5 Ways to Combat the October Slumps
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5 Ways to Combat the October Slumps

September 10, 2019 Late September to early October, I’m always caught off guard a bit by our family’s grumpiness and lack of motivation in just about everything. It happens almost every year. After the hectic beginning full of new and different, school settles into a predictable somewhat dreary routine. The same-ness of each week wears…

Fun Back to School Gifts for Your Child’s Teacher
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Fun Back to School Gifts for Your Child’s Teacher

September 4, 2019 If your child hasn’t already gone back to school this month, chances are that they will be in the next few days. As parents, we spend a lot of time buying school clothes, backpacks, new sneakers, notebooks, crayons and a host of other back to school supplies. But, have you thought about…

Are You Reading to Your Child Every Night? (And Why You Should Be)
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Are You Reading to Your Child Every Night? (And Why You Should Be)

August 30, 2019 Many parents read to their toddlers as a nightly routine. It’s a fun, warm, bonding activity. Of course, it also teaches the little ones new words and engages their imagination. Yet as children grow up, many parents stop reading aloud. Their children get busy with activities, they go to bed early for…

Tips for Juggling Parenting and a Full-Time Job
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Tips for Juggling Parenting and a Full-Time Job

August 22, 2019 With school right around the corner, many people are wondering how to juggle parenting and a full-time job. Except for perhaps five weeks after my second child was born, I have always had a full-time job along with the main responsibility of parenting and homemaking. And, while it’s not always easy to…

Back-to-School Tips for Homeschooled Kids
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Back-to-School Tips for Homeschooled Kids

August 19, 2019 It’s back-to-school time, which means we’ll start seeing pics of parents celebrating the end of long summer days with their children at home. If you’re a homeschooler, you might have a very hard time identifying with that. Still, getting swept up in some aspects of this time of year can be beneficial…

504 or IEP What’s the Different Between The Two?
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504 or IEP What’s the Different Between The Two?

August 13, 2019 Back to school means new clothes and supplies for most parents. But, for parents of children with special needs, it also means reviewing and renewing their child’s 504 or IEP plans before the school year starts. Both 504 and IEP plans were created to help provide children with learning disabilities or special…

Back-to-School: Tips for a Mindful School Year 
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Back-to-School: Tips for a Mindful School Year 

August 9, 2019 We hear a lot about the benefits of mindfulness these days. Basically, the concept refers to finding ways of focusing on the present moment while acknowledging and accepting everything that we are thinking, feeling and experiencing. It can take practice, but the calming benefits are entirely worth the time invested. Back-to-school time…

Last Minute Family Activities to Plan Before School Starts
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Last Minute Family Activities to Plan Before School Starts

July 24, 2019 Summer sure goes fast, doesn’t it? Often it feels faster than any other season. Yet, here we are. Did you do all those great things you planned with the kids? With the weeks dwindling down, it’s time to get in those last-minute family activities and small trips in … if you can….

Sneaking Writing Into Your Vacation Plans
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Sneaking Writing Into Your Vacation Plans

July 18, 2019 Unlike some of the other academic subjects that can be slipped into your child’s everyday life, writing is really just confined to, well, writing. But that doesn’t mean you have to leave it out of summer learning or enforce essay assignments. Here are some ways to incorporate writing into your activities while…

Summer Learning: Fine Art in Five Minutes or Less
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Summer Learning: Fine Art in Five Minutes or Less

July 12, 2019 It’s vacation time. The kids are either running circles around the house or assuring you that they’ve never been so bored. You want to be the “good mom” that spends the summer filling their minds with new and important information. But you also want to be the mom that survives. Don’t worry!…

Social Moms
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Parent Guide to YouTube Safety for Kids: 5 Ways to Ensure That Kids Aren’t Exposed to Inappropriate Content

July 1, 2019 If you’re a parent of young kids, you know well that YouTube is one of their favorite media outlets. Even tiny tots seem to know how to navigate to find video content. But this easy-access entertainment comes with one big worry. Autoplay means that when one video ends, another begins, so if…

3 Ways to Find Math in Your Vacation: Without the Workbook
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3 Ways to Find Math in Your Vacation: Without the Workbook

June 25, 2019 Summer vacation is a time for carefree fun and loose schedules. Kids want to fill the day with junk food and play while parents might want to shove in some worksheets or tutoring sessions when they start to worry about academic backslide. Backslide is a real thing but it is my mission…

Social Moms
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5 Ways to Support Kids’ Reading Skills In Summer

June 17, 2019 Summer vacation can be lethal to kids’ reading advancements. That doesn’t necessarily mean that school should continue without pause but reading is one of the few academic pursuits in which you can learn just by doing it. You can pick up the proper structure of a story, gathering information, new vocabulary, general…

Social Moms
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How to Tell if Your Child is Ready for Sleepover Camp

May 31, 2019 Now that school is almost over, it’s time for parents and children to start thinking about summer camp. There are many types of camps available—afternoon creative camp, an all-day sports camp, or a two-week adventure camp. One of the things to consider when deciding on a camp is whether your child will…

Social Moms
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Speech & Hearing Month: Is Your Child On Track?

May 21, 2019 Did you know that May is Better Speech and Hearing Month? The theme for 2019 is “Communication Across the Lifespan” because communication disorders can impact us at any stage in life, from newborns to senior citizens. Having struggled to be heard by my grandmother in her final days, and then discovering something…

Social Moms
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Spring Cleaning and Kids: 5 Tips for the Organizationally Challenged

April 11, 2019 Spring has sprung, leaving those astonishingly organized among us looking towards their house with intense designs for rejuvenation. It leaves those of us not blessed with the neat bug wondering if we should contemplate this “cleaning” thing others talk about sometimes. In fact, I’m pretty sure if my kids heard the words…

Social Moms
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5 Things Moms of Fortnite Players All Know

April 8, 2019 These days, almost every home in the country houses multiple battles and weapons collecting operations a day, leaving parents worried about eye strain and missed study time. It seems Fortnite has pulled kids from all regions under its addictive spell. Moms, on the other hand, are noticing some other things about life with…

Social Moms
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A Tired Mom’s Guide to St. Patrick’s Day

March 12, 2019 It seems like every time we turn around there’s a new holiday “tradition” designed specifically to irritate already stretched thin moms. Christmas comes with elves and shelves. Valentine’s requires decked-out boxes filled with “punny” homemade cards. Even St. Patrick’s Day has come far from when the main activity was scoping out your…

Social Moms
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Connecting with Your Preteen Daughter

October 25, 2018 Becoming a preteen can be an exciting yet complicated time in your child’s life. They have likely begun to assert their own independence, yet still very much need guidance and attention from their parents. When my daughter turned 11, I witnessed the gradual change that many parents warned me about. She started…

Social Moms
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6 Ways To Encourage Your Teen to Put Down the SmartPhone and Pick Up a Book

October 23, 2018 When was the last time you saw your teen fall into a good book? A recent study published by the American Psychological Association revealed a sad literary fact: 1 in 3 U.S. high school seniors did not read a book for pleasure in 2016. Yet in the same time period, 82 percent of 12th-graders…

Social Moms
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6 Activities for Children Who Don’t Like Sports

October 9, 2018 I remember the moment I realized one of my children was not into sports. Being a naturally athletic person myself (before giving birth to four little people of course), having a child that wouldn’t like sports never even crossed my radar. So when my daughter told me she wanted to quit the…

Social Moms
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6 Easy, Cheap, Last-Minute Halloween Costume Ideas

October 8, 2018 It happens to everyone at least once in a lifetime: Halloween is here and the costume department is bare. Instead of over-spending money and time searching high and low for an original costume, here are six easy costumes that you can put together in minutes with items available at your local dollar…

Social Moms
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Preparing Kids for College in 2018

August 15, 2018 It’s already that time of year again! Presumably, if your child is going away to college, the preparations are already well underway. It can be an overwhelming and emotional time for the whole family but it can also be a great opportunity for transitions and growth. You’ve probably got everything under control…

Social Moms
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5 Tips for Getting Stains Out of Your Kid’s Clothes

August 13, 2018 It’s almost school time again and thoughts have turned to school clothes and getting the kids ready for another year of education. Each year, we go through the kid’s clothes from last year to see what items fit and those they’ve outgrown. We also make sure to look for tears, stains and…

Social Moms
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4 Skills Your Child Needs To Know Before Entering Kindergarten

July 11, 2018 Is your child ready for kindergarten this fall? “While most kindergartens don’t exactly have GPA requirements, for a child to succeed there are a few milestones that should be reached before they toddle through the door,” says Alise McGregor, founder of Little Newtons, an early education center with locations in Minnesota and Illinois….

Social Moms
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Help Your Child Understand and Recognize Sexual Harassment

July 10, 2018 With the influx of the #MeToo movement, this is a good time to talk to your children about the meaning of sexual harassment, boundaries, and ramifications of this behavior. While it appears sexual harassment is happening more frequently in the news and with celebrities, it’s more that the issue is just being…