Archive for December, 2008

Great deals and more at Chief Family Officer

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

Great name for a handy site! Chief Family Officer is a site that focuses on all things related to “food, finances, and fulfillment” (from the site’s home page), but we have found it to be a useful and fun resource for info on coupons and deals for things the average family.

The author and her contributors pick up on new and interesting offers/stories from many online retailers. For example, she’ll spot a hilarious Amazon Friday deal (the “Why Cry Baby” machine, which claims a 90% rate at detecting why your child is crying!). The site also contains reviews, info on recalls, and the latest coupons, esp for places like CVS, RiteAid, etc - places we parents tend to frequent. Some of the posts are thoughtful and are about retailing strategy in general (see her thoughts on the Drugstore Game).

You’ll probably save $15 just by heading over there from the coupons she points you to!

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Deals | Comments (0)

The wonders of a beach ball

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

Like to play kick the ball with your toddler? Want to make it fun for him or her as well? Then a beach ball may be the answer. We happened to have one lying around at home and one day our son started to kick it around. Although our house is not that big, it does have high ceilings, and a beach ball feels right at home in the family area we have.

For the toddler, a beach ball provides some key benefits:

    1. It’s big, so it’s hard to miss when they kick it (eliminates frustration when kids are first starting out)
    2. It’s usually too soft to break anything, and
    3. Because it’s so light, toddlers can kick it quite far or high, which they enjoy immensely.

Actually, with regards to (3), it’s interesting to note that your toddler doesn’t have to have that much umph in his kick to kick it roughly as far as you can. Even though you have a lot of power in your legs (compared to your little one, at least), kicking a beach ball hard sort of reminds you of the law of diminishing returns. In short, you won’t be able to kick it that far. And once your toddler sees that he or she can kick it roughly just as far as you can, it very well adds to their interest, in their desire to emulate you. At least, that is what we found.

You have to be a little careful - watch out for anything that’s somewhat top heavy and can be knocked over, and/or fill it up with a bit less air - but it’s a lot of fun. Our son started playing with it when he was old enough to walk reasonably well. You can’t beat the price (usually under $5), it’s a great indoor physical activity, and the smiles you get from the little one are obviously worth it!

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Toys, Toddler | Comments (3)

A little help from the feds

Sunday, December 28th, 2008

Here’s a couple of useful sites maintained by the US government.

There’s some good stuff buried in here such as the safety checklists and the caregiver checks. The CPSC also has a good feed from which to monitor product recalls.

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Toys, Baby, Toddler | Comments (0)

Welcome!

Friday, December 26th, 2008

Welcome to our site! This blog is an attempt to talk about parenting ideas - products, resources, and strategies - that aid in child raising.

As first time parents, my wife and I often found ourselves searching online for suggestions and recommendations on strategies with various topics or good parenting aids. Sometimes we were looking on suggestions on how to get our son to sleep through the night. Other times we wanted to find a good story book that others recommended. Still other times we were looking for suggestions on what to look for in a preschool. In all cases, what we were hoping for was to find were sites that would offer unbiased input on possibly useful parenting resources, be it for purposes of learning, play, or general growth and advancement.

As we said, our site focuses on “parenting ideas” - these will range from great books & toys, to social and academic growth, to general life with baby and toddler. Sometimes we’ll touch on more serious issues, but only lightly (we’re sure you’ve gotten an earful of advice from family and books - you don’t need us to help with that!). Also, you’ll notice that we will tend to focus on highlighting the good (i.e., solutions that work) and less time harping on the bad. We just think it’s more helpful to concentrate on the positive.

Having said all this, we would be remiss in not saying there are many more important/fundamental things about parenting that go way beyond what we will talk about here. For example, anything we say here is almost infinitely dwarfed by the need to be a loving, patient, understanding parent. These are the truly important things; but hopefully you already know that no blog will help you with that. Our goal is to stick to the lighter side - the products, strategies, resources that can aid in child raising.

With that all said, onward we go!

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Baby, Toddler, Other | Comments (0)