It can be tough to keep toys from accumulating in homes with kids, and keeping them organized is even harder! To help you keep the mess at bay, we've rounded up 15 smart ideas, from a clever stuffed animal "zoo" to a perfect storage solution for Legos!
Looking for birthday party games that will keep a room full of kids happy without breaking the bank? Keep reading for seven games moms say are perfect for entertaining 6- to 8-year-olds at a party.
Robert "Bobby" Tufts may not be the first 4-year-old we know who rules the roost, but he's certainly the only one who has officially been put in charge! After a two-month campaign that his mom says he took very seriously, the kindergartener was recently chosen to be mayor of his hometown, Dorset, MN.
Granted, Dorset only has 26 residents, but locals say that doesn't diminish the importance of Mayor Tufts. As Yahoo! Shine reports, it's a seasonal town, and the charming little mayor is "a good ambassador," according to shop owner Wizik Wills.
Watch him do his thing, below.
When you've only got minutes to put yourself together, prioritizing is key. To help, we asked moms who blog about fashion and beauty to tell us their number one must have for a mom's beauty routine. Click through for their top 10 picks!
In celebration of Mother's Day, we'd like to give a shout-out to Nyaya Health, an amazing organization that one of our former staffers, Chase Yarbrough, is involved with. Happy Mother's Day to moms everywhere! — The Circle of Moms Editors
In Nepal, moms are nearly 100 times more likely to die in birth than moms in the United States. Nyaya Health is changing that by delivering data-driven health care in one of the most isolated regions of the world. For Mother's Day, Nyaya has partnered with crowd-funding platform Kangu to fund safe deliveries for mothers and their children-to-be.
You can crowd fund a safe birth for an expecting mother and have a personalized card sent to a mom you love this Mother's Day. Your gift to Nyaya will help them turn Mother's Day into a day with real impact. And if you can give $10 or more, they'll send your mom or loved one a personalized card this Sunday.
For more information, visit Nyaya Health. And to make a donation, visit Kangu.
Do you use a crayon to write your grocery list? Do you forget when your last haircut was but spend an hour photographing someone else's first time in the barber's chair? If so, we're guessing you're a mom! Click through for more funny moments that are sure signs you have a child.
Does your daughter love Merida from Brave for her courage and independence? As Disney prepares to make the plucky teenage heroine into the 11th official princess at a ceremony this Saturday, they've given her what The Huffington Post describes as a controversial "head-to-toe makeover."
With makeup, a more demure expression, a whittled-down waist, a shoulder-baring neckline, and defrizzed curls, the new Merida (pictured on the left) now looks much more like Ariel, Cinderella, and the other princesses in the pantheon, all of whom are known for being pretty rather than brave, as writer Peggy Orenstein notes. Orenstein, author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter, is one of many writers urging other concerned parents to sign a petition asking Disney to leave Merida alone.
Should Disney leave Merida as she is?
Can you imagine finding out that your daughter's classmates were voting on how "hot" she is?
As The Seattle Times reports, a "hottest girls" contest at Issaquah High School is being promoted by an anonymously created "May Madness" Facebook page (which can only be viewed while logged into Facebook). School administrators and police have attempted to shut down the contest, which has occurred annually since 2009, but they don't know who the creators and promoters are.
Many students, too, are against the contest. As Issaquah School District spokeswoman Sara Niegowski shared, "A lot of them say this isn't what I'm about and I don't like the fact that our school is getting this reputation and I don't view females this way."
This video has to be seen to be believed. Even though 7-month-old Ryder Blair can't yet walk, he moves faster than any baby we've ever known. In the video below, we get a perfect view of the quiet glee that grows on his face as he takes off — on water skis!
The Huffington Post notes — and we want to repeat — that even though Ryder is accompanied by his mom and other adults and is not actually attached to a speed boat, this isn't something you should try at home!
Dirt, blood, markers, food . . . kids have a seemingly endless arsenal of ways to make stains. Luckily (or by necessity), moms have discovered some great ways to combat tough stains. Here are 10 smart tricks for tackling your little one's next mess.
Move over, breast milk soap, there's a new breast milk trend in town: jewelry! As NBC New York reports, jewelry made from breast milk is now offered by several online Etsy shops, along with DIY kits we moms can use to make our own breast milk jewelry.
With the list of unusual uses for breast milk growing, we wonder if breast milk jewelry will gain wider acceptance. Would you commemorate your breastfeeding experience this way?
Looking for unique girl names? According to the Social Security Administration's latest ranking of girl names, we've discovered nine gems that have fallen out of favor.
Way down on the list, among the names that are most rare (those with ranks above 900), are some traditional girl names that were once very popular. If you favor pretty, old-fashioned names but also want your daughter to be the only one at school with her name, these nine vintage monikers are perfect picks.
Ever use your own mouth to "clean" a fallen pacifier? It may have been a surprisingly smart move!
New research suggests that exposing your baby to the microbes in your saliva boosts her immunity and lowers her allergy risk. As The Huffington Post reportsvia Reuters, a small study in Sweden has found that this fallback "cleaning technique" lowers symptoms of asthma and eczema in young children. And although the researchers concede that other, untested factors could also be at play, allergy specialist Dr. Wilfried Karmaus says that parents at least have the go-ahead to rely on spit: "Parents should know that using their mouth to clean an infant's pacifier may be worth trying — and at the very least, shouldn't be harmful."
It's easy to feel helpless when your child seems to dislike school for no clear reason. To help you tackle this common problem, we asked moms who are also teachers to share the best advice they've gleaned from years of experience. From what you should say instead of "How was your day?" to a solution that has worked in as little as a week, here are eight ways to help your child enjoy both the social and academic sides of school again.
Is keeping your home organized a constant struggle? Time to create some new cleaning habits — for your kids! Here, moms who blog about home management share their best tricks for encouraging kids to keep the house clean and organized. From five-minute flash cleans and prebedtime pickups to advice on how to make kids' rooms easy to clean, here are nine smart ways to boost your children's commitment to organizing.
In what Wheatmore High School officials are calling a "final decision," the North Carolina school has banned a yearbook picture submitted by graduating senior Caitlin Tiller because the picture included Tiller's son, Leelin.
As WGHP (FOX News) reports below, seniors were invited to include something in their pictures that represents an achievement. While some chose pets or instruments, Tiller was photographed with Leelin. She says that being a mom has motivated her not only to finish high school but to also start college early, all while working 30 hours per week and caring for her son. But her high school is concerned that the image will promote teen pregnancy to others and is printing the yearbook without Tiller's picture.
Do you think kids become teen moms because they see other girls doing it?
You can't name your baby whatever you want to in New Zealand — but we're not sure if that's a bad thing! As CNN reports, New Zealand bans baby names using the guidelines that "names must not cause offense to a reasonable person, not be unreasonably long and should not resemble an official title and rank." As a result, in the past 12 years children were spared names such as Lucifer, Justice, King, Princess, Christ, Mafia No Fear, V8, Rogue, 4Real, and *. (Yes, that last name is simply an asterisk sign!)
What do you think?
A truly amazing set of twins in Waterford, Ireland, could break the Guinness World Record for interval between births. When her water broke prematurely at 23 weeks, mom Maria Jones-Elliot gave birth to one of the twins, Amy. That was June 1, 2012. Eighty-seven days later, Jones-Elliot's second daughter, Katie, was born.
As detailed on the Huffington Post, Jones-Elliot's 87-day interval, when substantiated by hospital records, will beat out that of the current record holder, Peggy Lynn, by three days. Still, Lynn's twins, born 84 days apart in the mid-'90s, are extraordinary in a different way: their birthdays span two years!
Love it or hate it, Mother's Day is right around the bend. And because not every Mother's Day is filled with appreciation, handmade cards, and a gourmet breakfast in bed followed by a day of rest and model behavior, we went hunting for some wisdom from Circle of Moms members to help us through the day.
We hope your Mom's Day is perfect . . . but if not, these quotes are for you!
Having a child changes just about everything in your life, legal documents included! From forms to file right after a birth to a key document many of us delay for years, here are nine documents (plus one that's purely sentimental) moms suggest having on file.
