How do you know if your child is ready for a sleepover?
Your child will be most ready to sleep away from home between the ages of 9 – 11. If your child expresses a desire to have a sleepover at a younger age, try considering a half-night sleep party – you can pick them up at 11:00 pm in their jammies! It is important that you know the parents well who are hosting the party. Personal safety is of utmost importance when sending your child away for long periods.

Preparing a child for a sleepover
Helpful questions to ask yourself:

• Is your child evening or routine savvy?
• Can they get themselves all ready for bed on their own?
• Here is a great way to get some more information about your child’s readiness: ask your sitter how they handle their nighttime routine. If the sitter claims that they are completely independent, then: It’s a go! Yay, send them on their merry way!

Signs that it is too soon for a sleepover
If your child needs a lot of attention and assistance during their bedtime routine, or has a fear of the dark or unfamiliar people, then you may want to wait. If your child wets the bed you may want to hold off until they have mastered dry nights. Embarrassment should never be part of a sleepover, especially if you are not there to help them.

Sending a child to a sleepover

• Pack up a familiar toy, pillow, blanket or family picture to add a sense of comfort.
• Pack a flashlight, digital camera or cool book or game to share

Go over rules for which you’d like your child to follow:

• Listen to the parents
• Sleep when parents ask them to
• Speak up if they need any assistance
• Feel free to call home at anytime, to say goodnight or to be picked up
• Have lots of fun!

Hosting a sleepover

• Keep it small and manageable
• Greet the parents and the children
• Know of any food restrictions/allergies, medications and special needs of each child
• Go over the rules and let them know where the bathrooms are
• Have activities ready for the evening (games, books, DVD’s etc)
• Set up a snack area with fun and healthy snacks
• Create cool area for them to camp out in and set up their bags (have a little light on in case they need to walk to the bathroom)
• Pass phone around for each child to say “Good Night” to their family
• When lights are out, let the silliness begin
• Give a few minute warning as to when you’d like them to actually sleep
• Have breakfast food readily available for when the morning munchies set in!
• Give parents an exact time for which the party ends

For more information visit www.TheGoToMom.TV

Today’s kids know the drill.� When the lazy days of summer give way to the new school year, daily routines change.� It’s wake up now, eat a good breakfast, and get to school on time.� It’s buckle down and pay attention to the serious business of learning.� And it’s good-bye to leisurely indoor or outdoor play time.

What happens to play time when kids head back to school?� For one thing, more and more children cannot count on getting a play break—otherwise known as recess—at school.� According to the American Association for the Child’s Right to Play, approximately 40% of elementary schools do not include recess in the school day.� � Many factors have contributed to the decline of recess, including the increased focus on academic outcomes as measured by standardized testing; parents’ and school administrators’ concerns about safety on the playground; and the difficulty of supervising children who are not experienced in working out play conflicts on their own.

As we see play time at school decline, it’s more and more important for parents and caregivers to find ways to help kids get a healthy dose of regular play at home.

Here are ways parents can provide a “balanced diet” of play—much in the same way you offer a range of healthy food choices—and include all these types of play in the home routine:

• Physical play that uses the body’s large muscles.� More than ever, kids need active indoor and outdoor play.� Not only does it help build strong muscles and develop coordination, it is central to fighting childhood obesity.
• Play that uses the hands.� The hands are central to many forms of creative and functional expression:� art, music, writing, typing, and more.� Make time and space for messy or loud play—using paints, crayons, clay, homemade musical instruments and any other safe “toys” that encourage use of the hands and creativity.
• Play that promotes thinking and problem solving.� Cooking projects, art and music, family story telling, regular parent-child reading sessions—this type of play is fun and has direct connection to the academic skills we want our kids to master because it helps children master language and arithmetic concepts and encourages them to figure things out.
• Play that uses the senses. Tasting, smelling, touching, hearing, seeing—play that uses the senses overlaps with most other forms of play.� Not only is sensory play loads of fun, it also encourages kids to explore their world at the most basic level—with their eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin.
• Play that requires a healthy imagination.� Who doesn’t have fond childhood memories of pretend play with friends or siblings, or even alone with imaginary pals?� Making things up is a rich source of learning, creativity and problem solving.� Imaginative play can be done anywhere, alone or with others, and doesn’t necessarily require toys or props.
• Play with friends.� If a child doesn’t play, how can he learn the social skills he needs to be successful in school?� How can she develop the skills she needs to take turns, work out problems, be patient, and share?� This type of play is central to establishing the social and emotional capacity to navigate through a school day.

�

Parents can incorporate healthy play at home, but if it is so important for learning, why aren’t kids playing more at school?� Certainly we’re sensitive to the challenges schools face as they struggle to meet all that is required from them.� At the same time, we encourage anyone who cares about good outcomes for children to ask schools to commit to daily recess. � It’s good for kids and it makes school more fun.� Who wouldn’t want that?

For more information about the importance of recess during the school day and how to promote it, check out these resources:

• The Value of School Recess and Outdoor Play, a position statement by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.� Available at www.naeyc.org/resources/eyly/1998/08.pdf.
• Recess and the Importance of Play:� A Position Statement on Young Children and Recess by the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education.� Available at http://naecs.crc.uiuc.edu/position.html.
• Suggestions for Promoting Recess, by the American Association for the Child’s Right to Play.� Available at http://ipausa.org/promotingrecess.html.

About Tookie’s Toys – Tookie’s Toys is a family owned and operated specialty toy company with retail locations in Raleigh, NC and our online store. Our mission is to provide high-quality educational toys that nurture the imagination and encourage children to think, create and dream!� Katherine “Tookie” Hodges has over twenty years of experience in helping match toys and playthings to the developmental needs of children. Katherine and her husband John are assisted by their chief toy tester and son, Taylor. For more information or to shop, visit www.tookiestoys.com!

Check out a natural craft dough that you don’t have to make yourself, plus giveaways for children’s books, a Cabana Life shopping spree and a personalized charm necklace.

Eco-Dough: Looking for a natural craft dough, but don’t have the time to make it from scratch? Then check out the fabulous eco-dough (also available gluten, soy, or dairy free) by green art supplier Eco-Kids.

Classy Mommy: Little Scholastic Giveaway: Win Little Scholastics Summer Goodie Bag full of 5 Books!

MomFinds: Win a $100 Cabana Life Shopping Spree: Be stylish and sun smart with Cabana Life’s sun protective clothing line.

The Nest Baby: Personalized Charm Necklace Giveaway: We’re giving away a one-of-a-kind Lisa Leonard charm neckalce, personalized with your loved ones’ names. Just give us your best summertime travel tip to enter!

Join A Modern Moms Group! Modern Moms Groups are launching across the country to offer women a community of like-minded moms offline. We hold regular Mom’s Night Outs, events + more.

The arrival of a newborn, especially if it’s the first born, brings a flurry of child proofing. The problem is that the initial bout of safety consciousness can give way as your child or children grow up. And that of course is a problem since safety hazards tend to increase with a child’s age. The other issue is that nobody likes a lecture that is nothing more than a list of “no, don’t, you can’t, and never.” Stressing the importance of safety is like talking about saving for retirement. It’s necessary, but not very much fun. Not nearly as much fun as skateboarding down a flight of stairs without a helmet or spending money today.

Enter the Danger Rangers: Sully, Burt, Kitty, Gabriela, Burble, Squeeky and Fallbot to make safety meaningful and… fun. Yes, we know, hard to believe. However the the Danger Rangers are more than up to the task by using “action-adventure, comedy and fantastic music to entertain, educate and empower children to Think Safe, Play Safe & Be Safe!” Orginally a half hour series, Emmy nominated, no less, the Danger Rangers now are a complete multimedia experience with DVDs, books, coloring books and activity kits. Each character has his or her own personality. Kitty is the brains of the operation, for instance, and there are male and female characters so the Rangers have relevance for both boys and girls.

It is also not possible to stress how important small safety tips that might be taken for granted or overlooked, can save a child’s life. Ranger topics range from safety at the pool, safety with medicine, fire-safety, you name it.

The story lines are well developed, age appropriate and non-threatening, so that they manage to be instructional, but fun and meaningful as well. It’s not surprising as the outfit behind the Rangers, Educational Adventures is staffed with Emmy and Oscar award winners and backed by health and safety experts and a professor from Harvard Medical School.

The Danger Rangers are viewable on Video On Demand and public television as well as through DVDs, story books and coloring books.

I am considering coming out of the closet. For decades, I have been afraid to voice my strongest feelings about the effects of TV on our society. My style is to be a consensus builder, and when that is your goal, it pays to be able to understand (and to some extent, support) both sides of a debate. And so for years I have been repeating some version of “Too much TV is never good, but there are some very high quality programs. I do understand that today’s parents need (1) to allow their kids to experience TV in order to be part of the culture, and (2) a break – a way to have their child fully engaged by something else – so that they can have some time to concentrate on their own lives.” All of this is true. But the statement is a polite version of what I really think. TV is a very addictive bad habit. Like watching a friend struggle with a drug or drinking problem, I see people of all ages who watch too much TV and they are: in a bad mood when they don’t get enough, incapable of imagining life without TV, and in denial about the toll TV is taking on their physical and mental health.

The surprising part of my temptation to speak more freely about my significant opposition to TV-watching is that it came from a small button produced by a big company. “Turn Off TV. Turn On Life. Kaiser Permanente®.” Last Thursday, I was seated next to a Kaiser executive at a breakfast program featuring Tom and Kate Chappell, founders of Tom’s of Maine. As I took in the button, with a background photo of kids playing outdoors, I did a double-take. This is brave, I thought. While you are not surprised when you see a preaching-to-the-choir “Kill Your TV” sticker on a ’64 VW Bus in a national park, you don’t often see a successful big business in our consumer society taking such clear aim at the backbone of our advertising-driven culture. Clearly, they have their motives, and they can’t be completely altruistic, but that’s OK with me. If Kaiser has decided that their business is more profitable if people watch less TV and improve their physical health, more power to them for addressing the topic head-on.

My internal dialogue was further stimulated by Tom and Kate’s very inspiring talk about using your own personal values as a guide in business. It is no accident that my team and I spend our energy creating magazines for today’s kids. We believe reading is THE core skill that children should have, and that in a media culture increasingly dominated by electronic fare, we want to develop printed materials better suited to compete for the attention of today’s child. It’s no accident that we don’t accept advertising. We know that children get too many marketing messages already, and that in their formative years, they cannot distinguish between ad and non-ad content. We already try very hard to make business decisions based on our values. But I have avoided discussing, even with my team, my personal belief that TV is a very bad way to spend your time. For me, the topic is like religion or politics – I just don’t want to go there.

I am not quite sure where my newfound courage to speak out will take me. I will start with this piece of advice: Use TV with the strongest degree of moderation. I am talking about two hours per week, and not on school nights. I do believe that young kids need to understand what TV is, and completely avoiding TV leaves them more vulnerable to its allure when they are old enough to make their own decisions. By limiting yourself to two shows per week, your family will be more critical in making TV-watching decisions. Take a hard look at the examples you are setting. Children mimic their parents. By having a “favorite show” every Thursday that becomes a highlight activity, you are helping your child begin a similar relationship with TV as their main source of fun. Yes, TV is very engaging and entertaining, the producers of TV are masters of capturing your mind. That’s how they sell ads. With the advent of today’s DVRs, they know you are skipping the ads, and that’s why they sell product placements. The question is “What is your mind doing while it’s in captivity?” Not much.

Years ago, I attended a lecture by Lorrie Moore, author of Birds of America and professor of English at the University of Wisconsin. She was commenting on whether she felt there was such a thing as quality television. She began her response by recognizing that there is a qualitative difference between a sitcom and a well-researched documentary. What she said next has stayed with me ever since: A TV program, good or bad, continues on, exactly as designed, with or without the viewer. A book requires your participation and understanding – it cannot proceed without an engaged mind choosing to read it. I am sure her words expressed this idea even better, but I hope you get the point.

P.S. I checked out the Kaiser TV Turnoff website and their downloadable Screen-time Reduction Toolkit. I am impressed by the significant resources that went into these well thought out materials. Just when I thought I could lump all healthcare industry players into a bucket of “companies I don’t respect,” I have to say that Kaiser seems to have something else going on. I have worked for big companies, and I know how hard it is to get budget and buy-off for “non-core” projects. I salute the people within the big organization who steer a portion of resources to projects like TV Turnoff.

Rainy days with stir-crazy kids and dogs can try your sanity. When your kids wail that there’s nothing fun to do, have them try some of these simple games with the family dog.

Hansel & Gretel Trails. This is a really basic activity, but kids love it! Give your children a small bowl of treats and tell them to create a trail for the dog to follow. Keep the dog near you while the kids put a treat every 2 to 4 feet. When they have laid out the entire path, have them come back and tell the dog to sit before releasing the dog to follow the trail. They’ll follow along behind the dog cheering for each successful find.

Commando Crawl (for mid-sized dogs). Have the kids lay a trail of treats running under your coffee table from one end to the other. Teach the dog to belly-crawl across the floor to get the treats.

Dog Bowling. Arrange empty plastic 2-liter bottles in a bowling triangle in the hallway and have the kids take turns calling the dog for a treat. Whoever gets the dog to topple the most pins as he races down the hall wins.

Tiny Teeter-Totter. Lay a piece of plywood on the floor. Have the kids give the dog treats for stepping on the board. Once the dog is not at all concerned about walking on the board, lay the board across a broom to make a 2” high teeter-totter. Keep rewarding the dog for walking over the board. Remind the kids to keep their fingers away from the board while the dog is on it!

Rainy Day Come. Give each child a small cup of dog treats. Tell one child to go “hide” in the kitchen. At first the child won’t really hide, she’ll just stand in the center of the kitchen and call the dog. While dog is trotting toward the kitchen, send another child to the dining room.

After the first child has had the dog sit to get a treat, the child in the dining room can call the dog . . . and while the dog is coming to the second child, the first child will head to the living room. When it’s her turn to call again, she’ll call and the dog will head for the kitchen only to find that she’s not there! While the dog looks for the first child, the second chooses a new spot.

As your dog gets better at this game, the kids can make it more challenging by standing behind doors or sitting in unusual places. The game is over when the kids are out of treats; then everyone can head to the kitchen for a cookie break.

Remember to use lots of treats to make these games as much fun for the dog as for the kids. The idea is to offer the children simple training opportunities in fun, easy-to-implement ways.

Don’t allow anyone to push or pull the dog to get him to do something. If the dog seems confused or resistant, look for ways to make the challenges easier. Watch for any signs of frustration—on either the kids’ or dog’s part—and step in right away to help.

Soon your kids will be hoping it rains more often.

Whenever Laura sees a dog, she shrieks and clings to her mother’s leg. Thomas runs the other way. And Samuel just freezes, wide eyed in terror.

Each of these children is afraid of dogs. As parents, we strive to teach our kids how to cope with life and its challenges. Yet some parents mistakenly believe that it is good for a child to be afraid of dogs because then the child will be more cautious around them.

It doesn’t usually work that way. When children are frightened, they often run, scream and flail. These actions typically bring a dog closer, not keep it away.

Dogs can and do bite children on occasion. But it is not as common as you might think, and there are many things you can do to help ensure that your child will not be bitten. The most important is to learn about dog body language and behavior.

The more you know about something, the less scary it becomes. Many kids are frightened because they don’t know what a dog will do next. Dogs communicate almost entirely through body language. A basic knowledge of body language can help kids to understand a dog’s intentions.

My favorite resource for teaching kids about canine body language is the Doggone Crazy board game. The game includes over 100 playing cards. Each features a color photo of a dog on the front and asks whether it would be safe to approach the dog. The back of each card gives the correct answer and explains why. I especially like that there are a variety of dogs and that each is called by name. I have found that kids are less afraid when they know the dog’s name; “Teddy” and “Riley” seem less intimidating than “that collie” or “the wheaten terrier.”

After you have a basic understanding of body language, start watching dogs from a distance. Park outside a pet supply store and talk about the dogs you see coming and going. Which ones look happy, which look frightened, which have been taught to walk nicely on a lead, which seem like old or young dogs?

When your child is very comfortable watching dogs at a distance, try introducing older, calm dogs to your child. Respect her fear and work at her own pace. Don’t try to rush or cajole her into doing more than she’s comfortable with.

Most children will reach out and touch a calm dog’s haunches if the owner turns the dog’s head away from the child. That’s an excellent first step. Talk with your child about how the dog’s fur feels. Ask her if she thinks other dogs’ fur would be softer or more rough. Get her thinking about that one dog as an individual. Ask the owner to talk about some of the dog’s favorite activities.

Work toward having your child give the dog cues (with dog’s owner ensuring that the dog complies). Seeing a dog respond correctly to what she asks will help her feel safer.

It’s best for her to work steadily with one dog until she feels very comfortable before adding another. Once she has met and likes three calm, adult dogs, begin thinking about introducing her to a puppy. Puppies are bouncy and outgoing, which can be unnerving for a tentative child.

Again, let her start out at a distance, simply observing the puppy’s behavior. Talk with her about the ways in which the puppy is similar to and different from the adult dogs she’s met. When she is ready, let her approach the puppy. Be sure that adults are there to prevent the puppy from jumping on her; that would set your progress back considerably. Give her treats that she can toss away from herself for the puppy to eat.

If she’s comfortable, teach her how to lure the puppy into a sit. First, show her how holding a treat in your hand and moving it just barely higher than the puppy’s nose in the direction of his tail will cause the puppy to lift his head up and put his haunches down. Do it a few times so she can watch you. Then have her put a treat in her fist and wrap your hand around hers and lure the puppy into a sit. (Still have an adult there to prevent jumping.)

Take it slow. It’s much better to teach your child to be a skilled observer of animal behavior than it is for her to be thrown into situations that frighten her. With patience and time, she will learn that there are many gentle, social dogs, and she’ll be able to interact safely and calmly with new dogs she meets. That’s far, far safer than having her remain afraid of all dogs.

Kids love projects with their hand and foot prints. It really gives them ownership to their artwork. Check out this simple and creative craft:

What you need:

• Child
• 3 different colors sheets of construction paper
• 1 green sheet construction paper
• Crayons or markers
• Glue or tape
• Scissors

Directions:

1. Tell your child they are making flowers out of their hands and feet and are going to put them in a vase.
2. Trace child’s right & left hand on 1 sheet of colored construction paper. You can trace a little up the arm to make the handprint a little bigger.
3. Trace child’s right & left foot on 1 sheet of colored construction paper.
4. Depending on child’s age and cutting ability you or the child cut out the hand and foot prints.
5. Cut 4 green stems from construction paper. We folded our stems like an accordion. (See Photo)
6. Cut out a shape of a vase from last sheet of construction paper.
7. Have child color with crayons or markers on the vase, feet, and hands (even the stems if they like). I told my 4 year old son to put finger and toe nails on his hand and foot prints which he found quite amusing.
8. Attach the stems to the vase with glue or tape. Attach the flowers(hands and feet) to the stems and hang up your child’s masterpiece!

Visit us at FunWellDone.com for more projects with all the supplies included. Great for cold stuck indoor winter days.

My daughter Clare is now in her second week of summer vacation—and, since she just finished Kindergarten, it’s her first “official” summer vacation from school. This summer is also the first time since Clare was four months old that she won’t be in daycare or at school during the days. Instead, because I’ve been a stay-at-home Dad for a few months, we’ll be spending every day—all day—of the summer together. I thought that I’d have a hard time coming up with activities for Clare and me to do, but Clare has been a helpful activity planner and has taught me a few things.

I’ll admit that I once thought I’d have more fun with a boy. With a son, I thought, I’d play baseball, watch Star Wars, race Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars, and wrestle around on the grass or floor. Of course, as any daughter’s Daddy’ll tell you, one look into a baby girl’s eyes and none of that matters. Still, once the cradling and baby games are over, what does a Dad do with a daughter. The truth is we do just about anything I imagined doing with a son and then some.

Here are just a few of the things that we’ve done in the two weeks since Kindergarten graduation:

• Cooking: Clare got a cookbook as a gift recently and has been waiting to try some recipes. One of them was for punch. Aside from the slapstick fun that we’ve had punching each other in the arm, we also had a great time pouring a few different kinds of juice into a punch bowl with a bottle of lemon-line soda. Clare tossed in some ice cubes and I added some orange slices and we had a party. We’ve also had great fun making Rice Krispie treats. My cooking skills are about level with a Kindergartener, so we always have a great time in the kitchen.
• Painting: Clare likes to help when I’m doing some home improvement project. I’ve let her help paint walls in our bathrooms, but that didn’t turn out so well. I’m a bad enough painter without the help of a five year-old. When I took on painting our front porch though, I figured it wouldn’t matter if we were a little sloppy. We got it done…and were a little sloppy. We got white paint on ourselves and on the daisies in front of the porch, but we also got it on the porch where it was supposed to be. We also took a bookcase for Clare’s room outside and painted it. All of this was with washable paint, of course.
• Dying shirts and daises: Clare tie-dyed shirts at preschool over a year ago and has been asking ever since if we could tie-dye at home. She told me that she knew exactly what we needed and exactly how to do it. Being just a little smarter than her—and a little skeptical of the preschool memory—I checked for myself this week and got us the supplies. We stewed up some colors and made ourselves purple, pink and blue tie-dyed shirts. Clare also saw directions in a magazine for dying daisies. So, as soon as we pick up some food coloring, we’ll be soaking the stems and watching for the petals to turn colors.
• Splashing, biking, running, baseball, golf and pretty much anything else a kid could do in the summer: Having a girl isn’t holding me back from having a good ol’ sweaty time outside like I did when I was a kid. We’ve both got bikes and Clare’s a little more confident on her training wheels with me riding beside her. We’ve also been hitting some wiffle balls and plastic golf balls around the yard. And, when we’re done, we’ve got a sprinkler and a pretty-cool-as-kids’-pools-go pool for cooling off.

So, my worries that we’d have nothing to do this summer have been, so far, unwarranted. Take all of this activity and throw in a little TV time, a little computer time, some games, and (don’t tell Clare) an occasional dash of learning, and we’re booked for the summer. We just have to keep it up for about eight or nine more weeks.

The Newspaper Tree
This one is really easy. All you need is newspaper and a paper towel roll.

For younger children: Roll up the newspaper and insert it into paper towel tube. Have children tear the newspaper to make leaves. (In the photo the tree with ripped leaves is on the left.)

For children who can use scissors: Roll up the newspaper and insert it into the paper towel tube. Have children cut the newspaper to make leaves. You can fold the leaves like an accordion for a cool effect (pictured right).

Shaving Cream Table
One of my favorite summer time activities is a shaving cream table. It’s fun and easy to clean.

Spray shaving cream (not the gel kind) over a low table or on the ground. Let the children have at it with trucks, cars, spatulas, craft sticks or with their hands. You’ll provide hours of fun and take only minutes to clean. Add food coloring to the shaving cream to jazz things up.

Visit FunWellDone.com for great projects with all the fixins included.

With summer in full swing, it’s time for road trips and that means trying to keep the kids entertained in the car for long chunks of time. When you’ve had all you can take of the Wheels on the Bus and Nemo, be the hero when you pull out a cool activity pack from Four Peas.

Parentrepreneur and owner of Four Peas, Casey Basa, is a former teacher and the mother of four girls. The idea for the activity packs came to her because she needed something to keep her children busy when they were out and about.

“When it came to going out with the kids (as we do for something everyday), I found there was a void in the market,” says Casey. “I needed something to keep my children busy while in the car, going out to dinner, or sitting in a doctors’ office for an hour waiting oh-so-patiently for the doctor. So I started buying as many exciting and fun products as I could find before a trip, and I would package them together so that it was always appealing to my children. The activity packs quickly became appealing to other mothers because they eliminated any work or running around trying to find lots of things to keep your child busy.”

The packs come in two varieties: Mini Sports Fan and Girly-Girl. The blue mini sports fan pack comes fully equipt with Melissa and Doug Doodle Tablet, activity pad, silly putty, crayons, make-a-race car sticker sheet, assorted stickers, irridescent sticker sheet, mini porcupine ball, pull back neon race car, sports ball (or race car) notepad, stamper, squishy frog, and magic springs. The Girly-Girl pack has about the same contents, but the race car and sports items are exchanged for things like a make-a-horse sticker sheet, beaded braclet, wiggle eye notepad and linking shapes.

Supplement the packs with items when supplies run low and use the case long after the initial activities are gone. While you’re at Four Peas, be sure to check out their cool backpacks like this toddler size Funky Monkey pack.

Shop around at www.fourpeasonline.com

Summer is here and the long days of relaxing at the pool or the beach have arrived. After two weeks or so with your children being home all day, you may be ready for some new adventures…. Even some educational ones!

As an educator of early language instruction, I am always looking for new opportunities and ways to expose my children to languages. Whether your child is learning a second language for the first time, or perhaps learning a third language, there are many ways to incorporate some bilingual fun into your summer.

Choose a fun summer destination that you will be ordinarily visiting (i.e. the park, the zoo, the beach, grandparent’s house). About a week before you make the trip, sit down with your children and draw a picture of what they think they will see there. Encourage them to include as many details as possible. Choose about 8-10 words from the picture, and look them up in the target language (www.wordreference.com has many different languages and is a great online bilingual dictionary). Together, you and your children will label the items in the target language on their drawing. You have just created the first page of your picture dictionary! If you will be teaching Spanish, and you drew a picture of the zoo, you may want to label the following: el tigre- tiger, la jirafa- giraffe, el elefante- elephant, la foca- seal, el oso- bear, el leopardo- leopard, el pinguino- penguin, la culebra- snake, el cocodrilo- crocodile, etc.

Be sure to post your labeled drawing on your refrigerator for the week leading up to the visit. Use every opportunity you have to discuss the picture and say the words together. Try www.spanicity.com and look up the appropriate vocabulary to listen to audio recordings to help with your pronunciation of Spanish. Allocate a special folder to your ‘language drawings’, so you that you may add pages to your picture dictionary as you visit new places this summer.
When the big day arrives when you will be taking the adventure, be sure to grab the folder with the drawing. Practice in the car on the way and try to say as many of the words as you remember. As your adventure begins, encourage your children to look for the items that they predicted in their drawing. When you see the item, reinforce the language by saying the words together. The children will be excited to see the actual words that they have been practicing come to life. Take this opportunity to teach others that may have joined you on the adventure.

For each adventure you take this summer, try to complete a language picture, so that your children can make their language learning relevant to their lives. Research continually shows the benefits of early language instruction and the facility that young children have with absorbing languages. Have fun this summer and be sure to include some bilingual fun into your adventures!

What do you think? Enter your comments below and feel free to visit www.bilingualfun.com

Like their bodies, kids’ brains need exercise to stay in tip-top shape. It’s no surprise that during the long, lazy days of summer, many students lose the equivalent of one to two months of reading and math skills.

Because the best learning often occurs when children don’t realize they are learning, fun and creative activities like painting, visiting the zoo or creating a beach towel “journal” are ideal for keeping summer brains in peak condition.

Following are ten, kid-friendly activities designed to give students the ultimate summer brain workout:

Grades K-3
Take a walk on the natural side. Plan a nature walk to a nearby neighborhood, park or zoo. As you and your child walk, stop to record observations with a drawing or a brief description. Gather any items you may want to save or examine more closely when you get home. Later, take the time to search the Internet or read wildlife books to learn more about the plants, rocks and animals you discovered on your walk.

Have fun with sidewalk chalk. Draw a hopscotch pattern, sketch pictures of your favorite characters from books, practice spelling your family members’ names or create math problems for you and your friends. Visit tutoring.sylvanlearning.com/learning-activities/summer-fun.cfm to learn how to make your own sidewalk chalk.

Write on. Keep track of your child’s adventures this summer by creating a beach towel or t-shirt “journal.” All you need is a white beach towel or t-shirt and fabric markers. Have your child include his or her favorite events of the summer on the towel or t-shirt, such as family parties or the scores of baseball games. In September, your child can bring the unusual “journal” to show-and-tell so teachers and friends can reminisce about summer fun.

Grades 4-6
Plant a mystery garden. Visit a garden supply store and purchase a variety of flower and vegetable seeds. Remove the seeds from their containers and place them in unlabeled bags. It’s up to the student to grow the plants and determine their correct seeds! Have your child keep a garden journal, including things like how often and how much water each plant received, and drawings or pictures of the plants as they develop. At the end of the summer, press the flowers in clear contact paper and enjoy the vegetables with the family.

Become a pen pal. Have your child write letters to a friend who has recently moved or a relative who lives out of town. The student could write about his or her summer experiences, stories about friends or pets or the latest family adventure. Consider visiting an art supply store and buying multicolor paper, stickers, stamps or glitter and design your own stationary.

Create a cookbook. Look through cookbooks and ask family members and friends to send their favorite recipes. File recipe cards by category and number each one so they can easily be kept in order. Try a new recipe each week and work together to read the directions and measure the ingredients. Take a picture of your child enjoying the finished product. At the end of the summer, have your child design a cover for the cookbook. Gather all of the recipes into a binder and make printed copies for family and friends.

Grade 7-9
Plan a vacation. Ask your child to use the Internet to learn more about your vacation destination. If you will be traveling out-of-state, research the state flower or bird and interesting tourist attractions. Gather bus and subway route maps and schedules to places you would like to visit, such as a museum or the zoo. As you travel, your child can keep a journal filled with notes about his or her favorite places.

Become a reporter. Keep track of local and national news by creating a family newspaper. Develop a list of article types, such as sports, comics, movie guide, etc. If the student is writing about a sporting event, use the Internet to learn more about a favorite player or team. Set up a question box in your home and ask friends or family to write questions your child can answer in an advice column. At the end of the summer, organize all of the articles in a binder. It will be fun to look back on in years to come.

Track the weather. Make a large calendar or graph to chart the high and low temperatures each day for a month. At the end of the month, the student can calculate the average temperature and record the highest and lowest temperatures. Consult an almanac at the library to find out whether the temperatures measured were above or below the average in your area, or if you broke any weather records.

All Ages
Read, read, read. Have younger children challenge their friends to a summer read-a-thon. Keep track of hours spent reading and the number of books read. Then, hold a summer-end pizza party to celebrate the winner. Older students can create a local book club by planning weekly meetings to discuss books and serving snacks that relate to the story. To encourage students of all ages to pick up a book, Sylvan has compiled a grade-by-grade list of great “summer reads.” For additional fun books, visit Sylvan’s www.bookadventure.com.

For free learning guides and a variety of complimentary activity booklets and writing journals, visit tutoring.sylvanlearning.com/learning-activities or call 1-800-31-SUCCESS.

Sylvan Learning Center Summer Reading List:

Elementary School
Kindergarten:
Whose Mouse Are You? by Robert Krause
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Grade 1:
Anansi the Spider by Gerald McDermott
Cork and Fuzz by Dori Chaconas

Grade 2:
The Principal’s New Clothes by Stephanie Calmenson
Henry and Mudge by Sucie Stevenson and Cynthia Rylant

Grade 3:
10-Step Guide to Living With Your Monster by Laura Numeroff
Aladdin: The Magical Tale of a Boy and his Wonderful Lamp by Rosalind
Kerven

Grade 4:
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
If You Lived 100 Years Ago by Ann McGovern

Grade 5:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Ronald Dahl
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

Middle School
Grade 6:
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
The Black Stallion by Walter Farley and Keith Ward

Grade 7:
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Grade 8:
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

High School
Grade 9:
The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, or, on the Segregation of the Queen by Laurie R. King
My Antonia by Willa Cather

Grade 10:
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
Series of Unfortunate Events series by Lemony Snicket

Grade 11:
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Grade 12:
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift and Pat Rogers
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

There are a lot places out there selling caterpillars for you and your young ones to rear and set free. Here’s a secret…you don’t need to buy caterpillars! Read on and learn how you can cecome the coolest parent on the block by raising your own caterpillars safely, easily, and cheaply!

What you’ll need:

• Wire mesh trashcan
• Piece of window screen that will cover the top of the trashcan with enough extra material to secure it
• Large rubber band or bungee cords to secure screen over can
• Glass or plastic 20oz bottle
• Water
• Empty butter container filled with soil
• A stick long enough to place in bottle so that 6-8 inches stick out the top

What you’ll do (and why):

• Find a caterpillar! Around your house, on a hiking trail, anywhere! It’s okay if you don’t know what kind of caterpillar it is. Caterpillars are almost always found on their host plant. This is the plant that they eat, because eating is just about all caterpillars do! Caterpillars are picky eaters, many times only eating one kind of plant. Many people fail at raising caterpillars because they try to feed them something other than their host plant. A caterpillar will die before trying a new food. I told you, they’re picky! You don’t have to know what the plant is that you find the caterpillar on, but you MUST know where to find more. You might want to flag the plant or tree to make it easy to find again.
• Clip the portion of the host plant with the caterpillar on it. Fill the bottle with water and put the end of the plant (the end without the caterpillar) down into the bottle. The bottle has a small enough mouth that the caterpillar should not fall in (they aren’t good swimmers).
  Place the bottle at the bottom of the mesh trash can. You now have a perfect caterpillar home. You just need to do a few more things if you want to see this guy (or girl) turn into a moth or butterfly.
• Place the stick in the bottle. Some caterpillars will want to make their chrysalis (moths make a cocoon, butterflies form a chrysalis) hanging off of a hard surface like a stick.
• Place the butter container filled with soil right next to the bottle on the bottom of the trash can. Some moth caterpillars like to pupate (turn into an adult) in soil, so it’s a good idea to have some there if you don’t know what kind of caterpillar you’ve found.
• Cover the trashcan with the window screen and secure it taught with a rubber band or bungee cord. There are several reasons for this. Caterpillars usually stay on their host plant until they are ready to pupate. If you want to watch them pupate, you better cover the top. Also, some caterpillars like to form their chrysalis hanging from the top. This is why a mesh trashcan is suggested. Other materials are often too slick for caterpillars to climb up. Finally, this will protect your caterpillars from predators.

Your butterfly emergence chamber is now complete!

A few more VERY IMPORTANT notes:

• Check the host plant food supply every day. Caterpillars eat a lot and have to keep eating if they are going to pupate. Always keep a fresh supply of food available.
• You should keep your butterfly cage in a sheltered area OUTSIDE. Temperature and day length help determine time of emergence for some moths and butterflies, so they must be exposed to these elements while pupating.
• What are all of those pellets at the bottom of your trashcan??? Caterpillars actually do one other thing besides eat! Their waste is called frass, and it must be dumped out of the can every few days.
• Check your cage every day when waiting for a butterfly to emerge. They will need to eat soon. When they emerge, they will need a few hours for their wings to dry. Many will hang from the top of the cage until they are ready to fly. Once they are ready to go, simply take the screen off the top and set your butterfly free!
• You and your kids will surely love this activity so much that you’ll want to do it over and over…great! Some caterpillars overwinter in their cocoon or chrysalis, so if you are collecting in the fall and a moth or butterfly does not emerge from pupation in a few weeks, it’s probably overwintering. If this is the case, be sure to use a plastic bottle to avoid water in glass bottles freezing and causing them to break (just learned this tidbit from personal experience last winter).
• If you have a cocoon in the soil, be sure to spritz it with water every week or so to keep it from drying out.

Benefits to the above method of caterpillar rearing:

• It’s cheap! You should spend no more than $10 on supplies.
• It’s easy!
• You reuse household items.
• You learn about the critters in your own environment.
• You are releasing butterflies and moths that are naturally found in your environment.
• You can raise lots of different kinds of caterpillars which is great for learning!

Helpful Caterpillar and Butterfly Resources:

Peterson First Guide to Caterpillars by Amy Bartlett Wright

Butterflies and Moths – A Golden Guide by Robert T. Mitchell and Herbert S. Zim

Looking for a fun and fun and easy craft for young children? You’ll love these hand print flowers (and so will they!).

What you will need:

• At least 2 different colors of construction paper
• Green construction paper
• Popsicle sticks
• Glue
• Crayons
• Scissors

Directions:

1. Have child draw with crayons on both sides of construction paper.
2. Depending on your child’s scissor skill level have child cut out leaves or you can cut out leaves from green construction paper.
3. Trace child’s hand on construction paper.
4. Cut out hand print. Use this hand print as a template to cut out other hand prints.
5. Have or help child glue hands to popsicle sticks. Tell younger children that the popsicle stick is the stem and ask them to stick on the flower (hand print). Repeat this process with the leaves. You can leave the hand print open or wrap it around the popsicle stick.

Note: These flowers look fantastic taped in the window.

ALWAYS REMEMBER CREATING ART IS MORE IMPORTANT TO A CHILD THAN THE FINAL PROJECT

Check out our Craft-Of-The-Month-Club so you always have a cool project with all the supplies included on hand at FunWellDone.com

Clever Parents Life: Looking for some fun ways to talk to your kids about the importance of taking care of our planet? Why not make some dirt?

Two Clever Parents testers have fun making edible dirt. Plus, activities you can do with your family on Earth Day and beyond, an EarthBall toy and more. Watch the vidcast on Clever Parents TV.

Earth Day is celebrated on April 22nd. As we strive to make the earth a better place to live, there are many things you can do in your own home to make a difference and to teach your children about taking care of the world in which we live. Read on for fun activities, crafts, a yummy snack idea, a great EarthBall toy, a song and more!

Earth Day Activities (and beyond):
1. Plant a tree. Visit a local nursery and pick up seedlings (they’re often free) or a small sapling. You and your children can enjoy watching your tree grow from year to year. Measure it every year on Earth Day and talk about the difference you’re making in your world – one step at a time.
2. Teach your child about recycling. Involve your children in recycling your trash. Have them help separate the trash and talk about what types of items can be recycled and why it’s important. (Use recyclable bags at the grocery store, too!)
3. Pick up trash. Make a game of picking up trash on the playground, in the park or in a place that you frequent with your family. How much can you find?
4. Conserve water. Limit time in the shower, wash hands for a designated period of time (like the time it takes to sing Happy Birthday), wash your car less frequently, turn the faucets all the way off (don’t be a drip!), run dishwasher and washing machine only when they are full.
5. Save energy. Switch your inefficient incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs. You’ll save money on electricity bills, use less energy, reduce your carbon footprint and help stop global warming!

Earth Day Crafts & Fun Snack Idea:
1. Make leaf prints. Go on a scavenger hunt for a variety of leaves. Paint the leaves and then press them on paper. Talk about what you see.
2. Make a bird feeder. Cover an empty toilet paper (recyclable) with peanut butter and roll in birdseed. Hang with yarn.
3. Make Dirt! Have fun with your child making dirt and talking about the earth. Put some chocolate pudding in a cup, add crushed Oreos for gravel and rocks, and top with a gummy worm. (Watch for Vidcast #22 where two “experts” experiment with making dirt, then sing a song about the Earth.)

EarthBall:
Your kids will have the whole world in their hands with 16″ inflatable EarthBalls. EarthBalls are not only fun to toss around, they display NiteCities, allowing you to observe the world’s cities glowing brightly at night. Every EarthBall also comes with the 20-page Global Handbook that includes games, activities & resources for Earth adventurers of all ages. Visit ODTMaps for more.

Earth Day Song (borrowed from Henry’s preschool teacher – thank you Ms. Dorothy):
To the tune of ‘If you’re happy and you know it’
If you see a piece of litter pick it up
If you see a piece of litter pick it up
If we all pick up the litter
We will make the world much better
If you see a piece of litter pick it up.

Printables:
Visit Planet Pals for recycle kits kids can print, cut out and hang, plus a number of additional resources to help teach your children about the planet on which we live. www.planetpals.com

I have to be one of the uncraftiest Moms I know. Art was definitely not my forte in school, something made only slightly worse by the fact that my grandmother was a talented artist, as is my mother when she actually draws or paints something. So you’d think given the DNA thing, I’d be able to draw a picture of Dora that my child would recognize. Alas, it’s not so, this Mommy got the recessive artistically-challenged trait. And sometimes I see all these other mothers going to A.C. Moore or Michaels and coming up with all sorts of fun rainy day projects and I’m just at a loss.

So when I recently heard from FunWellDone.com, a great little site and service that makes creating projects with your child incredibly easy, I was interested to check them out. They’ve done all the craft store shopping and organization for you. In short, we loved it.

We did this Sticky Foam Collage, which is meant for kids in the age range of 1.5 years to 4. Everything came ready for us – a sticky foam page, ribbons and pom-poms for us to put on the page. We did it one rainy afternoon and it was a big hit here. I literally did not get out a thing – didn’t even have to get a pair of scissors out. A page of instructions is included for those of you who are challenged like me.

They have all sorts of fun projects – and the price is great. $9.99 for most of them, which is much less than you’d spend buying all the supplies at a craft store. And they’re cute! Check out the Bumblebee and the other projects.

In addition, FunWellDone.com sells party favors – one small project, again, no materials needed. We sampled the Funky Penguin and the Fabulous Flower (which makes 3 flowers). We did have a hard time getting the Penguin to stay together (a little too excited with that one) but the flowers were a huge hit – and super easy to put together. I love the idea of these for a party favor – who needs one more party favor from the usual places? And it encourages creativity in your child.

Use coupon code MWS for 15% off your order of anything on the site.

Editor’s Note: Clever Parents loves Fun Well Done. Look for a vidcast coming soon featuring these truly well done craft projects.

It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man (i.e., hubby) is snoring. Not you and your little one, though. Nope, you’re up and racking your brain for fun things to do despite the weather. You can pop in a DVD or watch some TV, but, seriously, how many times can you watch Cars or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse?

Here are some of my favorite rainy day things to do with my toddler. I’ve left the fifth one open for new ideas from you.

1. Snuggle up in bed under the covers and read some good books like A Fish Out of Water and Where the Wild Things Are.

2. Crank up the radio, dance and play along with kid-sized musical instruments. Picture a toddler jamming to Beyonce’s ‘Irreplaceable’ and singing “Turn left, turn left.” Too funny.

3. Set up an art table full of craft paper, crayons and paint and let our creative juices flow. Afterwards, cut them down to card-size and send them off to family and friends.

4. And after all that, go outside and play. It’s just water, and when else will we be able to use all our fun rain gear in Southern California? Max especially loves pretending to be a fireman with his Western Chief Rainboots and matching coat and hat

5. What do you do on rainy days? Post it in the comments section below and feel free to comment on the activities I’ve chosen here, too.

When you are out with your kids, chances are wild animals aren’t appearing for observation all too often. Besides the fact that us humans tend to be noisy, we’re also usually rushing from one thing to the next, often paying very little attention to the world around us. While I can’t promise you spontaneous wildlife appearances, I will say that if you’re willing to slow down and look around, you will likely from signs of animals all around you.

Tracks
While you might not see the animals themselve, they often leave their tracks behind. Snow-covered and muddy conditions are especially good for this. Tracks can help you and your kids identify what kind of critter has been around. Whether or not you can determine the track-maker, however, the tracks can tell you a lot about that animal. How was it moving? Were the tracks close together or far apart? The farther apart they are, the faster the animal was probably going. Here are a few fun facts that you can use to impress your kids while your out searching for animal tracks:

• People often follow the tracks of bounding animals, like squirrels or rabbits, the wrong way. If you have not looked closely at rabbit or squirrel tracks before, you will see a pair of small prints, the front feet, and a pair of larger prints, the back feet, clustered together. When an animal like this is bounding, its back feet actually swing ahead of its front feet.



• Many of the animal tracks you find near your house could be domestic animals, like dogs and cats. These are still great to inspect! In fact, they can give you plenty of practice for identifying wild animal tracks. If the ground is soft enough, you should be able to tell dog and cat tracks apart. Cats have retractable claws that are not exposed when walking or running. Dogs, on the other hand, cannot retract their claws, so they are visible as a dot or point in front of each toe pad print. This holds true for all dogs and cats, wild or domestic. (You know there is always an exception, though. There is a species in the cat family that cannot retract its claws. Hmmm…why would extended claws be helpful to one particular cat?)
• Deer often leave what is called a “direct register,” where their hind foot falls directly on top of the print left by their front foot. Other times they will leave a “double register,” when one print seems to almost shadow the second.
• Have you ever seen tracks that have a line running in between the left and right prints? You might see this with river otter or turtle tracks. Give up? It’s their tail dragging behind them!
• Birds often leave their tracks behind, especially on the beach. The shape of a bird’s footprint can often tell you about how the brid moves around. Most perching birds have 3 toes forward and 1 back. Birds that spend a lot of time swimming have webbed feet. Some woodpeckers, that have to grip tree trunks, have 2 toes forward and 2 toes back.

Scat
Excuse me? Scat…it’s a fancy word for animal poop. For some reason, all kids love to learn other names for poop. I know, it sounds gross, but scat is something that animals leave behind, and it can tell us what’s been in the neighborhood. No, you don’t have to touch it, but take a close look. Is there fur in it? Then it came from a carnivore or omnivore. Is it a small round ball that looks kind of like a cocoa puff? You have rabbits! You’ll get used to the idea soon.

Food Evidence
If you found any scat, you know that these animals must be doing something else…eating! Often times you can find what animals leave behind after they have found their food. Have you ever found pine cones with the outsides all chewed off? Squirrells tear cones apart to get to the seeds inside. Have you found empty nut shells? Look closely and you might be able to see tiny bite marks. Both rabbits and deer will browse, or eat the ends off of, twigs. You can actually tell the difference between trigs that jave been browsed by deer versus by rabbits. Rabbits have sharp upper and lower incisors (the front teeth that you would use to bit into an apple). They clip twigs at a clean, 45 degree angle. Deer do not have upper incisors, so when they browse, they end up mashing and tearing the end of the twig.

Nests
Winter is a great time to look for nests in deciduous trees, because they are easy to see with all of the leaves missing. I am always surprised to find how many bird nests there are in the trees around my house that had been hidden in the spring and summer. You can also see squirrel nests, which will look like big leafy masses 12 to 19 inches across.

Projects
Sometimes, especially when the weather has been dry and the ground is hard, it can be difficult to find animal tracks. You can set up a track box to help you. It’s simple…just put out some sand and smooth it flat with a wooden board. You can put something tasty in the middle of it if you want. Check it every few days to see if you’ve lured in any track-makers. Once you find a track, you can use Plaster of Paris (available at most hardware stores) to make a cast and preserve it forever!

Above are just some examples of the evidence of animal activity you will find around you if you take a little time and pay close attention. You might be surprised by what you find!