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Hyland’s Baby & Children’s Products – Review

We’re fully immersed in Cough & Cold season and Hyland’s natural homeopathic products can help! Hyland’s sent me a box of their terrific products to review. Cough and cold for kids. Ear ache. And my favorite, with growing kids, Leg Pain Relief. I remember leg cramps as a kid, and especially in winter, my kids seem to get them as well. This is an easy, natural way to help relieve pain.

I have several Hyland’s products that I already love, so I was super excited to try out everything else!

For example, I discovered Hyland’s Tiny Cold Tablets last year when my little guy had a cold at Thanksgiving while we were out of town. Talk about rough! I browsed the baby isle at Kroger, desperate for something that would help him feel better and that he would take.

He loves these. Actually gets mad at me for not just handing over the entire bottle – LOL. They’re teeny, tiny, little tablets that basically dissolve before the baby can decide if he actually wants them or not. I followed the dosage instructions and these really do a great job of easing the baby’s cold symptoms. I’m excited to have a bunch on hand for this year!

When the symptoms get rough this cold and flu season, reach for Hyland’s–the safe and gentle line of homeopathic medicines that parents have trusted since 1903.

Their proprietary formulas are developed by pharmacists using natural active ingredients that are strong in relieving symptoms, but gentle in the way they work.

With so few options available to parents for comforting little ones, Hyland’s makes it easy for parents to find a safe solution that’s just right for their child’s age and ailment so the whole family can get the rest they need.

These Oral Pain Relief tablets are one of my favorites. Not only do they help with teething pain – once again, they’re a quick dissolving tablet that my baby is happy to take – my tween uses them for gum pain right after her braces are adjusted. I feel so much better about her taking these as needed than I do about giving her pain medicine for a couple of days. The tiny bottle fits easily in my purse, or in her’s so it’s easy to have on hand for those rough days.

Hyland’s is great for keeping on hand for winter vacations, just in case, too! The products that come in tablet form are especially convenient during travel. And with 4 kids, it’s basically impossible to go anywhere without needing something!

For babies, Hyland’s also has Mucus & Cold Relief and Cough syrup. It’s so frustrating to me that most companies don’t make products for my baby’s cold symptoms. He’s coughing and coughing and I’m trying to convince him to eat honey because it’s the only thing in my house safe for him to consume.

Hyland’s Cough and Hyland’s Mucus & Cold are products that I hadn’t tried previously. And I’m not disappointed. The same high quality as their other products and gentle enough for my baby, yet, they do actually provide some symptom relief for him so that he can be more comfortable. A win win for everyone.

With a baby and children in my house, Hyland’s products are terrific to have on hand for all their sniffles and aches.

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K is for Kinder

Did you know that our word Kindergarten is from German? Literally translated it means Children Garden. The original Kindergartens were designed as a place for pre-school children to play and grow. The word itself pictures the natural growth of childhood in a nurturing environment.

I remember my year in Kindergarten as being so much fun. I did learn to read, and I’m pretty sure I learned to count, and I definitely remember all the cool toys we got to play with, the playground, and the fun performance we got to put on for our parents at the end. Oh, and I loved my teacher, she was so sweet, and learning was so much fun.

And that’s what I think of Kindergarten and all the pre-school years. They should be years of fun, wonder, and nuture. Years where my children grow without the pressures of growing up. Like little flowers in a garden. To be carefully tended, loved, taught, and encouraged to bloom. You can’t make a flower bloom any faster by opening it up yourself, you have to wait. And just like flowers, each child will bloom when they’re ready. And not all will bloom at the same time.

I’m reminded of this line from Mulan – My, my, what beautiful blossoms we have this year. But look, this one’s late! I bet when it blooms, it will be most beautiful of all” by Fa Zhou – I provide all the nuture, care, attention, training, teaching, etc. and my children will bloom when they’re ready.

So, let your children be children. Let them enjoy being children. Because childhood is so magical, and so short.

 

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H is for Why Homeschool?

For me, the decision to homeschool was easy. I and my husband were both homeschooled and both greatly benefited from being educated this way. So the decision to homeschool our children was easy, or, assumed. There was no discussion, I just had to figure out which umbrella school, what curriculums, state requirements, etc.

A couple years in and I love homeschooling my children. So, why homeschool? Or, why continue homeschooling? Here’s some benefits I’m already seeing.

  1. Child lead learning – I love my curriculum and it’s important for my children to be at least at grade level, but, their learning is tailored to their needs. My 2nd grader loves science, so she does lots of science. Extra science classes at the local museum, etc. She also loves to grow things, so this spring I told her she can have her own garden, choose what goes in it, and be responsible (with some help from me) for taking care of it. And for reading this month, my 2nd grader has selected a Nancy Drew. As the kids get older, they’ll have more say about what curriculum we’re using and what subjects or direction we want to go with which subjects (like do they want to learn algebra or geometry first).
  2. I can “sneak” in extra learning – My 2nd grader just realized the other day that when she helps me in the kitchen I’m making her do math. She’s struggling with understanding fractions so I was walking her through combining 2 1/2 cups to equal 1 cup. She loves to cook and really wants to read and follow her own recipe without assistance, but getting all her measurements right is still a bit tricky. When she realized she was doing math she wasn’t all upset about it, it was more the realization that some math is super useful and that she needs it to be able to accomplish something fun (like making her own batch of banana muffins). Guess who’s suddenly more interested in fractions!
  3. I know what needs more work – With reading, she’s a good reader, but often drops connecting words or skips lines. And when reading out loud she tends to be very quiet and hard to hear. I’ve been teaching her to read recipes to me in the kitchen and she’s realizing the importance of every line on the page. She doesn’t realize it, but it’s definitely helping with focusing on every word. (I know, back to cooking, but she loves cooking, and there’s so many other skills I can slip in while we’re at it) Also, she’s able to read devotions to us in the evenings instead of me doing all the reading. She thinks it’s awesome and I think it’s great to hear her read aloud. She wanted me to record her reading the other day so I told her that she had to talk really loud so the camera could pick up her voice. I’ve been wanting to work on presentation when reading but finding a way to emphasize it has been a challenge. Telling her to “read louder” just doesn’t work. It was her best reading yet, because who doesn’t love to be on camera!
  4. More Free time – We have time to spend all day browsing a museum, do a crafting day, or not start school until 10. When we’re done for the day, we’re done. No homework in the evening. The weather has been beautiful this week (finally warming up a bit) so lots of time has been spent outside. Our neighbor friend doesn’t get home from school until 3 or so and my kids are usually well into their outside play by that time.
  5. More Flexible Schedule – We vacation in the off season, meaning we get the beach to ourselves! We do school through snow days and get out early in the spring when the weather is just gorgeous! Some holidays we take and some we don’t, but we’ll throw in a bonus free day whenever we want to do something fun. It lets us have our schedule the way that works best for our family.
  6. More Sleep – My kids usually get up around 8. On those rare mornings when we have to be somewhere before then, I see all the kids waiting on the corner for the school bus to pick them up. I really can’t imagine waking my kids up before the sun every morning to get them to school. You shouldn’t have to do that until you get your first job. As a result, my kids get up fully rested and we have the flexibility to stay up late a night or two a week and do something fun as a family. Very rarely are my kids short on sleep and I think that their attitudes and mental ability is better because they’re getting enough rest.

For my family, homeschooling is just awesome, and we love it. If you homeschool I’d love to hear about some things that benefit your family.

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Baby Quilt and Child’s Apron

I’m a little bit behind on posting sewing projects, so, here’s a couple I  just finished:

Little girl and doll apron. This fabric was leftover from a project last year so I just used it up.

A baby quilt and burp cloths that I made from leftovers from sewing projects. Whenever I finish a project I cut as many squares as I can get out of the leftovers and just save up the squares until I have enough complimenting squares to make a quilt.

It definitely makes for a fun quilt!

And, a closer look at the burp cloths. The have terry-cloth on the back so they’re super absorbent and easy to clean with.

I have two more sets of cloths done, but I’m still working on the quilts to go with them. I don’t have quite enough squares to piece them together. I guess that means I need to do a few more sewing projects.

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Princess Dress

My latest dress for my little girl. She loves dresses so I’ve just started getting her only dresses since that’s all she wears. I have a drawer full of cute play clothes that have never gotten worn. Oh well, maybe the baby will like them when she’s bigger!

The pattern didn’t call for a bow in the back but the ribbon was just so cute I had to add it! And, what you can’t see in the picture is the underskirt with tulle to make the dress fuller.

One thing about this pattern, there’s buttons in the back and I’ve never seen a skirt with buttons constructed quite this way. I think it had to do with the underskirt but I found it a little confusing. I ended up reading the instructions 4 times before I fully understood it.

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Camouflage Dress

Here’s my latest creation. A pink camouflage dress for my little girl. I was nervous about working with a knit since I have trouble with them stretching on me but this fabric worked great and it’s so comfortable!

I have a shirt cut out for myself out of this and I’m looking forward to getting it put together so I can wear it!


This was from McCall’s #6315 pattern. I added the pink lace at the neck and hem, but other than that I followed the pattern. There’s no zipper or button so this is a really easy and fast pattern. I put it together in under 2 hours.