Kids & Company Blog: From the Experts

Posted on: Tuesday June 21st, 2016

Posted by: Zara Alibhai

Some parents hope for a boy, others a girl. Many wish for their children to become exceptional, becoming a rode scholar, or Olympic athlete. However, there is one universal thing that every parent wishes for, that their child is healthy. For a few unfortunate parents, this is not the case, they are faced with the… [read more]

Posted on: Tuesday April 26th, 2016

Posted by: Zara Alibhai

Siblings fight.  They just do.  It is apart of how they learn to share space, things and, of course, you.  But sibling fighting is different than sibling rivalry. Sibling fighting is what happens on the surface:  The grabbing, the hitting, the teasing, the refusing to share, etc.   Sibling rivalry is more under the surface.  It… [read more]

Posted on: Tuesday March 29th, 2016

Posted by: Kids & Company

The two biggest mistakes I’ve made when it comes to fostering healthy eating habits in my two-year-old daughter and four-year-old son are: 1.  Paying too much attention to what/how much they eat. 2.  Giving them too many choices regarding what/how much they eat. When I share these mistakes with other parents in my Wholeplay classes,… [read more]

Posted on: Monday February 1st, 2016

Posted by: Kids & Company

Parents are really into parenting tips.   Being a parent myself, I get it.  We want something easy— a back pocket solution that can be implemented quickly in moments of meltdown, defiance, bewilderment, etc. Perhaps more than easy, we want something effective, something that will work regardless of who our children are or the circumstances we’re… [read more]

Posted on: Monday September 29th, 2014

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

To follow up on my previous blog post about the importance of play, I thought I would share how children play at different ages. As every stage of development is drastically different, their ability to play will be too. Of course younger babies can’t toddle over to a toy and explore, but as a parent… [read more]

Posted on: Monday August 25th, 2014

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

In my family, we’ve always had lots of play. With eight children, they all at some point another played with each other and kept busy with great pretend games, sports play and sensory activities (even if that means making a mud pit in the backyard!). It is so important for children to explore through play… [read more]

Posted on: Tuesday May 27th, 2014

Posted by: Kids & Company

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: don’t rush your child into the next car seat stage. 40 lbs is the minimum (minimum) for a child to ride in a booster seat. They are not required to transition into a booster seat when they reach 40lbs. Keep them in their 5-pt… [read more]

Posted on: Thursday May 22nd, 2014

Posted by: Kids & Company

Best practices with forward facing and Canadian law are in direct conflict here. Best practices say to keep your child rear-facing as long as possible and to wait until they are at least two years of age to turn them forward facing. Canadian law, on the other hand, (different in every province) states that children… [read more]

Posted on: Thursday May 8th, 2014

Posted by: Kids & Company

Infant Car Seats  If you’re like many first-time parents, you don’t quite realize the seriousness of deciding on your child’s first car seat. But if you try to do your research, you’re buried in piles of blog posts, marketing materials and friendly recommendations – much of it contradictory. Cue breakdown.   Let me make this… [read more]

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.