Back To School
Back to school is both a happy and challenging time depending on what your family dynamic is. While my kids are often happy to resume their schedules and get back to seeing their friends after a long summer away, I am sometimes a bit ambivalent. Fall is not my favourite season and the summer months with their long warm days of swimming pools, cottages, camping and beaches are simply my favourite. Who can resist the pull of a beach or cottage and the relaxing long bright sunny days? But whether you like it or not back to school comes on time every single year so here's a little bit of help to get you entire family ready for that change.
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The Next Big Buzzworthy Kid’s Accessory: Gutzy Gear Review
I am crazy for these little collector items called Gutzy Gear and I will tell you why. Gutzy Gear is a collector system that appeals to kids and tweens, maybe even teenagers. You start with a hat or backpack straps (as seen here) and then you build and collect these velcro patches and customize each strap. There are also collector books and visors you can buy to dress up. My girls received some of the backpack straps from my time at Blogher New York this summer and so I let them dress their backpacks up for the first day of school. Payton adored the peace and yin and yang set…
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Bras to Back to School Shopping – All in a Week #sandgen
From bras, to brakes, to back to school shopping. This was one of those marathon weeks in the life of me, when life became achingly exhausting. Deadlines mounted, a magazine article was due and then back and ready for edits that needed to be done yesterday and then of course brakes on my mini-van needed an unexpected service and eight paid jobs were due and so on and so forth. Oh, and somehow in there I am supposed to squeeze in massive dental restorations and back to school shopping – Huh?! Anyways the life of a sandwich generation Mom is never dull. I love my job and my kids, my…
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Back to School Backpack Safety: How to Spare Your Child’s Back From Injury
I was sent several of these Backpack Binders for review and was the slightest bit confused when they arrived. Are they a backpack? Or a binder? Well, my energetic one shown here tore open the package and all was revealed. They are binders, of course, but with a difference. These Backpack Binders are extremely light, because the company that makes them believes the lighter the better and that children’s backpacks are already to full, which is leading to a large number of back injuries. So lighten the load in the backpack, by carrying one of these and you are off to a good start. I like the cute skateboarder pictures…
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Linked Moms Chat is back – Home Schooling Tips
We’re Baaa-a-ack! Hey all you savvy moms and dads, we are back to our regular chats on the #linkedmoms channel. So, join us please at 8 pm EST tonight. (Wednesday) This week’s topic is in honor of Back to School. Yes, I said it. Back to School. Grr… not long enough for my summer, but hey I am not pouting. Never. Here at Linked Moms chat we like to bring i8n a guest every so often to take the mystery out of a topic. So, this week I am so thrilled to be chatting with Ann Marie Brown, my good friend, adoptive parent of one, parent to many biological…
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Monday Mingle: April 23 – Productivity, Obsessions and #Ldnont
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Utales Children’s EBooks App Review
Click on link below for video and more information about Utales http://player.vimeo.com/video/29233431?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0 UTales is my new favourite multi-purpose, educational site for Moms, Dads and growing readers. There are many fantastic resources here on UTales, described as a world of picture books for kids. Above, you can see just a few of the amazing digital picture books for children, running all the way upto age nine. The greatest concentration of books here is the preschool category. But there are many sweet, colourful and original tales. My youngest daughter, myself and even my oldest at 10, have been loving this app for the past month. My oldest uses the tales to read…
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And then She Lost It…
If you are a parent to a child with special needs, then odds are you are familiar with this level of exhaustion. Dog Tired. Yup, that’s me this morning. And every morning lately. But this morning, well it was epic in its bleary-eyed beauty. This morning, before I could find the Visine eye drops my charming child turned to me and said:”wow, are your eyes ever red.” And yes they were. Because I am tired, the kind of tired that comes from shivering for a week without a furnace. The kind of tired that is show week for oldest daughter, when the culmination of running back and forth three nights…
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Gatekeeper Health Care Rant
Alright I was planning a giveaway and then I spent all morning arranging and rearranging appointments. Talking to doctors and their BEAUTIFUL (read grumpy) secretaries and social workers and nurses. People who care for my daughter who lives with me and my mother who currently lives in the hospital in London and I am so steaming angry that I think I will rant instead (giveaway later). So essentially in our house since my mother got sick the summer has been medical triage. My doctors and my daughter’s doctors appointments have all been put on hold because my mother has been in crisis all summer. Alzheimers and dementia suck by the way. Part of…
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Shining a Light on Our Bullying Stories: Part One
This is Ainsley. In my eyes she is perfect. Not every day, but most. Like today when she hopped out of the minivan and blurted: Rachel (not real name) said yesterday that the only reason I have any friends is because I have a disability. Rachel is a classmate. I listened to her words and the sounds of my heart breaking. As it does regularly – because I am a Mom. Biting cheek and tongue. I think I might have said, “Hmm. well that wasn’t too nice. What did you say?” Answer: “Nothing.” For the last week Ainsley has been asking me why people like her. I ask her why do you think?…
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LittleMissMatched Quirky Back To School Sale
http://gan.doubleclick.net/gan_click?lid=41000000036889258&pubid=21000000000360399 I remember how excited I was when I found this cute brand one year. My girls can be dressy, and sporty and fancy and girly and tomboyish and messy all in one day. So this adorable quirky brand suits both really well. We love the socks. Perfect for those kids who often wear mismatched clothing anyways. LittleMissMatched has school supplies, clothing, quirky socks that come in threes so that your child is never without a match and can change it up style wise as often as they wish. So why not go with it? LittleMissMatched now has a wide array of products and some great deals for back to school.…