New Year’s Resolutions for Your Family

The start of a brand new year inspires many people to make some New Year’s resolutions. They make a promise to themselves to work on something specific that they believe will make them happier or healthier. This year, take the opportunity to make some New Year’s resolutions that focus on your family. You can make family New Year’s resolutions as part of your New Year’s Eve celebration. Sit down with your family and make some resolutions together. Decide on things that your family members want to work on as a team. The best part of family resolutions is that everyone … Continue reading

Why Your Pre-Teen Quit Playing Sports

One way to encourage your child to get a healthy amount of exercise is to make it fun. Sports offer kids the ability to exercise while having fun, the chance to learn how to play as a team, and a good way to develop athletic skills. Despite these benefits, 70% of kids quit sports by the age of 13. Here are some reasons why that happens. It stopped being fun. Have you ever watched kindergartners play soccer against another team of kindergarteners? What happens is both adorable and amusing. They sit down when they get tired, and start playing with … Continue reading

Picture Books that Adults Will Love, Too!

Reading is an important skill. Parents who want to raise an avid reader need to take the time to read lots of stories to their children. It is also a good idea to let your child see you reading. Children often imitate the behaviors they see their parent’s doing. Check out some of these children’s books that adults will love, too! Reading books with your child can be a rewarding experience. It is a nice way to spend time together and share a hobby that you both enjoy. Things can become a bit maddening, however, when a child insists upon … Continue reading

Positive Parenting Might be your Style

Parents today have a plethora of parenting styles to choose from. Have you figured out what your parenting style is yet? If not, then perhaps Positive Parenting might be your style. Positive Parenting is a style that is intended to lessen stress and form healthier relationships between parents and their children. It is not an authoritarian parenting style. Other phrases that have been used to describe Positive Parenting include: positive discipline, gentle guidance, or loving guidance. Physical punishment, such as spanking, is absolutely not a part of Positive Parenting. It isn’t about “teaching your child a lesson”. Instead, this parenting … Continue reading

Tips for First Time Hosts of Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving is celebrated with family. It always includes a big dinner with tons of food. This can be overwhelming for first time hosts of Thanksgiving dinner. Don’t panic! Try these tips to help calm your nerves and make your first hosting a successful one. There are two things that can make a person who is hosting Thanksgiving dinner nervous. One is that the guests are going to expect specific foods that are made exactly the way that mom or grandma used to make. Their big expectations can be hard to live up to. The other difficulty, of course, is that … Continue reading

Your Parenting Style Impacts Your Teen’s Autonomy

One of the many goals of parenting is to raise children who become successful adults. Ideally, teens should develop the skills they need in order to become adults who can function in the “real world”. A study shows that your parenting style impacts your teen’s autonomy and the quality of his or her romantic relationships as an adult. Developmentally speaking, teenagers are at a stage when they are beginning to separate from their family and seek out their own, individual, identity. Little kids typically have a strong desire to seek approval from their parents. Teens, however, are much more interested … Continue reading

Things You Should Do For Yourself Right Now

Are you someone who makes an effort to help, comfort, and pamper your loved ones? It has been said that many people take much better care of their friends and family than they do of themselves. Typically, there are more women than men that have this tendency, but it does include both genders. Now is the time to start taking good care of yourself, too! Here are some things you can start with right this minute. LifeBuzz posted an article that contained 30 things that everyone should start doing for themselves. You can view it as a guide to better … Continue reading

Debt and Marriage: How It is Tough to Love When You Owe

Many couples enter into a marriage with debt already in hand. Others accumulate debt together. Either way, nurturing a loving relationship can be hard when debt is hanging over your head. In fact, according to a study by Jeffrey Dew at Utah State University, couples who reported disagreeing about finance once a week were over 30 percent more likely to get divorced than couples who reported disagreeing about finances only a few times a month. Another inference can be made from this study: there is a whole lot of disagreement about money out there. Debt is a source of contention. … Continue reading

Cedar Point and Your Preschooler

Cedar Point, located in Sandusky, Ohio,  is normally associated with heart pumping rides and the thrill of going upside down at 70 miles an hour only to endure a drop that makes the hair on your arms stand on end.  That is hardly the experience you want your preschooler to endure.  It may surprise you to learn that Cedar Point is not only fun for adults and older kids but for preschoolers as well.  It is one of the best family fun parks around! Top Seven Things to Love About Cedar Point for Preschoolers My mini thrill seeker spent her … Continue reading

Take Inventory Before You Shop

Before you shop, stop! Try this quick trick that will save you money now and in the long run. To save money, do a quick inventory of what you already have before you go shopping.  This will help save money in so many ways. From duplicate purchases to avoiding the pitfalls of shopping for bargains that you don’t need, a quick assessment each time you are ready to shop can make a difference. DVDs I’m ashamed to admit that we have two copies of a certain new Disney princess DVD movie. We simply forgot that we had the movie and … Continue reading