Welcome to Kiddio! Since you've stopped in, we'd like to introduce ourselves.
Daddio and I believe that busy, creative kids are happy kids and that accomplishing this is simple. Our general parenting philosophy is to let our children be kids, play outside a lot, work on projects, and expect them to help around the house (hey, we're parents, not servants!). Other than providing good materials and opportunities and setting reasonable limits, we pretty much stay out of the way and let the kids lead us where their interests lie.
Here at Kiddio you can expect to see:
Unbiased reviews of great children's books, music, and playthings, including both a parent's viewpoint and insight into what the kids really thought.
Fun projects and crafts designed to enhance children's understanding of their environment, books they read, nature, and other things we think are just generally fun.
Answers to common parenting issues and topical questions from the perspective of a developmental psychologist and mother of three (that's me!).
Links to other resources that we love.
Anything else we think is fun and worth your time.
If you like what we're sharing, you might want to subscribe with your blogreader (e.g. Bloglines or Google Reader), Outlook, or the link on the right to get a feed through Feedburner. It'll let you know when there's something new on the blog and let us know that you're keeping tabs on what we're up to.
If there's something you're interested in seeing more of, a question you'd like us to do a bit of research on and answer, or even a book/cd/game you love and would like us to share please drop us a line at ideas at kiddio dot org, or leave a comment on one of the posts and we'll get right on it!
A little about us:
I'm Amanda: the one who does most of the writing. I'm around with our children full-time, although I would hardly say that we stay at home. I was a Developmental Psychologist (in a former life) and shortly after receiving my Masters' degree our first child joined us (followed soon enough by two more). The three of them put my training into constant practice. Daddio and I do what we can to be fun and to teach our kids to be as eccentric and silly as we are.
Our oldest, "Little Flower" is six years old and in kindergarten. She's always working on something (comes by it honestly), loves to help in the kitchen, reads voraciously, and is always churning out bits of creativity.
Son "Scout" is three and in preschool. He's seriously into pretend play and enjoys being the student in big sister's ongoing fantasy of being the teacher in her very own pretend preschool. He loves dinosaurs, rockets, and music and wanders around singing snippets to himself or banging on the (baby-baby-grand) piano.
Baby "Sweet Pea" is so far content eat grapes and smile at anyone who glances in her general direction. She's really started getting into everything, but she really fits in with her big brother and sister, who love her dearly.
Enough about us--thanks for stopping in, and we hope to see you around more often!
