When I was pregnant with my first child I knew that I didn't want to have a bunch of big, loud, obnoxious toys filling my small apartment. It was important to me that we have toys that were developmentally appropriate, safe, and could fit into a small storage space. Lucky for us, one of the gifts we received included a rattle! This is a wonder toy - such a small and simple thing that is capable of teaching and doing so much. Now that I have anoth...

​ "Hand, hand, fingers, thumb. One thumb one thumb drumming on a drum. Dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum" writes Al Perkins in the beloved children's book "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb." As a young girl, my mom taught me how to play the piano. Like many young kids, I would moan and groan for the full 20 minutes my mom asked me to practice each day: one thumb, two thumbs, pounding-the-same-eight-notes in a scale over and over and over was not nearly a...

Do you ever find yourself wondering what types of chores your child is capable of performing or how to help motivate them to do chores in the first place? Here are five helpful tips to consider. 1. Make the chore seem manageable to the child. Sometimes a task like "clean your room" can seem enormous and possibly even overwhelming in a child's eyes. Parents can help by breaking the chore into little pieces so the child knows exactly what is expect...