Eye Checkups are Key for Preschoolers

Editor’s Note: Happy Saturday. This morning we have local Optometrist Dr. Elaine Kerr on site educating us about the importance of preventative eye care. Here she is:
Imagine you are about five years old and your parents take you to a new and interesting place. There’s a kids’ play area where you entertain yourself for awhile, then [...]

What Is Your Personal Parenting Style?

Editor’s Note: Good Morning, today early childhood educator Heather Magdanz is here to talk shop about parenting. She’s got some interesting insight into why we all parent the way we do… food for thought. Here she is:
Have you ever considered what kind of parent you are? Come on… who thinks about that really?
It is busy [...]

Preschool Crafts – Salad Spinner Painting

Editor’s Note: It’s no news flash that we are big fans of art around our house. But, I have to admit that I’ve been finding myself in serious need of inspiration and a little artistic freedom that the dining room table just isn’t currently capable of offering.
So, our daughter and I have been hitting Becky [...]

Product Review – ELC Travel Felts

Welcome to our first official Monday Product Reviews post. Mondays, they pretty much leave us all needing a bit of therapy. So, why not the savvy retail kind? This is a place where you’ll get the chance to talk shop about all kinds of kids, household and outdoor gems that make your life healthier, greener, [...]

Whooooo’s There – Paper Owl Door Decor

When I woke up this morning and realized this was the last time I’d ever post on Comox Valley Kids, I had one seriously weepy moment.
Tomorrow morning, most if not all of you will be redirected over to Ourbigearth.com and we will launch our new phase as Our Big Earth-Comox Valley.
I feel like I’m in [...]

Handmade Paper Bracelets

Our daughter isn’t generally what you’d think of as traditionally girlie.
She serves tea to her monsters while having a growling competition with them, has a distinct aversion to a life that doesn’t involve dirt, thinks dolls are silly (she prefers the “human kind” of babies) and is spending next week learning the ins and outs [...]

Fingerprint Bug Parade

Editor’s Note: This short week has thrown me for a loop. And, the Filberg Festival meant I had no access to our pal Popsicle all weekend. We’ll have to check in this week to see what mischief he’s up to lately.
So, I wanted to share an older post about a favourite craft around our house [...]

Announcing the Summer NeighbourWood Walk Series

It’s with some serious excitement that I announce our Summer NeighbourWood Walk series.
After such a fantastic response to our first series and some disappointment about our time choice, we knew we were going to have to plan for two walks this Summer.
So, here’s the scoop.
Our NeighbourWood Walk series will run for eight Wednesdays this Summer [...]

Give Dad A Hand (or Two)

So, I left it up to the preschooler this year as to what we would do to make sure her Dad knew how very special he is to us on Father’s Day.
We started talking about it two weeks ago – paint a picture, make a card, catch bugs (her fave, although she didn’t want to [...]

Homemade Non-toxic Finger Paints

My husband has spent his life in the midst of paint, charcoals, canvas and the computer as a professional artist. He’s also always passing along his concerns about our daughter’s zeal with paint. Her willingness to paint herself from head to toe leaves Ken in pieces, concerned for the tiny person’s health.
I didn’t get it.
He’s [...]

Preschool Crafts – Frog Hats

It’s that time when early morning or evening walks are filled with the white noise of unending croaking.
When tadpoles turn marshes and backyard ponds into a black mass of squiggling tails.
Frogs are so crazy cool…and there are so many around the Valley it’s not even funny.
They seem to be following us around, too.
A friend and [...]

The Science of Beans

As the tiny person gets older, her curiosity in the checking-out-how-it-works realm grows exponentially.
Catch her out on the trail and she’ll be the one digging through the dirt, picking up creatures to examine and – in yesterday’s case – experimenting with the whole theory of velocity when pitching her boots into the marsh.
At home she’s [...]

Family Crafts – “Stained Glass” Butterflies

We have a soft spot in our hearts for butterflies.
Family folklore has it that when my grandfather died many years ago the butterflies descended upon his funeral and reclaimed him as one of their own.
Since then, grandpa is legendary for showing up at special family events.
One of the most memorable for me was, as my [...]

Do-It-Yourself Snail Shells

Tis’ the season of gooey creatures.
Spring rains are heaven in the universe of snails, slugs and other varieties of slimy forest friends. We are personally working on attaining “groupie” status in terms of L-O-V-I-N-G banana slugs and our daughter’s newest discovery – the forest snail.
She totally digs beach snails. A day on the tidal flats [...]

Mom-P-Inc. – Carol Anne Parkinson of Kindermusik

Motherhood, it changes you.
While there’s a whole list that involves sagging and wrinkled, exhausted and emotional that can be wrapped in there, for many women becoming a Mom takes life to a whole other level.
It brings out our genuine loves, forces them into places creatively and personally that reveal talents and ingenuity unrealized until that [...]

Discovering Living Books

When we first started talking about homeschooling our daughter, I started to read.
I researched nearly every homeschooling philosophy out there, scanned blogs, subscribed to newsletters, checked out and pored through a huge pile of books from the library and realized pretty darn quickly that we are an eclectic secular homeschooling family.
There are bits and pieces [...]

The Birds and the Bees Pollinate Please

The rather frigid nature of our Spring this year may have you thinking twice about the season (although the shot above from local mom Krista gives me hope). But, even as we continue to scrape the occasional frost off of our windshields in the mornings, Mother Nature is waking her kiddos up from their long [...]

Product Review – Kumon Preschool Skill Builders

Our daughter couldn’t be bothered.
Crayons were so not in her repertoire. Colouring – no thank you!
As you know, she would paint until the cows come home. But, crayons, pens, anything that involved lines – not so much.
The omnipotent “they” tell us that our kiddo should be thinking hard about the whole line-making thing. I get [...]

Family Craft – Waldorf-Inspired Watercolors

The gig is up.
Our kiddo is a painting maniac.
Seriously, the older she gets the uglier public painting becomes. Just the mere mention of tempera paints and paper sends her into an uncontrollable frenzy during which she paints every inch of her body – and anyone standing within swiping distance, gets a gooey paintbrush on all [...]

Breaking News – Major MEGA Brand Recall

CVK Mom Robin – AKA Another Robin – just sent me a note about a major recall from the makers of MEGA Blocks.
More than 1.3 millions MagnaMan Magnetic Action Figures are being recalled because swallowed magnets may cause aspirational and intestinal trauma.
The small magnets inside the figures are known to detach and if more than [...]

Retro Mama’s Blast from the Past

My mother made me wear a babushka. (Not unlike the vintage dress in the above photo that I would prefer the tiny person wore every day:))
She thought it looked so crazy cute on a preschooler that I ended up with a whole wardrobe of ethnic head scarfs.
My grandmother loved it so much I acquired my [...]

Sprouts – Mid-Week Update

As part of the gardening journal, we’ll be doing short, periodic updates about what’s growing (lots of photos) in addition to the bi-montly write-up.

We have Sprouts!
Here are some from Day 3:
Lettuce and radishes just popping up.
Zucchini nearly sprouting.
Here’s from last night:
The zucchini and marigolds have sprouted and the radishes are just about in need of [...]

Help! My Kiddo Hates Veggies (for now)

So, well…
…our daughter, who has always been a wonder in the eating good food department, is on strike.
Where I used to be able to set down bowl after bowl of carrots, broccoli, cabbage or swiss chard now lives empty space.
I was sharing with a pal last night that it’s like she’s put herself on a [...]

Salad People

The dining toddler is quite an enigma.
As the parent of one who will be 3 in April, I have shared in discussion after discussion with fellow parents of toddlers, and it seems there is quite the spectrum of eating habits from one child to the next.
My son in particular has a handful of staple foods [...]

The Not-So-Comprehensive Guide to Potty Training

When it comes to potty training tiny people, the verdict remains out on how to best do so (click the link above to see for yourself).
From the minute our daughter was born (actually, even before), advice about potty training was one of the most common topics in terms of other moms and professionals passing along [...]

Felt Boards to Spark Imagination

I have to be honest, I’d never even seen a felt board until we were shopping for the tiny person’s second birthday last summer and discovered some AMAZING ones at Kool & Child in Nanaimo.
We hooked her up with a huge ocean scene that now lives on a wall in our hallway thinking she’d love [...]

Melissa & Doug Spillproof Paint Cups

Our daughter is the ringleader of artistic chaos.
When it comes to painting, she is totally in love. So much so that every inch of herself, anyone near her and everything within 10 yards of the painting location has, in the past, been guaranteed to be turned a lovely shade of tempera.
I swear that our Tuesday-morning [...]

Bambu for Eco Kids Utensils

For ages and ages…and ages…I have been trying to replace the plastic eating utensils that our tiny person used to eat with.
Oh was it ever a painful process.
I went to nearly every store in town, and in other towns. I cruised the Internet. I even considered just converting to stainless steel camping utensils.
Then, one day, [...]

The Great Pumpkin Saves Kids from Sugar Overload

A while back, I discovered The Tale of the Great Pumpkin.
I heard it in conversation. I read it on website after website, this spookytacular tale of bribing the kiddos out of their candy.
I am convinced that one brilliant parent out there came up with this remarkably savvy tool for reducing the sugar buzz factor around [...]

Cool Mom Picks Safer Toy Guide

I am a H-U-G-E fan of the moms over at Cool Mom Picks if for no other reason than they keep me from totally losing my cool factor and giving in to the urge to live out my days in 6-year-old sweats and faded t-shirts.
They are super resourceful and totally funky, not to mention exceptionally [...]

Groovy Gear – Aqua Socks with, well, Socks

Our daughter is a fish.
She dreams of turning into a whale, crawling like a crab and meeting a sea horse.
So, when we started swim lessons at the CV Aquatics Centre we thought for sure it would be an instant success.
Ends up, the bottom of the pool is a bit more rugged than her toddler feet [...]

Tofino’s Ocean Kids

So, there we were driving along Campbell Street into downtown Tofino.
We had to make a Co-op run for last-minute ingredients (it was perogi party night last night) and ended up at this great kids store that is, in the end, now the sole reason that we as parents no longer have ANY excuses about why [...]

Mozart to Soothe the Savage Baby

There once was a rather charming, easy-going tiny person running around our house.
While other people coped with whining, meltdowns and fear-striking behaviour, our daughter was going along doing her thing wondering why some of the other kiddos were so upset.
In the last two weeks, something has snapped and the terrible twos have kicked in with [...]

Safety First – Car Seat Recalls

Thanks to CVK mom Angela D’Eon for updated news from Transportation Canada on the car seat recalls for Cosco, Safety 1st and Eddie Bauer products.
The seats that are being recalled manufactured and sold between Nov. 1, 2003 and Dec. 31, 2005 include:
* Cosco Alpha Omega: 22C15BNP, 22C15CRK, 22C15ROR, 22C15TUX, 22C26BNG, 22C26GRH
[...]

101 Uses for Hemp Milk

A while back, after CVK mom Reesh recommended Hemp Milk, I started doing a bit of research into it all.
Cow milk is no friend to us, and the whole goat’s milk our daughter has been downing for a year or so is now – I’m told – a bit too fatty for her to drink [...]

Find It – Comox Valley Diaper Gyms!

It’s that time of year!
Yes, it’s true, DIAPER GYM is nearly back in session (just a few weeks more, I promise).
Our daughter has been asking for WEEKS when she gets to see her friends at diaper gym again and, although I know it should be all about her, I can’t wait to see my friends [...]