Family Life | Blog Category Archives | Meraki Lane

22 STEM Toys for Kids | If DIY projects aren’t your thing, but you want to find a way to incorporate STEAM learning into the kids activities you and your children do at home, this collection of ideas will inspire you! With ideas for toddlers, kids in preschool, kindergarteners, and for elementary aged kids (ages 6-12), we’ve curated 22 of the best STEM toys for girls and boys! Science, engineering, math, and technology has never been easier – or more fun! #stemtoys #stemactivities #stemprojects

Learning Made Fun: 22 STEM Toys for Kids of All Ages

24 Family Activities for Kids of All Ages | Looking for fun ways to spend quality time with your kids at home? Whether you need ideas for toddlers, kids in preschool, kindergarten, elementary-aged kids, tweens, or teenagers, we’ve got you covered. These boredom busters are perfect for weekends and school holidays, and will keep your family entertained and off their electronics in the summer, fall, winter, and spring! #familyactivities #boredombusters #familygames #familygamenight

Things To Do At Home: 24 Family Activities for All Ages

29 Scavenger Hunt Ideas for Kids | If you’re looking for easy kids activities for an upcoming birthday party, or to enjoy during summer vacation, on lazy weekends at home in the backyard, or while camping, at the park, or at the beach, this collection of scavenger hunt ideas with clues is sure to inspire you! With a selection of both indoor and outdoor ideas to choose from, you can enjoy these during fall, winter, spring, or summer! #scavengerhunt #indooractivities #outdooractivities

29 Indoor and Outdoor Scavenger Hunt Ideas for Kids

32 Felt Projects for Kids | If you’re looking for crafts and activities you can enjoy with your children on bad weather days, we’ve curated 32 ideas to inspire you! We’ve included easy no sew ideas for toddlers and preschoolers, simple sewing projects for beginners, and more advanced DIY ideas for older kids to make. With free patterns and printable templates, you’ll be amazed what you can create with some felt, glue, thread, and a needle! #feltprojects #feltcrafts #nosew #kidssewingprojects

Crafting at Home: 32 Super Fun Felt Projects for Kids

How to Create a Stay at Home Mom Schedule | Whether you have a newborn baby, toddler, school age kids, or all 3, the key to parenting like a boss while still having time for organizing, cleaning, housekeeping tasks, meal planning, a daily workout, kids activities, and self-care is proper time management. We’re excited to share 21 tips to help you create a daily plan as well as sample morning, afternoon, and evening stay at home mom schedules! #stayathomemom #stayathomemomschedule #momschedule

How to Create a Stay At Home Mom Schedule to Save Your Sanity

11 Working Memory Games for Kids | Looking for inexpensive (and free!) working memory activities for children with developmental delays like ADHD, executive functioning disorder, and autism, as well as students with learning disabilities like ADHD? With 7 strategies and 11 activities designed to develop a child’s memory, planning, and organization skills, this collection of fun ideas will help make learning fun at home and in the classroom! #workingmemory #workingmemorygames #specialeducation

Don’t forget! 18 working memory games and strategies for kids

11 Scooter Board Activities | Looking for fun occupational therapy ideas to do at home or in the classroom to develop a child’s gross motor skills, improve focus for greater learning, reduce stress and anxiety, and help with self-regulation? From awesome ideas children can do independently, to obstacle course inspiration for teachers and therapists who have access to a gym, these heavy work activities for kids are so much fun! #scooterboard #grossmotor #grossmotoractivities

Gross Motor Play: 11 Super Fun Scooter Board Activities for Kids

14 Team Building Activities for Kids | Looking easy and fun ways to teach team work, inclusion, social skills, communication, and problem solving in the classroom? These cooperative games and activities will inspire you! We’ve included indoor and outdoor ideas, ‘getting to know you’ icebreakers for the first day of school, and activities you can enjoy with your students all year long to encourage ongoing collaboration and team work. #teambuilding #teacherresources #teaching #classroom

14 Fun and Engaging Team Building Activities for Kids

13 Indoor Recess Activities for Kids | If you’re looking for fun classroom ideas to get your kids moving on snowy and rainy days, these brain break ideas will inspire you! Perfect for kids in preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, and middle school, we’ve included a mix of gross motor activities, learning stations ideas, team building games, and other classroom games and movement activities to keep your students engaged and help them blow off steam. #indoorrecess #brainbreaks

Rain rain go away! 13 indoor recess activities for kids

31 Jewelry Crafts for Kids | If you’re looking for simple jewelry project ideas for children, this collection has it all, including how to make friendship bracelets, washer necklace crafts, and other fun DIY jewelry projects mom and dad can do with their little ones, like salt dough and polymer clay necklaces. #jewelrycraftsforkids #jewelryprojectsofrkids #DIYjewelryforkids

Jewelry Crafts for Kids: 31 DIY Jewelry Projects to Try at Home

Art Therapy for Kids | Perfect for emotional healing, anger management, helping kids deal with feelings related to trauma, grief, and divorce, and for kids with mental health challenges and special needs like autism, ADHD, OCD, and anxiety, this collection of simple and creative art therapy projects and crafts will help your child deal with their emotions and heal. #arttherapyforkids #arttherapyprojects #arttherapyactivities

Art Therapy for Kids: 22 Activities to Help Your Child Cope and Heal

How to Discipline a Toddler | Parenting is hard enough as it is, and when you throw tantrums into the mix, it can be downright overwhelming. Whether you’re the mom to sons or daughters, the toddler years will leave you wondering how to get your kid to behave without yelling or time outs, and this collection of 10 simple positive discipline ideas will teach you how to do just that. #tempertantrums #positiveparenting #positivediscipline

How to Discipline a Toddler: 10 Tips that Actually Work

20 Weaning Tips for Breastfeeding Mothers | If you want to know how to stop breastfeeding a baby, one-year-old, or toddler, these tips and ideas for mom is a great place to start! Whether you want to stop nursing at night, you need to stop nursing cold turkey without pain, or your little one is showing natural signs starting solids is the way to go (hello, baby led weaning!), this article has it all! #weaning #stopbreastfeeding #selfweaning

How to Stop Breastfeeding: 20 Weaning Tips for Breastfeeding Mothers

15 Hand Strengthening Exercises for Kids | If you’re looking for activities, toys, and exercises to help develop fine motor skills in children, this collection of fun ideas is a great place to start. Designed to strengthen the fingers and help with muscle coordination, these simple and fun ideas can be used in occupational therapy, in the classroom at school, and at home to help kids who struggle with writing and other fine motor tasks. #handstrengthening #finemotor #occupationaltherapy

Fine Motor Development: 15 Hand Strengthening Exercises For Kids

34 Breastfeeding and Pumping Tips for New Moms | If you’re looking for breast pumping tips and hacks for beginners, this post is for you! We’re sharing everything you need to know, including how to choose a breast pump, the best portable manual and electric pumps (and don’t worry – we go above and beyond Medela and Haakaa!), 16 breast pump accessories, how to increase your milk supply, and how to get on a pumping schedule! #breastfeeding #breastpumping #milksupply

Pumping 101: 34 Breastfeeding and Pumping Tips for New Moms

13 Balance Activities for Kids | If you’re looking for ways to develop your child’s gross motor skills at home, in the classroom, in occupational therapy, and beyond, this collection of fun games and activities are just what you need. Perfect for parents, teachers, and therapists, these core strengthening ideas will help build your child’s static and dynamic balance, while also helping with bilateral coordination. #balanceactivities #coordinationactivities #grossmotoractivities

Gross Motor Skills: 13 Core Strengthening Balance Activities for Kids

Language Arts Games & Activities for Kids | A collection of 37 fun ways to teach language & literature to kids in kindergarten, elementary, & middle school! The ideas are perfect for independent work & literacy centers, as well as for kids working in small groups. Includes letters, beginning sounds, guided reading, grammar, parts of speech, sentence building, spelling, vocabulary, word work, writing prompts, & more! #languagearts #literacy #literacycenters #grammar #partsofspeech

Language and Literature: 37 Language Arts Games for Kids

26 Dollar Store Crafts for Kids | Buttons, popsicle sticks, pony beads, drinking straws, and pool noodles, oh my! If you’re looking for EASY crafts to do with your kids at home, these dollar store activities are for you! Whether you’re the parent of busy toddlers with short attention spans, or older children who can sit still longer, these fun projects will inspire you. Perfect for cold winter weekends, hot summer vacations, and everything in between! #dollarstorecrafts #kidscrafts #easycrafts

Crafting on a budget: 26 super fun dollar store crafts for kids

How to Make Homemade Baby Food | Introducing solids can be exciting for kids, but stressful for mom, am I right? Whether you’re just starting with stage 1 baby foods, or in search of homemade baby food recipes beyond apples and butternut squash, we’re sharing our favorite baby food making tips, products, and storage containers, as well as 21 delicious puree combinations your little one is sure to love! #homemadebabyfood #babyfood #babyfoodrecipes

How to Make Homemade Baby Food: 27 Tips, Hacks, and Recipes

18 Spelling Activities and Games | Learning spelling has never been easier – or more fun! – than with this collection of teaching strategies, activities, and games. With ideas for first grade (and 2nd and 3rd), for middle school, and for upper elementary, these hands-on activities for kids can be used with any spelling list for meaningful learning that lasts. #teachingspelling #spellingactivities #spellinggames

Learning Made Fun: 18 Spelling Activities for Every Age and Stage

Internet Safety for Kids | Looking for tools to teach children about internet safety? With 25 lessons to discuss, a fabulous interactive online game, a parental control app, and much more, these resources are perfect for parents and teachers alike. Whether your child is only allowed online time on your phone, or has his/her own smartphone or tablet with social media accounts enabled, it’s never too early to start the conversation! #InternetSafety #SaferInternetDay #BeInternetAwesome #Sponsored

Internet Safety for Kids: 25 Tips for Parents and Teachers