Can You Help Me Find a Great Nursing Chair That I Will Actually Want to Keep?
I’m putting together my first nursery and need a nursing chair. I want something really comfortable, but also that I won’t mind keeping for a long time. They are expensive! EmmaDear Emma,Nursery furniture is a big challenge. I will come back to all of it in the future as it can be a big first expense and not something that’s very useful for the rest of your child’s life, but I want to give a great recommendation for THE chair we found.
Dec 31, 2020
Our 10 Favorite Stories from Cubby (So Far)
Hi there, Cubby friends! We started Cubby on the spur of the moment this fall (although the idea has been in our heads for a long time). We felt cooped up with our families, but we had a hunch that, while this year has mostly been a flaming dumpster fire of things we hope never happen again in our lifetimes, we might be left with a teeny-weeny bit of nostalgia for all this extra time with our cubs.
Dec 30, 2020
There’s a Tidying-Themed Board Game for Kids Featuring a House of Cluttered Mice
Sooner or later, we all have to learn how to tidy, at least if we want to be able to find our keys each morning and get along with a roommate or partner. But how do you teach kids to tidy—and maybe even enjoy it? As it turns out, there’s a cute board game that can help.Simply called “Tidy Up: Sort Around the House,” the game features a family of mice who live in a four-room house.
Dec 30, 2020
Fun, Clever, and Cathartic Ways Kids and Parents Can Celebrate the End of 2020
Hey! 2020 is almost over! We are so ready. I don’t usually go big for New Year’s Eve, but this year feels different. Priya Parker, author of The Art of Gathering (and the mother of two young children), has advice that I have been clinging to. She urges us to plan holidays and occasions around a question: “What is it that I need most?” This New Year’s Eve, here’s what I think we need: catharsis.
Dec 22, 2020
This Cozy Home (in One of the Coolest Suburbs) Embraces a ‘Poetic vs Perfect’ Design Philosophy
Don’t dismiss the value of a child’s input. Their wildly imaginative and sometimes brilliantly simplistic ideas are key to the design plan.
Dec 17, 2020
Grocery Shopping Used to Be My Alone Time … Not Anymore
What Cara Shultz misses most about her pre-pandemic routine isn’t the bars or parties: It’s the grocery shopping. After dropping off her 4-year-old son, Jack, at preschool, the New Jersey mom and YA author would often head to Trader Joe’s for a few essentials — and a sliver of peace. “They would play ‘80s Madonna and I would leisurely stroll the aisles, checking out the seasonal muffins,” Shultz says. “It was my ‘me time.
Dec 17, 2020
My Kids Can’t Stop Eating Their Vegetables, Thanks to This Freezer Trick
I could write a whole ode to the humble cream cheese sandwich. Cream cheese and jelly sandwiches got me through a particularly picky time when my daughter was in a nut-free preschool. And veggie cream cheese has become one the most reliable ways for me to get vegetables into my two kiddos. In fact, so much veggie cream cheese has been coming out of my kitchen that I make it in bulk and freeze it for future use.
Dec 17, 2020
5 Ingenious, Family-Friendly Dinners from Joanna Goddard of Cup of Jo
When it comes to feeding her family of four, Joanna Goddard — the voice and founder of the much-loved lifestyle site Cup of Jo — is all about keeping it simple and ultra-comforting with weeknight dinners that she, her husband, and her small boys can love. Like us, she’s a big fan of Trader Joe’s and happily takes advantage of smart store-bought shortcuts to minimize time in the kitchen, as well as maximize time with her husband and adorable boys.
Dec 17, 2020
I Let My 4-Year-Old Rearrange Our Living Room—and It Was Surprisingly Fun
I’ve always loved rearranging furniture. It’s a great opportunity to deep clean and it just feels good to look at everything from a different perspective. My family is a few weeks out from beginning a living room makeover, and the state of the space is currently a jumble of pieces for the redesign mixed with pieces that have found their way in from other rooms—and a little bit o’ Christmas sprinkled in there because at this point, why not?
Dec 17, 2020
The Best Ways to Clean Slime from Your Carpet, Sofa, Clothes, and More
To this day, my mother has a mark on her ceiling from when my younger sister threw a glob of slime on the ceiling and it stuck for a while. I guess the oils or whatever was in that abominable stuff seeped into the paint as the slime slowly dripped and squelched away from the ceiling and fell onto the carpet where, thank goodness, it didn’t stick.
Dec 17, 2020
How To Make Rolled Ice Cream at Home (No Fancy Equipment Required)
Whether you know this frozen dessert as Thai rolled ice cream, stir-fried ice cream, or even marble-top ice cream, its signature look and flavor are the same: Rolled tubes of sweet, milky, almost-chewy ice cream presented in a small cup with plenty of whipped cream and garnishes. Places that sell rolled ice cream make it on super-chilled flat tops or marble slabs specifically designed for rapidly chilling an ice cream base.
Dec 17, 2020
75+ Easy, Wholesome Food Ideas for Toddlers & Preschoolers
Toddler parents know this one thing to be true: A hungry toddler is a cranky toddler. And while we’re often in a rush to feed our littlest eaters before they melt down, we also want to make sure they are regularly trying new foods and getting balanced nutrition, too. Need fresh ideas? We got you. Some of my fellow editors (all parents!) and I brainstormed a massive list of our favorite easy and wholesome toddler food ideas — and below, you’ll find all of them.
Dec 17, 2020
Kids’ Weirdest Christmas Wishes, as Shared by Mall Santas
If you have kids or have spent a lot of time with them, you know they have an outsized ability to say things that catch you off-guard. Apart from parents and preschool teachers, there’s another group of people who get to hear kids at their most candid: mall Santas.Because mall Santas hear the deepest wishes of hundreds of kids per day, they’re bound to hear some interesting things. In a recent Reddit thread, mall Santas (and elves and Mrs.
Dec 17, 2020
Martha Stewart’s Secret for the Best-Ever Baked Potato Ever
Last year, thanks to my colleague Sheela Prakash, I fell madly in love with jacket potatoes. As Sheela explains in her ode to the British take on the classic baked potato, a longer baking time at a lower temperature makes Russet potatoes incredibly crisp on the outside and super fluffy on the inside. So when Martha Stewart shared a method for something similar using Yukon gold potatoes on her Instagram page, I knew I had to try it.
Dec 17, 2020
These Air Fryer Donuts Are Magically Easy to Make
Love donuts, hate deep-frying? Same. Luckily, there’s a way to get around that. In fact, this method is so easy, and it uses an appliance we’ve come to love (and know that many parents love too). If you aren’t currently the proud owner of an air fryer, let this be the recipe that convinces you to buy one. (Here’s a list of our favorites at a range of price points.
Dec 17, 2020
7 Ideas for Easy Origami Ornaments To Make This Weekend
This year won’t be the one I finally get to see the Natural History Museum’s origami tree, but I was still eager to read about this year’s theme. The museum is calling the 2020 tree ‘Cranes and Colors,” and it features 1,000 paper cranes as a symbol of peace and good wishes as the city continues to face the COVID-19 crisis.When I reached out to the museum to request photos of this year’s tree, I learned a little more about the origami tree tradition.
Dec 16, 2020
This Home Is Literally Built for the Kids to Swing from the Rafters
Name: Stefanie Archer, Chris Archer, Gabriel (12), James (8), Darcy (6)Location: Amsterdam, The NetherlandsSize: 1,872 square feet When Stefanie and Chris Archer started to think about shopping for a new house, they asked their kids if they wanted their own rooms, and they all emphatically said no. An unsurprising reaction given the fact the kids share a verifiable playground in their Amsterdam home.
Dec 16, 2020
This Buenos Aires Home Has Some of the Best Bookshelves We’ve Seen Yet
Name: Tomás, Martina, Nina, and Florián Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina Size: 1,800 square feet Tomás is an architect and Martina is a decorator, so of course the home they share in Buenos Aires with their two children, Nina, 7, and Florián, 4, is stunning. But it didn’t always look this way: When the couple first found this apartment, it had been neglected for years and it needed a full remodel, which gave the creative couple the opportunity to make it their own.
Dec 9, 2020
The Most Fun Activity Books for Kids of All Ages
This year sales of activity books have taken off like never before thanks to all the time that kids are spending at home. It makes sense: They’re a great alternative to screentime or plain old coloring books, and with most priced under $20, they’re an affordable form of entertainment too. Cubby gathered a list of our favorite picks and tapped the expertise of a couple activity book authors, Erin Jang, the author of You, Me, We!
Dec 9, 2020
A Week of Comfort-Food Dinners from Cookie Rookie’s Becky Hardin
When there’s a toddler in the house, it makes all the difference to have a handful of dinner recipes that don’t take long to pull off. Now that your kiddo is running around, you can’t turn your back for a second! And even more importantly, you need meals that will please the newly choosy palates of little eaters without boring bigger eaters to tears.
Dec 9, 2020
25 Kids’ Books That Are Pure Joy (We Want to Buy Them All!)
Books are one of our most beloved holiday gifts to give in any year, but in 2020, we’re strategically shopping for books that will crack a smile. Because isn’t giving our masked-up, perpetually hand-washing kids the gift of joyful books the least we can do? Cubby asked booksellers, librarians, teachers, authors, and parents across the country for their top recommendations of books that grab emotions, spark smiles, and leave kids with their hearts feeling full.
Dec 9, 2020
My Five Unbreakable Hanukkah Rules
Kids ruin everything. Really (not really, but you see where this is going). You can’t enjoy a great night out without worrying about a hangover the next day. Every trip you plan, you think out worst-case scenarios, pack a great quantity of medicine, and invariably freak out when the airline messes up your seats and places you far away from your toddler. They especially ruin lazy holidays.
Dec 9, 2020
Ask Maxwell: Why Is It Good to Read Before Sleep?
I have a son who is now five and has a hard time going to bed, which is my job. I’ve heard it’s good to read to children before bed, but he’s restless and I’m not good at it. Should I keep trying? SamDear Sam, Yes—and don’t stop! It will turn into one of the greatest joys you can share with your son. Starting a reading habit early helps, but five years old is a fine time to begin.
Dec 9, 2020
The 10 Best Holiday Cookies to Bake with Kids
As a kid, there were few things more exciting this time of year than the annual tradition of baking holiday cookies with my family. From pressing my fingers into dough to make thumbprint cookies and adding the chocolate kiss to the peanut butter blossoms, to decorating sugar cookies and even pouring the chocolate chips into the bowl, there was always a way for me to get involved.
Dec 7, 2020
A “Drop Zone” Can Help Your Family Stay More Organized at Home
Keeping kids organized is a herculean effort during the best of times, but trying to keep their spaces clutter-free and clean during a quarantine that involves both working from home and virtual learning presents undeniable organizational challenges for parents. Luckily, Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin—the dynamic duo also known as The Home Edit, Instagram’s beloved home organizers—shared their easy, doable tip for helping to keep clutter at bay in shared spaces.
Dec 2, 2020
The Top Gifts & Stocking Stuffers of 2020, According to Independent Toy Shop Owners
From new twists on blocks and puzzles to design-minded collectables, independent toy store owners have a pulse on what their young clients love. And with real humans at the helm, each store has its own specialty and point of view—meaning, find the shop that speaks to your child, and you’ve got a curated selection of items to please them. We reached out to seven independent toy shops across the country to see what they’d recommend for holiday gifts for 2020.
Dec 2, 2020
These Are the Very Best Fish Sticks You Can Get at the Grocery Store
When I was growing up, we didn’t eat meat on Fridays. Instead, in our household, the sad alternative was usually fish sticks. I don’t have particularly fond memories of them from back then — the standard ones we often bought were usually pretty bland and soggy — but nevertheless, we ate them for dinner and got on with it. I now can honestly say that frozen fish sticks don’t have to be sad. In fact, they have come a long way since the days of my youth.
Dec 2, 2020