Cynical Parent

More than ever before, many parents are faced with a situation where their children will be learning from home, as so many schools temporarily shift to a virtual learning model. And if you’re in this situation, you may find yourself looking into homeschool room design ideas.

There’s no way to sugarcoat it: this is a tough situation for so many parents.

Not only do some families have both parents working during the day, but most parents have never had to deal with formal education in their home.  Depending on the age of your kids, it can be a real struggle.

We’re not about to tackle the issue of balancing your work with your children’s remote learning, but sometimes half the battle is the environment.  

If your kid can’t physically be in a classroom, how can you create an environment that tries to simulate that experience?

That’s what we’re going to figure out here as we look at some really awesome and effective homeschool room design ideas.

Let’s get to it.

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Fall is definitely one of my favorite seasons.  The leaves change colors, you get out of the dreadful heat of summer (depending on where you live), and move into some nice, cool weather before it gets too cold.

It’s an exciting time for kids too.  Halloween is around the corner, and before you know it, the holidays are here.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

We thought it might be fun to look at some activities for kids, and specifically look at fall leaf activities for preschoolers.

Let’s get into it.

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Halloween will be here before you know it, and if you haven’t yet figured out what your little one is going to wear, you’d better do it soon!

When your child is just a baby, Halloween really serves three purposes:

1) You get to admire how cute your baby is in a costume.

2) You get to take lots of pictures but don’t need to go walk outside in the cold.

3) You get to eat all the candy you buy because your kid’s not old enough to eat it (oops).

I love Halloween, and I’ll be damned if a baby is going to stop me from enjoying costumes and candy.  

Picking out a costume isn’t necessarily easy – they all look cute, and before you buy one, you need to have an argument with your spouse about which one you’re going to get.

We previously looked at the best Halloween costumes for a baby girl, but now it’s time to look at costumes for a baby boy. 

Here we go…

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Becoming a dad for the first time is pretty scary.

Every day you find yourself facing issues you’ve never dealt with before. And not only are you dealing with a new child, but likely a new mother as well (I think most mothers would agree that this adds a layer of complexity to the father’s experience).

The good thing is, billions of people before you have managed to become parents and more or less did an OK job. You aren’t expected to know everything, and most of what you need to know you will learn along the way.

As a first-time-dad-to-be, I researched this topic quite a bit.  There’s a lot of information out there for “first time parents,” but most of the writing is from a woman’s perspective and therefore tends to skew toward first time moms.

A lot of first time dad tips are the same, but there are some key differences.

What are they? Let’s get right into ’em.

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The first birthday is a special one. So much happens in that first year of life – for the baby and the parents – so it’s a milestone that tends to bring about big celebrations. When it comes to 1 year old girl birthday party themes, what are the options?

Themes are a little bit easier when your kids are older, because they have somewhat established what they like, whether it’s a particular movie, TV show, etc.  

Don’t worry though, we’ve dug up a lot of great 1 year old girl birthday party themes! 

We’ll go through them all below.

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Image credit: http://www.babysleepsite.com

Before you become a parent, you take sleep for granted.  After all, you can completely control how much sleep you get simply by adjusting your bedtime or wake-up time.
After having a baby, however, sleep becomes this unknown variable in your life; it becomes this elusive concept that changes from night to night.  As a parent of an infant, you often find yourself thinking…

CAN I JUST GET SOME F@#%!#& SLEEP PLEASE?!

Somewhere in the back of your mind, you know it’s temporary.  But when you’re going on your 10th straight night of only sleeping in 1-2 hour blocks, you start to lose that part of your brain that thinks logically.

After experiencing something like this, we knew there had to be a way to make it better.

But because every baby is different, there isn’t any ONE thing that will work for every baby.  So, we set out to compile the wisdom of many parents who have been through this and have found a strategy that works for improving their baby’s sleep habits.

And just as important, improving their own sleeping habits.

We tracked down 29 parents and asked them this question:

Keep reading, and we’ll reveal what everyone told us (and even share what’s currently working for us).  

(Warning: This post contains a ton of content – you may want to bookmark / pin it so you can refer back to it later. 🙂 )

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With Halloween around the corner, we’re trying to decide how to dress our little girl for her first “real” Halloween (she was a newborn during her actual first Halloween, so we don’t really count that one).

When your little one is just a baby, Halloween and the costumes are more for you anyway. She’s not going to remember it.

But what she will remember are the pictures you show her when she’s a little older… 😀

I have to admit, picking just ONE costume is going to be difficult, but let’s check them out.

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Have the toys taken over your home? If your home is anything like mine, the toys are everywhere!

And, with each passing year, my kids just keep accumulating more. No matter how hard I try – between birthdays, holidays, and grandparents – the toys have a tendency to take over the house.

If I step on one more Lego or teeny tiny Barbie shoe, I might lose my mind.

And I know I am not alone with this issue. My friends are always talking about the best way to organize toys, and I am always on the hunt for a new way to keep things more orderly and less likely to make me lose my mind.

For any other parent who has taken offense to the mess in their house and considered throwing all the toys in the garbage, I am here to offer some help in the form of toy organization.

Keep your home mess-free with these tips for the best way to organize toys, and reclaim your space again!

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Undoubtedly the single greatest challenge of raising a newborn child is something you’ve likely taken for granted your entire life: how to manage sleep.

And no, not managing sleep for the baby: the baby will sleep whenever it feels like sleeping.

Before becoming a new parent, you commonly hear two seemingly contradictory things:

1. Newborn babies sleep all the time (somewhere in the range of 16-20 hours per day)
2. As a parent of a newborn, you will get very little sleep

“What the f**k?”  you think to yourself.  If the baby is sleeping 16-20 hours per day, surely I can find my usual 6-8 hours of sleep in there somewhere, right?

Here’s the part where experienced parents laugh at you.

I thought the same thing when my daughter was born.  I knew sleep was going to be rough in the beginning, but with the baby sleeping most of the day, I thought for sure there would be some way to still get something close to my normal amount of sleep.

Ha…I was so wrong.

I’m not going to get into the exact details of why I didn’t sleep much, because it’s irrelevant for the topic of this post.  Every kid is different, and I can guarantee your experience will be at least somewhat different from mine.

But…we can all agree that nighttime sleep will never be the same while a newborn is in the house.  So, with that in mind, I want to discuss some strategies around how to tackle these nighttime duties in your average two-parent home.

It won’t be easy, but here it goes…

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With the current global pandemic, more people than ever are working remotely from home.  And with many schools out for the summer (and many staying virtual in the fall), lots of parents are faced with the challenge of working from home with kids.

It’s not easy (and that’s an understatement — it’s hard as hell).

It doesn’t even matter how old your kids are.  Each age comes with a different challenge. 

Babies and toddlers, who might otherwise be at a daycare, need constant attention.  Older children need activities (and some supervision, depending on age).  

Even teenagers or young adults can still interfere with your ability to work at home effectively.

So what can you do about it? How can you still be productive?

We’ve got some pretty powerful tips…

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