Kids & Company Blog

Posted on: Thursday March 29th, 2012

Posted by: Julie Cole

Parents often wonder what the appropriate age is to get a kid a cell phone. Some kids beg for one, claiming all their friends at school have them. Some parents feel it’s a safety thing – kids can get hold of them when necessary.
My three “biggies” are nine, eleven and twelve years old. While I can certainly think of times it would have been convenient for them to have cell phones, we haven’t gone there yet.

Posted on: Monday March 19th, 2012

Posted by: Kids & Company

One of the most upsetting social faux-pas your baby or toddler can commit in their early years is to bite another child (or adult). One baby is in tears, his or her parents are often upset that their child was used as a chew toy and the biter’s parents are embarrassed. No one wants their little one to be excluded from play-dates and birthday parties for using their teeth a bit too liberally but parents and caregivers are often unsure what to do.

Posted on:

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

National corporate-sponsored child care centre provides children with a lesson in sustainability at new location in Toronto

(MARCH 2, 2012 – TORONTO) – A new corporate-sponsored child care centre in Toronto’s Bloor-Christie neighbourhood is getting ready to green budding minds, providing children with a love and understanding of protecting the environment.

Posted on: Wednesday March 7th, 2012

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

As every child and parent is different and this is true for my children, I decided it would be best to poll our highly trained, qualified and certified directors and ECE’s to see what they think about potty training. Included are tips and tricks from my 8 experiences of potty training as well as the hundreds of experiences our team has had.

Posted on: Tuesday February 21st, 2012

Posted by: Julie Cole

It’s quite common to hear someone say “I’m a single parent this week” when their husband/wife/partner is out of town due to work obligations. I certainly know that experience; Daddy-o is away on average four days a week. It’s no easy feat for a mama of six and it certainly takes its toll – but however tricky, you won’t catch me referring to myself as a single parent. Why not? Out of respect for all the real single parents out there. While I may be temporarily the only parent on location, I am not a single parent. Here’s the difference:

Posted on: Wednesday February 15th, 2012

Posted by: Julie Cole

So I managed to do my ankle in, which landed me in an Aircast and crutches. I know what you’re thinking and for the record, I was not walking and texting. In fact, I was attempting to walk and talk at the VERY same time and managed to go over on my ankle. It’s a good thing I wasn’t chewing gum or I may have ended up in a full body cast.

Clearly this cast/crutches thing is not an ideal situation for a multi-tasking mama. To further complicate the matter, Daddy-o was out of town for the week and the affected ankle was attached to my driving foot. The already difficult task of getting various children to various activities at the same time reached a whole new level of crazy.

Posted on: Saturday January 21st, 2012

Posted by: Kids & Company

We’ve determined that we want to drop the rope and stop power contests with our children. We’ve used the D in the DROP acronym to determine that we are in the midst of a power contest. Now it’s time to R – reassess the situation and hand back responsibility.

In power contests, we lose sight of the goal and engage in the struggle itself. We want to MAKE our kids do what we say. Our kids want to retain their power. Two simple ways they do that are to refuse or ignore our demands. Getting on a coat evolves into a lesson about respect and manners and sometimes includes stories about the kind of spankings handed out when we didn’t listen to Grandpa.

Posted on: Wednesday January 18th, 2012

Posted by: Kids & Company

Recently, I wrote about power contests between parents and children. In her talk at the Kids & Company Parenting Conference, Alyson Schafer suggested that over time, we can’t “make” kids do what we want. Instead, we should drop the rope in our power battles and work toward getting kids to want to cooperate with us. This is where you pause to laugh heartily. But, I will swear on my beloved iphone that this is possible.

Posted on: Thursday January 5th, 2012

Posted by: Kids & Company

Guest writer Michelle Nelson talks about the presentation by Alyson Schafer, who spoke at our Parenting Conference in November.
Michelle Nelson is a marketer with 15 years experience in education and not for profits and enjoys a bit of blogging on the side. Food and parenting are her topics of choice. She lives in Toronto with her seven year old twins and husband.

Posted on: Tuesday December 20th, 2011

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

As many of you might already know, we have implemented some great computers in each of our centres. The computers are encased in beautiful Little Tikes work stations along with some great Canadian-made software from Kutoka.

These computers are intended to enhance your child’s learning and introduce them to different learning styles. As all children learn differently, this software is intended to promote co-operation, problem-solving and independent learning skills. Focusing on early literacy skills, science, math and co-operation this programming is self-correcting with immediate feedback for the children.