How To Find The Perfect Family Car

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Sponsored post Buying a car is very important.  But, when you are a parent, your car-buying priorities change.  Safety becomes more of an issue when you’re strapping your new infant in to the car and planning to drive around town or on a trip. Parents will want to learn all they can to make sure that the car they purchase has the best safety ratings.  There are many ways to research safety ratings, and this can take a huge amount of time.  Most parents want to see which cars will be best for car seats, too. This week is National Car Seat Safety Week and it’s the perfect time to investigate all things related to car seat safety.  You’ll want to know if you have the best car seat, if it’s installed correctly, and which cars are best suited for car seats. With Cars.com, you can find out which cars are best rated for car seat use and safety.  Cars.com has three certified child passenger safety technicians to rate the best cars for car seats.  During National Car Seat Safety Week, you can also have your car seat checked.  This link lets you find the closest place to have your installation checked. I love that Cars.com does all the research for car seat safety and ease.  They’ve rated the top 10 vehicles for car seats and give a great description for each.  You can use their research to find the best option for your family.  If you like one of these options, you can click on the link to find one of those very vehicles for your family. No matter what you want to learn about cars, Cars.com has the answers!  This huge resource helps you whether you want to buy or sell.  They have the latest news and reviews about all types of cars.  You can even find information about car repairs and how to do some of these yourself.  Videos are available for all things car-related. Get your Cars.com App and you’ll be able to access millions of listings, find out about price drops and even scan vin numbers.  You’ll be able to place your car for sale on Cars.com, by making your own custom ad.  They lead you every step of the way when you want to buy or sell a car. @2017, copyright Lisa Ehrman

Keep On Dunking With Dunky Cup

Disclosure: I received 2 Dunky Cups to review.  There was no compensation for this review and all opinions are 100% my own. Kids of all ages love to dunk!  How many times have you and your children been caught dunking your cookies in milk?  It’s such a fun and delicious way to enjoy cookies. If you want to make dunking even more of a treat, just check out the amazing Dunky Cup!  It is a cup sure to make you smile.  You’ll wonder why you never thought of this yourself. The Dunky Cup is a true innovation in cookie eating.  These adorable cups have a center compartment to hold your milk and three outer compartments to hold your cookies.  Sandwich cookies fit perfectly, but other cookies work just as well. These wonderful cups will be filling up many birthday baskets.  They’re going to be stuffed in many Christmas stockings, too.  Aren’t they a wonderful find?  I know you and your family will love them. The heavy-duty cups are made to go in the dishwasher and microwave.  So, your kids can enjoy their snack and then you can quickly place them in the dishwasher for the next snacktime.  You could warm a yummy dip in the center cup in the microwave to enjoy some tasty pretzels, too. Let your imagination soar!  How about adding carrot sticks or celery sticks and ranch dip in the center of the cup?  Yum!  I’m going to use this at our next football tailgate. I’ve had a blast trying out the Dunky Cup.  Dunky Cup sent me two of these new Cups to try at home. I’m so glad that they did.  Now, I can recommend these cups to all my friends. The cups hold 8 oz of milk, coffee or tea.  The FDA approved plastic cup is also BPA free, so no worries.  The cute Dunky Cup comes in this cute blue box and includes 4 Oreo Cookies for your dipping pleasure.  You can also order the box in a Red Color, which will be fun at Christmas or Valentine’s Day. I hope you like the Dunky Cup as much as we do.  Keep on Dunking! @2017, copyright Lisa Ehrman

Why Young Children Shouldn’t Learn Online

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Learning online and with computers has become very popular in the last decade.  Learning via computer is everywhere and programs are available from tiny tots to all the way through the doctoral level.  As a homeschool mom, you’ll be encouraged to sign up and have your children learn in this way. We know that children find tablets and computers fascinating and are instantly drawn to the screens.   The exciting and entertaining learning programs are being offered to you at cheaper prices than ever before.  But, is this the way you want to educate your children? Studies have shown that we learn as well online as we do in traditional settings.  These studies can prove their claims with all types of test results.  Cheap and even free education can be found online. But, there are reasons to review the computer-learning option. When babies are born they have the most neurons and they are needed to develop their minds.  As the child grows, connections must be made.  Research shows that human interaction causes strong connections to be made, that will last over the lifetime.  Seldom-used connections are lost, but the strong ones are strengthened in order to develop higher-level thinking/processing. Interacting with language activity helps the child’s brain to develop and be ready for more complex concepts. Interacting with computers at too young of an age can cause problems with brain development.  At a young age, a child’s brain develops attention ability.  Computer use can cause over-stimulation and children may not develop the ability to use their brain to focus attention on just one thing.  Using a computer, the computer takes the child on a narrow focus where the computer controls what they give attention to. Computer screens cause an emotional reaction to images and a dopamine release can enable a computer “addiction”.  The child then desires this type of stimulation/adrenalin when learning.  Their brains could become lazy about complex thoughts and problem solving. And, we have the usual objections to screen use: Too much screen time leads to health concerns, such as: eyestrain, obesity, and repetitive injuries.  No one thinks screens should be used to babysit, but we should also rethink the educational use of computers with children. Children need to experience hands-on learning, nature, physical activity and interactions of many kinds.  One important point, established by the Alliance for Childhood states:  A refocusing in education, at home and school, on the essentials of a healthy childhood: strong bonds with caring adults; time for spontaneous, creative play; a curriculum rich in music and the other arts; reading books aloud; storytelling and poetry; rhythm and movement; cooking, building things, and other handcrafts; and gardening and other hands-on experiences of nature and the physical world. (Alliance for Childhood, 2000).  Wired Kids: How Screen Time Affects Children’s Brains, Crawford The Impact of Computer Use on Children’s Neurological Development  @2017, copyright Lisa Ehrman

Children’s Activity Books

Disclosure: I was given 3 books to review.  No other compensation was received.  All opinions are 100% my own.  Affiliate links included. There’s no better way to keep kids busy than to let them color.  Drawing and coloring are such great, quiet activities.  Kids can entertain themselves for hours while sitting still.  Coloring and drawing can even be done during events where you want to keep your children occupied and quiet, like: church, receptions, dining out, and more! These three books that I was sent to review are a wonderful addition to anyone’s collection of activity books for kids.  The Drawing Book for Kids takes kids on a step-by-step journey in learning to draw.  The 365 pages contain just about everything a child would want to draw.  Cars, airplanes, balloons, animals, robots, and butterflies are just a few of the choices.  After the children draw, they can then color their drawing with crayons, colored pencils, magic markers or paints. The Halloween Activity Book for Kids provides kids with so many fun activities that relate to Halloween.  The comic-style pictures aren’t very scary, but fun Halloween pages to spend hours enjoying.  There are: Crossword puzzles, coloring pages, mazes, dot-to-dots, hidden pictures, word searches, picture matches and paper coloring masks. The Christmas Activity Book for Kids is similar to the Halloween book, but all the fun is centered around Christmas!  You can enjoy: Crossword puzzles, coloring pages, mazes, dot-to-dots, hidden pictures, word searches, picture matching, masks, gift tags and more!  What a creative way to celebrate the magic of Christmas by spending time with these activities! Woo Jr!  @2017, copyright Lisa Ehrman

My Big Tree: A Beautiful Teaching Book

Disclosure: I was given an author copy to review, but the opinions are 100% my own. Don’t you love reading books to your children?  When I fall in love with a book, it’s because it has value.  I look for value in the words, pictures, and meaning.  My Big Tree has all of this and more. The illustrations in My Big Tree are enchanting and drew me in immediately.  Each of the characters are adorable and happy.  The expressions on the little animals are cute and the colors vivid.  These are just the types of illustrations that will make the children remember the story and want you to read it to them again and again. I mentioned that it was a beautiful teaching book and it really does teach children.  It’s wonderful when you can teach children skills and they don’t even know.  The story gives us a counting and color learning experience.  The book starts with one blue bird and goes through the pages as more animals join him in My Big Tree.  The two bears, three bats, four…..keep joining the bird.  So the child is seeing a certain number of animals on each page.  Moms can point out “how many” and she and her child can count them together.  Children learn to count naturally through this type of learning.  And, they’ll also fall in love with the little animals. The story has each animal described in some specific way.  This helps the child to learn how an animal really acts.  Here’s an example: “Three silver bats, hanging” the bats are hanging from the tree.  Children may ask questions, like:  Why are they upside down? Learning can continue, as the mom answers questions. They also learn to make the animal sounds.  Children love to make animal sounds and will naturally join in when mom reads.  Each animal group has a specific color, too.  So, children now are learning their colors just by enjoying a sweet book. There is one more learning opportunity with this book.  At the end, the author gives some terrific facts about each of the animals.  Mom can use this to further teach her children about the animals, their habitat and how they live. As you can tell, I really enjoyed this book.  I would definitely want to read this to children and help them learn. I think this book will become a favorite in homes everywhere. @2017, copyright Lisa Ehrman

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