Parenting & Family | Blog Category Archives | Meraki Lane

Summer Routine Ideas for Kids | Summer should be fun for families, but it can be difficult for even the most organized mom! From planning fun activities to keeping your kids leaning to finding a little alone time so you don’t lose your mind, it can be overwhelming! If you’re looking for daily schedules and chore charts you can enforce at home during summer vacation to keep your child on some sort of routine, we’re sharing 10 tips and strategies we swear by. #summerroutine #summerschedule

How to Survive Summer Vacation: 10 Summer Routine Ideas 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

13 Unique Gender Reveal Ideas | Throwing a gender reveal party? Need creative games and activities to help surprise your guests about whether you’re having a boy or a girl? These DIY ideas will inspire you! From food and decorations, to balloons and party favors, there are so many gender reveal themes you can create on a budget, and we’re sharing 13 of our favorites for a simple, classy, and memorable celebration you’ll never forget! #genderrevealparty #genderrevealideas #genderrevealgames

Boy or Girl?! 13 Creative and Unique Gender Reveal Ideas

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

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

17 Natural and Safe Pregnancy Insomnia Remedies That Work! | While there are heaps of funny memes out there about pregnancy and sleep, it can be hard to find the humor in pregnancy insomnia when you’re in the thick of it. Whether you’re suffering with morning sickness in the early first trimester of your pregnancy, or you can’t sleep due to discomfort (hello heartburn!) during your third trimester, these sleep products and remedies are sure to help! #pregnancyinsomnia #cantsleep #insomnia

Wake Up Refreshed: 17 Natural and Safe Pregnancy Insomnia Remedies

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

26 Montessori Science Experiments | Botany, biology, physics, astrology, and chemistry, oh my! These hands-on Montessori activities offer the perfect balance between sensory play and classroom instruction, and go above and beyond science experiments for kids that are focused on chemical reactions with baking soda and vinegar. These fun activities are just what you need to make learning about science FUN! #montessori #montessoriactivities #montessoriscience #scienceforkids

Hands On Learning: 26 Super Fun Montessori Science Experiments

16 Homophones Games for Kids | If you're looking for fun tips and activities to teach kids about homophones at home or in the classroom, we’re sharing everything you need to make learning FUN again. Forget the worksheets! Use these common cores teaching tips as well as our favorite games, activities, and exercises for kids in elementary school (1st, 2nd, 3rd) and middle school (4th, 5th, 6th). We’re included helpful homophones lists with pictures! #homophones #homophonesactivities #grammargames

The Same But Different: 16 Super Fun Homophones Games for Kids

16 Sentence Building Activities | If you’re looking for ways to make learning fun both at home and in the classroom, this collection of sentence structure worksheets for kids in kindergarten, 1st grade, and beyond is a great place to start. We’ve included free printables as well as language arts bundles for kids that can be used as part of your morning work literacy activities and to create writing centers for the classroom. #languagearts #literacy #literacycenters

Sentence Building 101: 39 Sentence Building Activities for Young Learners

33 At Home Date Night Ideas for Married Couples | Babysitters are few and far between, and they aren’t cheap (!!!), but if you’re looking for ways to focus on your marriage when your kids are in bed – or need a little Valentine’s Day inspiration – we’re sharing our best simple, fun, creative, and romantic ways to spend quality time with your SO when going out isn’t an option. Perfect for newlyweds and tired parents, these ideas will not disappoint! #datenightideas #dateideas #datenightin

Couple’s Night In: 33 Budget-Friendly At Home Date Night Ideas

How to Teach a Child to Wipe Their Bottom | Many books about potty training promise you can toilet train boys and girls in 3 days but teaching your kid to wipe their butt can take much longer. Young children often don’t have the fine motor skills needed to perform the task. We’re sharing all of our tips – when to start teaching kids to wipe their own poop, tips for getting started, and some funny ideas to keep it interesting! #pottytraining #pottytrainingtips #pottytrainingtips #parentingtips

Potty Training Problems: How to Teach a Child to Wipe Their Bottom