I use clothespins for everything.  I’m still working off a shoeboxfull that came with our vintage fifties ranch so I haven’t had to buy any for a long, long time.  That said, I was getting a little tired of the old, not so cute ones so we decided to pretty some up with buttons snatched [...]

Marie at Make and Takes posted last week about ways that she encourages independence in her kids.  I’ll admit that I sometimes have to let go of my clean-house-hangups, but I try to give my little ones age-appropriate opportunities to serve themselves rather than continuing to depend on me for, well, everything!  As they’ve gotten [...]

My evening duties are pretty light around the Kiddio house–we eat dinner, I clean the kitchen up while Daddio plays with the little ones, then he gets the two older ones to bed while I take care of the easy one baby. 
Most of the time.
Like a lot of husbands and wives, though, dear Daddio [...]

Dear Kiddio, 
I like all of the creative things you do on your blog, but what do you do with all this stuff once you’re done?  My kids come home with so much artwork from school and make more at home.  I feel really bad throwing it away, but honestly, how can I store all of [...]

Katy at Sycamore Stirrings has fully inspired me. I feel like I always have this sort of creative pool in my mind, swirling with all the things I’d like to try, ideas I don’t want to forget…but the thing that gets me is that in the blog world (whether you’re reading or writing) we [...]

Clip a dishtowel, hanky, or napkin around your child’s neck and call him/her a superhero. Extra fun on the swings as it flies out behind.
Use a few to secure sheets, play silks, or other coverings over furniture to make a fort, then call yourself a great parent for cleaning it all up later.
Use two [...]

Mary Beth at Salt and Chocolate hit upon a great storage system for containing and organizing kids’ toy storage. I love the flexibility of it and the capacity. Wow! I just didn’t want you to miss it or her lovely blog!
photo via: salt and chocolate
More from the collective:

organizing kids’ stuff

I somehow made it through life not understanding how to keep things tidy. I’m pretty good at the actual act of cleaning (vacuuming, cleaning the toilet, dusting–however rarely that might happen), but in spite of having an compulsively tidy, uncluttering type of mother (love you mom!) I had no idea until fairly recently that [...]

After a bit of looking over the weekend we realized that although the liquid-holding body of our sippy cups were phthalate and Bisphenol-A (BPA)-free, the lids weren’t. Further, our daughter’s pacifiers have BPA in the shield that holds the nipple and that…basically everything in our house has something bad in it. After throwing [...]

We keep reading about how bad the stuff in our house is, but I’m still confused about what it all is and why I should be worried about it. So here is the Cliff’s Notes version:

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a component in plastics (mainly polycarbonate [recycling #7], which is clear and shatter-resistant) and the epoxy [...]