The Ultimate Guide on How to Make Your Workouts More Effective

There are many guides on how to live a happy life. Every one of them includes physical activity as one of the crucial elements of a fulfilled life. You need to work out at least a couple of times a week to maintain your physical and mental health. It is possible to find enough time …

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How Data Privacy Lessons in Alternative Reality Games Can Help Kids In Real Life

What Makes the BARR Program Effective in Helping Ninth Graders in Virtually Every Type of School?

5 Big Reasons Why Self Care Should Be A Non Negotiable

It makes no difference whether you are a professional, a student, and a homemaker – whatever! – self-care is of top priority – it matters, a lot. Whatever your status, each one is expected to balance work responsibilities, play, home – and the challenges that come with these. Self-care is a practice that helps to …

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How to Make Vegan Nacho Cheese

The Best Loaded Vegan Nachos

4 Tips for a More Eco-Friendly Home

It’s great how more and more people are becoming environmentally conscious these days. Contribute to the efforts by deciding to try the following tips:

Photo by adriana carles on Unsplash

Choose your carpet wisely

Natural materials don’t guarantee healthy carpet – be sure you’re not buying a seemingly eco-friendly carpet that has actually been treated with insect or flame repellents. Conventionally-produced wool can also have a heavy environmental impact due to the pesticide baths used to control parasites on sheep. And some of the worst off-gassing can be caused by a culprit you may not expect: the carpet backing.

When buying eco-friendly carpet backing or pads, look for natural materials like non-synthetic latex, untreated wool or camel hair felt. Carpet backings that are sewn on or glued using natural, non-toxic adhesives are healthier choices than those using adhesives that off-gas VOCs. Source: MNN

Always run a full load

A single load of laundry that is washed and dried at the highest heat setting produces 7.27 pounds of CO2, so it is imperative not to waste your loads by running them when they are half full. You can also cut back on your emissions by using the cold setting and drying clothes on a line. The same principle applies to washing dishes. Instead of steaming them dry, consider skipping that step and either drying them by hand or allowing them to air dry. Yes, you might have more streaks or spots on your dishes, but you will also have a lower carbon footprint. Source: LifeHack

Opt for reusable items

Ditch disposable razors for reusable ones. Swap plastic cups and paper plates for ceramic ones. Choose reusable food containers over plastic wrap. Choose rechargeable batteries over the conventional single-use kind. Source: WebMD

Use power strips

Don’t just get and use them—flip them off whenever you’re done using the things that are plugged in. Everything from TVs to phone chargers can act as “vampire appliances,” leeching energy while not in use. Source: ArchitecturalDigest

Want your old carpet to look new? Or perhaps, it’s time to replace your carpet and you’re now looking to have a more eco-friendly option installed? We can help you out! Call us today.

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Starting A New School Year With Connection and Looking Forward

The start of school is full of preparations, back-to-school shopping, and jitters for both teachers and students. The first day of school is important — it’s when first impressions are made and when teachers have an opportunity to start connecting with students without any preconceived notions about their academics or behavior.

At Johnston High School in Iowa, English teacher Sarah Brown Wessling only gets 10 minutes with her students on the first day. She knows she needs to make them count, so she has three objectives:

1. Connect with them
2. Start putting names to faces
3. Get them to start thinking forward

“When I am being really honest with students about why I love this work, it’s really easy to cross this line into relying on too much emotion,” Wessling says in a Teaching Channel video. “So I think it’s really important to be genuine and to be honest, but not feel like you have to disclose everything in order for it to be effective.”

She does want students to have a memorable experience in this first meeting. “My hope is that they leave with a feeling, and that feeling they can then start to connect to our space.”

Wessling, the 2010 National Teacher of the Year, also likes to think about who her students will be before she even meets them. She writes a pledge to them, which she hands out early in the school year.

“I’ve had students who’ve gone through the class come back and tell me how much that note caught their attention, that they were supposed to open up this envelope and inside was this letter to them, ” Wessling said.

How do you use the first crucial minutes with a new group of students?

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Can Inviting Teachers Over to Your Home Improve How Kids Learn?

When parents are attentive to what their child is learning at school, supporting their learning at home, and generally advocating for them, academic outcomes for the child improve. But getting parents engaged with school is often a big challenge, which is why so many schools and districts are trying to move beyond traditional models of parent engagement. Some are offering wraparound services like health care at school sites, while others offer English classes or parenting seminars to entice parents to campus where they can hope for more face-to-face time with them.

But efforts focused around getting parents to come to school may not be the most effective.

One of Yesenia Ramirez’s six daughters was reading at a second-grade level when she was in the seventh grade. The girl was having difficulty accessing the material so she acted out in class.

Then her reading teacher, Mr. Ford, visited the family at home. He listened to Yesenia Ramirez’s concerns about her daughter and helped her develop an action plan; and everything turned around.

“It was the best gift I’ve ever received when it comes to my children’s education because he taught me how I needed to be an advocate for my children,” Ramirez said.

This experience inspired Ramirez to start the Parent Teacher Home Visits project training teachers around the country in the model. She passionately believes that home visits go a long way to build trust between teachers and families. Ramirez says the teachers she trains (in 20 states) are almost always hesitant at first, but she works hard to help them see the value in home visits.

MORE THAN A SCHOOL CONTACT

Pam Buric teaches newcomer English Language Learners at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento. Recently she has had several newly arrived families from Afghanistan. When she visited the family of her student, Ruhullah Masomee, she not only met his parents, but also his three siblings. During the visit Buric told Ruhullah’s family how hard he was working and how much his English has improved. His parents asked if he was using his cellphone in class and how they could help him at home. At the end of the visit, Buric gave Ruhullah’s father her card so that he has a specific contact at the school. Making sure parents have this kind of personal connection is one of the goals of the home visit. The hope is that if anything comes up for the student that the school should know about, family members will feel more comfortable reaching out.

Buric’s colleague at Luther Burbank, Jennifer Adkins, was a bit more skeptical of home visits. Before coming to Luther Burbank, a school with more than 1,700 students, the majority of whom receive free and reduced price meals, Adkins taught at two private K-8 schools. In that setting, parents weren’t just involved, they were intrusive. They emailed and called her at all hours and showed up at her classroom in the middle of the day. She’s happy to have a conversation about a child’s progress, but found the constant bombardment from parents overbearing. When she heard about the home visit program at Luther Burbank she was not interested in participating.

A colleague finally convinced Adkins to give home visits a try. At the training, she learned the five non-negotiable rules of the program:

1. The program is voluntary for teachers.
2. Teachers go in pairs.
3. Teachers make sure the parents agree to the visit by making an appointment and following up before arriving.
4. Teachers focus on the family’s hopes and dreams for their child.
5. Any student can get a home visit, so it doesn’t become a stigma.

“I was a little scared and intimidated,” Adkins said. She worried the parents wouldn’t want her in their home and was skeptical that the visit would really make a difference for her student, Hernan. For his part, Hernan thought Adkins was there to tell on him.

“I actually felt like she was going to tell them bad things about me because I wasn’t doing too well at that time,” Hernan said.

Listen to the rest of Hernan and Adkins’ story on the first episode of Season 3 of the MindShift podcast. You’ll hear more about why teachers and parents are skeptical of home visits and get to go along on one with us! Find it on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, NPR One or anywhere you get your podcasts.

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How Sleep Can Improve Your Life and Fitness Goals

Most people know that sleep is important, but few understand the effects that the rest can have on their physical and mental health. Successful athletes require a considerable amount of both mental and physical toughness. Therefore, the importance of a good night’s sleep cannot be overstated when it comes to maintaining your fitness goals. The …

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Leading With Learning On The First Day Of School To Build Class Culture

High school English teacher Sarah Brown Wessling admits that she used to think about the first day of school as the time to lay out class rules and expectations. But after years of teaching, she has come to a different understanding about the best way to use this crucial time.

“Over time, I’ve realized I want them to walk away with an experience where they understand what learning is going to feel like in this space together,” Wessling said in a Teaching Channel video. “So I’ve given myself this challenge to teach on the first day.”

She gives students three clues and asks them to tell her what the class is going to be all about. During the class period, students share ideas with one another in pairs, but also to the whole group. Wessling takes them through Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” reading it out loud to them because she knows tone and inflection make a difference for comprehension with text this difficult. As they slowly move through the text, she models some of the habits of good readers.

“Plato is perfect for complex work, but I also know if I were to say go read this tough essay on your own and then tell me what it’s all about, that it would be counterproductive,” Wessling said. “It really has to be a community effort because that’s part of what I want them to understand about who we’re going to be as learners.”

Wessling has learned that starting with real learning on the first day, does a lot more to set the tone for the year than a laundry list of rules. She’s demonstrating right away what it looks like to be part of a community of learners.

“When I think of my overarching goal of leading with learning instead of presenting a lesson, I think that this particular lesson really helps to achieve that because it creates an opportunity for us to do work together. Students aren’t sitting and getting. They’re talking to each other; they’re listening; they’re writing; they’re reading; they’re doing so many of the skills that we know they’re going to have to do throughout the entire course.”

What may not have been clear from that video is that Johnston High is in its first year in a new building where teachers roam between classrooms, sharing space. This was an adjustment for Wessling, who had taught in her own classroom for 19 years. She had to think carefully about how to transport the materials and tools she finds most important between classrooms, as well as shift her mindset about what it means to be a learning community.

“I don’t want to be defined by a traditional classroom anymore,” Wessling said. “We will be a class and we will be a community wherever we’re at. And that the people are far more important than the walls that will define us.”

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Apple Cinnamon Pressure Cooker Steel Cut Oats

Music Therapy: 5 Ways music boost children’s brain power

Searching for having a healthy lifestyle is a never-ending process. People perform various things to keep oneself healthy both physically and mentally by performing multiple exercises and a maintaining proper diet or by adding new ingredients to their daily habit. One can also consider listening to music as a healthy exercise for their brain cells. …

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Paprika Goat Cheese Spread + AncestryDNA Results

Top 7 Effects of Marijuana Use on Exercising

What are the effects of marijuana on exercising? That’s a hot topic for a discussion. For this reason, proper information on its relationship with cannabis use is what many people need – and for that, dispensary marketing can help (spreading awareness and information on the otherwise new and highly regulated industry that is yet to …

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Types of Synthetic Carpet Fibers

Contrary to popular belief, carpets can be cheap and manageable. That is if you choose synthetic fibers for your flooring. Known for their great resistance and low cost, the following types of carpet will be perfect even for the busiest working professional. Take a look:

Photo by Bulkan Evcimen on Unsplash

Polyester

Carpet made from polyester is long lasting and more readily retains bright colors. It is a very tough fiber so it is easy to clean with regular vacuuming, spot cleaning for stains and it will not wear down as quickly as some other materials. Source: AngiesList

Nylon

Nylon is one of the most well-known synthetic fibers. For years it has been considered the ‘ultimate’ carpet fiber. Nylon is, in general, a strong fiber with high resiliency (the ability to bounce back after becoming flattened or compacted). This translates into a very durable carpet.
Nylon does have some disadvantages, though: it is more expensive than other synthetic carpet fibers, and less stain resistant (although it is always protected with a stain treatment). Source: TheSpruce

Olefin

Olefin fibers have a similar appearance to wool. This is one reason why this fiber finds applications in area rug. It is often a good choice for loop carpets like Berbers. The fiber is strong, elastic, has good abrasion resistance and has excellent resistance to staining, chemicals, mildew and fading. It is an excellent choice for both indoors and outdoors like artifical sport turfs. Olefins are usually the least expensive carpet fibers but they also have lower resilience than nylon and polyester, meaning olefin fibers do not “bounce back” as quickly after being compressed by foot traffic.

Acrylic

Acrylic fibers are made from polyacrylonitrile. The fiber is lightweight, soft, and warm, with a wool-like feel and can mimic natural fibers such as cotton and wool or can be blended with them. The fiber has fair to good abrasion resistance and good resistance to staining, chemicals, mildew, and fading. However, acrylic fibers are not as durable as the other three major types of carpet fibers. Acrylics are usually not a good choice for high traffic areas. Source: PolymerDatabase

Can’t decide which type would be best for your home? We can help you out! Call us today!

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What Adolescent Girls Wish Their Parents Understood About Them

Traveling with a Toddler: Travel Beds, Packing List, & Tips!

Traveling with a toddler? Here are tips on traveling to Europe with toddlers, including toddler travel beds, packing lists, plane activities, and more! Affiliate links are included below.

When Alex and I decided to take our toddler son Larson on vacation to Europe, some people thought we were crazy! Heck, we felt like we were crazy. But with the guidance of several friends who had also traveled to Europe with toddlers, we were assured that yes, we could do it. A dear friend assured us that “Traveling with kids is an adventure, not a vacation!” and we lived by that mantra. And you know what? A few days in and it actually did feel like a vacation! Incredible food, clear blue Mediterranean waters, and ancient ruins combined to make the most memorable adventure ever. Since we’ve returned, we’ve had so many people ask, what are your tips for traveling with a toddler? Good news: we’ve got you covered! All our secrets for the best toddler travel bed, plane activities, and more are below! For our full toddler packing list, skip to the very end of the post.

Important note: Before we begin, please note that there is no right way to travel with a toddler! What we’re sharing here is what Alex and I did to travel to a specific place with a specific toddler. Larson, age 17 months, is an incredibly easy going, adventurous, and adaptable little dude. Please adapt our suggestions to fit your specific toddler personalities, and keep in mind that what works for one might be different than what works with two or three!

Related: Travel Capsule Wardrobe: What to Pack for a Trip to Europe, How to Take Better Vacation Pictures

Our toddler travel bed fit right into half of this suitcase!

Did you use a toddler travel bed?

Yes, we did use a toddler travel bed! In fact, bringing a travel crib for a toddler is one of our top tips for traveling with toddlers! Since Larson was 17 months for our trip, we still did not feel comfortable with him sleeping on a cot or bed. Most of the places we stayed, all of them Airbnbs, were not equipped for toddler sleeping situations. But even more importantly, sleeping in the same toddler travel bed every night was crucial to Larson adapting to the travel. We stayed in many different cities, but each night at the end of the night Larson had the same bed! So by the third night of our three weeks, he was totally adjusted to that travel crib.

What toddler travel bed did we use? This Baby Bjorn Travel Crib Light. We actually bought ours used on Craigslist, which was a steal! We cannot recommend this crib enough: it’s super light, easy to assemble, and fits into half of a large suitcase. The luggage we used was this Samsonite Winfield 2 Hardside 28″ Luggage. It fit right into one side of the suitcase, which left the other half for Larson’s and our clothes and other items. The only other luggage we brought was this Samsonite Winfield 2 Hardside 24″ Luggage and it fit everything we needed for 3 weeks! I could even assemble the Baby Bjorn travel crib all by myself, which is saying something (I’m terrible even at putting together Pack N Plays!).

Larson’s car seat, complete with travel bag

What about a toddler car seat for travel?

Good question! We used Larson’s normal car seat, which is lightweight. The toddler car seat we have is the Evenflo Tribute LX. How it works when flying: you’re not charged extra for having a car seat with you. Make sure to buy a travel bag for the car seat (like thi carseat bag). When you get to the gate, the flight attendant will provide separate checking tags for the car seat in the bag. Many times you’ll be able to bring it up to the gate and then they’ll check it there. In some countries, the airport had a special place for “bulky luggage” where we had to take it (the flight attendant will instruct you). In both cases, we typically picked up the car seat with our luggage on the luggage carousel.

Do taxis, Ubers, and car services takes toddlers with car seats? All of the Ubers and taxis that we used did take toddlers with car seats! It’s possible that some might not, so make sure to be up front about it when you order. One tip: Since many cars have a latch system for car seats and you may not have secured the car seat with a seatbelt before. Before you travel, make sure to practice putting in the crib with a seatbelt if you’ve never done it!

For long trips we used our baby carrier, but for strolling we let him run! (Tellaro, Italy)

Did you bring a travel stroller or baby carrier?

For this trip, we ditched the stroller and decided to bring only a baby carrier! Our reasoning: streets in Europe can be rather bumpy and hard to navigate. Also, we didn’t want to have to worry about lugging a stroller around and storing it when we stopped at restaurants. For Alex and me, we preferred the free feeling of just using a baby carrier. Larson falls asleep easily in public in the baby carrier, but not as much in the stroller. However, there are some drawbacks of a baby carrier: it did get rather hot, especially in the summer! Carrying around 20 pounds for a while left huge sweat spots on the back of our shirts. Also, you can’t do anything sitting down when you have a sleeping toddler on your back! It was perfect for hiking and walking through museums with a sleeping toddler, but not so much for going to restaurants.

What baby carrier did we use? This LILLEbaby 3 in 1 CarryOn Toddler Carrier. Like our toddler travel bed, we cannot say enough about this baby carrier! It’s super comfortable and carries up to 60 pounds.

Do babies and toddlers under age 2 fly free overseas?

As you may know, babies and toddlers fly free in the United States if they’re under 2 years old. Score! For overseas travel, we assumed it was the same. Ooops! For overseas travel, the cost of babies and toddlers is up to the airline. On Delta (which we used), it cost 10% of the cost of an adult ticket for a lap child.

Don’t forget to pack swim diapers! (Tellaro, Italy)

Did you reserve a bassinet for flying overseas?

For overseas travel, most airlines have a baby bassinet in the bulkhead seats to give babies a place to sleep. A lot of people suggested this to us, but in the end we decided not to. By 17 months, Larson is pretty picky about where he sleeps, so weren’t sure he’d be into it. You do have to pay an upcharge to reserve the bulkhead seats (around $100), so we decided to have Larson “sleep” with us. Once we got on the plane and checked out the bassinet situation, we were glad we went this direction. However, we do recommend this tip if you’re flying with a baby! If Larson were less than 1 year old, this would have been a perfect solution.

Walking the streets of Rome!

How do you get babies or toddlers to sleep on a plane?

This is a topic of great debate. Many people swear by using Benadryl or melatonin to help toddlers sleep on planes. We weren’t sure what to think, so we asked Alex’s brother, who is a doctor. He cautioned that having a toddler take a drug on a plane for the first time was risky, since Larson had never taken either before. He also mentioned that Benadryl can make babies and toddlers drowsy, which can make it harder to adjust to a new time zone. So, we took the conservative approach to sleeping and did no medications.

So, did Larson sleep on the plane? Yes. Did he sleep as much as we hoped? No. Because Larson was 17 months old for the overseas flight, he was much more aware of his surroundings than on past flights when he was younger. Instead of sleeping, he wanted to explore the plane and chat with other passengers! When the cabin lights darkened for sleeping time, we put on his PJs, gave him the blanket and dog, and even turned on his sound machine at low volume. We tried putting him in our baby carrier hoping the security of the carrier would lull him to sleep. Unfortunately, it was a pretty rough transition because he just wanted to keep exploring!

Eventually, Larson slept about 3 hours of the 9 hour flight overseas. The up side to only sleeping 3 hours was that once we got to Italy, we had a full day and did naps as normal. Once it got to his bedtime, he was SO tired that he slept the entire night! And we did too. The next day, we were all on Italian time. So it actually worked in our favor!

Larson was enthralled by all the dogs and cats (Sibenik, Croatia)

Do you have toddler plane activities or plane toys for toddlers?

Yes! Here are some tips for toddler plane activities / plane toys that we found went over well:

• Bring these sticker books from National Geographic! These sticker books are less than $7 each and HOURS of entertainment! Alex found these at Target and they’re also on Amazon. Each book has over 1,000 stickers and literally endlessly entertained Larson. It’s also light and very easy to pack. There are various different animal themes: we got 4 books and gradually gave him new ones to keep the novelty factor. We cannot recommend these enough for toddlers 16 months and above! (Though we did end up with stickers all over us, it was worth it!)
• Use small snacks as an activity. Eating raisins or Cheerios can last for quite a long time!
• Play hide and seek with a small object. Use a toy car or small animal to play hide and seek. We actually use a sunglasses case to “hide” things; it has a zipper that keeps him busy trying to open it. However, you can do this with just a toy too!
• Use flashcard or drawing apps on your Smartphone or tablet. We used a few flashcard apps on our phone (we like one called First Animals). Larson loved swiping and hearing the animal sounds.
• Read search and find books. Larson loves finding objects in books — and it was on a plane that we actually discovered he knew way more words than we realized! If your toddler gets bored, the airplane magazines in the seat pocket can be good too! We spent hours saying, “Where’s the man? Where’s the tree? Where’s the airplane” and having Larson point to the words.
• Don’t bring too much! It’s easy to overpack, so we tried to bring just enough: sticker books, tablet, a few books, and a few small toys.

A meringue the size of his head! (Cartagena, Spain)

What toddler travel snacks did you bring?

The hard part about toddler travel snacks when you’re traveling for 3 weeks is that you have to buy many of them on the road! Here is what we tended to have onhand for travel snacks:

• Larabars or energy bars: Larson loves them and they’re made with real food and minimally processed
• Yogurt pouches: frozen for travel (this only works on the front end!)
• Raisins
• Cheerios
• Bananas
• Blueberries
• Crackers / breadsticks

Also, Larson drinks quite a bit of milk. We brought along these Stainless steel cups and Silicone sippy lids, which were perfect for his milk. We bought new milk in each location.

A quick change at a rest stop (somewhere in Slovenia?)

Did you bring a diaper bag?

For this trip, we decided that we’d prefer not carrying a separate diaper bag in addition to our camera bag and my purse. So, we got a combination camera bag and backpack that we used as a diaper bag. This way, we didn’t have to lug along a fully separate diaper bag. This is of course up to your personal preference, but we enjoyed not having to keep track of yet another bag!

What combination camera / diaper bag did we use? The Minimalist from Atlas Supply. In everyday life, it functions as Alex’s camera bag.

How many diapers did you bring?

The hard part about traveling with a toddler is that so much of your luggage is taken up by diapers! For our 3 week trip to Europe, we brought enough diapers for about 2 weeks. This did take up quite a bit of space in our luggage! Looking back however, we recommend bringing enough diapers for about 1 week. Diapers and wipes were very easy to find in grocery stores in Italy, Croatia, and Spain, so we could have packed less than we did.

Even Larson was awed by the Sagrada Familia (Barcelona, Spain)

How do you help a toddler adjust to jet lag?

Good question! Luckily Larson adjusted very quickly to the new time zone, but of course it’s dependent on the toddler! As I mentioned above, Larson only slept 3 hours of the 9 hour flight overseas. This meant that when we arrived in the morning in Italy, he was running on pretty low sleep. We did naps as normal, and then put him to bed at his normal time of 7:00 pm. Because he was so tired, he ended up sleeping the entire night! This seemed to immediately adjust him to Italian time. Larson did wake up a few times crying early on in the evening the first 2 days in Italy, which we think was likely because he was adjusting to the new space. However, after a few days he got used to sleeping in the same travel crib every night and slept soundly.

On the way home, Larson slept about the same amount of time on the flight. However, since we returned home in the evening EST, he was then able to go to bed and sleep through the night since he was so tired again. On the returning side, it took several days for him to adjust back to EST, but he was never up in the middle of the night, lucky for us!

Exploring the streets of Frigiliana, Spain

What are the best toddler travel shoes?

For travelling for toddlers in the summer, we love these Toms canvas shoes. We got them in dark gray so they would hide the dirt, and they’ve held up very well! We also brought a backup pair just in case of an accident, but he didn’t end up needing them.

Speaking of backups: we suggest always taking a backup outfit with you in your diaper bag. There was one incident of car sickness and we only had one backup pair of shorts — so Larson ended up having to spend one day in a not so pleasant shirt. Our mistake!

Larson’s trusty Toms in action at La Alhambra (Granada, Spain)

How did you handle naps on vacation?

A big question we got around traveling with a toddler was schedule: how did you handle naps on vacation? On our trip to Europe (and today!), Larson takes one 2 to 3 hour nap in the middle of the day. So on vacation, we did the same thing! And Alex and I found we actually really loved being forced to take a siesta in the middle of the day. During nap time, Alex and I would have downtime and read, catch up on a little work or emails, and relax. It also kept us out of the hot midday sun. Then when Larson was awake, we’d go out adventuring again in the afternoon. Fun fact: This schedule also helps you take better pictures!

Golden hour = almost bedtime (Tellaro, Italy)

What was your bedtime routine?

One of the hard parts about traveling with a toddler is bedtime: once you put your toddler to bed, no more exploring for you! Rome with kids means no romantic pasta dinners for two, and Barcelona with kids has no room for midnight tapas. One of the ways that we worked around this when traveling is that in many of our destinations, we were traveling with other people. In Italy we were with Alex’s mom, brother, and sister in law, in Croatia we were with a dear friend and her husband, and in Barcelona we stayed with friends.  So, usually we were able to juggle having someone stay back with Larson, and the other person would have dinner companions. For 6 days we were by ourselves in Spain; for this timeframe we actually changed his bedtime to 9:00 pm so we could stay out later. Some nights we kept him up a little longer, other days we had a big midday meal and either cooked or had snacks at home.

For the bedtime routine, we tried to keep as many constants as possible. With our travel we had less time for bath time–but if we could, we’d try to do a bath or shower. Then we’d darken his room, turn on his sound machine (we have a great travel sound machine!), and put his dog and blanket in his bed. After reading a book, we’d put him in his toddler travel bed with his pacifier. By a few days into the trip, he went down very easily!

His adventurous spirit made it all worth it! (Cartagena, Spain)

Do you have a toddler packing list?

Yes! Here is our toddler packing list for 3 weeks in Europe in the summer, with links to the items mentioned above!

• Travel
  • Evenflo Car seat
  • Car seat bag
  • LILLEbaby baby carrier
  • Samsonite Winfield 2 Hardside 28″ Luggage
  • Samsonite Winfield 2 Hardside 24″ Luggage 
  • Passport
• Sleeping
  • Travel white noise sound machine 
  • Baby Bjorn Travel Crib
  • Lovies (he used a blanket and dog)
  • Pacifier
• Hygiene
  • Baby bath soap
  • 1 rubber ducky
  • Child nail clippers
  • Child Tylenol
  • Bandaids
• Eating
  • Stainless steel cups and Silicone sippy lids
  • Water bottle
  • Snacks: Larabars
  • Paper towels
• Toys
  • National Geographic sticker books
  • Search and Find Animal Friends book
  • 2 or 3 other lightweight books
  • A handful of small toys
  • Tablet

• Clothing (for a boy!): 
  • 7 short sleeve shirts, 1 long sleeve (it was summer!)
  • 1 full backup outfit for diaper bag
  • 2 pants
  • 3 shorts
  • 2 pairs of these Toms
  • 2 pajamas
  • Diapers
  • Handful of swim diapers
  • Swim suit

Want more packing lists? Here’s what I brought as my European Capsule Wardrobe.

A Couple Cooks - Recipes for Healthy & Whole Living

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How to Answer the Questions Boys Ask Most Often About Puberty

Excerpted from the boys’ section of “Will Puberty Last My Whole Life? REAL Answers to REAL Questions from Preteens About Body Changes, Sex, and Other Growing-Up Stuff” by Dr. Robert Lehmann and Julie Metzger. Some of the questions most frequently asked by adolescent boys are featured in this chapter, “Will Puberty Last MY Whole Life?. . . And Other Questions About Puberty” especially the question, “Am I Normal?” 

What exactly is puberty? Can you feel puberty?

Puberty is the time when your body (and your thoughts and emotions too!) goes through all sorts of changes, mostly in your preteen and teenage years. Can you feel it? Not exactly, but you certainly can see that it’s happening. Puberty is the time when your body changes from a boy’s to a man’s. It’s set to start just like an alarm clock. At a certain age (determined by what you inherited from your birth mother and birth father), a message from your brain gives the signal. It tells a gland just under your brain, called the pituitary, to make a lot of a certain chemical, or hormone, that then travels all over your body. When it gets to your testicles, which are glands themselves, it tells them to make another hormone, called testosterone. This then flows all through your body, telling different parts to do different things—it tells your bones to grow faster, making you taller; it tells your muscles to get bigger and stronger; it tells your skin to grow hair in new places and produce oil; and it tells your voice box to grow longer, making your voice get lower. When you’re all done, you will look, act, and think like a man.

How big is a HORMONE?

A hormone is a chemical. You can’t see it, but it is carried by your blood to all parts of your body, including your brain, which also changes during puberty. Puberty starts when a lot of this hormone, called testosterone, gets released by the testicles and causes all these amazing changes.

Is it WEIRD going through puberty?

Some people wish they could stay just the way they were as kids, while others can’t wait to grow up. The thing is, everyone goes through puberty and has to experience the same changes. You might think that all this is weird because it’s new, but you can be certain that it’s normal—everyone else is doing it too.

I wonder when I will have PUBERTY. I wonder if it will be hard.

Most boys start puberty between the ages of ten and twelve, though a few can start earlier and a few later—and all of them are normal. The first thing you’ll see is pubic hair, the hair growing around your penis. The next place you’ll see hair is in your armpits, then on your arms, legs, and other places, with your full beard not coming in until much later. In the meantime, you’ll be growing taller, getting bigger muscles, and developing a lower voice. It might be confusing, surprising, or even astounding, but it’s not hard—it’s normal and everybody goes through it!

(Girls’ puberty is slightly different in timing and other things—for information, see the girls’ side!)

What if I don’t feel like all the other boys?

There could be many reasons to feel that way. Sometimes it’s because you’re experiencing puberty earlier or later, or slower or faster than the other boys you know. You might feel different from them, even though you’re all normal. It could be because you’re attracted to boys, or both boys and girls, or no one right now. And sometimes, a kid who is born with boy reproductive parts doesn’t feel like a “boy” inside—maybe they feel more like a girl, or a mix of boy and girl, or maybe they feel really confused about the whole gender thing. When we feel different, we tend to keep those things to ourselves and worry about them a lot. Try talking to a trusted adult about what makes you feel different. You’ll probably find there are others who feel the same way as you. And that in itself can make you feel a whole lot better.

Can I still do things that I like to do (like building models)?

When your body—and the rest of you—grows up, you will naturally get interested in a lot of new things. Just because you add new interests doesn’t mean you have to lose all the old ones.

A question I have is how much will I be like my dad?

We inherit most of what we are from our birth mothers and birth fathers—hair color, height, foot size, good looks, and lots of other things—but we are a mix of both of their families. So some of us take after one more than the other and some of us look like a little bit of both. But we are more than just what we inherit. We are influenced by our friends, by what we learn, and by our experiences—all of these things help make us unique individuals.

Why is puberty so EMBARRASSING?

Maybe puberty feels embarrassing because it has a lot to do with our bodies, and there are some parts of our bodies that we don’t talk about very much, so it takes some getting used to. Maybe puberty feels embarrassing also because it’s new and because it happens no matter what. Hopefully, after reading all these questions asked by other kids your age, it will be a little less embarrassing for you.

Is it OK to talk about this with my friends?

You bet. In fact, show them this book! You should also talk about this stuff with your parents or other trusted adults in your life—after all, they’ve definitely gone through this themselves and can help you understand and get through the changes that are coming. They want this to go well for you. The more you talk about growing up and the more questions you ask about it, the less scary it will seem. Here’s a fun exercise you can do: ask a parent or other adult in your life to name three things that make them glad they’re grown up. The more adults you ask, the more things you’ll learn to look forward to as you grow up yourself.

How do you know if you’re NORMAL?

It’s normal to worry about whether you’re normal! Boys, men, girls, and women all think about this. Your friends might be a little ahead of or a little behind you as they progress through puberty, but “normal” includes all of these paths to growing up. Some boys look at their friends or other boys at school and wonder why they seem to be so far ahead in puberty, or why they look so different.

Throughout your preteen and teen years, you might see others who are taller or more muscular than you. Remember that the timing of puberty for you is set by what you inherit from your birth parents—not everyone starts at the same time or goes at the same speed. You could be the exact same age as another person but be at a different place in puberty. That’s OK—you’ll all be adults in time. This is a terrific example of being different but normal. And, if you’re one of those boys who is progressing a little later than his friends, the good news is that you might continue growing even after they’ve stopped. So you might wind up taller than them in the long run!

Will puberty last my WHOLE LIFE?

Puberty is over when you no longer grow any taller. For the average guy, that’s at about age eighteen, though some can stop sooner while others can continue growing after high school. (Girls tend to start earlier and end sooner than boys.) But being a grown-up is a totally different thing, since it also involves the responsibilities of an adult. And guess what? Although puberty ends near the end of our teen years, our bodies (and minds!) continue to change throughout our lives. So you’re not the only one growing and changing in the house—everyone is.

Dr. Robert Lehman is an adolescent health specialist. He has devoted his career to providing direct health care services to youth, teaching health care professionals about the special needs of adolescents, and addressing teen health issues and policies on local, regional, and national levels.

Julie Metzger is a registered nurse with a master’s degree in pediatric nursing. She has worked extensively in the field of parent education on adolescent development, sexuality, parenting, and communication between parent and child.

Together they created and teach the Great Conversations classes for parents and their preteens.

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How to Take Better Pictures on Vacation

Want to learn how to capture special memories with your travel photos? Here are our photography tips and tricks for how to take better pictures on vacation!

Alex and I recently took a trip to Italy, Croatia and Spain, and man what special memories we made with our 1 year old son Larson! I don’t know if you’re like us, but when we travel we don’t buy a lot of souvenirs: instead our souvenirs are the photos we bring home! When you take a special vacation, it’s even more special to have photos that capture the essence of the trip. And believe me, that’s no easy task! For years we’ve been struggling to figure out how to take better pictures on vacation. If you’re looking to up your game in capturing special memories in your travel photography, we’ve got some photography tips and tricks for you! Below we’ll cover both smartphone photography and how to take awesome pictures using a DSLR or mirrorless camera.

1) Plan your photography gear

Smartphone cameras (including iPhones) have become really amazing over the past several years. Alex and I have Google Pixel 2 smartphones. and the camera in it is downright terrific at taking photos! If you’re a casual photographer, these days you might be able to get away with using only a phone for photos on a trip. However, if you want to be able to take really stunning photos with a lot of precision and have more control in the editing process, it’s still worth bringing a DSLR or mirrorless camera. Here’s what Alex and I brought on our 3 week trip to Italy, Spain and Croatia:

• Smartphone: Google Pixel 2 XL camera. Alex and I each had our phones, and we use the stock camera app on the Google Pixel 2 camera. See Number 8 below for what we use for editing!
• Sony a7R iii mirrorless camera with a 24-70mm lens. This is the camera we use professionally for our food photography. The lens is a fantastic all-around lens for awesome pictures of food, people, and travel.
• Atlas backpack. This backpack worked as a dual-purpose diaper and camera bag. It’s durable, stylish, and perfect for day trips.

Since the Sony camera is pretty large and bulky, it can sometimes be difficult logistically in restaurant settings or when you’re at the beach. So we used this approach: on a day-to-day basis during our travels, we carried the Sony mirrorless camera in our backpack and pulled it out when something really caught our eye. For more informal hangouts and in restaurants, we used our phones for fun snapshots of food and memories of our friends and family on the go. The photo below is from our Google Pixel 2 camera; you can see that even though it’s smartphone photography, the quality is excellent! The remainder of the photos in this post are Sony A7R iii pictures.

A shot I captured of Tellaro, Italy with my Google Pixel 2 XL smartphone(while Alex was taking the first photo in this post!). My other secret to this photo is Number 4!

2) Research locations on Google and Instagram nearby places.

Before we landed in each city in our travels, we researched the city on Google Images and Instagram “Places” search to see if any pictures really struck us. Usually, the most obvious places with a crowd of tourists taking pictures do not make the most interesting travel photos. Take a few hours to research before you travel and you might find some really unique locations.

Me and Larson in Frigiliana, Spain. Alex found this day trip using Google photos

3) Explore and enjoy a new spot before photographing it.

It’s hard to not whip out the camera and starting clicking as soon as you see a spectacular site on your travels! However, we’ve found that if you pause, walk through and enjoy a space, and then thoughtfully spend some time on photos that your photos will really shine. When we discovered the hidden beach in Cartagena, Spain, we wanted to take photos every 10 feet. The water, the cliffs, the sky — everything looked glorious! But Alex forced me to just enjoy the views and keep on walking for a while. Of course like always, he was right! Just around the corner was the most fantastic little cove (below). I’m so glad that we enjoyed the walk and saved our memory card space until we had scoped the full area.

This cove in Cartagena, Spain was worth waiting for. You’ll also notice we’re demonstrating secret Number 5.

4) Shoot in early morning or during golden hour.

Most of the time on vacation, we have this pattern: we wake up a little later than usual, go out during the worst of the mid-day heat, find something to eat in the evening, and then crash in bed exhausted. There are two reasons why this schedule is terrible for travel photos. First, mid-day overhead sun is not ideal for photos. Colors become washed out, shadows overpower your pictures, and everyone looks sweaty and tired. During the early morning or golden hour (about an hour before sunset), the sun lowers and makes for much more vibrant photos. This is especially true in the Mediterranean: taking a photo of the water during the day makes it look desaturated and completely uninteresting. If you wait until 7:00 pm, the true blue and green glimmer of the water really pops.

The second reason why midday is terrible for travel photos is that all the tourists are out during the day! If you take travel photos during the morning or golden hour, you flip schedules with all of the other tourists. On these off times, you’ll find popular plazas nearly empty and beaches all to yourself. So, we recommend getting out of bed and seeing the world as early as you can, returning for a siesta and some food in the afternoon, and then exploring in the early evening. You won’t regret it! It might be our best tip for how to take better photos on vacation.

Alex and I went on a golden hour shoot in Sibenik, Croatia: you can see how the light illuminates the buildings and brings in a rosy, golden color

Me at a golden hour shoot with Alex in Tellaro, Italy. The same shot at noon would have been washed out and have lots of shadows.

Sometimes your travel schedule might not allow for perfect timing! This photo of Cinque Terre was shot at midday when the light was completely direct. It turned out okay, but we had to up the saturation in editing to make the colors pop. We would have preferred the soft colors of golden hour (like Tellaro above), but we were there on a day trip and couldn’t arrange it!

5) Put people in the shot and capture candid moments.

Rather than line the family up and demand that everyone say cheese, we like capturing the beauty of the setting with people in a more candid setup. For example, the shot of the white town in Spain above (Frigiliana) is a wide shot that shows mostly the scenery, with me and Larson strolling up the street. Alex captured the essence of the town at the same time as showing us there, without it feeling too “set up”. Of course, taking this kind of shot does require some re-enactment sometimes: Alex would direct me and Larson to walk down the street often during our trip! But the way that it captures moments is something we prefer to a cheesy family photo — though we did capture a few of those too (including sillie smartphone selfies)! See the examples below.

Larson and I looking up in awe at the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona

At the Alhambra in Granada: instead of a cheesy front-facing photo, we chose to do a more contemplative gaze into the distance

This one was awkward to shoot, but in Sibenik, Croatia Alex made me run towards the camera to get some motion in the shot (it was also at golden hour! see Number 4)

This pose was perfect for capturing my awe at this white village in Spain (Frigiliana)

A completely candid moment at the Alhambra in Granada, Spain (it was crawling with tourists, so patience was necessary!)

6) Be careful not to distort your picture!

This one is especially true for improving your smartphone photography. With the super-wide angle lenses on smartphones, it’s really easy to make buildings look all wonky and distorted. You want to keep the smartphone facing straight and not angled up. This is especially hard in cities where you want to capture entire monuments or buildings. Our recommendation? Back up a little bit, maybe across the street, so that you can keep the phone straight and then crop the image later. We did this in the picture below. We were able to capture the streetlight and yellow building without distorting, and then crop in a bit to focus your eye to these later on. This tip is also true for mirrorless and DSLR cameras, but it’s especially important for smartphone photography.

7) Edit, edit, edit.

Here’s a “secret” for you: we never save or share photos straight off of the camera. We’ve spent years honing our editing skills, both on our phones and on our computers. Many times, the unedited raw images from your phone or camera will not match the colors you saw. That’s what editing is for! Don’t feel shy about bumping the colors of pictures to match what your eye saw (or even to match the color of blue through your sunglasses!). Most digital pictures need some clean up before they are ready to go.

The Sony A7R iii mirrorless camera that we use is able to transfer photos to our phones wirelessly. This was great for our trip, and meant that we could transfer photos for both back-up and editing. For editing photos on our phones, we use the free app Snapseed. On our computer, we use the new Lightroom CC to edit our photos. We occasionally use a preset filter from VSCO or other apps on our photos, but typically we try to achieve a look we want without purchased presets.

The sea in Malaga, Spain looked positively gray before this edit.

8) Practice, practice, practice.

The last in our photography tips and tricks for how to take better pictures on vacation is this: PRACTICE! The best part about digital travel photography is that doesn’t really cost any extra to take more pictures. The more you practice taking travel photos, the more you’ll get comfortable with lighting, angles, and camera settings. Traveling is the perfect place to hone your skills and fall in love with the craft of photography. We use the Google Photos app on our smartphones. It provides free, unlimited storage for all of our photos, so we didn’t have to worry about running out of space (as long as we could find decent Wifi!). We took thousands of travel photos on the road and then chose our absolute favorites when we got home.

One day we took our Sony mirrorless camera to the beach in Tellaro, Italy and Alex got this fantastic motion shot

A door at the Alhambra in Granada, Spain — with door photos it’s imperative to stand as straight on as possible (Number 6)

A hidden beach in Tellaro, Italy

A rare restaurant DSLR picture: we brought out the big guns for the paella in Barcelona! Since it feels awkward whipping out a huge camera at a restaurant, we prefer using smartphone photography for food

What else do you want to know?

Do you have more questions about how to take better pictures on vacation? We’d love to help provide more photography tips and tricks for your travel photography. Let us know in the comments below!

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