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your Kids Activities & Positive Parenting Newsletter
March 11, 2008

“Positive Parenting Tips” March newsletter

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FreeToddlersActivity&DisciplineGuide INDEX:
Inspiring Quotes
Toddlers Activities & Games
Easy Kids Recipe
Child Arts & Crafts Activities:
Positive Parenting Resources
Sponsored Resources
Editor’s Note / Humour / new free books

Inspiring Quotes:

"Life without risks is not worth living."
- Charles A. Lindbergh

"Each of us was born with wings...(and) has the ability to go farther than we ever thought possible, to do things beyond our wildest imaginings."
- Barbara Stanny

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Kids Activities:

Not only do kids of all ages love to play games, games are a creative and inexpensive way to entertain children. With a little imagination you will soon have them making up their own games!

Whether you're looking for birthday party games or just something to keep the little ones busy for a little while, I think you'll find these games easy to learn and fun for all ages.

Indoor Hockey

This is a great indoor game for those wet days the kids are getting restless. Hockey is very popular with kids today in schools, public etc….

Indoor hockey is not as physical as the outdoor game. Its fun to play and the kids love to join in setting up for their game of indoor hockey.

What You Need:

• Table – Top

• Books

• Iceblock Sticks

• Paper

• Masking Tape

What To Do:

On a table top, position thick books all around the edges to form sides for the hockey field. Leave a gap at each end of the table for the goal area. Use an ice block stick as your hockey stick.

Making the ball: Use a piece of paper and scrunch it into a form of a ball, then wrap masking tape around it so as it keeps its shape.

Each player stands at opposites ends of the table, taking it in turns to shoot for a goal.

Cardboard Tunnels
toddlers activity guide toddler winter activity

Cardboard boxes are great because they are free and also terrific for children’s creative play.

Fill up your car with boxes from your local fruit shop or electric store and let the children make a great cardboard tunnel maze indoors or in your back yard. Ask family and friends to keep any cardboard boxes, so your children can have extra fun adding to their cardboard tunnel.

What You Need:

• Cardboard sheets or boxes of different shapes and sizes

• Strong masking or insulating tape

What To Do:

Help the children open out different sides of boxes and join them together to make tunnels. Long boxes can have a hole cut in the side so another box can be fitted into it.

Use the masking or insulating tape to hold the boxes firmly together. Use a variety of boxes of different shapes and sizes to make the tunnel maze a real challenge.

When the tunnels are finished the children might enjoy decorating them with some acrylic paints.

They could even make a textured tunnel with different surfaces to crawl along bubble wrap, towels, carpet Hessian mats or just the grass.

If they want a spooky tunnel they could hang things from the roof of the tunnels such as wet plastic gloves, lengths of cellophane, crepe paper or partly blown up balloons.

Let them keep up their tunnels for a few days. By then their interest will probably have warn off and you can take it all to the tip.

Visit for our Free Kids Games & Activities from A to Z

Easy Kids Recipe:

Easter cookie recipe

If you are looking for the perfect Easter cookie recipe then you have come to the right place.

Everyone loves a good Easter cookie, here is my favorite recipe:

Ingredients

3 cups all purpose flour _

2 teaspoons baking soda _

1-1/2 teaspoons ground ginger _

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon _

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves _

1/4 teaspoon salt _

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening _

1/2 cup sugar _1 egg _

1/2 cup molasses _

1-1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar

Step 1
Sift together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt onto waxed paper.

Step 2
Beat together the shortening, sugar and egg in large bowl with electric mixer until fluffy, for about 3 minutes. Beat in the molasses and cider vinegar. Stir in flour mixture until blended and smooth. Gather dough into ball; wrap and chill for several hours.

Step 3
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Divide dough in half. Roll out half of the dough with lightly floured surface to generous 1/8-inch thickness. Keep remainder of dough refrigerated while working with first half.

Step 4
If you want to use a pattern for your rabbit cookies, draw an Easter bunny pattern onto a piece of stiff paper. Make sure that the bunny ears are connected to the head. Cut out this paper stencil. Then place this stencil on the cookie dough and trace it with a knife. Place approx 1 inch apart on lightly greased baking pan. Take the dough you have leftover and use it again.

Step 5
Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 5-7 minutes or until firm.

Step 6
Once the cookies have cooled you can decorate the cookies, but first you need to make the icing. You can simply choose your favorite cookie icing for these cookies. This icing can be left naturally colored or you can color it with food coloring. You can decorate the cookies with any Easter designs that you want to. Leave out for the icing to dry before you place them in containers for safe and airtight storage.

Easter cookies are a treat that everyone will be able to enjoy. You may want to make a pretty little Easter basket filled with these cookies and send it to school with your child for his or her teacher. This is a thoughtful and creative idea that is sure to make the teachers day.

Child Arts & Crafts Activities:

Homemade Invisible Ink for Kids

You can write clever messages and have a lot of fun using a secret ink that only you and your friends know how to make visible.

To make your ink, use only harmless solutions. On the trail, you can always carry your bottles and writing materials with you so that they will be handy

Writing with secret ink so that outsiders cannot read your message is not as simple as you might assume. If you use a sharp penpoint your writing will not be as secret as you wish, for the point will scratch the paper slightly with every stroke. Even if the scratches are not visible to the naked eye, they can be seen with a magnifying glass.

Therefore you should use a smooth, broad penpoint. However, this also has a drawback. The writing fluid leaves a slight shine on the paper. If the strokes are too wide, the writing will be perfectly legible when the sheet is held at an angle to the light.

The most suitable writing tool is a soft stick of wood sharpened to a point. Or you can use a toothpick.

Write on light-colored paper that is not too thin, because thin paper wrinkles where it has been moistened. This wrinkling can betray the presence of invisible writing and even make it legible. The best thing is a solid, hard-surface paper. Cautious writers never use blank sheets for their messages. Instead, they write some message with regular ink or pencil which will confuse the outsiders. Then they write the really important message between the lines with invisible ink. This diverts the attention of anyone not in on the secret from any possible traces of the dried invisible ink.

If you want to be really clever, combine the invisible ink with the normal writing. For instance, write a regular message that is confusing or meaningless. Then, using invisible ink, cross out some letters in the false message or put a dot over or under these letters in a way to make them spell out the really important message.

You can make your invisible ink out of any one of the following liquids:

Onion juice
Lemon juice
Salt water
Sugar and water
Milk thinned slightly with water
Water in which eggshells have been soaked for a few days

After these fluids dry, they become invisible. To make the writing reappear, carefully warm the sheet by holding the written side over a flame. Lo and behold!-the writing will be visible in a faint brown color.

Positive Parenting Resources:

Do You Crave Time Off?

Parenting can be funny, exciting, boring, thrilling, challenging, confusing, satisfying, uplifting, maddening, frustrating, unreasonable, exhausting, silly, and more.

Because of that fact, sometimes, as a parent, you just need a break.

This parenting tip is not to be taken lightly. Parenting your children will be the wildest ride you ever take. It is certainly the most demanding of jobs. And, as you probably have already noticed, it's a 24/7 position.

With no paid vacations.

To be the parent your kids need you to be, you've got to take some regular breaks. How many? How often? That depends upon you and your family situation. In addition, be careful about playing the comparison game. You may need more or less time off from parenting than other parents you know.

How do you know if it's time to take a parenting break? If you are on the verge of burnout...you already know you need a break. Yesterday. And if you are proudly sharing stories with other parents of how long it has been since you've had a REAL break from parenting (the kind where someone else actually takes over the responsibility of parenting for a period of time...even an hour), then you need to stop and plan your next time off. I've certainly been guilty of over-extending my commitment as a parent and under-nourishing my true self. It's not something to be proud of. It's something to pay attention to.

Here are some ideas for taking that well-deserved parenting break.

-- A full fledged vacation. Just your spouse and yourself. (Who?)

If you're having trouble remembering that guy or gal you originally signed up with to parent alongside of, this parenting tip may be for you. Lack of money and babysitters were always my excuse; if that's the case with you, too, start putting away a little cash today and circle a date on the calendar. Anticipation is a wonderful thing and the time will give you ample opportunity to find that totally responsible person to watch your kids.

Trust me. This getaway doesn't need to be expensive. In fact, working out the creative details together with your spouse can make for even more pleasant memories.

-- Who will be in charge?

If you live far away from extended family (we always did), babysitters may be scarce. One solution to this is to get involved. Find a family-oriented house of worship and dive in. Hook up with classes at your local YMCA. Volunteer at your school. In other words, look for opportunities to make friends with other parents. These are the folks who have similar needs and frustrations.

Eventually you might be able to set up a kind of babysitting co-op where each family takes turns taking care of each others' kids so everybody gets regular parenting time-off without breaking the bank. (Important parenting tip: DO look for people of similar values to your own so you know your kids will be cared for by people who share your sense of parenting.)

-- All by yourself.

Maybe you need some personal time off from being mom or dad. Then my parenting tip for you is to take some time to rejuvenate yourself as a human being. If you recognize this need, talk to your partner. He or she may be feeling the same way and all the two of you need is to juggle your schedules for both of you to be able to take a break.

Are you a single parent? Your parenting challenges are even greater, to be sure. And your need for time off can increase since you don't have the natural breaks built in like a two-parent family can have.

Again, look for ways to meet other single parents and work together on this issue for the mutual good.

-- Think deeper...

Make sure your parenting break will genuinely refresh you by considering the type of rest you need. Do you crave solitude? Or adult conversation? A gaggle of girlfriends? Or an exciting adventure? Pampering? Or time learning something new and stimulating?

Truthfully, the quality of your time off will be as important as the quantity. We're often pretty good about planning the 'where' and 'what' of our breaks, but often we neglect the deeper needs of our soul. Think about what you would do if you had no restrictions; plenty of time and money and no responsibilities. Then ask yourself what your answer means to you.

Parenting is an enormous responsibility and requires genuine fortitude. To pull off such a task successfully, you'll need to take enormous and extreme care of yourself over the years. Whether it's an extra date night twice a month with your spouse, a lone weekly college class, or an all-out get-out-of-town vacation, taking calculated time off from parenting is a parenting tip you'll need to put (and keep) at the top of your list.

Free Toddlers Activity & Child Discipline Guide
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Editor’s notes & humour:

FreeToddlersActivity&DisciplineGuide

A 3rd Grader explaining God!

"One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth."

"He doesn't make grown-ups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way, He doesn't have to take up His valuable time teaching them to talk and walk, He can just leave that to mothers and fathers."

"God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times besides bedtime."

"God doesn't have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this. Because He hears everything there must be a terrible lot of noise in His ears, unless He has thought of a way to turn it off."

"God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps Him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting His time by going over your mom and dad's head asking for something they said you couldn't have."

"Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don't think there are any in Chula Vista. At least there aren't any who come to our church."

"Jesus is God's Son. He used to do all the hard work like walking on water and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn't want to learn about God. They finally got tired of Him preaching to them and they crucified Him."

"But He was good and kind like His Father and He told His Father that they didn't know what they were doing and to forgive them and God said OK. His Dad (God) appreciated everything that He had done and all His hard work on earth so He told Him He didn't have to go out on the road anymore, He could stay in heaven. So He did."

"And now He helps His Dad out by listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to take care of and which ones He can take care of Himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary only more important."

"You can pray anytime you want and they are sure to hear you because they got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the times."

"You should always go to Church on Sunday because it makes God happy, and if there's anybody you want to make happy, it's God."

"Don't skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach. This is wrong! And, besides, the sun doesn't come out at the beach until noon anyway."

"If you don't believe in God, besides being an atheist, you will be very lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you, like to camp, but God can."

"It is good to know He's around you when you're scared in the dark or when you can't swim very good and you get thrown into real deep water by big kids."

"But you shouldn't just always think of what God can do for you. I figure God put me here and He can take me back anytime He pleases."

"And that's why I believe in God."

by Danny Dutton, age 8, from Chula Vista, California, for his third grade homework assignment to "Explain God."

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Thank you for joining us this month, I hope that you have found some extra motivation and inspiration for your positive parenting.

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Your Editor,
Theresea Hughes.
http://free-toddlers-activity-and-discipline-guide.com

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