Parenting

Encouraging Optimism In Your Family

by Mariel April 14, 2011

The sky has been falling on a regular basis, in my home… “This cut will NEVER heal!” “I will NEVER figure out these Math problems!” “I CAN’T eat at that restaurant, they won’t have anything I like!” Oh, puh-lease, right? I know. In my mind, I imagine saying, “you have NO idea how hard life [...]

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3 Ways to Promote Independent Playtime

by Marie May 27, 2010

Even though our playroom is a pretty fun place to play, my kids still like to be right where I am. If I’m in the kitchen, they’re running around me in circles. If I’m on the couch, they’re climbing all over me. You might know what I’m talking about. But as summer is ever approaching, [...]

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Hot or Not, the Baby Decides

by Marie November 12, 2009

I had to share! Kami from No Biggie put together this hilarious video of her little guy learning a new word. I’m still laughing.

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Talking to Your Kids About Abuse

by Marie October 1, 2009

I was recently sent a children’s book to review entitled, My Body Belongs to Me by Jill Starishevsky. It’s a heavy topic, but I think this book helps give parents a platform to start a discussion about the important issue of abuse. The author is Jill Starishevsky, a New York City child abuse and sex [...]

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Living With a Special Needs Child

by Marie July 30, 2009

I’m so happy to introduce you all to my sister-in-law who’s my guest today. Cathy’s here sharing some information about her child with special needs. She writes about her son’s condition at Keto Kid, sharing tips and support for other similar families. We have three great boys! Our youngest, Noah, is 6 years old. He [...]

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Giving Kids Time to Respond

by Marie May 14, 2009

When asking a child a question, we often expect them to answer us right away. Even with questions like, “How old are you?” you would think a child could answer right away. Well, with kids, especially small ones, it can take their brains a little longer to come up with an answer. They just need [...]

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What You Can Do For Autism

by Marie April 30, 2009

Even though it’s the last day for Autism Awareness Month, it doesn’t mean the awareness stops there. So I’ve asked Christy from ChrisyNelson.net to share a few tips on raising an autistic child, as she’s doing it with her own son. It takes a lot of people to raise a child with autism. I have [...]

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Ask Your Parenting Questions Here

by Marie April 16, 2009

My hope with Make and Takes is to share a few parenting insights from what I’ve learned as a teacher and parent that’s helped me teach and raise my own kids. As I’ll be sharing fun ideas or methods I’ve found helpful, I’d like to open this up to the questions you may have too. [...]

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What To Do When the Kids Get Sick

by Marie March 19, 2009

As winter is almost over, the ‘sick’ season is still here. My kids are now sick and every time this happens, it takes me a few days to realize I need to do something about it. So I’ve come up with a few things I should be doing on day 1, so by day 3 [...]

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Helping Kids Learn Responsibility with Job Jars

by Marie July 3, 2008

Job jars are just what I needed to help my kids have some sort of routine this summer. I got this great idea from a friend’s blog. Megan has 4 cute girlies and they’re getting chores done with these great Job Jars. With 6 sticks for both my kids, I wrote a specific job on [...]

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