The Bluebird Patch

Creating a captivating resume that sparkles bright enough to catch an employer's attention is an art on its own terms. With the ramp up pressure kids experience at school and the need to sign up to too many extracurricular activities, it’s no surprise how the number of teens employed have been declining over the past decades. There are many benefits (and risks) of adolescent employment. The decision to allow your teen to have an after school job should be a well thought-out family decision based on how well they can manage responsibilities, time management and money. But if your teen is ready to take the plunge the first thing they need to figure out is how to build a resume that stands out even if they don’t have any work experience. But where to start? How do can you create a snapshot of your ambitions, show your strengths and interests and captive an employers attention? This is the part Canvas comes in and rescues the day. If you are unfa...

Experiencing a college campus tour for the first time is always an exciting riveting experience. A campus tour is the best way to equip your future student with the right tools when the time comes to make all the important decisions about college. The more they are exposed to all the formalities they learn during their visit (admission requirements, financial aid, academic programs, housing), the easier is for them to narrow down their choices and come one step closer to find an institution that is the right fit for their financial and educational needs. Let's be real, you just cannot get the campus feel online or through a catalog, you need to be physically there and experience yourself all the things it has to offer. If you are planning a college campus visit in the near future here are 5 tips from my personal experience to maximize your experience.

Common Sense Media reports that 40% of children under 2 years old have used smart phones and tablets. By now we know that most of our kids, and even ourselves, could use a  digitaldetox . Did you know that the average 8 to 18 year old looks at a screen around 7.5 hours a day? Did you also know that 1/3 of children have a television in their bedroom? Or that excessive screen time can be causing your child to be losing sleep, falling behind on school projects and increase their risk of health diseases caused by inactivity? Next week (May 5-11) is National Screen Free Week and, as I am sure you know, kids today are spending so much time in front of various screens (TVs, phones, tablets, video games, etc.).  With that in mind, please c heck out Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Strong4Life.com for valuable screen time information and expert advice on how you can dialdown your family’s screen time and give your family a DigitalDetox . Personally, my youn...

Thousands of books have examined the effects of parents on their children. In  All Joy and No Fun award-winning journalist Jennifer Senior now asks: what are the effects of  children  on their  parents ? Senior tackles this question, isolating and analyzing the many ways in which children reshape their parents' lives, whether it's their marriages, their jobs, their habits, their hobbies, their friendships, or their internal senses of self. She argues that changes in the last half century have radically altered the roles of today's mothers and fathers, making their mandates at once more complex and far less clear. She draws upon multi-disciplinary research  to discuss the timeless strains of parenting as well as the those that are brand new. As an active, modern parent, I am sure this is a subject matter with which you are very familiar! I encourage you to attend and to share this lecture with you friends and readers. It will be held at the Atlant...

If you are a parent and you've lost a child for a split second you know how fast panic can set in. Let's face it, losing track of a child is a parent's worst nightmare and unfortunately no matter how good we are, situations like these are bound to happen. You go to a park, or a store, stop to look at something and all of the sudden you loose track of your child. You heart starts racing, we start calling them at the top of our lungs (at this point we don't care how crazy we might look we just need to find our cub, I mean kid) and everyone starts looking at you like you have lost your mind. If you can relate to this then you might be interested in a trying out a new app called “My Buddy Tag”, the latest child-safety device that helps parents keep track of their children while on-the-go. My BuddyTag App, together with its bluetooth tag and wristband with personal ID, helps parents track their kids when out and about. BuddyTag App will sound a...

  Disclaimer: This review was made possible by LatinaMom Bloggers and Pampers.  All opinions are 100% mine. Win a Pampers Prize Pack! This past Monday I received an email from my daughter's future high school. As soon as I open it, I was overcome with a plethora of emotions. High School? What? When? How? Why? Dios mio ayudame! (God, please help me!) I know she is ready but I'm not sure that I am. I still remember her first milestones like it was yesterday. Watching your children grow and achieve their “firsts” is a constant adjustment. From their first steps, the first tooth, the first time they call you “momma”, your baby's firsts is something you never forget. If you are like me you probably have tons of photographs documenting every single achievement. Pampers has always been a part of our lives. This is the only brand of diapers that I like and trust for my children to use.  I have tried other brands (not by choice) and they always pa...

Conventional wisdom dictates that people become parents because children bring joy. But do they really? For scientists studying the subject, simply correlating parenthood and happiness can't answer this question, since happy people might be more likely to have kids to begin with. But a recent study that compared happiness levels in adult identical twins--some of whom are parents and some who aren't--may be getting to the bottom of the issue. In a study, headed by sociology professor Hans-Peter Kohler of the University of Pennsylvania, found that people with children are, in fact, happier than those without children. But such happiness gains differ for mothers and fathers. In comparing identical twins, Kohler found that mothers with one child are about 20 percent happier than their childless counterparts; and while fathers' happiness gains are smaller, men enjoy an almost 75 percent larger happiness boost from a firstborn son than from a firstborn daughter....

  1. Happiness Enhances Health: Recent research suggest that people who are happy, lively, calm or exhibit other positive emotions are less likely to become ill when they are exposed to a cold virus than those who report few of these emotions.  2. Processed Foods: If you are suffering from anxiety related disorders and sleeplessness, it might be be due to your consumption of overly processed food. Heavily processed foods are laden with sodium, which adds to depression. Therefore, canned food, fast food, and pre-packaged dehydrated food should be consumed with caution and in controlled amounts. 3. Lack of exposure to sunlight: Sunlight exposure is the only reliable way to generate vitamin D in your own body. Did you know that healing rays of natural sunlight (that generate vitamin D in your skin) cannot penetrate glass; therefore, you cannot generate vitamin D when sitting in your car or home.  4. Lack of pets: There are many therapeutic benefits from being a...

Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs...  since the payment is pure love.”    Mildred B. Vermont  I don't know how many of you have been been able to watch the movie "Motherhood" with Uma Thurman. I think it's a movie every woman can relate since there are so many scenes that almost appear to be autobiographical (at least to me). The movie is supposed to be a comedy or a "parody" but I was on the verge of tears watching it. You see is just that "Motherhood" is about an educated mom who decides to be a stay-at-home mom. She blogs on the side in order to keep her "identity" alive and not loose her sanity while she crumbles under the pressure of child-rearing. The main focus of this film is to teach the viewer how difficult is for stay-at-home-moms to juggle personal ambition and familial needs. However, what attracted me the most about this film is Thurman's character struggle to write a 500-word essay for ...