Mom Approved Toys for Preschoolers and Kindergarten

When ever holidays or birthdays approach I am always looking for toy ideas for my kids that are both fun and educational. I like to provide this list to family members so that we try to avoid ending up with too many toys that don't get played with. As a homeschooling family I want something that is functional but also something that will keep my kids attention.  This post is a list of great toys for young children from infants thru 1st grade. A few of these my kids have and LOVE and the others are on our wish list.

Infants & Toddlers:

For gift ideas for young children, checkout this post by a great blog I follow, The Darling Bakers. The post shares great ideas for toys and activities for the first year and the toddler years. 

 

Toys and Activities for Children's Early Years- The Darling Bakers 

Preschool to Kindergarten:

Alphabet Bingo Games- Where to Buy
This is a great game for children ages 4-6. It teaches pre-kindergarten children up to 1st grade. It teaches them to recognize the alphabet.

Jax Ltd., Inc. Sequence Letters- Where to Buy
Intended for kids age 4-7. It's a great way to learn the alphabet and the sound each letter makes.


Learning Resources Sum Swamp Addition and Subtraction Game- Where to Buy 
This is a great game to sharpen math skills and the basic operations of addition and subtraction for younger children and as practice for older children.

Melissa and Doug Abacus- Where to Buy
This activity is great for kids 3 and up. It helps to teach math skills, patterning and color recognition. 

Melissa and Doug Pattern Block & Boards- Where to Buy
These colorful pattern boards are great for children 3+ and is a great way to learn about patterns and shapes. 


Melissa and Doug See & Spell- Where to Buy 
This activity is recommended for children ages 4-7. It contains 16 colorful pictures to learn spelling skills. 

Melissa and Doug Geometric Stacker- Where to Buy
This durable wooden toy for kids 2 and up. It helps to build shape, color and size differentiation skills. 

Plan Toys Preschool Sorting Board- Where To Buy 
Perfect for kids age 2-5. This toy teaches colors, shapes and math concepts. 


ThinkFun Zingo Sight Words- Where to Buy
For grades pre-kindergarten to 2nd grade. This game was developed by educators to teach sight recognition and of essential words. 

ThinkFun What's Gnu- Where to Buy
This game is designed for kids age 5-8. It teaches word recognition, vocabulary building and reading. 





Do you have any mom approved toys to add to the list? We would love for you to share!


Disclaimer:  Please note: I am not a medical professional. Please use your careful discernment and double check with your naturopath or doctor before taking any vitamins or supplements

PAID ENDORSEMENT DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog.

Are Vaccines Making Your Kids Sick?

The choice of whether or not to vaccinate is a very important and complex decision in which parents must take the responsibility to try to find enough information to make an educated decision that can affect their children for the rest of their lives. As a parent, this decision can be overwhelming and many people trust their doctors to act in the parent’s best interest to provide guidance in such instances. Unfortunately, there is a major distortion of information out there and many people have the misconception that vaccines result in healthier children. However, research is showing that vaccinated children are more chronically ill than their non-vaccinated counterparts. According to the CDC, the number of vaccines that are given to children has increased more than three times in the last 29 years. In 1983, children were given 10 shots from birth to 6 years of age, compared to 36-38 for the same age group in 2012. 

Vaccine Dangers

Vaccines can carry with them very serious side effects, ranging from mild complications such as fever or rash, to major issues such as seizure and death. Children who are lucky enough to avoid any major difficulties, can carry with them a lifetime of health problems. According to a survey on VaccineInjury.info, vaccinated children have a much higher rate of autism, ear infections, ADHD, asthma and allergies – in some cases even 30 percent higher than children who are not vaccinated. The assessment continues to show that un-vaccinated children are less likely to suffer from hyperactivity, skin disorders, autoimmune disorders, depression, anxiety and many other diseases. In addition to the fact that vaccines are being shown to cause health problems, immunizations being given today have not been tested for long-term safety. Most of the studies only evaluate side effects that occur within 48-72 hours, while the truth is that many serious side effects show up long after that time span.

Vaccines are a combination of many different toxic additives, preservatives and cell types that are initiated during the manufacturing process. The problem is that the shots create a temporary vaccine-induced antibody production rather than letting the body build up its natural immune system, and have little evidence as to their effectiveness.

In fact, Whooping Cough outbreaks are higher in areas that have a higher percentage of children who have been vaccinated against it according to Reuters. In 2010 in San Rafael CA they saw the largest spike of cases the state has seen in 50 years after the CDC recommended that children get the vaccine booster.

Over-vaccinating weakens the immune system, making children more susceptible to infections with less ability to fight them off. The injections also promote viral adaption, which is responsible for creating vaccine resistant super bugs. In 2010, 77 percent of the over 1,000 people who were infected with Mumps had received the MMR vaccine- a statistic which was conveniently left unreported by the mainstream media. So while the number of outbreaks occurs the medical establishment can recommend more vaccines to try to reduce the numbers, causing a vicious cycle fueled by misinformation and deception.

Natural Alternatives to Boost the Immune System
 
Healthier options to inoculations include eating organic food, increasing vitamin D intake and avoiding GMO foods, additives and preservatives. Diet is a very important factor in making sure that our bodies are able to work effectively. Foods high in refined sugars and other additives require our body to use stored vitamins and minerals in order to metabolize, increasing the production of hormones, which suppresses our immune system. Eating fresh whole foods and making sure to get an ample amount of vitamin D is vital in helping to strengthen the body’s defense system. In addition, allowing the body to fight off infection and only using antibiotics when absolutely necessary, will develop natural resistance.

Photo Credit: Header-Moketni

Disclaimer:  Please note: I am not a medical professional. Please use your careful discernment and double check with your naturopath or doctor before taking any vitamins or supplements

PAID ENDORSEMENT DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. 

Sleep Like a Baby?

Whoever invented the term sleep like a baby obviously never had one! Usually babies are pretty good sleepers the first several weeks after birth, they will sleep anywhere, anytime no matter what is going on. But as the babies begin to get older they tend to be very particular about where or how they sleep which can be very trying for parents. Usually they will do whatever they can to get the baby to fall asleep, including driving around in the car until the child finally passes out or co sleeping into the school years.

Many crunchy mamas are very much into co-sleeping. I feel to each his own, but for me and my husband we preferred to put the kids in there own bed once they were around 6 months old. We wanted to train them to sleep in their own room allowing us our private time and reserving sleeping in our bed for rare occasions (sick babies or if they are really scared). This post is to share some of the sleep training tricks that have worked for us and have helped us to have some alone time once the kids go to bed.

The most important thing to do is to try to establish a routine. Kids love routine, it just might not seem like it at first. Over the years I have observed that when we stay pretty close to schedule the kids are in better behaved, not as whiney and fussy. But when we are on vacation or just off schedule it's Crazytown! Our schedule has been the same for about the past 3 1/2 years. We have dinner, then a little playtime/story time, then it's time for the bath with my secret sleepy potion, brush our teeth, and then we end with some songs and then down for bed. The sleepy time potion I use is an essential oils combination of Chamomile and Lavender. I put a few drops in the tub and when they were babies I had some in a spray bottle that I would spray on the sheets at bedtime to help calm and soothe my little ones.  (You can buy a blend from my online store HERE)

Sleep training is not easy and many parents despise letting the baby cry it out. It was hard for me at first because I felt so sad, as if I was abandoning my child. Or at least that they would think I was abandoning them. The first day or so I would would take awhile with A LOT of crying. I would go in every 20 minutes or so to comfort them, let them know that Mama was there, sing a song and then put them back down. They need to get used to being by themselves and that is a big adjustment. After all, they started in your womb and then paired with the few months of co-sleeping, they are used to being near the mom and dad. It takes time and patience but I promise you it gets better each day. After about a week or so they should be comfortable settling into their routine and it will all be downhill from there.

From my experience with two children I have noticed that anytime I have to try something new, whether it be sleep training, potty training or weening from bottle/pacifier it usually takes about a week or so for the hard part to be over. With patience and time it gets so much easier and the unbearable part is over before you know it. Just remain consistent and understand why you are doing what you are doing. Just because your child is crying and unhappy for a short period does not mean that you are neglecting or causing your child psychological damage. I personally think that it teaches many important life lessons and preparation for how to deal with changes in the future that are important to ones growth and development.

I would love to hear any stories, information or helpful tips about sleep training or handling any other milestone changes with children!

Disclaimer:  Please note: I am not a medical professional. Please use your careful discernment and double check with your naturopath or doctor before taking any vitamins or supplements

PAID ENDORSEMENT DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog.

Potty Training 101

The title of this post implies that I am a potty training expert, which is by no means the actual truth! Potty training was a lot harder for me than I originally anticipated. I was under the impression that because she seemed advanced for her age, that the task would be no problem! Boy was I wrong. I tried almost every method out there, including the Naked $75 method.

This post is to provide information on the methods that I tried as well as some advice based on what I learned from this experience. Hopefully my next attempt will be much easier, although Ive heard that boys are a whole other animal (no pun intended) and look forward to see just how different the experiences are.


I wasn't sure which technique would be the easiest so I wanted to try a little bit of everything until we figured out what worked for us. I bought a seat for the big potty as well as one of the mobile baby potties. She took to the smaller, travel potty first because I she felt scared of sitting on the big one.

Potty Time!- It is important to make a simple act of using the bathroom a joyous one! I tried to literally make potty time like a party! I would invite her to come with me every time I had to go and talk to her about the process (sounds gross I know! Didn't get into any yucky details, just what and why I was doing it!) I tried to encourage her to try it and made a huge fuss when she would go in either the little potty or the big potty! When she would have accidents I wouldn't get upset, I would just reiterate what I  wanted her to do.

One technique said to place the portable toilet in the room that was most used. For us that was the living room as we don't have a playroom. I was a little hesitant to put the potty in the main room, but read about the whole out of sight out of mind theory and decided to try it. It actually worked really well, I would ask her every 10 minutes if she had to go to the bathroom and eventually she would go on her own but it was still intermittent, we had lots of accidents and she still preferred diapers. She actually told me she didn't like how panties felt because she loved diapers and wanted to be a baby like her brother. This was very frustrating to me but I had nothing to do but be patient and keep trying to encourage her to go in the potty like a big girl.

After about months of the off and on accidents I got desperate and moved on to bribing. I would bribe her with everything, show her pictures of Disneyland and let her know that once she didn't wear diapers anymore we could go and she could meet Mickey and Minnie Mouse! This offer intrigued her, but still didn't seal the deal. I decided to try short term bribes taking advantage of her sweet tooth, if she went #2 in the potty we would make cookies or cupcakes that day for her to enjoy. This started to work so I would switch up the prizes, sometimes it was a healthy sweet treat, sometimes it was stickers or a new coloring book (which you can get at Dollar Tree for a great price!) Every time she would go in the potty you would have thought she won an Olympic gold medal! I would jump up and down with excitement, sing, dance, whatever I had to do to show her praise and she loved it!

Even with all the headway we were making, I was still scared to take her out of the house without a diaper on. I was afraid that this was sending her mixed messages so I bought some training pants for when we would make our outings but tried to stay as close to home as I could until she was trained. I was terrified of being out grocery shopping or driving in the car and have an accident occur. I was very excited when we would go out and come back from being out for an hour or so and come back to dry training pants. Once I realized this I knew the dirty job was almost done! Within a few weeks she was completely potty trained (with the exception of diapers during nap time and at night- which we still have yet to master)

Potty training is no easy feat, at least it wasn't in my case. I had an extremely stubborn daughter and had to use a lot of time, patience and bribing to get where I am today. Ultimately I had to wait until she was completely on board for it to work. Even after months of being accident free there were  couple of days where she would have multiple accidents for whatever reason and we had to switch back to training pants for a day or too until we got back on track.

To anyone out there who is currently in potty training hell or getting ready to start the process, patience is key! Don't sweat the small stuff, there will be accidents, some worse than others. The important thing is to remember that it will eventually happen, maybe not in the time frame that you want it to, or even the amount of time it took your friend whose kid was magically potty trained in 2 days. But when was the last time you saw a teenager wearing diapers (I PROMISE your kid will be potty trained well before then!)

Good luck and I would love to hear any potty training stories (good or bad!) that you want to share!!

Disclaimer:  Please note: I am not a medical professional. Please use your careful discernment and double check with your naturopath or doctor before taking any vitamins or supplements

PAID ENDORSEMENT DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog.