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Ontario Pioneer Camp Blogger Weekend #PioneerCamp16
My kids have been campers for years. For the past few years I have heard great things about Ontario Pioneer Camp. But until recently we had no experience with the camp ourselves. That changed last month when we drove to Huntsville in the stunning Muskoka area of Ontario and took part in Ontario Pioneer Camp Blogger’s Weekend. What a fun weekend it was! Camp is a big investment. It’s an investment in your child. It’s also an investment in you as a parent. BUT, before you book any camp you need to know what to expect. Camp is one of those rites of passage that relies on Word of Mom. How…
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Growing Pains and Grace Notes – Raising A Daughter
Look away if you aren’t the kind of person who likes sentiment. It’s been a long time since I posted one of these stories about my life, my kids, snapshots of us, the Growing Pains and grace notes inside the nutty every day chaos of parenting, and growing youth, not kids, not toddlers, young adolescents. My girls amaze me more than they know most days. Their strength is apparent to me, their Mom, and yet they very often don’t see it themselves. Some strange warped tween and teen girl mirror only lets them see first the tiny little mistakes, then the itty bitty fleeting things that are but a milli-second in the course of…
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Helping Your Tween or Teen Save For Their Dream #TDFamilyAllowance #savemore
When my youngest was small she saved all of her birthday and tooth fairy money for a Wii. She wanted it and made it happen and that was a great lesson for both of us. I loved that Ainsley was able to save towards a goal that was important to her. Both of my girls are pretty motivated savers. This year, my oldest daughter Payton has a couple of big goals she’s working on, which is why I am happy we discovered TD Labs Family Allowance app. TD Lab has developed an app to help parents and kids work together towards achieving their children’s financial goals, whether it’s saving for a…
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Five Fun School Lunches
I am a proud MOM of a tween and teen. Most of the time they make their own lunches. Most of the time. Not always. The youngest is still bit hit and miss, but that’s okay. They are both pretty good at packing a balanced lunch, but on occasion we have all been guilty of packing boring school lunches. Anyways, a decade of packing lunches, or supervising kids packing lunches, I have learned a few pointers to pass on and motivate them to build some good habits. Let’s face it lunch can be a totally boring meal. It’s the one I am most likely to skip (and I know that’s terrible believe me!)…
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A Bubble Soccer Birthday
Birthdays come once a year, whether you are ready for them or not. But by the time your child is a tween, let’s face it, the ideas are starting to run thin. You’ve likely already done the children’s museum birthday, the McDonald’s birthday, the YMCA, the Boys and Girls Club, the movie theatre. Maybe there was a princess or pirate birthday party thrown in there a time or two and a climbing gym too. Well, move over overdone theme parties, Bubble Soccer is the perfect idea for your teen or tween birthday. My youngest daughter likes to plan her birthday parties months in advance of the event itself. In fact as soon as Christmas has…
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Managing Your Child’s Kik Account
If you have a tween or teen, chances are good their phones have a KIK account. KIK is a third party messaging app, that allows users to send texts and pictures outside of their phone’s native messaging system. One of the many problems with a KIK account is that it’s difficult to track messaging by normal means. It is a private texting app that, in my opinion, is not extremely necessary if messaging and texting via the usual channels. What is a KIK Account KIK is an app that allows texting and photo sharing outside of a phone’s stock messaging apparatus. That means that normal means of looking at texts is out…
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Flying Solo – When Is It Okay to Leave The Kids at Home Alone?
Flying solo. It’s a terrifying thought for many moms. The thought of our kids home alone with no adult supervision is frightening, but it has to be done at some point. At a certain age, we parents have to put enough trust in our kids to allow them to go it alone for short periods. But when is flying solo an appropriate option? Flying Solo Requires Responsibility and Trust Knowing when it’s time to let the kids stay at home a lone is a pure judgement call. It relies on many factors including how responsible your children are, how trustworthy they are, and their ability to follow the rules…
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Tucker Toys Crush-It and Zoingo Boingo for Spring and a #Giveaway
I know that spring may seem months away when you are staring down a lawn of snow and roads that are treacherous. But frankly it’s almost Groundhog Day and soon we will know if we have another six weeks of skiing, or an early chance to put the shovels away. When it comes to spring time, I find it sometimes helps with kids to have a few new cool toys hanging around waiting for them to use outdoors. That’s where these Tucker Toys, the Crush-It adjustable high powered bat, and Zoingo Boingo come in handy. Great spring toys help parents like us manage spring fever. Toys That Help Cure Spring Fever…
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Online Safety for Kids – 3 Tips to Keep Them Safe
Online safety is paramount for children. Kids that are old enough to use the internet are still too young to exercise adequate caution. That’s why it’s so important for parents to teach them how to make online safety a constant part of their internet experience. I could tell you stories already of both my kids stumbling across things I’d rather they didn’t see at all. It’s much too easy to accidentally type the wrong search term and suddenly be confronted with something completely inappropriate for children. Tweens and teens are no different. If you think that they know more than you about social media and engaging on line, then quite frankly…
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After The Instagram Bullying Incident
For weeks after the Instagram bullying incident people kept asking me: How is your daughter doing? I have answered the question often in person, but I haven’t had time to share news here. So today is the day I finally got around to writing about what happened – AFTER. Here’s the thing. Immediately after the Instagram bullying incident my teen, who struggles with anxiety, had a kneejerk reaction. She wanted to quit school, leave grade nine and stop entirely. That lasted about one to two days. Then came this. .. We talked her through it and we took our time giving her support, with the school also doing the same.…
