Life is Beautiful

Motherhood, Sewing, Family

5 Ways to Help Your Kids to Love Reading

~ Etc.

 
 

This post is sponsored by Kindercare, a preschool I’ve been very impressed with. Thank you for supporting this blog!

 

 

Getting a high-quality education was one of the main reasons why my parents immigrated here from Korea when I was 2 years old. My dad came to get a Ph.D for himself and so that his children can receive a better education. So getting good grades and a good education was always instilled in our family.

 

When I became a mom, I knew I wanted to instill that same importance to them as well and one of the best ways I could think of was to make sure my kids learned to love reading. So since they were very little, I read them many books but I didn’t just read to them, but incorporated fun, creative ways to make reading really fun and exciting. Now my kids have a strong love for reading, and my oldest child reads so much and wants to read during family dinner or even when her friends come over to play that we are constantly telling her to put her book down!

 

Here are 5 ways I made reading fun and exciting.

 

 

1. If they’re too little to read by themselves, listen to an audio book! Harry Potter is our family favorite and my kids couldn’t wait to be able to read the book when we were done with the audio series. Road trips are a great time to listen to them so you can listen for a longer period of time without having to pause frequently.

 

2. Act out parts in the book! Not just with using an animated voice or switching voices for every character, if there’s a part about a bathtub, have everyone huddle up inside the tub to read. If it’s about tickling or hugging, tickle or hug them as you read those parts. If it mentions dancing, twirl around or have a silly dance party!

 

3. Incorporate yummy food into reading. If the book mentions pizza, have a family pizza night or have them make their own pizzas. If it mentions popsicles, stop the book and have everyone run to the freezer to grab a popsicle so they can eat it while you resume reading. Food always makes everything more fun!

 

4. Read in a special setting. If it’s during Halloween, read a scary book in the dark with a flashlight, under the covers or in a hiding place. Go to a beautiful park and sit under the tree in the shade to read while sitting on a blanket.

 

5. Go to the library and have them pick out their own books. Don’t limit what they can and cannot read(as long as it’s appropriate of course), whether it be a comic book, a book about Captain underpants, a book with only pictures and no words, a book much below or higher than their reading level, it doesn’t matter! They’ll love the freedom and the independence they have when coming to the library and they know they can pick out whatever book they please.

 

Reading is so important in paving the way for our kids to have a higher-quality education, especially while they’re young. Reading helps with spelling, grammar, writing, eloquence, creativity, and being more open minded.

 

And just like reading, choosing the right Preschool for your child is so important. But it can be very overwhelming!

 

But I found this article by Kindercare very helpful in what to look for in finding a Preschool that’s best for your child as well as the rest of the family.

 

And I’m not going to lie, I am looking forward to school starting so I can get some alone time. I don’t want Summer to go any faster and I am enjoying my time with them but Summer can be crazy! And it’s important for us mothers to have our alone time regularly. I was feeling very burnt out being a mother a few weeks ago and as I was complaining in my head, I had an epiphany that in that moment of feeling burnt out, exhausted, frustrated, and annoyed, it’s in that very moment I become a better person.

 

My two oldests will be in school full day and my youngest will go to Preschool but I haven’t nailed down which school he will go to, I’ve been procrastinating. It can be so overwhelming because there are so many options! I’ve been looking into Kindercare for my son and have been so impressed with their program such as starting this year, Kindercare’s registered dietitian made big changes to their food program of not serving juice, fried foods or sugary snacks but introducing healthy, wholesome foods and also food from different cultures as well like Chinese lo mein, Indian chickpea biryani, and a southwestern rice-and-bean bowl. I love this! I’m a firm believer that having kids try new foods from different cultures makes kids be more open minded, be less picky eaters and helps them to appreciate the beautiful cultures that are out there. I also love that they clean their toys not just at the end of the day but throughout the day to make sure it’s clean and sanitary.

 

There are so many other things I’ve found that impressed me with Kindercare and I feel really good about sending my son there.

SOCCER SEASON

~ Etc.

 

 

I am participating in an influencer program on behalf of Claritin®. This program is paid for by the makers of Claritin® and I have received compensation for my participation. All opinions expressed are my own. *Use Children’s Claritin® as directed on packaging

 

 

Soccer season is upon us! When Jay signed our daughter up for soccer, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I thought it would be a more fun, casual, once a week kinda thing but turns
out… it was a 3-day try out and if you make it onto the team, it’s practice 3 times a week. That’s half of the week! It took me a lot of grunting to realize it’s something she loves and I need
to just get on board and support her and do it happily.

Soccer season also means it’s summer season and while I absolutely love summer and seeing everything come to life, I dread one thing that always comes with it, which is allergies. Allergies
suck so bad. Do you get them? I get it really, really bad. And unfortunately my oldest daughter has it too and she’s the most active kid out of all my children! She is busy with soccer (did I
mention it’s 3x a week? Want to make sure you got that), piano, swim, and gymnastics. So it’s really important that she is feeling her best.

I have been taking Claritin® for a few years now so when I found out they sell it for kids, I got the Claritin® RediTabs® for Juniors for my daughter, available in the healthcare isle near the Target pharmacy. It offers a non-drowsy, 24-hour allergy symptom relief! Yay, a win-win for me and her!

Cartwheel always has great offers available on Claritin® products, make sure to check here to see if one’s available before your trip to Target!

 

 

 

SEGO AWARDS

~ Etc.

 

 

 

Back in May I was nominated to be the top finalists for Sego Awards for the Social Media Category. Sego Awards is an award ceremony honoring female entrepreneurs and it was really fun and uplifting! It was held in the beautiful Sundance and Jay was of course my date.

 


I was one of the finalists among some crazy talented and successful women like Jordan Page, Alison Faulkner, Rach Parcell and had no idea how I made it to be a finalist! I wrote on my Instagram about that and I got some sweet DM’s and comments about how I should own it and be proud of it but the truth is, I’m not being humble or discrediting myself, I just don’t put much worth on my social media status so I didn’t really care. I was telling another influencer from the top 10 after the event, how I just felt a little awkward about the social media category and going to the award ceremony(which ended up being very uplifting and empowering as I saw so many amazing women being recognized) because it’ll never be my goal to win an award for something like social media. My social media or the number of followers I have does not add any value to who I am. I feel some may tie in their self esteem, worth or value to how many followers they have, how much money they make, what they do or their husbands do for a job, how big or small their house is, what they look like, what size they wear, what kind of clothes they wear and none of that defines who we are. None of it. Not even our race, religion or sexual preference!

So I add no value to who I am from my social media. I’m not any cooler now than when I had 30 followers. I’m not any cooler or worth any more than anyone with a lesser following nor is anyone worth more or any cooler than me for having 10 million followers! So everyone just needs to calm down and not take social media so seriously!😆 I shared this similar sentiment awhile ago on this post #sharingmyheartonvalue so go read it and come back to tell me your thoughts!

 

 

SPRING FEVER SHOPPING

~ Etc., SHOP

 

Here are some things I’ve bought rececently(not sponsored) or am debating on getting.

 

 

 

 

Debating which suit to get, they’re so cheap I was skeptical but I have a few friends who have bought from this store and they recommended it so I am excited to find out about this new swimsuit store at such a good price!

 

 

 

And these are a new swimsuit brand I found during the Shopbop sale, they’re so cute! I am debating on pulling the plug for the bottom left red swimsuit combo.

 

THE FIRSTS AS A MOTHER

~ Etc., MOTHERHOOD

 

 

 

This post is sponsored by Kindercare. Thank you for supporting this blog!

 

 

We got our photos from our family shoot in Hawaii and I love them! I thought it would be fun to compare the before and the after of me and my son. Look how tiny he is!

 

4 YEARS AGO

 

4 YEARS LATER

Isn’t he such a big boy now? Ugly tears! More photos from our family shoot will be posted soon!

 

I remember the first time I got ANGRY as a mother towards my child. It was in the middle of the night around 4 a.m, because my child would magically sleep all day long but then 10 p.m rolled around and she’d be magically wide awake until 6 a.m! This went on for weeks. Around week 3, I lost it. I plunged down onto the floor in her bedroom and cried and cried and cried. For hours. I felt so angry towards her that I was shocked at how this cute, tiny and innocent baby that I loved so much could make me SO angry.

I remember the first time each of my babies giggled. Not just a smile, but a full on giggle. There is nothing else in this world that is a happier sound to my ears than a baby’s giggle. I remember the happiness I felt was so powerful that it seemed to surge through my whole body like a rocket, all the way up to the sky.

I remember the first time I worried for each of my child. It was when I dropped them off on the first day of preschool, my youngest only several months ago. ‘All that time when I wished I’d finally get some alone time is finally here. But why is my heart breaking?’, “Is the teacher going to love my child? Take care of my child and be kind?’, ‘Will my child like preschool? Will their classmates be kind? Will my child be kind?’ There are so many mixed emotions. And always tears. I remember with my first child tears just started rolling down my face and as I sheepishly wiped them away, I saw all the other mothers wiping their tears as well. We all looked at each other and laughed. Relieved that we weren’t the only ones, relieved that we are all in this together, in this thing called motherhood.

We are all in this together. We all want what’s best for our child. We all try to do the best we know how. For some, that’s staying at home with the kids. For some, that’s sending the kids to daycare like Kindercare. For some, it’s having their husbands be a stay at home dad. That would be my dream actually! And for some, their nanny/grandparent/friend/neighbor watches their children. But we are all in this together. A village raising each child. No matter which route you take.

 

I have been debating on what I should do with my son this coming Fall. We decided to push him back 1 year and send him to preschool one more year so he’ll start kindergarten in 2019. Right now he goes to preschool 4 days a week for 2.5 hours but I want him to do more. His personality is a type where I need to be very attentive to him so I can’t get much work done around the house, whether it be my personal work, or house work. So we are thinking we will either send him to 2 different preschools, morning and afternoon for 2.5 hours each for a total of 5 hours or send him to Kindercare. It was funny when I was contacted to work with them, because I was just looking at their site a week prior and thinking about sending my son there! So I’m taking it as a sign! They have a Transitional kindergarten program for a child who has mastered prekindergarten but did not meet the cutoff date for kindergarten which sounds like a perfect program for my son, with his birthday being the end of Summer. We went to parent teacher conference just earlier today and the teacher recommended that he doesn’t repeat preschool but more of a transitional kindergarten if we decide not to send him to kindergarten. That he’d be very bored in preschool again and he’d be socially and academically way above. Kindercare offers an enhanced whole-group activities and project-related learning activities to help children in such areas as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. So it’s studying and academics but also fun and creative play. I also like that they provide nutritious meals that are grouped by 3 age groups; infant to 2, 3-5 and 5 – 12 years old, and I’m not sure about the other centers but the one nearest to me cooks all their food in center and are fresh. To me, food is a huge deal!

So if you were in my shoes, what would you do? Send your child to 2 preschools morning and the afternoon, or to an all day daycare/school for 2-3 days a week? Which one do you think would be better for a child?