Recently we have been discussing the trend towards coddled kids and helicopter parenting and it is probably no surprise if you have read our blogs that we wish our kids to be independent and to appreciate experience over material goods.  I suggested in a previous blog that I felt that one of the reasons this trend towards ...

Continue reading Would Money Change Us?

I looked around the park nervously to see if anyone was watching us.  I was happily playing with the kids in the neighbouring park before I realized what game we were actually doing. All three kids had brought their favourite ball and we had started playing catch.  Before long I began throwing the balls down the field so ...

Continue reading Is it OK to Play Fetch With Kids?

A little while back we looked at the phenomena of helicopter parenting and coddled kids.  After writing that blog I started to think about our decision to leave a larger city and move to a smaller town.  We decided to make the move as a step towards living a slower paced life and to create a ...

Continue reading Is Helicopter Parenting a Big City Phenomenon?

I was planning to write about something else today but it will have to wait because…wow, what a morning.  I was up early getting ready for my morning geocaching walk when I decided to check my e-mail and sitting in my inbox were 3 new geocaches.  The best news was that two of these caches were ...

Continue reading A Spectacular Monday Morning

It is April and in our household that means it is birthday month.  Only one out of the five of us is having a birthday this month but when Annika has a birthday the build-up is immense.  The calendar is getting a lot of attention lately as the countdown is in full swing.  Now the question is ...

Continue reading Birthday Month

We have made a lot of changes in the way we are living since this time last year and most of these changes have gone exactly as planned.  I did not, however,  expect to go from someone who tried hard to stay in touch with current events from around the world to stopping paying attention to most news altogether.  ...

Continue reading Reduce News Intake and Save Time

When I do arts and crafts with our kids I cannot help but think about times I spent with my grandparents.  When I was growing up my brother and I would go to my Grandmothers’ and Grandfathers’ house for the weekend and we would always seem to do a lot of different arts and crafts projects.  My ...

Continue reading Slow Parenting Grandparents Style

Last night we gave the kids a special treat; we let them watch a movie while eating dinner.  I know!  We are crazy and reckless parents!  Even though it seems commonplace these days I don’t know how long it has been since we watched TV during mealtime.  It used to be an everyday occurrence before we had kids.

Mealtime with young ...

Continue reading Mealtime is Family Time