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Back to School Shopping Doesn’t Need to Be Scary
I have partnered with YMC and Staples and have received compensation for this post. All opinions are my own. The closer my kids get to college or university the scarier life gets for me as a parent. My oldest starts Grade 12 this year and my youngest is heading to Grade 9. Both kids are in high school. Which gets me thinking about the costs involved in attending college or university. Lately I lay awake at night or I break out in a cold sweat randomly throughout the day thinking HOW will we ever afford college or university? Have we saved enough? High school, which is basically preparation to get your…
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How To Move Teens on to High School when Change is a Huge Issue
Do you have teens with special needs or simply inflexible teens? Do they have trouble adjusting to change? Me too. This September my youngest starts high school. Why is that a big deal? Well, my younger daughter has a host of diagnoses. She has an IEP (individual education plan), technology for accessing the curriculum, FASD (fetal alcohol spectrum disorder), sensory and learning challenges, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) all related to that. Combine all of that with a difficulty adjusting to change. Ainsley has difficulty adjusting to life changes. That is extremely typical for kids and adults with FASD – a prenatal brain injury sustained prior to her birth…
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Snapchat for Dummies – A Parent’s Guide to Snapchat
Snapchat for dummies. If you have kids, chances are they’re on Snapchat. If you’re like a lot of parents, chances are you have no idea what Snapchat is all about. Snapchat can be a fun app for the kids, but it can also be full of pitfalls and dangers, so you need to beware of those. As parents, it’s important for us to understand the apps that our kids use, especially the ones that open them up to making potentially bad decisions. With that in mind, I decided to put together a little Snapchat primer for parents – Snapchat for Dummies. Snapchat for Dummies – A Parent’s Primer So let’s talk…
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Youth Programs – The Cruising Experience for the Kids
Youth programs are an important consideration when planning a cruise if you have tweens and teens. Around this age, kids start to want a little more freedom, and a good tween and teen program can allow the kids to have a great time while experiencing a little freedom and independence in a safe, controlled way. My daughters are at an age where youth programs are a huge factor in our cruise planning, and I thought I’d share my top three picks for great programs for tweens and teens. Youth Programs Give Kids AND Parents What They Want The thing that makes these programs so great is that they allow the…
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Registered for High School and New Adventures #ad #CatholicTeachers
This post is part of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers #catholicteachers sponsored program. I received compensation as a thank you for my participation. This post reflects my personal opinion about the information provided by the sponsors. It’s high school registration time. That’s right, this month, I registered my youngest daughter for high school. That’s huge. Any parent of a school aged child knows, we agonize over where to send our children and often we also wonder if they are ready. When your child has special needs you worry even more. As hard as these huge decisions are, I feel pretty good about this one because I know what to expect.…
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Stupid Tears and Being a Special Needs Parent
I’ve become a spectacle. The crazy Mom sitting in the grocery store parking lot crying stupid tears in a minivan. You don’t want to know her. She’s pathetic and cliche. But too many times lately she’s me crying in the parking lot at Sobey’s, No Frills or Food Basics. Look away. Perhaps you are new here and you don’t know me, but I am not a cryer. In fact crying is something I typically do once or twice a year maybe. Like a thing I allow myself very rarely in controlled situations at home. Nobody needs to see me crying in the parking lot at the grocery store. Or anywhere…
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Disaster Preparedness – 5 Urgent Things Teens Need to Know Now
Because natural disasters and emergencies can happen at any time without warning, the best we can do is be prepared. Disasters don’t just affect the adults but children as well. Unlike toddlers, teenagers can actually be a great resource during an emergency. Whenever possible, they should be involved in disaster preparedness to better equip them on how to behave and respond to such unfortunate events. Here’s what every teen should know about emergency preparedness. How to Handle Different Weather-Related Emergencies Every teenager should be aware of the various weather disasters and how they should act during each: Tornado – Run to the lowest level of the building and…
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Alone at Home Overnight – When is it Okay for Teens to Man the Fort
Alone at home. The ultimate test for a teenager. Mom and dad are gone overnight. The house is theirs. How will they handle it? Will mom and dad come back to a home just as they left it. Will they discover a beer bottle under the couch from the wild party that 16 year old Jessie had. Or will they simply return to discover too many dishes in the sink from too many hours on the PS4? These questions and more go through all of our minds when the day finally comes to leave the kids alone at home. But when is that day? Leaving the Kids Alone at Home…
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Caribou Cabin – A New Line of Framed Whiteboards #Giveaways
Caribou Cabin is a new line of chalk, cork, pin, and whiteboards from one of my favorite companies, Posterjack. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I’ve used Posterjack products in the past, and I love them. Now, I’ve come back to them again to use one of their Caribou Cabin framed whiteboards. These boards look great, and they make adding a bit more organization to your home easy and stylish. These Caribou Cabin framed whiteboards and framed pinboards are also perfect for back to school. That’s exactly why we got one for our daughter. This year grade eleven is coming up fast. Grade eleven…
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Raising Anxious Kids in Anxious Times
If parenting was a ride at the amusement park it would be the biggest of all Behemoth coasters. One that catapults you from bed, hurls you out the door and plummets you 7 stories down before your eyes are even open. Daily. But it would also throw in some 3 D effects, just enough to rip your heart out, before it stops and you wobble away, stomach trailing five stories behind. And it would yell SAVAGE and probably blare Musical.ly videos at you too. In my daughter’s room I have a framed picture of her on her first birthday. Her hair is KOOKY, so Kooky it makes me laugh still,…