4 Things Your Child Should Know Before Kindergarten

Posted on September 3, 2018

Kindergarten is supposed to be fun and educational, and allow children an opportunity to blossom because it is usually the first time the tykes are away from their parents for any significant amount of time.

And while most kindergartens don’t exactly have GPA requirements, for a child to succeed there are a few milestones that should be reached before they toddle through the door, says Alise McGregor, founder of Little Newtons , an early education center with locations in Minnesota and Illinois.

“New parents especially can have a hard time understanding that there are actually things their child should know prior to kindergarten,” McGregor says. “But if they take time to make sure their child knows some basics, it will make kindergarten a better experience.”

McGregor says the typical things a child should know prior to entering kindergarten are:

Basic shapes. The child should have learned basic shapes like the square, circle, rectangle and triangle in preschool. If not, parents should teach them. In kindergarten, they will probably be introduced to the hexagon, star, heart and octagon.

The letters of the child’s name. They should at least be able to recognize the letters of their name. In kindergarten, they will learn their uppercase letters and begin lowercase letters. They will also begin to learn how to write freehand without tracing.

Numbers 1 to 10. Although some children will be able to count to 100 by the time they reach kindergarten, all should be able to at least be able to count to 10. Numbers will be used starting on the first day of kindergarten so the children need to at least understand and recognize numbers.

Social skills – The child should be able to follow directions, be able to be separated from the caregiver and use the restroom independently. Children who scream and cry when they are separated from caregivers disrupt the rest of the class. Teachers simply do not have the time to supervise individual students who cannot independently use the restroom.

McGregor says that it is important for children to get off on the right foot early in school. By teaching children these skills prior to attending kindergarten it should make it easier for them to succeed.

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Celebrity

Remy Ma is Coasting Into Her Final Trimester Still Fly!

Posted on September 3, 2018

VH1‘s Love and Hip Hop star and Rapper Remy Ma (real name Reminisce Smith) is about 6 months along in her first pregnancy with husband Shamele “Papoose” Mackie.

However, the pretty cocoa-complexioned vixen and business woman has not yet “popped”, if you will, and is sporting still a pretty chic and sveltish figure in her cute collection of clothing.

Judging from the pics the Dark and Lovely spokeswoman and brand ambassador has posted on her social media pages, you can barely tell that she and her hubby of 10 years will be welcoming their first child by year’s end.

They suffered a very much public miscarriage and since she became pregnant, Papoose has had a hard time containing his excitement about becoming a parent.

The couple announce the baby news to guests attending their garden vow renewal ceremony earlier this year.

Remy Ma already has a 17-year old son Jace from a previous relationship and Papoose has a daughter 13-year old Dejanae Mackie.

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New Parents: 4 Age Old Tricks to Calm Your Colicky Newborn

Posted on September 2, 2018

I was in the drug store the other day and noticed an age old treatment for colic still being sold: Gripe Water!

My mom used that on all of us kids, who are now ages 28 to 44 and I in turn, learned to give it to my kid whenever they developed an upset tummy or cried uncontrollably during the night or day.

It went out of fashion because although it is a relatively medication free solution, a lot of new moms and modern treatments prefer all natural solutions.

The thing about colic is that doctors do not know what cause it though we think it has to do with digestive problems and/or gas in the baby ‘s tummy.

Based on my experience as a veteran mom to three kids and auntie and Godmom to many more, here are four tips and tricks I recommend you try performing when your baby is crying for no reason with no sign of letting up that you try three things:

Walk him by swaying gently but with big moves. I am so bold that I once got a couple to hand over their colic baby who cried all the way through a red eye flight, and who I suspected had colic. I did the slow rock with the baby and he stopped crying. Of course, I couldn’t do this all flight and as soon as I handed the frantic new parents back their baby, she started wailing all over again.
Feed him a spoon full of warm water. I know a lot of pediatric healthcare practitioners tell new moms, especially those that are breastfeeding that the baby gets all the water he needs from breast milk. However, there is nothing wrong with a little water clearing out a tummy full of milk. It cannot hurt to try when you have an inconsolable newborn on your hands.
Give her a tummy massage. take your hand into a letter “c” and massage the baby’s tummy to break up any gas that may be in there. Doing this will cause the baby to either burp, let out flatulence or poop. Any of these three outcomes are likely to cause some relief.
Give him a full body massage. Finally, take some baby oil or some other scented essential oil like lavender, peppermint or eucalyptus and massage your baby’s body. Look up sample videos of how to give an infant massage on YouTube. Massages calm you as an adult, and babies enjoy them too.

I shared these tips on an old video post I did on this blog’s verified YouTube Channel a few years ago that you can check out here! Excuse the poor lighting!

I can almost guarantee these tips will work wonders. And if they don’t, you cannot go wrong with breaking out your gripe water! It’s worked for ages. They were selling it for about $12 at my local Target Pharmacy but you can get it online for about $6 from Drugstore.com or Amazon.

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BumpNews

Social Media Helps Celebs Keep It Real About Pregnancy and Early Motherhood

Posted on September 2, 2018

The Independent explores the shift in celebrity pregnancy coverage being more authentic and real about the trials of pregnancy, labor, delivery and early motherhood and credits social media for it

EXCERPT:

Years ago, a pregnant starlet might drop out of the spotlight for a while – only to reemerge in a magazine looking well-rested and snuggling with an angelic infant.

See various People magazine covers: Jennifer Lopez in 2008, resplendent in a floor-length gown with an infant nestled in each arm, above the headline “TWIN BLISS!”; Angelina Jolie in 2006, gazing adoringly at Brad Pitt, as baby Shiloh snoozes away; Julia Roberts, looking dewy and fresh-faced in 2005 as she cradles her twins.

Now fans are starting to see a different side of postpartum celebrities: Model Chrissy Teigen shares an Instagram story that features her stretch marks and confesses that she’s “super insecure” about her body; actress Olivia Wilde posts an Instagram photo of her messy bun with the caption, “I call this hairstyle, ‘keep the kid alive’ “; tennis legend Serena Williams tweets about balancing work and her daughter: “She took her first steps . . . I was training and missed it. I cried.”

The common denominator in all those examples, naturally, is social media. The advent of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat made stars realize that they could connect with the public on a deeper level about personal subjects – and that fans appreciated honesty about the less-than-glamorous aspects of their #blessed lives.

“Social media has been such a game changer. . . . Celebrities are speaking directly to the fan base. Once they started doing that, things just got a lot more real,” said Kate Coyne, executive editor of People magazine. “One evolution of that concept has been celebrities sharing the realities of pregnancy, infertility, child-rearing, infancy, toddlerhood. It goes hand in hand with what social media is all about.”

Lately, celebrities have also been spilling details about serious medical issues surrounding childbirth. In January, Williams told Vogue that she had a potentially fatal complication during labor, including blood clots in her lungs.

Read the entire piece The Independent:

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Tips

Here are the Best Labor Day Deals and Sales

Posted on August 31, 2018

Labor Day is coming up, the holiday to celebrate the worker. However, in modern days, the day is looked at as another day off from work or school and also for mattress sales! Really!

WalletHub’s Best Labor Day Deals & Sales report gives shoppers a roadmap to savings. Its Labor Day Fun Facts report helps to educate and entertain consumers with stats on all aspects of the holiday – from hotdogs and history to financials and 5Ks.

You can find highlights from each below:

Best Labor Day Deals & Sales

Treadmills are the best items to buy in September, relative to the rest of the year.
2018’s 10 best Labor Day deals are:

1. Whirlpool Dishwasher – 43.40% off	6. Gourmet Griddle – 25.00% off
2. Inspiron 11 3000 Laptop – 35.00% off	7. NFL Jerseys – 33.33% off
3. Realspace Leather Chair – 35.72% off	8. Insignia 32″ Smart TV – 27.78% off
4. Moto Z2 Force – 44.44% off	9. Beautyrest Mattress – 64.03% off
5. Leather Tote, Peachy Pink – 40.00% off	10. Gemini Loudspeaker Pack – 40.00% off

Labor Day Fun Facts

76% of Americans say legal immigrants are essential to the labor force.
52% of Americans left a total of 705 million vacation days unused in 2017.
818 hot dogs are eaten every second from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
$250+ Billion is the annual cost of worker injury and illness in the U.S.

Wow!

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Study: Celebrity Pregnancy Coverage Destigmatizes Out-Of-Wedlock Births Among White Women

Posted on August 30, 2018

A new study states that media coverage of celebrity pregnancies has destigmatized out-of-wedlock births especially among white, middle class women.

Analyzing PEOPLE magazine covers from 1974 to 2014 featuring celebrity pregnancy, researcher Hanna Grol-Prokopczyk, an assistant professor in the University at Buffalo Department of Sociology took note of the magazine’s reference to the parents’ relationship status at the time of the pregnancy announcement and the time of the child’s birth.

In the study, published this month in the journal Demographic Research, Grol-Prokopczyk looked at how media presentations of celebrities’ childbearing influenced larger society.

Indeed, there has been a rise in out-of-wedlock births. Between 1940 and 2009, the number of U.S. births to unmarried women increased from about 4 percent to nearly 41 percent.

While existing scholarship suggests that economic and cultural factors have contributed to this growth, Grol-Prokopczyk wondered whether celebrities might have been the trigger for that 10-fold rise.

“No one has actually tested whether celebrities in fact engage in more out-of-wedlock childbearing than the general public,” she told Science Daily. “This is an important question to address because the power of celebrity culture to shape all kinds of decisions, including childbearing-related decisions, is often under-acknowledged.”

Grol-Prokopczyk concludes that celebrities might shape how we think about the nature of the family and the right environment in which to have children and used People magazine as a yardstick because it is a reliable source of data for exploring this issue. Also, it is heavily trafficked companion to its print edition with over 70 million unique monthly visitors.

The influence of celebrity news is undeniable. Consider that 74 percent of US adults became aware of Angelina Jolie‘s decision to have a preventative double mastectomy just weeks after her op-ed appeared in the New York Times in May of 2013.

The celebrity coverage has shifted attitudes particularly among white, middle class women who generally, have less out-of-wedlock births compared to women in other racial groups.

But unlike their regular folk counterpart, white celebrity women are more likely to have a baby while not married or engaged.

“If you compare celebrities to just white Americans — which could make sense given that until recently People magazine has disproportionally depicted white celebrity parents on its covers — you find that celebrities have the same rates of non-marital fertility,” she added.

Here is the link:

Grol-Prokopczyk also found that most celebrities featured on People magazine’s covers who got pregnant while unmarried did not marry before the child’s birth. Since the mid-2000s, many have declared themselves, “engaged.”

Instead of “shotgun weddings,” Grol-Prokopczyk sees this as modeling what she calls “shotgun engagements,” which if imitated in the general population could have contributed to a substantial rise of non-marital fertility in the U.S.

Interesting findings.

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14 Chic Mom Life Tees That Say It All (SHOP)

Posted on August 30, 2018

Ever since I launched my Mom Charm Store’s cute T-Shirt and novelty shop, I’ve been rocking graphic tees with fun sayings on them. They are conversation starters and I get tons of comments about them. People have actually stopped me in the street and in store lines to get a photo of these shirts.

I invite you to head over to my shop to see if any I have on sale catch your fancy. If not, I’ve curated some other cute sayings on shirts sold by various vendors over on Etsy for you to check out

CLICK THE IMAGE TO BE TAKEN TO THE SHOP TO PURCHASE THE TEE!

And for those trying to conceive, still thinking about starting a family but only have fur babies, there is this final one: (smile)

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Nicole Richie Dishes On Her Tween Kids’ Personal Style

Posted on August 29, 2018

One of my very first Bellyitch Bumpwatch celeb moms Nicole Richie recently dished on her kids fashion aesthetic. Yes as tweens, kids have their own sense of style.

During an interview with E!, the “House of Harlow” designer and founder said about her kids having their own style identity, “my daughter is almost 11 and my son is 9 so they’re not trying to ask me to do anything.”

She expanded: “Sparrow dresses like [his dad and Richie’s husband] Joel [Madden] to not even think about it” but daughter Harlow dresses “feminine. She likes dresses…she goes into my closet.”

Cool! Watch the clip of the interview below:

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If you cannot afford the House of Harlow collection, I’m shamelessly plugging out partners at Gymboree!

Gymboree Kids Clothing Newborn to Size 12

Because it is back to school season and parents are on the hunt for deals and top quality clothing for their school-aged children returning to school after the Summer Break, we are sharing some of the cool and super cute clothing that our affiliate partners at various children’s clothiers and brands are offering for sale this season.

We are starting with Gymboree.

This is a personal fave brand of the blog because we know from first hand experience that the quality of the clothing is superior. They last in the wash and the colors do not fade. The brand is known for selling very well coordinated pieces with whimsical characters or in solids, neutrals and other long-lasting hues. The clothing is made of natural materials mostly, and they look really cute.

Gymboree sells from baby to tween. Click to be taken to the site on any of these below featured images:

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Back To School Braided Style for Girls

Posted on August 28, 2018

It’s Back to School season and parents may be scrambling in a few weeks to find a low-maintenance and pretty style for their little girls to wear for the first day back! I’m in the same boat.

I used to turn to Tumblr blogs for styling ideas but in recent years was turned onto social media. YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram are now my go to. There are a couple of old standby blogs that I can turn to for maintenance and other tips: Beads, Braids and Beyond and Chocolate Hair, Vanilla Care are my faves. Rory Mullen was able to raise her adopted daughter on income from running Chocolate Hair…blog but has since retired it to focus on fiction writing and her styles are still abundant on the site. Simply search.

Good Luck!

Check them out today!

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News

Louisiana Catholic School Rescinds Hair Policy Deemed Discriminatory Against Black Girls

Posted on August 28, 2018

Faith Fennidy’s family and their attorney held a news conference Friday after the story about Faith and another girl getting kicked out of their Louisiana Catholic school for wearing braided extensions in violation of a new school policy implemented over the Summer.

After the Families Black Girls kicked out of their Louisiana Catholic School last week for violating a ban on hair extensions sued, a judge blocked the ban and the school rescinded its policy following much public outcry.

It happened in Boston, Massachusetts last year.

It happened in Louisville, Kentucky in 2016.

It happened in the US Navy until this year.

It happens in the corporate Workplace daily.

And the federal courts in the US recently said it was okay.

I am talking about discriminating against or banning black hair worn in braided styles and extensions. Sadly, it is too common in a society that has historically policed the bodies and hair of people of African heritage and descent. It’s not just a US thing either.

In South Africa, school officials forced black girls to straighten their hair to make it more acceptable and less unruly. Black hair routinely gets penalized in corporate and non-traditional jobs even once at a makeup counter at a department store where one black beauty blogger was told her braids weren’t high end enough to represent a brand and was denied a job because of them.

The latest installment of this hair discrimination came this week at the start of the new school year at Christ the King Elementary School in Terrytown, Louisiana.

Shortly after class began, the school sent 11-year-old Faith Fennidy home because she broke a rule on wearing hair extensions. Fennidy had worn thick extensions with her hair for two years before the school made a rule change over the summer, banning unnatural hair, her mother, Montrelle Fennidy, told NBC News affiliate WDSU.

Faith’s brother, Steven Evergreen Fennidy, posted video of Faith walking out of school on Facebook with her family after being told her hairstyle was unacceptable.

“Extensions make the hair easier to maintain,” Steven Evergreen Fennidy wrote on the social media site. “It allows my sister to have access to the swimming pool without having to get her hair Re-done every night. How do you make a policy without even having a discussion. It’s because you don’t care and it’s just one more barrier to entry for black people.”

He said the policy prohibiting “extensions, clip-ins or weaves” was added over the summer.

Faith’s family and the family of Tyrielle Davis, also removed from school, filed a legal petition arguing that the policy is discriminatory and adversely affects minority girls. A civil court judge granted a temporary restraining order against Christ King School following backlash over a hair policy that was implemented this school year.

Faith’s family has since withdrawn her from the school and is looking to place her elsewhere.

Archdiocese of New Orleans Catholic schools superintendent RaeNell Billiot Houston said the school has rescinded the portion of its uniform policy having to do with hair extensions and the school’s principal and pastor have welcomed the girls to return.

That will not take away the shock and embarrassment from being drawn out of class and sent home. And having to leave her friends and favorite teachers and school environment is also unfair even if it was her mom’s decision to do leave the school.

Houston added that the school is working with Christ the King School and all of the archdiocesan schools to create a uniform policy that is “sensitive to all races, religions, and cultures” going forward.

The Fennidys canceled a meeting with the school scheduled for today, a local news report states.

Editor’s note My daughter wears her hair in braided hair extensions because they allow her hair to stay coiffed and neat for a longer period of time than if she braided her own hair. As Faith’s brother wrote, the style is also perfect for swimming which my daughter does year round.

Braided extensions are a perfect hair option that is best for black girls and banning them does in fact unfairly target black girls disproportionately who rely on the style for ease of maintenance and practical reasons moreso than for style.

Faith Fennidy’s hair is not unacceptable even in a strict Catholic school environment by a long shot

If the purpose of the rule was to ban outrageous extensions of the colorful and crazy exotic variety, then certainly the neatly done and more than appropriate style Faith wore to school was nothing like that at all.

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Jeneba Jalloh Ghatt

After the Families Black Girls kicked out of their Louisiana Catholic School last week for violating a ban on hair extensions sued, a judge blocked the ban and the school rescinded its policy following much public outcry.