Family Funology

Fav Infant Products

My kids are not babies anymore but I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite things I used when they were. Children grow so fast it’s crazy. It’s bittersweet, I love the ages they are now and the things we can do together but I also miss when they would let me hold them all day.

Favorite toys

This piano play gym was played with so much by both of my babies. I love that it converts to a toy that they can play with as they learn to sit up.

These hand and foot rattles are great for when your baby is really little and haven’t really discovered their hands and feet yet. These will help your baby learn that when they move their hands or feet, they create the sound they hear.

This water mat is perfect for little ones on a hot day. My daughter was born in February, so she was still so little when that first summer came. I would fill this up with cool water when we were playing outside and let her lay on it. I love that the water is contained so they won’t actually get wet.

Baby Sleep Must Haves

We got one of these sound machines when my son was born, and it was the first thing we purchased when we found out we were having a second child. It is so customizable in the app. You can have it turn on at the same time every evening and turn off by itself in the morning. For older kids you can set a light letting them know if it’s time to wake up or to stay in bed. LOVE this product.

I have no scientific evidence that this helped my baby sleep every night but I for sure felt that if I didn’t use this on by baby that they would now sleep well which meant I wouldn’t sleep well. Also, it smells AMAZING!

Feeding Must Haves

I always enjoyed when my baby was old enough to start eating some foods. I liked seeing their expression when they tried something new and trying to decipher what they thought about it.

These popsicle molds are great for making your own popsicles. I used my set to freeze breastmilk when my little ones were teething. Great for making fruit and yogurt pops also.

It’s very hard to top the convenience of baby food in a pouch. It’s easy to throw in a bag on your way out the door and you don’t have to carry a spoon if your baby will eat it straight out of the pouch. With that being said those pouches are expensive!!! I bought these reusable pouches when my kids were little so that I could fill them up with whatever I wanted. Super easy to fill.

I’ve got to be honest with you I have washing bibs. I hated the way they would get stained and look gross after just a few uses. I bought these and my whole outlook changed. I would rinse them off after my children got through eating and then just toss it into the dishwasher.

What are some of your favorite infant products?

links above are affiliate links.

If you are expecting make sure to check out amazon registry down below.

Shop Amazon – Create an Amazon Baby Registry

3 Ingredient Fun

This activity is one of my kids’ favorites things to do and it’s such a good activity to have on hand and pull it out when they are running around acting crazy. The best part is you only need three things to do this: baking soda, liquid food coloring, and vinegar.

Accessories

The small water table you see in the video above I got from the Target dollar spot a year or two ago. You can use anything you want to contain the this. I have used a tub lid before.

You can change this activity around just by changing the accessories. In the video at the top I have the vinegar in a condiment bottle and the food coloring in drops on the baking soda. In this picture I started out with baking soda on the tub lid and vinegar with the food coloring mixed in in an ice cube tray. I also added some syringes so that my kids could work on their fine motor skills. They had a blast with this one!

You could also use pipette, spoons, orr anything else you can find around the house.

Mad Scientist Station

Add in a few cups and measuring spoons and let them make their own potions. You will be surprised what they will discover. Also, what a fun way to discover what happens when you mix colors. Thats what happened in this photo. My son had but a drop of blue and yellow in the third cup and when he added the vinegar it turned green.

If you are feeling really brave you can add in more ingredients to the potion making. I have added in dish soap, shaving cream, & water before. You have to be prepared for a mess if you are going to attempt this. This was a pain to clean up, but my kids LOVED it!

If you try this out let me know how your kids like it.

Links above are affiliate links.

Non-Fiction Books for Young Children

Children are naturally curious about the world around them. The want answers about how and why things work the way they do. I try and make sure that I have a variety of books in our book collection. My kids both love these nonfiction books buy my son gravitates to them more. Some of the books on this list are books that we read together but that my kids look at on their own and some are books that my son can start to read on his own.

Picturepedia

My son can’t read the words in this book yet but it’s mostly pictures so it has a ton of stuff that he can look at.

This book has a page about almost everything; Early Civilizations, volcanos, mammals, World War II….. and so much more. My son is grabbing this book constantly to identify rocks and minerals that he finds when we do mining kits.

National Geographic Books

Any of the National Geographic books are amazing but these above are my favorites. We have several of these and both of my kids love to look at them.

Early Readers

All of these books are books that my son can start to work on reading on his own. When we read each night, I notice him picking out these books more than the fiction books so I’m sure I’ll be adding more to our collection.

Nonfiction books can be so much fun! My kids love coming up to me and showing me pictures in these books and asking me questions like “Have you ever seen a volcano?” which leads to some great conversations about where volcanos are and how far we would have to travel to see one. Don’t forget that a great place to find nonfiction books on a topic your child would like is your local library.

Do you have a child that prefers nonfiction books over fiction books? If so, what is their favorite book?

links above are affiliate links.

1000 Book Challenge

This summer I am taking a break from work to stay home with my kids. Something that I’m going to be doing with my kids is trying to read 1,000 books over the summer. We already read every night but during the summer I want to inspire me children to read on their own also. My 6-year-old can read Bob’s Books pretty easily so those will count towards the challenge as well. My 4-year-old loves to listen to books so I’m sure she will have me reading all day.

My Plan

I printed a very simple count to 100 charts from google and made 10 copies of it. I also bought some very tiny stickers to keep track of how many books we have read.

We have several books here at our house and I plan on utilizing our local library. If you are interested on seeing how I store all our books and how they are organized check out my Tik Tok. You can find me on tik tok by clicking the link below.

https://linktr.ee/funology

Bobs Books

These Bob’s Books are my favorite Early Reader I have found. My Kindergarten kid enjoys reading them and I love that they come in so many different levels. We have two baskets of them; ones that he has mastered goes into a white basket and ones that we haven’t read yet or he struggles with some of the words goes into a black basket. When it is time to read I have him pick two books from the white backet and two books from the black basket. Having your child read books that you already know they can read helps them build confidence.

My 4-year-old has picked up on wanting to “read” these books also. She picks some and looks at the simple pictures and describes what she sees, or she recalls what she has heard her brother say in certain ones. Its cute becuase he knows that she isn’t really reading but he supports her no matter what.

What are some goals you have for this summer? What is your favorite book to read with your kid? (I’m going to be looking for ideas).

All the links above are affiliate links meaning if you click on them and make a purchase, I may get a profit. The opinions of these products are my own.

On the Go Must Haves

We usually try and find something fun to do in town most weekends. Some weekends its something free that is going on in our town or trying to find the least busy trampoline park or play place. Once every few months we try and plan a more all day trip like to the zoo, pumpkin patch, water park, etc. These are my top products for taking my kids out and about on the big and the small trips.

Wagon

We have had this wagon for several years. I love that it has a wagon pull handle and a stroller push bar. It is so easy to set up and take down. My kids can sit under the canopy on warm days and it super easy to push. There are two pockets on the back for storage. This stroller wagon is cheaper than some of its competitors but it’s perfect for what we needed it for. I will post some other links in case you are looking for something different as well.

Wagon/Stroller Accessories

These are some of my favorite stroller/wagon accessories. I have the cupholder and the fan but have not tried the organizer, but I’m going to be ordering it to test it out.

Bag

We all know taking a child anywhere means that you are bringing a bag with you. Backpack diaper bags are a must for going on these day trips. My children are 6 & 4 and we still carry a bag when we go places like this because you never know what you are going to need. Here are some of my favorite bags I have had or will be ordering for self.

The bag above is the bag I used when my children were still little and had to carry around way more stuff. I love that it is stylish and functional.

This bag is great for going out with older kids. It is big enough to contain all the items you have to pack but smaller than a big diaper bag.

Cooler & Snacks

A small cooler that keeps drinks and some snacks cold can change your whole day and save you some money. When we would go out before we had a cooler like this we would end up buying drinks as soon as we got there, one or two more while we were there, and one before we left. When we get to our destination we grab our drinks out of the cooler and usually leave it in the car if it’s a place that we can exit and enter again. Also great for trips to the local park for a picnic.

These stackable snack containers are AMAZING for packing a few different types of snacks and tossing them in the bag. Bringing your own snacks on your outing will save you some money so that you aren’t having to buy the overpriced snacks while you are out.

I hope these items will help you have a successful family outing. Where is your favorite place to take your family on a day trip?

Links above are paid links.

Family Game Night

We don’t have a dedicated family game night, but we play games every chance we get. During the week we may only get one or two nights where we can play games (less during ball season) buts always one of our favorite things to do after dinner.

We have several different types of games cooperative games are some of my favorites. In this post I’m going to be sharing 4 of my favorite games that we play. I’ll be sharing more posts like this one so be on the lookout for more game ideas.

Gnomes at Night

One of the best cooperative games in my opinion. My children have a blast while playing this. I love that they have to communicate with each other to win the game.

Sequence Letters

Sequence is one of our favorite games to play together. Players draw cards with letters on them and play one card at a time putting their color chip onto the object that starts with that letter. First player to get four of their chips in a row wins. There are a couple special cards; one card that lets you remove one of your opponent’s chips and one that lets you place one of your chips wherever you would like. My 6-year-old can play this on his own with very little assistance. My 4-year-old usually plays on a team with me or my husband. This game is fun and educational which makes it a win in my book. The game does come with a third color of chips so a 3rd person can play and we play on teams if needed.

Pizza Party

My 4-year-old has the best time with this game. The object of the game is to complete a complete pizza before your opponent. You complete slices of pizza by rolling your dice to get the correct toppings, after you complete 6 slices your pizza is done. The slices have different degrees of difficulty.

Enchanted Forest

A great spin on the traditional card memory games. This game is centered around collecting fairy tale items. In the rule book you are supposed to put the trees back on the board after correctly picking which tree is covering the fairy tale item you are looking for but we remove them after they are found to help our youngest out a bit.

Have you tried any of these games? If not what is your favorite game to play with your family?

Links above are paid links.

Fun Foods

I’m sure your kids are just like mine always wanting a snack. It doesn’t matter if they have not eaten in 4 hours or 4 minutes ago. Here are some fun ways I make my kids some snacks that are filling and fun.

Party Tray

A party platter is always a fun way to have several different types of foods on one plate. It’s also a great way to incorporate foods your kids don’t typically eat. They are more likely to try it in a situation like this than by itself.

Serving Platter/Cutting Board

This was the first serving platter snack I ever made my kids, and they LOVED it. So simple to do and fun. This one is the shape of a Christmas tree, but you can find other ones also. A simple rectangle would be able to be used all year round. After this was such a big hit, I have added a few different styles to my collection.

Veggie Tray

I keep two of these trays in the fridge. One with veggies and one with fruit. If my kids are hungry while I’m making a meal I will set these out as something they can snack on. Great way to get their fruit and veggies in without them being on their dinner plate.

Snack Container

We have tried several different types of snack containers. This one is my favorite. I use it to pack my kids school snacks, to make homemade lunchables, and to pack on the go snacks. I loved the stackable storage when my children were little. Great for the diaper bag to keep puffs and yogurt bites in.

All links above are paid link but are my own opinion of these items.

Backyard Play Essentials

One of my favorite things to do is spend all day in our backyard. My husband doesn’t like to keep a swing set or trampoline due to having to move it around to mow so here are some of our favorite items we have to keep us entertained all day long.

This is our second summer with this water slide and we LOVE it!!!

This water slide is one of the best things I have ever purchased for my kids. It’s easy to set up and they will play on it for hours. Here are some links to some well reviews water slides.

I recently bought these. I added them into the bottom part of the slide last time we played and my kids had a blast.

These reusable water balloons are another great summer purchase. We have played with them several times since getting them a few weeks ago. Great to add into a pool or water slide or to be played with by themselves.

We have had this picnic table for over 3 years and it is AMAZING!! Easy to set up and small enough to store easily.

A Bluetooth speaker is a great way to bring even more fun to your backyard. My kids love listening to music. We have had this one for several years and it works wonderfully.

How I Got Started Here

A little intro into why I started this Blog

As you may know my name is Stephine. I am 33 years old and a mom of two children. When I was younger, I always dreamed of working with children; I spent a good portion of my childhood playing teacher and being the teacher’s pet. In high school I started dating my now husband and after graduation we moved a few hours away to go to college. I got my degree in Early Childhood Education.

As soon as we graduated I got a job teaching Kindergarten. I very quickly realized that kindergarten was a lot different than it had been years ago when I attended. After that year I realized I wanted to work with even younger children, so I started teaching pre-k.

My husband and I got married in 2013 and had our first child in 2016. Although I enjoyed working with children I really wanted to stay at home after the birth of our son. I did go back to work after maternity leave although it was very hard.

After the birth of our daughter in 2019 I stayed home with my kids for over a year but ended up going back to work to help cover household expenses.

I have worked with children for over 10 years but my heart was still telling me to take the time to be with my children and create new memories with them. This past August my eldest started kindergarten and I’m realizing how fast it all goes.

I’m starting this adventure so that I can spend more time with my children and so that I can share fun activities, toys, books with you and so that hopefully you can share those things with me also.