Tag: mom

5 Tips To Simplify Kids Clothing

Petit Mail
5 Tips To Simplify Kids Clothing

Being a busy working mom with two kids (or any number of kids) is NOT easy.

If we haven’t “met” yet, hello!

I’m Alison, I create Petit Mail, a snail mail subscription experience for preschoolers and early readers, work a full time job at a local non-profit and have two munchkins. Around the time I was pregnant with my son, simplifying and minimalism became regular words in my vocabulary.

I’ve learned so much and I have so many tips, ideas and resources that I want to share with you. These are the tools that I use at home every day to keep my life from feeling totally out of control!

5 Tips To Simplify Kids Clothing

  1. Accept Previously Loved Clothing – this helps to save so much money. You don’t have to keep everything you are given, and can donate or pass along items if you feel you have enough.
  2. Shop At Children’s Consignment Stores – you can find clothing at a fraction of the price, sometimes with the tags still on! Plus this keeps clothing out of the landfill. This works particularly well for babies and toddlers, when clothing is usually in excellent condition.
  3. Purchase Handmade Clothing (Or Make It Yourself!) – if you have less items, you can invest in beautiful, quality, handmade pieces. Support local makers and small business!
  4. Don’t Have More Than What You Need – Anyone ever notice that a lot of children will wear their favourite outfits all the time? Many children are natural minimalists at heart! Get your kids involved – they might be better at simplifying their closets than you are.
  5. Donate or Consign Frequently – I pass along our previously loved children’s clothing to other families regularly. We keep a bag/basket at the top of each child’s closet – as soon as something comes out of the laundry that we know is too small, it gets placed in the donation area. When the bag is full, we try to pass it along right away. We bring gently loved toys and books that our children have outgrown to a local consignment store.

This is just ONE of the areas where I have made changes to make our life at home easier.
You can also read more about how we have reduced our screen time at home to make more room for FAMILY time!

I often feel that weight of working mom guilt, but, one of my solutions has always been to spend short, quality amounts of time with my children – reading, creating, doing “special projects”. I wanted to share that experience with other families, so I created Petit Mail.

It’s an easy, fun experience for families of preschoolers and early readers.

Petit Mail story postcard subscriptions arrive once per month in bright, fun envelopes, addressed directly to your child. The illustrated stories are perfect for reading out loud together, and have activity suggestions and inspiration. Our themes include art, science, nature, imaginative play, and more!

You can get started by trying your first story postcard for just $10 (postage included) in Canada and the US.

Learn more about Petit Mail or about trying a story postcard.

Can’t wait to have you join our snail mail family!

-Alison

4 Tips For Creating Art With Your Preschooler

Petit Mail

As part of my quest to spend quality moments with my children every day (even if we don’t have a LOT of time between work, daycare and meals/bedtime routines), I’ve been working on simplifying the ways that we explore together, especially with art!

I’ve put together some practical tips from one mom to another to encourage your child to explore and LOVE art!

1. Don’t be afraid of creating art with your preschooler!

I don’t believe that creating with our littles needs to be complicated, scary or unattainable. YOU CAN be a “creative mom” EVEN if you don’t feel like you are! At this stage, it’s more about the exploration than the outcome BUT that can be hard to remember as a mom in our Pin-tastic world of perfect projects! It’s OK to love all those Pins and use them for inspiration, but our child’s projects don’t have to look like that all the time.

2. It’s OK to be messy!

The key is to be prepared for messy art. Put down some garbage bags or purchase an inexpensive tarp or drop cloth from the dollar store or a local hardware store (these can be reused!)

Be sure to get your children to wear old clothes or painting smocks (I always wore an old shirt of my dad’s when I was little and working on messy “projects”

3. Have a few SIMPLE supplies on hand (here are mine)

You don’t need to have a lot of supplies at home to create art. A few things that I keep in our house for art projects are:

  • A large roll of white paper
  • Paintbrushes
  • Washable paint
  • Scissors
  • Coloured Paper
  • Crayons

Be sure to check out this tutorial for making your own DIY liquid water color paints. It’s a super simple project and we had so much fun creating it together!

4. Use Helpful Resources To Guide You

My goal is to make it really easy for you to connect + create together. Our story postcards arrive in your mailbox in a bright, fun envelope and have an illustrated story, perfect for reading with your preschooler or early reader.

Petit Mail stories always encourage you to learn and discover together with simple, age appropriate activity ideas perfect for learning at home.

The best part? You can try your first story for just $10 in Canada and the US (postage included)

This month, Oliver Explores ART and in our bonus subscriber videos (link included with your story postcard), I’ll be walking you through an art project that you can do together (no complicated materials needed!) – it’s going to be so much fun and I can’t wait for you to receive your cards this month.