The time has finally come for this family to worry about what our kids can find while doing their own searches online.

While we know the Internet is an absolutely wonderful source for children to get valuable information and entertainment, we can’t overlook that it is also a volatile and infinite space with a growing amount of nasty content. That´s why we recognized the immediate necessity for a plan that goes from prevention to contention of possible scenarios and hopefully keeps our kids on the bright side of the net.

The first thing that we realized is that it’s not just a matter of sexual or violent content, the internet is filled with garbage that no child -or maybe anyone at all- should see, just consider the amount of misogyny, discrimination, indoctrination, extremism, bullying, conspiracy theories and just plain old lies that we experience in any browsing session.

The second factor is […]

We talk a lot about creativity in this house and we believe that it is one of the key elements for success at any level. While it is true that the word creativity has been generally associated with artistic activities and revered as a gift that only a few can covet, the truth is that every child is a natural born creative.

Sadly, that is not enough, even when creativity is present in every human, it still needs a safe space to grow and develop. And that’s where we, the parents, play a huge role.

And, yes. We all want the best for our kids. Sometimes, however, we fail to acknowledge some creativity-killing behaviors that are very common while parenting, and in this post, we will go through the ones that we could recognize from our own experience.

1. Letting go of our own creative adventures.

Our lives can get very complicated and time […]

As the end of summer vacation approaches, a lot of us parents find ourselves in the need to re-establish a healthy sleep routine for our kids. Mostly, because we also decided to let it ‘slip’ during summer vacation, so no complaining!. Now let’s get rid of the fun-packed late nights and try to make those first weeks of school a little easier for your kids.

Why is healthy sleep important?

It improves general health, energy, wellness, learning/Cognitive ability and immune system performance. It also allows kids to wake up rested and ready to function well, in body and mind, every day. And that is a fantastic gift to give to our kids. If we could only follow along…

How much sleep does your kid need?

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has these guidelines, “Recommended Amount of Sleep for Pediatric Populations“, which are pretty clear on the subject. In our case, and […]

Hurricane season has arrived and this year’s is expected to be an above-average one. So, aside from all the ways this may affect our general lives, we also want to consider this time as an opportunity to start building a foundation for our kids to understand how this is a natural event and learn valuable lessons and skills in the process.

When you’re a kid, your job is to learn about the world and weather provides a great amount of interesting and fun topics, and while children are often scared of the powerful display of nature’s force involved in a storm, it is also undeniable that knowledge and preparedness is a wonderful antagonist to fear.

There are some general concepts that we think are important to communicate to our children:

• Weather and climate are closely related and affect all of our lives every day.
• There are some things in life that you can’t control, […]
  

Cooking is one of the most inescapable activities of life as a family, sometimes a joy and sometimes a burden, most of us parents spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

But, ¿what about kids?. ¿Should they be automatically removed from the danger-filled spaces of the kitchen to the more tranquil lands of the leaving room?.

We have been thinking about this, and have found a lot of information that suggests that involving the kids in the food preparation process might have quite a big positive impact in their life and well-being.

This is a list of some of the benefits that we could find and that, frankly, make good reasons to encourage kids in the kitchen at any age:

• Children like to eat food they make. This is a good way to get them to try new healthy foods.
• The earlier kids become accustomed to home-cooked nutritious foods, the less likely they will […]
  

In our most recent trip to the park we begun to realize that the way kids play has changed immensely, we couldn’t even find one group of kids playing the way we used to. Of course time changes things, but it is not just that: Unstructured, messy, chaotic, free play as we knew it is completely disappearing from our kids lives.

We decided to do some web searches to find out if this was a widely spread perception and found ourselves overwhelmed with the amount of information and investigation around this issue.

This American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) report digs deep into the matter and explains:

It is through play that children at a very early age engage and interact in the world around them. Play allows children to create and explore a world they can master, conquering their fears while practicing adult roles, sometimes in conjunction with other children or adult caregivers. […]

As many parents, we are always on the hunt for engaging activities that encourage creative thinking and problem solving, but of course, they have to be as fun as possible to even get our daughter interested.

So when we found out about the latest Amazon STEM Toy Subscription for Kids we jumped right on it to give it a try.

This is what Amazon has to say about the subscription:

STEM Club is a monthly program that delivers handpicked, high-quality Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math toys to your door at a great price. Each month you will receive a different, age-appropriate STEM toy that will encourage your child to learn through play. From robotics to natural sciences, there’s always a new discovery on the way.

And these are a couple of our thoughts now that we have tried it:

• Definitely a good idea: simply choose your child’s age range (3-4, 5-7 or 8-13) […]
  

At age 4 1/2 we had our first attempt at a ‘big girl´s’ bike for our daughter, and today we can finally say that she has conquered the goal in the best way possible: no falls, no trauma and no crying whatsoever.

Of course, it´s been quite some time, she is almost 6, but now we know that the goal is achievable and it is time to share what we have learned in this path.

Like most parents we know, we thought that training wheels were the obvious step for her to begin her riding experience confidently and we got her something like this:

She really liked her new bike, and at first, was eager to go riding. But the magic wore off fast and she didn’t feel as confident […]