Blog Posts by Jenna Magill

turkey dinner with cranberry sauceGrowing up I had to clean my dinner plate or I couldn't have anything else until breakfast. I remember epic sesssions of me sitting at the table an hour later with a plate of spaghetti in front of me with the noodles growing ever larger from all the parmesan cheese I sprinkled on my plate to make it palatable. For a time when I was first married, we tried this same approach to dinner with our two children. Never a big eater myself, and noticing that my children were similar, the approach never really worked for me. Nor did I want to become a short order chef, taking everyone's orders for their own individual dinners, as I know some friends have done with their families.

When one of my children was diagnosed with a gastrointestional disorder, I knew we needed to change our approach to dinnertime, and to food in general. I settled on a hybrid approach, one that honored my committment to making only one meal, and that allowed our children to decide when they were full. I made one meal

Your kids may go to sleep holding these books because they are too hard to put down!Do you find yourself dreading your child's bedtime and the endless struggle it has become to get them ready, in bed, and asleep before you fall over from exhaustion? I know very few parents who haven't had some sort of struggle to get at least one of their children off to bed. Here are a few of my time tested methods to making bedtime sanier for you (CALM) and more predictable for your children (CONSISTENT).

#1: Make a routine and stick to it
As with all things involving children, consistency is essential. The more your children can predict what will happen, the more secure they feel, and the less they see an opportunity to buck the system (aka "the parents."

I am blessed with three children, all with different sleep schedules and bedtimes. The two year old and eleven year olds are quite easy. The two year old get a bath around 7:30pm in which she gets to play, then washes herself with a wash cloth, and attempts to wash her hair, all with supervision from me. After bath, we put on

When I found out I was pregnant with my first child, I had a slight panic attack thinking about when I would have to start potty training. The whole idea of potty training just grossed me out and seemed like an impossible task. Now, after successfully training two children and almost finished with training my third child, I find potty training to be a piece of cake. A lot of parents are apprehensive and fearful of this time in early childhood, so here are some of my suggestions for making the transition from diapers to underwear a smooth one for everyone involved:

#1: Pull-ups are NOT underwear
Yes, I know pull-ups are marketed for "big kids", to help transition from diapers to real underwear, and pull-ups are put on like real underwear, the wearer must step into them and pull them up. Let's be frank though, pull-ups are made of essentially the same material as diapers, and they look a lot like diapers, so much so that if you were to try to put one on my 2 1/2 year old she would tell

A child doing homeworkI recently attended a meeting at one of my daugther's schools. During the meeting, I explained my philosophy on how I monitor my child's homework. Simply put, I consider my daugther's homework to be her job, not mine. Granted when my daughter was much younger I would sit with her nightly and we would plow through homework together. Then in third grade things went amiss and homework became a battleground. Fourth grade was horrendous unti mid-year when I had an epiphany. I decided to make homework her job not mine. I sat her down and explained that I had already been through fourth grade and I was not going back to school. I would be available for consultation should she have any questions on her homework that could be addressed in no more than 10 minutes per subject. Anything outside the 10 minute window would prompt me to send a note to her teacher explaining she needed more instruction. Furthermore, it was her responsibility to make sure the work was done and turned in on time. I