School’s out, for summer! School’s out forever! Well, school might not actually be out forever as the 1970s Alice Cooper rock classic declared, but if you’ve grown to accustomed to your free time during the last academic year, it might feel that way during the summer months. So what’s a parent to do now that you have to once again entertain, inspire and occupy the eager minds of a child who’s on summer vacation? How can you once again fill 24 hours and seven days a week with your child?
Few things disturbed me more in my pre-parenting life than the “I’ve Been There, You Haven’t Done That” crowd. They’re the type that are loaded with parenting tips and advice, generally all the things they did to perfection to shape their wunder-kid into a, well, wunder-kid. They’re also the types who will say your life has had virtually no value before you brought a child into the world, and who swear you have no understanding for what tired, what love, and what hard work mean before you add parent to your list of titles. So, with that in mind, today I won’t offer a list of To Dos when it comes to being a parent of a baby/toddler. Instead, today’s advice is…don’t do what I did!
With Mother’s Day coming up I am sure most of you guys are making well thought out plans to get your wives a nice gift or trying to make the day memorable… or you’re just winging it like always. Here’s something unique you can give your spouse on her special day, and it’s a gift she will treasure and value for a lifetime.
Looking for a good book to read to your child? I have my master list of books that are can't miss choices on the first go around...and many subsequent re-reads. These books will not only be big hits with your child, but they’ll also be interesting enough to entertain you as well. After two years of children’s stories, I can assure you your child isn’t the only one that can be brought to tears with the wrong story time choice; too much of a bad read can bring a parent to the brink as well.
At some point every parent will eventually realize that our kids are more technically savvy than we ever will be. What was innovation and magic for us is commonplace for them. They grew up with computers; cell phones; tablets; ipads, ipods, iphones; i-this and i-that devices are everywhere. They don’t have conversations…they text; tweet; post; blog; and Reddit / Pinterest their daily encounters. So here is the hardest thing you will ever teach your kids about the internet…
So, when we last talking "camping gear" I had left off with the "don'ts" or, more accurately, why the camping gear I had (car camping gear that is) was not really suited for my more recent adventures in backcountry camping. My Coleman sleeping back and camp cookware have held up to 15 years of work and are very little worse for the wear and tear. That being said, they simply don't work for backpacking, let alone backpacking with kids. Any camping with kids is about creating a level of fun and safety (secondary to fun in their eyes). If the kids are burdened by too much gear, or if you spend all day setting up and tearing down camp, then the kids won't have a good time. This is Variation 1 on the old saying "if momma ain't happy, nobody's happy". A frustrated or bored kid will result in a frustrated and more frustrated dad and will end up only one way...no more camping.
One of the jobs of parenting is providing guidance and direction to your child in their developmental years. Sometimes, that guidance means helping them avoid some of the mistakes you made when you were growing up. So with that goal in mind, do I really let our son become a Chicago Cubs fan?
I’ve been hunting through every hardware store around trying to find just the right transition threshold to go between my hardwood floors and the kitchen tile. This should be an easy purchase and install, but with the opening over 7 feet wide, most of the little three foot long pre-made thresholds just won’t work. So I made my own. Here’s how…
Some kids just have a natural physical ability to play sports, specifically baseball or softball. The rest of us had to learn and practice, practice, practice. Personally I had the reflexes of a cat and was an aggressive and mean child growing up…perfect for playing Little League baseball. As a follow up to my previous article on how to teach your kids to hit a baseball, here are some helpful tips for how to help them learn to catch a baseball…
One of the “mistakes” my wife and I made, we were told, was purchasing a video monitor for our child. The logic was that we’d be glued to the screen with every sound, and we’d constantly see terrible sleeping positions that would prompt us to rescue our child from non-existent harms. Now, with two-plus years of video monitoring under our belt, I couldn’t disagree more. I find myself on the opposite end of the argument – I believe these are an absolute must.
School’s out, for summer! School’s out forever! Well, school might not actually be out forever as the 1970s Alice Cooper rock classic declared, but if you’ve grown to accustomed to your free time during the last academic year, it might feel that way during the summer months. So what’s a parent to do now that you have to once again entertain, inspire and occupy the eager minds of a child who’s on summer vacation? How can you once again fill 24 hours and seven days a week with your child?
Few things disturbed me more in my pre-parenting life than the “I’ve Been There, You Haven’t Done That” crowd. They’re the type that are loaded with parenting tips and advice, generally all the things they did to perfection to shape their wunder-kid into a, well, wunder-kid. They’re also the types who will say your life has had virtually no value before you brought a child into the world, and who swear you have no understanding for what tired, what love, and what hard work mean before you add parent to your list of titles. So, with that in mind, today I won’t offer a list of To Dos when it comes to being a parent of a baby/toddler. Instead, today’s advice is…don’t do what I did!
With Mother’s Day coming up I am sure most of you guys are making well thought out plans to get your wives a nice gift or trying to make the day memorable… or you’re just winging it like always. Here’s something unique you can give your spouse on her special day, and it’s a gift she will treasure and value for a lifetime.
Looking for a good book to read to your child? I have my master list of books that are can't miss choices on the first go around...and many subsequent re-reads. These books will not only be big hits with your child, but they’ll also be interesting enough to entertain you as well. After two years of children’s stories, I can assure you your child isn’t the only one that can be brought to tears with the wrong story time choice; too much of a bad read can bring a parent to the brink as well.
At some point every parent will eventually realize that our kids are more technically savvy than we ever will be. What was innovation and magic for us is commonplace for them. They grew up with computers; cell phones; tablets; ipads, ipods, iphones; i-this and i-that devices are everywhere. They don’t have conversations…they text; tweet; post; blog; and Reddit / Pinterest their daily encounters. So here is the hardest thing you will ever teach your kids about the internet…
One of the jobs of parenting is providing guidance and direction to your child in their developmental years. Sometimes, that guidance means helping them avoid some of the mistakes you made when you were growing up. So with that goal in mind, do I really let our son become a Chicago Cubs fan?
I’ve been hunting through every hardware store around trying to find just the right transition threshold to go between my hardwood floors and the kitchen tile. This should be an easy purchase and install, but with the opening over 7 feet wide, most of the little three foot long pre-made thresholds just won’t work. So I made my own. Here’s how…
Some kids just have a natural physical ability to play sports, specifically baseball or softball. The rest of us had to learn and practice, practice, practice. Personally I had the reflexes of a cat and was an aggressive and mean child growing up…perfect for playing Little League baseball. As a follow up to my previous article on how to teach your kids to hit a baseball, here are some helpful tips for how to help them learn to catch a baseball…
One of the “mistakes” my wife and I made, we were told, was purchasing a video monitor for our child. The logic was that we’d be glued to the screen with every sound, and we’d constantly see terrible sleeping positions that would prompt us to rescue our child from non-existent harms. Now, with two-plus years of video monitoring under our belt, I couldn’t disagree more. I find myself on the opposite end of the argument – I believe these are an absolute must.