The Secrets Of Enjoying Miami Like A Local

October 24, 2022 By Anne

Heading to Miami with the family is undeniably one of the most exciting trips you can enjoy with the kids, thanks to its range of beaches, theme parks, and other family-friendly attractions. However, Miami is a city rich in local culture and flavor that can really get lost when you’re hitting up all those family-friendly tourist attractions. It can be all too easy to lose sight of the real city in the process. As such, here are a few tips on how to see Miami like a local.

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Hit up the cultural hub of the city

Miami is a city of beach lovers and high-life enjoyers, it’s true. However, it’s also a city of artists, creatives, and sheer inspiration. One of the areas that are most often missed during those first visits is Wynwood. It’s not just the beating cultural heart of the city, it’s one of the most thriving creative hubs in the whole country, and the best way to see it is with one of the local beer and graffiti art tours. There’s always something new going on here so be sure to ask at your hotel about what the latest happening is in Wynwood. Festivals, gallery openings, and new street art exhibitions happen all year long.

Get your boots on

The city of Miami offers plenty of attractions, eateries, and activities to keep you plenty busy for however long you are there. However, the local landscape is just as much a part of the city’s soul, and, for that reason, you should take a look at some of the hiking routes you can enjoy throughout Miami. This can include the famous Everglades trail, but there are also great coastal hiking routes through Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, as well as some unique views like a historic lighthouse standing tall over the city’s coast. A little adventure can help you see that there’s a lot more to Miami than just the city alone, so go looking for it.

Get a real mix of culinary experiences

Miami is a huge blend of different cultures, which, amongst many things, means a huge mixture of cuisines, as well. There are over five thousand restaurants in the city, and some of them can seem particularly expensive, indeed. However, there are budget-friendly meals to be found. Get out of South Beach or the other high-flying touristy areas for some of the more authentic local dining experiences. There’s nothing more authentic to the city than hitting up a food truck or a stall so be sure to check out some of the best street food in Miami, as well. There are a lot of stall vendors in the city, but these recommendations can help you find the best of the best.

Check out some of the other beaches

South Beach is one of the most popular hotspots in Miami by far, and it is a truly gorgeous beach, even if it can get pretty crowded. However, it should never be the only beach you visit, by any stretch of the imagination. Spending the day at North Beach, you can enjoy a much less stressful afternoon at the beach, with soft sands overlooked by nice vintage rows of houses. Although it’s popular with the locals, it’s not as widely visited by tourists, so you can enjoy a more laid-back and authentic experience relaxing on a Miami beach, with plenty of eateries around so you can get a taste of the local flavor, as well.

Get around a little more smartly

Like many of the great cities of the country, trying to get around by car can be a real hassle. That said, Miami is quite a walkable city, especially if you’re near South Beach or Downtown Miami. However, if you’re not too excited at the prospect of walking just about everywhere, you can take advantage of the decent cycling infrastructure throughout the city, as well. Renting a bike to get through the city gives you access to hundreds of stops and biking lanes, and it’s not very expensive to rent a bike for the entire day, either. Definitely a lot less expensive than renting a car, not to mention a lot less likely to come with the hassles of city traffic and parking.

A great trip to Miami should balance the big touristy hotspots with some of the lesser-known delights and experiences that the city has to offer. Hopefully, the tips above help you see one of the greatest cities in the country like a local would.

Anne

I'm a mother of 2 who likes to get involved in too much! Besides writing here I started a non-profit, I'm on the PTO board, very active in my community and volunteer in the school. I enjoy music, reading, cooking, traveling and spending time with my family. We just adopted our 3rd cat and love them all!

What To Consider If You Want To Add A New Child To Your Family

October 10, 2022 By Anne

You can add a new child to your family in many different ways. It’s always going to be both exciting and stressful for everyone involved, but you and your family should always feel more excited than anything else. Since this is the case, this article about some of the ways you can add a new child to your loving family should help you get ready and make the right decision for you. Read on to find out more.

Photo by RODNAE Productions

Pregnancy

The first way we’ll look at is through pregnancy. This is the “typical” way to add a new child to your family, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only or best way. But when you have a baby this way, your DNA and that of your partner are mixed together to make a new life that is half of each of you. When you find out you’re pregnant, you might feel a lot of different things at once, and you need to remember that your body is going to change a lot. Getting ready for this can be hard, but you can do it if you plan carefully.

Fostering

Fostering is the next way we’re going to look at. Even though this person isn’t usually a permanent part of your family, they are still a part of you for as long as they stay. Fostering is usually for kids whose parents can’t take care of them anymore, and children’s services tries to find them a temporary family. Most of the time, these youngsters have been through something terrible, so it’s important to accept them and love them as if they were your own.

We know that most foster families already do this, but it’s still important to point it out. You can’t do more for one of these children than give them a safe, loving place to stay while their parents work on their case plan or look for a family to adopt them. Foster care can be hard to do because they usually have to leave at some point, but you know you gave them something they needed, so it is always worth it.

Adoption

Adoption is the process of bringing a new child into your home and making them a permanent part of your family. This can happen through foster care or private adoption, but make no mistake, it is a hard process. It’s not as easy as finding a child you love and making them your son or daughter. Home visits, background screening, many interviews, and other similar processes can add up to significant time and effort, sometimes stretching over years. But when you find the child you love with all your heart, this whole process seems like nothing compared to the love and joy they will bring into your life.

Adoption isn’t for everyone, but for those who can make it work, it’s a great way to give a child who doesn’t have a family a new start in life. Many kids who end up in the system have had hard lives because their parents were gone, died, couldn’t take care of them, etc. Often, older kids still want to be close to their parents, which is understandable, but it doesn’t mean you love them less. Most of the time, what they need is a new start, and you need them just as much.

Anne

Four Ways To Share Your Values With Your Kids

October 10, 2022 By Anne

The teenage years are a time of a lot of change and growth. Teenagers learn very quickly. Changes are happening very quickly. We can see the changes in our bodies and feel the changes in how we feel. We are amazed by how much more teens are able to think things through and understand how complicated the world is. Their morals and sense of right and wrong are also growing. Parents can help teens develop this way by letting them figure out their own values while showing them the values that are important to the family as a whole.

Photo by Melissa Askew on Unsplash

What Values and Morality Mean

Morality is the set of rules that help us decide what is right and what is wrong. That tell us what to do even when no one is watching. Values are everywhere, and each family may have its own set. Some of the values we teach our kids are honesty, fairness, integrity, kindness, tolerance, compassion, and respect. Both what we do and what we don’t do shows what we value.

We learn about morals and values from a lot of different places and things, like religion, society, the government, cultural and ethnic traditions, and our own lives. But our families and other important people in our lives teach us the most. You should also talk to them about petty theft.

Parents’ Role

Parents need to set limits for their kids that they can’t cross. Setting rules about safety and morality lets young people make mistakes and learn how to get back on their feet. But the way we decide what is safe and what is right is not the same. Safety is a fact that can’t be changed. We need to make sure that our kids are not in danger of getting hurt. On the other hand, you can’t make someone have morals. It’s something we encourage when we teach our kids to think about what they value and what their actions might lead to.

These are not lessons that start in middle school or high school. When they are toddlers learning to share, we start to teach them about values. As they get older, we try to help them understand how what they do affects other people. We act in ways we want them to copy and put them in touch with people whose values we want them to notice. We sometimes show them the bad things that are going on in our communities to make them want to help fix the world.

All of this is done to help them grow up to be good people.

Communicating Your Values

It’s fine and even better for your teens to know what you think is important. The key is to explain why you believe what you do. Make it a conversation, not a lecture that says your way of thinking is the only right way. Ask what they think. Find out what’s important to them. Help them think about how they want to be seen over time.

Many of us make choices based on how they will make us feel in the moment or on how they will make us look to others. But this kind of attention doesn’t last. When we think about how our friends, coworkers, and family will think of us in the long run, we make different decisions in the present. Teens will be more likely to stick to their core values if they understand this.

Getting Clear On Their Values

Not every value your teen has will be the same as yours. Even if you are similar, it’s likely that you think a little bit differently than your parents. Our kids will learn to follow their own moral compass best when they know they are safe, but we also let them figure out what matters most to them in life. They need to know why you care so much about how they learn right from wrong. Your goal is for them to be the best versions of themselves and care deeply about other people.

Anne

Getting Your Children More Active In Their Community

October 4, 2022 By Anne

There are things we impart to our children beyond their education and health habits alone. There are values that we can teach them, too, such as caring for their environment or being diligent about their work. Here, we’re going to look at some of the ways that you can help your child be more community-minded, which can help them contribute and be an asset to their community, as well as be more connected to it when they need it.

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Encourage them to get involved in sports

Sports, especially team sports, play an important role in the school’s community. Talk to your child about whether they want to get more involved in sporting and, if they do, see what you can do to facilitate that, such as helping them train or get the gear that they need. Sporting throughout high school can be just as important to much of the local adult community, and can be great for teaching your child a sense of local community spirit. Those who aren’t especially sporty can still play a role in helping the school sports team.

Get them involved in the school paper

The vast majority of schools have a school paper that they can get involved with. This can include taking a look at changes that are happening within the school, liaising with the faculty for the sake of communicating changes with the student body, as well as community events, as shown in the Park Tudor School newspaper. Getting your child involved in this will have them managing contacts with the community, as well as working with their own mini-community of other writers and editors.

Start volunteering with them

Of course, your community may be in need of some real help that you and your teenager could provide. Use sites like Kids That Do Good to find volunteering opportunities near you and talk to your teenager about getting involved. Aside from providing some very real and practical help to local initiatives, volunteering can look great when it comes to school admissions time and it may even teach them some of the skills that they will need later in the working world. They may be hesitant at first, but the benefits really do outweigh the time it takes.

Do donation drives with them

You don’t necessarily have to get involved with non-profits in order to do some good. You can encourage your child to do donation drives, whether it’s doing certain activities for a monetary goal or going around and collecting donations of items that might be needed by the less fortunate. Start with those at home, such as friends and family, before you tap into the wider community. The feeling of seeing just how much you can gather to help those in need can be hard to beat.

A child who is better connected to their community can become independent from their parents more easily and will be more confident in navigating relationships with those around them as they grow up. Those are two good reasons to get them involved now.

Anne

How To Make Screen Time Educational

October 2, 2022 By Anne

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

We’re constantly being told that kids are watching too much TV or having too much screen time. It can affect their overall development, and social skills and lead to the health problems that come with a sedentary lifestyle.

But screen time isn’t all bad and in today’s world, children need to be familiar with accessing resources on tablets and computers. During the pandemic, many children completed their lessons on virtual platforms and this is becoming a very popular way to learn.

Striking a healthy balance is difficult when you’re in a busy family, but these tips might help you make screen time more educational and fun.

Limit Passive Screen Time

Most of us have fantastic memories of our favorite films and TV shows we watched as kids. But this type of screen time is known as passive, meaning that children are really learning of developing from it, it doesn’t activate the same areas of the brain that things like reading or interactive learning do. It’s a good idea to limit this type of screen time so it’s not the dominant hobby of your child.

Make It Educational

A child’s brain is built to learn. They love it. So nurturing this should be a priority. Find online interactive educational platforms that you can use. One that’s particularly popular is ABCmouse, that you can take advantage of a free trial to see if it suits your child.

TV production companies have also realized that parents want more educational content in their programming, so there are many TV shows that are designed to teach children and get them to join in at home.

Incorporate Movement Where Possible

As a society, we’re getting bigger and this is starting earlier in life. Sedentary lifestyles in children can cause all sorts of physical and mental psychological conditions that could affect them for the rest of their lives. While playing and outdoor exercise should be encouraged as much as possible, there are also ways to mix screen time with movement. Watch programs that kids can dance or move along with, or instead of letting them game sitting down, buy some games that require them to move around in order to play them.

Get Involved

Rather than just leaving your kids to watch things, sit down with them and watch it do. Discuss what’s going on, ask them questions, and talk about the subjects that are on the screen. Not only is it a great way to spend quality time with your child, but it will also help them to develop their speech and language skills as they learn to talk about what they are seeing and communicate it to you.

Takeaways

Kids and screen time is often in the press for all the wrong reasons. While it can become a problem if children are constantly watching screens rather than doing other activities, there are ways to change this and make what screen time they do have as educational as possible for them.