I wanted to squeeze in this post in 2007, so I could avoid a really creepy start to 2008.

Here’s a link to a shot that creeped me out when I had a first look at it, getting progressively more disturbing as I continued to look. I know I am not the only one with that reaction. Check it out at #2 on Top 10 Worst Realtor Shots.

It’s an ad for a realtor. Once I got past the over processed hair, the slash of red that passes for her mouth and the womanly pose, what got to me was the stiff and forced smile. I wonder if she’s the agent’s daughter. In any case, I can’t imagine what the parents were thinking.

I’ll say it again. Creepy.

Let your child create his own personalized New Year’s cards this year.

You’ll Need:

Thick card stock sheet

Different colors of paint

Pencils with erasers at one end

Small sized containers to hold the paints

Prints of your favorite picture of your child

What You Can Do:

Cut the card stock into separate pieces depending on the size you want the card to be. Fold each piece into two.

Then, use a paper cutter to cut out a 3 ½ “ x 3 ½ “ square at the top of the card. You might want to change the size of the cut out depending on the size of your picture.

What Your Child Can Do:

Dip the eraser end of the pencil into the paint, and press against the card to create a little polka dot.

Continue doing this one color at a time, until the front and back of the card are covered in little colorful dots.

Remember to leave the top half of the card front untouched.

Open the card and stick the picture using cello tape, so the picture is visible from the outside.

If your child is able to write alphabets, make her write a message to the person receiving the card.

Remember to help your child mark these gifts with his name as the sender. These are his own personalized greeting cards, and will make him feel all grown up!

Teaching preschoolers to be creative can sound like a bit of a paradox. After all, isn’t creativity supposed to spring from some bottomless fountain only the luckiest among us possess?

Not entirely true. Kids have an uncolored, pure view of the world that will most likely sully as they get older. That’s why there’s such innocence and charm in a child’s play, and that’s why kids say the darndest things that end up making the most sense.

The most commonly used way to encourage creativity in preschoolers is to allow them to experiment with arts and crafts and activities. I’ll go into these in depth in other posts, but for now I want to concentrate on the easiest way to encourage creativity and social skills in your child. Arts and crafts are excellent options, but they can be a little time consuming. And some days, your child is not going to be ready for yet another vegetable painting masterpiece.

However, there’s another way you can teach your child to use his imagination without the use of paints and crayons – role playing. It’s simple, doesn’t cost a cent and best of all, it does double duty by combining creative ability enhancement with bonding.

Role paying doesn’t have to be all pirates and daggers and adventure stories. Simple every day activities like going to the grocery store or the bank, or a trip to the beach can be used as themes for role play. It’s something kids enjoy because they love activities that help them pretend to be adults.

I love role play as an imaginative activity because kids are free to assume the roles they want to. Participate freely in the role play, and follow your child’s lead.

If you’re doing an “entertaining” theme, where your child is the host and you’re the guest, follow all social protocol, the way you do yourself as an adult. But, allow them to talk and react the way they want to in the imaginary situation. This particular theme has a triple edged benefit - your child learns to be creative in his responses, his social skills are enhanced, and it creates an incredible opportunity for the two of you to enjoy your time together.

To make things easier, and to help make role play a regular part of your routine, create prop boxes for some much loved themes that your preschooler and you have. Say you love playing shop, set aside a large cardboard box or get one of those big plastic containers, and throw things in there that you could use for your role play – toy fruit and vegetables, toy currency. When you’re actually playing, grab some stuff from around the house, and lay it out neatly just like in the shop.

Separate boxes by theme and label them on the outside. For a beach theme, your prop box would contain a beach ball, sunglasses, a large plastic table cloth that you could scatter with shells and a pair of beach towels for the two of you.

Once you’re done with your little game, just stuff everything back in the box and put it away for another time.

If you’ve dreaded the moment your little tyke begins to ask uncomfortable questions (no, not about that, about Santa), relax. A new study reported in Live Science says kids are quite capable of dealing with the shattering of their Santa fantasy.

At some point in time, your little preschooler will grow up, and begin asking questions about Santa. How exactly does he manage to circle the world in one night, delivering goodies to good boys and girls everywhere? How does a reindeer manage to fly…and non stop? All right, so what exactly is the deal here?

As a parent, you might think it’s best to not build up the Santa story too much, so as to prepare your child for not so big a disappointment when he figures out that no one is shimmying down the chimney on Christmas eve. Now, experts say there’s no harm in letting kids believe in a Santa. After all, a lot of kiddie play centers on imagination. Make believe friends, role playing - these are all ways through which preschoolers hone their creative skills. The Santa fantasy is just an extension of this, and nothing that you should be getting paranoid about.

And in any case, kids are more resilient to hurt and disappointment than we think they are. In other words, the chances that your child will be permanently scarred, and hold a grudge against you for the rest of his life for deceiving him are minuscule at best.

But, a word of caution for parents who are really worried about deceiving the kids: don’t elaborate on the fantasy and feed it. If your child takes the lead in embellishing his Santa fantasy, join in. There’s absolutely no harm. But, skip on the empty glasses of milk on the mantel.

So, what do you do when the inevitable questions begin tumbling out?

Chances are if he’s asking questions he’s already figured most of it out himself. After all, he sees a Santa at every mall he visits, and he’s probably sat on the lap of more than one Santa listing out all the ways he’s been a good boy lately. He’s already beginning to clue himself in to the truth of the matter. So his very first experience with innocence lost may not be as traumatic as you think.

When can you expect the fantasy to end? Studies show that it’s around the age of 7.

So, how are you planning on dealing with the inevitable questions? Is it something that worries you at all?

Here’s wishing you all a Merry Merry Christmas!

Here are links to some great recipes to add flavor to your Christmas celebrations!

Prime ribs never go out of culinary style. Here’s a great prime rib recipe that’s easy to make.

Green, red and white (and also yellow and cream), this Fruit Salad recipe comes with an added bonus - it echoes the colors of the season.

You can’t go wrong with chocolate and cookies, especially when they come with a bright red cherry heart.

Enjoy!

I had an interesting conversation with my nephew the other day. Interesting as in “from the mouths of babes” kind of interesting.

He attends a preschool close to his house, and his mother informed me she was planning on taking him out of the school, at the end of the current year. I was surprised because it’s a reputed kindergarten, and when I asked her why, she told me that the school was fine overall, but they had way too many holidays. They had the usual national holidays and other days off for major festivals, and plus a whole slew of other frequent holidays that had her son at home more often than at school.

That might be an exaggeration, but I can imagine how frustrating it must be to enroll your kid in an expensive kindergarten and not feel like you’re getting your money’s worth to put it crudely. I mean, kids do have a tendency to lose interest in things when they keep getting interrupted in their schedule, and if you’re constantly giving them days off every time the teacher catches a cold, you’re putting them at risk of losing interest in all the things their young minds are picking up on at school.

So back to the conversation with my 4 year old nephew, and it went like this:

Me: So, I hear you’ll be leaving for a new school soon! Isn’t that exciting!

Nephew: Yeah.

Me: (In an attempt to mollify him) You’ll love it in your new school. Your Mommy thinks you’ll have more fun there. And you have too many holidays at your school right now.

Nephew: But that’s the best part about my school!

From the mouths of babes.

Because I did.

I loved the idea of sending my son to a karate class. I could barely wait till he reached the age of 5, before I went rushing and enrolled him in a karate program after school hours.

He hated it. And I admit I was surprised.

I assumed because he’s such an active kid that he would love the physicality of it all. As it turned out, I was wrong.

He suffered through it for a few months, all the while imploring me to take him off the program. I stubbornly stuck to my guns, insisting that he would “grow to enjoy it.”

The moment of truth came when I went to watch him at the class a few weeks into the program. He was going through the motions with a bored expression on his face, and then it struck me – he hated the discipline and rigidity of it all! A little boy full of energy and enthusiasm, he could hardly contain his frustration and boredom at being shackled to straight lines and incessant bowing – after school hours.

My son was 6 when I took him off the program, but I know many Moms struggle with figuring out the right time to place their kids in a coaching class for tennis or martial arts, or other demanding sport.

Experts will tell you that forcing a child into sports against his will before he’s turned 6 might cause him to feel pressurized and lose interest.

I think it’s far simpler – if he doesn’t enjoy what he’s doing, it’s not worth it.

I must admit I struggle with this. Giving into my son’s demands to watch “just one more show” is a habit and although we do try to control his TV viewing schedule, it still involves too much screen gazing for comfort. Besides the fact that it’s a huge strain on his eyes (and he comes from a family of near sighted people), there’s the obvious impact on his mind.

There’s lots to watch that’s educative, but an equal amount that’s - lets’ face it - trash.

Yesterday, I came across an article in a magazine that had a reasonably doable plan to cut your child’s TV viewing. Here’s how it goes:

• Sit down with your child and a TV Guide, and make a list of all his favorite programs.
• Now, bring these down to just a few shows a week. The number of shows is your personal choice, and obviously depends on his age. Remember, you’re counting each episode as one show. So if he watches an episode each of two shows today, that makes it two shows for today.
• Write all these shows down on a sheet of paper, and put it up on the bulletin board.
• Every time he watches a show, tick against the name of the show.
• Continue until he finishes his quota for the week.

At least, that’s the plan.

Prepare for fierce resistance. I haven’t tried it yet, at least not in such a regimented manner, but it’s definitely worth a shot. I like the fact that it teaches kids the value of self denial, and forces him to make a choice about what he can do, rather than consuming as much as he can.

Relax! This doesn’t mean you’ll be stuck over the New Years’ managing a bunch of unruly kids while the rest of the world is bringing in 2008 in style.

If you’re having a party at home, ask all your guests to bring their kids along.

• Designate a separate room in the house as the kids’ party area.

• Don’t be lazy about it – do it up with festive streamers and balloons. Get your children to help – they’ll love the chance to plan a party.

• Choose easy eats – finger foods, pizza, juice, and cupcakes for dessert. For a really easy cupcake dessert, just grab a batch of ready to eat cupcakes, and decorate each with frosted chocolate icing. Garnish with little marzipan animals.

• Make sure they ring in the New Years’ too. Give the oldest of the kids a small timer, or a watch to keep count of the last seconds.

• Have little gifts for each child.

This is a great way to encourage kids, especially shy ones to socialize with their peers.