• family - Health

    My Worry Box – A PTPA Winner for Children #Giveaway

    April 17, 2012 - By 

    Does your child worry? Chances are good, if they are preschoolers on up, there are times their little minds won’t turn off the busy actions of the day. Or times their thoughts are racing. Sensitive children, gifted children, children with special needs, perfectionists, or simply children who spend a lot of time thinking. All children at one time or another handle worry, or anxiety. That’s just part of life. These days, worry and anxiety seems to be more prevalent among children than ever before. Healthy adults handle worries and anxieties every day. But most healthy adults have a toolkit of…

  • Parenting

    Five Easy and Free Sensory Play Activities for Kids

    January 23, 2012 - By 

    With an increasing number of kids who have sensory processing disorder or sensory issues related to brain injury, concussion or autism, there’s a lot of new knowledge about sensory play and sensory activities. We started reading up on sensory play and sensory processing disorder years ago when Ainsley was first diagnosed.     Depending on whether your child is sensory seeking or sensory avoiding any one, or all of these may appeal to them.   FIVE EASY SENSORY PLAY ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS     Fill a sink with warm water and soap suds. Have them wash things. Toys, dolls, dishes.…

  • family

    Zero Tolerance For Bullying Not Good Enough

    December 1, 2011 - By 

    My daughter Payton. Both my kids have at one time or another been bullied. One of my children could also easily be perceived as a bully. She is not, but she has special needs and is frequently mishandled, undersupervised and left to handle situations she cannot because of her disability. My heart breaks when I read of kids who have ended their lives because of bullying. This is tragic every time and I can see too easily how a child could feel that there is nothing good in the world when school is not a safe place. I believe bullying…

  • Adoption Awareness Month
    family - Health - parenting - Parenting

    National Adoption Awareness Month – Our Story Part Three

    November 21, 2011 - By 

    This is the picture of the day we met our daughter over ten years ago now. People often ask me how the process was and when they hear we adopted domestically they are astonished. I often say: Have you seen our beautiful girls? I could never complain about either one of our adoptions. We got two gorgeous daughters, we got to be parents and we found a great community of friends in the process over the last decade and we have found a passion advocating for other families. Part 3: This is part three of my series in honour of…

  • family - Health - Parenting

    Hands Off My Child’s Weight – For The Last Time

    September 15, 2011 - By 

    A lot of people followed my story of scales in schools. Last Friday I posted about my daughter, 10, in grade five and an insensitive assignment in which a scale was in her class and kids were weighed. My daughter went first. She was picked to go first and comments were made by others about her size and weight. She came home very upset. Anyways part of my weekend was then spent trying to fix that problem and get to the root of what happened. The issue was resolved yesterday morning when the teacher, whom I believe to be a…

  • special needs

    The Oopseat: Interview and Review with Mompreneur and Autism Advocate Lisa Goodman

    April 7, 2011 - By 

    Moms are some of the savviest and most creative people I know. If necessity is the mother of all invention as the saying goes, then mothers are also the greatest inventors. Take Lisa Goodman for instance and her protective chair covers. Goodman, the single mother of a young child with autism, was looking for an item on the market that would protect furniture from those little spills children so often make when eating, drinking, crafting. When she couldn’t find what she wanted, she designed the perfect chair covers herself and so began the Oopseat. Lisa sent me a square Oopseat and…

  • parenting

    Giving Your Child The Gift of a Second Language: Guest Post

    February 3, 2011 - By 

    In the evolving and sometimes depressed current economy it’s hard for parents not to worry about their child’s future. What will jobs look like 10, 20, even 30 years from now? What are the best ways to nurture creativity and resilience? How do you give your child a competitive edge? One of the greatest tools for children is language. Acquiring a second language early on makes a lot of sense. It is unlikely that the economy will stay terrible forever – but if current trends continue, children are likely to enter a cut-throat workforce. A good education is crucial in…

  • FASD - Giveaways - special needs

    My 411 Mabel’s Labels Review and Giveaway Open to Canada and US.

    November 8, 2010 - By 

    My 411 wristbands from Mabel’s Labels: Good for All, Excellent for Kids With Special Needs It is a moment, hardly longer than the blink of an eye, and your child disappears from your line of sight. Your stomach sinks, breath catches in your throat, heart freezes and your mind races. Where is she? Did someone take her? Is she hiding? You tell yourself it will be okay, but newspaper headlines are all you can see or think and you fly into panic mode, or maybe survival mode. Every parent on the planet, if they have a child who is old enough…

  • advocacy
    family - Parenting

    Advocacy – WIN THEN BUILD Philosophy

    September 13, 2010 - By 

    This is something I share when I do workshops throughout North America on advocacy. But because I know so many friends with children who can use this information I thought I would post a tipsheet on the topic. I call it the WIN then Build philosophy of advocacy. I run a non profit (Canadian Coalition of Adoptive Families http://www.canadiancoalitionofadoptivefamilies.ca/) in which I often use these tactics and I am a Mom and I have a child with special needs. This is what works my experience. Of course there’s more than one way to make things happen but this worked well…

  • school_lunches
    family

    SIX Questions and Answers about School Lunches

    September 8, 2010 - By 

    So your baby is about to start school and she or he is staying for lunch. That opens up a whole new world of school lunches. I have a bit of experience with thousands of school lunches over the years and I wanted to pull together some questions and tips that I often get asked by friends whose kids are just starting kindergarten. A friend of mine prompted this post as she found it helpful last week when I emailed her in response to a question she had about school lunches and leftovers.   Six Questions about School Lunches Q1: What lunch…