myself using babyish talk with my 3-year-old, but to truly give him an advantage in school it’s best to ditch the baby talk and use “grown-up words”. It’s funny, now that we’re working on a Mrs. Wordsmith word a day, I’ve been making an effort to use more sophisticated vocabulary than usual. I’m not sure how well that’s going for me, but Johnny has learned a lot. I was surprised to learn that he didn’t know the word starving. I was sure I used that word almost daily at lunch time!

Create Your Own Activities or Purchase a Workbook?

Parents, you absolutely have what it takes to teach your child early literacy skills. You can and should be reading with your child at home. Additionally, consider adding a reading activity kit like Mrs. Wordsmith. For $22.49, your child will get a monthly set that includes a picture book, workbook, a stand to display your word of the day, and sturdy vocabulary word cards. The products are research-based, helping you set a strong foundation for literacy as well as social and emotional development.

I’ve seen a lot of reading programs in my 12 years of teaching, and I find Mrs. Wordsmith to be high-quality and pretty comprehensive. Bright, colorful pictures bring the words and stories to life. The vocabulary words can be used in everyday conversation, and Johnny loves to sit at the table with me and “do his homework” in his workbook. 🙂

Click over to the website and read some of the testimonials. While you’re there, enjoy 10% off your first month with the code SimplySweetDays10.

Pin this for later so you don’t forget the tips and discount code!

The Key to Helping your Child Stay in Bed at Night

I never learn my lesson. We’ve had this issue with 4 children so far, and I make the same mistake with all of them. In the middle of the night, the youngest one stumbles out of his room and into my bed. Part of me is too sleepy to bother with getting up and tucking him back into his own little bed. But the other part of me, the part that regrets letting him sleep in my bed every single time, thinks it would be sweet and cozy to snuggle up next to him the rest of the night.

Have you ever tried to “snuggle” a toddler? They are not snuggly. At least none of mine have been. They’re all feet and elbows and smushing into you and stealing your pillow. I fully support any mamas who can handle cosleeping, but it’s just not for me. I get up at 4:30 for work and my beauty sleep is priceless!

Lately we’ve been trying to get Johnny back into the habit of staying in his bed all night. In all fairness, we’re totally to blame for his nightly bed-switching. We just got lazy and started letting him fall back asleep in Mommy’s and Daddy’s bed instead of sending him back to his room with his sisters. He’s definitely old enough to sleep in his bed, so now it’s up to us to help him start a new habit.

The key to helping your child stay in bed at night is consistency.

You have to stick to your plan. They say it can take 30 days to form a new habit, so you have to give your plan plenty of time to work. Whatever you decide to do for a reward system (and experts do recommend a reward system and not consequences for toddlers), do your best to stay with it. Children thrive on routines and predictable activities. After a week or so, your toddler will probably be reminding you about it anyway!

Bedtime routines can be fun!

Our bedtime routine starts shortly after dinner. The kids know that after dinner they have a bath, then a snack of fruit or a cracker, then teeth brushing, and into bed they go. You could also add a favorite song or story to your child’s routine. We recently started using this cute bedtime reward system from SleepBuddy™. It’s a complete sleep system that also comes with a colorful book, incentive chart and even stickers!

The customizable clock lets you set your child’s preferred bedtime and the time he should be waking up. The little light turns a soft blue or amber when it’s time for him to go to bed. The light turns off to let him know that it’s ok to get out of bed at the scheduled “wake time” in the morning .

Johnny loves his SleepBuddy. The light is soft enough so that it doesn’t bother his sisters, who he shares a room with. But it’s nice to look at and I honestly think it helps him calm down a little. He’s already started adding stickers to his chart to get a reward. The way things are going, I think he’ll be earning a trip to the frozen yogurt shop very soon!

The parents guide included with the SleepBuddy system has reward ideas, parenting tips, and a manual on how to customize the clock on your SleepBuddy.

Add SleepBuddy to your cart the next time you’re shopping on Amazon. This sleep system has been a great help in our family, and I know your little one would love having his own SleepBuddy. It also makes a great gift!

I tried using a reward system with Emily to help her learn to stay in her bed all night. It was just a simple sticker chart, but it worked pretty well for what we needed. Now, with Johnny, he’s got his own personalized sleep system. He gets excited to go to bed and watch the blue “bedtime” light turn on. And the best part is that I’ve had a blissful night’s sleep ever since our SleepBuddy came in the mail! Check out our unboxing video below.

Visit the SleepBuddy website and Facebook page for more information.

Do you know a toddler or preschooler who needs a SleepBuddy?

Mercury Insurance Drive Safe Challenge

This post is sponsored by Mercury Insurance and Socialtyze. However, the opinions expressed are my own.

As kids grow older, it’s so exciting to watch them turn into young men and women. Then they turn into teenagers and start talking about driving, and suddenly growing up is downright terrifying to mom and dad. I wish I could just wrap my teenager in a bubble, but that’s not reality. He can’t wait to start driving, which is why I’ve got to start preparing him to be a safe, responsible driver. Thankfully, Mercury Insurance and the California Highway Patrol have partnered up with the Anaheim Ducks in the Drive Safe Challenge, giving teens the information they need to be safe behind the wheel. Mercury Insurance Drive Safe Challenge

The Mercury Insurance Drive Safe Challenge Event

Last weekend Logan and I attended the Drive Safe Challenge event at the Honda Center, hosted by the Anaheim Ducks. Friendly CHP officers, along with our feathered friend Wild Wing, helped to create an environment where safe driving is the cool thing to do. The teens attended two valuable safe driving learning experiences: a behind the wheel training, and classroom instruction on how distracted driving can change lives.

Behind the Wheel Training

Teens, with their permit or driver’s license in hand, went behind the wheel of a real car to test their skills driving during various hazardous conditions. Accompanied by a trained driving expert, they got a lesson in driving with distractions, in the rain, or other road challenges. Then they practiced safely driving a real car in each different scenario. This hands-on experience was so beneficial for these teens, who probably haven’t put much thought to driving in inclement weather prior to the event.

Lessons Learned from Unsafe Drivers

In a classroom setting, teens and parents learned and just how much one person’s unsafe driving can affect a whole community. California Highway Patrol officer Jim Bettencourt led us through the Start Smart presentation, showing us videos of stories from people who have lost a teen. Powerful testimonials from parents and friends, and images of crumpled cars on the screen, really send the message of how much your choices can negatively affect others. But the emphasis was not just on teen drivers. He gave parents a thorough explanation of a parent’s rights and responsibilities and the parent’s role in teen driving. Some accidents could have been prevented if parents had enforced the rules of a teen’s provisional driver’s license. Mercury Insurance Drive Safe Challenge

Logan and I were deeply moved by this presentation. A few times, he and I both were on the verge of tears. These were just regular kids, not prone to drinking, driving or violence. They just made a simple dumb choice, like texting while driving or having a bunch of friends goofing around in the car while they were driving. And somebody paid with their life for that choice. It’s pretty scary.

As a parent, I feel better informed about how to parent a young driver. Before the #DriveSafeChallenge, I hadn’t realized the peer pressure that teen drivers and passengers may face. Logan was deeply affected by the testimonials of grieving families, which I know is kind of like scaring kids straight. But I don’t think we should beat around the bush about this kind of stuff. Kids need to know that dangerous things can happen if you don’t drive safely. To quote one of the moms from the presentation, “”When you’re driving and you have friends in the car, that is somebody’s most prized possession.” What a powerful statement for teens to hear!

Here’s a short video on our experience:

Mercury insurance and the California Highway Patrol didn’t leave anything important out. They covered unsafe driving choices like having too many friends in the car, drinking and driving, texting and driving, making unsafe lane changes, or being too tired to drive. You can find out more about the quality care and service of Mercury Insurance on their website, or follow Mercury Insurance on Facebook to stay informed of driving tips and advice.

We Only Behave for Santa

This was a big day for us. The twins have been looking forward to meeting the big red-coated guy from the North Pole for days, and today he was coming to our town! My kids are usually a little bonkers, but thank goodness they had it in them to smile pretty and behave for Santa when the cameras were on them.

Every year our church puts on a big “Breakfast with Santa” event. 2 staff members dress in elf costumes and emcee the morning’s festivities. There is so going on, the kids don’t have a spare second to get bored. Unfortunately, we didn’t have Logan with us because he was with his dad. Part of the reason I make our YouTube videos is so he can still get to see the family stuff he misses out on while he’s at his dad’s.

We started off at the hot chocolate bar, where John loaded up the kids’ cups with warm cocoa, marshmallows, candy canes, and whipped cream.

Next came breakfast. We headed down the buffet line and filled our plates with pancakes, eggs, Gogurts, and orange juice. Well, the Gogurts were really just for the kids. At this point, the kids had downed hot cocoa, a candy cane, syrupy pancakes, and they were starting to jitter from sugar overload. This seemed like a good time to take them to the craft area so they could do terrible things with glitter.

To John’s relief, the girls never made it to the glitter craft. Madeline and Emily both made a snowman from a paint stir stick. It turned out so cute! Johnny was happy at the coloring table, which was great because he’s still a little young for crafts.

Meeting Santa: The Grand Finale

The elf emcees led us in some caroling. Then, encouraged by the applause form kids and parents, Santa came out to meet the children. We did have to wait n line a while to see him, but I didn’t mind because we had a nice chat with the families before and after us.

The kids were wonderful for Santa, smiling adorably for a picture and telling him what they wanted for Christmas. Apparently Elsa dolls are still cool (to my kids, at least).

At the end, we took our tired, hopped-up-on-sugar kids home. I know they’ll be talking about this day for a long time. I was so thankful to have John with me to help with the little ones because this day would have been much more stressful without him. Hopefully today helped to build memories for our children that they will treasure for years to come. Next up on our family adventures is our annual Christmas Lights Scavenger Hunt!

Safeguarding Your Family’s Online Activity

Disclaimer: The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.

Kids today are submerged in technology and digital devices. 4 years ago when I was teaching Pre-K, I was amazed at how tech-savvy the 4-years-olds in my class were! Nearly all of them could operate a touch-screen tablet, and some knew how to use game apps and play online videos. Because technology is so user friendly, I want to make sure that my little ones don’t stumble on to content that I wouldn’t want them to see. We recently got a Cujo from Best Buy so we can start monitoring our family’s online activity. we use the cujo device to monitor our family's online activity

Communicate the Internet Rules

Before turning to technology to help keep an eye on my kids, we talked about what they can and can’t do online. My little ones know that they need to have Mommy or Daddy with them if they want to go online for any reason. I have more serious conversations with my teenager about cyberbullying, online stranger danger, and sending or receiving inappropriate pictures. The Cujo adds an extra layer of security to our family’s online activity because it allows me to select which devices can access sites for gaming, shopping, rated R content, and social media. the twins love their kids fire kids edition tablets!

How Cujo Works

The Cujo is a little gadget that connects with your internet router. It provides business-level internet security to block malicious sites and hacks. But what I love is how it allows me to set parental controls for what my kids have access to while on their devices. I can set restrictions and get alerts about suspicious all through the Cujo app on my smartphone. Our Cujo is currently configured to 17 devices, and because it’s built with 1Gb ethernet, it doesn’t slow down our internet one bit!

Simple Safe Browsing

For me, our family’s network security has to be easy to set up. Using Cujo’s app, I was quickly walked through the process of connecting the little firewall device to our internet provider’s router. The website and app give explicit directions, but I called a tech support representative anyway. He was very helpful and it just made me feel better to have an expert guide me through the steps.

Monitoring the Family’s Online Activity Right from My Phone

Inside the Cujo app, I created profiles for each of my family members. Then I assigned the devices each one uses and set restrictions to those devices. He may be 14, but under my roof that’s still not old enough for my oldest to be visiting websites that post nude or 18+ content. The little ones don’t really use the internet. Even so, I still restricted them from accessing shopping sites of any kind. I don’t need an ‘accidental’ Amazon delivery of hundreds of dollars of their favorite toys! The app also lets me set time limits for my kids’ devices, monitor their social media activity and even pause all internet activity on a device.

I wonder how seriously parents take their family’s internet security. Aside from restricting your child’s online activity, you could risk tremendous damages from hacks or spyware. Not to mention the possibility that one of these attacks could steal your personal information. This simple device could make a world of difference to your family’s internet security.

What feature of the Cujo are you most interested in? The parental controls? Business-level security? Customizable restrictions based on profile and device? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Sending a Healthy Teen Back to School

This post was sponsored by Unity Consortium as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.

Last week I dropped my baby off at high school. Not only was it his first day at a new school, this school is 6 times as large as his middle school was! With such a big transition, there was a lot to do as we got ready for that big first day.

Get All the Checkups!

We always schedule dental cleanings and annual doctor’s visits for during the summer. The girls had to have a physical to start Pre-K anyway, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to get everyone in for a checkup. It made me realize though, if it wasn’t for his 4-year-old sisters, I probably wouldn’t have taken Logan (my teenager) to see his doctor this year at all! I heard a statistic lately that about 40% of parents think their teen should see a doctor only when he is sick or injured. That sounds about right, actually. We only went to the doctor last year for Logan’s major accident and the time he stapled his thumb in English class (insert eyeroll at typical teenage boy’s poor decision making skills). While we were at Urgent Care for the staple, the nurse noticed that Logan hadn’t had a flu shot. I wonder how many times the flu would’ve cycled through my family (because that’s what it does in big families!) if that accident hadn’t happened and he’d missed the chance to get a flu shot?

Teens still need preventative health care

Even though they are teenagers, they are still our children and need some guidance when it comes to health and personal care. I mean, I’m baffled by how often I have to remind my 14-year-old to shower! He may think he’s old enough to drive (not yet, buddy), but he still has a lot to learn about life. I recently discovered Unity Consortium, an organization that brings awareness to the challenges to teen and young adult health.

I know my teen doesn’t think about things like preventative health, which is why I make sure he has annual checkups and has always stayed caught up on his immunizations. According to a recent Unity survey, the majority of parents and teens think that they should be vaccinated, but the number of teens who get vaccines is actually pretty low. Maybe, like me, they only take their teen to the doctor when he’s sick or injured? Or maybe they think vaccines are for babies?

At 11-12 and 16 years old, the CDC recommends adolescents receive vaccines to protect against tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), meningitis, and flu.

Even though Logan isn’t due for vaccines for another 2 years, I’m still going to make sure he has a physical next summer. I believe it’s important to continue to stay involved in my child’s medical care, even though he’s a teenager. Because I am and always will be his MOM.

Planning a Mommy and Me Playdate

I’m currently on summer break (woot! woot!), which means I am at home with three little ones every day. We’ve been keeping ourselves occupied by going to the library for story time, reading our favorite summer books at home, and going to the pool. It’s been fun, but I’ve missed hanging out with people my own age. That’s why I decided to set up a Mommy and Me Playdate at the park. Here’s what I did:

Planning a Mommy and Me Playdate

Get the Word Out to Moms

I made these flyers using a free website called Canva. You can download and print one of your own if you like. I handed mine out at church because I see these moms in passing all the time, but I wanted a chance to get to know them better. You could even give out flyers at the park or post them in the community center.

Gather Some Supplies

For my playdate, I had advertised that there would be snacks and an activity (oh yeah, heads up – the flyer promises those too ;). I went to my nearest dollar store and got party stuff like tablecloths, crackers, water bottles, and a few items for my crafts which I’ll explain next.

Prep the Activities

Moms want to chat with other moms, but they also want to do something fun with their kids. My party had 2 crafts/activities that moms could help their child with: Cereal necklaces and galaxy bottles.

Cereal Necklace

Materials: Fruit ring cereal (dollar store) and string cereal necklaces craft activity for a mommy and me playdate

**Hot tip** Use string. In my picture you may see that we used wrapping ribbon, I thought it would be cute, and plus it’s what I had on hand but Johnny (my 2-year-old) couldn’t thread the ribbon. The girls could, as you can see, but string would have been better.

Madeline

Emily

Galaxy Bottles

The girls had made something similar at preschool but couldn’t tell me how they made theirs. It’s the reddish one pictured below. I think it’s just water, glitter, and a little bit of soap. Emily loves how hers gets pink bubbles when you shake it, and the galaxy bottles I made don’t do that. easy galaxy bottle made with water, glitter, and a little bit of soap My playdate craft shown with the directions was adapted from this Pinterest pin. I used smaller bottles and filled them about ? with water and the rest with baby oil. park playdate for preschoolers activity: make a galaxy bottle

Materials: Small plastic bottles from water or juice containers, glitter, dollar store funnel, baby oil, dollar store confetti

Directions: For these 12-ounce bottles I used about 8 ounces of baby oil and 4 ounces of water. I added 12 drops of food coloring, a lot of glitter, and some confetti. The end result kind of reminded me of these glitter wand toys we had when I was growing up!

Logistics and Setup

Make sure the park or place where you have the playdate is shade and cool. Some moms may be nursing, so keep in mind there needs to be places to sit.
You don’t need fancy decorations if you meet at the park because they might blow away!
Display your craft directions in the front of a binder with a clear front cover so they don’t blow away!
Set out nametags and markers. I used these mailing labels because they were cheaper than name tags, and I have this set of Sharpie markers that I’ve used for a bunch of crafts so far. 🙂
Set out a sheet of paper for moms to write their phone number or email on, so they can get an easy invite to the next playdate!

The day of this mommy and me playdate was smack dab in the middle of summer, and even though it was hotter than hades the kids and moms still had a lot of fun!

Help a girl out – can you think of any planning tips I forgot to include?

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