Toys. If you’re a parent, you probably have way too many of them in your home. At my house toys tend to take over the living areas if we let them. That’s why I like to be particular about which toys we choose for our boys. So, I’ve put together a list of the best toys for preschoolers to help you if you’re looking to buy toys for your own kids or other special children in your life!
It’s fall, and I’ve been working on this list of experience gift ideas for awhile, already. I know it’s early, and I’m completely on board with keeping the holiday season confined to November and December, but the reality is that if you’re on a budget, you have to plan ahead or your bank account can’t take the hard holiday hits!
It’s pretty easy to have a good spiritual focus for Thanksgiving, but when it leads straight into the materialistic frenzy of Christmas prep, there’s potential for our messages to get mixed. Don’t get me wrong: I love Christmas decorations, the smell of a fresh Christmas tree, and the thrill of giving and receiving gifts. I think there’s room for that at Christmastime, but it’s important for us as Christian parents to help our kids keep focus firmly on Jesus and family togetherness–that’s why I’ve put together this list of experience gift ideas.
Not too long ago, I had the opportunity to share my experience and ideas about screen-free parenting with fellow ministry wives, and it was so much fun!
Honestly, I wasn’t looking forward to it because I was too nervous, but once I got started I really enjoyed sharing with these moms and helping them connect with some of what I’ve learned about the importance of screen limits for our kids.
Of course, some of these women were already aware of many of the facts I presented, and quite a few of them already limit their kids’ screen time. Many of the moms, though, seemed to be thinking about taking more action toward reducing their children’s screen use.
One of the questions I get the most–from moms (and dads) like these–is, “If I take away screen time, what do I do with my kids when I have to get something (cooking, cleaning, an important phone call, a shower, etc.) done?”
Well, I’m going to do my very best to answer that question today.
Meals are important in our house. When we’re home, we eat all of our meals at the table as a family, and we try to often invite others to share meals with us, too. All of those meals mean that we spend a lot of time cooking with our kids.
Cooking is one of those things that I LOVE doing…sometimes. I like cooking when my house is super clean, there’s no pressure, and I have plenty of time. This is pretty much never the case (because kids and life), so either I don’t cook or I grit my teeth and pour love into my family’s meals anyway.
Thankfully, my husband loves cooking (and is good at it). So we share the responsibility.
But, we believe that our kids need to learn to cook, too.
Going screen-free?
Whether you’re participating in National Screen-free Week or you’ve decided to embrace screen-free parenting as a lifestyle (or anything in-between), I’ve gathered some resources to help you out!
Resources for Going Screen-Free
People got along without screens for an awfully long time, and not too many ever died of boredom. But, if you’re short on ideas, here are some great ones!
National Screen-Free Week is Coming!
National Screen Free Week will be May 4-10 in 2020, and no matter how much screen time your kids usually get, I hope you’ll join me in making some changes to your family’s screen usage for a few days (at least)!
My husband and I are doing our best to practice screen-free parenting with our kids, so you may be wondering how I’ll do anything different than business as usual with my kids during Screen-Free Week.
The fact of the matter is that the changes I make for Screen-Free Week this year will affect me more than they’ll affect my kids. My pledge for Screen-Free Week 2019 was
I grew up in a family that loved (and still loves) to play table games. Card games, board games, trivia games, you name it. So, when my husband and I had our first son, we knew we wanted to teach him to play games, too. But, we weren’t really sure how soon he’d be able to grasp the rules, take turns, and keep focused on the gameplay. One day, we just decided to give it a try, and, to our surprise, our (very young) two year old did really well. Of course we didn’t start out with anything too complicated, but there are plenty of easy games for kids out there that are fun for adults, too.
Whether you’re traveling for the holidays or taking a summer road trip, you probably dread spending long hours in the car with your toddler. Trust me, I get it. For my family, long car rides happen quite a few times a year, as we live a long way from both sets of grandparents. To make things even more crazy, we practice screen-free parenting, so we have to find other ways to stay sane during road trips. Today I’m sharing 5 great, Disciple Mama-tested toddler car activities to make the journey (almost) as fun as the destination.