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5 Ways To Be More Present With Your Kids

5 ways to be more present with your kids

5 Ways To Be More Present With Your Kids

5 Ways To Be More Present With Your Kids

5 Ways To Be Present With Your Kids

5 Ways To Be More Present with your kids

5 Ways To Be More Present with your kids

We are in a day filled with screens and lacking personal interactions. The repercussions this is having on our children is HUGE, but there are ways to combat it!

I was chatting the other night with a friend how we want to be intentional about our time with our kids. Now when you are a stay at home (and working!) mom… that’s a lot of time. No matter how much physical time you spend with your kids, quality is the key.

Showing them that you are present, listening and care can totally shape who they become.

The book, Hands Free Mama made a huge impression on the way I think about my time with my kids. All mamas…. run and order this book!

5 Ways To Be More Present With Your Kids

  1. Wake Up Earlier.– Don’t hate me already on option 1. I’m not perfect at this one and it sure isn’t easy when the boys wake up at 6 am, but it makes a huge difference in your day. You can finish some small tasks before they wake up, set intentions for the day, work out, etc. When you spend a few minutes to yourself in the morning it helps to be more patient and present throughout the rest of your day.
  2. Be where your feet are.-  This piece of advice came from Christy Wright at her business boutique workshop and couldn’t be anymore helpful. When you are working, be there. Put your heart into and chase your dreams. When you are with your kids, be there. Don’t be thinking about e-mails that need returned or check marks needed on a to- do list.
  3.  Stop going through the motions. – Motherhood is exhausting. Plain and simple. It can be so hard to get caught up in dishes, diapers, laundry and tantrums. Making a mindful attempt to realize that these days are numbered and really diving into the sweet moments is so important. Your kids can feel when you are half listening and they care.
  4. Set a block timer for play. This sounds silly, but ever since I started doing we have had so many special moments. Put your phone away and get on the floor until the timer goes off. They will be the precious moments you will remember the most. (I also use this for work. Productivity will sky rocket.)
  5. Spend one-on-one time with each child. This makes them feel special and cared for. It also to help know what is really going on with them in their little minds. It’s amazing what they will tell you when they feel safe.

Whenever I stop and think about how fleeting these sweet moments are where we are our child’s whole world it seems silly to even THINK about wasting them on our phone. Will we remember laughing at a meme on IG or the sound of them laughing? Motherhood is hard, but so worth it. We should all strive to be exceptional and raise exceptional kids. Imagine a world like that?!

 

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For my fellow mompreneurs, I have a post about some tips and tricks of balancing stay at home mom life with working mom life. You can read that one HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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20 Things To Do On Cold & Rainy Days With Kids

things to do on cold and rainy days with kids

10 Things To Do On Cold & Rainy Days With Kids

things to do on cold and rainy days with kids

things to do on cold and rainy days with kids

things to do on cold and rainy days with kids

As a family, we love to be outside. Exploring new places, hitting up the playgrounds and parks, eating outside. There is something so great about Vitamin D and the effect it has on our moods, but especially the kids.

Unfortunately, we have had day after day of rainy weather and cold days. We’ve been trying to not let that stop us from having some fun.

It’s so important for the boys to be stimulated in some way by learning something new or partaking in a fun activity at home.

If you don’t already, I suggest following “busytoddler” on Instagram. She has so many learning based activities using mostly items you most likely already have in your home. It’s my go to place to find fun things for the boys to do on our typical days at home.

We’ve also found some fun things that kept the boys attention and made for special family fun days indoors. I wanted to round those up for you so you could save them for a rainy day. Pun intended. HA!

10 Things To Do On Cold & Rainy Days With Kids

1. One of our favorites is to make movie night extra special. We would light a fire in the fireplace, get the boys sleeping bags, popcorn or a special treat. Then all snuggle up and watch a new movie we hadn’t seen before. P.S. How cute are the boys koala sleeping bags?! They are currently 50% off. You can find them HERE.

2. Build a fort. Use some chairs, blankets, make it the size of a room. The boys LOVE this one. You can grab some books and read or play in there.

3. Do a scavenger hunt or an egg hunt. (Since our boys are so young, I hid Easter eggs with little toys inside or post it notes with a shape or letter that they could practice.)

4. Play a board game. (We stick with Candy Land for now..)

5. Play dress up. We love this magician’s outfit and like to put on magic shows.

6. Use some bath time markers and draw in the shower/tub. We like to do shapes and letters to help them learn as well.

7. Make a “box house”. Use an oversized box, cut out a door. They can color inside of it on the walls or use stickers to put them on the box as well.

8. Make a meal together. Bake cookies, or let the kids help make dinner. (Ours love to stir!)

9. A dinosaur dig. Fill a box with sand (or cotton balls, or any other material you have on hand) and dig out dinosaur toys. (Our boys also love

10. Learn a new song and let the kids play on a child size piano or guitar.

11. Have a dance party! Hokey pokey, the gummy bear song…

12. Play Simon Says. Bonus points for having the kids take a lap around the house. Burns that energy!

13. Do a fun workout together. Jumping jacks, some yoga poses, streching. Georgie loves to do squats!

14. Draw a poster. I have a few extra large poster paper on hand. We use art kit and some stickers and draw together. With a big poster there is room for everyone to draw together.

15. Play in shaving cream.

16. Build a large obstacle course. Time how long it takes to go through, and see if they can beat their own time.

17. Fill the bathtub up with a bunch of balls. (We use the ones from our ball pit.) Put different small toys in there for them to dig through and find.

18. Bathtime fishing. (This kit is awesome!)

19. Twister!

20. Play with Playdoh.