Author: Katie Baker

Family

Fun Outdoor Activities for Families

As we all know, a family is the best thing that a person can ever belong to. When there is love, togetherness, and fun, it makes the family healthier and strong.

There are different outdoor activities for families out there. This article will take you down to different outdoor activities that a family can exhibit.

1. riding of a horse

Some children in the family love riding horses. This will be a very good idea for some members of the family. And it will bring strong relationships among the members of the family.

2. Riding on a bicycle

If you don’t have enough bikes you can’t rent more just to make sure that every member of the family is engaged in bike riding.

This makes the bond strong and unbreakable. For example, you suggest competition like male and female riding bikes, so first to get to the finish line. This can be so fun and interesting.

3. Getting good ice cream

In a family, only a few people don’t like icecream especially the aged ones. But the young ones cherish icecream to the extent that they take it every day. So, going out to have fun and get sweet icecream from the icecream shop.

4. Seeing a movie

We all know that we have a television in our homes but it will not be more fun like every member of the family to go out and mix up with more families to watch movies Seeing a movie is also one of the outdoor activities a family can ever experience. It is more interesting when you watch movies on the huge screen and sitting together with different people with different minds.

5. Picnic outing

The family can pick a special day that is convenient for every member of the family to go out on a picnic. They go along with a lot of food, drinks junk, and so on, including some games like skipping rope and so on.

They also ask themselves some questions which have not been asked before. This brings unity among the family member

6. Jogging in the morning.

The whole family can pick a day to jug In the morning. This will reduce stress and bring togetherness in the family. Every member of the family should be in their jogging skit to make the outing fun.

7. Water balloon and gunfight

This game is very interesting, especially among children and youths. The family should get a big compound that will contain people including the extended family so that the activities that will be carried out that day will be fun and interesting.

8. Painting of small Rocks for decoration

Getting small Rocks is also part of fun when you go out with your family. After getting the rocks, you paint them with different colors and create something with them that will beautify the place and make the place colorful.

9. Flying of kites

The parents should group the children in twos according to their age group. And also help them to create the kites and make sure that they achieve something by flying the kites up. The higher the kite, the more marks you get.

Family

How to Improve Communication with your children

Children are the heritage of the lord. They do different things like, getting you angry, making you laugh and forget your sorrow, they make you proud and happy, and they also make you not feel empty.

As good as they are, they have different behaviors. Some are active all the time, some are quiet and calm, some are introverts and extroverts. let us take for example a child that doesn’t talk to anyone even 8f he or she is passing through pains.

As a parent how can you handle such a child? It is very simple but needs action. They can never be closer than anybody out here apart from you the parents. That is why parents have a lot of responsibilities in front of them.

Ways to improve communication with your children

This article will take you through different ways to communicate very well with your children. Below are the ways to communicate with your children:

1. Perceive the child’s attitude towards a  conversation.

Children can be so funny especially when they are fed up with a particular discussion, they will begin to portray some attitudes that will make you feel they are no more interested.

As a parent, your job is to watch very well whether the child still wants to continue with the conversation or not. Children give different signs when they are no more interested in conversation like asking unnecessary questions over and over again, looking up and down as if they are looking for something. At this point, you should quickly notice that the child wants a change of topic.

2. Ask them questions that are in line with your thoughts

Whatever you want to carry out, make sure your child is involved to keep him or her actions at all times. For example, let’s assume you want to get a new apartment and you are not sure where to get it, you can ask the child where he or she will love to stay apart from the current location. A question like, hey! Where do you think we can relocate to? Where exactly has been on your mind?

3. Do not use insulting words on your children

Some parents think insulting their children will make them behave well and better but they don’t know this will add to their misbehaviors.

Parents should stop doing things that will make their children feel embarrassed and ashamed. When you shame a child, it makes that child feel belittled and also feel less important.

4.correct a child in a lovely way

When a child does something wrong that is annoying, as a parent, all you need to do is to give the child attention and good instructions on how to behave him or herself very well next time. When you correct a child severely, he or she will not take to correction quickly and that child will end up doing that same thing again.

5. Help your child to express his feelings

As parents, we listen a lot, which makes us good listeners. When your child is listing out his feelings, try to make them feel it has also happened to you before, as you do that it will make them feel they are not alone and their experience is not the first and will never be the last.

Family

How Can Positive Parenting Encourage Personal Development?

Positive parenting, oh I want to be a positive parent, I want to be positive in all essential parts of my life. Let me briefly explain positive parenting.

Positive Parenting Definition 

Positive Parenting refers to an epic approach that’s built on mutual respect and communication. This means that as a parent, we need to treat our kids as people instead of our properties. This approach looks at the future, looks at learning, it doesn’t look at punishing these kids for things they have done in the past. 

Positive Parenting does not just include teaching kids but it also looks at why, when, where, who of a situation instead of just what.

Let us look at whole grand concepts of positive parenting and also talk about the benefits of parenting your kids positively. 

The essence of parenting your kids positively

  1. You get to build a beautiful bond between yourself and your child.
  2. You increase the chances of mutual respect.
  3. You encourage your kids to communicate 
  4. You develop relationships with are lovely and filled with trust.
  5. Your child wouldn’t be scared to tell you how they feel and talk about all the things that bother them.
  6. You get to boost the self-esteem of your child and their confidence.
  7. You get to promote affection and love for your kid. 
  8. The negative behavior your child has would keep flowing away over time. 
  9. You would help your child grow and their brain would hit Infinitum within no time.
  10. You get to set lovely examples for your kids.
  11. Your children and you would understand others, the world, and each other better
  12. You get to ensure that your child would be healthy mentally and emotionally.

How Personal Development can get Encouraged From Positive Parenting 

As I just mentioned earlier, the advantages of positively parenting your kids are so many. You get to train yourself more in the process. I would like you to believe that you do not know everything. I do not know everything. I don’t have all the answers. Your child doesn’t have all the answers too. That is why you are there for your kids to serve as their parents and they are here for you to train them. If you keep treating your children like they are your property or you own them the way you own a bucket or a stereo set, they would begin to act out, they would want to be on their own, they would want to distance themselves, and wouldn’t want to stick close to you anymore. Do you understand? But when you treat these lovely kids like they are their people, hear them out when they have something to say, support them, advise them with care and love when they are wrong and all of that, trust me, with no time you would personally develop with haste, speed, and efficiency. It is said that the best parents are those that have the best children. When you see your kids thriving, you’ll know you’ve done a great job. 

Health

The Pandemic’s Impact on Early Education

I doubt there is anyone that did not suffer from the horrible effects and impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. Several parents from California did not want to return to learning remotely. But either way, they still did it. They had high hopes of getting back to campus at various points during the school year. 

But for young ones that were just starting school for the first time, the choice to commit to learning through remote means was quite difficult. 

Looking at the horrible rigors these beautiful young kids had to suffer from learning through the distance, lots of kindergarten parents have decided to keep their kids in preschool. This is a familiar and safe option that has allowed and let young kids enjoy the personal development that is needed by them. Affluent parents could have opted to send their kids to private schools. Most times, these have smaller class sizes and very big campuses. This makes the in-person lectures and all quite safer. Families that gain low or poor income could have forgotten about schooling because trust me, that mad pandemic was stressful. 

All through the advocates of early childhood, these all warn that some kids could struggle seriously when it is time for them to enter the first fall grade. 

For young kids, their first year is extremely essential. The learning they need to go through is one of the most important parts that would affect them all through their academic lives. From this age, the brains of these kids are burning with fire. A year of development at this age for us adults is like ten years. The reason is that when one becomes an adult, there are lots of things that serve as distractions which would reduce the rate at which we learn new things and develop. But as very young children, whatever we see, whatever we learn around us, we immediately pick it up and grow. As fast as possible. 

Now think about the horrible impact and effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on young kids trying to begin school for the first time. I even have the first-hand experience over this particular issue. Let me break it down.

What happened to my Baby Brother as a result of the COVID Pandemic 

My brother was just starting school. It was around his second year after kindergarten. Unlike us, in the house, he did not start talking early. He became five in January and till now he doesn’t talk as well as kids his age. We contribute to him not talking but the pandemic is to blame too. This is because if not for the pandemic, he would have mixed and merged with his friends properly, and before one knew it, he’s talking would have advanced and he would have been speaking English properly at this point. But because he was home all through 2020, he missed out on very important parts of his academic life. With time, he would catch up for sure. 

Family

Best Galaxy Projectors for Your Child’s Bedroom

This article is going to talk about the Best Star Projectors of the year 2021. This would do all it can to bring the entire cosmos to your apartment. 

You could be a man, child, or woman. There are twinkling lights that shine all through the night sky. These could bring the stars all above your apartment. You simply need to buy yourself a star projector. Your apartment would with speed come to life using all of the wonders from the universe. These devices can cast images and bring in a lot of beautiful things that you would like to see. 

You could have remembered falling asleep to enjoy dark stickers from stars and planets on your ceiling. You could have very simple ways to arrange dark stickers.

List of Best Galaxy Projectors for Your Child’s Bedroom

Our New #1 Best Choice Star Projector

This is a Google Assistant App that’s controlled and it also has a starlight Galaxy projector. Being one of the best star projector ones has reviewed. 

Why is this one of the best star projectors for children?  It is one of the best because it is controlled using a smart application. There are voice controls that work with Bluetooth, WIFI which serve as an awesome fun bedtime story. 

This has game changers using star projectors known as Google Assistant and Alexa which have integration controls. This enables one to become creative with their bedtime stories. This star projector uses a voice command that is activated using a hands-free experience. There all mean that you could tell spell-binding and awesome stories that have great adventures to your kids. 

What is the essence of these lovely best galaxy projectors for your child?

Different people have lovely children that are extremely attached and connected to the things the galaxies have to offer. Growing up I used to be one of these types of kids. I remember my Mama teaching me how to learn the nine planets in the universe. She taught me using this process “My very educated mother just planted nine pancakes” or something like that. At that age, I wasn’t good with books or studying. Not until I grew up and learned the actual names of the planets which filled the galaxy. 

The things your Children would enjoy from these Best Galaxy Projectors 

Like for Kids that truly enjoy what the galaxy has to offer, this would help in training them to be what they would like as they grow older and become more mature people. Like the New #1 Best Choice Star Projector which is talked about in the upper part of this article, young ones could control it by making use of Bluetooth, WIFI, and several other means that are available. Looking at the stress the COVID 19 pandemic has caused, your young kids could just get lost in these epic Galaxy Projectors. They would have fun, they would learn and they would of course grow. 

Family

Unique Things You Need to Add to Your Home

Most people think home is just where you live but it more than that. A home reflects who you are and the kind of decorations and ornaments found in it is a way of expressing certain yourself. A stylish-looking home shows the style of the person living in it. If you want something wonderful or unique to add to your home then here are 15 different things to consider adding

Storage Under Your Staircase

 Let’s start the list small and simple with a storage compartment under your stairs. This way you get extra space to store whatever can fit in. In addition to being a cool and unique feature for your home, it helps you efficiently maximize the use of your space. No need to keep searching for things behind the drawers with this extra space you can fit everything you want in an orderly manner.

In-ground Pool

A pool comes in handy when you have a family and live in an area with hot summers. Kids will love it and it adds value to your home.

Convertible Dining to a Fusion Pool Table 

This is a great way to save space by making your dining and pool table the same. It also looks very cool and is a nice little shocker for your friends. Wayfair has multiple options for this product.

Record Player

This one is for the music fans, add a record player to play and show off your records. You can also get records of all kinds by getting a vinyl subscription.

Cinema in Your Backyard

 Make your movie nights even bigger with a backyard cinema. All you need to do is add a projector and a screen you and are good to go.

Herb Garden in Your Kitchen

 A small place where your herbs can call home in your kitchen. It a small and unique addition that can make your home look more stylish.

Hammock Bed

 Although not the most uncommon thing on the list a nice hammock be can be a nice addition to your home.

A Fire Pit

Now, this is a very unique feature that you can add to your home and was your friends with it, giving your home an eccentric look. Home Depot has a lot of tasteful options.

Birds Nest Bed

 If it’s unique you want then this is one thing I’m sure you don’t come across very often. The bed design will give your home a look of its own.

Beach Themed Backyard 

If you want something to add that exotic look to your home then this is it. Bringing the beach to your backyard when you are not at the actual beach.

Family

What is right about Technology and Parenting

Being a parent and being a kid has completely changed over the past twenty years. 

Trying to raise a child is a difficult task. Several factors merge into being a parent, which have all changed all through the past few years. 

The presence of social media has made parents often ask themselves questions. They also feel a lot of pressure to have the best kids. These parents also have a network online where they can seek out support or advice. 

These days, parents opt to put their kids in front of screens instead of letting these kids have fun outside. The last two decades did wasn’t like this for Kids in any way. 

Both children and parents could get more disconnected from their kids. They could also become less present because of the amount of screen time. These are the reasons why parents need to remain mindful at all times. 

These days, parents live in entirely different worlds than the one they lived in when they grew up. 

Most times, we have parents who get influenced by specific trends and the environment at the end of the day. It is not surprising that raising a kid is now very different and way more challenging than some decades ago. Most times, when you look at all the new advances that are available technologically, they are way better than those that have been seen since those previous times and decades. 

In the past twenty years, being a parent has changed completely, and technology has a considerable part in these changes. 

Social media is a huge part of technology, and it makes parents second guess themselves repeatedly. 

Social media causes paralysis analysis. This makes it very tough for parents to settle and make the necessary decisions. 

Social media have several ways of impacting children. It also affects parents by making them feel like someone is judging and watching all they do at all times. 

Dr. Harvey Karp is a children’s environmental advocate for health, and he founded what we all know as Happiest Baby. He told insider about all be noticed and the visions that parents idealized on their responses pm social media and how these can question the choices they make over their kids’ lives. 

Well, this is what I believe, honestly speaking. You have a child, and you train a child. It is up to you to enable your child to make them happy. Happiness is the utmost goal. Every other thing should follow. Yeah, I know technology tries to serve as a competition against parenting and what parenting has to offer. But still, parents should know when to give their kids some space, and the kids should know when they should use the available technology with wisdom. As you train your child, parents and kids should do everything carefully to avoid stories that sadly touch the organ that pumps blood to the entire body (the heart, obviously). With this, everywhere should be fine.

Family

What is Gender Neutral Parenting?

Opening this article with the answer to the question straight up. What is Gender Neutral Parenting? This is a parenting form in which parents do not restrict their kids when they are attracted to things that the world has assigned to other genders. I’m so glad I’m writing this piece because growing up as a boy, I was attracted to playing with toys that were perceived to be for ladies or girls. I loved playing with ladies‘ crowns and the kitchen toy sets. My baby sister, on the other hand, loved playing with cars and swords and weapons. Luckily for us all, we have gender-neutral parents. So at the end of the day, the goal is for us, their kids to end up happy. 

FAQs 

How can one have a conversation with their children about gender-related issues in a manner that’s appropriate for their age?

One of the best ways is a parent to do this is to provide for your kid’s books and movies, which merges things that have been assigned for just one gender or the other. Leave your kids and let them be free. You understand. Give them great role models through parts of life that they love and are already used to. In my case, Mama made use of cartoons. I watched Hercules, and I watched Barbie. My character right now is a combination of both these things. I’m healthy; I know who I am; I know where I want to be. I am me. You know. But if your child is limited to only one side or one part of life, they would be stunted in more ways than one. You understand. Let them grow. 

How can gender stereotypes affect a child?

There are severe adverse effects. Let me list them out for you.

These kids who try to conform to restrictive rules to their gender do nothing but cultivate the skills and qualities that are ink acceptable to their gender.

 Because of this, growing up, they become stunted psychologically and emotionally. This always leads to a reduction in the rate at which they would grow and become themselves. They could end up living a life that is not deserving of who they are.

Like how girls who have been conditioned end up becoming so quiet so they would feel girly or how boys become bullies consciously to have their manhood identity out in the open. Trust me when I say this, I am who I am, I am me, and there’s nothing no one can say about that. Come and give it your best shot and see. 

Kids that don’t bend to the stereotypes available would get bullied and end up alone from their peers. 

This is quite painful. The worst part is that the adults around would tell you to behave to reduce the bullying. These adults should go and get those bullies and help the kids put them in their place.  

Family

What is Montessori Parenting?

The Montessori system of education was started by Maria Monterossi in 1907 in Rome. Her pattern of teaching children was based on the observations she made while visiting mental asylums in Rome. There, she observed that “children were in need of more stimulation from their environment.” She calls her experiments and findings “Scientific Pedagogy.”

Maria Montessori believes that her system of education is a channel to achieve world peace. According to her book “education and peace,” maria stated “preventing conflicts is the work of politics, but establishing peace is that of education.” She believes that allowing children to develop by their own laws will create a more peaceful civilization.

She was able to publish her first book about Montessori, Method Franchetti-Montessori, with the help of the Franchetti Barons (Leopoldo and Alice Franchetti), whom she lived with for 2 years.

The first Montessori school in the Us was opened in 1913 by Narcissa Cox Vanderlip, ever since then, it has spread like wildfire in the United States and the world at large.

What is Montessori Parenting?

Montessori parenting views children as independent beings and ties their learning to how prepared and supportive their environment is. Montessori stands by the idea that parenting should be relaxed and free, against the normal uptight tradition, toddlers are allowed to play freely as they wish and are not to be punished. Maria Monterossi in fact believes that the only way a parent should intervene in the kid’s learning is by providing Toys and making the environment safe for the baby.

Enforcing Montessori effectively can be tricky for parents who don’t really know much about it. Let’s take a look at the necessary guidelines to follow in order to enforce Montessori perfectly;

Montessori Guidelines

Safe Environment; one of the things that spurred MariaMOntessori into forming the Montessori system was her observations in Rome, on how the lack of stimulation impedes children’s development. Montessori’s system advises that a safe environment be created for children to play. Montessori believes this spurs the kid’s confidence and development towards making their own decisions.

Monitor the child

In as much as Montessori preaches independence in the child’s day to day activities, Montessorialso advocates planning of series of activity for the child, whilst the child chooses what other they want to carry out these activities

Discipline

Montessori rebukes Punisments amongst children. Montessori believes that too many punishments on children will eventually force them into a whole, create a boundary between the relationship of the parents and the kids.  This is sometimes mistaken as freedom with abandonment but this is false, in Montessori education, expectations are used to guide the children towards positivity

Freedom

Montessori advices freedom in the child’s day to day activities. In Montessori, it is believed that kids love to be in control over the basic things that they do. It helps to build their self-confidence, development and instills positivity in their life. Ou can simply apply this freedom at home in things as simple as dressing up, washing their hands, and using the toilet. in as much as this freedom is advised, reasonable boundaries should also be set.

Family, Health

Landscaping Ideas for Your Home

During the process of acquiring your land, you might be blessed with a lot of trees, but not all of them would be useful for your home decoration. The process of getting your tree removed or pruned requires a big event. First, you would need to know the situation of the tree stump compared to before, then you would notice some wood chips around it. When removing a tree, there would be a lot of packing of woods. When a tree is cut down and you begin to pack them, they would run through a wood chipper which would later turn to wood chips.

A similar situation happens with a tree stumper which grinds the tree into smaller pieces. The use of wood chippers has proven to be convenient and reduces the cost of tree removal, pruning, or even stump grinding. In the process of grinding and chipping, you would still be left with what to do with the wood chips. 

Use wood chips as Mulch

The best idea in using wood chips is by applying them as organic mulch which would help in some of your plants or around some of your trees with a PTO wood chipper. With the proper application mulches can be used to reduce the growth of the weed, sustain water to the soil and maintain the soil temperature, as the mulch becomes thinner you would need to replenish it. 

Other creative things to do with wood chips

There are several creative things that you can do with wood chips other than using them as a mulch.

  • Play area: You can use the wood chips as a play area for your children, the use of these wood chips would prevent soil compaction. 
  • Apply to trees with pots: you can apply wood chips to any form of open soil or even potting soil. 
  • Informal path: wood chips can be used to prevent your soil from erosion or even compaction. 
  • Sheet Mulching: whenever you have a plan to convert your lawn area to a planting bed, you can cover some area of your lawn with cardboard and then cover the area with wood chips that would kill the grass beneath it and compost it. Whenever you decide to plant you can use a rake to pack the compost, then dig up a hole to plant whatever you want to plant. 

Landscaping ideas after tree removal

There are several reasons why trees are removed, there are some trees that how old and die, some get infested and some become an unnecessary nuisance. Sometimes trees might be a disturbance especially with buildings around, this would require you to remove the trees. The amazing news is that there is a couple of landscaping idea that can be used after a tree has been removed. 

Planting of grass

Before you begin to plant grasses you would need to make sure the soil ph level is balanced so that the plants would be healthy. After a tree has been removed the wood chips and roots would prevent plants from growing. You can remove the wood chips and then add some layer of nitrogen fertilizers, and some layer of compost, and topsoil, you can repeat the process. 

Building a stone path or water feature

This isn’t a project that you can do yourself, so you would need to consult a landscaping company to help use a stump location and convert it to a masterpiece. By building such a grand feature it would only cost you some money, because if it is done wrong then you would get to spend more and also have an unpleasant appearance.