*This is a sponsored campaign created in collaboration with Amazon and The Motherhood. All opinions are 100% my own. My son started high school this year and I have been using this time to start teaching him real life skills that he will be able to use as he gets older. This has included teaching him how to use a debit card when shopping in a store as well as going together to the bank to make deposits. Although he will always be my baby, it's important that I encourage him to be more independent because one day he will be a grown man. Recently, he shared with me that he needed a book for his English class and I realized that it was the perfect opportunity to introduce him to the benefits of his own Amazon login. Since I have a Prime membership I can share some of the benefits of Prime with my teen at no extra cost. That includes access to: Prime Shipping: Unlimited fast, Free Two-Day Shipping on more than 50 million items Prime Video: Unlimited access to tens … [Read more...]
20 Ways To Be A Supportive Sports Parent
Do your children play sports? With options like basketball, volleyball, football, baseball, softball, soccer, and so many other athletic options, you could find yourself deep in the world of sports parenting in no time flat. Being a sports parent isn’t always easy! You are dealing with not just your child participating but the other parents, coaches, administrators, and the rest of the individuals that make the team go round as well! So how can you be a supportive sports parent and one that makes the event a fun one for your child? Luckily, there are plenty of ways. Look below at 20 ways to be a supportive sports parent so you can be sure your child has a fun, educational, and active sports season you all can be proud of. 1. Treat practice like a day at school. When your child returns be sure to ask how practice went and ask what new skills they may have learned. 2. Talk to your child about their strengths. Point out their strengths first so they can develop pride for … [Read more...]
Help Your Teenager Deal With Peer Pressure
Teenagers seem to be faced with so much more today, then I ever faced as a kid. It’s a tough world out there. Unfortunately, there are teenagers out there who won’t do the right thing. Since they refuse to do the right thing, they will drag other teens down with them. Here is how to help your teenager deal with peer pressure. Communicate with your teenager Your life will always go a lot more smoothly whenever you communicate with your teenager. Not only do you want to communicate with them, you want to have an open-door policy for them. It’s much better to have your teen come talk to you than give into peer pressure. Trust your teen to make the right choice Every adult on this planet has made a bad choice and a lot of those choices were made as teenagers. AS a parent, you have vowed to never let your teenager make the same mistakes you did. GREAT! Now that you have talked to your teen, trust them to make the right choice. If they will be in a situation where you … [Read more...]
Increasing Communication Between You And Your Tween
Wouldn’t it be great to increase communication between you and your tween? The question is: how do you make that happen? Communication is an important part of parenting, no matter what stage you are at. Here are some tips to help you make increased communication a reality. Have a Date Night Spend time one-on-one with your tween. Some parents refer to this as a mommy-daughter date night or a father-son date night. It’s just a special night where the parent and tween spend time together. This is a time for you to know what’s going on with your tween and to hear what they have to say without much interruption. Talk About It It seems as though talking about things is such a thing of the past. Families are too busy with life that they forget to chat and catch up. Talking about life is one way to increase communication between you and your tween. It’s possible to understand what’s going on in your tween’s life, you just have to make that effort. After a while, they’ll see you … [Read more...]
Honor Important Women In Your Life This Mother’s Day! #PutYourHeartToPaper @Hallmark #Sponsored
This weekend is a very important one because, although we like to think that we honor the important women in our life all year long, we don't always stop to give them the recognition they deserve. On Mother's Day, we take some time away from all of the usual distractions and responsibilities that are part of our daily lives to focus on the women who hold the title of "Mother" in our hearts. It's the perfect opportunity to let them know how much their love and support has meant to you and to demonstrate how blessed you are to have them. Let's face it, it really does take a village to raise a child and mothers, grandmothers, sisters and aunts all play an integral role when it comes to instilling important values not only in you but even in your own children once you become a parent. My sons are very lucky because they have both of their great-grandmothers and grandmothers in their lives as well as a multitude of aunts who nurture them and have "mothered" them over the … [Read more...]
Being A Working Mom When Your Kid Is Sick… #WorkingMom
The past couple of weeks have been rough for us in the health and wellness department. If you have been keeping up with us here on the blog and on social media, you know that I have been sick on and off with a bad cold, we have been dealing with my mother's mental health issues, and this week my younger son got sick with strep throat and asthma as well. Normally, when either one of my sons is sick, my Mom stays with them during the day. This really puts my mind at ease while I am at work because I know that she will care for them just the way that I would if I was home. Since my mother is currently in the hospital, I had to take my sick son with me to work on Monday in order to administer his asthma medication throughout the day. Today we had a snow day so I was glad to be able to stay home with my son an additional day to care for him. He is definitely better but he still has a cough which I wish I could take away from him. Tomorrow it will be back to work and I … [Read more...]
Modeling Maintaining Good Credit For Your Children! #WellsFargo @WellsFargo #Sponsored
*This post is brought to you by a compensated campaign in collaboration with Latina Bloggers Connect and Wells Fargo. All thoughts and content are my own. When I was growing up, I was taught from an early age the importance of saving money and being financially independent. In my grandmother's house, I was encouraged to put a portion of my allowance away in my savings account every week. As a matter of fact, I can still remember when we took the trip to the bank to open the account and my grandmother kept reminding me that this was going to be where my money would be held for safekeeping from then on. After my parents sent for me to come to the United States from Spain once they got settled in, my father continued my financial education right where my grandmother had left off. He always had a glass jar on top of his dresser and he would empty all of the change in his pockets into that jar every morning when he got home from working nights. There were many times when … [Read more...]
We Attended The Toyota Teen Driver Safety Clinic! #TeenDrive365 @Toyota #Ad
*This is part of a sponsored campaign with Toyota. However, all opinions expressed are my own. Last week, my tween and I had the pleasure of attending a FREE “Teen Driver Safety Clinic” for teens and their parents at the CityWorld Toyota dealer here in the Bronx. It was a wonderful opportunity for me to demonstrate to my son how critical it is to learn as much as we can about the vehicles that we drive, the roads that we use, and to teach him what a serious responsibility being a driver is. Toyota dealers in the New York and New Jersey Tri-state area are hosting a series of FREE TeenDrive365 Safety Clinics in the months of September and October. The experience includes a safe driving simulator along with a classroom learning session that covers defensive driving tips, car operations, car safety features, and basic maintenance. Toyota understands that the driver is the best safety device in any car and want to teach teens that, once they get behind the wheel, it's up … [Read more...]
Parenting Just Got A Little Easier With KidCash® #KidCash @KidCashParents #Giveaway #Ad
*This is part of a sponsored campaign with KidCash®. However, all opinions expressed are my own. When I was a kid, my brother had a friend whose mother used to pay him for completing chores around the house. She had a whole system in place for compensating him to each task and she would pay him what he earned at the end of each week. I can recall thinking how lucky he was that he was getting paid to do the things that I was doing in my house for free. What I didn't realize was that he was simultaneously learning how to be responsible with his finances. You see, he actually had to work in order to earn his weekly allowance so the money meant much more to him because it came at a price. As a result, he learned how to save and manage his money early on. As an educator and a mom, I can't begin to describe to you how important it is to teach children how to be financially responsible early on and to encourage them to make their own decisions. KidCash® makes … [Read more...]
How Can You Make Your Kids Read More This Summer?
I'm sure that most of you struggle with coaxing your children to read during summer vacation. Even though I am a teacher, my kids would much rather ride their bikes outside and play on their tablets than read any day. Believe me, teachers' kids are just as good as at other kids at getting out of doing anything that is remotely related to school work. The truth is that I don't even read as much as I used to because I am just so busy most of the time. However, I can tell you that reading is the foundation of everything that your kids will every do in school and it is important to encourage them to read as much as they can. Doing so will help them with their fluency, which is the ability to pronounce words properly when they are reading aloud. Also, reading frequently helps kids with their comprehension and their ability to clearly understand what is taking place in the text. So here is the million dollar question, just how can we all get our kids to read more when … [Read more...]
