Teaching Kids About Voting

We have finally reached election day and people are more energized than ever. We all know the importance of voting and know what a privilege it is. My kids have been learning about the voting process at school and have even had their own election at the school. I think it is great to involve kids at school but it is also important for us parents to involve our kids at home. Listed below are some tips that I can across with ideas of how to involve our children.

1. Create a family album with newspaper and magazine clippings about an election—local or presidential—and the candidates. Consider including photographs, advertisements, bumper stickers or other election-related collateral. Sit down as a family and discuss the kind of articles (objective versus editorial), tones and issues each clipping addresses.
2. Organize a family political discussion about voting, encouraging questions. Some questions and discussion topics might include:
a. Why do you think voting is important?
b. Why do you think some people don’t vote?
c. What characteristics do you think a candidate should have?
d. Which candidate do you like? Why?
e. What are some problems in our community? How will this candidate solve these problems?
f. What can we do as a family to help our community?
3. As a family, research how the voting process works. Look up "popular vote" and "electoral vote" to learn more about the American democratic voting process.
4. Challenge kids to take on a reporter’s role, writing a brief story about community service, democracy, elections or voting.
5. Volunteer to help voting programs by distributing voter registration information to friends and family. For information on voting sites and registration, visit www.us.gov or call (800) FED-INFO.

These tips provided by North American Precis Syndicate, Inc.

Happy Voting!

What's for dinner?

What’s For Dinner?

When I was a child, this was the first question I asked of my parents when I saw them after school. You know what? That’s now my kids’ first question for me! Then comes the response of either “yes” or “oh no…not again” or “I hate that”. Now I have to admit, I am a picky eater myself so I tend to try to please the kids and sometimes find myself making two different things at dinner time. But how do you handle having picky eaters in your family?

Here are some tips that I found:

The first step is to eliminate any health problems by talking with your doctor.
Don’t discuss eating habits or problems at or around meal time.
Limit your child’s eating time to 20 minutes. If they don’t eat their food in 20 minutes, chances are that they won’t eat it at all.
Include your picky eater in meal planning. Use a children’s cook book and let them help prepare food.
Praise your child when they try small amounts of new food or foods they don’t like.
Make meal time fun by providing an occasional smorgasbord of favorite foods.

Most importantly, eat together as a family as often as possible and enjoy that time together.

Read the entire article here.

Make time for family fun!

My family has now settled into the new routine at home with the kids back in school and our fall activities in full swing. I’m always ready to get back in to a routine after summer, however; sometimes we find ourselves a little ‘over-booked’. Have you ever found yourself in that same situation? We have girl scouts, gymnastics, cheerleading, basketball, after school activities ….and don’t forget the PTA events and birthday parties! Whew! I get tired just thinking about it. We all know that we should pick only a few activities at a time for our kids but how do we pick the activities? I found some good tips that I thought I would share.

· Variety is the spice of life. Young children seldom need to specialize in their interests. No matter how much your son loves soccer, playing it year-round and on more than one team at a time is overkill. If you truly want to expose your children to a variety of activities, choose a sport, something in the arts (music, dance, drama), and something that stresses socialization and personal relationships (clubs, scouts). Being able to jump from one focus to another is something kids are easily able to do and the variety is good for them.

· Attention young jocks: One sport at a time. There are some children who seem to thrive on sports and won’t stop joining teams until you hide their water bottles. Playing more than one sport in a season forces children and parents to race from one practice or game to another, or one of their commitments is going to get short shrift. Tell your child that in order to be a good team member, he can’t divide his time between two sports.

· Rec vs club activities. Community-based, recreational activities are often more low-key, less intense, less costly and require less time commitment than private clubs. Travel and club sports teams, and independent organizations that are operated as businesses are often more competitive and require more commitment from your child.

Before you sign your child up with a gymnastics club, dance studio, or club sports team, carefully research what is expected of you, both financially and in time commitment. Out-of-town tournaments and competitions, uniforms, fundraising and other ventures are often expensive and affect the entire family. Be sure your family can handle the commitment in addition to the other things your children are involved in.

· Reserve some time for free play. Don’t forget that your children are children. They still need time to hang out, play with their friends, goof off and even get bored once in a while. Before you sign them up for a new activity, look at their schedules. If they’re running from one thing to another, eating dinner on the fly, and there are no empty spots on their schedule, start to pull back and let them have some time that isn’t committed to an organized activity.

Article by Diane Laney Fitzpatrick. Read entire article Here

Toddler Rules of Possession

My soon-to-be 10 month old is really developing a personality now that she is mobile and she knows what she wants when she wants it! She can be quite entertaining to watch when she decides she wants something.


She reminded me of the ‘Toddler Rules of Possession’ that I have always loved so I thought I would share. Enjoy!



1. If I like it, it's mine.


2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.


3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.


4. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.


5. If it's mine, it must NEVER appear to be yours in anyway.


6. If I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.


7. If it looks just like mine, it is mine.


8. If I saw it first, it's mine.


9. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine.


10. If it's broken, it's yours.

Breaking Dawn-

I have finally finished the last book in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series. Honestly over all I felt like the book was very mature for middle school high school students. Let me explain, in addition to the violent and graphic descriptions, there were serveral references to sensual material throughout the entire series.

I can understand how the series can be interesting and very entertaining as it encompasses many aspects of love, romance and family but it is hard to overlook the blatant references to sexuality. I was disheartened as I was hoping that the novel would be a fun and exciting book without the mature romantic sections.

This is an important series of blogs even though I have mentioned numerous times that this series is not for kids for several reasons

1. This a HUGE cultural trend among the youth

2. There is a movie coming out this fall on these books so the hype over these books will only grow

Above all my friends...."guard your heart for it affects all that you do"

Not Right Now Honey.....

"Ten Ways to Keep a Toddler Entertained in the Kitchen"
Written by Teresa Kolvek
For full article click here

Quick Verison:
*Have one cabinet to explore. Put boxed and canned goods in that cabniet
*High chair Math: Put the toddler in a high chair and dump out some oats and give them measuring spoons and cups
*Stickers
*Give them a task: sort mail, put boxes in cabniet in order tallest to smallest
*Let them help with tasks like washing fruit, tearing lettuce etc.
*Give them a child-sized broom and let them sweep kitchen
* Dance to the music

"How to talk on the phone when you have a preschooler"
Article written by: Susan Dunn
Full Article here

The Highlights:

*Hug your preschooler. They find comfort in hearing your voice

*Get a headset.

*Color or doodle with preschooler when you are on the phone

* Make eye contact "mouthing" and using facial expressions to praise and for moments of "mom watch this"

Potty Time

"Tips for Potty Traing"-Jennifer Ellis
Get the whole article Here
Cliff Notes Verison of the article:
*Timing is everything. If child is hesitant or refuses wait a few weeks and then try again.
*NEVER EVER flush potty when the child is on it
*Fix child's favorite drink on the first day and let them have a lot of it so that they can practice using the potty
*Make sure to feed your child plenty of fruits and veggies so that they don't have trouble going to the potty
*About 2 hrs before bed limit the drinks. Have the child sit on the potty before they go to bed
*Make the bed and then put a plastic sheet over it and then another sheet over that. So that if the child goes to the potty during the night all you have to do is remove the soiled sheet and the plastic sheet
*Fruit loops or goldfish in toliet bowl
*A little dish soap in the bowl makes bubbles