Remember when you were a child and you used to lie on your back in the grass and watch the clouds, trying to find pictures or familiar images in them? I was reminded of that this morning while driving the kids to school. I saw this cool set of clouds that appeared to me to be people holding hands in a line. I just had to take a picture of it. Do you see it?
Next time your kids say they are bored, take them outside and look up at the clouds, see what you can find. It will change their mood, yours and give you a great opportunity to spend some quality time together being creative.
December 19 th (that's tomorrow YIPPEE) The View (ya know the show with Barbara Walters) will be featuring the Doodlebugz Crayola Chalkmats! They are very practical, cool and will keep your little ones busy while they wait for dinner. We love these because they are reasonably priced and come with everything you need. Take them to the restaurant or any meal out, use them at home while cooking to keep them busy. They come in many colors so everyone will have their own, no need for fighting. We love them and think that you will too and don't forget to watch The View! They also go hand and hand with our My Little Crayon Roll-up another one of our favorite items to keep the kiddos creatively occupied!
We are proud to partner up with What's Hot For Tots for a great cause! We are collecting crayons. We do not want new crayons but rather your old broken ones. Let us explain: In an effort to put a crayon in every kid's hand and not the landfills, we are embarking on the Great Crayon Caper. Our mission is simple, take old unwanted broken crayons and bits of crayon and restore them to brand new and place them in the hands of every little budding Picasso. There are currently 4.7 million children in the US alone with learning disabilities (Source: CDC). Here's how you can help: During the month of September, sign up to be a part of our Crayon Caper Crew and What's Hot For Tots will reward you with their signature color crayons {pink & brown} and fun activity coloring book along with another great prize. For the person referred by us who sends in the most crayons, we will award you with our My Little Crayon Roll-Up filled with brand new Crayola Crayons,but be sure to note AB BABY in the "How did you hear about us" section to be entered to win.
Collecting crayons is a family affair; a great way for kids to be introduced to the concept of recycling. So sign up here and we will send you a postcard explaining how and where to send your crayons. We will have your crayons melted down and transformed into shiny new chunky crayons that are the perfect size for little hands. These crayons will be donated to schools, hospitals and care centers.
Q: What are basic ingredients of a crayon? A: Pigment {color} & paraffin {wax} Q: How long does it take a crayon to decompose in a landfill? A: Forever. Wax is non-biodegradable. FYI: In the last 97 years, over 100 billion Crayola® crayons have been made.
Thank you for your support in bringing Crayola Crayons to kids who need them and helping the earth!
 "I'm Bored!!! I'm Bored!!!" Is that what you are hearing right about now? I am sure you are! Summer is nearing the end and there is only so much you can do with the kids to keep them occupied! It is inevitable that there are days that you will just have to stay home!
When the kids are begining to get bored and you have run out of activities to do you can always do a cooking project together. Today Brennan and I decided to make a pizza using the " Kids Pizza Making Kit". It is really simple and it comes with everything you need to make a pizza like the dough mix, rising yeast, pizza sauce, a pan, a wooden spoon for mixing, a wooden rolling pin, ryhming recipe and re-usable plastic bag with handles. Be prepared to add a few ingredients like cheese  and topings though as the kit does not include those items. We opted to use our own tomato sauce instead of the packaged one included in the kit. For toppings we used swiss cheese, feta cheese and parmesan cheese and topped it off with onions! Yes, I know my son has unusual tastebuds for a 7 year old he loves to eat onions raw! EEK. But you can put whatever yummy topings your tummy desires! It is a super easy cooking project that will occupy your little ones for a nice amount of time and best of all they get to eat it when they are done. We suggest starting this cooking project around 10am as the dough needs time to rise (45 min) and then an additional 15 min (once in the pan) plus cooking time. We figure that if you start then, your pizza will be ready in  time for lunch! We love the Kids Pizza making Kit and give it a thumbs up. Best of all, it is on sale for only $15 while supplies last!  Or try one of these other cooking kits:
 Are you local to the Palm Beach area? If so, come meet us and shop at our next local trunk show! When: Friday October 12, 2007 Time: 10 am-4pm Place: Oogles n Googles at the Abacoa Town Center, 1155 Main Street, Suite 114, Jupiter, FL 33458
Join us for a day of shopping and learning! See the latest parties for children, find out about new baby and toddler classes and shop for handbags, jewelry, baby items, tutus and children's toys. Find the perfect way to save money for your precious children, have your children's photo taken at our mini photography sessions, learn important water safety tips and more! We will be offering special discounts and refreshments will be served. We look forward to seeing you! Don't forget to bring your friends along! Great prizes to be won at our unique raffle!
Isn't it amazing how kids (and adults too) can memorize the words to hundreds of songs but when it comes to learning Math we can barely remember our times tables! When we learned the alphabet, we learned it by singing along to a tune why not do the same to learn our times tables! Now you can says Ms. Robinson who is a certified math teacher who holds a master's degree in Innovative Teachings in Mathematics. As a teacher in the classroom, she has created innovative techniques in order to help her students achieve a better understanding of math concepts. During her first half hour of class, Ms. Robinson will give her lecture, but during the second half hour of class, she would play music for her students while they completed their classroom assignments. This will keep the students quite and seated throughout the rest of the class hour.
Everyone loves hip hop, and some say hip hop is dead. Actually, it was asleep, and Ms. Robinson woke it up with her new CD HipHop Tables. HipHop Tables focuses on all of the times tables from 1 through 12. It gets kids up and moving while learning their multiplication tables. Ms. Robinson stresses that it is very important to memorize your times tables in order to complete your math test faster. Especially during standardized testing because the calculator will slow you down. Get ready to dance because Ms. Robinson knows how to make learning your times tables fun!
With school about to start, my kids suddenly become almost unmanageable. Too much fun in the summer and not enough structure? You think it would kill them to be home for just one day. They are bored, they have nothing to do (yeah right). So what does a Mom who happens to be an artist with all this crafty stuff at her fingertips do? Does she dare take out the acrylic paints and Oh My Gosh (gasp) let the kids use them? Yes, she does and you know sometimes these little boogers can really surprise her! Oh no did my kids inherit the artsy gene? Yup they did, but hey that is not such a bad thing! Sometimes you just have to channel all that boredom and turn it into creativity. Sometimes it works and sometimes they just make a mess that only Mom can clean up completely. In this case, the art turned out fabulous and yes, Mom has a lot to clean up. You gotta give my little guy credit though he did try. The soap dispenser is proof of that now that it is covered in paint. The sink and counter and drips from the table to the sink are proof that he meant well right! That is all that matters. Throw him in tub (before the mess travels through the entire house) amd give that boy a good scrubbing. You can deal with the mess in the kitchen later because you first have to admire the great works of art your little one created! These two Picassos are going up on the wall for sure! Not bad for a 6 year old don't you agree? The top is a pirate ship (like Mommy's Painting he says) and the bottom is a car out for a drive!
When you work from home, keeping your toddlers entertained when business matters arise can be a challenge. One of the reasons you chose to work from home was to be with your children, but there are times that you need a few moments to concentrate on work. While we do have a wide array of educational programming available to us today, TV isn’t always the answer to keeping young ones occupied. This list of suggestions might help and if it doesn’t fit your situation exactly, they will spark your creativity into tweaking it to suit your needs.
1. Set up a child-sized desk next to your own. By equipping it with some paper, crayons and perhaps a toy telephone, this set-up will allow your daughter to work right by your side.
2. Bring your laptop to one end of the dining room table while creating a Play-doh station at the other end. Your son will enjoy creating works to rival Michelangelo while you are able to catch up on email.
3. Set up your shipping area in the kitchen. Serving up a healthy mid-morning snack to your child will allow your hands to be free to package up your orders and get them ready for the post office.
4. Grab your legal pad and head on out to the back yard. You can enjoy the outdoors, feel your children’s joy as they explore nature and jot down your list of things to do for after they have gone to bed for the evening.
5. When they are very young, you can read anything to your child. It doesn’t matter if it is the phone book, because it is the tone of your voice that is important. So, print out that marketing eBook you have been waiting to review and read it out loud while they snuggle on your lap.
Multi-tasking is a key component to work from home success. You want your business to succeed and that takes a lot of work. You also want to be there with your children, enjoying their laughter and spending quality time with them. You can combine work with parenting when you take a moment to apply creative solutions to your day to day challenges.
Keeping In Touch the Toddler Way
Being miles away from loved ones can make it more challenging for your toddler to get to know his or her family. If your child’s grandparents or favorite aunt lives too far for frequent visits, you can still help them establish a relationship. Keeping in touch can be simple and meaningful by taking four simple steps.
- Hang one of those ribbon boards in your child’s room. They have them for both genders, but boyish ones may be harder to find or you can create your own. Fill the board with photos of loved ones and then a few nights a week before bed, take time to hold your child close enough to see but not too close so that they can pull the pictures off the board. Then point to each one, name them and let your child know that particular person loves them. Example: Holding your daughter, Megan, point to a photo of Aunt Erika and say, “Megan, this is Aunt Erika. Aunt Erika loves you.” While you may feel like you sound silly, it is a wonderful way of mixing visuals together with the sound of your voice and the warmth of your hug. By putting all of that together, it does create an impact.
- Establish a pattern of vocal contact depending upon what you are comfortable with, such doing something once a week to focus on that relative. Perhaps every other week you can speak by phone and then the opposite weeks via your web cam. Creating a specific day and time that you try to always stick with helps.
- Choose another day when you and your child can focus on doing something for that person. It can be as simple as drawing a picture and practice writing skills by adding their name to it or you can go shopping for a small care package that you would like to send. Once every few months, make sure to include a recent photo of your child too.
- Purchase one of those purse size photo albums from the dollar store. Fill it with extra photo doubles and it will become something your child will want to look at every day. Take time to go over it with your child, name each person and reinforce the knowledge that they are loved by many people.
If none of your relatives are close by, then dedicate each month to someone different. By following these short steps, when the time rolls around for a visit, your child will be quick to warm up to this now familiar loved one and it allows for deeper connections that can last a lifetime.
Exploring Nature with Your Children
There isn’t anything like breathing in the fresh outdoor air. Taking your child along with you allows you to see everything for the first time all over again. Whether your big outdoor adventure is at a local park, a hiking trail or even your own backyard, there are so many things to explore and learn about.
Dress appropriately for your walk, bring plenty of water, some snacks and always remember to tuck in some wipes. If you are headed to a woodsy area, make sure to take a quick peek online to find out what, if any, plants you would need to avoid (such as poison ivy) and what they look like. Then grab a plastic bag to help carry home any souvenirs you pick up along the way. If you add in a camera, you will be all set to create a memorable day.
Along your walk, do not hesitate to allow your child to stop and touch, smell and exclaim “LOOK” about every two minutes. This is what it is all about. You can play the following learning games:
- Pick up two rocks and help her figure out which is heavier.
- Explore texture by showing him examples of smooth and rough stones.
- Find one short twig and one long twig to talk about length with your child.
- Have you children gather 10 leaves and then teach them sorting by color and type.
- Take those same 10 leaves and create a pattern (small, medium, large, small, medium, etc.).
Find a nice quiet spot to sit for a short break. Open your snacks and just enjoy the world around you. If your child is old enough, play the “I Spy…” game. If you have young ones, just talk about what you see: how tall one tree is compared with another, describe the weather, and even make up stories about the people you see walking by. Sometimes, we can have a tendency to not talk very much to children too young to carry a conversation back with us. It is important to do the exact opposite, even if you feel a bit silly at first. Every time you speak, you are teaching your child.
As you take your time walking back, it is a good time to pull out the camera. What parts of nature did your children become most excited about? Now you will have time to photograph your child with some of the different items that you worked with, such as the leaf pattern you created. If you try to take pictures in the beginning, you lose that sense of first experience with your child because the camera takes you out of the scene. While you do want to record your special days, concentrate more on taking natural shots later in the day when everyone is calmer and more willing to sit still for a few moments.
Boy #1 and I are both sick today so we are being sick together and just chilling out. We both did our shots of really horrible cough medicine and survived that. We are also both artists, so when we are sick it is a great time for us to just sit around and draw or paint. We both have a tablet for our computer, you know the one that you can draw with a special pen and your drawings and artwork go onto the computer screen. So while playing with his tablet this morning, boy #1 found a great website to draw on. But don't worry you can do it with a regular mouse as well you don't need to have a tablet. The website is called Line Rider and you draw a line or slope and bumps etc and then a little guy on a sled rides on your line! It is really cool. He just tried making a loop and the little guy goes up and around. He does end up getting stuck in it though. It is so cute and really neat. Go ahead and give it a whirl, it is quite entertaining. Don't be shy feel free to comment back to let me know if you enjoyed the little sled guy!
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