As the mother of an active toddler, I barely remember my pre-baby self. Lyss Stern, founder of Divalyssicious Moms, sent me a copy of her new book If You Give a Mom a Martini: 100 Ways to Find 10 Blissful Minutes for Yourself.

Summer is a great time for enrichment activities. Free from the daily grind of classes and homework, your child can explore his or her creative side.

Shop for art supplies on sale at local craft stores, or find wholesale arts and crafts supplies online at DollarDays. Many moms have a craft box (or craft closet) full of supplies to keep their kids occupied during school vacations and on rainy weekends.

While some parents splurge on summer art classes and camps, activity books can inspire at a much lower price tag. LittleMissMatched’s The Artist in Me! costs under $12 at Amazon.

Learning to recognize different coins and understanding their value is an essential part of the preschool and the kindergarten curriculum.

Parents can use coins to introduce math concepts like sorting and counting. You can help your child learn to identify coins and their value while teaching them to save money using Coin County: A Bank in a Book, an award-winning book by Innovative Kids.

If your child is a picky eater, try preparing meals together. If your child feels some ownership over a meal, he’s more likely to eat it. Start by picking an easy-to-make recipe or by using a children’s cookbook.

I received a review sample of the Handstand Kids Chinese Cookbook, the newest book in their cookbook series for children ages 3 to 12. The Handstand Kids Cookbook series introduces children to the language and cuisine of other cultures through fun, easy-t0-make recipes. Ingredients and utensils are listed in both English and Mandarin.

We all have holiday traditions. For the second year in a row, Candace and I have been getting into the spirit of the season on Mamanista with our 12 Days of Giveaways. At home, we’ve both been counting down the days until Santa’s arrival with our The Story of Christmas Advent Calendars.
This book and advent calendar combo features 24 miniature board books nestled in a three-paneled, stand-alone backer. The books, which tell the story of the first Christmas, are meant to be opened one a day from December 1 through Christmas Eve and then hung on your Christmas …

Fueled by candy, children’s imagination runs wild at Halloween as they transform themselves into superheroes, animals, monsters, pirates, villains, and fairy tale characters. Feed your children’s imagination with some ghoulishly great books that they’ll enjoy long after they’ve eaten their fill of fun-size Snickers and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. You won’t need to trick your children into reading these lively tales of ghosts, witches, vampires, monsters, witches and more.  
Vunce Upon a Time is a charming and beautifully-illustrated Halloween story that might even help banish your child’s fear of the monster who lives under the bed.  Dagmar, the vegetarian vampire, …

TV viewing by young children skyrockets during the summer months as exhausted parents look for ways to fill the day.  According to the Smart Television Alliance, children’s television viewing during the summer increases 150 percent compared to the rest of the year. 
The AAP recommends no television under age 2 and limited television by children above age 2, but studies published in Parents Magazine show that a majority of parents do not abide by the recommendation. In my experience, TV viewing escalates during the summer months as parents who want the3 best …

Have we forgotten how to play?
Children learn through playing–they learn about the world around them, about interacting with others, and even about themselves. In light of recent studies that television may be harmful to children under two and that older children still need to temper their tech-time with lots of face to face time, it seems time for old-fashioned play to make a comeback.
But what do you DO with a child all day? New parents used to get ideas from friends and relatives. Now, so many of …

When I was a young girl, I devoured books about spying, eager to discover the secrets of invisible ink and other tricks for espionage. At some point I moved on to learning the craft of friendship bracelets, and then to ghost stories, and so on.
I suppose today’s girls look up this assortment of skills, lore, and ephemera on the Internet. However, the problem with the Internet is that you usually find what you were looking for, and not much else.
Browse a good book, instead, and you discover so …