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your Kids Activities & Positive Parenting Newsletter
May 13, 2008

“Positive Parenting Tips” May 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:

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success. - Napoleon Hill - success quote

The only way to have a friend is to be one. - Ralph Waldo Emerson quote

Yesterday's the past and tomorrow's the future. Today is a gift-- which is why they call it the present. - Bill Keane famous quote

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.

How To Develop Your Child's Interest In Reading

Reading is the most important skill a child will ever learn.

By developing an interest in reading, and thereby developing the desire to learn to read, you will be giving your child the gift to all knowledge.

A child who loves to read and reads well can learn ANYTHING!

The interest in reading is developed at a young age. Make time to read bedtime stores.

Make time at other time of the day, if possible, to sit and read to your child. Simple, easy to understand children's books with colorful pictures as best for the youngest children.

Not only can you point to the words you are reading as you read, but you can help the child learn recognition of objects and colors by interacting during the reading of the book. Point to the picture of a duck and tell the child, "This is a duck.

The duck is yellow". After a few times of doing this, point to the duck and ask the child what that picture is and what color the animal is.

Very soon, after grasping language skills, the child will not wait for questions, but tell you "that duck is yellow!"

Select books that teach a lesson about life. Books that teach children how to interact with other children without fighting; books that teach about giving or sharing, are good selections.

Books that teach about responsibilities - how to cross the street, never to get in a stranger's car, never to steal, and so one - are also great choices.

Children's classics are excellent choices and may well become family heirlooms that you child will read to their child years down the road. You will soon develop a child that can't wait to learn to read.

I'd like to share a small personal antidote with you. I was raised as a child who was taught an interest in reading. When Mother cooked, she sometimes got out a book and it told her what to do to make good food.

When Dad wanted to know when the Christmas Parade or another event was going to occur, he read the newspaper.

I had realized that you could learn anything you needed to know if you could read. Mother had taught me to read a few words, and I could go through some of my favorite books by memory, but I couldn't pick up a big book and read it.

I went to school on my first day of 1st grade and came home crying my eyes out, telling Mother I wasn't going back to that bad school. After much questioning and concern on Mom's part, she finally dragged out of me that I considered the school bad because I had not learned to read on the first day! She had to explain to me that by the end of the school year, I would be able to read.

This short story is to emphasis that you want to raise the kind of child who truly can't wait to learn to read. A lifetime of reading provides not only knowledge, but fun, relaxation, and true job.

Author Sadie Chenton specializes in child development and providing practical parenting information. You can find more of Sadie's material at Forb Parenting website at: http://www.forbparenting.com/

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

Easy Kids Recipe:

Wholemeal Rusk’s

This healthy Toddlers Activity recipe is handy to have when your little one starts those teething worries, you will always have satisfaction with this Toddlers Activity recipe using wholemeal teething Rusks, helping to sooth the pain.

What you need:

Wholemeal Bread

Cut the wholemeal bread into slices of about 2.5 Centimetres in thickness. Cut the crust off, and then cut into strips of about a Centimetre in width.

Bake in a slow oven for about an hour, or until you’re Wholemeal Rusks are dry and crisp.

Let the Wholemeal Rusk’s cool, and then store them in an airtight container.

Add a little flavor using Vegemite for your little ones pleasure.

This quick and easy Toddlers Activity recipe is just what is needed in those miserable teething times.

For the convenience and relief try this Toddlers Activity recipe.

Child Arts & Crafts Activities:

Four Homemade Mother's Day Cards to Make

Making your own wrapping paper is a fun Activity that children or adults can do. With some creativity you can create gift wrap that is unique and different – everyone will know the gift is from you!

When making gift wrap with children you will probably want to use either craft white paper or craft brown paper (like the grocery bags). You could even use the inside of a grocery bag if the gift is small enough.

At several points depending on your child’s age – they may need help. If your child is not ready to cut with scissors, then manage all of the scissor work and let them have fun gluing everything. Remember to select non-toxic materials. Consider all art materials toxic unless they say they are non-toxic.

Stamping Shapes Paper: To make this you can use either sponges or potatoes. The ease with potatoes is they give children (and adults) a “handle” to hold onto. Sponges are a little harder to hold onto once they get wet, and your designs may not get as clean and clear results.

Use tempura or acrylic paint. Be sure with children to use non-toxic paint. Remember with art materials that if they do not say they are non-toxic, chances are they are toxic – so be aware and stay safe.

Select your paint colors and cut simple designs in your potatoes or sponges. Great shapes include stars, hearts, arrows, lightning bolts, circles, triangles, letters, numbers and smiley faces. Help your children cut the designs depending on their age level.

Lay the paper flat on a dry and protected surface and stamp away with your potatoes or sponges! Remember to put your design all over the paper so that it shows all over your gift, not just one area of the paper. Let it dry overnight before wrapping gifts.

Names or Shapes Paper: To make this paper you will need several sheets of fluorescent paper (8 ½ x 11”) is fine. You will also need glue sticks and scissors.

Select a name or a shape that you wish to do for your paper. Think about the size of your gift, is it big? Is your gift small? If your gift is big, then your letters or shapes can be bigger. If your gift is small then your letters or shapes need to be smaller.

If you are giving a birthday gift it could be fun to write the birthday child’s name. If it is a gift for Mom then you could write Mom. Or consider writing a short message like “Happy Birthday” if you have enough room. Write boxy letters or cut out shapes and glue them onto the paper. Write the name and glue it onto the paper several times. Allow it to dry overnight. Then wrap gift.

Picture Paper:
To make this paper you will need magazines or newspapers. Catalogs such a flower catalogs or children’s catalogs are also good. Comic books are good for this also. You will need scissors and glue stick.

Select a theme for your paper. Are you going to cut out pictures of animals? Cartoon characters? Flowers? Home images? Or are you going to cut out words? Find the images and cut them out. Glue them onto the paper. Allow it to dry and then wrap your gift.

Special Message Paper:
This is good for most children of any age. First select how large the gift will be and cut the gift paper to size.

Select markers or crayons. You are going to write a special message to the friend or loved one to wish them a Happy Birthday or other good wishes. Help your child select their message.

Write the message on the paper. Now write the message again in other line with a different color marker or crayon. Continue until the paper is full. You can use medium to large handwriting – actually any size handwriting is fine. Just continue until the paper is completely filled. Let this paper dry before wrapping the gift.

When you give the gift remind the birthday child they need to read the Special Message on the wrapping paper.

Feminine Doily Paper:
This is a cute gift wrapping paper for a girl’s gift. This is also an easy project to do with even most young children because it only involves glue sticks.

To make this paper you will need paper doilies, either white or metallic (your choice). This project works best with the small doilies. You will also need a glue stick.

Glue the doilies onto the paper. Glue them in an even pattern all over the paper. The doilies will give the gift wrapping a feminine look. Once the doilies are dried, wrap the gift.

There are many other ideas for gift wrap that are in your home and right in front of your nose. Just use your imagination and you will find many other ideas to use with your children. Happy wrapping!

Abigail Beal © 2004 Abigail Beal a.k.a. “the Gift-wrap Goddess” teaches gift wrap in suburban New York. She is the author of 2 ezines: GiftWrapGoddessWraps and CreativeCraftsTeachers. To subscribe: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CreativeCraftsTeachers/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GiftWrapGoddessWraps/ contact: creativecraftsteachers@yahoo.com

Positive Parenting Resources:

“Potty Training Boys: Is It Harder?”

Girls often complete potty training at a younger age than boys which leads parents and caregivers to assume that boys are harder to potty train than girls.

While this maybe true for some children, potty training boys isn't necessarily more difficult. As a mother of two boys, I felt that they just weren't interested for a long time, there was too much else going on and they wanted to be off doing it not worrying about stuff like using the potty.

Once they got interested then we started training in earnest but up until then I was happy to let them be.

It is futile to push them into training before they are ready because you either set yourself up a battle of wills or a string of disappointments when they don't make it in time. They will train eventually so until then enjoy your time together rather than spend the time being frustrated.

What then? So now you've waited until your son has shown some interest in ditching the diapers, what do you do from here?

. Provide lots of encouragement and support.

. Help with getting his clothes sorted. While your daughter may have had no problem negotiating her clothing your son is likely to need help getting his clothes off and back on.

. Work out what motivates him and use that to encourage him to keep trying. There are a range of potty training aids that can help.

. Let him see his father or other male family members using the toilet and explain that this is what grown up boys do.

. To encourage him to focus on what he is doing, you can use floatable targets for him to aim at. You can try using Cheerios or torn up scraps of toilet paper.

. Lots of praise for whenever he gets it right.

. Try using a timer to remind both of you when he needs to go. He maybe so busy playing that his own bodily needs are the last thing he thinks of.

. Have the bathroom set up to make it easy for him to go on his own if you're not available at the moment he needs to go.

. Keep a spray bottle of water in the bathroom and teach him how to clean up if there are any spills.

Potty training boys doesn't have to be difficult. Just make sure that you let him set the pace and before you know it, you'll have him successfully potty trained .

J Brennan has potty trained two children, one easily and one not. Along the way she has learned a lot about what to do and what not to do. Save time and frustration by learning from her mistakes at http://www.pottytra ininghowto. com Free e-course available on making potty training fun.

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

FreeToddlersActivity&DisciplineGuide

Another Goody For The Oldtimers

My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food poisoning.

My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat it raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in icepack coolers, but I can't remember getting e.coli.

Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.

The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system.

We all took gym, not PE... and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors. I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now..

Flunking gym was not an option... even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym.

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.

We must have had horribly damaged psyches. What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything.

I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.

I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations.

Oh yeah... and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed!

We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of Mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked.

Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.

We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either because if we did, we got our butt spanked there and then we got butt spanked again when we got home.

I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop, just before he fell off. Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house. Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof. It was a neighborhood run amuck.

To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family. How could we possibly have known that?

We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes? We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac! How did we ever survive?

LOVE TO ALL OF US WHO SHARED THIS ERA, AND TO ALL WHO DIDN'T- SORRY FOR WHAT YOU MISSED. I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING

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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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