It tickles me how the worries of a nine-year-old compared to me when I was that age are so different. Like what we as adults just brush off now is the end of the world for them.

Now normally my daughter doesnt tell me how her day was but I always try and ask. Well this time I asked and she actually started telling me about her day. Well her time on the bus.

She began to tell me how she is losing her friends, and she only has one left, a girl in her class and softball teammate. She then gave me a very sad face; you know with the pouty lip out and all.

I sat there listening contemplating on what I wanted to say to her. I had to remember how much of a big deal this was when I was her age. Cause what I would do is not what she should do. Especially no adays when kids and parents are extra, sensitive.

I told her that everywhere she goes she makes friends. I even asked as to if she talked to her friend on the bus, maybe there was a misunderstanding. She just shook her head and said, “no, it was because her older sister told her to not talk to me anymore.”

So, this girl is a fifth grader (the sister) and her friend is of course the youngest. My daughter, with attitude, expressed saying, “that she can’t wait till next year, cause the sister will go to the middle school and will ride a different bus!”

I couldn’t help but shake my head. I leaned over to my daughter to where I was eye leveled with her and said, “You are a friendly little girl. You will make new friends every day and everywhere you will go. Besides I bet in three years from now you probably won’t even remember these girls’ names. Besides, if she is being told as to whom her friends can be and who she can hang out with, then she wouldn’t be a good friend to have in the first place. It’s best to move on anyway.”

That instantly made her day. Cause she knew it was the truth. There were millions of people in this world, and she wasn’t going to allow one person to ruin it for her. Just like how I was when I was her age. Although that was not how I was taught how to view the world of people.

To have a best friend, to me, is someone who you can tell all your problems too, be judged by them but still stay with you, to make sure you’re okay by the end of the day. Then later laugh about it, years to come. Not someone who will get butt hurt over the smallest things or follow someone else’s suggestions or tell you who can hang out with.

Grant it, they are under the age of 12, so I tried to simplify it for her to understand, so she knows that she will be okay in the end.

What are some other ways that you could have handled that situation? We all grew up in different family backgrounds. Mine was more forwardness and to not let certain things bother me to allow others to get me down. Although others may have grown up differently then I was taught. What do you think? Let me know down below.

Till next time.

Things to do with your child.

Every year, this is the day that my kid looks forward to, to where she can dress up and get candy. With each year, it has been a memorable experience.

Growing up, we couldn’t wait to get home, get our homework done, eat dinner, dress warmly, if needed too, then put on our costumes, then go!

Now our transportation was always different from time to time seeing we always moved. So, we either moved to a neighborhood surrounded by houses or to a country house where we had to pack up and go to a nearby neighborhood or a neighborhood that mom knew and trusted. I do, however, remember either walking, roller blading, or using my scooter to go from house to house. There were even days that mom would park the car and walk with my brother and I or she would simply drive behind or in front of us.

The moment of truth was when we got home. My brother and I would dump our bags, which were normal brown grocery bags, out in different piles and our mother would have to “inspect” the candy to see if it was safe for us, because there are some weirdos out there. After the inspection was done, we were free to enjoy our candy, which only meant we were allowed to have five pieces, if it was a school night and seven if it was the weekend. “There was no getting sick!” Our mother would always say.

Although the next day, after the “inspection” we always managed to be missing some candy. The Candy thief always struck when we slept…….hmmm coincidence.

Even to this day some of those traditions are past down. My daughter comes home we do homework together, eat dinner, dress warmly, put the costumes on. Our transportation, seeing that we live in the country, we do go to a county that I know best and grew up in. I park and my daughter and I walk around to collect her candy. She has yet the desire or need to use her skates or her scooter, but we will see. The difference is that I park the car, and I have to use a book bag to carry all the candy that my daughter collects. Yeah, I wrote that correctly, we bring home a huge bookbag, full of candy.

When we get home, we do dump out the bag and it seems like a never-ending abundance of sugar. I check the candy, because you know, the weirdos of the world are coming out of the woodwork, you can’t be too careful. So, you see traditions never change. So, the same goes, school night five pieces only and if it’s a weekend seven is allowed. Seeing that Halloween this year is on a Thursday, only five pieces.

It’s funny I don’t remember what my costumes were growing up, but I do remember my daughters. From birth to now, I can recall what she was each year for Halloween. I have to say it has been such an experience, to see how much she has she changed in her thought process. To see how much she has wanted to be different characters over the years.

So, I wanted to share my experience with you all and wish you all a Happy Halloween. Please, please be safe out there tonight. I hope that you and your kiddos have a fun experience.

Over the weekend, it was just too cold to go out and play. So, we stayed in and made candles out of wax beads.

The box that we received at Walmart was an ultimate candle making kit. It came with three glass containers, three wicks, seven different color wax beads and a stick to make designs.

My daughter picked out her container, then I, with the last we decided to do one together. I helped get hers together and just watched as she filled to make her colored candle. She was very careful in pouring in the wax.

When she was done, it was my turn to make mine. She held the wick still as I began to pour the wax in. When I was done poring, I asked her as to what color I should choose next. This lets her know that I value her opinion. Which I love to see where her imagination takes her.

Finally, we came to the third container. We decided that we would go back in forth in filling it. Even though it was supposed to be my choice in choosing a color, I still asked my daughter as to which one I should choose next.

The stick that I had mentioned was a designing stick. I picked up my container and started sticking at the sides to make a star like shape all around although it was just an upside-down triangle. My daughter saw what I was doing and wanted to try it as well.

When done, you have to press down the wax to compact it, then leave it out for 24 hours before lighting it.

The 24-hour mark came, and my daughter was so excited to light it. When we did it was just an ordinary candle to me but to her, she was so proud of what she made. Which she should be, because she made it. The excitement it in her eyes was amazing to see!

If you need something to do with your kid or kids, I highly recommend doing this fun activity. Now it’s for 8+ kids but if you do go younger just be mindful with your kids to keep them safe and watch them closely.

Let me know what you and your kids do. Was it fun for them and for? You let me know down below. Till then talk to you later.

Remember when we were kids, we had Legos growing up? Always building buildings, animals or anything we could think of or at least to what our imagination allowed us to believe. Then we would rush to show it to our parents, with such pride, in our eyes, of our work of what we built. Just to hear them say, “Oh, wow, look at that!” or “Oh, how cool!” Never did I think that it would be twice as fun to build, now that I have a daughter!

My daughter received a couple boxes, one of city Lego farmer’s market. We had to build a veggie truck and a stand to go with it. The other called wild animal rescue missions. Where we built a truck and an alligator from the wilds!

There were directions to the veggie truck, like an actual step by step book, like the good old times. With the wild animal rescue missions, we had to download the QR code and follow the story line to making the truck and alligator. Huge difference there, for me at least.

Let me tell you, that was an experience! Me, being technically prone, was a pretty, interesting, intense concentration on my part. It was so worth it though. I may have formed a headache afterwards but so worth it!

Of course, once we were done, we had to build other things with her other Legos. We made a “Phone”- my daughters’ version. Then I had to “make” my version of a phone that I had when I was a kid. Oh, yeah, a banana looking device with a cord attached or an antenna at the top for the cordless version. All my daughter had to say to me was that my phone wasn’t a phone. I had to Marco polo my mother just to prove that that my phone, was real!…….Once upon a time ago….

Tell me, do you build with your kids with their Legos? If so, tell me down below, what do you guys make? Also did you make something that your kid hasn’t seen before and how did you prove it?

Does anyone else get really involved with their children’s shows? or is that just me?

Lately my daughter has been watching a show called Miraculous: Tales of Lady Bug and Cat Noir.

It’s about a sweet clumsy girl, named Marinette Dupain-Cheng, who lives in Paris and is chosen to be a modern superhero. A Guardian choose Marinette to hold a magical jewel along with magical Kwami called Tikki. A few words spoken and Marinette and Tikki combine, become a superhero named Lady Bug.

With every hero there is a partner, in this case, Cat Noir. The guardian sought out at perfect match for the magical ring and a Kwami creature called Plagg. He came across a boy named Adrien Agreste, same age as Marinette, to become a superhero, we know, as Cat Noir.

The downfall they cannot know of each other’s identity. Due to their common threat, a villain named Hawkmoth. He too has a miraculous, a butterfly and a Kwami named Nooroo. What he does is Akumatizes white Butterflies, although they look like moths to me, and turns them dark. Then these dark butterflies fly out and locate dark energies in people and possess them when they are vulnerable, making them into villains.

This is where Lady bug comes in. She has a yoyo that can capture these dark butterflies and transform them back into regular butterflies. Her yoyo also possesses a lucky charm that Lady Bug has to use to help figure out how to battle the effected people, people that she knows, and tries not to hurt them. Once they are safe and deakumatized, Lady bug then uses her lucky charm to fix any damage that had happened during their battle to help save their friends.

Cat Noirs role is to help aide Lady bug in breaking the object that the Akuma has attached itself to, in order to release the butterfly. The thing is that Cat Noir uses a cataclysm and is known for destruction.

The two are the most powerful miraculous holders and it’s mentioned that when these two miraculous are joined the holder can be grant a wish, but it comes with a price. This is what Hawk moth wants for his own personal game.

Another twist is that the two holders go to the same school. Marinette loves a boy named Aidrian, who is a teen model and she a fashion designer student. She can’t seem to talk or walk normally around Adrian. The twist is that Adrain who is Cat noir, loves Ladybug. So, it’s sort of a love triangle but a love duo?????

Later on in the season Ladybug, starts to depend on her friends for help. She starts to hand out Miraculous to help aide her in fighting Hawkmoth.

All in all, it is a cute story line to watch. I find myself asking my daughter questions about who likes who in the series. Even though I know the answer, it gets a conversation started between the two of us, plus it helps me to understand her on a comprehension level.

I also find myself yelling at the TV saying, ‘How in the heck do they not know that they are Marinette and Adrian!’ This brings a smile to her face.

So, what shows do your kids watch and do you get involved with them too? Let me know in the comments below. Hope to talk to you soon!

As many of you know, I am a writer. I write stories and I write blog entries. If I’m not writing, I am reading.

My daughter on the other hand, is the complete opposite. Although last night she surprised me.

She came home with her report card. We both dread it when those come. Well, the new concern is her social studies. Seeing that she doesn’t bring homework home I have to investigate. I messaged her teacher to ask what they are studying, for the weeks ahead, so I can stay on top of her classes. Her teacher told me that they are leaning the thirteen colonies and the French and Indian war. What her teacher informed me was that for her tests it’s an open book. The problem is my daughter doesn’t go back and look for the answers in the paragraph, so she guesses.

So, in other words, she’s not reading. As I told her from her first grade card. If she doesn’t raise her grades, she will have homework with me every day and she will not be playing any sports.

To get the ball started, I went to our local Ollies store and found a fourth grade, reading, writing, math, science all in one book.

Each night we do one page of each section, and I make her read everything before she answers the questions. I then ask her if she understands the question and what it said in the paragraph. When she chooses and answer I have her answer as to why she chose that answer. Rather it be right or wrong, I want her explanation and also to see if she remembers the passage or go over it if she is wrong.

With my daughter, she can read the passage, but the comprehension and the retaining part gets to her. So, I work with her to get through it, asking those questions.

Oh, Did I mention that my daughter has ADHD, Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. You can imagine how creative I have to be to get her to enjoy the work and not dread it.
Through these studies I also caught a little of dyslexia when she reads, even her teacher also notices it as well, when I mentioned it. She likes to add an extra letter to some of her words or her ‘B’s and ‘D’s get mixed up.

Some days it’s challenging to get Haylee to read. I always get a groan here and there with an occasional eye roll on the side.

I have noticed that when I read it to her, she seems to understand it better. With my curiosity, I am thinking, she may be an auditory learner.

My next step was to go to the library and have her pick out a book that interested her and have her read from there. Then when I learned more about the Auditory, I turned to Libby and was able to find books that read to her as she followed along.

What I learned was that there are many different ways to learn. According to our family Doctor, with so many out there, the four main ones are perfect for her grade level. The ones he told me to focus on to best help my daughter. These four were:

• Visual
• Auditory
• Reading/ Writing
• Kinesthetic (learning through movement or a tactile approach)

Those are the four I grew up knowing about and Doc even agreed to giving it a try and see how she progresses through the years. To see if she needs to be adjusted or not.

So, tell me what type of learner is your child?

Does your child also despise reading like mine does?

If so, what are a few tricks that you do to get your child to read?

Let me know down below. I am always up for trying something new for my daughter to learn and grow.

Till then stay tuned.

As a single parent, we always try to do as much as we can for our little ones. A clean house, food to be made, clean clothes to be washed then put away. Get them to school, to their sport events, music gathering, etc. We are often and I am guilty of this as well, get so busy and then we lose track of time and then we get tired and then it’s time for bed. I don’t know about you but the look of disappointment on my kid’s face is daunting, to look upon.

So, during the week, I made a promise to my daughter that this upcoming Saturday, well now past Saturday, we will do an all-day game day. Seeing that she is always asking to play games I figured I can do this for her. So, I put aside my work, housework and grabbed all the games Friday night, placed them in the living room, so that way we will be ready for Saturday.

Although with kids you have to come to an agreement. I say this so that way I am not behind on my work. I told her, if we are to play all day Saturday then we need to seriously clean Friday night, so we don’t have to worry about it later. Boy did that work! We cleaned and I have never seen her clean so fast in my life and I had seen my daughter do things I never imagined her doing without a fight. I was great!

She did the dishes, started the laundry after gathering up all of the clothes, cleaned her room and the toy room. While I cleaned vacuumed, dusted, moped folded the clothes and cleaned the kitchen.

Saturday came and she was the first to be up. Go figure. Naturally, I do my morning routine then go downstairs. I knew we weren’t going anywhere, So I wore one of the national clothes that most mothers wear. My PJ’s! Yoga pants coming in second depending on if I wanted to change out of them later or not. But you can choose any to your preference.

Oh yeah, can’t forget the slippers, messy hair and coffee. I was so ready for the day.

We had our breakfast of eggs and toast. While we ate, we watched a movie for a bit. Once done, we rinsed off our plates and placed it in the sink. Which is foreign to me because, I just wash it so I wouldn’t have to do it later. But I made a promise to do no housework.

We mainly stayed in our living room. Now if you can imagine a bunch of board games all over the floor. That is what my house looked like.

The games we played were:

• Connect four
• Trouble
• Guess who
• Rudolph the red nose reindeer
• Uno attack
• Ready set sloth!
• Sloth in my broth
• Monopoly

After a few hours per game, she wanted to play on the Nintendo switch. A two-player game of Super Mario. This was different for me to have in my hands. It was so tiny!

We even went outside and played a few hours of catch, pitching, hitting the ball and even jumped on the trampoline. We were out there till it was almost dark.

When we were done with one game, we’d start a new one. She surprised me with games I didn’t know we still had. Sometimes she would even combined games that sort of made sense to play. Like Yatzee-uno, or High ho Cherry oh- trouble. That will have to be a different day on how we combined those games to make it fun to do.

We did this all day. We either had music playing or had a movie on for background noise.

Normally I would get the house ready for the next week, but I am so glad that I didn’t. I loved spending time with my daughter. I have to say, not having to do anything but have fun playing games, laughing with my daughter was a blast!

So, if one day take the time to do whatever your kid wants to do (with reason). I guarantee you, wont regret it and your kids will remember it for years to come.

I think my daughter just appreciated being around me. Which draws at the heart strings a little. So, what I am saying is that being a single mother is hard but always take the time to be with them. You don’t have to buy things for them, it’s the time spent with them that will be the very thing that they will cherish the most. Don’t miss out on your kids cause one day, in a blink of an eye, they will be grown, and you would have missed out on the best thing.

Growing up with them.

Take care, be well and stay safe.

Depending on how old your child is, you sometimes often wonder, hmm, what can I do with my kids?

No? You don’t think that? How about this?

“MOM/DAD, I’m bored!” Better? I think 98.9999% of parents hear this from their kids at least, mmmmm, all day! Makes you want to pull your hair out, doesn’t it?

And what are the responses that we, as parents, normally tell them? “Go play outside, Go play in your room, or go play with your siblings!” Most of the time, when we have the time, we ask, “Well what would you like to do?” and then we either get that doe in the headlights look, an “I don’t know,” or worst something that us parents REALLY don’t want to do.

My daughter is 11 and when she was small (roughly 3 or 4 years of age) it was the smallest things that piqued her interest……..For about an hour or so. But, it got her to not be so “Bored.”

Here are some things that I improvised (before I had Pinterest). My daughter was 3 when we started this, and it was fun up until 5!

For music, I would sit cross legged, and she would lay somewhat cross my lap with her arms up over her head, head facing the ceiling. I then would hum/sing Beethoven’s symphony No. 5 while mimicking as if I was playing on the piano, on her body. Especially around the mid-section, tickling her in the process. I then would “mess up” and say that some things needed to be tuned. So, I would tickle her feet, pretend twist her toes, fingers, nose and ears and then tried the symphony again with confidence that the problem was fixed. We would play that for hours. She really loved the tickle part. When she was young, she couldn’t quite get out Beethoven’s name so she would say, “Mommy, do the Dum, Dum, Dum on my belly.” Then we would start all over again. Even at 11 she still tries for me to do it, but now she has too long of a torso for me to even reach her toes, face or hands. Yep, she’s a tall one!

Art- was very simple, simply because she was coming into that age of pre k, kindergarten and first grade. So, with some construction paper, safety scissors and Lots and I mean lots of glue! We would make all sorts of weird animals, people, each other, and different objects resembling something like a car or a house or something.

Board games were another big thing for my daughter. Connect four, Candy land, Guess Who, Trouble and Hi HO Cherry O, where big help. How, they helped her to count, sort out by color, following rules to each of the games, (although I think she tuned that out because I swear, she cheats all the time!)

Reading, was a challenge, still is for me, if I may be honest. With me trying to get my daughter to read was like wrestling a hog just to get a fine hair out of its ear! So, with the short stores and interpret different voices just to make it interesting.

Science, now we did this in the winter but what we did was take different cups of water, then mixed it with food coloring. We then filled many ballons, (I’m talking about four or five bags of ballons) with the colored water, then sat them outside to freeze. The next day we would cut the balloon and place the orbs out into the snow and tried to find as many as we could before a certain time was up. Mind you I had to get up early to go hide those orbs. It was sort of like an Easter egg hunt but in the snow. Whomever collected the most orbs got to pick the movie for movie night with hot coco. (Regardless, both teams won!)

Now, that she was a little older, we signed her up for softball. That right there is self-explanatory. Everyday rather she had practice or not she always, and still does, want to either play catch, hit the ball, pop ups or grounders.

The main thing is, always be engaged with your kids, no matter what. It could be the simplest of things. Who knows you guys could actually starting a family tradition or a hobby together. You never know what it will lead too.

There are millions of things to do with your kids, so get those creative caps on and get going. Because honestly, I don’t think they care of what all you do, it matters that you do the project with them.

Let me know as to what you guys do with your kids, that you all enjoy.

Till next time, enjoy!