• family travel

    Niagara Falls for Family

    June 9, 2010 - By 

    There are so many awesome ways to fill the days in the summer when the kids are home from school. But this year, for sure one of our adventures will lead us back to Niagara Falls. The Falls are remarkable entirely on their own and I still have vivid memories of visiting this well known tourist attraction and natural wonder from when I was a school-aged child. Many years in a row we would drive to the falls from Guelph and stay over at a family-friendly cheap motel then on to Marineland – one of the other best things about this…

  • grief_in_adoption
    Parenting

    The End of School Blues: Triggers for Grief in Adoption

    June 7, 2010 - By 

    Let’s take a minute to talk about triggers. We all have them, triggers that sometimes seize us by the heart and drag us back to a memory – good, bad or otherwise. Triggers can be like strange little portals to the past. Sometimes brought on by a smell, a time of year, a feeling, a picture. Triggers for Grief in Adoption are many and they sometimes arrive out of the blue for parents. But for kids in care and adoptees they can be hard to cope with and even harder to communicate clearly to adults. They are visceral and emotional.…

  • Health

    Making Safety Fun – Cute Helmet Covers

    June 2, 2010 - By 

    A cute Canadian company is making safety fun for kids of all ages. A couple of weeks ago this adorable beaver helmet cover arrived in the mail…from Tail-Wags Helmet Covers. (see bottom for exclusive discount for thriftymommastips readers – Thrifty is coupon code) How cute and Canadian is this? My daughter got to try out the child-sized Patriotic Beaver, which she loves. At six, it’s not uncommon for my child to argue about wearing her helmet, which is part of the reason I love having this product available. It’s a fun way to promote safety and she doesn’t argue about wearing this…

  • family

    How To Drive Traffic to Your Website

    May 26, 2010 - By 

    Need Traffic? Get in the Driver’s Seat to bring Traffic to Your Website or Blog. Website traffic is often key to carving out a niche for your on line business, web site or blog. For business, the more traffic you have, the bigger your bottom line. Whether you’re launching a new product or a new blog sometimes you want traffic or followers. Here are 5 solutions to generating traffic and followers. But Mommybloggers and web site owners beware – there are no overnight solutions here. Social media is about establishing a conversation built on trust. While there are many advertised ways to…

  • family

    Crayola Sidewalk Chalk Maker – review

    May 24, 2010 - By 

    I am a huge fan of Crayola products. Their sidewalk chalk is forever being used around here to create great murals on the back patio. Their crayons are the best, the strongest, most colourful. My daughter, diagnosed with sensory processing disorder, often overexerts pressure on things and misjudges the amount of force required to do a task, and as a result, in her hands crayons snap into tiny bits causing frustration. But over the years I have proven Crayola crayons much stronger than other brands and less likely to cause meltdowns around here. So for those reasons I adore Crayola…

  • family

    Social Media: How to Maximize Use of Linked In

    May 18, 2010 - By 

    Linked In was my first big foray into the adventure that is social media and that was a trip I took thanks to a PWAC (Periodical Writer’s Association of Canada) workshop. One year ago social media expert and writer Dawn Boschcoff came to London and gave a great presentation about the evolution of media. Me, being an old media gal, well let’s just say I had a lot to learn and the best way to do that, with respect to social media, is generally just to wade into the waters. That’s what I did as soon as Dawn’s words settled. For…

  • family

    A Unique Summer Job Project

    May 12, 2010 - By 

    Graduating from high school but not yet sure where you want to go with your life? Or college perhaps? Nobody knows that topic quite like Sean Aiken, author of the One-Week Job Project. Aiken, a British Columbia native, became a media celebrity when his very cool 52 jobs in one year tour of North America caught on with legions of people caught in career limbo. Hot on the heels of the book’s success, Aiken who blogged consistently about his jobs over the year, has launched a one-week job summer job project modelled on the very premise of his book. Over…

  • family

    Mental Health Week: Or Children’s Mental Health Week Makes Me Crazy

    May 7, 2010 - By 

    Well my darling followers it is still  children’s mental health week here and there have been multiple workshops and various other offerings in and around town and still it feels like nobody seems to care. No press in the rag about town. Minimal audience at the various events I have attended and sadly this is making me crazy. Can anyone else say inducement? Or irony for that matter? Children’s Mental Health is a topic I am passionate about but it is making me crazy. Breathe with me. In 2 3 4. Out 2 3 4. There, that’s better. One in five children are…

  • FASD

    Children’s Mental Health Week: When Little People Have Big Worries

    May 4, 2010 - By 

    Imagine waking up paralyzed with fear over the simple fact that it is Monday. You get to school late as usual and slip into class, stomach in knots, head hurting, perhaps you have Tourrette’s, an invisible mental health disorder which causes you to tic, perhaps you are anxious or depressed. Maybe you have ADHD. In Canada one in five children suffer from a mental health disorder ranging from anxiety to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to bipolar depression. That’s about 2 million children and adolescents in Canada. This week is Children’s Mental Health Week. Last weekend thriftymomma was fortunate to take part in…

  • parenting

    No Spanking Zone!

    April 20, 2010 - By 

    My household is proudly a no spanking zone. You may disagree with me. You may even use spanking as a discipline strategy – although I would never condone or encourage this quick fix method. And you will never convince me that spanking is a good or smart parenting solution. I am horrified when I hear news reports of overwhelmed parents like Kate Gosselin spanking their child. A few months back a study actually revealed that children who were spanked had lower IQs than those who were not spanked. Now this month a new study in the medical journal Pediatrics reveals what many of…