• sensory play with gelatin
    family - Health - parenting

    10 Sensory Play Ideas with Gelatin

    May 25, 2015 - By 

    My kids are a curious combination of sensory seeking and sensory avoiding. That’s not uncommon for children with sensory processing difficulties. My older daughter avoids anything that feels scratchy. My younger daughter seeks out deep pressure often and also avoids any fabrics that are not soft and comfortable. Both have some sensory issues. I have written about that often here. Remember this post about 5 easy and free sensory play activities for kids with sensory processing disorder. [tweetthis]Five Easy and Free activities for kids who love sensory play https://www.thriftymommastips.com/easy-and-free-sensory-play-activities-for-kids/[/tweetthis] Both of my girls indulge in and seek out messy play.…

  • Handmade Gift Ideas
    family - parenting

    5 Handmade Gift Ideas for the Preschool Teacher in Your Life

    May 20, 2015 - By 

    5 Handmade Gift Ideas for the Preschool Teacher in Your Life Preschool teachers do so much to help our children grow and learn. They are the educational force that helps prepare our kids for grade school, high school, and beyond. In the context of my younger daughter’s entire education so far, the preschool teachers might have had the greatest impact. My younger daughter, as some of you know, has some special needs. I talk about that here from time to time. When my daughter was very small she had a lot of trouble with socializing, so all of her helpers,…

  • special needs travel
    active family travel - family - Travel

    Travel Is Respite #wordtraveling #NTTW2015

    May 12, 2015 - By 

    This month I am taking part in a special Travel is ____series for travel bloggers. There are new posts each day of May. There are also some incredible prizes that can be won this month too, including one trip to Florida. My post Travel is Respite runs today. This is an excerpt from the article. Travel is a beautiful way to experience the world with your family and to build your relationships and increase your knowledge about culture, geography and history. For my family travel is all those other things and more. It is also respite. When your family routine…

  • social-media-conferences
    family

    29 Lessons Learned at Mom 2.0 #mom2summit

    May 8, 2015 - By 

    I’m back! I’m back. Just got back from Mom 2 Summit and need to share some amazing things with you. But, you know that saying: Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. Yeah, well I call BS. Just kidding. Sort of. Mom 2.0 has become one of my favourite social media conferences. Social media conferences or blogging conferences can be an excellent business tool for so many reasons. In the last few years I have been to many. But here’s one of my favourites. Let me tell you why.   Did you know social media conferences are often…

  • travel-bloggers
    active family travel - family - Giveaways - Travel

    Travel Is Series Celebration and Giveaway #TravelTuesday #NTTW2015

    May 5, 2015 - By 

    This month dozens of the blog-o-sphere’s best travel bloggers are sharing what travel is to them. I have had some amazing travel opportunities, both for business and pleasure this year. Colombia was an epic adventure and a great learning experience with World Vision Canada. The cruise we took together as a family was amazing and such a great chance to restore. The trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico was a wonderful active mother daughter trip that we loved. And the Tremblant Quebec trip where we all learned to ski was epic and busy and challenging, and a trip were hope to…

  • tobogganing
    adoption and tweens - family - Health - Parenting - parenting

    Why I am Speaking Martian Again: FASD Looks Like This and I am Still Proud to be a Health and Special Needs Blogger

    February 26, 2015 - By 

    It’s been an interesting week here, in which several signs have made me realize again what I am supposed to be writing about. It’s funny how sometimes you, as a blogger, get tunnel vision watching stats and striving for growth and page views and SEO. These are the tools of the trade and we all get really great at understanding them. We watch our posts for engagement and comments and we tick them off and file them away with headings like: improved or needs improvement, or blogging goals for the year. We worry on a day when the stats dive and…

  • special needs adoption
    adoption and tweens - Parenting

    We Stay: Five Things I Never Told You About Special Needs Adoption

    November 26, 2014 - By 

    I am not unlike you. I love my kids more than anything on the planet. They are my heart. They are my life. They are my first glorious sight in the morning. (One of them bursts into my room every day at crack of dawn, but that’s another story) and one of the last things I see at night. There is nothing that can bring out the mama bear in me like someone wronging my child. My family is not perfect, but it is mine. Everything I do is to build a future for them. Most of you know by now that…

  • Health - parenting - Parenting - special needs

    Learning Resources For Kids with Special Needs

    September 29, 2014 - By 

    It’s the time of year when updating Individualized Education Plans and getting all the specialists lined up again takes a front seat here at my house. This past week I spent a few hours juggling the numerous doctors and people I want sitting at the table when my daughter’s new IEP is revised. She has been identified now with a learning disability in one area of math. It took me four years of pushing the school to believe that and it also took a private educational assessment that cost us a lot of money this summer. But it’s all good…

  • FASD - Health - Parenting - special needs

    It’s almost Back to School Time. Hold Me.

    August 22, 2014 - By 

      shutterstock Is that the sound of my sanity snapping? I think it could be. Here I am ALMOST at the end of August. In denial? Sure. Freaking out? Absolutely. WHERE DID MY SUMMER GO? So here it is, almost back to school time. The most wonderful time of the year. Right? RIGHT?? You know that commercial with the “That Was Easy” theme. Press a button and send them back to school with new supplies and then do a little happy jig that summer is over. Well, I kind of wish they had a version of that for special needs…

  • active family travel - family - parenting - special needs - Travel

    Five Tips for Train Travel with Special Needs Children

    August 12, 2014 - By 

    I love to travel by train – usually. I can work all the way and my wasted time is minimized. Plus, typically train travel is very economical. This summer my kids and I travelled to Montreal and Ottawa by train. That’s a substantial amount of time spent riding, and also a lot of transferring to different connecting trains. We travel every year by train together at least once. As some of my readers know special needs kids require a bit more planning when travelling anywhere, in any mode of transport. I have one anxious child, and another with a brain…