Parenting Archives - Page 2 of 24

An Overview Of Formula Milk And How It Can Benefit Your Family

February 19, 2019 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

It is an exciting time to be a new parent – exciting but also harrowing when it comes to deciding the best way to do just about everything. With regards to feeding your child and ensuring their growth and development, it can be difficult to get the best information. There are many conflicting opinions over concepts such as formula milk and it can be difficult to know what to do!

Naturally, there are a variety of opinions on this matter but it is always best to know the facts of the matter. Some people swear by the ‘breast is best’ rule when it comes to feeding their child but formula milk should not be overlooked as it has a lot of benefits to offer.

Let’s take a closer look at formula milk and how it can be of benefit for your family.

Formula Milk Helps Progressive Parenting

If you are looking to establish a more equal parenting regime in your household, formula feeding your child can help to ensure that no one parent is the primary caregiver. In our contemporary society, formula milk can provide a great option for progressive parents who want to ensure that each parent has equal responsibilities with the newborn. In the long run, this can also lead to more balanced family dynamics when your child is older.

Formula Milk Is Convenient For New Mothers

While it can sometimes be looked down upon by your breastfeeding friends, pay this no mind. Formula feeding can provide a higher degree of convenience and freedom for new mothers. After giving birth, new mothers should be able to take advantage of alternating breastfeeding with formula feeding to give themselves a break. It can be easier for both your bodily health but also on your mental health. You can also eat and drink whatever you would like, as it will not affect the newborn.

For working mothers, formula feeding can also provide a number of real benefits. While it is completely natural, contemporary breastfeeding usually requires mothers to carry a lot of equipment with them. By formula feeding, you can cut down on this hassle and settle into the convenience of simply using a bottle.

Formula milk also has the fantastic advantage of being easily quantifiable; that is, you can measure the amount of nutrition that your newborn is getting. On the other hand, breastfeeding can create some ambiguity in knowing if your baby is being adequately fed or not.

Formula Milk Makes For A Healthy Family

Thankfully, formula milk offers a nutritious alternative to natural milk. Better yet, it often contains vitamins and minerals that are absent from breastmilk. Substances such as vitamin D and the fatty acid DHA are essential for the healthy development of your child. Both are commonly found in formula milk.

It is important to read the labels on any formula products that your baby will be consuming to ensure that they are getting what they need. This can even promote a healthier environment for the rest of your family with regard to nutrition awareness. If you want to ensure that your whole family – especially your newborn – is healthy, then certainly consider formula milk as a viable option.

The Benefits Of Formula Milk Are Many

Choosing to use formula milk instead of breastfeeding carries with it a number of real benefits – for you, your newborn, and your family. While it is not always an easy choice to make, in light of polarizing cultural and even political views, no one should be shamed for choosing formula. Whatever you decide to do with your newborn, make sure that your entire household is on track to be healthy and happy.

Keep Your Homework Organized with These 3 Fun Tools!

October 16, 2018 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

This is the time of year when the back to school frenzy starts to subside. Students and teachers alike are starting to ease into their school year routine. A daily dose of homework is the norm for many students when the school year is in full effect. It may come in the form of quick reading and math sheets for the little ones just starting out in elementary school.

But for everyone else, homework can be packed full of lessons and note taking. If this is the case for you or your student, make sure you’ve got the best tools to keep yourself or your children in maximum organization mode – and have a blast doing it too.

Here are three must-have tools from OOLY that will keep your homework on track and packed full of color that will stimulate the mind and keep the learning process fun!

Multi-Colored Gel Pens

One of the most creative ways to help words pop off a page is by using gel pens. If you’re spending considerable time outlining a chapter or organizing research for an essay, multicolored pens can help you organize your facts and your thoughts.

Use a different color for each category like dates, points you want to make, important people or periods to remember, etc.

OOLY has plenty of color packed gel pen sets to choose from. Gel pens glide on with smooth, rich strokes to leave your page in a rainbow of organization. Try the 6 Click Neon Multi-Color Gel Pen for bright eye-catching hues. Check out Mighty Mini Gel Pens for your notetaking needs in a neat, compact design. Or choose Petite Point Fine Tip Gel Pens for a nice variety of color in 12 elegant choices.

Highlighters

Whether you’re reviewing your notes or finding the important points of a reading assignment or research notes, highlighters always come in handy for helping you find the points worth remembering. The typical yellow highlighter seems to be the go-to choice for many dutiful students. But why not change it up a bit, and go for a fun highlighter option that will make your homework a wee bit more entertaining?

Take a look at OOLY’s Fresh Pick Scented Neon Gel Crayon Highlighters for a fun, friendly scented choice. These highlighters come in five fanciful colors that will keep your mind and your nose stimulated! Another option that gets an A+ for versatility is the Do-Overs Erasable Highlighters. Made a mistake? That’s okay! Just erase it and highlight again.

Sticky Notes

The perfect companion to multi-colored gel pens and helpful highlighters are sticky notes. Sticky notes are must-haves to keep you on point and efficient when studying or organizing notes. OOLY has a collection of whimsically entertaining, and totally effective sticky notes to keep you on track and have a little fun doing it.

Consider Note Pals Sticky Tabs for a quirky collection of colorfully cute critters to keep tabs on your pages. Or choose Notes On A Roll Decorative Sticky Tape to keep your homework happening with the happiest of vibes.

Strategic Showering – When to Throw a Baby Shower

October 12, 2018 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

Knowing when to throw a baby shower is important because it sets up the entry of a new child into the world. One that must be celebrated with the friends and family of the soon to be parents. Showing the parents the support they and their child will receive in their new journey.

Start Planning Early

To allow all key people to join in the celebrations you should make sure you give attendees enough time to block out their calendar and attend a baby shop in Melbourne. With that being said it is crucial the event is planned in advance. Traditionally, baby showers are held around four to six weeks ahead of the mother’s due date. Meaning typically the pregnancy is well into the safe zone and also unlikely that the baby will arrive too early. Plus, by this time the mother and father are likely to be well and truly looking forward to giving birth.

Consider Co-Ed

Traditionally, baby showers have been focused around the mother. However, more recently, they’ve become more of a joint affair; known as a co-ed baby shower. For this reason, it is a good idea to speak to the parents and ask what their preferred type of celebration would be. If it is catering for both parents, make sure to incorporate games and questions for both parenting roles and invite an equal mix of attendees.

Get Help

When organising a baby shower it is a good idea to work alongside other individuals which represent different parts of the mother’s or father’s social network. For instance asking a family member, a colleague, a school or university friend to help plan the invitation list is a good start. This way it will allow all facets of the parents’ social network to be involved and prevents any last minute invitations being sent to long lost cousins.

Design Decisions

After the invitations have been sent and you are starting to receive responses, it is the ideal time to start designing the special day. A good starting point is set an agenda as it creates structure and once finalised will give clarity to the event. It will also inform the expectations of both the parents and the attendees. Generally speaking the baby shower should be a mix of stories, games, socialising and snacks and have a clear structure.

A good time of day for a baby shower is on a weekend, in the afternoon, ideally post lunch. This way it will allow people to do any errands before the shower and be totally present when at the shower. Planning the event duration to be a couple of of hours is near the right amount of time. It gives people a set amount of time and a structure to the shower, and provides people with an expected end time in case they have family commitments. Although if attendees wish to stay later then they can.

Baby Shower Structure

A good structure to the shower consists of an ice breaker at the start, some nibbles and drinks followed by an easy introductory game. ‘Pick the baby photo’ is an example of a good starter game. It can be a bit time consuming initially, what with asking people to supply baby photos and arranging them on a canvas. However, once the preparation is complete – it is well worth the effort, particularly when everyone is laughing and getting along swimmingly. This game is a great ice breaker because it doesn’t directly focus on individual attendees, and is a more collective approach and a subtle way to enquire and get to know one another. This is particularly good for groups of people who don’t knows one another.

Once the initial ice breaker is out the way, it is a good time to focus back on the new parents. A fun game for mother’s that aren’t body or weight conscious is ‘measure the mum’, where attendees guess the size of the mother’s stomach. This provides a bit of light hearted fun but also creates some real surprises around the growth of a child and opens up conversations around how the expectant mother is feeling and can gear up questions around the birth. This type of conversation will be important for first time parents, especially if there are friends and family members in attendance who have already experienced childbirth.

Remember that although a baby shower should be fun, it should also be informative and supportive. It is the perfect opportunity to show the expectant parents how supported they and their new child will be.

Five Ideas For Moms To Set Up A Game Room

September 26, 2018 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

Moms who are trying to set up a game room will find that they need to get a lot of different things to use in the room. You need to set up a game room that will be easy to use, and it has to have all the different things that will make you feel so much better about setting up game night. You need to look into all the things that are listed because some of them will completely change how you entertain your family.

Get A Pool Table

You can buy a pool table to put in the room, and you need to find a pool cue or two to use in the room. You can use some information when finding the right pool cues, and people who are looking to buy a pool cue should read up on these items. You might need smaller ones for the kids, and you can get the bridge and rack that will help you take care of the cues.

Get Board Games

You need to have an assortment of board games that will look amazing when you have people come over. You want all the people who come over for game night to have a good time, and they need to have a lot of games to choose from. People who do not want to get bored should keep buying board games so that you have a large assortment for everyone to use. The people who are playing board games can pick up different editions, and you will never get bored.

Add A Fridge

You should add a fridge to the room so that you can have refreshments in the room, and you will begin to enjoy this space more because you can always have something to eat or drink. You need to be certain that you have found the fridge that will be easy to use, and you could get a mini fridge or a large fridge. You could even get a freezer for your beer if you want something down there for the adults on late nights.

Add Game Tables

You could add game tables, and this will give you a chance to play normal card games with your kids. These games tables are easy to set up, and they can be folded or stored.

Add A TV

You need to have a TV in the room so that you can keep everyone entertained if all your games are over. You could also play games that you will watch on the TV. It all depends on what you want, and you will find that you could easily get everyone interested in game night when they are watching something.

You could have a game room in your home that is very easy to use, and you could put all the things in the house that will make your game room fun to use. You can buy a lot of things, and you will start to build a room that everyone enjoys.

DIY Gifts for Kids

August 21, 2018 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

There is no a greater joy in life than having children of your own; getting to nurture them, watch them grow into amazing people and guide them through life. Once in a while, during birthdays, holidays, when celebrating milestones and achievements with your child, gifts are an exceptional requirement to show how much you appreciate them and how proud are you of them. Luckily, gifts do not need to be expensive, they have to come from a place of love, and what better way than to make them yourself?

Here are Some gift ideas that you can DIY at home for your kids…

Cardboard Box Castle

Children love stories about royalty and fairy tales such as sleeping beauty, the beauty and the beast, Jack and the Beanstalk, so you can be sure they will be delighted if you turn one of the stories into something real like creating a castle. They are quite easy to make at home, and if you do not know how to do it, there are always videos online guiding you on how to go about it. You do not need much stuff, just cardboard, a few trinkets for decoration, glue, confetti for decoration and a few more things to make the castle beautiful for your kid.

Treasure Chest

Kids develop interests as fast as they drop them, and most of these interests are inspired by stories we read to them or the cartoons they watch. Hunting for treasure is a fun activity for your kids, and you can create a treasure chest for them to store souvenirs they find and keep as they grow for them to reminisce about when they are all grown up. It is also inexpensive; you can use card boxes or cereal boxes to create a dome-like chest and paint the outside of it to resemble cool treasure chests like those of pirates – your kids will love it.

Child’s Tool Belt

If your children (either boys or girls) like building stuff, then a tool belt for them will come in handy. There are a lot of detailed tutorials on the internet on how to make one with things lying around the house, especially fabric and sewing kits; and line the belts with plastic tools – so that they do not hurt themselves – such as hammers, spanners and wrenches. Watch your children play pretend with the tools and enjoy pretending to fix things around the house; you never know; they could be future engineers.

Felted Stuffed Animals

For parents who are tired of buying many gadgets and tech toys, a stuffed animal is another way to go, and they can easily be crafted by hand. Make your kid’s favourite animal into a stuffed toy using only felt wool, a pair of scissors, sewing kit and a steam iron; adding appendages like ears and wings and noses will make the stuffed toys quite adorable. They are inexpensive and simple to make, and your children will want to cuddle up with them during nap time.

Conclusion

Home-made presents are inspired and thoughtful, fun to make, made with love and a personal touch, and save on money. Wrapping your kids’ gifts will give you and them the satisfaction of tearing into the packaging to discover what is inside; just because they are made at home does not mean they cannot be wrapped. This is precisely why The Works have this amazing offer of 3 for £2 Cards and Wrap to make sure your gift looks neat and ready to be open.