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Hiring A Babysitter? Here’s What You Need to Know

September 16, 2014 by Jen

Hiring a babysitter isn’t easy. It’s difficult to know that this stranger that you’re allowing into your home is equipped to deal with the stress and pressure that watching a child often entails. While many babysitters have references, it doesn’t ease the impact of trusting a stranger with your child. In fact, the only thing that will ever ease the stress you’ll face when leaving your child with a babysitter is familiarity, but since there’s no way to increase familiarity quickly, you’ll have to settle for knowing that you made an informed decision on who you should be leaving your child with.

Here are a few considerations and ideas to ponder when hiring your next babysitter:

Age & Experience Level

Some kids start babysitting as early as age 12. While this might make a great parental helper, this typically isn’t the maturity level that you’d want from someone that you’d be leaving in charge of your kids. 12-15 year olds also typically need help with transportation, which is something you should ask before agreeing to leave them in charge of your children.

First Aid Training & Certifications

While you don’t typically need a nurse or an EMT to watch over your children for a few hours, having a certification in CPR, first aid, and/or a babysitting class or two probably wouldn’t hurt. This sort of training goes a long way in putting you at ease when you’re away. Lifesaver Education CPR classes aren’t very expensive, and they could be the difference between life and death.

Background Report & References

When choosing references, I like to ensure that I can contact them directly and that they aren’t family members of the babysitter. When speaking with family, they tend to leave out things that actual clients would be more forthcoming with, so I like to have at least a couple references from non-family members.If you are looking online for a babysitter, sites like SOS Garde (you can look at their site by searching for https://sosgarde.ca provide a wide range of babysitters that you can search by location, their profiles display their years of experience and also references from other users, so you are able to screen any potential babysitters before you even contact them, then you can do more referencing if this gives you peace of mind.

Work out a Wish List

When interviewing potential caregivers, be sure to have a wish list on hand first. This will allow you to easily quantify the skills and traits that you are looking for, which will make it much easier to find a qualified candidate.

Do A Trial Run

This often overlooked tip is a great piece of advice when you still aren’t 100% sure, and in all honesty, we never really are. Schedule your new babysitter to come look after your kids for a couple of hours while you’re outside relaxing with friends, cooking a meal, cleaning the house, or working from home. Try to avoid any interaction between you and the babysitter so that you can casually observe how they handle your children.

In most cases, your new babysitter is going to be perfect – or at least fully capable of handling your children without incident. However, as a parent it’s very difficult to overcome the anxiety that reports of abusive or negligent babysitters give us. In all honesty, all we can really do is make sure that our due diligence is in order and make an informed decision. There’s a lot about these situations that we can’t control, but we need to relax and know that the homework we did beforehand led us to hiring the best caregiver for our beloved children.

Sweeping Saturday 9/13/2014

September 13, 2014 by Jen

Do you Have Giveaways? Please Share them here! Every Saturday there is new post with a Mr. Linky for you to list your giveaways. So Please Check weekly To Add yours!

7 ways to de-stress your life in one week

September 11, 2014 by Jen

It’s time to get re-focused and de-stress. That’s a goal many people have, right? Well, if you are one of those people, but it doesn’t seem to be working out for you, try these seven tips to get you more relaxed in just one week.

1.) Start a journal right now.

Write out your feelings and thoughts each day, even if it is only for a few minutes. Studies have shown that this makes people feel better immediately because you get your emotions out on paper where you can read and analyze them, which will help clear your head enough to relax.

2.) Start breathing exercises.

If you need to unwind and quickly, try a few breathing exercises. Just knowing how to breathe in and out in a deep, rhythmic manner can help you relax in as little as 60 seconds. Take a deep breath, hold it, and slowly count to 10. Let it out and repeat. Do this ten times in a row.

3.) Take care of yourself this week.

Give yourself a little spa day, even if it is at home. When was the last time you had a massage or a pedicure, took a long, hot bath or read a book? Do it right now! All of that! Even one hour a week doing something that makes you happy can make you feel more relaxed throughout your week.

4.) Make a to-do list.

Once you have relaxed and started some coping techniques, make yourself a to-do list that will help you feel accomplished, which helps you feel less stressed each day. But don’t overwhelm yourself. After you have done an item, mark it off the list and immediately move on to the next task.

5.) Create a bedtime ritual.

The better you sleep, the more relaxed you feel. A bedtime ritual can be the ticket to helping your body relax for a better night of sleep. This can be something as small as lighting a candle as you dress for bed, then blowing it out after the lights are out. By doing a ritual, you will signal to your brain that it is time to unwind and shut off.

6.) Exercise every day

Even if it is just for 15 minutes. Exercise releases chemicals in our brains that helps us feel better, happier, and more relaxed.

7.) Play a game to distract your brain.

Spend just 15 minutes a day on a phone or computer game you enjoy. By focusing on something fun, your brain automatically relaxes, which can help you reset and refocus on the stressful things without feeling as much stress.

6 family fun night ideas that the whole family will love

September 10, 2014 by Jen

Family fun night is still alive and well. Families all over the world do still get together one night a week and dome something fun with each other- and they actually enjoy one another’s company! To get your family excited about family fun night, try some of these easy and great ideas.

Get in some culture

Art galleries, museums, and other cultural spaces often offer free events and this is a great way to get your kids interested in art, history, and culture. Take advantage of these offerings and go see some shows, take a painting class, or a go on a tour of local places. Visit your local tourism bureau’s website to find more information on what your town has to offer. This is a wonderful way to have family fun night out of the home.

Go to the library or bookstores

Another way to get out of the house for family fun night is to take everyone to the library or your local bookstore. Take advantage of the free programs these places have to offer and buy or check out a new book for everyone in the family. Plus, this is a great way to have fun catching up on your reading list.

Draw a game

Have each family list their favorite game to play during family fun night and place it in a jar. Each time you have family fun night, draw a game for the night. This way, each person gets a chance to play their favorite game and it will always be a surprise.

The no chore reward

If your kids have chores, offer them a one day pass if they win the game during family fun night. Not only is this great in getting the kids involved, but it also shows them the importance of chores to you- since not doing them is a treat!

Throwback night with costumes

Have one night a month be dedicated to playing classic kids’ games- and dress up in the styles of clothing that were worm in the time the game first debuted or was made popular. For example, you could dress up in 1950s style clothing and play Monopoly.

Invite other families

Who said family fun night had to just be about your family? Invite other families and make it fun for lots of people! Your kids will have friends over, and so will you. Plus, more families will get to experience the joys of spending time with one another.

5 things to know about 4th grade to help your child succeed

September 9, 2014 by Jen

School can be complicated for parents and kids alike. Parents are far removed from the process, generally, and students are just learning about it. This doesn’t stop you from wanting to help your child succeed in school. If you have a child entering the 4th grade like I do, the following five points will help you help them succeed this school year.

Common Core Standards Expectations

Common Core Standards will be in every classroom this year, and fourth grade will have some high expectations. Fourth graders will have the “refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says” and “describe (in depth) a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text.” They will also need to “explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems and drama.” In Math, they will need to apply a method taught to them to show how they reach their answer when completing a problem, and they will need to be able to show knowledge of operations, such as how they work and what they mean. If these are things you struggle with as a parent, they are the things you’ll want to brush up on before school starts.

Social Skills

Fourth grade is the year where most kids begin forming strong friendships and understanding how relationships work. During this year, they will work more independently from classmates and this is when they will learn that not everyone can or will be their friend. This is an important life lesson, but one that is very hard for many kids at first, especially if they find themselves not making friends easily. You can help your child by talking to them about friendships and how to make friends without compromising family values.

Physical Development

There will be a lot of physically developmental changes with kids in the fourth grade. Girls will often mature and grow faster than boys in this grade. All fourth graders will have improved coordination, but with the growth comes lots of aches and pains. These are common, but can affect the way a child performs in school and at home. If your child is fatigued or sore at the end of a day, realize this is normal and they may need a break before pitching in at home or doing homework.

Emotional Development

Kids are emotional as it is, but the older they get the more emotional they become because they have a hard time processing all the changes happening to them at one time. This is an age where kids will feel peer pressure more than before, and they will want to be a part of the crowd. This is a fun time to enroll them in sports or other extracurricular activities to help their social skills develop, but they also help them become more emotionally secure. Kids at this age become more self aware, and this leads to a need to be in control of some life choices. Let them! Clothing choices, food choices, and even the activities they will engage in can be great choices to make on their own- with your guidance, of course.

Intellectual Development

While most children at this age can reason logically, they generally think about actual physical objects and don’t engage in much abstract thinking. This doesn’t mean, however, they aren’t ready to start trying. They will become more responsible at this stage, so give them chores to help teach them about responsibilities and consequences. This is a time you should also give them more options to read and watch in television other than cartoons and fictional works. Realistic works will help develop their intellectual abilities. One thing to be aware of is that homework demands increase at this age, and kids tend to struggle with that at first. Help them with this by making a homework calendar to keep them on track.