A seasonal resort open from mid-May through mid-October, Winnetu is the ideal place for busy families looking for a moment of calm. It makes an outstanding multigenerational trip that produces memories and a sense of nostalgia that will continue to bring your family back year after year.
When more than 40 percent of your clientele are repeat guests every year, you’ve done something very, very right. In Winnetu’s case, they have done many things very right, starting with the grounds and location. Situated on 11 acres of rolling green space that leads right down to the ocean, the resort is the Vineyard’s only hotel at the beautiful South Beach. While Martha’s Vineyard can get busy during the summer season, guests never feel the crowd when staying on the large property, which features 54 rooms, suites and cottages as well as 70 privately owned townhouses, duplexes and single-family houses. The Winnetu team does a phenomenal job of making guests feel like family and making every visit feel like coming home. After all, the Winnetu Management Team alone, collectively, has more than 143 years working at this property, which opened in the summer of 2000. They know how to curate the perfect New England vacation that families long for as the school year starts to wind down and Memorial Day approaches.
In addition to the fantastic staff at Winnetu, what keeps families returning year after year? It’s the summer clambakes on the lawn. The tradition of antique fire truck rides down to the beach. Daily lemonade and cookies in the lobby. The ease of biking into timeless downtown Edgartown for a meal, ice cream or shopping. The special family dinner at the The Dunes (former President Obama dines here regularly, just FYI). The rich, complimentary children’s day program that offers activities like field games, pirate treasure hunts, kayaking, water relays, sandcastle contests and more. The short walk to South Beach with lounge chairs and a picnic basket for a day by the ocean. Evening s’mores around the fire. The heated pool and jacuzzi after a big beach day. The ability to play pickleball, table tennis, foosball, chess, basketball or tennis any time of day. The indoor activities center featuring Skee-Ball, arts and crafts, air hockey and loads of toys when you need a break from the sun. Put these things together and you have a picture of the quintessential summer getaway. It exists at Winnetu.
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One of the beautiful things about Winnetu for families is the number of accommodation options available for groups of every size. It is a dream destination for extended families traveling together. The hotel’s spacious suites and cottages, privately-owned townhouses, duplexes and single-family homes all come with full resort privileges, including access to the children’s day program.
Within its shingled walls, Winnetu offers hotel studios (great for a couple) or one- to four-bedroom hotel suites. The suites feature full kitchens or kitchenettes, dining and living areas, and decks or patios. The largest of these, the Nobska Suite, covers 1,500 square feet and sleeps up to 15 guests. It features four and a half baths, three kitchenettes and three decks.
Charming and unique one- and two-bedroom private cottages are a fantastic middle ground for families who want proximity to resort amenities as well as privacy. They’re located along beautifully manicured garden paths just steps away from the hotel’s heated pool, tennis courts, main lawn, hotel lobby, The Dunes Restaurant and the General Store.
Our family of six stayed in “Chappy,” a luxurious and fully outfitted two-bedroom cottage. It offered an incredible amount of space while feeling private, yet close enough to allow our older kids, ages 12, 11 and 9, to explore the hotel surrounds on their own. The cottage’s main living area has a full kitchen, three full bathrooms, cathedral ceilings, large windows, a gas fireplace and sliders leading out to separate private patios from the living area, master bedroom and guest bedroom. A pull-down twin bed — which the kids found utterly cool — allows for additional living space and comfort.
The interior of the cottage evokes a soothing island feel and is decked out with excellent books (both kids’ and adult options), board games and flat-screen cable TVs, with popular streaming services coming soon. The cottage also features a large dining table and chairs, a master bedroom wet bar, a gas grill, a private outdoor shower, a washer and dryer, beach chairs and beach towels, and high-speed internet.
If it’s maximum space and privacy you’re after, Winnetu also offers duplexes and townhouses that sleep up to eight guests, and full homes that offer two to four bedrooms, spacious living areas and multiple bathrooms. The largest of these sleeps up to 12 guests, and some homes offer water views.
On top of all these options, it bears mentioning that the resort is also pet-friendly. We brought our golden retriever with us and he was loved on by staff, welcomed on the fire truck rides and treated like a king at every turn. Only certain accommodation options allow pets; check with the Winnetu staff on which ones will suit your furry friend before booking.
Guests will enjoy world-class, locally inspired cuisine, as well as a beautiful ocean view overlooking South Beach, at The Dunes, which is just above the hotel lobby in the main building. The restaurant is open for à la carte sit-down breakfast daily and for dinner on Thursday through Tuesday evenings (reservations required). The dinner menu features local oysters, ceviche, lobster tacos, chowder (made with Vineyard quahogs, double-smoked bacon, celery, leeks and new potatoes), diver scallops and several mouth-watering non-seafood items as well. The Dunes also offers a reasonable children’s menu with all of the kid-friendly favorites we love, such as chicken tenders, mac and cheese and more.
A huge benefit to dining at The Dunes is the Kids’ Corner activity area, where kids can entertain themselves with games, movies and crafts after finishing their meal at at lighting speed. During peak season, the Kids’ Corner is staffed, and parents can relax and enjoy a decadent dessert or cocktail indoors or outside by the fire pits on the terrace.
Lunch is offered at The Pool Grill from 11 am-3 pm every day, with beverage service from 11 am-5 pm. Guests can enjoy poolside service right to their lounge chair or cabana. The General Store adjacent to the hotel lobby also offers grab-and-go breakfast and lunch options (the fried chicken sandwich is our fave) when you’re feeling informal or to assuage that massive growing appetite that your newly-turned teen has just adopted.
Every morning from 7:30-10:30, Winnetu offers complimentary tea and coffee in the lobby. Every afternoon, they offer lemonade and cookies in the same spot — a real treat for the kiddos! Wine and cheese is also available every Wednesday from 6-7 pm.
Last but certainly not least, the resort offers a signature Wednesday night clambake experience for the whole family during peak summer season. Live music, a rolling green lawn, a beautiful evening under the stars and amazing cuisine make the Winnetu clambakes truly special. Executive chef Richard Doucette goes out of his way to deliver the best of what the local area offers. Feast on lobster, mussels, littleneck clams, corn on the cob, grilled organic chicken breast, New England clam chowder and so much more. The clambakes are far and away Winnetu’s most popular weekly event.
Winnetu offers so many fantastic amenities that you could stay on property for a week and not feel the need to go elsewhere (although downtown Edgartown is only three miles away via a very safe bike path, and the resort offers bike rentals so that you can explore the island). The hotel also offers a free daily shuttle to downtown Edgartown that runs every hour during the day, and every half hour in the late afternoon and evening. This a major plus when you want to go a little farther afoot, yet you don’t want the hassle of parking downtown.
An oceanside resort, Winnetu is a short walk via a beautifully forested path to South Beach, one of the Vineyard’s longest and most spectacular beaches. The hotel provides beach chairs and beach towels for guests. The lawn is home to bocce ball, soccer, daily yoga, an apiary and a fantastic pond that the youngest guests will love to explore — turtles and frogs, oh my! Winnetu also offers a fitness room, a pickleball court, tennis courts (with pee wee and adult tennis clinics from late June through early September), a heated outdoor pool, a hot tub, a life-size chess board, an indoor activities center for kids featuring foosball, air hockey and basketball, a large pirate-ship playground and an outdoor area for kids with water tables, play equipment and more.
A complimentary toddler program for kids and parents is available in late May and mid-September, and a complimentary supervised children’s morning program is offered from 9 am-12 pm every weekday from late May through late August. This children’s program is split up by age level (3-4 years, 5-6 years, 7-8 years and 9-12 years) during peak season and offers activities curated specifically to the child’s age and general interest. The program is one of the reasons guests return to Winnetu year after year — kids fondly remember the staff and the wonderful experiences on-property and via field trips, while the parents appreciate the ability to take a moment for themselves.
Getting to Martha’s Vineyard is an adventure for the whole family. You can take a ferry from New Bedford, Falmouth, Hyannis or Nantucket, Massachusetts; New York, New York; or Quonset Point, Rhode Island. Some ferries allow you to take your vehicle to the island (book the car ferry early to guarantee a spot); others are passenger-only ferries. Martha’s Vineyard also has a small airport that some major airlines seasonally service from Boston, New York and Washington, D.C. Once you arrive on Martha’s Vineyard, it is easy to get a taxi or an Uber to Winnetu. The resort lists all arrival options on its website here.
Martha’s Vineyard has become a favorite retreat of U.S. presidents, playwrights and other notable personalities. It’s a haven of peace and quiet, with white-sand beaches, charming New England towns and great places to eat and drink. Although it lies only six miles from the mainland, there is something magical about getting on that ferry and finding yourself in what seems like a different world — one with a much slower and more appreciable pace.
The Winnetu Oceanside Resort is a member of Little Gem Resort properties, a family-owned resort collection created by the Snider Family to bring travelers together to experience the joys of island life. Guests can experience Little Gem Resorts at the Winnetu on Martha’s Vineyard, the Nantucket Hotel & Resort in Nantucket and the Lovango Resort and Beach Club on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Relevant Links:
Browse all ideas for Massachusetts family vacations on Ciao Bambino
Get our top ideas for family beach vacations
Finding the perfect spot on Cape Cod
5 cozy resorts in New England with extraordinary family activities year-round
10 fun things to do in Newport, Rhode Island with kids
3 iconic experiences in Maine for families
Editor’s Note: Loren was hosted by Winnetu Oceanside Resort to review the property. As always, our opinions are our own on Ciao Bambino. Photos by Loren Braunohler.
The post A Beautiful Respite for Busy Families at Winnetu Oceanside Resort on Martha’s Vineyard appeared first on Ciao Bambino!.
]]>Mike Wilson talks with his son Isaac Wilson during a seven-on-seven passing league game in Layton on Friday, June 9, 2023.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
DRAPER — After he had “no relationship at all” with his father because his parents divorced when he was in the first grade and he was raised by a single mother, former University of Utah defensive lineman Mike Wilson vowed when he had children of his own he would give them the kind of childhood he never experienced growing up in Hawaii.
“I guess we just have high expectations and expect a strong work ethic. They all seem to work really hard. We push them. It doesn’t have to be sports. It could be anything. We have just told our kids that they have to do something, and whatever they do, they have to give it their best. No shortcuts.” — Mike Wilson
He also swore that he would never be a coach.
But to the benefit of hundreds of athletes around the Salt Lake Valley, including his four sons, he’s only made good on one of those promises.
When his oldest son Zach, who would go on to become BYU’s starting quarterback and the second overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft, was 5 years old, Mike’s wife Lisa signed Zach up to play flag football.
A week later, the Wilsons got an email saying Zach’s team needed a coach.
“I am like, ‘I am not coaching,’” Mike said. “I’ll do anything they want so I can be involved, but I’m not going to be the coach.”
Two weeks went by, and still nobody had signed up to coach. Another email said if nobody stepped up to coach, the boys might not be able to play.
“I told them again, ‘I don’t want to coach. I don’t want any part of that part of it,’” Mike said.
Anybody who knows the Wilson family can probably guess what happened next. Lisa signed Mike up to coach. He reluctantly accepted, and he hasn’t stopped coaching, or spending enormous amounts of time with his six children — two daughters sandwiched around four sons — ever since.
“I had no idea how much I would enjoy it, or enjoy working with my boys, or coaching other kids,” Mike said. “So I kinda blame her, because she kinda created a monster, I guess.”
Eighteen years after Mike became Zach’s flag football coach, the Wilsons have produced the following starting lineup:
• Oldest daughter Whitney, a professional dancer who began performing around the world with Odyssey Dance when she was 16.
• Oldest son Zach, who wanted to follow his father’s footsteps to Utah but was not given a chance there so he eventually signed with BYU and is now a backup quarterback for the NFL’s New York Jets.
• Middle sons Josh and Micah, who followed Zach to BYU — as linebackers. Both players recently retired from football due to lingering injuries.
• Four-star quarterback Isaac, who will be a senior at Corner Canyon High this fall and recently committed to play football for his parents’ alma mater, Utah.
• Youngest daughter Sophie, who just made Corner Canyon’s varsity cheer squad as an incoming freshman.
In a lengthy interview covering all of his kids’ accomplishments, Mike comes off as proud of Sophie’s achievement as any thing her five older siblings have done, which seems to be part of the Wilsons’ secret.
“I guess we just have high expectations and expect a strong work ethic,” Mike said. “They all seem to work really hard. We push them. It doesn’t have to be sports. It could be anything. We have just told our kids that they have to do something, and whatever they do, they have to give it their best. No shortcuts.”
If an award for being the “Father of the Year in Utah Sports” was ever created, this guy would be a multiple winner. Heck, they should name the award after him.
In a lengthy interview with the Deseret News in 2020 when he was at the height of his success at BYU, Zach Wilson said his father was “by far the greatest influence in my development as a quarterback and a person,” and that father and son spoke nightly on the telephone, sometimes for nearly an hour.
Tuesday, shortly after returning to Utah from the Jets’ offseason workouts, Zach had this description of his father:
“Extremely passionate. For me and all my siblings growing up, it was different than what my friends experienced,” Zach said. “It wasn’t always about going out there and having fun. He was so competitive, and he pushed us so hard, that sometimes it always wasn’t the funnest thing when we were younger.
“But he wanted us to be great, and he believed that we could always be better, so he could be really hard on us sometimes if we didn’t perform or do well. So he instilled a strong work ethic in us. ... It was an every day thing, dad just wanting us to get better.”
After a rather spirited discussion between father and son at a seven-on-seven tournament last Friday in Layton, Isaac offered up this description of his dad:
“He is a very powerful guy. He wants what is best for you. He is critical when critical is needed, when it is that time. That is really what makes him who he is. I mean, he is a great, loving person. But when it is time to get down to work, grind it out, and really get down to the details, he can be critical with it, and get you just right.
“We have the same end goal. … He’s just a great dad overall. I mean, he is more than just that football dad that everyone sees. He and I always go fishing, too. I love him. He’s just a great dude.”
Now 23 and one of the most well-known professional athletes ever produced by the Beehive State, Zach says he can still remember those days as a youngster when it was just he and his dad, training, lifting weights, shooting baskets, throwing the football around while all his friends were inside playing video games.
“When I finally got to the age where I knew I wanted to pursue sports, and didn’t want to be a kid who just wanted to go play with friends, then I really started to appreciate how much time and effort he put into it, and how it has paid off in the end,” Zach said.
To understand Mike Wilson’s zealous dedication to fatherhood and his family is to understand what he had been through in the 18 years before he arrived at the University of Utah to play defensive line for head coach Ron McBride, defensive coordinator Fred Whittingham and then-Utah defensive line coach Kyle Whittingham.
Mike Wilson talks with his son Isaac Wilson during a 7-on-7 passing league game in Layton on Friday, June 9, 2023.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Isaac Wilson talks with his dad Mike Wilson during a 7-on-7 passing league game in Layton on Friday, June 9, 2023.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Isaac Wilson talks with his dad Mike Wilson during a 7-on-7 passing league game in Layton on Friday, June 9, 2023.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Mike Wilson talks to his son Isaac Wilson during a 7-on-7 passing league game in Layton on Friday, June 9, 2023.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Mike Wilson watches as his son Isaac Wilson walks back out onto the field during a 7-on-7 passing league game in Layton on Friday, June 9, 2023.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Isaac Wilson talks with his dad Mike Wilson during a 7-on-7 passing league game in Layton on Friday, June 9, 2023.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Mike Wilson talks with his son Isaac Wilson during a 7-on-7 passing league game in Layton on Friday, June 9, 2023.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Mike Wilson talks with players while watching his son Isaac Wilson during a 7-on-7 passing league game in Layton on Friday, June 9, 2023.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Mike Wilson talks his son Isaac Wilson during a 7-on-7 passing league game in Layton on Friday, June 9, 2023.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Mike Wilson watches his son Isaac Wilson during a 7-on-7 passing league game in Layton on Friday, June 9, 2023.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Mike Wilson talks with coaches and parents while watching his son Isaac Wilson during a 7-on-7 passing league game in Layton on Friday, June 9, 2023.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Mike was born in Washington while his father was serving in the military, but the family returned to their native Hawaii when he was a toddler and he grew up on Oahu under difficult and challenging circumstances.
“My father just wasn’t a big part of my life. We never saw him, really. Didn’t have much contact with him throughout my life. It was just me and my sister and my mom,” Mike said. “When I got married, I just wanted to be a better father than what I had.”
Because his single mother was always working to support her family, Mike was largely responsible for the upbringing of his sisters, and one died of a brain tumor when she was 9, he told the Deseret News in 2019.
At Utah, he was a member of the 1994 team that went 10-2 and finished No. 10 in the final AP national poll. He was sidelined in 1995 by a knee injury, and would eventually have seven knee surgeries to repair the damage. He never got a senior season, never came close to getting drafted — like Zach did.
Mike earned a degree in sociology from the U. and was going to return to his beloved Hawaii until he met and married the former Lisa Neeleman, whose deep family ties to Utah have been well-documented.
As a tribute to his first adopted home state, Mike and Lisa have given all six of their children Hawaiian middle names. Zach’s is Kapono, which means “righteous,” while Isaac’s is Kawika, which means “beloved.” Mike has a Hawaiian middle name, too.
“It’s Kalani,” he said, chuckling because that’s the shortened name of BYU’s head coach, Kelaokalani Sitake.
When it was time to choose a profession, Mike had a decision to make: take a job offer from the fire department — which would take him away from his family quite often — or buy his own business, in this case the Neelemans’ gas station/convenience store, which was up for sale. He and Lisa bought the store in part so he could have more scheduling freedom, and the gamble paid off.
Since then, he’s acquired more Chevron gas stations and is a successful businessman and entrepreneur. Consequently, he has more time to spend being a father.
“It has been good. I am able to create my own schedule, so if I need to work late at night because I took some time off during the day, I am able to do that,” he said. “It has been a blessing to have a flexible schedule because it takes a lot of time when you are trying to coach all these kids, and trying to go to all their games, and trying to work them out. It has been crazy.”
And he always, always takes time to talk to his kids, Zach said.
“If I go a day or two without calling him, he is like, ‘I haven’t talked to you in forever, what is going on?’ He is one of those guys. He expects that phone call every day for at least an hour and we share pretty much everything that goes on.”
Mike Wilson has not only coached his own sons through the years, he’s coached hundreds of other youngsters, primarily in football and basketball. At last count, more than 45 boys he has coached through the years have gone on to receive Division I offers in football, basketball or baseball, guys such as former BYU football players Dax Milne, Dallin Holker and Brayden Cosper, current Utes linebacker Lander Barton, former Utes basketball player Jaxon Brenchley and former Arizona star and Golden State Warriors’ draft pick Nico Mannion, to name just a few.
“Everybody loves him because they know he has their best interest at heart,” Isaac said. “He does have a soft side, probably 90-10, tough guy to soft guy (ratio), that sounds about right.”
Zach concurred with his brother: “He always shoots it straight. If we are ever making excuses, he never allows it. ... He is definitely just very hard-headed. But he pushed us so dang hard that I didn’t realize back then that that is what helped me to grow and get better so quickly.”
One of Mike’s techniques for improving was to put Zach and some of his siblings into leagues with older kids, kids sometimes two or three grades ahead of his kids.
“I was always playing up,” Zach said. “I never played with my age group in football or basketball, so it was challenging. I didn’t think I was very good. So when I finally got to high school and had to play against kids my own grade, it got easy.”
As Corner Canyon’s highly successful head football coach, Eric Kjar has coached all four of Wilson’s sons on the gridiron and has seen firsthand how dedicated Mike is to his kids and their teammates.
“He does a really good job of pushing them to be their best. If they have goals, he will do whatever he can to help get them there, whether it is training or motivation or putting enough pressure on them to where they are working to succeed,” Kjar said. “He just loves them up, too. He is really good to all the kids.”
Mike Wilson has done it all for free, never receiving as much as a dime for his efforts.
Well, sort of.
A few months ago, Zach bought a new GMC Sierra pickup truck for his father, “all souped up and everything,” Mike said, with a mixture of excitement, humility and gratitude. “Not for Father’s Day, but just because he wanted to get me something to say thank you, I guess.”
Is the big rig red or blue?
“Black,” Mike says succinctly. “We still fly both flags, you know.”
That would be the flags of BYU and Utah, for those unaware of the Wilson family’s growing and important contributions to Utah-BYU rivalry lore.
So let’s get to that now; Isaac Wilson has decided against following his three brothers to BYU and is headed to Utah, his father’s alma mater. Did Mike play a role in that decision?
“Yeah, of course I was involved,” Mike said. “I tried to give him every opportunity to make his own decision. We spent time everywhere. We went to Arizona, Arizona State, Rutgers, Oklahoma, Alabama — went to their (A) camp — LSU, Miami, UCLA. We have been to so many places, seen camps and visited campuses.
“And it was good for Isaac to see, and as these offers started coming in, he was able to make his own decision and I just kinda guided him,” Mike continued. “I wanted it to be his decision. I didn’t want to make the decision for him. I wanted him to feel comfortable with his choice. And it is always hard, because with everything he does, he is compared to Zach.”
Even though he sent his three oldest sons to BYU (after Utah never offered Zach a scholarship), Mike has always maintained a good relationship with Utes coach Kyle Whittingham and some of his former teammates who are now on Utah’s staff: cornerbacks coach Sharrieff Shah, defensive line coach Lewis Powell and defensive tackles coach Luther Elliss.
“It’s just tough,” Mike said, summing up the recruiting process. “Isaac is just a little kid who is trying to live up to his brother. It is unnecessary pressure. So what I did was I gave him the opportunity to visit a lot of schools and talk to a lot of people, and then he pretty much made his own decision at the end.”
How have BYU coaches received the news of Isaac’s decision?
“It was good. It’s been fine,” Mike said. “I think a lot of people were shocked that Isaac picked Utah, but he just felt it was the right fit for him at this time.”
Zach Wilson wasn’t always destined to be a starting quarterback in the NFL. Growing up, he gravitated more toward basketball, with his father coaching him on Junior Jazz and all-star traveling teams from second grade all the way through eighth grade.
Mike also coached his other three sons, and has coached various age-group teams to multiple overall state championships in youth basketball.
“I think I won four or five (state championships) with Zach, because Zach was so good as a basketball player when he was younger,” Mike said. “They were all on super competitive teams, all did travel basketball, all competed at a high level. Basketball was like our second love, behind football. Actually, we probably spent more time in basketball than we did football, for all the boys.”
During basketball season, the boys would average three to five games a week, each.
Mike recalls one Saturday years ago when the Wilson boys had 12 basketball games, keeping mom and dad busy driving around the valley from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. Zach figures he played in 120 to 130 youth basketball games a year between second and eighth grade.
“It was kind of a circus, with us traveling all over the place, managing schedules, relying on friends and family to help us get the boys where they needed to be,” Mike said.
When they weren’t at games, they were practicing with their teams or individually.
“I would take them to the gym at least three times a week where we would shoot and dribble and do other drills, just trying to get better,” Mike said.
As was noted in an in-depth profile of Zach Wilson before the 2021 NFL draft, the Wilsons always had a football with them in vehicles, and oftentimes the boys would accompany their mother to a grocery store, then play catch in the parking lot with their father while Lisa shopped inside.
“We used every minute we could just to keep throwing, keep working on it,” Mike said. “The boys loved it, so we kept at it.”
When fall rolled around, it was all football, all the time. Mike Wilson coached his sons in the Ute Conference league, and won a bunch of state championships there, too.
He’s often asked why Josh and Micah didn’t become quarterbacks, like Zach and Isaac. The short answer is that Josh was a bigger kid when he was younger, so he played some offensive line, some running back, before gravitating to linebacker.
Micah didn’t play little league football until he was in the seventh grade, and liked catching the football more than throwing it, so he was a receiver at first and then moved over to the defensive side and became a linebacker, like Josh.
“One of my favorite memories was going out in the mornings and doing some footwork drills and then at the end of it, dad would let us all do one-on-ones, and he would play quarterback and throw to us,” Isaac said. “We would just play in the back yard, all five of us. That was a fun time.”
Zach said a lot of people don’t understand that his father did all that coaching voluntarily, with no compensation, and would often pay out of his own pocket so less fortunate kids could participate as well.
“He literally just loves it. He does it because he is passionate about it,” Zach said. “He will go help coach just to help coach. He doesn’t really care about doing anything else. He just does it to be around it.”
Mike Wilson doesn’t claim to be the perfect father, and acknowledges that because he didn’t have an involved father growing up, he was “just flying by the seat of my pants, trying to figure things out.” For instance, when it became apparent that Zach was going to be a quarterback — “Nobody else on the (second grade) team could throw,” he said — they spent a lot of time watching YouTube videos and the like.
He made some mistakes along the way, he says, as all dads do. Perhaps the biggest one is that he tended to take it a little too seriously, at times, and didn’t stop and smell the roses enough.
“I would just say, ‘enjoy it, it goes by a lot faster than people realize,’” he said when asked what advice he would give other young mothers and fathers with sons and daughters in sports. “Just realize that it doesn’t last forever.
“I would just say work hard, have fun, make memories,” he continued. “Use it so when you look back years later, it is something you can reflect back on and be happy about. I guess that would be my advice.”
If this headline makes you shudder in horror, move along. If you are hecka excited to learn about The Big Bounce America, an action-packed family-friendly day out featuring the World’s Biggest Bounce House coming to Berkeley’s Golden Gate Fields, let’s jump along.
Editor’s note: I can’t decide if I love or hate this.
The Big Bounce America lands in Berkeley on July 15 and runs through the 30th. Tickets will probably sell out. Tickets sold here >>
With an eye toward safety, sessions are split by age. Older kids cannot attend with younger kids, but younger kids can always age up, assuming they are with a responsible party.
One ticket = one entry. Every person entering either the bounce house or the bounce village requires a ticket. Accompanying guardians, this means you! All children under five must be accompanied by a paying adult. Children 5 & up can enter the Juniors or Bigger Kids sessions with or without a parent.
What are the sessions?
Toddler Sessions are for children aged 3 and under accompanied by parents/carers. (FRIDAY only)
Junior Sessions are slower-paced sessions aimed mainly at kids aged 7 and under.
Bigger Kids Sessions can be a bit more boisterous and are aimed at kids 15 & under.
Adult Sessions are for anyone aged 16+. Anyone aged 15 or under will not be admitted.
Within the walls of the massive structure, there are several thematic zones with various activities. Look for big-air slam-dunk basketball hoops, inflatable jungle animals, an obstacle course, huge bouncy air beds, and a giant slide with ball pit. If that’s not enough action, a DJ will be hosting games while playing kid-friendly party music.
Additional activities include a Ninja Run, Bounce Village, Monster Ball Pit, and a Lil’ Bouncer.
Visit the Big Bounce America website to find available sessions and prices>>
[All photos from The Big Bounce America website]
]]>Family travel is a whole other ballgame. The strategy, gear, planning, expectations and number of times you may answer “Are we there yet?” make it an entirely different sport than solo or adults-only trips.
While traveling with kids is arguably quite different than taking a trip without a child (notice we didn’t call it a “vacation” with kids), it doesn’t have to be intimidating. In fact, there are countless ways to experience memorable moments and make lifelong memories with your kids, whether you hike the mountains of Machu Picchu or ride the newest coaster at Disney World.
Related: TPG’s 10 top family vacation destinations
To make the journey a little easier, we’ve compiled our 43 favorite family travel tips. Whether you’re traveling with infants, teens or some of both, these tried-and-true tips are bound to ease travel headaches and ensure your family travels are as fun and carefree as possible.
Having a baby does not mean the end of your time as a traveler. It may cause you to temporarily pause your adventures, and it will certainly change how you travel. But traveling with a baby is still worth the effort.
While it’s true that your baby may not remember the details of your trips during the first few years, quality time together is invaluable. You will always remember their first big vacations.
Some travel is often easier with a small, snuggly baby than with a growing, active toddler, so don’t be afraid to plan something while your little one is still young.
If you plan on traveling with a stroller, you want one that is lightweight and easy to maneuver through the airport or rough terrain, if necessary, once you reach your destination.
Related: These are the 13 best travel strollers for your next trip
If you choose to gate-check your stroller, foldability isn’t as important. Instead, prioritize protecting your stroller from dirt and damage by investing in a stroller with a bag. For long layovers, you can request to have your gate-checked stroller delivered to you between flights so that your baby has a safe and comfortable place to rest while you navigate the airport. Just ask the gate agent when you check your stroller.
To keep your hands free and your baby snuggled, you may choose to baby-wear through the airport or on a flight (though most airlines don’t allow it during takeoff and landing).
The Transportation Security Administration rules state that infants may be carried in a sling or carrier while going through the walk-through metal detector, so you shouldn’t have to remove them for security — at least, according to the rules.
If it’s not too hot, baby carriers and slings also come in handy at theme parks, which allow baby-wearing on many family-friendly attractions. Just be sure you ask about safety restrictions before you ride.
Breastfeeding mamas should consider carriers that allow easy access for on-the-go nursing, such as those in sling or wrap styles.
If you don’t want to lug both a car seat and a stroller and your baby weighs between 4 and 35 pounds, you’re in luck: The Doona can serve the function of both. It transforms very easily from a stroller to a car seat and back again, all while your baby is strapped in.
Because of their convenience, Doonas are great for flights, cab rides, Uber rides and, frankly, any part of your busy life with a baby.
Most airlines allow children younger than 2 to fly as lap infants instead of purchasing separate seats for them.
The cost savings can be hard to pass up, and during those early months when the little one is nursing or sleeping a lot, it can be the easiest way to go. However, if your baby is fussy or you are flying solo, you may feel more comfortable keeping them in their car seat. If they can sleep through anything or you have someone you can split baby-care duties with, you may have more success flying with a lap infant.
If you do purchase a seat for your baby, there are dozens of portable car seats out there that are much easier to travel with than the bulky car seat you may have at home.
The Cosco Scenera is a perennial favorite when it comes to travel car seats. At around 10 pounds and only $50 to $60, this car seat is a winner for travel when you need something easy and affordable. It’s rated for rear-facing little ones weighing between 5 and 40 pounds or forward-facing kiddos weighing 22 to 40 pounds.
Another model to consider is the WAYB Pico portable car seat, which was recommended by several TPG readers.
Every kid is different, but if your little one sleeps well in a car seat in the car, they may do the same on a plane. If your kids are generally comfortable in car seats and have their own seat assignments on the plane, consider bringing the car seat on board for a secure flight experience.
Related: Car seats that are airline approved
TPG’s senior director of engineering Mitchell Stoutin recommended using a Boppy nursing pillow for long flights with an infant. In addition to being handy for nursing, it gives your baby a comfortable place to rest. He also advised stashing your Boppy in a vacuum Ziploc bag to save space when not in use.
Once you make the transition to buying your child a seat — either because they turn 2 or because you think having a separate seat will work best for your family — sign them up for a frequent flyer account and let the miles start rolling in.
No minimum age requirements exist for kids, so enroll them while they’re young to maximize their earnings.
Related: Earning frequent flyer miles for your kids just got a little easier
Most airlines let families with young children board early in the process, but as long as your family has assigned seats, you don’t need to worry about rushing to board before others.
Instead, have one parent get all the gear ready and board first while the other waits as long as possible before bringing the baby on board. This will help minimize the amount of time you have your little one in tight quarters, reducing the likelihood of a meltdown or further disrupting their schedule.
Think about everything you may need to easily access for yourself and your baby before organizing your carry-on. That way, you don’t forget any of your must-have items or struggle to find them while on board.
Consider packing food, diapers and extra outfits for at least twice as long as you think you’ll need them for your little one while in transit. Don’t forget to also bring clothes, snacks and drinks for yourself so you have everything you need.
As a general rule of thumb, it’s a good idea to have enough essentials to survive at least 24 hours off of what you bring on board, as you never know what is going to happen.
Avoid packing a suitcase without tossing in a few Ziploc bags, grocery bags or trash bags. They can be used to stash snacks and store wet or dirty clothing.
As TPG executive editor Scott Mayerowitz shared, large black garbage bags can also work as blackout shades in a pinch.
Related: The best family beach vacation destinations to kick off summer
In the best-case scenario, you’ll have accommodations with at least two bedrooms so your baby has a dark, quiet place to sleep while you relax without disturbing them. However, there are times when having multiple rooms isn’t possible.
If you only have one bedroom, try putting a crib in a hotel closet or bathroom to achieve the same result.
When it’s time for the baby to sleep, there are numerous sleep tents, shades and white noise machines to choose from. Here are a few of our most trusted options:
You don’t always need to buy new gear for a successful trip, though. One reader suggested using painter’s tape to cover outlets as a quick, cost-effective way to baby-proof your hotel room.
Related: These are the best New York City hotels for families to check out
While you need plenty on hand for that first day or two, you can purchase what you need from Amazon and have it shipped directly to your destination instead of traveling with an entire week’s worth of needed items like diapers and wipes.
Alternatively, you can use a service like Shipt or Instacart to have essentials delivered to your hotel or home rental after you arrive.
This is true for all ages but especially applies when traveling with infants.
Don’t ever assume anything baby-appropriate will be available while you are in transit. The last thing you want is the stress of scrambling to find what you need at the last minute.
To avoid this potential headache, pack enough formula, snacks and more so you have whatever your little one may need to stay happy and content.
Related: How to pack — and prepare — for travel with a baby
The good news is that when kids are old enough for preschool, they don’t need quite as much sleeping and transportation gear.
With preschoolers, you’ll want to pay particular attention to toys and activities that will keep them entertained, night lights that will help keep the “scaries” away and a few other important travel essentials.
When choosing toys to pack for a flight or road trip, keep in mind that you don’t want anything that will create a mess or get lost easily, such as Legos or slime.
For mess-free coloring, we love Crayola Color Wonder Markers and coloring pages. If you’re taking a long flight or road trip, consider suction toys that can stick to a car or airplane window.
Related: 14 mistakes parents make when traveling with kids
A surefire way to keep your child content for extended periods of time is to hide some toys until your travel day arrives so they feel new and exciting. You can even wrap them up or dole them out periodically throughout your trip — we recommend packing one toy for each hour of a flight — to add an element of surprise.
Try visiting a dollar store or dollar aisle in a store to dial up the surprise factor. Trust us, the $5 investment will pay off in spades.
Related: Your guide to flying with kids of every age
If your child has graduated to a booster seat (congrats!), there are inflatable and fold-flat booster seats available that are easier to haul when traveling by car.
While there are several options currently on the market, the BubbleBum inflatable booster seat is a TPG reader favorite.
Should you find yourself covering lots of miles on your trip, having a stroller can come in handy, even if you don’t normally use one at home.
For example, at a large theme park like Disney World, you may find yourself needing a stroller until your kid is 6, 7 or even 8 years old if you are moving quickly and want them to easily keep up (or if you know they will fall asleep before you are ready to call it a night). This may mean renting one when you get there, though you may prefer to have your own if you’re doing more than spending time at Disney.
Because it isn’t socially acceptable to AirTag children (though they do come in handy for finding lost luggage), we instead suggest getting stroller straps that bigger kids can hold on to while you push younger children in the stroller. We’re particularly fond of the Tagalong Stroller Accessory.
If you need car seats or want to be sure you have a ride waiting for you when you land, Uber and Lyft now both have options for prescheduling a ride if you need one.
While the best service depends on where you are going, one option to try is Blacklane. Consider having your driver meet you inside at baggage claim if you’re traveling with a lot of gear.
For kids who are afraid of the dark, night lights may come in handy. This affordable nightlight is small, sleek and easy to pack.
If you are going on a cruise and don’t have access to traditional power outlets, TPG senior travel editor Erica Silverstein suggests bringing along battery-operated tea lights instead.
A magical milestone in travel is when your child turns 3 and is potty trained, as this unlocks access to a variety of kids clubs.
Whether you’re on a Disney cruise (like the new Disney Wish cruise ship, pictured below) or at a resort with a kids club (some of which are free to use), children’s clubs are great for preschoolers.
By going somewhere that caters to younger children, you’ll be able to get a well-deserved break while the kiddos are taken care of.
Even if your preschooler has dropped daily naps at home, it’s still smart to build some downtime into your vacation schedule. This is especially important because it’s likely that their sleep schedule will be a little off while you’re traveling and that your vacation will be more action-packed than what they’re used to at home.
To help your overtired kid adjust, plan a relaxing pool day or take an afternoon break in your hotel room to keep crankiness at bay.
As kids get older, they can do more while on vacation with less help, but the tried-and-true tricks for keeping them entertained may no longer work.
Because their brains are developing and becoming more complex, elementary-age kids will need to have access to more activities while they’re away from home. As a result, you’ll need to adjust your strategy for vacations so they continue to have a good time.
This tip applies to all age groups but can be especially helpful when your child starts taking more of an interest in choosing their own clothes. By relying on packing cubes, you can keep clothing for every member of your family organized while saving space.
If you decide to use packing cubes, there are a couple of good methods to choose from.
You can have a packing cube for each day of your trip and put your family’s clothing for each day in one cube. This works well if you will be making multiple stops and don’t want to pack and unpack everything.
You could also pack each family member’s clothing in a separate packing cube, which is helpful when you are encouraging kids to get dressed on their own and choose their own outfits.
We’ve already covered the importance of leaving some flex time in the afternoons, but if you are traveling for more than a long weekend, we highly recommend leaving an entire day unscheduled. That way, the kids can either rest and chill or you have the ability to say yes to something they spot along the way.
Depending on your child’s interests, you may want to use your free day for activities like splashing around at a water park, checking out some animals at a zoo, enjoying an epic ice cream-tasting adventure or spending more time at the kids club.
The key is to leave this day flexible so you can cater some activities to what your kid is enjoying the most.
Club access can be invaluable when traveling with kids.
If you stay in a club-level room at a hotel, you’ll often have daily access to breakfast, snacks and drinks. An added bonus is that the club can serve as a gathering spot for enjoying more time (and often gorgeous views) with them.
Related: Can you use a World of Hyatt club lounge access award for someone else?
This is the age where having other kids around really starts to matter.
If at all possible, try planning the trip to at least overlap with time spent with cousins or friends. Doing so will virtually guarantee the kids will have a better time, which means you will, too.
For these types of trips, you may want to look into finding a good vacation home rental.
Related: Why the best big family vacation may be skiing
Traveling with tweens and teens is completely different than traveling with younger kids — something you probably know all too well if you are currently living with them.
At this age, kids are well on their way toward becoming full-fledged adults. As a result, they deserve a taste of the space, privacy and independence that comes along with adulthood.
It’s easy to assume the phone will do the trick, but TPG editor Kristy Tolley is a proponent of custom activity bags to keep kids (including older ones) occupied on long trips.
For your activity bag, consider anything from snacks to quiet toys to new games for their Nintendo Switch to art supplies — whatever will keep them entertained while you get to your final destination.
Wi-Fi on airplanes can be quite finicky. Even if you pay for it, there’s never a guarantee it’ll work for the entirety of your flight. Because of this, download movies, music, games and more to your device (or your child’s) before your trip.
When downloading movies or TV shows, turn to multiple sources like Netflix, Disney+ and Apple. That way, if you run into issues with one provider, you still have content from the others.
Also, remember that messaging others is free on many flights, so be sure your teen has the airline app downloaded if you want them to be able to keep using services such as iMessage while in the air.
Until they turn 13, kids traveling with a parent or guardian with TSA PreCheck will be allowed to go through the expedited security line even if they themselves don’t have TSA PreCheck.
Even after they turn 13, kids 17 and younger can typically use the TSA PreCheck lines with their parent or guardian as long as the teen has the indicator on their boarding pass.
If you have a credit card that reimburses fees for TSA PreCheck, you can recoup the cost of your child’s application. Note that Clear continues to work to bring kids through until they turn 18.
Related: Why you should get TSA PreCheck and Clear — and how you can save on both
The days of squeezing two or three kids into one queen-size bed are probably long gone once they reach their teenage years. Not to mention, trying to have the whole family use one bathroom is an ordeal you likely won’t want to go through.
To keep the peace, consider reserving connecting hotel rooms.
With connecting rooms, you’ll have double the beds, bathrooms and storage space. Plus, teens and tweens will have the space and privacy they need without you being too far away to keep an eye on them.
Related: Big news for families: Hilton to guarantee adjoining rooms with ‘Confirmed Connecting Rooms’
At this age, kids are not just along for the ride. Give them some input (and independence) by allowing them to help plan your trip. Odds are they’ll be more engaged by being involved in the planning.
While planning trips with other families is a good strategy with elementary-age kids, by the time kids are teens, just bringing along one of their friends could be sufficient.
To keep the costs down, consider using an airline companion certificate to bring along that friend without spending extra.
If you are visiting a resort or destination where you may be going light on activities, lean into places that have a space just for teens.
Cruise ships are fantastic when it comes to this, as they often have kid-focused spaces divided into pretty distinct age ranges. For example, Disney Cruise Line has a club for kids ages 3 to 12, another for those between 11 and 14 and then one for teens ages 14 to 17.
By taking advantage of clubs that are broken up into designated age groups, your teen can have plenty of fun without the annoyance of hanging out with younger kids.
Related: Child turning 18? Here’s everything you need to know before the next time they travel
Some family travel tips transcend age groups.
Regardless of how old your kids are, where you’re traveling or how you’re getting to your vacation destination, there are a few tips you’ll always want to keep top of mind.
Airport lounges are becoming more and more kid-friendly, as they offer dedicated family rooms with toys and kids shows on TV, plus food that will please picky eaters. Additionally, if you have a long layover or are dealing with flight delays or cancellations, you’ll be much more comfortable waiting in a lounge instead of at your gate.
You can purchase a day pass to many lounges but may be able to get yourself and your family in for free with certain credit cards or airline status. For example, The Platinum Card® from American Express grants the cardmember and one guest complimentary access to Priority Pass lounges and access to Centurion and Escape lounges, though complimentary guest access depends on how much you spend annually.
Related: Best credit cards for airport lounge access
Similar to springing for connecting rooms, upgrading to a suite will buy you additional space and, sometimes, a pullout sofa that adds another sleeping option.
You’ll also have more room for your family’s belongings and areas for relaxing and dining so your kids don’t spend all their time jumping, eating and lounging on the beds.
If you have a membership to your local zoo or museum, you may be able to use reciprocal benefits for free or discounted entry to other zoos and museums that you can visit on vacation.
This information is usually available on your zoo or museum’s website, but you can also check lists on the Association of Zoos & Aquariums’ page about reciprocal admissions or on the North American Reciprocal Museum Association website.
There are so many unique travel souvenirs you can get that also serve as keepsakes for remembering your child’s travel “firsts.”
These Junior Frequent Flyer flight logbooks allow you to record your child’s flights while teaching them about aviation.
If a national park visit is in your future, order a standard or junior National Parks Passport and collect stamps every time you visit a new park.
When you are away from home, you have to be prepared for anything. That includes unexpected sicknesses and accidents.
Pack kid-safe and grown-up medicines, as well as Band-Aids, antibiotic ointment and other first-aid necessities in your carry-on bag so you won’t be without them if your checked luggage is delayed or lost.
If you are traveling between a cold climate and a hot one, pack a lightweight tote bag that can fold into your carry-on so you can easily gather up everyone’s coats once on the plane. By keeping this tote tucked away until you’re on board the aircraft, you’ll enjoy an extra allowed bag, saving you the headache of trying to determine where to put bulky coats.
Unlike TSA PreCheck, which allows kids to travel with an eligible adult until they turn 18 (in most cases), anyone wishing to use Global Entry to expedite reentry into the U.S. needs to apply for the program.
Global Entry can save valuable time spent waiting in line. However, you’ll need to apply well in advance of your trip so you have time to submit your application, complete an in-person interview and await approval.
Similar to TSA PreCheck, you can use a credit card that will reimburse your child’s Global Entry application fee.
It’s easy to miss, but many resorts, theme parks and cruise ships have a hidden layer of fun that ranges from traditional scavenger hunts to interactive activities you can unlock with an iPhone or similar device.
While the youngest travelers won’t benefit from these types of experiences, they can be fun for a variety of age ranges, especially elementary-age kids and tweens.
Related: Disney World rolls out all-new MagicBand+: Here’s what this wristband can do for your trip
Family travel has its own built-in challenges, but it also comes with immense rewards.
By knowing all the tips and tricks to traveling with kids, having the right gear with you, mapping out a game plan and having the right attitude and realistic expectations, you can have a memorable vacation every member of the family enjoys.
You may not get to do everything you want or sometimes feel like it’s more of a hassle than a vacation. However, if you’re willing to be flexible and appreciate when things go according to plan — even if the end result isn’t quite what you had hoped for — you’ll find yourself eager to book your next family trip before you have the bags unpacked and put away.
Related reading:
]]>Rereading Moore’s story, however, I see that I hadn’t understood it, especially not the ending. Spoiler alert: Zoë comes up behind the obnoxious guy on the balcony, who is decked out in an insufferable naked-woman costume. He leans on the railing, 20 stories above the street. She shoves him, hard. His arms slip forward; beer sloshes out of its bottle. Moore winds down with a cryptic exchange:
He gazed at her, appalled and frightened, his Magic Marker buttocks turned away now toward all of downtown, a naked pseudo-woman with a blue bracelet at the wrist, trapped out on a balcony with—with what? “Really, I was just kidding!” Zoë shouted. The wind lifted the hair off her head, skyward in spines behind the bone. If there were a lake, the moonlight would dance across it in conniptions. She smiled at him, and wondered how she looked.
With what was he trapped? Given the eerie ascension of hair, the vision of manic moonlight, the wildly inappropriate smile, I’d say a witch. Terrified and angry, with a caustic edge that is not quite under her control, Zoë—what a witch!—has become the real thing, at least in comparison with the impostors in the apartment.
The weird, in the weird-sisters sense of the word, has a discernible place in Moore’s fiction, albeit in the margins. The membrane between this world and the other is permeable; unearthly beings ooze through. Sometimes they stay in thoughts or dreams, but occasionally they materialize. Who, or what, is the little girl who keeps spitting at Mary in the short story “Two Boys”? She seems to have no home, never goes to school, and compares sausages hanging in a shop window to dead boyfriends; when she lopes away, Mary sees “a bird rarely seen unless believed in, wretchedly, like a moonward thought”—some sort of dark angel, or so I take her to be. Tessie, the protagonist of A Gate at the Stairs (2009), Moore’s third novel, is visited by the silent apparitions of her brother and an ex-boyfriend, “neither vaporous nor cadaverous, but wordless and turning and walking away,” at around the same time that the brother dies while serving in Afghanistan. In the story “Terrific Mother,” Adrienne, racked by guilt over having accidentally dropped and killed a friend’s baby, senses the child behind her, “a little older now, a toddler,” walking “in a ghostly way,” accompanied by Adrienne’s dead parents.
[From the 2011 Fiction issue: Don’t write what you know]
In her new novel, I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home, Moore puts the supernatural front and center. The publicity material calls the book a ghost story, but that doesn’t quite capture the nature of its paranormality. Ghost stories defamiliarize the known world; this novel is off-kilter from the beginning.
Its very structure disorients. The novel toggles between two seemingly unrelated narratives, separated in time by roughly 150 years. Each echoes the other, but atmospherically, not in terms of the plot; it’s as if two pieces of music were exchanging motifs. They share a down-and-out ambience, an obsession with President Abraham Lincoln, a peculiar relationship to corpses. When the stories finally intersect two-thirds of the way in, some mysteries are solved but more are created. You will not understand this novel if you read it only once.
One part of I Am Homeless belongs to Elizabeth, the eccentric owner of a boardinghouse in an unspecified southern state shortly after the Civil War, who writes letters to her sister. With macabre cheerfulness and a 19th-century indirection to her storytelling, Elizabeth describes her questionable innkeeping: “I can hardly tell you what I do with the squirrels,” she writes. “Well, all right: I drown them with a contraption like a see-saw that dumps them” in water also used for the laundry. The poor creatures show up in the lodgers’ stew. The boarders are a sundry lot—card sharps, magicians, Jews, Shawnees—caught up in excitements of the modern age, like electricity, railroads, the West and its gold. Elizabeth tells her sister that a gentleman lodger, a handsome and crafty roving actor in straitened circumstances, is “keen to relieve me of my spinsterhood.” Only later will we understand why she compares him to Lucifer.
[From the March 2014 issue: Lorrie Moore’s aliens next door]
The other part of the novel describes a period in the life of Finn, a high-school history teacher in late middle age. It’s October 2016, a few weeks before the election. He has driven from somewhere in Illinois to a Manhattan steaming in Indian summer; he’s come to visit his brother, Max, who lies dying in a hospice in Riverdale. The city assaults Finn with jackhammering and stinking trash bags. Schizophrenic people lie next to pieces of paper scrawled with phrases like “I am not homeless. This is my home.” Moore intimates where Finn really is: the mouth of the inferno. “Sulfurous sewage” exhales “from the hard open mouth of the Broadway local.” The hospice parking lot is “a concrete descent that seemed endless but purposeful—a preparation for hell.”
When Finn leaves the hospice, Moore makes clear that he has been in purgatory: Finn refers to it as a “bardo,” a Buddhist term for a transitional state, usually between death and rebirth. (Readers may hear echoes of George Saunders’s Lincoln in the Bardo.) Elizabeth and Finn both qualify for a life beyond life as we understand it, their ties to the humdrum having all but snapped. Elizabeth is on her way to becoming a “bitter old recluse.” Finn has been suspended from his job and bounced from his condo by his suicidal ex-girlfriend, Lily, who works as a therapy clown and has left him for another man; she needs “time to think.” Humiliation follows Finn around like a bad joke. He is literally a chauffeur of shit: Sliding around on the floor of his car is a cat litter box his landlord asked him to dispose of, an act he has yet to perform.
Moore even seems to insinuate that Finn is dead without knowing it—like Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense—and that Elizabeth may never have died. As Finn navigates nightmarish highways on his way to the hospice, a truck, “reaping and grim,” looms in his rearview mirror, and a flash of light makes him veer and almost crash. Finn does have an accident later on, spinning out of control and landing in a field. His car’s wheels are “stopped dead,” the engine likewise “dead.” A “huge and toothless and grimy” tow-truck operator gets him on his way. The engine inexplicably starts right up. I couldn’t help thinking of Charon, the ferryman of Hades. As for Elizabeth, Moore leaves open the possibility that this disquieting creature has survived long enough to meet Finn.
Death and life are not easy to tease apart in Moore’s work. What I mean is not that characters die (people are always dying in fiction) but that many of them are dead even in life. Women ghost-walk through existences that are more “like life” (the title of one of Moore’s story collections) than actually lived. “A life could rhyme with a life—it could be a jostling close call that one mistook for the thing itself,” a young woman muses in “Wings.” Husbands are simulacra of themselves. In “Paper Losses,” Kit’s husband grows remote, his smile “a careless yawn,” or was it “just stuck carelessly on?” He must have a brain tumor, Kit thinks, or else he’s a space alien. “All husbands are space aliens,” a friend says.
But the commingling of life and death need not be deadening. Death can open a door to uncharted states of being—or rather, not-being. In A Gate at the Stairs, Tessie watches two toddlers play a game in which one pretends to be dead and the other tickles her back to life. Children aren’t afraid of death, Tessie thinks, because they see that “death occurred in different forms” and “in varying degrees, and that it intersected with life in all kinds of ways that were unofficial.”
Death in its unofficial forms and varying degrees is the curiously euphoric theme of I Am Homeless. If adults are afraid of death and children are not, perhaps that’s because adults think in obsolete categories. “Do you know about Schrödinger’s cat?” Lily asks Finn. He does: “He knew that it was about the dead and the living lying side by side.” Lily is Finn’s Eurydice. After many attempts, she finally succeeds in killing herself. Finn still loves her, desperately, and has come to the realm of the dead to find her. The cemetery in which she lies is “green,” however, meaning that it doesn’t have headstones, and he wanders, lost. And then Lily rises up behind him, begrimed and splotchy, already decomposing, “with a mouth full of dirt, her face still possessed of her particular radiant turbulence.” They banter in what appears to be their usual emotion-deflecting repartee. “You’re in fine fucking fettle for a dead lady,” he says. She shrugs. “I suppose death’s a kind of spectrum,” she says. “So—you aren’t deeply dead,” he says a few moments later. “I guess I’m death-adjacent,” she says. And “the unbearable, agonizing joy of it” bursts on Finn “like hot lights within him.”
“Death is the new life.” Finn made that joke to himself at the hospice, after one of Max’s young Ghanaian aides told him that in his country death is seen as a part of life. And indeed, death turns out to be life-giving. Lily’s skin bruises as if she were an old piece of fruit destined for the compost heap—Finn actually refers to her at one point as compost. The imagery of putrefying vegetation in which Moore wreathes Lily gives her the tipsy air of a goddess at a bacchanal. Clutching her shroud, silverfish in her hair, she could be a figure in a Frans Hals painting parodying fertility myths. Lily is Eve in an orchard past peak harvest: A “late fall smell of applewood burning” seems to rise from her skin.
Finn and Lily set off on a road trip, giddy with love and mournful in anticipation of loss. Their destination is gruesome, but never mind. The one-liners keep coming. “I’m sorry to be so perishable,” the rotting Lily says. Finn drives until he’s tired and comes upon a decrepit inn (“janky,” Lily says) with a proprietor who seems strangely familiar to us, though not to the weary travelers.
Jokes are Moore’s signature trope, to the dismay of critics who have called her drollery intrusive and immature—facetious, compulsive rather than disciplined, emotionally evasive. But I think Moore’s jokes are supposed to draw attention to themselves, certainly in this novel. A point is being made about comedy, and Lily, the late therapy clown, is the one who makes it. “Vesti la giubba,” she says to Finn, referring to an aria sung by a heartbroken clown in Ruggero Leoncavallo’s opera Pagliacci (“Clowns”): “Put on your costume, your powder and paint. The people are paying and want to laugh.”
[From the December 2004 issue: Lorrie Moore on Alice Munro’s fiction]
Lily’s creator is working hard to entertain, and she wants her readers to be aware of that: We should know that sardonic clowning is the only solace she can offer in a deranged world. In I Am Homeless, her characters, too, can seem to be, if not entirely in on that joke themselves, at least partially in the know. When Finn wisecracks, privately, “Death is the new life,” adding that “he hoped it would be cheaper,” he is both tweaking the Ghanaian aide’s remark and riffing on Moore’s meditations about death and life mirroring each other. Moore’s gallows humorists perform best in pairs, though, like Finn and Lily, using misery as material for quipfests. Jokes are “flotation devices on the great sea of sorrowful life,” Lily reflects, and also “the exit signs in a very dark room.”
When Lily’s offstage, as it were, the jokes abate, the room darkens, the sea of sorrow swells. Max dies, and death no longer seems to Finn like a joyous extension of life. Hell is just hell. He leaves the reception after the funeral, overcome. But then Max’s stepson rushes out and demands he come back in: “Max is here!” And indeed, as Max’s friends dance to his playlist and the fond stories told seem to fill the room, Max is conjured up, at least for a moment.
The dead die in degrees and do us the favor of haunting us for as long as they can. The bygone await resurrection in dusty objects, photographs, scrapbooks. At the inn, Finn finds a leather-bound journal containing Elizabeth’s letters and takes it home. In its pages lies the secret history of a noteworthy corpse that would seem to confirm a certain conspiracy theory about Lincoln’s assassination. What will he do with the story? What do any of us do with stories?
I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home is not an easy novel. It’s dense with allusion—perhaps one day it will come with footnotes—and its two parts don’t fit together neatly; you have to wiggle them, work them, and even then they don’t interlock. But life is like that, and death even more so. “The road was an unfurling ribbon without a gift,” Moore writes of the highway that leads Finn and Lily to their terminus. I hope I’m not making the novel sound discouraging. It’s not. Moore has made death elating, and that’s a pretty good trick.
This article appears in the July/August 2023 print edition with the headline “Lorrie Moore's Gallows Humor.”
]]>The collective dream is over. Squinting, we walk out of the playoffs and return to Life. Images linger—a giant holding a toddler in a storm of confetti. A shiny, exuberant, mantis-like man standing next to a trophy. The woman who sat courtside wearing red and white gowns. The inexplicable man-made-out-of-Sprite commercial. Duncan Robinson’s tough-guy face.
On Monday, after the great battle of Game 5, the Denver Nuggets won the NBA championship for the first time in franchise history. I was introduced to the on-court chemistry between Nuggets stars Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray during the 2020 Western Conference Finals. Though they lost that series in five games to the Lakers (who would go on to win the championship after beating the Heat), they were great fun to watch. I found Murray’s smile infectious. He seemed unselfconscious and comfortable in his body. When he was having fun, I was having fun.
In 2021, Jokić received the first of two consecutive MVP awards. Right before the playoffs that year, Murray tore his ACL, missing the playoffs and the entire next season. Jokić carried the team without him, but in the 2022 playoffs, the Nuggets lost in the first round to the Golden State Warriors (who later went on to win the championship). While Sixers center Joel Embiid won this year’s MVP, most basketball fans believe Jokić is the better player. His performance in these Finals was sensational. His passes were gorgeous, his threes looked like afterthoughts. When the camera cut to him, he often seemed displeased. He was an unstoppable force, even when he wasn’t scoring. He made it look effortless. I thought of him as Paul Bunyan.
I liked whenever the broadcast cut to a room in Serbia, Jokić’s home country, where fans stayed up till dawn, watching the Nuggets game live. In the postgame interviews before the award ceremony, it was wonderful to see Jamal Murray’s teary-eyed smile as he spoke about the long journey coming back from his injury. And even a Heat fan could appreciate Jokić’s genuine disappointment upon learning that he’d have to attend a victory parade in Denver on Thursday when he was eager to fly home to Serbia to watch his horse, Dream Catcher, race on Sunday.
Though the series was tipping decisively toward Denver, Game 5 was close. Neither team ever led by more than ten points. Jokić’s early foul trouble gave the Heat some breathing room. Even small Heat leads felt luxurious to me and I tried to appreciate them, knowing they could be erased in mere seconds. Heat leader, Jimmy Butler had little swagger during the first three quarters, exhibiting his new tendency to drive to the basket and stall, as if afraid to shoot. It felt like he was unable to jump. My husband and I began calling him Brick-foot.
After witnessing Playoff Jimmy for much of the postseason, the mystery of his dead eyes and lack of energy gnawed at me during the last game. It looked like he had signed his soul to Ursula the sea-witch. Even when the Heat were ahead, part of me was troubled, trying to figure out what had happened to him. Probably his injured ankle from the Knicks series had gotten worse. Maybe it was fractured. Internet search results implied that his father might be sick.
For a brief stretch, Playoff Jimmy returned, hitting back-to-back threes, a jump shot, and scoring five points off free throws. The Heat led by one with less than two minutes to go, but a Bruce Brown layup put the Nuggets back in the lead. Then Jimmy drove to the basket, froze, and his pass to Max Strus was picked-off by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Caldwell-Pope was fouled and hit both free throws, sealing the Heat’s fate. Then Bruce Brown did the same, and Kyle Lowry was shaking hands with Nuggets players as the clock dwindled down its last seconds.
When I think of that last game, the most positive Heat memory I have is Bam Adebayo’s dazzling performance. Bam opened the game with a steal and a dunk, and he never relented. He looked lit up, activated. He played emphatically and with desire. To steal a term from the basketball writer and poet Ted Powers, Bam had the bodyjoy.
***
I used to experience bodyjoy when dancing, but these days it happens when I’m playing doubles tennis with my friends. When it’s good, nothing gives me more glee. It’s exhilarating to see a ball fly toward me and need to act fast to hit it. When else in life does something fly towards me? I jump through the air, my racket outstretched, unsure if I will reach it. When else do I jump through the air? Sometimes I totally miss, or it brushes the side of my racket and spins off at a funny angle. Or I hit it with gusto and it sails over the net and we all watch to see if it lands in bounds. It feels good to all be watching the same thing. The best is when we rally for so long the point seems to last forever. Our shots are solidly good and comically bad and by the time it ends we are laughing and have no idea what the score is.
Earlier this week, my husband read me the poem “Playing with the Children” by the unconventional eighteenth-century Japanese monk Ryōkan Taigu. In the poem, the speaker bounces a ball to some neighborhood children and they bounce it back, singing and playing. My favorite lines of the poem are: “Caught up in the excitement of the game / We forget completely about the time.”
People have been playing ball for thousands of years. Nausicaa was playing ball with her maidens when Odysseus first saw her in Homer’s The Odyssey. Balls connect children. They connect dogs and humans. Playing releases endorphins, which often leads to happiness. Taigu’s poem ends with: “Passersby turn and questions me:/ ‘Why are you carrying on like this?’/ I just shake my head without answering/ Even if I were able to say something/ how could I explain? / Do you really want to know the meaning of it all?/ This is it! / This is it! ”
Rachel B. Glaser is the author of the story collection Pee On Water, the novel Paulina & Fran, and two books of poetry.
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Reading up on Domino’s shopping guides is like having your own personal product concierge. We do the tedious part—deep-dive research, hands-on testing, and tapping experts for advice—so all you have to do is hit “add to cart.” That’s why we call them Simply the Best.
A good desk can be a game changer. In fact, it’s hard to overemphasize the importance of having a dedicated space for deep concentration, and this (productive!) piece of furniture—whether it’s tucked in a corner or proudly announcing itself in the middle of an office—is just that. As the centerpiece of a workspace, a desk enables good work habits through its physical aspects, like lots of storage and surface area, as well as its physiological connotations, when your mind intuitively links that space with focus and productivity.
And that applies to kids, too: It’s a place where homework, learning, creating, and playing can happen. So we went on the hunt for the best kids’ desks, investigating everything from materials to color palettes, organization options to extra features. And, of course, we didn’t forget about design and overall functionality. Read on for the 10 that made our cut, from the retro to the modular.
Dimensions: 46-by-31 -by-20 inches | Storage: One drawer | Color: Natural | Additional features: Adjustable levelers
What we like:
Worth noting:
Why we chose it: This versatile, playful piece is designed to feel appropriate at just about any age.
It’s not every day that we find something that’s designed for kids but is so sophisticated and well considered that it works for adults, too—but this desk is precisely that. Its curved shape and legs evoke a feeling of fun and youthfulness, but its solid-wood construction with dovetailed joinery means that it will, in fact, likely last from childhood to adolescence (and maybe even into adulthood). It’s the perfect size for a laptop, a notebook, a cup of coffee—er, we mean milk or juice!—with a drawer that provides plenty of room for the essentials, like chargers and writing utensils. The cane panels on the sides add a bit of texture, emphasizing the curved corners, and there’s also a coordinating mirror you can purchase if you want to turn it into a vanity at some point.
Dimensions: 28-by-24-by-18 inches | Storage: No | Colors: Dark blue, rose pink, gray, cashmere, poppy red
What we like:
Worth noting:
Why we chose it: Clean lines and cute colors make this stained-wood desk a favorite.
As part of the Little Architect series, this desk is included in a kids-oriented furniture line that exudes good taste and functional design—exactly what little architects-in-training would appreciate. The collection encompasses a table, chairs, bench, and desk available in five different colors of stained solid ash so that you and your budding designer can mix and match as you wish. The raised bar at the back of the desk props up books, and the widely spaced legs can accommodate both a small bench and a chair. We love that it has the benefits and durability of natural wood with the fun color palette of painted furniture.
Dimensions: 47-by-29.5-by-29 inches | Storage: None | Color: Natural and white | Additional features: Doubles as a crafting or gaming table
What we like:
Worth noting:
Why we chose it: Tap this solid surface for more than homework—it’s big enough for all your little one’s art endeavors.
While this piece is technically a small dining table (it comfortably seats two to four adults), we can easily see this minimalist style working well as a desk. Take advantage of the extra surface area by adding filing folders or other tabletop organizers for everything from pencils and pens to paints in an easy-to-see, easy-to-reach vicinity. It also means that when your kiddo invites a friend over, they can sit together to tackle the night’s assignment before breaking out the coloring books or board games. We also love that this is made with real, solid wood and a ceramic-like white top that’s a breeze to keep clean. “I was surprised how nice the table is, as the picture does not do it justice. The thin legs make it look more elegant,” one shopper writes. Reviewers also confirm it comes together in less than 10 minutes, and all you need is the tools it ships with.
Dimensions: 30-by-38-by-23 inches | Storage: Two drawers | Colors: Mint/natural and white/natural | Height adjustable: No | Additional features: Matching stool
What we like:
Worth noting:
Why we chose it: Two-tone design plus a two-piece set equals an easy, Scandi-inspired children’s workspace.
Whimsical and compact in design, this set comprises a desk and matching four-legged stool that tucks right under for minimal impact on a small space. The legs of the desk and stool are solid pine, and both are topped with a contrasting laminated MDF in a crisp white or mint green finish. A single funky leg on the stool is carved with three orbs and finished with a metal kickplate, a playful reminder that it’s designed for kids. We’re also a fan of the two colorways, which are gender-neutral and would work in just about any space. Two drawers make it easy to stash away pencils, pens, markers, and other essentials for getting into the creative spirit.
Dimensions: 30-by-41-by-23 inches| Storage: None | Colors: Insignia blue and white | Additional features: Floor glides
What we like:
Worth noting:
Why we chose it: Simple, effortless, and durable: This metal desk hits all three marks.
Whether it’s for reading, working, scribbling, or crafting, it is hard to go wrong with this simple metal desk from Target’s Pillowfort collection, which is specifically designed for children. The desk embraces simplicity and mess-free living, essentially consisting of three elements: a sizable rectangular desktop and two U-shaped metal legs. The entire desk is made from metal and painted a glossy metallic finish in either white or a deep, moody blue that could bring a little bit of color and flair to a room or work as a neutral. The desk doesn’t have its own storage, but a matching chair with similar clean lines can be purchased to complete the set.
Dimensions: 42-by-21-by-30 inches | Storage: Two large drawers and shelves | Color: White | Additional features: Integrated corkboard, and built-in outlets
What we like:
Worth noting:
Why we chose it: Whether on its own or paired with matching leaning shelves, this desk is a great solution for spaces large and small.
Classic in form and clever in its storage options and ability to be arranged in multiples, this desk makes room for optimal studying and concentrating. We love how it incorporates three types of display and storage: two sliding drawers for notebooks, pens, pencils, and smaller items; a raised shelf for books, note cards, and more; and a corkboard that serves as the perfect hanging spot for a calendar, photos, notes, and artwork. The desk works well on its own, since its height makes it a natural focal point of the space; it also shines when paired with matching shelving units, cabinets, or combined with other desks for multiple kids.
Dimensions: 21-by-22-by-16 inches | Storage: One front drawer | Colors: Black, walnut, gray, black and white, maple and silver | Additional features: Pencil tray
What we like:
Worth noting:
Why we chose it: Color us happy with this vintage-inspired desk.
Few things are as eye-catching and joy inspiring as carefully chosen, vintage-inspired colors, and that’s why we fell in love with this piece that could easily be mistaken for the very desks we all used in elementary school. It’s serving major vintage vibes, but modern practicality, outfitted with an open drawer for easy-to-reach storage. One shopper shares they purchased the same unit years ago, and it sill looks good as new. Others have tapped it to create a homeschool set up for multiple kids. Its compact size and curvy legs mean it’s ideal in small spaces, and the adjustable heights means it’s suitable for students of all ages.
Dimensions: 30-by-50-by-20 inches | Storage: One front drawer | Color: Natural | Additional features: Three hooks, raised back
What we like:
Worth noting:
Why we chose it: Cute as a button and practical, to boot, this desk plays up its plywood construction with fun details and exposed edges.
It’s all about the details with this plywood desk from Polish design brand Nuki, which specializes in children’s furniture—and it shows. The desk boasts a large surface area with plenty of space for spreading out, but thanks to features like a raised back, papers and pens will stay put (instead of finding themselves on the floor). The asymmetric design incorporates three handy plywood hooks on the left side and an open rectangle on the right side for additional hanging, and we love how the exposed edges show off the plywood construction. The curved corners of the drawer and legs make it feel kid-appropriate and safe, and a neutral wood tone means it works with a range of color palettes.
Dimensions: 29-by-29-by-20 inches | Storage: One front drawer | Color: White | Additional features: Cord cutout
What we like:
Worth noting:
Why we chose it: A fit for even the smallest spaces, this desk is flexible and tech-friendly.
A desktop covered with cables and wires will be a thing of the past when you introduce this tidy, fun-size desk from IKEA’s Micke line. Available in a clean white color, the piece is tiny but effective: It incorporates a front drawer that comprises the width of the desk, a partially open side leg, and a cable outlet at the back for keeping wires and cords out of the way. The asymmetrical legs (one solid, one open) can be mounted on either side of the desk, and thanks to a finished back, the desk could sit comfortably against a wall or smack in the middle of a room. Smaller details like drawer stops that prevent the drawer from being pulled out too far and an easy, straightforward installation (even by IKEA standards!) are other elements we appreciate.
Dimensions: 28-by-27-by-27 inches (39 inches high with hutch) | Storage: Movable hutch and shelves | Color: White | Additional features: Cord cutout
What we like:
Worth noting:
Why we chose it: An empty nook quickly becomes a hub of productivity with this desk specifically designed to fit in corners.
Nearly triangular in shape, this white desk was created to make the most out of a tight corner—and turn it into a study space with plenty of storage. We like the combination of flexibility and shelving here, thanks to a little hutch that provides four cubby spaces (one large, three small) and can be mounted to either the right or the left side. A handy cable outlet is centered at the back of the desk, so your cords and cables can be bundled no matter what side the shelves are on.
Dimensions: 30-by-40 inches | Storage: Five shelves | Color: Midnight blue | Additional features: Matching, bench-syle seat
What we like:
Worth noting:
Why we chose it: A compact catch-all for all your kids’ supplies.
Constructed from baltic birch, this wooden desk and bench combo is designed to bring order to unruly art and school supplies that are likely overflowing elsewhere. Take advantage instead of the five built-in storage shelves that are totally adjustable based on your child’s needs and corral tall paintbrushes, scissors, or crayons. Each of these desks are made by hand in Northwest Connecticut with non-toxic paint and glue that’ll last beyond the toddler and perhaps even the teen years. While it definitely skews on the pricier side, it also ships with a matching, two-seater bench that easily slides in to take up less space when not in use.
Here at Domino, design and aesthetics always play an important part in our decision-making. In fact, when we vetted our selections for the best kids’ desks, design and aesthetics were just as important as the practical side of things such as materials, storage, dimensions, and proportions. Special features that make working easier and more flexible, like cord cutouts or integrated shelving and hooks, were also top of mind for us. And experts, from parenting and education experts to interior and furniture designers, agree: It’s not form over function, but instead form and function when it comes to the best workspaces for children.
“When looking for a kids’ desk, there are a few things I consider: One, they’re going to grow, and two, it’s going to get messy,” says Emily Yeates, principal designer at interior design firm Urban Revival. With that in mind, she advises that you’ll want to pick something that is durable and age-appropriate, both in terms of the height of the desk and materials and special design features. A desk for a 3-year-old might not need, say, a cable cutout for a laptop charger, but a pencil holder and an easy-to-clean surface are key. On the other hand, if you’re shopping for a child who is about to enter middle school (and maybe also a growth spurt!), look for a desk that could pass as an adult version in size and maybe even design, with more sophisticated materials or color palettes. Bonus point: It will make them feel a little more grown-up (and maybe even inspire some very serious study sessions).
While most desks for adults are designed at a standard height range of around 28 to 30 inches, kids’ desks can range from significantly shorter than that (for desks designed for younger kids) to desks right in that range. Know that if you’re hoping for a desk that will grow—literally—at pace with your child, you’ll want a full-height desk from the beginning, or one with adjustable legs or extendable leaves for more workspace. In terms of surface area, make sure that you’ve figured out how your child will be working. Is the desk mainly for arts and crafts, or does it need to fit a computer, notebook, and maybe even a caffeinated beverage for late-night paper writing?
Everyone we spoke with agreed: Storage is key. At least one drawer is desirable, notes Malka Helft of Think Chic Interiors, but the more, the better. Interior designer Mary Beth Christopher of MBC Interior Design explains that plenty of storage is particularly important if the bedroom is on the smaller side. “A desk is a great place to tuck extra things away and keep them off the floor,” she explains. “School and art supplies can be stored in drawers, so the work surface stays clean, making it a distraction-free zone.”
While our experts cited a range of materials for their favorites, from easy-to-clean laminate to hearty hardwoods and durable metal, they were in agreement about what not to use. Surfaces like leather or glass are easily damaged or scratched and should be off-limits, as should textured desk surfaces that won’t allow for easy writing. Noted Australian children’s furniture designer Sally Dominguez also cautions against desks made of melamine products, which can contain formaldehyde. When in doubt, she recommends going for natural materials.
How to put a desk together isn’t going to be the first thing that comes to mind when you’re shopping, but it’s an important point to consider. Some of the best kids’ desks arrive flat-packed in a single box or two and can be put together in a matter of minutes, while others (particularly those that feature drawers) can be more complex and require some elbow grease or handiness.
Our experts were divided on this, saying that both storage and a cutout for cables and cords were both essential. “Whether it is a desk with drawers, wall-mounted folders, a supply caddy, or a few glass ball jars for their pens and pencils, it’s important to give kids a place for all of their school supplies to live,” says Shawna Percival of Styleberry Creative Interiors. On a similar note, keeping visual clutter from various cords and cables for electronics or even lighting in check can, like organized storage, help kids concentrate and keep them on task.
Looking to go one step further? “Find a desk with a built-in outlet/charging station. Many desks now come with this feature and it is definitely a bonus, since so many kids are using technology to complete and submit their work,” says Kristin Bartone, creative director and principal of Bartone Interiors.
The ideal location for a kids’ desk depends on the child’s age and, to an extent, the temperament and ages of siblings. “If you have elementary school–age children, we recommend placing the desk in a communal space like a first-floor playroom or den,” says Tracy Morris of Tracy Morris Design. The central location in the house makes for easy responses to the many homework questions at this age. On the other hand, if you have junior high– or high school–age children, “placing their desks in their rooms is the best bet,” recommends Morris. “They can have quiet for concentrated work, and if there are Zoom classes, it will not drive the rest of the family crazy,” she adds.
But regardless of the room you choose, consider putting the desk as close to the light and fresh air (ideally a window), notes Sara Mosele of Sara Mosele Interiors. When possible, it’s also a good idea to place the desk in a space or zone of a room that’s separate from the bed or play area, so that there’s a clear spatial (and mental!) separation between functions, she recommends.
Most manufacturers of kids’ desks are familiar with their targeted user, so durable, easy-to-clean surfaces abound. The majority of desks, whether they’re laminate, wood, or metal, can be wiped down with a soft, damp cloth. Got some particularly stubborn “art”? It might be time to pull out the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, but be sure to clean a test area first to check for colorfastness. Looking for a more natural solution? Karen Aronian, Ed.D., a parenting and education expert, recommends cleaning off markings and grime with a vinegar-and-water solution, followed by a spritz of alcohol to remove germs and stains. And if all else fails, “you can always repaint a marked-up desk,” she says. “However, you might just want to hold onto the graffiti, marks, and stickers that celebrate a child’s development.”
When it comes to drawers, our experts note that it’s not so much the number of drawers that’s important; it’s proportions and dimensions. “If you’re opting for a smaller desk, shallow drawers are the best use of storage for kids,” says Sarah Sain, designer for family-run renovation company Sain Homes. Shallow drawers are ideal for storing laptops, pens or pencils, and other creative tools without having them get lost in deep, seemingly bottomless drawers that inevitably fill up with all sorts of toys, games, markers, and maybe even the odd snack or two.
In an ideal world, all kids’ desks would be height adjustable to accommodate them as they (and their piles of homework) grow. However, the reality is that most aren’t height adjustable. Many may come with adjustable levelers that help keep the desk from that ever-frustrating wobble on uneven floors, but don’t expect them to be able to be lowered or raised significantly unless that’s clearly stated as a major feature.
When it comes to picking out the best desk for your child, the name of the game is storage and style. Whether you’re giving your kid their first workspace as they start school or purchasing what may be their last desk at home (sad face), providing them with their own workspace is a great way to encourage good study habits. Here, we’ve done the legwork to prove that the best kids’ desks not only provide the physical location for work to be done—they can also inspire creativity, house countless toys and books, and even brighten a room thanks to their thoughtful and fun design.
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]]>We get the appeal of a weekly episodic rollout. There’s a little time to breathe between episodes, to let the story marinate, to build up anticipation. That all sounds good, but it crucially requires one thing we don’t like to do: wait.
Enter the binge. A beautiful gift from the 21st century to us television lovers who cannot and will not be told to take a break in between episodes, thank you very much. We are all Veruca Salt: We want the world, and we want it now. Thankfully, Netflix is there for us. For your viewing pleasure, and on your own schedule, here are the best shows to binge on Netflix, from period dramas to Australian comedies and everything in between. Consume at your leisure!
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, is a lavish, ebullient triumph, and further evidence that Shonda Rhimes just doesn't miss. Delving into the personal history of the tragic, impulsive, and steely queen we know and love from Bridgerton Seasons 1 and 2, we watch a young girl transform into a formidable monarch — and fall in love along the way. The costumes are sumptuous, the drama juicy, and the romance slow-burning. It checks all the boxes while still making space for a thread of sadness that lends gravitas and complexity to the entire Bridgerton world. An ambitious and beautiful show that fully earns its shining crown as Netflix's newest darling.* — Kristina Grosspietsch, Freelance Contributing Writer
How to watch: Queen Charlotte is now streaming on Netflix.
One of Netflix’s biggest hits of 2023, The Diplomat is a gripping political thriller with a dysfunctional marriage at its core. Keri Russell is Kate Wyler, a career diplomat who is unexpectedly appointed as the new U.S. ambassador to England after a British warship is attacked. Her husband (a magnetic Rufus Sewell) is a former ambassador with a splashy track record and an inability to keep his fingers out of the political pie. With the stakes growing higher each episode, the Wylers attempt to maintain peace, both globally and in their marriage.
The Diplomat is a riveting, refined drama that manages to make international diplomacy thrilling. The performances here are particularly skilled, with its characters each conveying multiple layers of meaning in a single glance. There’s a reason it’s been at the top of streaming charts for weeks — plus, a second season is already in the works.* — K.G.
How to watch: The Diplomat is now streaming on Netflix.
Liv Healy (Celeste Barber) is a New York-based Australian food writer who doggedly sticks to her mantra: Seize the day. To Liv, that means partying and living large every second she can. But when she collapses after a fast-paced weekend back in Sydney, she's forced to evaluate her health — or risk losing her American green card and getting trapped in Australia with her family but without her career. Based on the hybrid memoir by Brigid Delaney (who co-created the series with Benjamin Law), Wellmania is a smart, funny, super charming exploration of grief, wellness, and what it means to be OK. A lovely, complex, hilarious watch.* — K.G.
How to watch: Wellmania is now streaming on Netflix.
Looking for more Pedro Pascal in your life? The internet’s newest crush has been in high demand since his star turns in The Mandalorian and The Last of Us. But before all the “daddy” jokes, Pedro was making a name for himself playing real-life DEA agent Javier Peña in the gripping crime drama Narcos.
Peña and his partner, Stephen Murphy (Boyd Holbrook), work alongside Colombian authorities to take down Pablo Escobar (played with panache by Wagner Moura) and stop the flow of cocaine into the United States. It’s a dark and tense watch that doesn’t shy away from its true-to-life commitment, no matter how brutal. (Peña himself even served as a consultant for the series!) The production value alone will have you hooked, but the writing is smart, the pacing is seductive, and the story is undeniable. — K.G.
How to watch: Narcos is now streaming on Netflix.
No one expected a show based on a 20-year-old video game to be anything special, but when Netflix's League of Legends TV show Arcane debuted, it straight-up blew everybody out of the water. With breathtaking animation, expansive worldbuilding, and riveting action sequences, Arcane is a wonder to watch — and we haven’t even gotten to the shockingly moving plot yet.
The city of Piltover is divided between the haves and the have nots, the latter all corralled and forgotten in an underground section of the metropolis, Zaun. There, sisters Violet and Jinx and their misfit crew have scraped by on petty thefts and loyalty to each other. But as time goes on and new technology proliferates in Piltover and Zaun, the sisters find themselves on opposite sides of a conflict years in the making. Arcane tells a gripping story of family and love, but also of generational cycles of violence and the ramifications of systemic inequality. It’s captivating, beautiful, imaginative, and stirring — and the soundtrack absolutely slaps. A modern masterpiece. — K.G.
How to watch: Arcane is now streaming on Netflix.
Zoe Saldaña has spent much of the last few years in green makeup (for Guardians of the Galaxy) or in a motion capture suit (for Avatar). But in this beautiful, heart-wrenching adaptation of Tembi Locke’s memoir, Zoe Saldaña is just a human in love — and it is captivating.
As Amy, Saldaña travels to Florence to study art against her father’s advice. There she meets Lino, Eugenio Mastrandrea in an electric and swoon-worthy performance as a passionate Sicilian chef who is all in on Amy with his first glance. After a few false starts, a profoundly moving romance ensues, and we watch the pair’s love grow and evolve as life throws challenges their way. From Scratch is enthralling in its intensity, boasts a stellar cast (Danielle Deadwyler, Keith David, Giacomo Gianniotti, and more), and luxuriates in its gorgeous shots of food. You will fall in love with this couple and simply will not be able to stop watching or move on with your life until you find out how their story ends.* — K.G.
How to watch: From Scratch is now streaming on Netflix.
The year is 1940. France has been invaded by Germany, and all-out war is imminent. But hope remains at the Hotel Splendide in Marseille, where a scrappy, ambitious org called the Emergency Rescue Committee is corralling all its resources, legal and…not so legal, to evacuate artists, writers, and thinkers wanted by the Nazi Party. Led by Varian Fry (Cory Michael Smith), Jayne Gold (Gillian Jacobs), and Albert Hirshmann (Lucas Englander), the ERC refuses to abandon their mission, even as the stakes grow ever higher for them and their charges.
This stylish and captivating drama is based on a remarkable true story. The Emergency Rescue Committee helped find safe passage for Hannah Arendt, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Marc Chagall, and countless other dissenters wanted for the audacity of their ideas. Created by Anna Winger (Unorthodox) and Daniel Hendler, and adapted from Julie Orringer’s original historical fiction novel The Flight Portfolio, Transatlantic is an affecting and scenic mini-series with a sensational international cast.* — K.G.
How to watch: Transatlantic is now streaming on Netflix.
Coming-of-age comedies are a dime a dozen, but we’ve never seen one quite like Never Have I Ever. For starters, it’s the rare high school show with an Indian-American girl as its protagonist (Devi, played by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan). For another, it’s narrated by tennis legend John McEnroe, of all freaking people. For yet another, underneath all the uproariously teen hijinks, it turns out to be a sensitive exploration of guilt and grief. We laughed, we cried, we came around on poor little rich boy Ben, we wondered if Devi was kind of a terrible person (she is!), and we loved her all the more for it.* — Angie Han, Former Deputy Entertainment Editor
How to watch: Never Have I Ever is now streaming on Netflix.
Gripping, labyrinthine, and at times disarmingly sweet, Netflix’s spy action-thriller series The Night Agent is an immediate hit. Gabriel Basso is Peter Sutherland, an FBI Agent who mans a phone in the basement of the White House that never rings — until the one night that it does. In helping the person on the other end, Peter suddenly finds himself in the middle of a massive conspiracy, unsure of who he can trust. Based on Michael Quirk’s novel of the same name, The Night Agent feels like Netflix’s 24. It’s a fast-paced, breathless suspense show with a few somewhat implausible plot points that you’ll soon forgive because of its excellent and exhilarating action sequences.* — K.G.
How to watch: The Night Agent is now streaming on Netflix.
Amy Lau (Ali Wong) and Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) both spend a lot of energy taking shit from other people, so when the two strangers almost get into a car accident in the parking lot, something snaps in both of them. They're not letting this one go. Beef is a dark, dark comedy about an escalating series of acts of revenge. And as the characters try hard to mess with the other's life, they end up learning more about each other in the process. It's a provocative, daring social satire that's unlike anything else out there.* — K.G.
How to watch: Beef is streaming on Netflix.
If you missed this impossibly charming British show, please drop everything you’re doing and get to Netflix as quickly as possible. You don’t want to spend another second without this sweet love story in your life! Written by Alice Oseman, adapted from her very popular graphic novel series of the same name, Heartstopper follows an anxious gay high school student, Charlie, who strikes up an unlikely friendship with Nick, a charismatic, seemingly straight rugby player at his school. The two are sat next to each other at the beginning of the semester, and they quickly become inseparable. They’re just friends… Or are they?
Heartstopper is a total triumph. The cast is magnetic, the story is fresh, and the love will leave you feeling warm and bubbly for the rest of the day. Seriously, why aren’t you watching this yet?!* — K.G.
How to watch: Heartstopper is now streaming on Netflix.
One part mystery, one part supernatural show, and one part teen drama, Wednesday was an undeniable 2022 breakout hit. The internet was abuzz with star Jenna Ortega’s take on the classic Addams family character, and it’s no wonder — Wednesday is a delight!
After getting kicked out of yet another high school, Wednesday is sent by her parents (Luis Guzmán and Catherine Zeta-Jones, having a ball as Gomez and Morticia Addams) to their old alma mater, Nevermore Academy. There, Wednesday meets werewolves, gorgons, and impossibly broody teens — and finds herself at the center of a complex murder mystery that threatens to engulf the school in scandal. It’s soapy, supernatural teen fun peppered with fantastic characters and plot twists to spare.* — K.G.
How to watch: Wednesday is now streaming on Netflix.
Do you want your period romances to have a little less prestige and a little more sex? Shonda Rhimes is here for you. In Regency-era London, the titular Bridgerton family has a plethora of kids approaching marrying age. Season 1 follows the eldest daughter Daphne’s debut and subsequent love story, while Season 2 sees her brother Anthony (An absolute cad! A veritable rake!) attempt to find himself a suitable wife. All these matches happen under the watchful, indomitable eye of Queen Charlotte, who herself earned a spectacular spinoff in 2023, and the commentary of anonymous gossip columnist Lady Whistledown.
Based on Julia Quinn’s popular novels, Bridgerton has all the trappings of a sweeping period romance: suppressed emotions, longing glances, oppressive societal expectations, gorgeous costumes, and dance scenes dripping with hidden meaning. But it adds to the mix a refreshingly modern sexual intimacy and a cheerful willingness to pander — and that’s what makes it so completely irresistible. — K.G.
How to watch: Bridgerton is now streaming on Netflix.
Combine zombie outbreak with teen drama and you've got All of Us Are Dead. Based on the webtoon by Joo Dong-geun, the South Korean series was written by Chun Sung-Il, directed by Lee Jae-kyoo and Kim Nam-su, and includes superb cinematography from Park Se-seung. The series takes place during a pretty damn intense zombie apocalypse that emerges from Hyosan High School, wherein students balance fighting off their former classmates with...their crushes.* — Shannon Connellan, UK Editor
How to watch: All of Us Are Dead is now streaming on Netflix.
If you’re still grumbling to yourself about the last season of Game of Thrones and need a new medieval series to cleanse your palate, The Last Kingdom will certainly do the trick. Adapted from Bernard Cornwell’s historical fiction novels The Saxon Series, The Last Kingdom concerns itself in the tumultuous period of Britain’s past when the Vikings and the Anglo-Saxons were in constant conflict for territory. Uhtred of Bebbanburg (Alexander Dreymon) is an Anglo-Saxon warrior who, as a boy, was ripped from his ancestral home and raised by Danes. Because of his unique position occupying both cultures, and his impressive battle prowess, Uhtred finds himself a key player in King Alfred’s quest to unite the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
With a sparkling cast of fresh faces (David Dawson, Eliza Butterworth, and Millie Brady, to name a few), thrilling battle sequences, and an endless parade of fantastic Viking braids, this exciting investigation of civility, savagery, and honor will leave you energized and ready for more. To Bebbanburg!!!* — K.G.
How to watch: The Last Kingdom is now streaming on Netflix.
Liz Feldman’s Dead to Me is a genre-defying sensation. Is it a crime show, a buddy comedy, or a mystery? Folks, this series is all that and more. It’s unapologetically focused on women’s stories; its main characters are all over 40; and it times out at 30 minutes an episode. That’s what we in the biz call “a triumph.”
Christina Applegate found a fantastic role in Jen, an angry and sarcastic recent widow who is getting precisely nothing out of her SoCal grief group — until she meets the impossibly nice Judy (a criminally charming Linda Cardellini). Judy and Jen become fast friends, but how much does Jen really know about her new companion? With all its mystery, murder, and subterfuge, Dead to Me remains a funny and optimistic watch. Thanks to the bubbly chemistry of the two leads and an inspired casting of James Marsden, Dead to Me goes down like a nice glass of wine, which Jen and Judy consume in abundance.* — K.G.
How to watch: Dead to Me is now streaming on Netflix.
Set in a rich fantasy world, The Dragon Prince is a fun and adventurous epic full of dragons, magic, and evil courtiers. The story centers around a young, idealistic human prince, his caring half-brother, and a playful elf-assassin, all brought together by a quest to heal the rift between their two peoples. They and their friends are deeply relatable, in part because the show allows them to make mistakes and change their minds. It’s certainly an achievement for a cartoon to explore both the nuances of the human condition and deliver a sweeping magical set-piece in under 30 minutes, but The Dragon Prince does so with grace — and a whole lot of whimsical jokes.
Need another reason to watch? The Dragon Prince’s cast of characters features a full spectrum of skin color, sexual orientation, and physical ability, and all are treated with simple, almost mundane respect by those around them. This casual, wholehearted inclusion of under-represented groups elevates The Dragon Prince from a great show to an exceptional show, and one of the few in the fantasy genre to get diversity right. — K.G.
How to watch: The Dragon Prince: Mystery of Aaravos is now streaming on Netflix.
Created by Ronan Bennett, Top Boy first aired in the UK from 2011 to 2013, originally set in the fictional Summerhouse public housing estate in East London, and featuring drug dealers Dushane and Sully (Ashley Walters and Kane Robinson). Drake revived the show for Netflix alongside Adel Nur, Maverick Carter, and Jamal Henderson in 2019, with Walters and Robinson returning to their roles, and Lover's Rock star Micheal Ward joining as new gang leader Jamie.
This meaty drama, which has been compared to HBO’s The Wire, is startlingly grounded, anchored by a young, talented cast that radiates with vulnerability. This is television at its best.* — K.G.
How to watch: Top Boy is now streaming on Netflix.
Thanks to a nail-biting premise and life-or-death stakes, it's almost impossible not to binge the record-breaking phenomenon Squid Game in one or two sittings.
The 456 participants in the titular Squid Game are all in financial trouble and have agreed to play children's games in exchange for money. The catch? If they lose, they die. Squid Game leans fully into the brutality of its premise, contrasting pastel playground aesthetics with tragedy and gore. However, the show also makes time for plenty of substance by fleshing out the relationships between its leads and interrogating the royally messed-up circumstances that led to each player ending up in this position.* — Belen Edwards, Entertainment Reporter
How to watch: Squid Game is now streaming on Netflix.
Love post-apocalyptic science fiction, but wish it could be a little bit cuter? Then Sweet Tooth is the show for you. At the same time that a pandemic wipes out a huge chunk of the population, human babies start randomly being born with various animal features (monkey tails, elephant trunks, you name it!). Humanity, unsurprisingly, does not respond well to these new hybrids, ostracizing and hunting them into hiding. Enter Gus (Christian Convery), a sweet little boy with deer antlers on a journey to find his mother, under the reluctant, begrudging care of Big Man (Nonso Anozie).
Sweet Tooth is both lovely and dark, with some twisted revelations beneath that childlike wonder that will leave you reeling. It's kind of like The Last of Us, but, you know…sweeter.* — K.G.
How to watch: Sweet Tooth is now streaming on Netflix.
Developed by two drama veterans, Greg Berlanti (Dawson's Creek, Everwood, Riverdale) and Sera Gamble (The Magicians, Supernatural), You was bound to be a hit. Adapted from Caroline Kepnes' novels, the thriller series follows Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley), a New York bookstore manager who becomes obsessed with an aspiring writer. Obsession evolves to stalking evolves to… Well, we can’t tell you. You have to watch and find out! It’s a darkly magnetic show that deconstructs romantic comedy tropes and deeply investigates the roots of violent behavior. Disturbing and superb.* — K.G.
How to watch: You is now streaming on Netflix.
Set in the '90s in Northern Ireland during the Troubles (sectarian conflict between nationalists and unionists), Derry Girls follows teenagers Erin, Clare, Michelle, and Orla, who attend Our Lady Immaculate convent school in the town of Derry. And yes, there's James, too.
Created and written by Lisa McGee, who grew up in Derry, the show examines what daily life during the Troubles was like, and presents a fresh, stereotype-shaking portrayal of Northern Irish women. As Mashable's Rachel Thompson writes, "An inaccurate — and extremely irritating — TV and film stereotype is doing a disservice to the women of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Often, in TV and films, female characters from the island of Ireland are portrayed as victims. But Derry Girls...is turning that tired-out trope on its head." Plus, the soundtrack is packed with '90s nostalgia.* — S.C., R.T.
How to watch: Derry Girls is now streaming on Netflix.
Created by Molly Smith Metzler and adapted from Stephanie Land’s bestselling memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive, Maid is an absolute gut punch that will likely make you cry more than once. Margaret Qualley is excellent as Alex, a young woman struggling to leave an abusive relationship while continuing to care for her toddler daughter; she’s paired with her real-life mother Andie McDowell, who is fantastic as Alex’s well-meaning but unreliable mom.
We follow Alex’s agonizing journey, from navigating a women’s shelter to facing the baffling catch-22’s of the American welfare system (she can’t get state-sponsored child care without a job, but she can’t get a job without child care), and more. It’s a powerful meditation on perseverance, as well as a brutal examination of how incredibly short the United States falls in supporting those struggling to survive.* — K.G.
How to watch: Maid is now streaming on Netflix.
Awkward teen Otis Milburn’s (Asa Butterfield) mother Jean (Gillian Anderson) is a sex therapist, so he follows in her footsteps and sets up a sex therapy clinic at his high school with the rebellious and independent Maeve (Emma Mackey). Students from all over the social hierarchy show up to get advice on intimacy, their relationships, and everything in between. It’s a refreshingly sex-positive and cringe-free show that leaves space for each character, Otis included, to figure themselves out at their own pace. Created by Laurie Nunn, Sex Education has been a bona fide launching pad for its cast, which is sparkling: Ncuti Gatwa, Connor Swindells, Aimee Lou Wood, Simone Ashley, and more. — K.G.
How to watch: Sex Education is now streaming on Netflix.
The year is 1853, and Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria needs a wife! The headstrong Elisabeth "Sisi" of Bavaria accompanies her demure sister Helene to meet Franz, as Helene has been groomed to wed the young monarch. Much to everyone’s surprise, Franz is completely taken with Sisi’s rebellious, self-assured, and unpredictable nature — but will the traditional empire fall for her as well?
The Empress is a sumptuous German period drama, full of ornate costumes, courtly maneuvering, and longing glances from opposite sides of a perfectly manicured garden. Don’t let the subtitles hold you back: This addicting, swoon-worthy love story was one of the most popular non-English series of 2022.* — K.G.
How to watch: The Empress is now streaming on Netflix.
The most culturally significant project Netflix released in 2019, Ava DuVernay's When They See Us revisits the case of the Central Park Five in excruciating detail. Examining the wrongful convictions of five Black and Latino men — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise — for rape in 1989 (for which they would be exonerated over a decade later), this poignant true-crime miniseries offers a heart-wrenching look at the ongoing flaws in our justice system. A powerful watch, When They See Us highlights the insidious biases that plague our society and the vulnerable people put at risk.* — Alison Foreman, Entertainment Reporte
How to watch: When They See Us is now streaming on Netflix.
Based on the comic book illustrated by Gabriel Bá and written by Gerard Way (of My Chemical Romance fame!), The Umbrella Academy is a highly stylized, darkly funny superhero series about seven kids with powers and the eccentric billionaire who tried to make them all into both a family and a crime-fighting team (the titular Umbrella Academy). Things…didn’t go so great on either front. Years after they’ve all gone their separate ways, the dysfunctional group reconvenes at their father’s unexpected funeral and discovers there’s more to his mysterious death than meets the eye. Specifically, the impending apocalypse.
The Umbrella Academy is splashy, geeky, and exciting, with a truly fantastic cast (Elliot Page, Kate Walsh, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher, Mary J. Blige, Cameron Britton, John Magaro, Adam Godley, Colm Feore — the list goes on!) that brings a grounded layer of emotion to this magnetic and imaginative ride. — K.G.
How to watch: The Umbrella Academy is now streaming on Netflix.
Inspired by Shirley Jackson’s novel of the same name, The Haunting of Hill House is a remarkable feat of both horror and drama, as its cast of characters are forced to reckon with ghosts both literal and figurative. Alternating between past and present, the show explores the Crain family’s paranormal experiences at their childhood home, and all the ways the house's ghosts followed them into adulthood. A bundle of plot twists, Easter eggs, and perfectly executed jump scares, The Haunting of Hill House is an exploration of fright as much as it is of feeling, with a supernatural story grounded in the complexities of family.* — Yasmeen Hamadeh, Freelance Contributing Writer
How to watch: The Haunting of Hill House is now streaming on Netflix.
Cillian Murphy is captivating as Tommy Shelby, troubled head of the Birmingham gang the Peaky Blinders, known for sticking razors in their caps and slitting throats with them. He’s a thinker, and his elaborate plans, be they for money, family, or revenge, will always keep you gasping. As will the very real trauma Tommy and his brother silently shoulder from their horrific experience as trench diggers in WWI.
Peaky Blinders is a brutal, violent, and deeply affecting show with a raucous soundtrack and a fantastic cast (RIP Helen McCrory). It will swallow you whole with its authenticity and stunning cinematography. You’ll be shocked by how quickly you’ll find yourself rooting for these murderers, smugglers, and thieves — proof positive of the elegant writing behind each episode of this absolutely superb series.* — K.G.
How to watch: Peaky Blinders is now streaming on Netflix.
Taylor Swift's least favorite show about a dysfunctional mother-daughter duo, Ginny & Georgia, is back for another insane season!!! Brianne Howey is Georgia, the magnetic and impulsive 30-year-old mother of teenage Ginny (Antonia Gentry), who is quiet and serious. (There's a younger brother too, but he's not in the title so we don't care about him.) It's like Gilmore Girls, if the Gilmore Girls writers swore a solemn vow to never reject a pitch, no matter how unreasonable. What starts as a soapy family drama quickly expands to include motorcycle gangs, identity theft, fraud, murder, and more! Anything is possible in Ginny & Georgia, and Season 2 is no exception. Beautiful, perfect nonsense. There's nothing like it.* — K.G.
How to watch: Ginny & Georgia is now streaming on Netflix.
Russian Doll gets as close to a perfect Netflix binge watch as possible.
It’s short, with eight 30-minute episodes forming its first season. It’s bold, covering themes of mortality, trauma, and human connection against the backdrop of New York’s East Village. And it’s flat-out hilarious to boot. Natasha Lyonne co-created and starred as Nadia, a woman who becomes trapped in a time loop after dying on her 36th birthday. Nadia’s Groundhog Day–esque adventure becomes increasingly complex as the series progresses and she races against the loop to discover why she can’t stop dying — and what her loop has to do with Alan, an alleged stranger who’s experiencing the exact same cycle.* — Alexis Nedd, Senior Entertainment Reporter
How to watch: Russian Doll is now streaming on Netflix.
Few cooking competitions are as comforting — or as compulsively watchable — as The Great British Baking Show, which is full of challenging bakes, lovable contestants, and so, so many innuendos. What really makes The Great British Baking Show special are the contestants, who are all gifted amateur bakers. Once you see the kinds of elaborate concoctions they’re able to whip up, you'll be tearing through season after season, rooting for everyone you see and marveling at their scrumptious works. It won't be long before you're jumping to put on an apron and get baking yourself. Just be sure to avoid the dreaded soggy bottoms.* — Belen Edwards, Entertainment Fellow
How to watch: The Great British Baking Show is now streaming on Netflix.
Haven't seen Avatar: The Last Airbender yet? Consider this a sign to binge it immediately. Avatar is an absolute banger of a series, with enough jaw-dropping fight scenes, memorable characters, and meme-able moments to satisfy all your TV needs. I dare you not to fall in love with Aang and his friends, or sympathize with Zuko, or recite the show's iconic opening every time you watch a new episode.
On top of all its awesomeness, Avatar is full of solid life lessons and sage advice, mostly coming from World's Best TV Father Figure Uncle Iroh. You'll feel just as comforted watching this show as you'll feel floored by its epic storyline. And once you're done bingeing Avatar, check out its sequel series, The Legend of Korra (another absolute banger), also streaming on Netflix. — B.E.
How to watch: Avatar: The Last Airbender is now streaming on Netflix.
The Chair isn’t without its flaws, but you do get a lot for a little with this smart dramedy from creators Amanda Peet and Annie Julia Wyman. Set on the campus of the fictional Pembroke University, Season 1 of The Chair follows English department head Dr. Ji-Yoon Kim (Sandra Oh) as she grapples with a scandal involving her fellow professor and love interest (Jay Duplass). Choppy pacing and some muddled messaging around cancel culture make this an imperfect yet worthy binge, clocking in at six episodes in just three hours.* — Alison Foreman, Entertainment Reporter
How to Watch: The Chair is now streaming on Netflix.
If you haven't seen Mike Schur's captivating tale of life after death, then you're in for a mother forking good time. Starring Kristen Bell, Ted Danson, Jameela Jamil, D'Arcy Carden, Manny Jacinto, and William Jackson Harper, the series takes a hard look at what it means to be a good person through the best comedic lens since The Office.
As any true Good Place fan knows, you can't detail the events of this series without risking giving something away. So, you're gonna have to trust us. Get through the first episode, and we promise you'll be hooked.* — A.F.
How to watch: The Good Place is now streaming on Netflix.
*denote the blurb originally appeared in another Mashable streaming list.
UPDATE: Jun. 13, 2023, 4:11 p.m. EDT This post has been republished to reflect Netflix's current offerings.
]]>Eliza Anderson, Deseret News
Bookcases with broken backs, bed frames where every support slat had been pulled out, uncovered mattresses coated in at least a decade of dust, high school homework from kids who graduated more than eight years ago, melted candles (after numerous summers in outside storage), bills from 2009, dot matrix printer paper and floppy disks. These are all things I’ve paid money to store. For years.
On Memorial Day weekend, my husband and I and some of our adult kids emptied out our storage unit — the one we’ve had for so long I can’t remember when we got it. We took five trailer loads to the dump and two to Deseret Industries (mostly books).
I found cute baby boy and girl clothes that I kept because I had this fantasy that my kids would want them for their kids. My youngest son turns 23 this month. My youngest daughter is 8. As it turns out, styles change in more than 20 years and my kids who are parents are not that interested in clothes from 2000 or earlier. Go figure. Also, I found out that elastic gets brittle after 20-plus years, making pants and socks useless anyway. For our youngest daughter, I forgot that we had stored baby girl clothes in the storage unit and we bought new items for her. Sigh.
After years of paying for a storage unit, why clean it out now? Well, I’ve been binge-watching the show “Hoarders” and it has been both terrifying and motivating.
Each show begins with the disclaimer that “Compulsive hoarding is a mental disorder marked by an obsessive need to acquire and keep things, even if the items are worthless, hazardous or unsanitary.” Up to 19 million Americans have hoarding disorder, says the show.
The National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization, now the Institute for Challenging Disorganization, developed a five-level scale to define the seriousness of the hoarding. Level 1 has few visible indicators because the hoard can be kept out of sight, but the person who is a Level 1 hoarder has trouble throwing away items and may do a lot of shopping for things that are not really needed. Level 2 has noticeable piles, with at least one blocked exit, the clutter is starting to spill into the walkways and the hoarder is embarrassed to have visitors over. Level 3 involves so much stuff the walkways are narrowed, the home smells and the hoarder typically has poor personal hygiene. Level 4 has homes with structural damage, sewage issues and rooms that cannot be used. And with Level 5, there are clear fire hazards, no electricity or water, and accumulated human waste.
I may not qualify as a hoarder, but I definitely don’t declutter as often as I should. Why? There are a number of reasons, I’m sure. My ADHD means it’s easier to stick stuff in a box and forget about it rather than deal with it. We still have a lot of people living in our home. I’m busy. Sometimes, I have strong emotional attachments to things. When our daughter Angelia died, I held on to her blanket for 10 years before I could donate it. Ten. Years. My husband hangs on to things because his mom grew up in poverty and she held on to things, just in case. You just never know when you might need to reuse bread ties. It took me 20 years to convince Greg that the computer programming books that were current in the 1980s were just no longer relevant.
I asked some of my friends what they were holding onto that they could let go of, and you know what I learned? We all hold onto stuff. Here are some of their answers: broken skates, rocks, old check registers from more than a decade ago, old Playstation games, hand sanitizer bottles, teeth (baby and wisdom), socks without a mate, old magazines, dried up paint, scrapbook stuff we paid a fortune for in the ’90s and haven’t touched since, the first training bra, a candy wrapper from a fun trip, floppy discs, stained clothes and a 33-year-old strawberry basket.
Radio talk show host Debbie Dujanovic shared her story about detaching from greeting cards.
I’m 56 years old and hauled around boxes of cards from my toddler years on up until last summer. I’ve moved at least 13 times and each time unopened plastic containers of well wishes went with me. It sounds ridiculous, but I felt guilty parting with them. Thanks to a conversation I had with Amy Donaldson Brass last summer I dumped the guilt, and thankfully most of the cards. ... I sat down with stacks of birthday, Christmas, graduation cards and went through each one. I kept some — the ones with kind words of encouragement or those from family members and close friends who have had a positive impact on my life. I donated the remainder, boxes of them, to a recycle bin.
At least two other friends have kept cards for decades — one of them more than 60 years. Uh oh. Looks like I have another decluttering project to tackle ...
Stay tuned for Part 2 on what to keep.
Holly Richardson is the editor of Utah Policy.
]]>Casey, who goes by @caseman0912 on TikTok, is a father of two. He recently uploaded a video showing him calling his own father and simultaneously texting his father photos to look at. The photos show Casey’s son photoshopped super close to the deep waters of Niagara Falls. Eeek! The photos are obviously fake but to dear old grandpa, they’re all too real.
The video starts with Casey texting his father photos of his son, Koden, near water. He writes “Niagara Falls” and immediately he’s on the phone with his father. “Casey! Please don’t do that with Koden!,” his father says.
“Don’t let him out of your hand near that water. One slip…please!”
You can hear the panic in poor Grandpa’s voice. Casey on the other hand is cool as a cucumber. And just says, “I know.”
“Oh my gosh. Don’t send me no pictures like that again,” his father continues.
It just gets better because, of course, Casey sends another one. This is when his dad really spirals. The next photo shows the little toddler standing on a railing, right next to the water.
You can now hear Casey’s mom on the phone as well and hilariously she says, “Are you shaking?” just as the new photo is sent and her husband starts yelling.
“Oh jeez!”
The over-the-top reaction is testament to how precious grandparents can be. They might not always understand modern technology like how to FaceTime or how to take good photos but it’s so cute to see them try.
“Calm down they’re both fake,” his wife says.
“It’s not funny Nancy!”
“You know I got stomach problems,” his father adds, “I’m a nervous wreck around them guys as it is. I can’t take that Case. Those jokes will kill me.”
Casey’s prank has gone viral and people can’t get enough of his dad’s funny reaction.
“Dad’s whole life was put into shambles”
“THAT SECOND PICTURE IS CRAZYYYY LMFAOOOOO”
“‘IT’S NOT FUNNY NANCY'”
“The scream after the second picture hahaha nooooo”
Related: Dad has the AUDACITY to ask his ex-wife to babysit his baby with new girlfriend—and Reddit went off
Casey also uploaded a follow-up video reassuring everyone that his father is OK!
Afterward, he joked with Chief Stew Daisy Kelliher, “This is why Gary [King] calls you ‘Daisy Poo,’ huh?” She chased him out of her cabin, as he admonished everyone to wash their hands.
Finally, Captain Glenn Shephard called the crew to the salon for the long-awaited tip meeting. I’d forgotten the guests had just left. Time to show me the money!
Even though Glenn looked pleased with the amount, it was only $13,000 US, which breaks down to $1273 Euros per person. That’s actually quite generous when you think that it was only a 24-hour charter. And having just four guests on board gave the crew a chance to catch their collective breath and not be so frantic.
After passing around the tip money, Glenn again wished Gary a happy birthday. The crew was headed out for another night off, but the captain urged them to save some energy for the next day since they would have a full day off, a rare treat mid-season. Everyone cheered with happiness.
Not only were they getting an entire day off to rest and play, but Glenn announced, “I’ve got you guys a private cabana on Blu Beach, and they will also be doing dinner for you. Recharge your batteries, ’cause we still have half the season to go.” A nice surprise, Glenn, which should go a long way in raising crew morale.
“This has been a very tough season for me,” Daisy interviewed. “There’s sun, there’s beer, there’s Colin. I’m pretty f***ing stoked.”
While Glenn was helping himself to some dinner, Daisy told him, “We’re setting up a party for Gary up there [on deck]. Are you joining us?” Of course, Glenn wanted to join in the festivities, since Gary’s his boy.
While setting up a cake, drinks and balloons for Gary’s party, Daisy complimented Colin on the shirt he had on. “The situation with Daisy and I just feels natural,” Colin told production. “Because we know each other so well, it’s just comfortable. The only thing I’m concerned about is that it’s gonna affect our friendship because we’re great friends.” Oh, Colin, please don’t break my heart. I have such high hopes for this relationship. Please don’t let that be foreshadowing.
When Gary finally stepped upstairs, he found all his friends wearing “Gary” masks, complete with a jaunty cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth. “I can’t see sh*t,” Glenn complained.
He loved the masks and laughed as he went into Oprah mode, “You get a Gary. You get a Gary!” With a junior stew under each arm, he told Mads Herrera and Lucy Edmunds, “There’s enough Gary for everyone tonight.”
Daisy shot back, “Why don’t we drink every time you f*** another stewardess?” Ouch. That was a little passive-aggressive.
“Daisy,” Gary said a few minutes later, “can I ask a favor? Just because it’s my birthday, tonight you have to be nice to me.” Even though she insisted she’s “always nice” to him, she does seem to love to bring him down a peg in front of everyone on the regular. Gary asked her not to “shove me under the bus tonight,” and she agreed to be nice.
“I’m not the smartest guy in the world,” deckhand Chase Lemacks stated the obvious. “But tonight I’m trying my best not to offend anybody.” So no more asking Lucy if you can shoot tequila between her boobies then? Limiting the alcohol consumption is your best chance there, buddy.
So Chase decided, “Number one goal is [to] just drink less, shout less and just be less.” Sounds like a great plan.
At dinner, Chase went a little over the top trying to win his way back into the ladies’ good graces. “Can I just say,” he announced, “I have never been to dinner with better-looking ladies in my life.” Aww, Chase, they loved it.
But then he had to add, “Cheers to the mistakes I regret already,” causing Lucy to squint her eyes at him with suspicion.
Drunken hijinks continued as per usual for a night off. Deckhand Alex Propson got way too intoxicated and tried to eat his phone. Daisy and Gary made up and hugged it out. Mads caught them mid-hug and decided it wasn’t worth getting jealous, since she and Gary are in a “casual” relationship and he’s not really her boyfriend.
While Gary and Mads once again sneaked off to have sex in the privacy of a guest cabin, Daisy paid a call to Colin in the boys’ cabin. “Come sleep with me,” she told him, but he convinced her to just lie down with him for a second. “I just want you sleeping with me,” Daisy said.
“I’ve never had an experience like I [have] with Colin,” Daisy interviewed. “We’re friends more than anything, but I could easily see us falling into a relationship because he makes me feel secure. He’s kind, loyal and like, who doesn’t love kisses and cuddles?”
The next morning, Captain Glenn sent his crew off to the beach club for some well-deserved R&R. “Let’s get this party started,” Chef Ileisha Dell said. “On charter, we’re all just like, go, go, go. So I’m super excited just to unwind and actually chat to everyone and be friends.”
Alex wished that Glenn could be there with them all, “but otherwise it’s perfect.” Cue footage of Glenn playing with one of the e-foils on the water. He did pretty well, too, until he wiped out spectacularly. Is that safe for him to do by himself when there’s no one around to rescue him? Safety first, Glenn.
For some reason, drunk Colin told Ileisha that the chef they had last year was way better than her. Really, Colin? Ileisha, feelings hurt, went off to the ladies’ room to cry. Amazingly, Chase was the voice of wisdom, telling Colin, “When a woman asks you how she compares with someone else, you say, ‘You’re the best.'”
“So I should just lie through my teeth?” Colin asks.
“Yes!” Chase said. Oh, Colin. You’re losing major points here, honey. Be kind.
“I should have done that,” the engineer finally admitted with a laugh, while Ileisha was still crying in the bathroom. Poor Cheffie.
Drunk Gary was admiring Daisy’s bikini-clad body, telling her she had a “model body” and dancing close with her, while Colin watched. Colin was a little annoyed.
“Really?” he interviewed. “Gary and Daisy have always been flirty, but there’s a certain amount of respect and consideration you can have for someone that you’re hooking up with. It’s a very confusing little situation, this one.” It is for all of us, Colin.
Also annoyed? Mads. “I didn’t take him seriously before, [and] I’m still not,” she told Lucy. “Look at his personality, look what he’s doing,” as Gary was motorboating Daisy’s cleavage. Ugh. Not a great look in public under any circumstances.
“But I can’t f***ing talk to Alex … without it being an issue,” Mads continued. “I’m not gonna give serious emotions to someone that’s not serious with me.”
Meanwhile, Gary had his head in Daisy’s lap and was begging her for a kiss. Even though Daisy knew Colin was the “healthier” choice, she still can’t shake the attraction for Gary. Better make up your mind soon, Daisy, cause Colin is not enjoying watching you and Gary canoodling.
At the end of the day, Daisy and Colin cuddled together in the water and shared a lingering kiss right next to Gary. The First Mate was not okay with it, though, and quickly exited the area saying, “Whoa, bye-eeee. That is ridiculous.” Really, Gary? And motorboating Daisy in front of Colin is okay?
At dinner, Mads sat with Alex, rather than Gary, calling the deckhand “babe.” Gary didn’t like that and retaliated by pulling Daisy in for a big kiss. Colin was sitting on the other side of her at the time. “Gary, don’t,” she warned him.
“I know deep down you love me,” Gary answered. “I think we need to be together. But clearly, that’s not gonna happen now.”
“You hooked up with Mads the first night,” Daisy told him. “You have shown me your behavior. You’ve shown me what I meant to you.”
Daisy didn’t want to be “just another one of his 10 million girlfriends.”
“I know you like Colin as a mate,” Gary persisted, “but I know you actually have feelings for me. Think about it from my perspective.” While you’re having sex with Mads in a guest cabin, Gary? Get real.
Gary accused her of avoiding him by hooking up with Colin. “I don’t want to be with you,” Daisy told him, “because you want to be with everybody else. You f***ing could have had me a million times over, and you didn’t want me. Now that you can’t have me, now you f***ing want me. I’m not playing into this f***ing bullsh*t game.”
Finally, the truth came out. “Having sex with you was f***ing amazing,” Gary blurted out, as Daisy tried to shush him.
“Gary and I slept together when the season ended last year in Menorca,” Daisy admitted in an interview. “And we also slept together when we went to Disneyland. After that, you know, he still did his usual Gary thing, went from female to female. He never tried to make it anything more. I just wanted this thing to be between Gary and me. Private.”
Daisy urged Gary to move on. “You’re with Mads, I’m with Colin. I really like Colin. I feel a lot for him. It is what it is.”
Dinner completed, everyone returned to the Parsifal III. Their fabulous day off was over.
Back on the boat, the crew settled in for the night. Mads concluded, “I don’t want anyone’s feelings hurt on the boat, but Alex is a grown-ass man. And with Gary, I’m getting a grown toddler boy. I really did not play my cards right.”
Alex may be a “grown-ass man,” but he’s a total asshole. After not so romantically telling Mads, “I’d totally smash you,” he shoved roughly past her standing next to the bar. “Move,” he told her, “Just f***ing move.” Nice.
“So, are you coming upstairs or what?” he petulantly asked her. Wow. The selection of men on this boat is really sad. You have a grown toddler boy (Gary), an obnoxious drunk (Chase) and an even more drunken asshole who’s really hot, but who probably won’t remember a thing in the morning (Alex). Stick with Colin, Daisy. He’s the best of the litter.
“I’m hammered,” Alex admitted, walking up the stairs. Nope, won’t remember a thing.
When she walked through the crew cabin area, Gary grabbed Mads and asked, “Are you coming into my bed?” So she ended up in Gary’s bunk, while Alex fell asleep all alone on deck.
Lucy decided to sleep in the boys’ cabin. Though Gary and Mads told her they had “lots of room” in Gary’s bunk, she curled up in Colin’s bed, thinking he’d be in with Daisy. When Colin came in and found Lucy in his bed, he joked, “What a pleasant surprise!”
After much confusion over who was sleeping where, Colin headed off to the now-abandoned girls’ cabin to share with Daisy. “I need earplugs,” he joked, referencing Daisy’s terrible snoring. He went to the engine room and came back with giant ear protectors. “I don’t know what else to do.”
At last, while snuggling in bed with Colin, Daisy made the choice to come clean. “I want to be honest with you, but I also want to be private,” she told him. “With Gary, it’s something very, very complicated. We have slept together.”
“You guys have slept together?” Colin asked.
“In LA,” she admitted. “And in Menorca.”
“You f***ed Gary?” Colin said, seemingly in disbelief.
“Are you mad that we slept together?”
Colin was confused, “Just ’cause I was led to believe there was nothing going on between you two.”
“I asked him not to tell anyone, and he respected that. Please don’t be mad at him.”
“Why would you lie to me about that?” Colin decided to return to his own cabin. “I just need to figure this out. You f***ed him twice! I just feel f***ing stupid.”
Even though Daisy begged him to stay, Colin returned to his own cabin. We’ll find out soon how things went, as tonight is a double episode. Stay tuned!
Below Deck Sailing Yacht airs Mondays at 8/7c on Bravo and is available on Peacock the following day.
TELL US: DO YOU THINK THE FACT THAT DAISY AND GARY SLEPT TOGETHER WILL BE THE END OF DAISY AND COLIN’S RELATIONSHIP?
The post Below Deck Sailing Yacht Season 4 Episode 10 Recap: Secrets Revealed appeared first on Reality Tea.
]]>Alright, if you knew about this, you’re way ahead of us. And we sort of pride ourselves on being on top of the whole “ways to save money” thing. But, even though we’re slightly embarrassed that we’re just now finding out, we’re going to make sure no one else misses it. Did you know Groupon—the site we thought was just really good discounts on restaurants and waterparks—has a ton of summer toys? Oh, and that those summer toys are priced crazy low? We’ll give you a minute to let that soak in. It’s possible we immediately started texting our mom friends when we found out, demanding to find out who was in on this and didn’t tell us. It isn’t like we aren’t perusing Groupon a few times a week. Maybe we were just really distracted by great deals on massages.
The point is, it’s the second week of summer and we’re already hearing our least-favorite phrase: “I’m bored.” So if your kids are basically staring at you until you entertain them somehow, we’ve got you. These summer toys are the answer to our cabin fever prayers. And sure. We kinda wish we’d known about Groupon rocking the boredom-buster game before now. But now that we do, it’ll be our first stop. Seriously. Wait till you see these.
If you're over hearing about how your kids wish they could live at the waterpark, allow us to save the day. This inflatable water park features a slide, a splash pool, a climbing wall, a built-in basketball rim, and two water cannons. Cool Mom Status: unlocked. Inflatable Splash Water Bounce House & 735W Blower ($1299.99 $299.99)—Buy Here!
Little ones not quite big enough for a full-sized swing set? This adorable little set can be used inside or out, and the bottom is designed to be especially stable to mitigate tipping. It's made of non-toxic material and includes a slide, a swing, and the cutest little basketball hoop we've ever seen. 3-in-1 Toddler Slide & Swing Set ($599.99 $264.99)—Buy Here!
What's better than a hammock? If you're a mom, nothing. But if you're a kiddo, it's definitely this swing chair. It's got a teepee design with three windows and a single suspension point (that's super strong). It can be hung from the ceiling or from a tree, so you've got indoor/outdoor options. With a max weight of 250lbs, this is a seriously sturdy lounger. Kids Nest Swing Chair Nook ($149.99 $64.99)—Buy Here!
Maybe it's too hot to actually spend the day at the farmer's market, but when your kids hit the "only want to play store" phase (which is a real thing, by the way), this little produce stand is awfully handy. Your little one will have everything they need to create a mini supermarket with a toy cash register, food scale, 31 food accessories, and pretend credit card. We're also big fans of the wooden design. Fresh Market Selling Stand ($99.99 $69.99)—Buy Here!
This sweet little wooden climber is perfect for the playroom, bedroom, or even your living room (thanks to the neutral wood finish and minimalist details). Costway Foldable Wooden Climber with Slide ($619.99 $129.99)—Buy Here!
Major imagination ahead. This play tent is supported by PVC pipes, making it really sturdy and perfect for clubhouses, reading sessions, and a lot of pretend. Costway Play Castle Tent ($139.99 $72.99)—Buy Here!
Want all the bounce without the water? This adorable snail bounce house delivers. This is serious summer play that's sure to get their energy out in the best way. Inflatable Snail Bounce House ($529.99 $99.99)—Buy Here!
Older kiddos will get such a kick out of this 10ft trampoline. Admit it—a trampoline was the dream when we were kids. Comes with all the tools you need to safely install it, too. 10ft Trampoline with Surround Enclosure ($482.28 $267.99)—Buy Here!
From a school bus, to an ice cream truck, to a fire truck, there's a pop up tent for every kid's interest. It works both inside and out and doesn't require any toold for setup. Pop-Up Play Tent ($55.99 $18.99)—Buy Here!
This super strong swing is excellent for either deep relaxation or lots of swingy play. It's easy to install and offers a calming deep hug and lets them perfect their acrobatic skills. It also includes all the hardware needed for installation. Compression Sensory Swing ($84.99 $37.50)—Buy Here!
All the products listed are independently & personally selected by our shopping editors.
If you buy something from the links in this article, we may earn affiliate commission or compensation. Prices and availability reflect the time of publication.
All images courtesy of retailers.
]]>As a family of eight, our household has always traveled somewhat differently than other families. A lot of that difference comes from the fact that a small cost quickly becomes a large cost when multiplied by eight. Consider the relatively small $5.60 tax on your “free” award ticket: For our group on a round-trip itinerary, that’s nearly $100. Then, there are the often astronomical fuel charges, also known as “carrier-imposed surcharges.”
Because of that, our family often skews more toward “drive” in the classic “drive versus fly” debate. The economics of transporting eight people in one vehicle make family road trips a staple of our travel plans. That’s still the case when gas prices are high. (Here’s a list of the best credit cards for road trips, best credit cards for gas purchases and advice for maximizing points and miles on road trips.)
A family road trip can be a great idea any time of year if you want to go somewhere close or don’t want the expense of airline tickets. Over the years, we’ve come up with several family road trip tips which you can read about them below.
When I asked my 12-year-old daughter what her best road trip tips were, she said “screens, snacks and space.” Our family is fairly strict on limiting kids’ screen time, but a road trip is one time when those rules go (mostly) out the window. We do try to mix things up with other forms of entertainment (see below), but it’s true that most of a long road trip consists of kids on various screens.
Our road trip screen time game has evolved over time. When our kids were younger, our go-to move was a portable DVD player attached to a platform hooked into the headrest posts of the driver and passenger seats. The only problem with that came as the kids got a little older. We found that there isn’t a movie in this world that a 14-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl can agree on.
As the kids got older and technology advanced, we moved toward individual screens. Older kids usually play on their phones, and we have tablets and other devices for the younger kids. On our most recent road trip, each kid had their own Nintendo 2DS system (pictured below), which worked great.
Making sure you have enough snacks for the trip is another of our must-dos. We bring cups to pass out “messier” snacks (like Goldfish, pretzels, Cheez-Its or oyster crackers). This way, the “snack master” in the front can pass out snacks all the way to those in the back. The more snacks you bring, the more self-sufficient your road trip can be. In other words, you won’t have to make as many stops. (Check out TPG‘s list of healthy snacks to pack on trips.)
My favorite road trip snack story comes from when my oldest daughter was about 5 or 6 years old. She was in the back row of the minivan, and our other kids were too little to be any help passing out treats. At snack time, our only option was to literally throw options back at her and hope they landed in range so she could reach them without getting out of her car seat.
When we finally got to our destination, we looked in the back of the van and found about 20 sandwich cookies (and parts of cookies) littered throughout the back seat.
Space is the next consideration. Unfortunately, it’s one that you probably don’t have a ton of control over. In most cases, the vehicle you drive is the only vehicle you have.
Also, when your van starts out for a road trip looking like this, you know that space is coming at a premium.
If you’re renting a car instead of using your own, one possible option would be to rent two cars instead of one larger car. We covered that in our article on which rental care company is right for you.
Not only is the two-car option cheaper than renting a minivan (or worse, full-size van or large SUV), two cars also lets you split up kids that can’t seem to get along. One downside when renting two cars is that both my wife and I have to drive all the time instead of being able to switch off.
Depending how long you’re traveling or the ages of your kids, you’ll likely need to stop several times along the way. If this is a route you’ve taken many times (like the way to grandma’s house), you probably have your favorite rest stops already picked out. We like to turn those stops for food, gas and bathrooms into mini-exercise breaks.
Rather than all stumbling to the bathroom, we will stop at a rest area, find a grassy spot and do anything from calisthenics to a quick game of hide-and-seek. The older kids participate grumpily (then again, teenagers seem to do everything grumpily), but the younger kids enjoy running around.
If you have a little extra time in the schedule, take advantage of some free and unique things to do on the way — here are some tips for finding those stops.
As I mentioned earlier, our main source of entertainment on family road trips nowadays tends to be individual screens (phones, tablets and game systems). We do have a few other things that we use to pass the time on our family road trips. Here are a few of our favorites:
My last piece of road trip advice is to be realistic with your timing. You know your family best, but be wise about when you start your trip. Look at your route and when you’ll be traveling through major cities. I have not-so-fond memories of being stuck in rush-hour Chicago traffic with a screaming infant.
I know some families will drive through the night to maximize vacation time. The one time our family tried that, my toddler daughter screamed her head off for over an hour straight to the point that my wife made me turn around the car and return home. (Naturally, she finally fell asleep on our way back home, so we turned around the car again and reached our destination about three hours late.)
Those of us in the miles and points world also like to break up long road trips with a night at a hotel. Be liberal with your breaks — being stuck in the back of a minivan for more than 10 hours is no fun.
If you’re not sure where to start with mapping out your schedule, check out the Roadtrippers website.
I hope these family road trip travel tips will help you plan your next vacation. When in doubt, remember to pack enough snacks, bring enough activities for kids and make sure everyone gets ample time to stretch at each stop.
Related reading:
Keeping this to themselves, however, can be one of the most nerve-racking things. Superheroes do it because they don't want to put their loved ones in harm's way. Mothers, meanwhile, do it because they feel like they might be judged by other child-bearers. "Can everyone share their mom secrets, so that I don’t feel so bad about myself?" pleads u/brookeaat in her Breaking Mom subreddit's post. From bribing kids with extra screen time to co-sleeping with them, there's nothing better than spilling some tea without feeling like you've committed a crime.
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The popular r/Serverlife subreddit is an online community that invites servers, waiters, and waitresses from all around the net to get together and talk about work. We’ve collected some of the group’s top photos that show just how entitled some customers get. Scroll down and get ready to wonder how anyone could act so entitled. And remember—tip your servers!
Bored Panda reached out to workplace expert Lynn Taylor, the author of the book 'Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant' and a popular blog on Psychology Today, with some questions about what managers can do to support and empower their staff, and how employees can stay resilient when dealing with extremely critical customers. She told us about the importance of good training and empathy, and having everyone be on the same page about the rules. Read on for our interview with the expert.
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"When employees must deal with rude customers, they need management’s support and training. Employees must feel assured that their company doesn’t tolerate abusive clientele, for example. In this situation, the more training the better. There are many varieties of challenging customers, and each one often requires a different response," workplace expert Taylor told Bored Panda via email.
"In today’s market, where there are labor shortages, it can be beneficial for a company to make sure their employees are the priority, not antagonistic patrons. Uber mastered this concept by providing a customer rating service to maintain a level playing field. That said, management must also be sure that the solution matches the misdeed, as supporting the employee can also be a fine line," she added. Clarity and communication are key.
"With many customer conflicts going viral today, companies must do their utmost to define what is and isn’t acceptable… how to take the highroad, unless it’s abuse. One internal litmus test to live by is to consider how the scenario would be perceived by an objective person—or the outside world," the author of 'Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant' said.
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"The key in many training programs is for employees to understand where to draw the line. What are the boundaries? How do you provide a service in a friendly manner, but let the customers know there are limits? This is where role-playing is invaluable. Being in a customer-facing business, does not mean being a punching bag; in this case, the customer is 'not always right.'"
According to workplace expert Taylor, one of the easiest ways to stay resilient at work is to put yourself in the overly critical customer's shoes. Of course, this is far from easy. "Oftentimes, clients want to be heard. They’re unhappy and are likely critical customers as a rule. Understanding that their complaints are not personal (and may be their issue) can help. At the same time, you can feel empowered knowing that there are limits—and management supports you when pushing back to untenable behavior," she told Bored Panda.
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"Dealing with difficult people, whether customers, coworkers, or even tough managers, can often be like dealing with a terrible two toddler—who doesn’t know how to moderate their behavior when stressed or frustrated. So likewise, the antidote is to use some parental training techniques you’ve used or seen before," Taylor said, adding that she elaborates on this in her book, 'Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant.'
"For example, after witnessing a meltdown, let the perpetrator know they’ve been heard, but set boundaries to bad behavior. Also:
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The expert noted that employees can be effective in using tough love when dealing with critical customers, meaning that they remain assertive, consistent, and polite. "When times get testy, it can also mitigate tensions to be empathetic to their issue—but let them know how your company operates and its policies," she said.
"As the provider of any service, you retain the right to deny customers the right to be in your establishment. Still, there are plenty of headlines today where situations get out of hand. Worker safety is therefore a key concern for both management and team members. And this is where company training is paramount."
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The r/Serverlife subreddit is an old one, with roots all the way back in late May of 2014. Over the years, the online subreddit has grown by leaps and bounds and now boasts nearly 112k active members who are invited to take off their aprons, have a glass, and chat about work.
Among these numerous members are both servers who enjoy venting and discussing issues at their jobs, as well as random people from different industries who like taking a peek into the reality of waiting tables. This subreddit is a perfect place to remind you that, yes, servers are living, breathing human beings who deserve respect.
According to the data collected by Indeed, the average salary for a food service worker in the United States is $14.88 per hour. Of course, this fluctuates quite a bit depending on what company you work for. For instance, Indeed notes that Chili’s pays its employees an average of $21.32 per hour. Meanwhile, Applebee’s compensates its staff around $21.19 per hour, and IHOP pays $20.27 per hour.
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Red Lobster’s average food service worker’s wage is slightly lower, sitting at $17.82, just below the US Department of Veteran Affairs which offers $18.45 per hour, but slightly above IKEA’s average salary of $17.73. It’s important to keep these numbers in mind when doing background research for a raise or if you’re looking to jump ship and head toward greener pastures.
The city you live in will also have a massive impact on your salary. For example, if you’re living in Los Angeles, California, the average food service worker’s salary is going to be $17.42 per hour. Washington, DC offers something similar, with $17.30 per hour. If you happen to live in a nearby town, consider comparing your wage there with the salaries in LA and DC. A slightly longer commute to a different job might just work out.
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Some other high-paying US cities also include Sacramento, California ($16.05 per hour), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ($15.67 per hour), Las Vegas, Nevada ($14.76 per hour), and Atlanta, Georgia ($14.66). Among the runners up are Tampa, Florida ($14.45 per hour), Dallas, Texas ($14.41 per hour), and Jacksonville, Florida ($13.70).
A fancy restaurant server Bored Panda interviewed earlier shared a lot of great tips about her job. “The essence of being a good server is making sure everyone leaves the meal having had a nice time. The essence of being a great server is making sure everyone leaves the meal having had a memorable time,” she shared her perspective on being a professional server.
“I’m always on the lookout for anything extra I can do to make the night special for our guests. If I overhear a birthday mentioned, we bring out a piece of cake. If someone comes in wearing a Dolphins jersey, we’ll turn on that game if they’re playing. We take pride in our work,” the server said.
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Something that customers can do to help out the staff, especially trainees, is to step in if they see another client being rude to them. “The server may look unbothered, but that’s because it’s their job. ‘The customer is always right,’ is one of the only pieces of training many of us get. It is literally our job to be sure tables leave happy. We cannot argue with you. So, just because they’re smiling on the outside doesn’t mean they’re not offended, or even feeling unsafe, on the inside,” the professional revealed what the reality is like.
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“If you’re not comfortable saying something to the abusive customer directly, just find a manager and quietly inform them of what’s going on, they’ll take it from there. A lot of servers are students who are too nervous about losing the job or looking unprofessional to ask for help. And, as someone eating in the restaurant rather than working there, your words will carry far more weight with the harasser than ours would anyways,” she told us.
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Other things that customers can do to make a server’s day are to be kind, be polite, tip well (depending on the country), and avoid venting their frustrations on the staff. All in all, how you treat food service industry workers says a lot about you as a person. If you’re rude to someone who you think has no power, it might be time to rethink how you treat people as a whole.
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For some more hellish posts from r/Serverlife, check out Bored Panda's previous feature right here. Meanwhile, if you've ever worked as a server, feel free to share your experiences with the best and worst customers ever in the comments. And if you have any tips to give servers who are completely fresh to the industry, we're sure they'd appreciate it, too, dear Pandas.
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]]>Kristen King shoots a selfie with her family prior to Game 5 of the NBA playoffs between the Utah Jazz and the LA Clippers in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, June 16, 2021.
Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Late last year, one of my boys asked me, “Dad, Karl Malone and John Stockton are still playing for the Jazz, right?”
That was all I needed to hear. I had clearly failed my sons. And I knew just what I needed to do to make this right:
Take my boys to an NBA game.
Halfway through their first Utah Jazz game, up in the “cheap seats” just underneath the level where extra oxygen would be required, my youngest boy finally figured out who the Jazz were and made his own decision to root for them, rather than the Timberwolves (which he and his brothers all agreed had a “cooler mascot”).
To complete my restitution, I signed up for the one-month streaming package that would give my boys a glimpse of the final weeks of this year’s NBA playoffs.
And I will confess, it’s been really nice to take a family entertainment break from “Wild Kratts.” In recent weeks, one last-second Boston Celtics win left my boys as stunned as the Miami Heat fans. And when the LA Lakers got swept by a seemingly unstoppable Denver Nuggets team, my second son was in tears. Cue one of those “losing builds character” talks that is so important for every child to hear.
“Oh, come on, Sam — LeBron already has four rings. Let’s cheer for someone else to have the chance!”
Now, the older boys are rooting for Denver in the finals, while the younger ones — who just can’t bear to conform with their big brothers — are gunning for Miami. We’re a house divided.
But at least it’s just for fun. I’m still grateful I was a missionary in Brazil both times Michael Jordan knocked off the Jazz in the finals. The palpable grief came through letters for weeks afterwards; it was like a mushroom cloud hanging over the state.
Are we really just wasting our time as fans? My family’s experience says not.
In one animated conversation about a controversial NBA call at an earlier family gathering, my brothers turned to my wife and asked, “What do you think, Monique?” Put on the spot, she didn’t have time to conceal her true feelings: “I think it matters … not at all.”
We laughed out loud. Partly, because she was clearly right. But even my wise spouse was missing something significant: the blessings of sport, on so many levels.
At an age when some of our teenage friends were getting into trouble, for instance, my brother and I were too obsessed with Michael Jordan, Karl Malone and honing our skills to finally beat Dad in pick-up ball, to pay any attention to Madonna and AC/DC.
And now as a father of four energetic boys, I’ve been learning how nice it is to have a healthy outlet for their overflowing energy — which can be channeled away from aggression against each other into healthy competition.
Anthropologists have discussed for years how sports provides an alternative to war, acting as something of a safety valve wherein men and women can pound into each other, then shake hands afterwards.
It was exactly this kind of a needed outlet that inspired James Naismith’s invention in 1891. After witnessing restless YMCA students bored with marching and calisthenics, he knew something else was needed to “burn off the energy” during winter months when they couldn’t be outside playing football.
According to one official history, Naismith drew inspiration from “rugby (passing), English rugby (the jump ball), lacrosse (use of a goal), [and] soccer (the shape and size of the ball). ”This new game needed to be “interesting, easy to learn, and easy to play in the winter and by artificial light.”
When the school janitor was unsuccessful finding two 18-inch square boxes to use as goals, he providentially brought back two peach baskets instead. After the first attempt led to a “free-for all in the middle of the gym floor” with several injuries, Naismith made up some new rules that would “provide plenty of exercise, yet without the roughness” of these other sports that would “threaten bruises and broken bones if played in a confined space.”
Basketball was born. With the peach baskets nailed to the lower rail of the gymnasium balcony (which happened to be 10 feet high), two people were assigned to remove the ball from the basket for the first couple of years, until someone got tired of that and decided to cut out the bottom.
Hail to these early pioneers! How else would I be able to mesmerize my boys with “Michael Jordan’s Top 60 Plays” or the “NBA’s Most Dramatic Endings of All Time?”
After LeBron James’ sweep in the recent playoffs, I played for my boys a clip of his post-game interview where this defeated champion literally tipped his hat to give credit to the team that just beat him.
“See, that’s what I mean when we talk about being a good sport, guys. Let’s keep working on that.”
Examples are important for us all. And as soon as my sons see a great play in an NBA game, they like to run outside and try it themselves. Joining them to play family ball is one of my favorite moments of the week.
As for the adults, I’ll give my wife credit for this: Grown-ups need something to talk about every once in a while that doesn’t matter — and doesn’t involve the weight of the world so many of us often feel on our shoulders.
My co-workers and I have enjoyed regular analyses of the latest game, knowing full well that, as my wife said, it “matters not at all.” And with my boys, I have fun debating important questions like: “Is Steph Curry a better shooter than Michael Jordan?”
But my favorite conversation of late came from an article on Denver center Nikola Jokić, who has a habit of pointing toward his hand as he walks off the court at the end of each game.
Commentators had assumed he was pointing at the ring finger that will likely wear championship hardware soon. But the two-time MVP champion quickly corrected the record, revealing the gesture was meant for his toddler, Ognjena, in reference to one of her favorite songs.
“It’s just a song that we sing,” Jokic said during an interview. “It’s not a big deal, but she likes it, and I just want to have some connection with her.”
In another gesture, Jokic ties his wedding ring into the laces of one of his shoes. As the Denver big man explained before the NBA finals began, “I have something more at home that is more important than basketball.”
It’s especially sweet to see evidence of fidelity among people who have plenty of opportunities to lay that aside. Stephen Curry calls his wife Ayesha his “one and only” —writing on their anniversary that “you are the key to everything that I do.” Although they’ve had their ups and downs, he later added, “We keep growing and loving each other.”
Asked why she had stayed more private than other celebrity spouses, LeBron James’ wife, Savannah, recently explained, “That time, to be honest, was spent pouring into my boys. I just really wanted to enjoy being a mom and supporting my husband.”
I still haven’t convinced my wife to sit down and watch a game. And I can sympathize with her hesitancy, since sports can definitely take over and become a quasi-religion in people’s lives.
As someone who barely sneaks in a few games a year — and the 10-minute World Series highlights each fall — I can’t fathom how any parent could find the time to become that absorbed.
But in an age when many Americans are giving up on all institutions, I say let’s not give up on sports, too. And as a believer who seeks after a wide range of “anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy,” I’ve come to see that there are some Nuggets we can all still enjoy in the joyous game of basketball. (Go Denver!)
While Jazz fans keep hoping for better days, let’s have some fun this week celebrating with our Rocky Mountain neighbors.
Jacob Hess is the former editor of Public Square Magazine and writes at Publish Peace on Substack. He has worked to promote liberal-conservative understanding since the publication of “You’re Not as Crazy as I Thought (But You’re Still Wrong)” with Phil Neisser. With Carrie Skarda, Kyle Anderson and Ty Mansfield, he also authored “The Power of Stillness: Mindful Living for Latter-day Saints.”
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Vendor: Mollybee Kids
Type: Card Games
Price:
12.99
Vendor: Mollybee Kids
Type: Card Games
Price:
12.99
These easy to make 2-ingredient Patriotic Popsicles are the perfect tasty treat to enjoy outdoors on a hot summer day!
My kids love popsicles. During the summer months, we stock up the freezer with popsicles. I have memories of our own freezer stocked with popsicles as a kid.
I’ve been experimenting in the kitchen lately with my own DIY popsicle recipes. I love to make smoothie popsicles. Basically, I make my favorite smoothie blends and then add them to these neat popsicle mold bags. I pop them in the freezer and enjoy a healthy frozen smoothie popsicle when they are ready!
This summer, we have a little tradition where we head outside on the back porch after dinner a couple of days a week and enjoy a popsicle on the porch. I have three kids and they all come out with me and sit down to talk, laugh, and enjoy a sweet treat.
This 4th of July, we are creating Patriotic Popsicles using only 2-ingredients! This is a super easy recipe to make with coconut milk and a favorite ingredient in our home – sprinkles!
Try this easy to make Patriotic Popsicle recipe this year with your kids to enjoy!
Pour 1/4 tsp. sprinkles into bottom of popsicle mold.
Fill each mold half way with coconut milk and freeze 1-2 hrs.
Remove popsicles from freezer.
Fill each mold with the remaining coconut milk and sprinkles.
Freeze for 1-2 hrs until completely frozen.
Serve and enjoy!
While you are here, check out more of our Patriotic Ideas:
Try our Patriotic Oreo Truffles Recipe! This is another fun recipe to get the kids involved with in the kitchen this year.
Create Red, White, and Blue Patriotic Slime! This cool and stretchy slime recipe is super fun to play with!
Do you have a toddler? Make a Patriotic Sensory Bottle with floating red, white, and blue stars!
Print these FREE 4th of July Printables. You’ll find scavenger hunts, Bingo, a crossword puzzle, and a tic-tac-toe game.
Make crafts! Here are 15+ Patriotic Crafts for Kids.
Learn how to make a Patriotic Parfait with strawberries, blueberries, granola, and yogurt!
Try this yummy Patriotic Sundae with ice cream and sprinkles.
We also have a kid friendly Red, White, and Blue Jello Cups recipe to make with the kids.
Check out our list of 4th of July Activities for Families.
Learn how to make your own popsicles!
The post Patriotic Popsicles first appeared on Mom. Wife. Busy Life..
The post Patriotic Popsicles appeared first on Mom. Wife. Busy Life..
]]>Adventurous spirits and long, sun-soaked days make summer the best time to throw an awesome birthday party. You can take it easy and go with something simple or do it up with a theme to fit your kiddo’s taste. Not sure where to start? Be inspired by the below summer birthday party ideas guaranteed to be a huge hit.
Mermaid parties are always popular and in the summer, you can add water games or pool games (for older kids who can swim well) for extra fun. It’s also fun to decorate in an ocean theme and if you can swing it, a visit from Ariel will be unforgettable.
A great party doesn’t have to be fussy or elaborate! Get your kids playing and laughing with a field day party—we’ve got a roundup of our favorite classic yard games to get you started.
There's nothing more classic, or in demand, than a water play party. From cup races to paddle pools, there's no end to the refreshing fun! Check out our list of ultimate water games for ideas.
It really wouldn’t be summer without a trip to the movies to watch a blockbuster. Bring the big screen to your backyard with a film fanatic’s bash fit for an award. Toss a few blankets and cozy pillows around the lawn, then put together a popcorn bar and project your favorite family-friendly flick on the side of your house or on a sheet while you relax under the stars.
There’s something magical about those when the sun is still shining long past most kids’ bedtime. Sprinkle your party with a little bit of that magic and invite the faeries and forest creatures to create an unforgettable summer birthday party. Pass out fairy wings and flower crowns to party guests, paint faces, and make nature-themed crafts.
With its tropical, floral setting, a Moana party is a gorgeous one, especially if you use some of these fun ideas from Catch My Party founder Jillian Tobher Leslie. Her Moana party recommendations include a layered hibiscus flower cake, frosted flower cookies, and adorable crab-shaped croissants. If you're looking for activities, check out this fun (and free!) printables from Virtually Yours.
Take advantage of bright days to throw a summer birthday party outside at your favorite park. From packing simple picnic food (we love finger foods you can make ahead) to coordinating fun outdoor games, click here for ideas that can last you well into fall.
Kids who love to explore will have a blast at a camping-themed adventure party. Set up tents to give party-goers a shady spot to enjoy their s'mores. Pass out magnifying glasses as take-home favors, and create plenty of engaging entertainment with a nature scavenger hunt.
Nothing says summer to sports fans like a day at the ballpark. Serve up hot dogs, Cracker Jacks, and baseball cupcakes. Have gloves and balls handy for kids to toss and don’t forget to have all the party guests sign a baseball as a special token for your baseball-loving birthday kid to cherish.
It really wouldn't be summer without a trip to the beach. Set up a sandbox and let the kids dig for buried treasure. Play hot potato with a beach ball. Serve up refreshing beachy treats, like popsicles and watermelon. Give the guests sand buckets and shovels, or this adorable sandcastle kit from Mama Papa Bubba, as take-home favors.
Cast your line and reel in some excitement with this summer birthday party idea. You don’t have to have access to a lake to catch fish, instead set up a kiddie pool and play go-fish with DIY fishing poles with magnets. Don't forget to serve kid classics, like worms in dirt!
Ice cream and summer go together like… well, ice cream and summer. This match made in birthday party heaven will not only give guests a sweet treat, but it will also keep them cool in the heat. Set up an ice cream bar like the ones featured here and they’ll have a blast coming up with their own concoctions.
Take advantage of those warm summer nights with a party after dark. Set up your party space with black lights and pass out glowing accessories, like bracelets and glasses. Set up glow-in-the-dark games, like hopscotch, and let your guests get creative with glow chalk, like this DIY recipe from Growing A Jeweled Rose. Check out these dark play ideas for more glowing activities.
Summer is packed with music festivals, so why not turn your party into a birthday-palooza with a backyard music fest? Instead of hiring a band, let your little crooners take the spotlight with a karaoke party. Pass out party invites that look VIP concert passes. Set up a stage with a sparkly backdrop and mic stands and get ready to jam while the kids rock the day away. While the guests wait their turn, they can deck themselves out like rock stars with wigs and costumes
Send your summer birthday party soaring to new heights. Serve up kite-shaped cakes and cookies. Give each child a kite (this counts as your party favor!), and if the wind is in your favor, your guests can spend the rest of the day flying kites in the summer sun.
Your little bookworms will have a blast throwing a summer reading party, especially when you pack it with fun activities like book bingo, trivia games, and a book swap. Click here to read up on how it’s done, courtesy of Nerdy Book Club.
Floral themes scream summer, and what better way to celebrate your kid than with a custom-designed flower party? Alice's Table is a professional service that brings everything you'll need (flowers, clippers, water, and more) to create a flower crown right to your home. They'll even provide a party page and invites if needed! Available in 31 states.
Find out more: alicestable/throwaparty.com
So I started hiking nearly every day withe her in a front carrier, her oxygen tank on my back, and our two dogs eagerly trotting alongside. We started small (we’re talking a mile or two at first) and gradually built up to 8-10 mile hikes.
Now, at 4 years old, she’ll tackle over 5-mile challenging hikes on her own two feet and her little brother either toddles along or enjoys a ride in a carrier.
I’ve never subscribed to the idea that you must give up your passions if you have kids, including epic outdoor adventures. Hiking is no exception! Actually, I would argue the joys of appreciating nature with your littles and watching them develop confidence and new skills outweigh the challenges!
Sure, you may need to make modifications and adjust expectations, especially in the beginning, but it is well worth it. Hiking with kids is an excellent way to spend quality time together and get some fresh air and exercise, all of which have proven benefits for health and well-being.
Read on for our 10 best tips for hiking with kids, including gear recommendations.
Whether heading out with a baby in a pack carrier or a child able to hike along, it is a good idea to start with shorter treks to keep it positive and build confidence!
I recommend setting an easily attainable distance for a first venture or making sure there are bail-out points if you choose a longer hiking trail.
You want your kids to develop a positive association with hiking and build a genuine love for it.
This depends on many factors, but a good rule of thumb is a mile per year of age. That said, some kids can do more, especially if you work up to it! As you try longer distances, break up bigger hikes and incorporate lots of snack breaks!
We tend to choose trails based on factors like convenience, recommendations, and landmarks or views. It’s also fun to choose treks with features that play into your kid’s interests like waterfalls or certain animals.
Here are some of my favorite resources for finding family-friendly hiking trails:
Having the right mindset can make or break an adventure with kids. Here are some important things to remember about hiking with kids:
You can’t overestimate the importance of having enough snacks and plenty of water.
On our hikes, we try to pack more food and water than we think we’ll need in case the kiddos are extra hungry or the trek is longer than expected!
Some of my favorite kid-friendly snacks include:
Read next: Need some snack ideas? Here are our favorite hiking snacks for your next outdoor adventure.
Don’t forget, hiking is not just about attaining a certain distance or getting to a destination, but the joy of the journey.
Kids are naturally curious and want to explore their surroundings. Instead of rushing them all the time, follow their lead.
Slowing down and enjoying the details may mean you don’t get as far, but the rewards of connecting with your child and building their love for nature will be well worth it.
Letting even young kids play an active role and offering choices can help them feel empowered and boost their confidence!
Try these tips:
Kids have bad days like the rest of us, but we can help set the tone by keeping things positive and upbeat.
Here are a few ways to keep kids motivated while hiking:
SOS, the whining has begun and things are starting to go downhill. How can you help turn things around and keep your kiddo motivated? Try these tips:
Remember, there is no bad weather – only bad gear. So if getting outside with the kids is important to you, invest in quality outdoor clothing and accessories for kiddos. If they’re comfortable, they’ll enjoy it more!
In warmer months, lightweight, full-coverage UV clothing is a great way to protect little ones’ from sunburns and bug bites.
In colder months, layer, layer, layer. Here’s what we pack on colder hikes with kids:
Tip: It’s always a good idea to throw a backup kiddo outfit and extra layers in your daypack in case things get wet or messy.
Fortunately, you truly don’t need much for hiking with kids. Still, it is good to have some essentials. You can consider additional supplies if you start to get into longer hikes and more difficult terrain.
Comfortable shoes or boots with grippy bottoms and toe bed protection will do the trick!
Hiking sandals are a great option if you plan to hike somewhere warm with lots of water. The kids can tromp around in streams and puddles, and you don’t have to worry about shoes getting wet.
Our favorite brands of active kiddo shoes are KEEN, with lots of options for toddlers and kids.
Shop Kids KEEN Hiking Footwear at:
When babies are tiny and not moving around as much, a soft infant carrier is plenty and supports them well enough.
Unfortunately, I have never found baby wraps supportive enough for hikes as they seem to get more easily jostled around.
We love our Ergo baby and Baby Bjorn carriers for hiking and everyday use.
Shop Ergo Baby AERLOOM Baby Carrier at:
A comfortable hiking carrier or pack is worth spending some time looking into. As they grow, you’ll want something with more support.
Even if you think your toddler can trek on their own, it’s an excellent backup to have a carrier if they get tired. It’s so much more comfortable to hike with their weight nicely distributed and safer to have your hands free.
Here are some tips to consider when shopping around for a kids’ hiking carrier:
I recommend heading to your local REI or outdoor gear shop and trying some out before buying one.
We’ve loved our Deuter kid comfort pack carrier and have friends that rave about their Osprey carriers.
Shop the Deuter Kid Comfort Pro at:
If you’re not using a backpack carrier, a sturdy pack with lots of pockets for snacks and supplies is essential.
REI and Osprey have our favorite options for packs for kids and grownups alike.
Here are the essentials to carry in your day pack:
Building a simple hiking first aid kit is also a smart move:
Optional:
Alternatively, My Medic makes great first-aid mod packs like the Hiker Medic and the Bite and Sting pack.
Shop the Hiker Medic at:
You can always add to your kit if you do more extensive hikes or overnights like backpacking.
Never underestimate a child’s thirst for knowledge and ability to learn facts and skills. Exploring nature together is an excellent chance to nurture their interests and curiosity about the world. My daughter asks the best questions and really opens up when we’re spending time outdoors, free from distractions.
As you hike, you can cover topics that come up organically like the nature you encounter, natural phenomena, environmental conservation, etc. You can also just wait and see what questions they bring up, and take it from there!
Don’t worry if you don’t have all the answers. Just make a point to write them down or put them in your phone and assure the kids you can look up the answers together later. Older kids might like a nature journal to jot down different animals and plant life they see.
Be sure to take the opportunity to teach them about safety topics and trail etiquette too.
Here are a few Leave No Trace and safety topics you can educate on:
Kids are silly by nature, and keeping things light and fun can help keep spirits up! As long as you’re not disturbing other hikers, you can sing songs, tell stories and jokes and play games.
Below are some of our favorite trail games:
Great for: All ages
How to play: Take turns saying “I spy with my little eye something __”
Fill in the blank with a descriptor like color or size, etc.
Great for: All ages
How to play: Make a list of things you will likely encounter on the trail for the kiddos to find.
You can find examples online or come up with your own.
Great for: Preschool to early school age
How to play: Cut out pieces of paper in different colors or make small swatches of different colors on one piece of paper.
Kids get to look for items that match each color!
You can also paint each section of an egg carton, have kids find items that match each color, and then place them inside.
Great for: Preschool and up
Each person takes turns telling a story, and then the next person adds to it, picking up where the last person left off.
Great for: Preschool
How to play: Look for things along the trail that look like they could be where fairies, elves or gnomes might live, ie. tree holes, small caves, and mushrooms.
You can create a storyline about where they might play, what they eat, etc.
Our 4-year-old loves this game and you can really let their imaginations run with it.
There is a saying that applies well to adventuring with kids: don’t let “perfect be the enemy of good!”
In other words, don’t get so hung up on waiting until the conditions are ideal, everyone is caught up on sleep, moods are the best, etc., or you might never go!
Along those lines, having nice gear is great but not mandatory. Some of our favorite hikes have been days we forgot the right shoes and didn’t have our hiking carrier. You make it work, and sometimes it ends up wonderfully!
I am not suggesting you throw all planning out the window, but I do recommend starting and getting over the hurdle of that first outing! You will continue to learn every trek, and it will seem less overwhelming once you get out there!
Happy hiking!
READ NEXT
Looking for more ideas and tips for exploring the great outdoors with kids? Check out these related blog posts:
What questions do you have about hiking with kids? Are there any tips you’d add to this post? What are your favorite games to play while out on the trail? Leave a comment below!
To see more of Louisa’s work, check out her blog mountainmamamd.com
The post 10 Practical Tips for Hiking with Kids appeared first on Bearfoot Theory.
]]>Kids really do say the darndest things, often at the most inopportune times.
It seems you’re always out and about – at the grocery store, school drop-off, a restaurant or a public restroom – when your child decides to roast you, blow up your spot or shout something inappropriate at full-volume.
Yep, it’s mortifying, but it’s also (usually) pretty funny – at least in retrospect.
We asked the HuffPost Parents community to share their most memorable stories and pulled in some from Twitter as well.
Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
“In church at my grandfather’s funeral, my daughter wiggles her fingers like a magician and says, ‘Abra cadabra, make this body disappear!’ Followed later in the service with, ‘Can you see my farts?’” — Chuck C.
I’m mortified for the woman who’s toddler just yelled “WOW MOM YOU HAVE A REALLY HAIRY BUTT! “ in the IKEA restroom.
— hahahaheater ❄️🌨️☃️ (@dishs_up) October 24, 2020
...That woman was me.
“Was in Sam’s Club doing the grocery shopping with my then-5-year-old, who was learning to read at the time. He was reading me each item on the grocery list. He got to pantyliners and in the loudest voice you can imagine, he says ‘MOMMY, WHAT ARE PANTY LINERS?’
“I hushed him and told him I would tell him in a minute, but he kept repeating ‘MOMMY, WHAT ARE PANTY LINERS?’ The older gentleman in the aisle could not contain his laughter. From that day forward, the grocery list contained the initials ‘PL.’” — Christine G.
3yo just yelled in the grocery store: MASTER NUT, COME AND MAKE YOUR STINKS COME TRUE!
— Momsense Ensues (@momsense_ensues) June 10, 2018
I don’t know what it means, but I’m still pretty embarrassed.
“At a supermarket at maybe 9 a.m. or 10 a.m., my then-3-year-old says with what appeared to be a voice as loud and clear as the morning sun itself: ‘Mom, are you having wine for breakfast?’
“I was getting two bottles of beetroot juice for the baby shower we were on our way to. A few days earlier we had been to a fancy wine store to get a present for my father-in-law, so I suppose that was the reason. But honestly in the moment I was too embarrassed to remember. I doubt I have ever made it out of a supermarket faster before or since then.” — Ida S.
My 3-year-old randomly stood up and shouted, “Ow, my butt crack!”
— James Breakwell, Exploding Unicorn (@XplodingUnicorn) July 10, 2017
We won't be coming to this restaurant again.
“I was at a baseball game with my son, around age 4, and I took him in the bathroom with me. He asked me where my penis was, to which I replied, ‘I don’t have a penis.’ And then he YELLED, ‘No penis today?!’ Loud enough for the whole bathroom to hear.” — Courtney E.
My daughter just yelled out "I HATE THE SPINACH!" in this restaurant, which wouldn't be a big deal but she pronounces spinach as "Spanish."
— Faux Ma (@Faux_Ma) October 8, 2015
“My son once said, very loudly to all who could hear, while we were getting changed at the swimming pool, ‘Mummy, why do you have a beard on your bottom?’” — F.H.
My toddler just yelled “WHAT WAS THAT NOISE !?” At the end of the first song proformed by the elementary school band. So at least my daughter knows we’re here.
— hahahaheater ❄️🌨️☃️ (@dishs_up) February 13, 2020
“At a bookstore, I took my daughter, probably age 4 or so, with me into the stall where I had to change a tampon. She narrated the entire process, ‘What’s that, Mommy? Why is it red? That’s blood? What are you doing with it? What are you doing with that white thing? Why are you putting it there?’
“And when I came out there was a woman in her early 50s just shaking with laughter. I said, ‘You now know more about me than you ever wanted to,’ and she said her daughter was 17 and it was a pleasant reminder of those early years.” — Liz C.
We were out in public when my 2-year-old yelled, "YOU ALWAYS BEAT ME!"
— James Breakwell, Exploding Unicorn (@XplodingUnicorn) October 8, 2018
Based on the look on the other parents' faces, I'm guessing they didn't know we just finished a race.
“At kindergarten orientation, my son kept calling tadpoles sperm.” — Brittany O.
]]>We just walked into a public restroom and 4 yelled that it smelled like girl poop. Hubby asked what that meant. 4 said, “it smells a lot like mommy’s poop!”
— Momsense Ensues (@momsense_ensues) August 15, 2018
In case you’re wondering how I keep my ego in check. #MomSquad#PatFrat
Traveling with a small child can seem daunting, more work than staying home, and generally…not worth it. You have to cart this often-cranky person and their gear around while your plans of spending an afternoon relaxing on the beach take a back seat to naptimes and tantrums.
I get it. My husband and I spent over a year and a half traveling full-time to 20 countries with our toddler son and actually came to enjoy it after we adjusted our expectations a bit and slowed everything down. Here are some of our top tips for how to actually enjoy traveling with a toddler.
While we’re firm believers that you can successfully travel as a family without exclusively visiting theme parks and children’s museums for the next 18 years, you will need to manage your expectations. Pick a reasonable amount of activities per day (we like a morning and afternoon activity with time for nap/quiet time in between) and consider the rest a bonus. Visiting a museum in the morning? Opt for a more casual stroll around a neighborhood + a visit to a local playground in the afternoon. And you know this already, but life with a kid means things take approximately 50% more time than you estimate that they will, so if Google Maps tells you it will take 20 minutes to get somewhere, allow 30.
Most everything that’s truly a necessity can be purchased anywhere in the world. Pack enough that you’re not stressed, but not so much that you’re carting around anything more than the essentials. For us, that means tossing a few diapers into a tote, along with a water bottle, and a couple of toy cars. It can be fun finding other things that you need while on the go, for instance, trying a new local snack, or letting your kid pick out a small toy at a local toy shop.
Everyone has different travel styles and when you add kids to the mix, that expands exponentially.
Establish what matters most to you and plan that, and remain flexible on the rest. If space to decompress is important, book an Airbnb with a large living room or an outdoor space. If convenience is your number one, sacrifice space for location. If you hate having to make game-time decisions, pre-book a few museum slots. Spending time establishing and communicating your priorities (and potential stressors) will free up time to enjoy the trip when it comes around.
Easier said than done, but if there’s one constant to traveling with children it is that things will go wrong. Stuff that happens at home will happen on the road. Tantrums, picky eating, bad moods—these will happen. Focus on the things that go smoothly and the memories you’re creating as a family. Attitude is everything.
It’s easy to get lost in planning all of the activities and museums, but don’t forget the extremely likely scenario that your child might be more interested in the gravel path outside the museum than the dinosaur fossils inside it. As frustrating as this may be, it can be helpful to view each component of your day as an opportunity for your child to find something they love. The public bus or metro ride to a destination could be as exciting as the destination itself, and that’s ok.
This might seem counterintuitive, but if you’re thinking about traveling with a child, travel is probably something you enjoyed before you became a parent or caregiver. Sure…you have to travel differently now, but it’s possible to still do the things you enjoyed before your little one was even a twinkle in your eye. We like to strike a balance between catering to our son and inserting him into our plans. Contemporary art museums? Full of flashy exhibits that kids will love! Long train rides? Perfect for on-the-go naps and much-needed downtime. Need an adult beverage? Breweries are super-kid friendly and many have outside spaces for your little one to burn off some energy. Balancing some dedicated children’s activities with things you enjoy too is totally fine and will help you enjoy your time together.
]]>Sure, summer means longer days, damp bathing suits, popsicles for breakfast, and of course, a break from homework. We definitely think those are reasons to celebrate, but with all the play and relaxation, there’s a chance you’ll run into the summer slide. This (relatively new) concept has experts keeping us on our toes (like we needed another thing), warning that the 3-ish months of summer vacation can lead to a learning regression that can make heading back to school a challenge. Yikes, right? Don’t panic. While younger kiddos are more susceptible to the summer slide, there are some easy ways to prevent it. Enter educational learning toys.
If you cringed reading that, it’s okay. “Educational toys” makes us think about boring toys-that-are-actually-schoolwork. The ones that get used once—if that—and feel way more like a chore than play. And we all know the best way for kids to learn is through play. So we’ve done some digging and found some really cool toys that will not only beat the boring blues, they also keep their minds firing on all cylinders. These are serious summer heroes. Whether you’re hoping to focus on math, reading, writing, or a general combination, they’ll have fun and maybe even let you get through a full Zoom meeting without interruption while they sharpen their skills.
Storypod is the only audio player for 0-6-year-olds focused on early child development. Instead of being just another audio toy, it’s an audio learning system your child can use from birth to elementary school. You’ll find something to soothe the daily bedtime routine, engage listening, and learning across every product mapped to specific ages and stages. From yarn figures for the littlest ones, books to spark early reading interest and literacy skills to interactive stickers that allow you to create custom and eternal audio memories and stories.
Whether you choose to snag the Storypod alone or as a subscription where you'll save $20, this'll be one that stays with your kiddo for a while. Storypod ($99.00)—Buy Here! Storypod Subscription Bundle—Buy Here!
*Save 15% with code TINYBEANS15 through 6/30!
Kiddos learn best when they’re engaged in hands-on learning, and Osmo teaches with games connecting digital-physical interactions. Each game is designed to bounce the image of the game pieces or drawing the player arranges right onto their device screen. They’re able to see how their movements impact their game, blending the digital game world with their moves in front of them. And don’t worry—the Osmo Reflector is covered so it only captures images in a bounded area. Your child’s privacy is always protected.
Math, reading, and even coding are all at their fingertips, and your Osmo Starter Kit is based on your little one's age and skill level. Oh, and Osmo is compatible with iPads or Fire Tablets. Osmo (Starting at $69.00)—Buy Here!
KiwiCo creates educational toys for kids 0-16, so they know a thing or two about stimulating their imagination. You can purchase their kits one at a time, or you can take the subscription route and get the fun delivered monthly. Kiwi Crate ($23.95+)—Buy Here!
Botley is ready to code right out of the box! Have 5 AAA batteries and a Phillips screwdriver nearby and this coding robot will have your kiddo coding in minutes with code games, creativity, and fun. Botley comes with a remote programmer, detachable robot arms, 40 coding cards, 6 double-sided tiles, 27 obstacle building pieces and a starter guide with coding challenges. Botley Coding Robot ($54.06)—Buy Here!
This system is designed specifically to keep toddlers engaged and stimulated with an ad-free, subscription-free content. Focus on cognitive development, early literacy, numeracy education, social skills, and emotional growth easily with this toddler tablet. Animal Island Sit & Play Plus Preschool Learning System ($229.00)—Buy Here!
Designed for kids ages 3-5, this Matching Letter Set includes 30 cards with 60 different words, 10 letter cubes, and a tray to help your little learn letter recognition, object recognition, spelling, and word formation. See ya, flash cards. Available in 3 colors. Matching Letter Set ($15.99)—Buy Here!
Okay, maybe we lied. We'll keep the flashcards, as long as they're as entertaining as these. They teach kids how to pronounce the words on each card, plus helps them identify sight words, spelling, and developing speech skills. Talking Sight Words ($27.89)—Buy Here!
With 6 double-sided activity mats, 2 Skilly Billy dry erase pens, 1 duster cloth, and 1 achievement certificate, this learn-through-repetition set will keep them practicing their writing all summer. I Can Write ($24.97)—Buy Here!
Create your very own Vincent Van Gogh masterpiece! This 2D pixel puzzle comes with 2,408 pieces, a color-coded template and a Pix Brix tool for easy building. Pix Brix Pixel Art Puzzle Bricks ($34.57)—Buy Here!
Created by a kindergarten teacher devoted to exploring fun ways to teach reading to young kids, The Fidget Game aims to teach curriculum-appropriate Dolch Words or sight words from Pre-K to 3rd Grade kids. This game can help your kids recognize, read, pronounce, spell, and master these high-frequency words from the Dolch List. Not only will they stay reading, they might even be heading into the school year ahead. The Fidget Game ($29.99)—Buy Here!
The frog balance scale set comes with 30 double-sided cards, 19 small frog figurines, digits 1-10, 2 weighing plates, and 1 frog scale. It helps teach kids the correlation between seeing numbers and recognizing them in writing. It also comes in a pig version, if that's more your speed. Frog Balancing Math Game ($17.00)—Buy Here!
They won't realize they're practicing math, engineering, and creative skills while they design anything their imagination can dream up. MathLink Cubes ($19.59)—Buy Here!
The Ultimate Fort Builder includes 45 poles and 25 connectors—perfect for creating any fort you can imagine—plus a step-by-step guide that shows you how to build everything from a kid’s castle to a super-cool igloo. The Ultimate Fort Builder ($59.99)—Buy Here!
This paint can set comes with 1,500 assorted colors, available in light, medium and dark palettes. This mixed set is a perfect starter kit for all pixel and construction toy fans to build anything you can imagine. Pix Brix Paint Can ($29.98)—Buy Here!
All the products listed are independently & personally selected by our shopping editors.
If you buy something from the links in this article, we may earn affiliate commission or compensation. Prices and availability reflect the time of publication.
All images courtesy of retailers.
]]>CHICAGO — Jaylin Green was still adjusting to a new school in a new neighborhood when his barely rooted new life was uprooted in March of his freshman year. Something called COVID-19 was abruptly shutting down schools and hurtling students into one of many unknowns: remote learning.
The shift was jarring enough, even with Green thinking at first that “we’re going to go and have normal class in a week or so.”
When that week turned into the rest of the school year, the sense of isolation set in.
“It was really challenging. … I was just in my room, just looking at a computer screen, and I know there’s a lot of people there, but I was still by myself,” said Green, now part of the class of 2023 of Chicago’s Mather High School, whose seniors graduated Wednesday evening.
Green and his peers have been dubbed by some the “class of COVID” — freshmen when the pandemic hit and, as it happened, seniors on the verge of earning their diplomas when the public health emergency formally ended in May. The coronavirus brought unprecedented academic, social and psychological upheaval even to those who didn’t get sick or lose a loved one; for many graduating seniors, it dominated and defined their high school experience.
Green was already dealing with a lot of change before the arrival of COVID-19, even though he got good grades his first semester as a freshman. He’d recently moved from the Southwest Side to the North Side, a transfer to Mather and without his old social crutches. And in Chicago Public Schools, the school year had already been disrupted by a two-week teachers strike that fall.
Then when COVID-19 hit, Green was having to juggle full-time remote learning with helping care for his toddler-aged nieces and nephews while other family members worked. Sometimes the stress got to him.
“It kicked into depression, and I struggled to be positive and felt like ‘woah, what’s happening?’ It was just a lot of confusion.”
Part of what helped Green stay the course was the one-on-one support from Stephanie Estrada, a student support manager at Mather.
“I’d talk to her and feel somewhat safe, not have to deal with other people, not my family or friends.”
Marist High School students Kamryn Chaney and Demarco Hunter talk before their graduation ceremony on May 18, 2023. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/TNS)
Marist High School students walk to the school football field for their graduation ceremony on May 18, 2023. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/TNS)
Marist High School student Joey Fortner hugs a teacher before the school’s graduation ceremony on May 18, 2023. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/TNS)
Estrada works at Mather in partnership with Communities In Schools of Chicago, one of the city’s largest education nonprofits, to provide counseling to a caseload of 50 students. She had already been working with Green and other students pre-pandemic; that work, too, had to move online.
“The conversations that were hardest to have were the ones where students were experiencing grief, because a lot of what happened during COVID was the loss of family members, the loss of friends,” Estrada said. “And to have those conversations not in person was very difficult.”
Estrada recalls one day asking Green how his classes were going and Green responded that he hadn’t even logged on yet. It was noon.
“He had lost motivation and it was a recurring thing,” Estrada said. “Looking back, that’s memorable to me because I now see him and he’s on time for school, he’s involved, he stays after school — so I see a big difference in him.”
For all the focus on test scores and learning loss, Estrada said there needs to be a greater emphasis on the impact of the pandemic on students’ mental health.
“I firmly believe that students are not able to perform academically if they don’t have the social-emotional supports that they need,” she said. “They are going to have a tough time focusing on school work if they’re experiencing depression or anxiety, if they’ve got social issues happening.”
Ismael Flores is another member of the class of 2023 who never thought at first a two-week school shutdown would turn into a yearslong disruption.
He still recalls March 13, 2020, when all the students and staff of Marist High School gathered in the gym as officials announced spring break would be two weeks instead of one. That was the day Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered all schools to shut down.
“To be quite frank, after COVID, I don’t think everything ever was the same,” Flores said moments before receiving his diploma last month from Marist, a Catholic school on Chicago’s Southwest Side.
One way the pandemic affected Flores, a resident of Palos Heights, was that he wasn’t able to get the full experience of being a student ambassador. If not for COVID-19, he’d have spent time giving tours at the school’s open house, visiting elementary schools and assisting with special events.
“Freshman year I had so much fun, I enjoyed every day. After COVID, it really impacted me, just kind of reminding myself every day, when am I going to be finishing? It made my school days at Marist feel longer,” Flores said.
During the graduation ceremony that sent off 387 seniors, Marist Principal Meg Dunneback noted that their high school experience began typically enough, from the anxieties of learning their class schedules to attending homecoming.
By sophomore year, the school had reopened — sooner than local public schools — on a “blended” schedule, meaning two groups of students alternated between online and in-person classes for a few hours a day.
That year, “you were never together as a full class,” Dunneback said. “Classes were so different, but hey, at least you were here and you were learning.”
When junior year rolled in, students attended school in person wearing masks, and lunch breaks were split, with some students in the gym and others in the cafeteria.
Senior year was the students’ “most back-to-normal year since early on that freshman year,” Dunneback said. “So we’ve come full circle. You did it all and you did it during a pandemic. You demonstrated perseverance.”
Fellow Marist graduating senior Demarco Hunter, 18, of Lansing, said it was strange having to stare at a screen all day for school work.
“I went from being active, working out anywhere between four to six times a week, to pretty much doing nothing and just sitting down (with) my iPad the whole day,” Hunter said. “It was a lot of adjustment to get used to that.”
As a football player, Hunter struggled with split schedules his sophomore year. He often had to go to practice on days he had online learning. The usual season was upended, with training in the fall and only a six-game season in the spring.
“I wish that time wasn’t taken from us,” he said. “There’s no telling what we would’ve been able to do in that time.”
For all the disruption, fear and challenges the pandemic brought, some seniors said they gained something useful from the experience.
Melina Fonseca, a graduating senior at Chicago’s John Hancock College Preparatory High School, said she’d just signed up to run track when the school had to close.
Though her first extracurricular experience “went down the drain immediately,” Fonseca said being at home allowed her to focus more on academics without the usual social distractions. But when she returned to school a year and a half later, in a brand-new building, she said felt a “culture shock.”
“It was like I was doing my freshman year all over again, I had to get used to this brand-new space, and I had to continue to make friends all over again,” Fonseca said. “I had to try to get involved, and so I was trying out different things. I was trying to find what made sense to me. … It was just like before, but entirely different with the restrictions put in place.”
With just over 200 students in her grade, Fonseca said the students created a tightknit community since returning to school.
Principal Vanessa Puentes saw students in the class of 2023 return to school ready to find their voices and advocate for what they need to feel safe and successful. She said she hopes the students can hold onto these skills to better themselves, their families and their communities.
“It’s really incredible what my students have done since then,” Puentes said. “I have kids that are going to amazing colleges that have bounced back from the pandemic, who are pushing me to really think about what school means for young people.”
Deja Miles is a member of the Englewood STEM High School class of 2023 — the school’s first.
For Miles, the most challenging part of the pandemic was transitioning back to in-person learning.
“We were so used to being at home doing work, being in our own comfort zone, and not being in a context socially with our friends or other students,” she said. “So coming back in contact with them, seeing new students that we didn’t see before, it was a social change.”
Her classmateIja Lanford said she preferred learning remotely because the instruction felt more personal, and Kamarah McNulty shared that the class of 2023 had to “start over” socially after spending time apart.
Joserik Figueroa-Duran, a senior at Chicago’s Whitney Young Magnet High School, said the early pandemic days felt like “a break from real life” for her. During that time, she said, she spent almost all her time in her room, and her great-grandfather, with whom she was close, died.
“My mental health became so much worse because I felt like I lost such a big part of my life,” Figueroa-Duran said. “And I was just so unmotivated at school.”
After traveling to Mexico to attend the funeral, many family members caught COVID-19, which only added to the stress. Figueroa-Duran said her school counselors were able to help through offering group therapy sessions and by checking in with her over email, and teachers made accommodations to help her finish her classwork during that time.
The pandemic also made it difficult for Figueroa-Duran to plan for a life after high school.
“Throughout the pandemic, I did not know what I wanted to do with my life,” she said. “I really was just thinking, I’m going to graduate school and not do anything afterwards.”
Since childhood, she’d been participating in Young Eagles, a program through which local pilots introduce students to aviation and take them on flights. Those had to stop at the beginning of the pandemic, but when the restrictions were lifted, she once again realized how much she loved airplanes.
“After that, everything in my world just became about airplanes,” she said.
She began taking dual enrollment classes in aviation maintenance through Olive-Harvey College during the second semester of her junior year, once she felt mentally prepared to get started. Figueroa-Duran will graduate this month with 15 college credits, having taken classes after school twice a week and every day over the summer. Figueroa-Duran said she’s learned the importance of doing something every day to prepare for her future.
During the pandemic, she said, many of her peers struggled emotionally to the extent that they stopped talking to their friends. While she and her friends made up later, Figueroa-Duran said they were so estranged during the height of COVID-19 that they had no idea the challenges one another experienced.
“I don’t know if they lost a parent or a sibling and it’s just so hard because there’s nobody really wants to talk about that either,” she said.
Figueroa-Duran’s mother, Erika Duran, said she found it difficult to encourage her daughter when she was at home and it felt like the world was ending.
Duran, who works at Whitney Young as a school associate, still sees the effects of COVID-19 and the loss of social, emotional and academic connections the students endured. She also sees the impact of grief on many students who lost loved ones.
“I always tell kids, ‘You’re not alone. You always have someone to talk to here,’” Duran said. “’Think about how many people went through what you went through.’”
___
©2023 Chicago Tribune. Visit at chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
]]>Kids may say the darndest things, but parentstweet about them in the funniest ways.
Every week, we round up the most hilarious quips from parents on Twitter to spread the joy.
Scroll down to read the latest batch:
the problem with raising children who have good character is they become complete narcs when you try to sneak in candy into the movie theater
— That Mom Tho (@mom_tho) May 29, 2023
The preschoolers got to choose a free book from the book fair, so my kid came home with one we already have because she knows she likes it, and I can’t fault that logic
— Real Life Mommy (@reallifemommy3) June 1, 2023
my two favorite pages from the most specific children’s book of all time pic.twitter.com/JvhimNtq1v
— Alexandra Petri (@petridishes) May 31, 2023
No one is full of more false hope than a parent with a new chore chart.
— Simon Holland (@simoncholland) May 31, 2023
My daughter has started a fun new game where she tries to guess my age with random numbers like 72 or 94. So fun.
— Katie D (@KatieDeal99) May 30, 2023
My brain keeps trying to turn this into a country song pic.twitter.com/dOhrAhefxe
— meghan (@deloisivete) May 31, 2023
hell hath no fury like a toddler who lost the chance to push a button
— Dadman Walking (@dadmann_walking) June 1, 2023
growing up the baby of the family and then becoming a parent is daily surprise. what do you mean it’s my job to get everyone’s stuff together for the beach. what do you mean I’m in charge of remembering when sunscreen needs to be reapplied and finding a parking spot. I wanna swim
— 🧃you or someone you love🧃 (@hannahmsays) May 29, 2023
My son’s preschool class had caterpillars that turned into butterflies. According to him, the proper name for them are “Wet Lady Butterflies.” After a quick Google search, I’m pretty sure that’s NOT what they’re called.
— Mediocre Mom (@MediocreMamaa) May 31, 2023
ohhhhh my GOD I just told the dog “hey we’ll go for a walk once the baby’s awake, okay?”
— madeline odent (@oldenoughtosay) May 28, 2023
and she looked at me, ran upstairs, stuck her head in the nursery, and HOWLED
I wish Disney would adopt the titles my daughter has given their movies, which includes Beauty & the Beast, Beauty & the Beast: Real (live action), Aladdin, Aladdin: Real, Little Mermaid, and the highly anticipated Little Mermaid: Real
— Alison Bennett (@bennettleigh) May 28, 2023
My 2nd grader got a second chance to take her math test on fractions. So now both of us are taking online classes on fractions
— Vinod Chhaproo (@Chhapiness) June 2, 2023
My kids have started diving into the massive pile of clean laundry like a pile of leaves so I’m not neglecting chores, I’m encouraging creative play.
— One Awkward Mom (@oneawkwardmom) May 31, 2023
My toddler is in the phase where he wants to do it, but he also wants me to do it, and there's literally no winning.
— Raw Motherhood (@MetteAngerhofer) June 2, 2023
I bought Bluey sheets so I can encourage my 2yo to sleep in her own bed.
— Mom With No Plan (@MomWithNoPlan) May 31, 2023
She LOVES the sheets.
She also happens to love them better when she puts them on my bed at 2am.
Just found my kid’s missing library book with two days left in the school year so maybe I should buy a lottery ticket
— meghan (@deloisivete) May 29, 2023
If you enjoy being broken out of your sleep at 3am because of a punt kick to the back by a very tall and wildly sleeping 9yo boy in YOUR bed - parenting may be for you...
— Mom-B-Momming (@iwasjusthungry) June 1, 2023
I went to culinary school. I cook for my kids every single day, and yet my 5-year-old’s favorite food is a “cheese-up” where she takes a slice of cheese, dumps ketchup down the middle, and rolls it up like some kind of cursed enchilada.
— The Dad (@thedad) June 1, 2023
As a parent there’s so many things that need to get done each weekend. It’s a never ending task list. My 6yo had one thing he wanted to do this weekend, which was watching the movie Inside Out, and he’d completed that task by 7am on Saturday.
— Kevin The Dad (@kevinthedad) May 27, 2023
A game show where contestants race to put shoes on a kid but one shoe is under the couch and the other is in a mud puddle out back and who knows where the fuck the kid is.
— Daddy Go Fish (@daddygofish) May 31, 2023
]]>Are you having a nice three day weekend or did you buy the wrong brand of hot dogs and have the audacity to serve them to your 6yo?
— Snarky Mommy (@SnarkyMommy78) May 28, 2023
Today, Ohio homeschooling mom of four, Leslie Alvis, is here sharing seven simple nature activities that we can use to unlock the boundless curiosity within our kids’ hearts, nurturing a deep love for the Earth and fostering profound bonds with the natural world. From the thrill of nature collecting to the mystery of deciphering animal tracks, from the excitement of scavenger hunts to the knowledge gained through field guides, these activities offer invaluable opportunities for learning and exploration. Join us as we delve into each of these activities (and more!), unraveling their potential to create lifelong bonds with nature and empower our children to become stewards of the earth.
Nature and children go together with a beautiful synergy. Filled with wonder and energy, they simply belong together. Nature never fails to awe, entertain, and inspire bright, curious minds. I believe that children need regular nature time as an essential part of a rich childhood.
Surrounded by nature’s beauty and rhythms, kids learn to appreciate and understand the natural world around them. Many times, all children need is time outside to be creative and make up their own nature activities. But if you’re needing a starting place, or just some fresh inspiration for getting your kids involved in nature, these simple outdoor nature activities are a great way to keep your kids engaged, learning, and enjoying nature!
These seven simple yet powerful nature activities can help us create lifelong bonds between our children and the great outdoors. From the thrill of nature collecting to the serenity of nature sit spotting, from the excitement of scavenger hunts to the enriching learning with field guides, each activity holds its own unique magic.
Nature collecting never fails to interest and entertain kids. The idea is simple—take a basket or bucket, and get outside to see what you can gather from the natural world. Kids love collecting bits of nature—from rocks and sticks, leaves and nuts, to flowers and discarded insect exoskeletons (or even bleached animal bones!). Nature offers something for everyone.
The child who is drawn to beauty will find marvels wherever he or she looks. The child who delights in the unusual will find strange and wondrous things. So, when you take the time to slow down and intentionally look for nature specimens, your child can safely collect and study. It brings so much fun and wonder to a very basic walk.
There are places you can collect nature specimens, and there are places where you can’t. This activity works great, even just in your own backyard. But, it’s important to teach your kids that what may be appropriate in your backyard may not be okay in a public place—or even someone else’s yard.
Some areas, like nature preserves, are intended to be enjoyed without touching or taking any part of nature. In other places, like a public park, it might be okay to pick up fallen nuts or leaves, but not to pick flowers. And then you may have access to places, like private property or woods, where your child can gather all kinds of bits of nature with the owner’s permission.
Although learning the concept to only take what you need (and leaving plenty for others and for nature) can be a struggle, it’s a great lesson for kids to learn to be respectful of the natural world and the different situations in which they explore it. One of the ways we’ve taught this is by using a simple concept from a children’s book called If Everybody Did. This book helps kids understand that maybe it’s okay for one kid to pick a flower, but what if everybody did? The sketched illustration shows a flower garden picked bare. In that simple way, it helps teach kids to consider that something which may not be wrong could be damaging if everyone did it. We use that concept a lot when teaching our kids to be careful with gathering nature. But, when you have permission and know you’re not going to damage the plants or diminish the beauty, it’s so much fun to collect nature specimens.
Nature collecting is a wonderful activity that allows children to engage with their surroundings, explore different ecosystems, and develop a deep appreciation for the natural world. Encourage your child’s curiosity and let them take the lead. Allow them to explore and collect items that catch their attention, even if they seem insignificant to you. Every discovery holds value in fostering their connection to nature. Offer guidance and teach your child to identify different plants, rocks, or other objects they encounter. Introduce them to guidebooks or smartphone apps that can help identify species and provide interesting facts about them (see below for more on this).
Once you’ve collected a few nature finds, what do you do with them? I recommend setting up a dedicated space in your home where your child can display their collected treasures and show them off! It could be a shelf, a table, or a shadow box. Encourage them to arrange and label their items, fostering a sense of ownership and pride in their collection. Encourage your child to document their nature collection adventures through drawings, photographs, or a nature journal. This helps them not only remember their experiences but also provides an opportunity for reflection and creativity.
My kids love to find unusual odds and ends to bring back for their fairy houses. You can also press leaves and flowers for later crafts. Depending on your kids’ ages and interests, you can also use nature guidebooks to identify and learn about the plants you find (see resources below). You can even study them with a magnifying glass or under a microscope.
Finding animal tracks is a great outdoor nature activity for kids of all ages. Even older kids enjoy the hunt for animal tracks! It’s fascinating to see what animals have been out in the woods, down by the water, or wearing paths across the meadow. I love to imagine what kinds of busyness was going on right in the same place I was standing, and the only sign of it is that simple track left behind.
Parks, nature reserves, or hiking trails are good options when looking for animal tracks. Look for areas near water sources or in quiet, undisturbed places where animal tracks are more likely to be visible. The best times to search for animal tracks are after a fresh snowfall or rainfall, when the ground is soft.
Before setting out, introduce your child to the concept of animal tracks. Explain how tracks are left behind by animals as they move, and how they can provide clues about the animal’s size, shape, and behavior.
Searching for tracks helps children to be observant and to understand the habits of different kinds of animals. Encourage your child to observe their surroundings closely. Look for tracks near water sources, along paths, or near trees. Point out other signs of animal activity, such as chewed plants, feathers, or droppings. Use the tracks as a starting point for discussing animal behavior and survival strategies. Talk about how different animals move, what they eat, and where they might live. Encourage your child to imagine the story behind the tracks they find.
For example, you can usually find raccoon tracks near water because raccoons like to wash their food and their paws. Many animals like to follow the same path day by day, perhaps headed to a water source or cutting across a grassy area.
If your kids are really into finding and studying animal tracks, use a camera or a smartphone to capture images of the tracks you discover. If the conditions are suitable, make imprints of the tracks using plaster of paris or a similar material. Use the package directions to mix it up, pour it into your track(s), and let it harden. (Make sure it’s not going to rain soon!) When it has completely cured, gently lift it out of the track, brush off any dirt or light debris that may have stuck to it, and you’ll have a casting of that animal track to keep.
A nature scavenger hunt is an easy and fun outdoor nature activity for kids. A scavenger hunt gives a readily attainable purpose and direction to outdoor time. Kids love having a list and being able to check items off it.
Whether you’re going on a hike and want to keep kids engaged, or just want to keep your little ones busy outside for a while, a printable scavenger hunt is a great activity. You don’t even have to find or make one yourself! One of our Creative Team moms recently created a bundle of the best FREE nature scavenger hunts for kids. Click over to her article to get an email with this great bundle of printables to enjoy with your kids.
Planning a nature scavenger hunt for kids can be a thrilling and engaging activity that encourages exploration and discovery. Start by selecting a theme for your nature scavenger hunt that aligns with your child’s age/interests, and your location. It could be focused on specific colors, types of plants/animals, or elements in your area. A theme adds an element of intrigue and purpose to the hunt. Our FREE nature scavenger hunt bundle includes 20+ themed printable scavenger hunts.
Define the boundaries of the scavenger hunt area to ensure your children stay safe. It could be your backyard, a nearby park, or a designated nature trail. Discuss the boundaries with them and make sure they understand where they can and cannot go. Create a sense of excitement and motivation by offering small incentives or rewards for completing the scavenger hunt. It could be a special treat, a small prize, or even a certificate of achievement. Celebrate their accomplishments and make it a memorable experience.
Your enthusiasm and excitement about the scavenger hunt will rub off on your children. Show genuine curiosity and interest in their findings, and celebrate each discovery along the way. Your positive energy will make the adventure even more enjoyable for them. By following these tips, you can create a captivating nature scavenger hunt that sparks your children’s curiosity, encourages exploration, and fosters a love for the natural world. It’s an opportunity for them to engage with their surroundings, learn about the environment, and create lasting memories.
Exploring nature with guidebooks and field guides can be a fantastic way to enhance your child’s outdoor experiences and deepen their knowledge about the natural world. Nature guidebooks and field guides are some of our favorite resources when we’re enjoying nature activities of all kinds. We’re constantly encountering flowers, trees, birds, insects, and so much more. Although we know many of the common ones in our area, we often find things we can’t identify.
Be sure to choose age-appropriate guides for your kids. Select guidebooks and field guides that are suitable for your child’s age and reading level. Look for guides with clear and concise information, engaging visuals, and easy-to-understand descriptions. Consider guides that are specifically designed for children or have a beginner-friendly approach. Take some time to read through the guides beforehand so that you are familiar with the content and layout. This will allow you to guide your child effectively and help answer their questions as they explore nature.
Begin your explorations with plants and animals that are commonly found in your local area. This makes it easier to identify and connect with the species you encounter. As your child’s interest grows, you can expand your exploration to other regions and habitats. Encourage your child to actively participate in using the guidebook. Let them take the lead in identifying and describing the species you encounter. Ask open-ended questions to stimulate their curiosity and engage them in the process.
Early on in our outdoor adventuring, I started encouraging my kids to use nature guides to help us learn more about the wonderful outdoors together. Here are some of our favorite nature guidebooks to help you with your own nature exploration!
Nature is the ultimate sensory experience. Wherever you are, whatever the weather, whatever ages your children are, nature provides a feast for the senses. All you need for this activity is a few minutes in the great outdoors! Providing nature sensory play experiences for kids can be a wonderful way to engage their senses, spark their imagination, and deepen their connection with the natural world.
First, find a peaceful place where you can settle down and be surrounded by nature. It could be a local park, a forest, your own backyard, or an open meadow. Then sit down and get everyone comfortable and quiet. Explain that you’re going to use your senses to explore nature. Encourage hands-on exploration and full-body sensory experiences. Allow your child to freely touch, feel, and interact with the natural materials. Let them dig their hands into the soil, splash in puddles, or play with leaves. Sensory play in nature encourages a tactile connection and stimulates their senses in a way that indoor play cannot replicate.
Go beyond touch and incorporate activities that engage all the senses (see below for ideas on each of the senses). This multi-sensory experience deepens their engagement and enriches their understanding of the natural world. Sensory play in nature stimulates cognitive skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity. It enhances their ability to make connections, observe patterns, and explore cause-and-effect relationships. Sensory experiences outdoors also foster a deep connection with the natural world. It helps children develop an appreciation for the environment, encourages a sense of stewardship, and nurtures a lifelong love for nature.
The beauty of this nature activity is how simple it is, and yet how even young kids can take it with them. Once you help open their senses to noticing the natural world around them, they will live richer and fuller lives, appreciating the beauty that surrounds them.
Look around you. Have the kids make a list of every natural thing they see. Trees, grass, rocks, clouds, birds—everything counts! You can write these down if you want to, or just list them out loud together. Once you’ve noticed all the obvious things, keep looking. What about that ant crawling across your big toe? That tiny flower peeking out from under the clover leaves? The bird nest almost hidden in the tree branches above?
Or, maybe you could go on a color scavenger hunt, searching for objects of different colors in nature. Observe the vibrant hues of flowers, leaves, or insects. Look for patterns in tree bark or animal markings. Use binoculars or magnifying glasses to observe details from a distance. The more you look, the more you see! Nature becomes more exciting the longer you focus on it.
Encourage your kids to touch things around them, noting the different temperatures and textures nature offers. From the rough bark of a maple tree to the silky smoothness of a blade of grass, the world around us is full of everyday nature that becomes extraordinary when you stop to consider it. Allow your kids to play with mud, sand, or clay, and explore its malleability and consistency. Let kids use their hands to explore the temperature and texture of water in a stream or puddle. Find objects with varying textures, such as rough bark, soft moss, or smooth pebbles.
Close your eyes for this one. Lie down on your back and simply focus for a bit on how nature surrounds you, even when you can’t see it. What do you hear? (It’s perfectly fine if you have sounds of traffic and people, too. Very few of us can often get to a place where we can hear nothing but nature!)
Listen for the wind rushing through the leaves, the bee buzzing at the flowers, the birds calling, or water rushing. Identify different bird calls and try to mimic them. Play a “Sound Guessing Game” where you close your eyes and listen to identify the source of various sounds. Nature’s song fills our ears when we stop to listen.
This is also a great one to do with the eyes closed! Start concentrating on the scents all around you. Talk about them and have the kids see if they can guess what they are. The aroma of cut grass, the perfume of a flower, the damp dirt of the woods or the rich smell of fallen leaves—all of these smells fill our senses with the delight of nature. Smell herbs or leaves and try to guess their identity. Find flowers with different fragrances and compare their scents. Look for areas with distinct natural smells, such as a pine forest or a seaside.
Engaging in imaginary nature play allows children to unleash their creativity, explore their imagination, and deepen their connection with the natural world. By providing the space, materials, and support, parents can nurture their child’s imagination and help them build a deep connection with nature.
Start by providing your child with open-ended materials to play with. Offer a variety of natural materials, such as sticks, leaves, rocks, and flowers, that can be used as props for imaginative play. These materials can transform into anything their imagination desires, from magic wands to fairy houses or animal habitats. Prompt your child to create stories or narratives around their imaginary play. Encourage them to describe the characters, settings, and adventures they envision. This helps develop their language skills and fosters creativity.
Join in the imaginary play as a playmate or facilitator. Take on different roles, engage in dialogue, and let your child take the lead. This strengthens the parent-child bond and encourages collaborative play. Help your child develop a sense of wonder and curiosity about nature. Point out interesting aspects of the environment, such as unusual tree formations, animal tracks, or unique plant species. This sparks their imagination and provides inspiration for their imaginary play.
Creating fairy houses, fairy dolls, and flower/leaf crafts are my all-time favorite imagination-heavy nature activities for kids. Growing up, I often headed out to the woods and built tiny houses out of natural materials. I loved furnishing them and playing with my imaginary characters in them.
I taught my oldest daughter how to get started making fairy houses when she was just a toddler. Now all three of my girls will spend hours with some sticks and nuts and flowers, creating imaginary worlds at the base of a tree. They will transform flowers into dolls and weave leaves into baskets. Flat stones become furniture, and nuts become bowls and food. There is no limit to what you can create with a few natural materials and imagination.
Just this morning, my daughter went to play with some friends, and when I asked her what they did, she replied that all four of them worked together to build an elaborate fairy house. Using materials found in nature, kids can put their imaginations to work and create a magical world out of sticks, stones, bark, and flowers. We’ve got an entire post about building fairy houses and gardens, so head over there for more details on this favorite nature activity.
Engaging in a nature sit spot with your child is a wonderful way to encourage mindfulness, observation skills, and a deeper connection with the natural world. The goal of this nature activity for kids is to observe and record the changes and growth of a nature area—and your own children—for an entire year. It’s a great way to help kids see the rhythms of the natural world right outside their windows.
Sometimes we get so busy with life that we miss the subtle changes of nature through the seasons, and only notice the super dramatic ones, like when the flowers bloom, the leaves fall, or the snow comes down. But intertwined throughout those major events in nature are dozens of minor shifts throughout the seasons.
In the same way, our children are growing right under our eyes. Sometimes it happens so slowly that we hardly realize it, but when we consistently photograph them in the same location over the course of a year, we see those changes recorded. As the seasons change, so do our children. This activity is a unique way to appreciate growth and changes, both in nature and in our families.
To get started, get your kids outside and pick out a spot to observe throughout the seasons. Make it close to home so it’s easy to see and record. It could be your yard just outside your living room window, a tree you pass every day on the way to the bus stop, or a favorite area at a local park. Make it convenient so you’ll be sure to keep up with its changes throughout the year.
Ideally, your seasonal sit spot will include a deciduous tree that will provide a lot of interesting changes to observe throughout the year and maybe some perennial flowers that will come up out of nowhere, bloom, and die back in the fall. I mean, you could pick a big rock for your seasonal spot, but it might not show a lot of changes! You’d probably see the grass grow around it, some trees change in the background somewhere, and maybe you’d get snow on it eventually…but you get the point.
Try to pick somewhere that will be interesting to watch the seasons change. Even more importantly, pick someplace significant to your kids where they will enjoy watching the changes.
Once you’ve picked your spot for the year, take a picture of it with your kids in the frame somewhere. This does not have to be a photography project or a posed picture (but you could do that too – here’s how to do a seasonal spot photography project)! Just let them play in the dirt, climb the tree, or flop down in the grass. The point is just to record what your spot—and your kids—looked like at that moment in time.
It’s up to you how often you photograph your nature spot. Weekly might be too often to keep up with all year, but you could do it that often if you wanted to. I think monthly is a great goal! It’s pretty neat to look back over photos taken once a month in the same spot for an entire year. This year I’m photographing our favorite climbing tree on the edge of our property, and I can’t wait to see all the little changes throughout the year!
Explain to your child that the purpose of the sit spot is to observe and connect with nature. Encourage them to be present in the moment, open their senses, and pay attention to the details of their surroundings. Find a comfortable sitting position and invite your child to join you. Encourage them to sit quietly and still, allowing themselves to blend into the environment. Explain that this stillness helps wildlife feel more comfortable and encourages their natural behaviors.
Guide your child to observe their surroundings with all their senses. Encourage them to notice the sounds, smells, textures, and colors around them. Help them discover the beauty in the small details, like insects, birds, or patterns in tree bark. After spending some time observing, invite your child to share their thoughts, feelings, or any interesting discoveries they made during the sit spot. Encourage them to reflect on the interconnectedness of nature and their own place within it.
Start with shorter sit spot sessions, especially for younger children, and gradually increase the duration as they become more comfortable with the practice. This helps them develop patience and the ability to be present in the moment. Encourage your child to experience the sit spot in different weather conditions. Whether it’s sunny, rainy, or snowy, each weather presents unique opportunities for observation and connection with nature.
Incorporate the sit spot into your routine as a regular activity. Schedule specific times to revisit the sit spot with your child, whether it’s once a week or once a month. Consistency helps deepen their connection with nature and cultivates a sense of stewardship.
Leslie is an Ohio farm girl and chaser of light, children, and sometimes chickens. She’s a lover of Jesus, wife to her high school sweetheart, and a homeschooling mom of four wild rascals who love the great outdoors as much as she does. As a family, they love hiking, camping, fishing, and just about any outdoor activity. She and her husband are just beginning the process of building a homestead from the ground up, doing most of the work themselves. Leslie has a lifelong obsession with writing and capturing everyday life from behind the lens. Follow along with their homesteading, homeschooling, and everyday adventures on her Instagram account.
You can find more from Leslie in the following locations:
Instagram: @c_l_allofus
Leslie’s RWMC posts: Leslie Alvis
The post 7 Simple Nature Activities for Kids That Inspire a Love for the Outdoors appeared first on RUN WILD MY CHILD.
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Friends of mine had an adorable baby recently. He’s a month old and pretty darn cute, and yeah, I can admit it: I’m a little jealous.
I’m an adult. I can handle it, dammit.
My youngest and last child is now three and living his best life, but I hold the memory of him — as well as that of his eight-year-old sister — as a baby in my heart to such an extreme that it’s probably permanent. Those baby days whizzed past me faster than my daughter zooms by on her big-kid bike—a beautiful blur of purple and black streamers and laughter.
Motherhood is many things. It’s beautiful and gives me purpose and life, but it’s also draining and has the capacity to crush my soul at any given moment. And while so many of those moments are seemingly mundane, it’s those moments that are hardest to let go of.
Mothers always think they’ll be so happy once their children become more self-sufficient. We think that once we’re finally done with breastfeeding or bottle feeding, bassinets, cribs, diapers, and onesies, we’ll be able to stop for two seconds and finally have that damned cup of tea.
But the truth is quite the opposite. The truth is that when your children need you and your magic snuggles less and less the older they become? That will break your heart in half over and over again.
Because the hardest part about motherhood is not the sleepless nights or the milk stains on everything you own or the constant diaper changes or the tantrums or the demands for the correct cup with supper or the middle of the night wakings.
The hardest part about motherhood is that your children have your entire heart in their balled up little fists, and they take it with them when they walk out the door.
A mental reframing might be in order if you’re dying to sleep train your baby.
My own issues with sleep training aside, there are so many reasons to embrace those middle-of-the-night snuggles with your baby. The first is that they kinda need it.
The second is that you might need it, too. Your sleep-deprived brain just doesn’t know it yet.
Babies cry for us because they need our closeness. A few nights ago, my toddler cried out for me for the first time in the middle of the night in I have no idea how long, and nothing would have stopped me from flying into his room to scoop him up into my arms. Wolves couldn’t drag me away from my baby.
The reality is that kids only really need their mothers for comfort and the feeling of safety for so long — snatch those moments up and pull them close to you. If your three-year-old needs to be snuggled for a few minutes after a bad dream in the middle of the night, take the opportunity to hold your usually-squirmy, rapidly growing baby with all your might. Love them ferociously.
Soon they’ll comfort themselves, and it will probably happen before you’re ready. Scratch that — you definitely won’t be ready.
My daughter is eight going on eighteen.
And a half.
She’s independent and so alarmingly sure of herself that I worry kids in her school will think she’s a snob. But that’s a silly worry, because she has a huge circle of true friends who rally around her and love her exactly as she is, and her self confidence is impressive. She excels in school and socially, she’s a butterfly.
I don’t know when she stopped needing me and started fighting against my parenting, but it’s damn near constant these days. I’m not joking when I tell you that I am terrified about her teenage years.
Terrified.
She’ll be headstrong, bold, and beautiful, and I’ll desperately want to protect her from those who will invariably want to tame and control her — from men who will want to possess and domesticate her.
I know it could happen, because it almost happened to me. Thankfully, my own headstrong, bold, and beautiful mother brought me back to reality.
I’m afraid to blink; afraid to breathe. My baby girl is growing up faster than I could ever have imagined and I’ll never get that giggly little girl back. That’s just not how the world works, and it breaks my tender heart.
Yes, she’s growing into a beautiful, unique person, and she makes me belly laugh daily. She’s beautiful. She’s as perfect now as she was when she was knit together inside of me.
But she’s growing up, thank God. And part of that is that she’s ever so slowly and ever so painfully growing away from me — and that’s okay. That’s how it’s supposed to be.
But I’m broken a little bit more every day.
I have a special shelf; all moms have a special shelf.
My shelf, which is currently housed in my son’s closet, contains the baby things that no longer fit into our no-baby world: a Pack n’ Play, a few soft and worn sleep sacks, footie PJs that are too small but still in great condition, bottles, sippy cups, and soothers.
The soothers do me in. I remember rocking my babies at night, watching their sleepy little eyelids flutter closed as they were nestled so comfortably and safely in the arms of their mother, soothers slipping out of their mouths — a cue that they were completely relaxed. Once that soother was falling away, it was time to lower them into their very-safe cribs and enjoy a few hours (hopefully) of sleep.
My shelf holds all the baby days that I’ll never get back. It holds middle-of-the-night snuggles, developmental leaps I wasn’t ready for, bedtime routines, and peekaboo games. It holds all the times that only Mommy would do; the hours that it was just me and my baby.
The shelf is a looming threat; a promise that my days of baby snuggles are over and my toddler days are numbered. My daughter, who once held my pinky in her entire hand as she drifted off to sleep, now requires a single hug at bedtime. My active toddler likewise prefers running hugs and flyby kisses to the quiet snuggle-sessions we used to enjoy.
The treasured moments on the shelf in my son’s closet are waiting to be packed up and given to someone new; they’ll be replaced with big kid things, probably. Soccer balls, hockey skates, board games, and books will take the place of soft sleep sacks and tiny socks.
It’s natural for the baby things to give way to the big kid things, but the truth that no one tells you is that you’ll be both crushed and delighted by your children’s journey to adulthood. It’s a wonder.
I have yet to experience the heartbreak of my child choosing their partner in life, obviously — my oldest is only eight.
I can imagine it, though. I pray they won’t choose the wrong people for themselves, but it’s always a possibility, and if divorce rates are any indication, it’s more of a plausibility.
But even if they pick the perfect people and skip off into the sunset with their chosen loves, they’re going to leave my family and build a new one. Sure, I’ll be part of that family, and hopefully I’ll be a big part of that family. I want to be the grandmother that makes the best cookies and gives cryptic, wise advice to my grandkids that they’ll carry with them forever.
Who wouldn’t want to be such a talented sage? A gal can dream.
It’s harder to imagine life without my babies being little, though. It’s hard to think about growing old and dying and my kids having gray hair by my bedside, laugh lines and crow’s feet defining their faces as we endure my final moments together.
When my mother-in-law died, it was rough. I hadn’t yet met her as my husband and I had only just started dating, and she died young — but it wasn’t sudden. That made it worse.
Cancer. I don’t need to explain more than that — it’s a bitch. In the end my husband couldn’t be by her side and I think it tore him up a bit, not that you’d ever really know (he’s stoic to a fault, sometimes.) But I know what she was thinking of as she left this earth. I know the images in her mind and how warm she felt as she held them.
I know that she pictured her three boys as bubbly, giggly, soft babies. I know she pictured them running around and causing trouble as toddlers. I know she remembered how it felt to hold them close, to feel their rapid hearts before they zoomed off again.
I know this because I’m a mother.
When she left us, she was with her babies in all the best ways, even if they weren’t all with her — even if they aren’t babies anymore. She probably cried about the days she would miss, the grandchildren she would never meet, and the days of motherhood she’d left behind. Even as I write this, my eyes are brimming with the same tears, because I understand her.
I understand the soul-crushing realities of motherhood. It breathes new, incredible life into you while simultaneously chewing you up and spitting you out.
And I’d have it no other way.
Motherhood is the single most confusing life experience I’ve ever had.
From what I’ve observed, experiences are generally chalked up as either “good” or “bad,” to varying degrees. First kiss? Good (if you’re lucky.) First paycheque? Excellent. Last day of summer vacation? Bad. Picking the best apples at the store only to drop them immediately upon entering your foyer? Weak sauce.
But motherhood? It’s awesome. Sometimes I look at my kids and cannot believe they’re mine. They’re too perfect and smart and funny to be mine, but somehow, they are and I’m in awe of them daily.
Motherhood is also awesome in an entirely different way. “Awesome” is defined as “wonderful, impressive; excellent.” It’s also described as “causing awe or terror; inspiring wonder or excitement.”
I can’t think of a better definition of being a mother.
Motherhood is tough for lots of reasons. You get exactly zero sleep for the rest of your life. You are constantly battling attitude issues and boundary testing. There’s so much uncertainty and worry because you know so much of your children’s success is rooted in how you parent, and you want more than anything in the world for your kids to grow up happy, successful, and knowing they are loved.
You love them with every little part of you, and it’s exhausting.
The hardest part of being a mother isn’t the lack of sleep or your child’s unwillingness to eat anything that isn’t the color of a Goldfish cracker. It isn’t your teenager’s sassy backtalk or your baby’s collic. It isn’t your stubborn toddler’s fight against the potty or your breastfeeding trauma.
It’s that they have your entire heart in their tiny, careless hands, and that tenderly beating heart of yours will never belong to another living soul. It’s the small, seemingly insignificant moments that you’ll never get back. It’s your quiet desperation to hold them close to you, knowing you’ll never again have the kind of closeness you had when they grew safely inside of you. It’s the insanity of the mama bear that lurks just beneath the surface, ready to maul anyone who hurts a solitary hair on that perfect head.
It’s just motherhood. It’s beautiful, and it sucks.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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The post The Hardest Part of Motherhood Isn’t What You Think It Is appeared first on The Good Men Project.
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