Is it OK to Dress Your Kids Up in Sports Apparel?

Are you a major sports fan? Maybe it’s more your husband’s thing. It’s not unusual to rep your favorite NBA or NFL player with their gear, especially when things like jerseys and memorabilia are so readily available on the internet nowadays. But how do you approach this when it comes to your family? Do either of you ever wonder if it’s ok to dress your kids up in Steelers apparel or other fan jerseys? If you’re feeling guilty about buying a little jersey for your tyke, maybe you need to examine your own reasons as to why this may be the case. Even if it’s more your husband that is the motivating factor behind giving your little one a sports makeover, it may not quite sit right with you. But is there really a reason to feel any sort of panic over an admittedly less than hot button issue?

Could it Be a Control Issue that Concerns Either of You?

Perhaps one of the first things you may care to examine concerns your own relationship with your spouse rather than your feelings for your little one. This, of course, is the issue of control. Babies, naturally, are too young to be motivated by feelings of this sort. They will usually be very happy to wear whatever you choose to present them in. If they get it quickly muddied up, it’s just a byproduct of having tiny hands that are less than ideal for grasping the concept of table manners. But meanwhile, you and your husband may differ on just how to dress them.

Do You Care if Your Little One Wears a Cute Tiny Sports Jersey?

The main issue to consider here is the image you and your little one are projecting. Does it cause you any major concern if your husband enjoys showing off his little one in the jersey of his own favorite sports team? Is it a different team than the one that you prefer to show your personal support for? Or is it a matter of you being different from your husband in that sports of any kind don’t really interest you all that much. If so, it may just be irritating to you to see your little one dressed up in the colors of a team that you really care very little about.

There is Really No Reason to Worry About Setting the Wrong Example

The truth of the matter may be difficult to accept at first. However, it may just be that you need to realize that your husband isn’t really setting a bad example by giving your child a sports makeover. In fact, he’s most likely not setting any kind of example at all. Babies are usually not terribly choosy in what they wear, since all of their wardrobe comes from your paycheck, not theirs. The most that can happen is that they look back at some baby pictures of them wearing a sports jersey and get a good laugh or groan from it. It’s really more Dad’s thing than theirs.

If You Are OK with Baby Sports Jerseys, There are Plenty Available Online

If, in the end, you decide that you are really ok with your baby sporting a football jersey, you can certainly find plenty of them on the world wide web. Sports teams of all types are tapping into the infant wear market with a gusto. You can easily find the right jersey to help support your favorite team.

How to Choose the Right Hats for Your Baby

You might not know that you can lose a significant portion of your body heat just through your head. Each time that you step outside on a cold day, you’ll find yourself shivering and shaking. Babies have an even harder time regulating their body temperatures, which is why you need to find the right hat for them. That hat will keep your child from feeling cold and can protect him or her from the environment too. Whether you had children in the past or this is your first kid, you may still need some tips on how to pick the best beanies for babies.

Size

Size is not nearly as important as you might think because most manufacturers sell products for babies with a large size range. Instead of buying a specific size like you might do when buying clothing for yourself, you can pick a hat designed to fit kids of a certain age. Most of the beanies that you see will fit a newborn baby or a baby up to 12 months old. Beanies use flexible materials that have more stretch and will expand to fit your baby’s head as he or she grows.

Material

Material is more important than size, and when you shop for hats, you’ll find that many cheaper hats use cheap materials that can cause some discomfort. How would you feel if someone made you wear a wool hat that constantly scratched and scrapped against your head? Cotton is one of the top materials that you can choose because it will feel soft and smooth against your baby’s head. Look for materials that are breathable and those that you can wash easily too. Some parents focus their search on hats made from organic materials.

Comfort

Making your child wear any piece of clothing that feels uncomfortable is like setting yourself up for failure. Have you ever put your baby in something that was too tight? You probably noticed that your child cried and cried until you removed that article of clothing. One of the most important things to look for is any type of tag. Some beanies have a tag inside that can rub and scratch against your child’s head when laying down. Check the interior of the hat for any scratchy or rough materials too. No matter how cute the hat is, comfort is always key.

Design

Consider the overall design of the hat too. Some companies make designs that resemble adorable little animals like cats and bunnies. Others make fun beanies that incorporate sports teams and superheroes like Batman. You’ll want to make sure that the design is appropriate for your child and for the activities that you do with your baby. A hat with long ears or decorations that hang down may get in the way when changing diapers or putting your child in a car seat. The design should be as unobtrusive as possible.

Buying clothing for a baby as a new parent can be a little confusing and frustrating too. You might find yourself drawn towards clothing that looks cute but isn’t very practical, which is especially true of hats like beanies. Make sure that you find hats for your child with a fun design in the right size and made from a good material with a comfortable fit.

Pitch-In for Fitness with an Outdoor Sports Pitch

Playing in the neighbor’s yard or community park are common past times for kids of the 20th century. But this is now a rarity for kids today – especially those who are hooked on their gadgets. Given the importance of fitness in one’s overall well-being, everyone should be encouraged to participate in outdoor physical activities and sports. One way to do this is to provide kids with facilities like an outdoor sports pitch or playground.

Sports facilities in the school and community provide kids with a venue to explore different physical activities. This helps promote physical, mental, and social wellness in the community. However, not all communities have ample sports facilities to service the needs of their residents. This makes it harder to encourage people to get into sports. If you have extra space in your property then you may want to consider having your own outdoor sports pitch. This can be your contribution to sports and fitness in the community. You can also make money out of it by renting out the facilities for private events.

The usual concern in building or installing an outdoor pitch is limited space and budget. But this can be solved by installing MUGA or Multi-Use Games Areas instead. According to FIBA rules a basketball court should measure exactly 28m x 15m while a tennis court would require space of about 23.77m x 10.97m. This means you will need a minimum of around 54m x 27m of space for both pitches. On the other hand a MUGA would only require around 37m x 18.5m and you can already play basketball, tennis, and netball in it. Aside from saving on space, MUGA also saves on the cost of building and maintaining multiple pitches.

All Purpose Outdoor MUGA Court Surfacing

It would be great to have your own outdoor sports pitch. Aside from having free use of the facility anytime you want, you are also taking part in community building by encouraging kids to engage in sports and fitness activity. But if this is not possible, then you can simply involve your kids in sports activities in school and the community.

My Little Ponies Magically Come to Real Life!

Can you spot Rainbow Dash flying around?

My sisters and I grew up watching My Little Pony on Saturdays. It was one of those shows we eagerly woke up for on Saturday mornings. I would have continued watching it even in my teen years had they not stopped producing the show. So just imagine my glee when they aired an animated series again and I was able to watch my little ponies anew. I’m sure you moms watch it with your little ones too! I even thought about looking up an 80s Toy website to see if I could find my favorite pony from the show. However, I stumbled onto something else during my search.

Here’s something you can also enjoy with your little princesses when you’re not watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic on TV.

In this character guidebook from Scholastic, your favorite ponies from Equestria come to life through the power of Digital Magic! They can be as small as the palm of your hand or grow so big that they won’t fit inside your house. You can stroll with the ponies or make them fly. Augmented reality really really really rocks!

 

 

The ponies are so cute when they’re little but become amazingly huge when they’re life-sized. It’s also fun to see them prancing or flying around.

Aside from being able to interact with the ponies, we also got to know them more coz the book is full of sooooo much trivia about each of them. We even found out more about the magical land of Equestria!

It’s fun to watch the ponies move around but it’s much better when you do it with a friend. You can ask your friend to download the app, connect to each other’s devices, and have your favorite ponies stroll together. The app can easily be downloaded for free on your smartphone or tablet

What We Love About This Book

It’s My Little Pony!!! Obviously, we love it just because it’s all about our beloved magical ponies! But aside from that, we also love it because we’re able to read so much about them in the colorful glossy pages of the book. Making the ponies come to real life is also amazingly magical. The book might be a bit too big to fit in my purse but we don’t mind carrying an extra tote for it. 🙂 This book gets a two-thumbs-up from both the kids and this mom.

Read more about augmented reality here.

Watch Your Favorite Transformers Come to Life!

Do your kids love watching Transformers in Disguise on TV? I’m sure you’ve also spent hours pretending that you were Autobots fighting the Decepticons.  I’m guessing most of the time you get to be the Decepticon, too.  If your kids are great fans, I’m sure they have wished many times over that the Autobots were real.  Here’s some great news!  Aside from watching them on television, you can now actually watch Transformers come to life as never before! Not on the big screen but in your own home through Scholastic’s Augmented Reality book Transformers Robot in Disguise: Where Crown City Comes to Life.

My son Jakei likes watching Transformers Robots in Disguise on Netflix so he was very excited when he saw the book. While waiting for me to download the app, he already became so engrossed in reading the book.  It actually doubles as a character guidebook for the animated series.  It starts with a brief intro about how the Transformers came to planet Earth.  Then there are descriptions and fun trivia about all the featured Autobots and Decepticons.

With the app, Jakei can make the robots walk and drive around. It’s really cool to watch them transform from vehicles to robots.  When the robots are in lifesize, they even leave cracks on the ground when they walk!

 

The kids and I also enjoy taking pictures with life-sized Transformers. We did kinda look weird taking pictures outside (because you can’t very well fit a life-size Transformer inside our house!) but it’s really cool to see pictures of us with life-sized robots.

The app also helps develop kids’ creativity as there is a feature that allows them to create their very own robots.  There’s another feature in the app that we haven’t tried yet.  Friends can actually play together in the Battle Mode.  They get to choose their own Autobots and Decepticons and engage head-to-head in a battle.  All they need to do is to download the apps in their devices and connect the devices to each other.  If they don’t wish to battle it out, they can just choose Transformers from the same team and make them walk around together.

What we love about this book

The kids love this book because they get to use the tablet! LOL! Aside from that, they get to do so many things with different robots. They can also play together even while using gadgets.  When gadget-time is over, they still get to enjoy reading the book and learning more about the Autobots and Decepticons.  They actually know more about the characters now than I do.  Not only kids will love this book as I myself enjoy reading the book and using the app.  This is surely another book that will stay in our collection for years.

Read more about augmented reality here.