Reasons to Rake Leaves with Your Kids

Sometimes it’s hard to get your children to help out with yard work. If you can show them how fun it is, the chances of them participating increase tenfold. Raking leaves is the perfect cleanup activity for a wide variety of age groups. The folks over at Mommy Lounge have put together 13 reasons why kids should rake leaves. Here’s our favorite:

The special treat you get afterwards: After an hour or two its always nice to reward yourself for a job well done. Some hot chocolate, tea, coffee (not for the kids) and some delicious cookies would work perfectly.

Got Bored Kids?

There is nothing more frustrating than having a bored kid hovering around you asking, “what can I do?” It’s important to teach children that boredom is a natural part of life and that they need to learn how to entertain themselves. If they’ve run out of ideas, resist plopping them down in front of the television to keep them occupied. Instead, sit down with your children and write out as many enjoyable activities that you can on index cards. Place the cards in a large fishbowl and have the children pull one out when they’re bored. If they aren’t in the mood to do that particular activity, give them one more chance to pick out a different card. If they’re still uninspired? Give them a chore to do. Have a different fishbowl with chores written on index cards. Chances are your kid will change his or her mind and go for the activity instead. Search the web for kid-friendly sites that list numerous children’s activities for ideas to write on your index cards. If you do need a break from your nagging children, allow a small amount of TV doled out in 30 minute increments. Don’t allow more than two hours of viewing per day.

Family Traditions

When it comes to family time, what do you remember most?  What you got in your Easter basket/Christmas gifts/birthday presents?  Or do you remember trekking to the pumpkin patch each year?  Or other family traditions from being a kid? 

In today’s world of internet shopping, instant communication, and satellite tiv, it’s easy to forget, but things and toys are rarely what stick in kids’ minds- what they remember is what we  do with them, and how we spend our free time.  Make family traditions- they can be as simple as a certain kind of dessert at Easter, or as elaborate as a special summer vacation spot, or even making caramel apples in the fall. 

Our family has tried to implement a handful of activities we do regularly- Daddy cooks pancakes every Sunday morning.  Every Christmas we try to find a tree farm to cut a fresh tree.  (We’ve lived in 3 states- In New Mexico, you can buy a $10 permit to cut your own from the National Forest.)  We have a special bedtime routine.  And Mom and the boys make chocolate chip cookies regularly. 

And every Friday night is PIZZA NIGHT.  No takeout or delivery involved.  We get a kid movie from netflix, and dad makes pizza to order for each person.  It’s the one night the boys are allowed to eat in the living room.  [as an aside, this post sounds like mom doesn't cook, which isn't true... not sure why dad's cooking seems more special... I do mix the pizza dough when I arrive home from work, and it rises until dad is ready to cook.]  Pizza night is special, and our kids look forward to it all week.  By about Thursday, when they are exhausted, the words, ‘one more night til pizza night’ is enough to get them going.  In a few years, they’ll be too big and busy for family pizza night,  but while they’re little, we are soaking it up.

Our routines are not perfect for anyone else- each family has to create their own traditions and special activities for themselves.  They can be simple or involved.  The important thing is that you make it special and fun for your family!  Just think, in 25 years or so, your kids may be telling their own kids, ‘when I was little, we would always…….’

Spring Break Travel

Thinking of taking a little vacation this spring? Does the thought of traveling with your kids have you thinking twice? Activitiesforkids.com has come up with a list of different activities (and some fun items to pack) that you can do to make those long hours in the car more tollerable. Here’s their list of Helpful items to pack for a road trip:

Frisbee - great for some quick exercise when making a stop
plastic boxes - one for each child, to hold their supplies - the lid makes a great desk or place to hold food.
clean water - several bottles of water work best for drinking, a quick wash up, cleaning a scrape and so on.
lightweight blanket - small child’s blanket for cuddling with at nap time.
paper towels - for quick clean ups.
snacks - saltines, goldfish crackers - any kind of lightly salted dry cracker. Hard candy, such as life savers or tick tacks.
compass - fun for the kids if they want to help navigate.
trash bags - for storing laundry, wet items or just for trash.

Rainy Day Blues?

Stuck inside during another rain shower? Can’t wait for summer? We may not be able to take care of the weather, but as mom’s we can always plan some fun nostalgic activities. Sometimes thinking back on the days when we were children can help come up with some fun inside games. Organizing Your Life the Easy Way has come up with some fun ideas using the game “Remeber When…” Play a few rounds and see what memories you can share with your children.

Remember When-

You used a blanket, threw it over a table or a clothesline in the basement, and made a tent. It was great, that blanket became a tent, a house, a large size dollhouse, a garage and countless other things. Wasn’t using your imagination fun?

Playing Games with Toddlers

Entertaining a toddler can be difficult, but thanks to these tips from Little Kids’ Games Online, you can be better prepared for what may happen. Use some of these tips to become actively involved in play with your child. Teaching them the fundamentals of imaginative play will help you out as well - you may be able to snag 5 minutes of free time while little Jonny pretends to race around his cars!

Enjoy your games together
One of the most important aspects of playing games with toddlers is making sure you have fun together. There’s no pressure to play things a certain way, no rules, no winners or losers. That time will soon come. But for very small children, a competitive element is too much to cope with.

Base your toddler games around their daily routine
Play regularly with your child. This doesn’t mean exhausting yourself all day - you’ll end up exhausting your child, too! But for two or three minutes, and several times a day, concentrate on making something extra special - by making it into a game.

Show your toddler how to play imaginatively
This means you sitting down on the floor with the blocks, running around in circles in the park - and you laughing and enjoying it. The result? Not only will your child learn how to have fun with you and the family - they’ll also be able to amuse themselves trying out the things you have shown them. Toddlers love to imitate - give them some ideas!

A variety of games and activities is useful
It’s great to have a variety of different games and activities that your toddler likes. This way, when they get bored doing one thing, you have another up your sleeve to distract them from their grumpy moments!

Activities to do with Toddlers

Toddlers have a habit of either being intensely interested in something or completely uninterrested. There is no in between. To top it all off, toddlers can be into one thing one day and the next day it’s old news. That’s why it’s important to have a wide range of age appropriate activites ready such as these from BlissfullyDomestic.com:

1. Playdough
2. Coloring
3. Lacing Shapes.
4. Milk Jug Play.
5. Cutting.
6. Sensory table.

Cut Cardboard with an Electric Knife

Kids love playing in boxes. But sometimes you want to take it to the next level - cut it up and build a castle or customize a cardboard car. Everything seems like a good idea until you find yourself hacking away at the box with an open pair of scizzors or steak knife. The answer to this dilemma? An Electric Carving Knife! It’s like cutting through butter. Thank you Parent Hacks!

5 Things to Do With a Cardboard Box

The folks over at HelpParent have put together a list of 5 classic things to do with a cardboard box. I challenge you to see if you can make the box survive through all 5 different iterations:

1) House. Cut a door and some windows. Make them flap open and closed instead of just cutting out the holes. Make little curtains out of scrap material or even just napkins. Paint a window box under the window and cut out paper flowers to glue on. Put the dress-up clothes inside the house. Add kitchen supplies. You can get kid’s kitchen-ware, or just pass on some plastic bowls and wooden spoons.

2) Make a grocery store. Instead of buying play food, start saving up used containers from your kitchen. Empty cereal boxes, yogurt containers, plastic jars like from peanut butter, the box the butter sticks came in, plastic baby food containers, etc. all add up pretty quickly to a great grocery store. Make play money.

3) Post office. Save all that junk mail, old magazines and newspapers, envelopes and scrap paper, and put it to good use!

4) Theater. Perhaps when you’re done with the other set-ups, you can cut down more of one wall to make a nice theater. Let your child dress up. Write plays together and act them out. Make hand or finger puppets from material scraps or paper bags. If you’re out of ideas for what to act out, play off of your child’s favorite shows. Act out an episode and make up new endings.

5) If you’re done with all the walls, cut the whole box down so that there’s just the bottom and foot high walls all around. This makes a great place to contain messier art projects, so let your child let loose! Put scissors, glue, paper, crayons, chalk, beads, cotton balls, string, glitter, etc. in the box, and let your child know that anything goes as long as it stays in the box.