Our “How To” to Trick O’ Treat this Season

Trick O’ Treating  might be on October 31st, but who says you can’t bring the festivities to the children while you are babysitting? 

Usit prides itself on recruiting sitters who can engage children with various activities. We know sometimes you may run out of ideas on how to have fun with the children. So have no fear! Usit is here!

We want to share some ideas that you can have up your sleeve this Halloween while you babysit! 

Bling Out! Pumpkin Style

Bring the “Bling Bling” by going to your local pumpkin patch and picking up small pumpkins. Have the children “Bling Out” their pumpkins using various craft items such as: 

• Sharpies 

• Googly Eyes 

• Sequences 

• Glitter

• Stickers

*BONUS: Ask them to “Bling Out” their pumpkin to their favorite book character! 

Find a Hidden Drawing through a Pumpkin?

Print out a pumkin silhouette for the children, and ask them to turn that pumpkin into something else. 

Witch, Monkey, Dog ? Who knows? 

This activity allows them to get creative, and hey who knows? They can become true artists. 

Pumpkin Toss 

A pumpkin, measuring tape, that’s it. 

Have a starting line and allow the child to toss the pumpkin. Ask them to guess (in inches or cm) how far the pumpkin is away from the starting line. 

Measure it, and see how close they were to their prediction! 

You can always have a competition to see who guesses the closest. 

M&M Math - Can’t go wrong for a sweet treat!

Nothing can go wrong with M&Ms! With the parent’s permission of course, you can give a fun size pack of M&Ms to the kids. 

Depending on the age of the child, you can ask them various questions: 

• What kind of colors did you get?

• How many of each color? 

• Percentage of each color? 

• Average, Median, Mode of total M&Ms

Kick Back with a Spooky Book

Grab a book from a donation store or from the library. A Halloween themed book, few candy bars to celebrate and you are done. You can ask them to read for you and help them while they are reading along the way. One of the best memories you can give them and for you. 

These ideas are fun, festive, and easy on the piggy bank. You become the talk of the town with the kids and that parents will appreciate you even more. 

We got a contest for you! 

Sitters: Follow and Tag @usit_app on Instagram by doing one of these activities with the kids. We will do a drawing and one will be able to get $15 gift card! 

Parents: Follow and Tag @usit_app on Instagram of your little one’s halloween costume. BEST OUTFIT gets $30 of credit towards their next date night!! 

Happy Trick O’ Treating, Y’all!

How To Introduce A Sippy Cup | Rachel Gordon

By Rachel Gordon | Twinsie Tips

The sooner you introduce your child to a sippy cup the better. Ideally, your child will be done with bottles by one. We quit bottles cold turkey the day after my girls turned one, but because we started with a sippy cup early, it was not a difficult transition.

Favorite Sippy Cups:

I am a supporter of trying many different cups for two reasons.

1. Your child may learn to use all of them and have no issues with using any type of cup or
2. Your child may prefer 1-2 and you will be able to find your favorite. Here are my favorite cups:

Water: I like a weighted straw cup for water. These are my favorite.

Milk: Since straws are difficult to clean, I highly recommend avoiding them for milk. I like these and these for milk.

Recommendations of introducing sippy cups broken up by age range (as always, speak to your pediatrician -- my recommendations are based on healthy, full-term babies):

4-6 months

When you decide to introduce solids, you should also introduce the sippy cup. But do not stress about it. When you put your child in the high chair offer them a sippy cup with a little formula or breast milk. If they drink, awesome, but more than likely they will just pick it up and explore. They may throw it on the ground too, but that’s ok. Just keep offering and be patient. Do not stress.

6 months

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends only breast milk or formula until 6 months, but at 6 months you can give a little water. If you are introducing solids at 6 months, I would probably start by putting a little breast milk or formula in the sippy cup for a few weeks because it is something they are used to so it will help them recognize that they should try to drink out of the cup. But after a few weeks, don’t waste your precious formula or breast milk on the sippy cup since they will barely be getting any anyways. Water is totally fine. Continue to offer the sippy cup with every meal.

At 6 months your baby should be receiving 4 bottles a day (breast milk or formula with somewhere between 24-32 ounces every 24 hours). They should also be getting some solid food at this point (of course, whenever food is offered, the sippy cup should be too).

See my article on introducing solids here.

8-9 months

Your child should be getting the hang of the sippy cup by now. Keep water in the sippy and offer at every meal. Your baby should be enjoying 3 meals a day at this point.

10 months

Schedule change. At 10 months I switched from 4 bottles and 3 meals to 2 bottles, 3 meals (with water), and two snacks (with sippy cups of formula). Here is what our schedule at 10 months looked like (adjust to do what works for your family):

7am: Wake up and receive a bottle of formula/breast milk 6-8 ounces

8am: Breakfast (with a sippy cup of water) then play until nap

9am: Nap

11am: Sippy cup of formula/breast milk 4-6 oz and a small snack (my girls loved string cheese or blueberries!)

12pm: Lunch with sippy cup of water

1pm: Nap

3pm: Sippy cup of formula/breast milk 4-6 oz and a small snack (my girls loved string cheese or blueberries!)

5:30pm: Dinner - we try to eat as a family, but I recognize that is not something everyone can do. But it is nice to try to eat together at least on weekends or when your schedule allows. I like this high chair because we can pull it up to the table

6:30pm: Bath - we bathe the girls together because it makes our lives so much easier

7pm: Into pajamas and last bottle of the night.  Begin nighttime routine (see related article)

7:30pm: Brush teeth, change diapers and get in bed

One-year old

Pediatricians recommend getting rid of the bottle by one. At one, we did the same exact schedule as 10-month, but we dropped the morning and nighttime bottles for sippy cups. Did you know that giving your child a bottle after one can lead to dental problems? Also, bottle time after one can lead to more ear infections. I know your baby loves the bottle, but you are going to have to get rid of it at some point. It is easier to break the habit at one then it is to do it later. If you stick to my tips above, the transition should be relatively easy.