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your Kids Activities & Positive Parenting Newsletter
April 13, 2010

“Positive Parenting Tips” newsletter April 10

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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

Quotes of the Week

"Inch by inch, anything's a cinch. Yard by yard, everything is hard." -- Unknown

"The way we live our days, is the way we live our lives." -- Annie Dillard

"A day will never be anymore than what you make of it. Practice being a 'doer'!" -- Josh S. Hinds

"If you can DREAM it, you can DO it." -- Walt Disney

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.

Teddy Bear’s Picnic

Next time you and your children are having a bad day, have a teddy bear’s picnic with their favorite soft toys. They will be happy and you and your child will be good friends again. BR>

What You Need: BR>

• Picnic food and drink BR>
• Soft toys, and of course your children’s favorite teddy BR>

What To Do: BR>

Begin by making some simple invitations together. Decide with your children which ‘toy friends’ they would like to invite. They can decorate the invitations while you do the writing. Then they can be the postman and deliver them. BR>

Together, decide on what food you would like to have at your picnic- fruit, chunks of cheese, sausage and savory biscuits, fairy bread make a simple but scrumptious picnic lunch. Don’t forget the cool drinks too. BR>

Arrange it all on a rug or tablecloth in a cool part of the garden. A tea set adds to the fun also- your children will enjoy pouring all your guests a drink. BR>

Sing the ‘teddy bear’s picnic’ song and read any books you have about bears. BR>

After the picnic is finished and all cleared away, put your children into bed with all their cuddly friends for a nap and put your feet up. You deserve it!!!

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

Easy Kids Recipe:

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies - These cookies use sweet rice flour, also known as glutinous rice flour. Don't be fooled by the name; there's no gluten in glutinous rice flour (or any rice flour, for that matter).

This flour, like most gluten-free flours, is easy to find if an Asian grocery can be located. It can also be found in many boutique grocery stores, such as Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. Other gluten-free flours may be substituted, but be prepared to adjust the amount of flour needed to compensate for variations in starchiness.

It should go without saying, for any household coping with celiac disease, that it is imperative to make sure all your ingredients, work surfaces, and utensils are free of gluten contamination. Special care should be taken with compound ingredients such as baking powder; make sure its ingredients list does not include gluten-containing items such as modified food starch.

The cookies are pictured to the right with various additions to the dough. Experimenting is encouraged, but please be careful choosing additions. Some of the cookies pictured have oats added, which introduce trace amounts of gluten and are not safe for celiacs.

Equipment

• Large mixing bowl

• Stand mixer and bowl (or a hand-held mixer and a medium mixing bowl)

• Wooden spoon

• Cookie sheet

• Non-stick silicone baking sheet liner (Silpat, etc.)

Ingredients

• ½ cup (1 stick) (120ml) butter

• ½ cup (120ml) sugar

• ½ cup (120ml) brown sugar

• 2 eggs

• ½ tsp vanilla extract

• 1¼ cup (300ml) (1 cup + 2 tablespoons) sweet rice flour

• 1 tsp xanthan gum

• ¾ tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp baking soda

• Chocolate chips (as many as you like)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).

2. Mix the sweet rice flour, xanthan gum, baking powder and baking soda in a large mixing bowl.

3. In a smaller mixing bowl or stand mixer, cream the butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla and continue mixing.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Don't worry about over-mixing; since there is no gluten in the flour, there is no danger of overworking it.

5. Fold in the chocolate chips.

6. Line cookie sheet with silicone mat and spoon on balls of dough, about 1½" (4cm) in diameter.

7. Bake until golden brown.

Notes

This will likely take longer to bake than a gluten-containing cookie recipe—perhaps about 25 minutes. Baking time will depend on the flour you use, since the protein content of the flour will determine the rate of browning from the Maillard reaction.

The silicone baking sheet liner is important, as these cookies tend to stick to the pan more than most. If you don't have one, parchment paper might also work.

Child Arts & Crafts Activities:

The magic of Painting with Water

Your children will be amazed with this magical craft activity; they will be amused for hours as their creative skills extend. Its fantastic fun! Kids love it, its like magic.

Things you need :

• Black marker

• Paper towel

• Paintbrush

• Water

Let’s get started:

* Draw a picture, shape or your child’s name with a thick black marker on a piece of paper towel.

* Give a demo to your child, on how to brush water over the black marker lines and watch how the colors come to life.

Positive Parenting Resources:

Effective Discipline for Two Year Olds

The "terrible" twos are a time of great change for most children. They are learning how to be independent and often defy their parents, yet this newfound freedom sometimes frightens them. They can understand far more complex concepts than they can express verbally, leading to frustration and tantrums. They are endlessly curious about the world around them but they have not developed a sense of personal safety, so they don't understand why certain activities are off limits.

With all the conflicting advice parents receive about discipline, it's easy to forget that the word "discipline" means "to teach." Many situations requiring discipline at this age can be turned into learning experiences for both you and your child. Approaching difficult situations with that concept firmly in mind can help you discipline even the most difficult preschooler.

For example, the dreaded word "no" causes automatic tension in most parents of two-year-olds. Your instinct may be to engage in a battle of wills or simply pick up the child and make them do what is required. However, if you allow the child to say "no" to your request, you will often get a "yes" if you ask again in a few minutes. Allowing a child to say "no" once in awhile shows them that you respect their growing independence.

Another opportunity to teach proper behavior arises when your child deliberately makes a mess for you to clean up. Most parents can tell the difference between a genuine accident and willful misbehavior. For the latter, parents can use the incident as an example of cause and effect. If your child deliberately colors on the walls after you have told him not to, having him help you clean up the mess can teach a valuable lesson about responsibility and consequences.

The most important tool in your discipline toolbox is consistency. By imposing the same discipline every time your preschooler misbehaves, you're teaching them that their actions have predictable consequences. If you allow a behavior one day and punish it the next day, your child will be very confused. Children at this age are too young to understand special exceptions so you should stick carefully to your routines as much as possible each and every day.

Finally, if all else fails, preschoolers are generally very receptive to redirection. If your child does not want to go to bed, instead of arguing with her and insisting that it's time for bed, change the subject and ask what doll she wants to take to bed with her or which bedtime story she wants to hear. This teaches children that some behavior is not negotiable and shows them acceptable alternatives.

Kadence Buchanan writes articles for http://itsfamilytime.net/ - In addition, Kadence also writes articles for http://kidsandteenscentral.com/ and http://aboutoursociety.com/

Free Toddlers Activity & Child Discipline Guide
Free parenting resources to help you use positive parenting in your child’s development, toddlers activities & games, toddler arts & crafts, kids easy recipes, free kids books for bedtime reading and even child discipline help!
http://free-toddlers-activity-and-discipline-guide.com

Editor’s notes & humour:

FreeToddlersActivity&DisciplineGuide

The Wisdom of First Graders

A first grade school teacher in Virginia presented each child in her classroom the first half of a well-known proverb and asked them to come up with the remainder of the proverb.

Here are their answers:

1. Don't change horses... until they stop running.
2. Strike while the...bug is close.
3. It's always darkest before...Daylight Saving Time.
4. Never underestimate the power of...termites.
5. You can lead a horse to water but...how?
6. Don't bite the hand that...looks dirty.
7. No news is...impossible.
8. A miss is as good as a...Mr.
9. You can't teach an old dog new...math.
10. If you lie down with dogs, you'll...stink in the morning.
11. Love all, trust...me.
12. The pen is mightier than the...pigs.
13. An idle mind is...the best way to relax.
14. Where there's smoke there's...pollution.
15. Happy is the bride who...gets all the presents.
16. A penny saved is...not much.
17. Two's company, three's...the Musketeers.
18. Don't put off till tomorrow what...you put on to go to bed.
19. Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and...you have to blow your nose.
20. There are none so blind as...Stevie Wonder.
21. Children should be seen and not...spanked or grounded.
22. If at first you don't succeed...get new batteries.
23. You get out of something only what you...see in the picture on the box.
24. When the blind lead the blind...get out of the way.

Get your free parenting & kids e-book here...

Just use "right mouse button" on the link below, then select "save target as" from the window that appears, to download the book to your desktop.

Little Angels

Happy as You Want to Be

For more books, visit our Free Kids Books Directory page

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

Visit today for latest Toddlers Activity & Child Discipline Guide articles.
Free parenting resources added each week to help you use positive parenting in your child’s development, toddlers activities & games, toddler arts & crafts, kids easy recipes, free kids books for bedtime reading and even child discipline help!
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Your Editor,
Theresea Hughes.
http://free-toddlers-activity-and-discipline-guide.com

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