Three days of computer problems, and I am finally getting back on track.

Make your kids’ birthdays even more memorable by adding birthday traditions to them. A tradition is something that you will repeat every year on her birthday, making for a lifetime of memories. Here are a few ideas:

1. Begin the day with a special breakfast for your birthday boy or girl, with all their favorite foods. Yes, ice-cream and pizza in the morning. Why not?
2. Write a letter to your child on each birthday. These will become wonderful keepsakes to give when she leaves home. Write down all the things that you’re so proud of. You’ll find the list grows as she gets older.
3. Save a copy of the newspaper on her birthday – this collection will make an interesting gift to give when she turns an adult knowing what was happening on her birthday each year. My Birthday in History.
4. Have guests at her party write their names or scribble them into a white tablecloth. Preserve it.
5. Make a donation to a children’s’ charity in her name. It can be as small as you can afford. Let her know about it, that some one less privileged somewhere will be a little better off on her birthday. We do this every year for my son – our way of showing how grateful we are for him.
6. Plant a sapling on each birthday.
7. Each year, take a picture of her at the party standing by the cake holding a balloon with her age on it.
8. After the party, make a special photo album to send to grandparents. Stick the pictures, let her decorate and write messages to them. On one page, make a hand print. They’ll love seeing how she’s growing.

Do you do anything extra special that you follow every year?

This weekend, sing the song “Skip to my Lou” with your preschooler, and substitute the words, with the the names of animals and the sounds they make.

For instance,

Dogs in the kennel go bow wow wow…

Cows in the farm go moo moo moo…

Pigs in the sty go oink oink oink…

Use only animals and sounds she’s familiar with.

Enjoy!

I found this Telegraph story through Esmon, and wanted to share. The writer confesses not many of his friends take his child care advice too seriously, but he does put across a few interesting points.

For one, he has what he calls the “Manifesto of the Idle Parent,” and it reads like this:

• We reject the idea that parenting requires hard work
• We pledge to leave our children alone
• That should mean that they leave us alone, too
• We reject the rampant consumerism that invades children from the moment they are born
• We read them poetry and fantastic stories without morals
• We drink alcohol without guilt
• We reject the inner Puritan
• We fill the house with music and laughter
• We don’t waste money on family days out and holidays
• We lie in bed for as long as possible
• We try not to interfere
• We push them into the garden and shut the door so that we can clean the house
• We both work as little as possible, particularly when the kids are small
• Time is more important than money
• Happy mess is better than miserable tidiness
• Down with school
• We fill the house with music and merriment

I disagree with the very first sentence of the manifesto. I’ve never met a parent who feels parenting is not hard work, and if you know anyone else who believes otherwise, please let me know.

Having said that, he’s very right on a few counts. We all agree over-regulating a child’s life is no good, like those etiquette classes for kids we talked about a few days back.

And he’s right about consumerism too.

And every house should be filled with music and merriment.

But I am not sure if I’d let my child run completely wild, either.

I think balance is important in everything. I think this is one of those cases where you take a few points from his manifesto, and apply them to your own life as you see fit.

What do you think? Could you be an idle parent?

Playing dress up and role play are the most important things you could encourage in your preschooler – probably even more important than teaching her the alphabet or numbers.  It helps those little minds blossom, and imagine a world full of possibilities. 

Finding costumes can be tricky though. Here are some ideas to create costumes for your kids:

• Check out thrift stores, and dollar stores for shiny paper garlands, flower necklaces and bracelets, feather boas, tiaras, hula skirts, boys’ suits, jackets, and retro clothing.  The gaudier the clothes, the more chances your child will actually like wearing these!
• Adjust older clothes she has to provide some dramatic flair.  Glue colored pom poms to a black beret, or to the edges of a scarf or muffler.
• Paste sequins, satin flowers, and rhinestones on hats, scarves and skirt hems.
• Recycle. Hand down your old handbags and purses to your daughter to use as accessories when she’s all dressed up for an evening out. If you have short dresses from your pre-baby days that you’ve given hope of ever fitting into, they can be used as elegant full length gowns for your daughter. Use pins to adjust.
• Use appliqués to decorate T-shirts
• If you need to play animal characters for a story time session, make your own animal smocks. Take a large paper bag, and cut open the side panels and remove them .Cut a large hole in the bottom of the bag, enough to slip over her head.  Use black marker to draw eyes, teeth and whiskers on the bag.  Slip your child’s head through the hole, so the bag is hanging like a smock on her, with the animal’s face in front.
• If you’re playing shop, cut out small pieces of sponge, and stick them on an empty shoe box.  Write down numerals on each sponge. Voila! You have a cash register!

 
Do your kids ever raid your closet?  It’s probably a girly thing, because I don’t see my boy interested  in hubby’s wardrobe…

Picture Courtesy Flickr - ChristyScherrer

Here are some spring activities to help you and your preschooler enjoy the weather together!

1. Take a nature walk. Look for things along the way – birds, insects, flowers. Collect things in a bag to get home, and add to her nature table.
2. Make rainbows on a chart paper, by painting the VIBGYOR colors in arcs. Leave a little space between each arc of color, and sprinkle some water on the paper after you’ve finished all the arcs. The water will cause each color to blend with the one next to it.
3. Make play dough flowers with yellow for the petals, and a red flat ball for the center. Make bigger leaves with green dough and stick them to the bottom of the flower.
4. Take some potting soil, and place in a tray that’s lined with plastic. Let your child use her fingers to trace the letters of her name in the soil. Put seeds into the grooves, and cover with more soil. Watch as her name “grows” up.
5. Draw a quick outline of a flower on a chart paper. Fill in the petals with glue, and let her fill with lentils, beans etc.
6. Draw a sun, and fill the inside with glue. Let her stick orange lentils in the glued space. Use tooth picks dipped in yellow food color or yellow yarn to make the rays of the sun.
7. Set up a bird table in the yard, and place it in a position that allows her to watch from the window. Use seeds, beans, tiny bits of meat, and observe how many birds come visiting.

So, what else have you been doing this spring?

So, Cindy at Go Workout Mom tagged me to write a six word memoir. Since there is a strong possibility this is my only chance at any length of memoir, here goes.

“Before the boy, bedlam. Now, harmony.”

Now that we’ve got that profound life story out of the way, I am expected to tag five other bloggers to share their memoirs, and I’ve selected the women behind these amazing blogs.

Nicole at Planning With Kids

Trish at Another Piece of the Puzzle

Elexis at The Stuff I Live For

Lis at Woolgatherings

Jen at Big Binder

According to the rules, each person will have to post her Six Word Memoir, and tag five other bloggers. Remember to link to the post that tagged you, and leave a note at the blogs you tag letting them know they’ve been tagged! (Forgive the sound of this last sentence, I am in a bit of a rush!)

I can’t wait to read the life stories of these girls…in six words!

Scouting the blogosphere for some of the best resources for preschool mamas. Sit back, and read on:

First, check out 25 ways to simplify your life with kids. I am beginning to think my son could do a better job of picking up after himself than he’s doing now.

The creative Planning Queen has great ideas to plan your next kiddie’s birthday party. Definitely bookmarkable.

Lisa at Workout Mommy advises you busy mamas to combine some fitness time for yourself with quality time with your kids. Tip: Combine with learning - plenty of things to “spy” and point out along the way.

It’s scorching here, and I love these fun and cheap ways to entertain the kids during summer.

If like me, you’re a fan of the Montessori method and are homeschooling your child, you’ll find Montessori Free Fall very useful. Steph has pictorial accounts of educating her child using Montessori materials.

Finally, here are two posts from bloggers I follow regularly. They bought some things into focus for me the past week. Lis at Woolgatherings wrote about separation pangs, and it made me realize that sooner or later, my baby is going to leave, and there will be a huge empty void. Made me run off to hug him.

Alison at Three Times Kewl posted about getting through a rough week as a single mom. Inspiring, and very moving.

These ideas are for Ziploc bags, but you can use resealable bags too for some of these preschool activities.

1. Put some shaving foam into a Ziploc bag, and add a few drops of food coloring. Add some more shaving foam on top of the food color. Let her squish the bag, and watch the changes in color.
2. Add two different drops of food coloring to the shaving foam, so she can see how they mix to create new colors. For instance, red and yellow.
3. Give your child some playing sand, lots of shells and rocks, and let her choose the number of objects and sand she wants to place inside the Ziploc bag. These make great sensory bags for kids.
4. Fill up a Ziploc bag with blue shaving gel, and add a few plastic sea creatures and fish into it, to make her own ocean bag.
5. Put some shaving gel into two separate Ziploc bags, and place one of them on the window sill (works only if it’s sunny), and the other in the freezer. Take them out after a while, and let her see the difference – great time to teach her about “hot” and “cold.”
6. Put some water in a Ziploc bag, and freeze it. Discuss how the water changes from liquids to solid.
7. Use Ziploc bags to store pieces of your preschooler’s puzzles.
8. Use them to store the parts of her Barbie play set, different colored buttons for sorting games, beads etc.
9. Take a bunch of Ziploc bags, and put one item in each of them – the thing should either float or sink. For instance, a cotton ball, a pebble, a toy, a leaf etc. Let her separate into objects that float and objects that sink.
10. Make ice cubes in different colors (add food color), and drop a few of these into a Ziploc bag. As the cubes melt, the colors mix and create new ones. This is also a good color recognition activity for a preschooler.
11. Put rice in a bag, and add color to it. Let her color the rice by squishing the bag.
12. Put a wet paper towel inside a bag, and sprinkle some fast growing seeds. Zip and, place near a window. Or tape the bag to the pane. Or use a clothes peg and some yarn to hang the bag near the sill. Observe the sprouting, and discuss. You have a preschool science activity that takes no time to set up. Use a Lima bean for quick results.
13. Put some glitter in a bag. Apply glue to a few objects – a small doll, pebble, a cone – and drop them into the bag. Let her experiment.
14. If you have plastic polar bears, put them into a Ziploc bag, add some water and freeze. Discuss the Antarctica, polar bears, their habits and food.

Do you have ideas for playing with your preschoolers using Ziploc bags? I’d love to hear them.

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Disclaimer: I am not actually suggesting you take any number of kids in a fight.

I just played this game, and was pretty mortified at the results. Apparently, my fitness levels are at an all time low - I can take on only 12 5-year-olds-in a brawl. Pitiful.

It doesn’t help that I am vertically challenged, and don’t remember ever being trampled by a horse. Play to find out.

I’d like to know how these kick ass Moms fare - Cindy at Go Workout Mom, who’s flexing her muscles while she cleans the oven, scrubs the garage, and more feats that leave me exhausted just reading about them, and and Lisa at Workout Mommy who runs marathons. Enough said. I am guessing they’ll probably take on at least 30 runts each.

Stability is a good thing for a preschooler, but there is something called too much of a good thing. A little change in your child’s routine can actually stimulate her mind. Look at it this way - our minds become numb when we follow the same routine everyday. We begin to operate on auto pilot. But when something happens to change that routine, we find ourselves more enthused, more alert. It’s the same for kids.

Bear in mind you don’t want to make frequent and drastic changes to your child’s daily routine, just a few little things on occasion that can seem exciting for her , and get that little brain ticking! Here are a few things you can do to stimulate your child’s mind, by changing her routine.

• Change the way she usually does her art - let her work under the table instead.
• Or tape a sheet of paper under your table, and let her her lie down on her back, and draw on it.
• Move things on her table or in her room around a little, just enough that she actually has to look for things.
• Sing rhymes with different words. For instance, Mary had a Little Lamb to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
• Use old and empty cardboard cartons to make a tunnel from the front door. Your child has to crawl through the boxes every time she wants to go out into the garden.
• Make up new endings for her favorite stories. Little Red Riding Hood, for instance.
• If she’s playing the same computer games, or having fun on the same old sites, check out some new sites for her. Here’s a list.
• Let her be mommy for a day - let her decide on the menu, let her decide how much TV you can watch, and let her tuck you into bed with a bed time story. Or do just one of these things in reverse.

Change is a good thing, if you introduce it well. Having a fixed clockwork routine that never ever changes might be great for a robot, but preschoolers need to experience some flexibility.

What do you think? Would you dare to upset the cart?