Kids & Company Blog: Development & Milestones

Posted on: Wednesday August 22nd, 2012

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

Most of our parents have babies or small children, and sleep is a huge part of the entire family’s daily routine. If we haven’t slept well as a family then life is so much more difficult.
I have lots to share in future blogs about babies sleeping, toddlers and moving to “big beds”. I even have stories about baby number eight sleeping with us until he was close to five! This was not a good thing and is one of my parenting regrets.

Posted on: Wednesday August 1st, 2012

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

I do consider myself somewhat of a “parenting expert” and this is not just because I have 8 children, but also because many years ago (26 to be exact), I attended a 2-year parenting course called “Children the Challenge”. Since then, I have continued with reading and taking courses every year. While I do not always agree with what I read, I feel that the answer for parents is to read/learn and decide what makes sense for you.

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: 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 November 1st, 2011

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

Children behave in such different ways. One small change to us could really be a huge change to them. I have children who really, didn’t even notice when something changed around them and others who if you changed the smallest thing, even the brand of cookies you were buying, they just could not handle it!

Posted on: Monday October 24th, 2011

Posted by: Kids & Company

October keeps catching me by surprise. The cold weather comes and stays. Then I’ve got to excavate the fall and winter clothes from storage and pull out my favorite autumn recipes. I flip the page on the wall calendar and start thinking about Halloween costumes, pumpkin carving, booking holiday travel, and buying new snowsuits for the kids (when will they stop outgrowing one each year?).

Posted on: Monday October 17th, 2011

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

There’s often a lot of emotions swirling around when you start dropping your babies off at child care. Sometimes it’s more likely for the parents to be more upset than the child. It’s an adjustment from being at home with your baby all the time to having to say goodbye on a daily basis and send your kids off to child care while you go off to work.

It’s important to remember that having your child in a social situation such as in a child care centre is highly beneficial for their development. I had all eight of my children in social environments at a very young age in order for them to develop their social skills and go through a far less intense period of separation anxiety.

Posted on: Wednesday August 10th, 2011

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

As promised, I have been reflecting back to my two year olds and thinking about some of my “personal tips” for managing this age group. I actually love this age and find them to be easier to manage, in some ways, than three year olds!

Posted on: Tuesday August 2nd, 2011

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

I’ve experienced the terrible two’s eight times over! As conversation has come up about how to deal with some of these difficult two year old situations, I’ve been trying to remember how I best dealt with my kids when they were young. It has been so long ago now as “my baby” Fraser is 14! I do have some of my own personal tips, but they are a bit more traditional and perhaps not the newest tips and tricks that are child care friendly!

Posted on: Monday June 6th, 2011

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

Eating and nutrition is definitely a hot topic among parents. Many always wonder, is my child eating enough, are they eating a wide enough variety of food, are they getting the nutrition they really need? What I’ve experienced is that all children (and people for that matter) are very different. In my household, we always had many different meals and food arrangements going on.