Peekaboo Beans Blog

Fabulous Giveaway!!

Peekaboo Beans has teamed up with our good friends at Meagan Baker Photography for a super playful contest that comes around only every once in a while!! So, here is all the fabulous details:

Visit Meagan Baker Photography Blog and enter for your chance to WIN a professional photo shoot for your family from Meagan Baker Photography with 10 edited digital files. And... Peekaboo Beans will outfit your children for the photo shoot... and they can keep the outfits!

Contest closes on Sunday, June 30th so head over the Meagan's blog before it's too late! Good luck to all!

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Visit Meagan Baker Photography HERE

Bean there done that

The Healing Power of Trees

Today I was in such a funk! A funk that even my cheerful Granddaughter could not get me out of and that is aserious funk when she can't cheer me up! I had suffered what I felt was an unkindness by someone close to me followed by a slight snub. I couldn't get myself out of my slump nor did I want to. I held my hurt to my chest, embracing the heck out of it, not able to let it go. My eyes were sort of glazed, my voice a monotone. I was also angry at myself for letting this nonsense get to me yet again.

As I sat, firmly entrenched in my mood, my husband noticed our neighbours outside, digging a hole. There was a beautiful Japanese Maple tree standing nearby, waiting to be planted. He decided to go out and see if he could help. I stayed on the couch, sulking and feeling sad. Soon, I heard laughter outside, and I glanced out, and saw a little crowd around the hole, shovels and wheelbarrows in hand, laughing and sweating, but chatting amiably as they worked. Well, I thought, I guess I could just go out and see what's up. Soon I was busy too, sifting dirt and raking soil. An hour and a half later, the little tree was proudly situated in the hole. Our neighbors thanked us profusely for our help and we came inside. It was then that I realized that my funk was gone. I was no longer feeling sorry for myself. I felt cheerful and optimistic. I had badly needed to get outside of myself but didn't have the will to let go of my hurt and anger. When I finally managed to let it all go, I felt so much better. Now every time I see that beautiful tree outside my kitchen window, I will remember this lesson; Help out, do something nice for someone else, laugh and sweat and enjoy the company. It will be good for you.

Come join our vine with the best deal ever!

For the month of JUNE only, join our growing vine of fabulous Peekaboo Beans Stylists and receive our best deal yet! This doesn't come around too often so if you have been contemplating creating a new business for yourself now is the perfect opportunity.

Email stylist@peekaboobeans.com to receive your New Sprout information package today.

Social Media Scary!

It was the simple click of a photo posted to her teenage daughter’s Facebook page that left a Langley mom deeply disturbed.

The link opened up a series of shocking images showing two young children, who looked about eight years old, performing sexual acts on each other.

“It’s disgusting,” Traci-Lee Burchell told The Province. “It makes me sick to my stomach.”

Burchell regularly keeps tabs on her daughter Hailee’s social-media activity, but she never expected to find child pornography posted to the 16-year-old’s Facebook profile.

The photo appeared on Hailee’s page without her knowledge after she did something almost every other teen regularly does on social media — she “liked” a page with a picture of a cute kitten that had gone viral.

Hailee’s just one example of how efficient Internet predators are becoming at reaching children on social-media websites. Even more shocking, police say, is that predators are now going after even younger kids.

“What’s alarming to us is the ages of the children,” said Ridge Meadows RCMP Cpl. Alanna Dunlop, who said she has seen kids as young as nine or 10 on social-media sites that are at risk of being targeted.

Dunlop said the problem is widespread, with police jurisdictions across Canada working to better educate the public on how to protect kids from child predators.

Ridge Meadows RCMP are currently investigating a number of cases involving kids being targeted by child predators on websites and apps such as Skype, Kik and Instagram, Dunlop said. In some cases, she said online predators coerced children into sending nude images of themselves.

But in many other cases, young, underage girls sent nude photos of themselves to someone they’re dating in what is often called “sexting,” Dunlop said. When the relationship ends, photos often get posted on social media, she said.

Part of the problem is that kids are signing up on social-media sites at younger ages than ever before.

Vancouver social-media educator Jesse Miller said Thursday that he had just finished a speaking engagement at a school where children in Grade 3 and 4 admitted to having accounts on the photo-messaging app Snapchat. The minimum age to join Snapchat is 13.
But since there’s no age verification, anyone can sign up, he said.

Miller said he expects to see kids using social media at even younger ages, where they will increasingly be put at risk of child predators.

Dunlop urged parents to have access to their children’s social-media accounts, which she said should always be set to private.
She said parents should also ensure their kids don’t accept friend requests from people they don’t know personally, and that they don’t use messenger apps like Kik that lack privacy settings.

For mom Burchell, open communication and vigilant monitoring is key to trying to keep her daughter safe.

A few social media sites where your children may have accounts:

- Facebook: social utility that allows people to connect with friends and others online;
- Twitter: account holders can follow other users and share their thoughts, links and photos in 140 characters or less;
- Instagram: a photo-sharing site;
- Tumblr: a blogging platform that allows users to post text, photos, quotes, music and videos;
- YouTube: site where users can post original videos and comment on those posted by others;
- Google+: social networking site;
- Pinterest: A content-sharing service that allows members to “pin” images and videos to their pinboards;
- Snapchat: real-time photo messaging app;
- Vine: allows users to create and share short videos;
- Kik: smartphone messenger app that allows sharing of text, photos, video and more;
- Pheed: iPhone social app that allows users to share text, photo, audio, video and live broadcasts;
- Reddit: an online community where users share and vote on content, promoting stories to the site’s front page;
- Whatsapp: smartphone messenger app where users can create groups and share text, image, video and audio messages.

This article was originally posted on June 7th in the Province Newspaper. Read more HERE

Join us on June 13th, for and evening of Cyber Safety for our Beans and Tweens with special guest Jesse Miller, hosted by Peekaboo Beans. We invite you attend this insightful and informative seminar and learn how to teach your children the guidelines and importance for safe and responsible social media use.

Purchase tickets HERE on-line or RSVP to deana@peekaboobeans.com to reserve your spot and pay for your ticket at the door. Did we mention we will have snacks and bevies??

And we are excited to support our friends at Playground Builders by donating all proceeds from this event to their amazing organization!

Save the date... Camp Be YOU!

Our annual summer camp, Camp Be YOU, is back for another four days of non-stop fun and learning!

Camp Be YOU is for the tween that LOVES fashion and style! Enjoy a morning of fun fashion DIY's, crafts, and activities! But that's not all. The girls get to learn about healthy eating, tips on stress management, social media safety, and a behind the scenes look at how clothing goes from a design to hanging in their closet! We focus on letting girls be themselves and celebrate the things that make them special and unique!

Stay tuned for more information on the daily activities of Camp Be YOU!

Email us at beyou@cicibean.ca for your application package!

Bean there done that!

How to Tell You're a Grandma!

When I am dropping off, or picking up one of my Beans from their activities, it's often difficult to tell if the adults accompanying the other children are older mothers, or younger grandma's. Sometimes the differences are subtle but I believe I have learned to tell the difference. The Mom's often have a kind of deer in the headlights look, their minds racing ahead to what they still have to do. The Grandma's have more of a peaceful look that says, "I get to drop off this little Munchkin later and then go out for a nice dinner with my friends."

I have made up a wee list of what I perceive are clues to tell the difference.

You know you're a grandma when:

Every night before you go to bed, you have to wash glitter out of your pores.
You have a drawer in your house that holds nothing but glitter, glue, lace, buttons, pipe cleaners, scraps of pretty paper doilies and ribbon.
You have to call a 10 year old to help you reset your iPad and teach you how to text.
You often have breakfast for dinner.
You can actually eat a cookie that a 4-year old made with grubby little fingers.
You make "Fabulous Hot Buns." (Thank you Miss Colbie Makena Costa.)
You have stars and glue stuck on your T-shirt but you don't bother changing it to go to the store.
When your grandchild does something you would never have let your child do, you just smile to yourself and say "Never Mind."
You look into the mirror and Oh Lordy, a grandma is staring back at you.
You find yourself saying things like Oh Lordy.
You secretly smile when your child tells you their kids are driving him/her crazy.
You get up out of a sick-bed because you promised a wee Bean a Nana/Granddaughter day.
You are amazed at the stuff you used to think was so important.
You get a tug at your heart when a 6-year old sings or dances badly in a play and you applaud like you have just attended a performance at the Met.
Your Motto is "Never pass up an opportunity to just shut up."
You climb into bed with a Grandpa every night, and you don't mind. And your nightgown now contains more fabric than a backyard tent.
When you are babysitting you have to call the kids to find out how to work the baby monitor.
You plan every outing around where you can get a seniors discount.
Your 3-year old granddaughter has to show you how to buckle up her car seat.
You tell your toddler grandson French Fries are carrot sticks so it won't sound bad when he tells his Mom what Nana fed him while she was looking after him. But what happens at Nana's stays at Nana's. (You just have to hope that they don't find a wayward fry in the child's clothing! Sorry Jan!)
After you tell your 9-year old granddaughter that you are going to be out of town for Mother's Day, she says, "Please do NOT tell me that my Mom is not going to have a mother around on Mother's Day!!"

When your child arrives to pick up her Beans and the wee one's start behaving like Bohemians, you say "Funny, they were perfect angels all day." Because they WERE!
Sadly, you leak as much as the Grand-babies do!

There it is in a nutshell. No more problems. You're welcome.