Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in greater los angeles, CA

Myself Belts Giveaway Winner

June 15, 2009

Congratulations to Christine W. who wins a Myself Belt by random drawing.  Thank you to everyone who entered.  At $14.95 minus the discount with code SAVVY (until end of June), it's a great buy and makes a good gift.  Read more...

Myself Belts - A Giveaway

June 08, 2009

You know how there's all this talk about mommyblogs and product reviews going on in the blogosphere and on Twitter?  If you don't know, you can read about it on several popular blogs, but really, it's just a time-waster, and the basic idea is that since mommyblogs are the new target of marketers, they are increasingly chock full of product reviews and sponsored posts which can call into question the validity of a blogger's story and authentic voice.  Being Savvy gets a lot of pitches and we are often the lucky recipients of fantastic products to feature and give away to readers, so this space is not a place to complain about it.  Instead, we celebrate marketing here, and we hope you trust us to handpick only those products that we really believe in, because we all have preschoolers ourselves.

Today I want to tell you about a product that was not pitched to me, however.  In the traditional mommyblogger way, I was surfing the 'net a few weeks ago, catching up on my favorites.  My blog-friend Kate Waterhouse wrote a post about a product that she found in a search for a solution.  This was not pitched to her at all.  She had a need for something, searched for it, tried it, loved it, and blogged about it.  THAT, my friends, is the power of a mommy blogger.  Because when I read about it, I thought, "Genius!" and contacted them and said "Hey, would you like me to test and tell my readers about it?"

Long story short, the product is Myself Belts, "the first belt intended for one-handed use, making dressing and undressing an easy and accessible thing for a child of any age! The fashion and function of the belt assures all tots feel independent and self-confident as they can now secure their pants in place on their very own - any place or time!"  

The belt is a groovy strap that you thread through the kid's pants as usual, except that the velcro end loops around the first tab on one side, so that there is an anchor.  The velcro closure allows for the child to quickly open or close the belt, putting the control in his hands and keeping his pants up!  This is perfect for skinny kids whose pants, while long enough, don't stay up.  If you try one, you'll see why the product speaks for itself, and why it made its way quite naturally into a blog post on a perfectly good mommy blog.  Myself Belts is extending a discount for our readers through the month of June - use coupon code "SAVVY" and get 10% off your order.

The company has happily offered to give one of their Myself Belts to a lucky Being Savvy reader.  Just leave a comment here before midnight on the night of Sunday, June 14 and the winner will be chosen at random, announced next Monday June 15.  If you win, you tell them the size and gender, and they will send you a nifty belt! 

Preschoolers Like to "Work" Too: Jobs Around the House for the Little One

May 12, 2009

Five jobs you can give your preschooler for imagination exercise:

1.  "Office."  What could be easier or more fun than to pretend he is "working" on a "project" or he has to "check his email just for a sec" before he can play with you?  I can't imagine where a child would hear such a line...  If you don't have old keyboards and phones and computers laying around the house, they are easy enough to obtain for free through Craigslist or Freecycle.  Wipe everything down with disinfectant, then let them play and pretend with pencils and paper and you can even dress them up in little office attire.

2.  Chef.  Even if they don't make something edible, children love to pretend they are cooking.  We have set up a makeshift stove on a plant stand using a plastic strainer and some small toys and a wooden spoon.  For the older children, have them help you roll out pizza dough and spread sauce and cheese on it, then point out what you are doing when you put the pizza in the oven and set the timer.  They will love to see the finished product and maybe they will even eat it.  Bonus if you use whole wheat dough and organic toppings.

3.  Astronaut.  Settle a child down inside a box that is bigger than her body and she can draw dials and monitors and cut a hole out for the window.  Dress her up in a costume and tell her to fly off and explore faraway planets and galaxies and report back to you what she has found and even draw pictures of what she saw.

4.  Gardener:  Whether you have a yard or not, helping plants grow is a job preschoolers are made for.  Their little hands are small and love to get dirty.  Have them water the plants or the garden, give them things to carry to and from your work area, and get them started early on weeding.  Not only do you have his imagination engaged when you talk about what the growing plant will look like with love and care, but you also have a helper!

5.  Professional organizer:  It's a growing population of professionals with a national association and a big job:  Americans are clutter hoarders.  People who are good at purging and keeping the level of stuff in their homes are few and far between and teach us all lessons.  Show your child how to sort his toys into bins, give him a clipboard and a list and a pencil to make check marks, and set him to it.  This will help instill good habits in him, and someday he can come back to dig you out of the warrens of clutter you are living in with your cats.  Read more...

Up, Up, and Away! Little Capers Giveaway

by Kim Tracy Prince

December 08, 2008

Do you have a little superhero running around the house with a towel clipped to her t-shirt? Are you dismayed by the woeful selection of commercial, polyester superhero costumes available for kids, especially girls? Well, despair no longer. Jossamber Shapiro and Jessica Wise designed a charming line of non-commercial, non-licensed-character superhero costumes for kids called Little Capers .  Read more...

Halloween Hand-Over

by Kim Tracy Prince

October 31, 2008

Halloween is over, and your youngest child wore that hand-me-down Superman costume for its third and final wearing in your family. So cute, you wash it and fold it and sadly think "who will wear it now?" Sure, you could try to sell it at a yard sale or consignment shop. You could pretend that you are having another baby someday, so you should save it for him or her. But let's be honest.  Read more...

Weekend Roundup October 18-19

by Kim Tracy Prince

October 17, 2008

There's a hodgepodge of neat events I want to tell you about before I jet off to London this weekend. Yes, that is right, this frumpy mom who writes this column in her pajamas is turning into her alter ego - TV Producer Lady - and flying off to far away lands. I'm going to scope the town out for kid-friendliness while I'm there and I promise to tell you all about it. In the  Read more...

Pixie Dust

by Kim Tracy Prince

October 08, 2008

Here's one for fans of fairies and sprites and pixies. The valley has a great resource for fairy hunters (you are not allowed to harm them once you find them) who gather twice a month at O'Melveny Park in Granada Hills. But if you can't wait for those events, you will soon be able to bring a little bit of pixie magic into your home to enjoy over and over in the form of a DVD. Normally  Read more...

Places to find halloween costumes in the valley

by Kim Tracy Prince

October 07, 2008

With Halloween only T-minus 24 days away, savvy parents best get pounding that pavement and finding the right costumes for our preschoolers before they are all snatched up. Oh, because they do get snatched up, don't they? If you wait until the last minute, you're stuck cutting holes in your good bedsheets for a Charlie Brown ghost and risking lots of tripping and falling during that trick  Read more...

How To Be Prince For a Day: You're Gonna Have To Work It.

by Kim Tracy Prince

May 22, 2008

This is no time for a little boy who wants to play prince, knight, or dress-up. In this era of princess madness, all the attention goes to the girls. There are countless opportunities for little diva tea parties, rockin' royalty makeovers, and pampering and primping galore. But what about my boy who sees a frilly pink tutu and says "I can wear that. But I'm a boy." He's only three years old. I  Read more...