Family Archives - Page 5 of 26

Volunteering With Kids

Doing service projects with your children is a great way to teach them the joy of helping others. It instills good values like altruism, compassion, selflessness, hard work, and generosity. Sometimes, it can also help them appreciate how fortunate they are to have the privileges that they do. Plus, volunteering is fun! Megan at Millions of Miles has an awesome list of 30 service projects that are appropriate for kids, and also extremely helpful to the community. Here are a few of my favorites:

Have your kids pick out a couple of outgrown outfits and then take them to their school’s resource center. Often, they use extra outfits when kids have an emergency or can send home with kids in crisis.

Make some homemade dog treats or rawhides for your local animal shelter.

Donate outgrown and unworn clothes to charity.

Dress up your kids in their Christmas or Sunday finery and go share some hugs at a nursing home. So many nursing home residents never get visitors and some kids walking around really changes the energy.

Adopt a Salvation Army angel or pick up a food angel at your local grocery store to provide a Christmas meal to a family in need. Shop together as a family.

Play games with a purpose! Send your kids to www.freerice.com and let them play for a while. They learn by playing trivia games and correct answers send rice to feed hungry people around the world.

Photo Credit: Amelia Wells

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Raising Confident Kids

by Kathy T.

In today’s world, being a confident adult is a challenging task. You’re constantly bombarded with messages to have a bigger house, a nicer car, a perfect family, a high powered career, and ravishing good looks. All of these standards are impossible to achieve– but that doesn’t mean that being confident is impossible! Being confident means that you are happy with who you are, no matter what your current situation. It’s about being true to yourself, bouncing back from mistakes, and being brave enough to make decisions and stand by them. One path to having more confident adults is by raising confident children. Some kids are naturally shy and not easily self-assured. Linz at Cuegly has some awesome tips on raising confident kids:

I am ME! And that’s who I want to be: Asking your child what they LOVE about themselves and what others love about them can help them realize their talents and what makes them so special.

Never say never! (or- I can’t). Nothing breaks your heart more when your child says “I CAN’T” and then hangs their head. That phrase isn’t aloud in my home. We say: “I need to try again!”

Put your SILLY on. Encourage your child to be silly. That means that you need to let your child be silly and also participate and laugh along! But encouraging them also means that if you have a child like mine who is already too embarrassed to be silly, even in front of family, you need to be silly FIRST.

Art and Create. Being creative is probably the best way to express your self, be different and a GREAT opportunity for you to praise their expressions. Display it, love it, and do it again.

These are only a tiny fraction of Linz’s awesome tips. Read the entire post to see all 40.

Photo Credit: Kelley Neff

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I’m Bored!

by Kathy T.

SUMMER! It’s that time of year again where the first week out of school is just peachy. Happy kids sleeping late. Morning television / video game / wii and then outside to play. Then you hear it, “Moooooooom. I’m bored!”

BAM! Have we got a solution for you, thanks to Stephanie at Somewhat Simple,

My friend told me that every time her son said he was bored, she would give him a baby wipe and pick a room of the house and have him dust all the baseboards in that room! It didn’t take him too long to find something else to do and stop telling his mom he was bored! I decided I needed to come up with something of my own to keep my kids busy, and that is when I created this “Mom I’m Bored” Jar.

I would add things like vacuum, dust, clean the bathroom, and fold the towels. However, Stephanie is much nicer with her ideas like, “Make cookies with Mom.” Awww. Sweet!

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Spring Fun for Kids for Cheap

by Kathy T.

Go outside and play!

That’s what I really want to say to my my kids when they got bored at home. We did have a swing set for them, bicycles, and lots of attentive neighbors where we all kept our eyes open for the kids.

Spring time is the best time to send the kids outside to play. Some of the best ideas for outside activities comes from Momma’s Fun World and include:

Boat races down a creek.

Fly a kite.

Lay back and watch the clouds take on different shapes and pictures.

Feed the ducks.

Camp in your backyard.

The list is endless, but it’s also FREE! Go visit Catherine’s page and read her great ideas!

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Road Trip!

by Kathy T. Leave a Comment

Growing up, we would go on a major road trip every year with our big family of eight (six kids and parents). Besides our clothes, we packed about 20 comic books, a picnic lunch, and other books and word searches. Our picnic lunch included fried chicken and boiled eggs, though sometimes we’d stop at grocery stores and buy bread and lunchmeat. Of course for a family of eight, this was about what we could afford! I have great memories of those trips.

You can create memories for your own family with a little bit of planning on what to pack in the car – packing that would keep children entertained and not create too big of a mess. From Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker, here are just a few ideas of what to pack before a long road trip.

1. Food – preferably not messy, sticky, crumbly stuff. Great if put into big zipper bags for each child to have their own.
2. Drinks – water is our drink of choice (it doesn’t stain and it isn’t sticky), but too much will lead to more bathroom stops.
3. Diapers, wipes and a waterproof changing pad – you never know where you are going to have to change a little one…the pad keeps that surface safe.
4. A Small Plastic Garbage Can – we learned the hard way that you may encounter unexpected car sickness or stomach flu. Have a place for a throwing up child (or children)!
5. Jackets – Even if it’s a hot day, it will get cooler and they can use it as a pillow or blanket
6. Movies – before we bought our Suburban with the built in DVD player, we brought a laptop to play movies. The battery in a laptop is usually good for at least 2 hours of peace. It is worth it!!!

It looks like comic books may have been replaced by DVD players! Still, plan ahead for an enjoyable trip!

Photo by Rob Boudon.

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Friday Fun Video: Bohemian Rhapsody, Family Style

by Kathy T. Leave a Comment

The best we could do in the car singing with the kids were Jingle Bells at Christmas. This is epic.

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Travel Memorabilia that Isn’t Horrible

by Kathy T. Leave a Comment

Whenever I traveled with my children, we always had to get a souvenir for them. T-shirts were always a favorite. In fact, I remember picking up a Harvard shirt for my oldest (when she was but two-years old) when I visited Boston. So how do you pick out travel gifts that aren’t horrible – or as Matt Villano of Parenting.com shows us – “How To Buy Cool Souvenirs that Don’t Suck.” Among his suggestions,

Seek longevity
Most souvenirs are disposable; cheap stuff made overseas that is designed to be used a few times and then tossed aside. With this in mind, it’s usually best to hunt for trinkets with potential for a long shelf-life. Tops on this list: Books you can read over and over again (and then keep to read over and over to your younger kids when they’re ready). A runner-up: Stuffed animals, especially ones quirky enough to become characters in stories your kids make up.

Our other old standby is Christmas ornaments for our tree. As we put them up, we get to relive our favorite trips and laugh at some of the memories.

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Play Date with Mommy

by Kathy T. Leave a Comment

Now that my daughters are nearly grown, I freely admit that I miss taking them to girl scout camp or just picking them up from school so we can talk about anything we want to talk about. I unashamedly took advantage of spending time with my girls and hope anyone with little ones does the same thing.

If you’re looking for a fun play date with your daughter (or son!), here are some great ideas from Because My Life is Fascinating,

14.) Girls Night Out. Get gussied up and go out for a fancy dinner. Just make sure the restaurant is semi-kid friendly

15.) Take her to a children’s museum. You’ll feel like you’re doing something to make her smarter in the end. This is always a good feeling to end with.

16.) Go to the farmer’s market. Eat fruit, listen to local bands play, and buy really expensive balloons.

I love that I’ve done all of these with my girls!

Photo from Girl Scout Camp.

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Playing and Fun Tricks Are Great for Bonding

by Kathy T. Leave a Comment

I was so mean to my daughter last night. We have an ice storm coming near us in the next 24 hours and we saw on TV that a couple of school systems were already closing. So when she turned her head, I squealed, “Our county is closed!” I didn’t make her believe it too long (perhaps three seconds) before I started laughing and said, “JK!”

I love fun tricks like that with kids. I figure if nothing else it will help their own personalities be interesting as they reach adulthood!

This is why I nearly fell over laughing when I read my brother’s post about what he does to his daughter – tricking her into telling her about a house that used to be a train depot. Here’s an excerpt,

About once per month when we drive by this old train station, I trick Beth into letting me tell her that this house used to be a train station. Usually I say something like, “Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you something important.” She’ll usually (but not always) take the bait, saying “What?” That’s when I spring it on her. “This house used to be a train station!” It elicits deep groans every time. When I got back from my hike today she asked me if I’d play Uno with her, and I took the opportunity to do this again. I had my laptop on my lap after just having downloaded the day’s photo haul. The photo above was on the screen. I said, “OK, but first I need to show you something on the computer.” She came and sat down beside me and I sprung the dreadful phrase once again. “This house used to be a train station.” “DADDY!” Ha ha.

It sounds like we all inherited that same ornery streak!

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What They’ll Remember

by Kathy T. Leave a Comment

Remembering my own childhood, I know that our house was filled with laughter and love, imagination and daring, and exuberance and running. We were loved. I know that.

Want to make sure your child will always have good things to remember? The 36th Avenue offers a list of 10 Things Children Will Always Remember,

Hug Them

The thing is that no matter how small or big we are sometimes we all need a hug.

Every child is different, some of them will welcome a big hug,

some of them have more than enough with a little one.

The important part is not to miss the times when affection is needed.

Now that one of my kiddos is approaching the teen years I offer hugs in a different way.

Instead of saying Do you need a hug?, I say I need a hug.

Hugs are a symbol not just of love but of reassurance, happiness and protection.

Let’s give our children the gift to grow up saying…

My parents always knew when I needed a hug.

Hugs, laughter, togetherness. It’s all here!

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