How to Have Smoother Bedtimes

How to Have Smoother Bedtimes
If your child's bedtime is a struggle, you're not alone. Whether it's asking for a drink of water every 5 minutes, hearing "I'm not tired", or a meltdown in general, bedtime can be chaos. We all know that sleep is important, but for children, getting enough sleep helps with things like behavior and learning . Studies show that poor sleep habits in childhood can lead to difficulty sleeping as an adult . To help bedtimes go smoother, you can try th...
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Helping Your Child Cope with Nightmares

Helping Your Child Cope with Nightmares
Around 50% of young kids have severe nightmares that cause them to wake up their parents. I had a nightmare every night as a kid, and even though it was distressing to me, it was equally distressing to my parents. My bedtime routine became a battle because I was so terrified to get into bed. And even when I finally did get to sleep, I would wake up from a nightmare and refuse to go back to sleep. This goes without saying, but it isn't very fun wh...
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How to Help Your Kids Develop a Healthy Relationship with Food

How to Help Your Kids Develop a Healthy Relationship with Food
In a world where around every corner we are faced with diet advertisements and messages of what "health" is, it can be hard to navigate healthy eating with your kids. If you're looking for some pretty basic tips on what to feed your kids, here is a great resource. That being said, your child's healthy eating habits go beyond what is on their plate every day. A healthy relationship with food helps guide children into these healthy eating habits th...
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Helping Children Cope with Divorce

Helping Children Cope with Divorce
Divorce is a common challenge many children face, and though this decision may be best for your family, you as a parent may worry about how this change will affect the little ones. How you break the news to your child and how you each cope with it will affect how well your child adjusts to the divorce. Children might struggle with finding out about the restructuring of their family, and being clear about what's going on will help them take it bet...
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How to Explain Difficult Subjects to Young Children

How to Explain Difficult Subjects to Young Children
We live in a time of political turmoil, disease, and natural disasters. At home, we may be enduring trials such as divorce, the death of a loved one, or mental illness. These difficult subjects are hard enough to talk about with other adults. Attempting to explain these events to children can be a daunting task. So, how are our kids feeling about and learning about the difficult things around them? Explaining difficult subjects to young children ...
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Choosing Television Shows for Your Child

Choosing Television Shows for Your Child
Children's television shows can be hit or miss. Some of them make you smile and think about the wonder of childhood. Some of them make you want to pull your hair out whenever you hear the main character speak. How careful do you need to be when deciding what your child views? Here are some helpful tips for selecting the shows your little one watches and learns from... Avoid shows where the main character exhibits a lot of bad behavior. Chances ar...
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Child Care and COVID-19

Child Care and COVID-19
  Like it has done to most parts of daily life, COVID-19 has complicated the already complex search for childcare. Additional concerns may include "what should my backup child care plan look like if my center closes?" or "is it safe to take my kid to child care?" For information on creating a child care backup plan, take a look at this article . For pandemic specific questions to ask your childcare provider, watch this video . These answers ...
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Fighting Boredom: 20 Boredom-Busters to Jumpstart Your Child's Imagination

Fighting Boredom: 20 Boredom-Busters to Jumpstart Your Child's Imagination
The famous words of my childhood summer days were, "I'm bored." Often my mom would reply, "Read a book." Quickly I would snark, "No, I don't want to." The times in children's lives that are most unstructured, such as during a break from school, are the times we hear the word "bored" the most. About a month ago, I wrote a blogpost on " Alternatives to TV Time ." There I outlined the importance of self-directed independent play in child development...
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Window of Tolerance

Window of Tolerance
Know your limits As parents, we get pushed to our limits. The rollercoaster of parenthood takes us up, down, around, backward, and sometimes through flaming rings of fire. Often we may ask the question: am I going to survive this? The Window of Tolerance offers perspective into understanding one's own personal limits. Knowing one's own personal breaking points and how to rejuvenate can help parents keep their cool. What is the Window of Tolerance...
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Guest Post: PBS KIDS Utah and COVID-19; Quality Content for Your Family

Guest Post: PBS KIDS Utah and COVID-19; Quality Content for Your Family
I'm Elise Brimhall, the Education Program Manager for PBS Utah. With COVID-19 impacting everyday life, especially schools, we know that you are now entertaining and educating children in the home 24/7. It's a big task, and we know it can feel overwhelming. To ease some of the pressure, we at PBS Utah have put together trusted resources for you and your kids. First, checkout our blog series for Utah parents to get educational hands-on activities, ...
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Alternatives to T.V. Time

Alternatives to T.V. Time
I remember babysitting my young niece not too long ago. All evening she asked, "Cars?" This was code for, "Could we watch the movie Cars?" Soon I turned on the TV and sat with my niece as she watched intently. I became intrigued as I started to notice she did not take her eyes off the TV. She, like many of us, had watery eyes due to the amount of focus she put on the screen. This experience caused me to think about what she could be doing instead...
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How to Help Your Child Have a Good Night Sleep

How to Help Your Child Have a Good Night Sleep
Growing up I always loved summer. I loved being able to play in the sun, spend more time at my grandparents and most importantly not having to go to bed early! It was always a sad time when my parents started putting us to bed early to prepare for school. With school approaching quickly I wanted to talk about sleep - why it is important and how to make it easier for both you and your kids! This is the suggested amount of sleep kids should get acc...
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Setting an Example: The most important tool in your parenting toolkit

Setting an Example: The most important tool in your parenting toolkit
  While my husband was away visiting with his elderly parents, he sent me a bouquet of flowers with this note: "My dad was telling me how he got some flowers for my mom the other day because she was depressed and feeling down. It struck me that after all these years of marriage [60+years] he still wants to be that guy who brightens her day. I decided I also want to be that guy". It was amazing to me that even now, after so many years, my hus...
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Tips for Making Homework Time Easier

Tips for Making Homework Time Easier
School is back in session and with that comes homework. Homework can be stressful for a variety of reasons and there are days where it may seem like the fight to get homework done just is not worth it. No parent wants to expend all their efforts and energy on getting their children to do homework. One of the first things parents can do is show their children that they believe learning is important. A parent's attitude about homework and school ca...
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Guest Post: What Is TikTok?

Guest Post: What Is TikTok?
In 2018 the most downloaded iPhone app in the world, was a Chinese export: TikTok. Formerly the apps musical.ly, Byte Dance acquired the older lip-synching video app and TikTok (known as Douyin in China) was born. Social media giants have tried hard to capture the attention of younger children and preteens. Facebook created Messenger Kids, YouTube has YouTube Kids and Snapchat has SnapKidz. Despite those efforts, none of them have come close to r...
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The Grieving Child

The Grieving Child
When we contemplate of the grieving process, we tend to think of the five stages of grief ( Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance) first proposed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her 1969 book On Death and Dying. Many people's general understanding of these stages is that you move from one to another at a steady pace. You are supposed to start with 'denial' and end with 'acceptance'. Right? When my father passed away a couple of years ...
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11 Helpful Phrases to Confidently Parent the Toddler Years

11 Helpful Phrases to Confidently Parent the Toddler Years
We've all been there (or will be there soon!). Your child is trying to tell you something, but you just can't figure out what he is trying to say. Your child isn't ready to be done with the activity he is in the middle of when it's time to leave. Or maybe you are trying to play referee between two children. My amazing friend and coworker put together some phrases that all parents can benefit from. This list is too amazing and helpful not to share...
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The Speed of Slow

The Speed of Slow
Does this sound familiar? Get your brand new baby ready for college! Prepare your child's resume to look spectacular. Get them involved in extracurricular activities early! Get them into classes to learn how to play sports and dance, so they can be the best when it counts. These are all opportunities that will set them apart and get them into the best universities. If your child is not involved in at least three extracurricular activities or unab...
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7 Reasons to Get Your Child a Pet

7 Reasons to Get Your Child a Pet
Did you have a pet growing up? I know I did! Dogs, bunnies, snakes, frogs, tarantulas-- you name it, and I bet you I had it! My dog was named Biff, he was my best friend! He would hang out by my side, steal my diapers, and give me countless cuddles. He taught me how to be gentle and loving; I pulled on his tail once, he did not like that and I learned that QUICKLY! He taught me to be responsible; dogs can't open doors or fill their water bowls! L...
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Guest Post: Focusing in a Tech-Saturated World through Mindfulness

Guest Post: Focusing in a Tech-Saturated World through Mindfulness
Your child's day is filled with noise, motion and lights. From TVs blaring, phones buzzing and more, their days can be filled with devices and distractions. These distractions make the brain work harder. A National Safety Council white paper said , "Human brains do not perform two tasks at the same time. Instead, the brain handles tasks sequentially, switching between one task and another." Over time, these distractions cause stress, decrease pro...
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