Category: Parenting

Having a new baby is an exciting time in any parent’s life. It is also a time of new experiences and a lot of questions and anxiety. Do you worry about keeping your little one safe through it all? Here are a few tips to help you navigate the first year.

Put Them To Sleep in an Empty Crib

When you go to sleep, do you enjoy sinking into a soft mattress, laying back on a fluffy pillow and pulling the covers over your head? As wonderful as this is for you, it is not a good option for your baby because plush objects can easily cover their faces and make it difficult for them to breathe. During the first year, your infant is safest in their crib fitted with a firm mattress, and they shouldn’t sleep with pillows and blankets. If you are concerned that they are too cold, dress them in a long sleeve sleeper, adjust your home’s temperature and opt for a sleep sack. 

Watch Them Every Second They Are Near Water

It is very easy for a child to slip in water, and they can be injured in a matter of seconds. Make it your priority to watch them at all times they are in the water. If you bathe your baby, look for special seats that help support them and add a small amount of water to the tub. If you need to leave the room, always take your child with you. These precautions should be followed when you are near a hot tub, swimming pool or open water areas. Your baby cannot swim or float naturally, so consider any body of water a drowning risk. 

Install a Rear Facing Car Seat

You know by now that you’re required to keep your baby in a car seat while driving. It’s also important to make sure you buckle them in correctly. Until your child is about a year old and 20 pounds, their head is not supported very well by their neck muscles. Because of this, your baby’s seat should face the back of the car to protect their head and neck from a whiplash injury if your car is rear-ended. If you are concerned about seeing them while you’re driving, look for special mirrors that attach to the back seat and allow you to see their reflection in your rearview mirror. 

Block All Staircases

As your child begins to get mobile, new dangers become reachable to them. Stairs are very hazardous to exploring babies. It only takes an inch for them to crawl or scoot too far and fall down a staircase. As they become more confident in moving around, they want to climb up the stairs, which can also lead to falls back down. The best way to protect them from falls is to put gates at the top and bottom of the stairs. These gates are easy to install and allow you to easily walk through them while shutting securely to keep your baby safe. 

The first year of your newborn’s life is filled with new experiences. Follow these tips to keep them safe through it all. 

Gardening is an enjoyable activity for adults but it’s often a bit of a mystery to the kids. While they may see grownups busily going about their business with a trowel in hand, or covered in soil when re-entering the home, what exactly is going on remains unclear to them. For parents, gardening is a perfect teaching opportunity for their children even when it comes to growing food. But how exactly do you as a parent tear them away from their mobile games and get them interested in gardening? Here are some ideas to get the kids involved in growing food and gardening for the first time.

Stoke a Kid’s Fascination with Living Things

The inquisitive nature of children is such that they love to learn new things. But that’s especially true when it’s about living, growing things. It grabs their attention and makes them sit up and take notice. 

Growing plants that respond to being watered with some species expanding in size quickly is enough to interest some kids right away. If they can see that a plant has grown larger by measuring it a week before and today, they will be pleased. Just make sure they know to be gentle with the plants, as kids can sometimes be heavy handed.

Growing Food on their own

While food may appear to be “made” at the supermarket or it magically appears out of the microwave or oven and conveniently lands on their plate, older kids know that’s not the case. The opportunity to take on some fun responsibility and grow vegetables of their own is a new thing. It’s one thing to be responsible for a city’s development in a computer game, but altogether something else to do it in real life.

Choose vegetables that are easier to grow and less prone to dying off. This will increase their likely success rate and avoid them giving up through disappointment. 

Let Them Adjust Garden Watering Based on Rainfall

An excellent way to combine computer gadget knowledge with gardening that may provide some early fascination is through using a rain gauge. This can measure the rainfall levels to avoid overwatering the garden. Using a gauge like this, it’s possible to avoid saturating plants or vegetables, preventing healthy growth. They can check it each day, make notes, and decide what to do. Using a rain gauge, it’s possible to engage them on several levels while indirectly improving their results too. Read some reviews of the best ones at WeatherStationAdvisor.

A Garden Plot of Their Own

A garden plot with their name on it will be something new (have them create a little sign to do just that). Instead of contributing to mommy’s or daddy’s garden, they can take full ownership. 

Starting with raking the soil, and adding some fertilizer under supervision, they can then move onto planting some seeds for their favorite vegetables. Then water them every so often.

They will need some supervision from time to time to avoid little disasters like overwatering the soil or choosing out-of-season vegetable seeds. Also, avoid those that won’t grow with the level of sunlight their plot will receive. 

Create a Fairy Garden

Some children will enjoy creating a fairy garden, adding plants, and building it up to be a little personal paradise. The garden can include a mini fairy garden house, some wooden steppingstones, soil, and a few plants scattered about. For small children who are new to gardening, it can be a gentler introduction on a smaller scale that won’t scare them off. You can plan and manage the garden together if they’re not feeling confident at first. Soon after, their confidence and creativity will start to grow, and they can take over. 

Use a Garden Planning App

When you have a child who is a dab hand on their smartphone or tablet, take advantage of that by getting them to install a garden planning app. There are plenty to choose from. It can help give their mind something to wrestle with until they come up with a workable design. You can then help them bring their design to fruition. 

A word of warning here: Don’t have them bite off more than they can chew. Section off an area of the garden for them to work from and let them get creative there. That way, their learning curve isn’t going to make a mess of the entire backyard and garden area. Also, if they suddenly decide that they’ve gotten bored and walk off, putting everything back to how it was before won’t be a total nightmare.  

It’s always better to engage and get kids involved in gardening where they are at, so they can feel like they’re making the decision themselves. Otherwise, they may assume it’s just another chore, and won’t want to do it. And then you’ve lost them possibly for good.