“Positive Parenting Tips” November newsletter

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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:

"Fun is about as good a habit as there is." - Jimmy Buffet "Imagine." - John Lennon "Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn't have it in the beginning." - Mohandas Gandhi

Kids Activities:

Family Game Night

by T.W. Winslow

When I was a child I loved to play board games. There was nothing better than gathering the family around the kitchen table for a rousing game of Monopoly. Playing games with my brothers and parents was great fun, but the best thing was it brought us all together as a family. In between rolls of the dice we talked and laughed about all kinds of things, and in doing so it helped us to bond.

It seems in our current age of technology, the board game and family game night is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Children today are more interested in video and computer games with their amazing graphics and fast paced action then they are in such mundane things as board games – or are they?

I would venture to guess my two children are pretty typical kids. They both enjoy the new video and computer games and can sit for hours (if allowed), staring at the screen battling warriors from distant planets, taking on the best of the NBA, and racing along side their favorite NASCAR drivers. With the excitement and challenge these games have to offer, it's easy to see why our faithful Monopoly game sits collecting dust in the hall closet – until recently that is.

My seven year old daughter recently spent her hard earned allowance on a new game. As five dollars doesn't buy any of the modern electronic titles, she had to settle for something a bit more old fashioned. She selected a wonderful game; Mancala. If you know anything about this game, you wouldn't think it would stand a chance in the wake of the allure of moderns electronic games.

Mancala may well be one of the oldest games in the world. It is a wholly mathematical game and its more complex versions have as much scope as Chess despite rather primitive origins. Stone Mancala boards have been found carved into the roofs of temples in Memphis, Thebes and Luxor – the game was definitely being played in Egypt before 1400 B.C. Mancala variations are played all over Africa and in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, as well as the Philippines. Today, Mancala in various forms is played all over the world.

Clearly, this game would be much different than the electronic games my daughter was more familiar with, and I had my suspicions that the game would suffer the same dusty fate as did our Monopoly game. Much to my surprise, however, the game was a huge success. Our children loved playing it every bit as much as my wife and I did. For the first time in a long time we sat around the table as a family – no television, no computers or other distractions, and spent the entire evening playing, laughing, and talking.

It's almost comical how it took a centuries old game – a simple wooden plank and a handful of "seeds," to bring us together for an evening of fun and togetherness. (Educational fun I might add.)

Watching the smiling faces of my family as we played, laughed, and talked into the night reminded me how important simple family activities such as a family game night are. With so many distractions and commitments pulling family members in any number of different directions, those things which bring a family together are few and far between.

Unknowingly, my daughter and her primitive five dollar game helped bring us together as a family and inspired us to begin a new tradition in our house – family game night.

Passing Thoughts is a syndicated weekly column written by T.W. Winslow - read by millions around the world each week. For reprint info, contact the author at: taddgroup@aol.com

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

Easy Kids Recipe:

“Tastey Taco Pizza”

What a wonderful main dish to nibble on!

Ingredients
• 1lb. lean ground beef
• 2 (8oz.) cans tomato sauce
• 1(1.25oz.)pkg. taco seasoning mix


• 1(8oz.)can refrigerator crescent rolls
• 1/2 lb. process American cheese spread with jalapeno peppers, cubed
• 1c. shredded lettuce
• 1/2c. choppes tomato
• 1/4c. sliced black olives
• Dairy sour cream (optional)
Instructions

Brown meat in large skillet over medium flame; drain. Add tomato sause and seasoning mix; simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Press crescent roll dough onto bottom and sides of ungreased 12 inch pizza pan to form crust. Prick bottom and sides with fork. Preheat gas oven to 375F. Bake 10 minutes or until golden brown. Spread meat mixture over crust; sprinkle cheese over meat mixture. Continue baking until cheese melts. Top with lettuce, tomato,and olives.

Serve with sour cream if desired. Makes 6 to 8 servings

Peanut Butter Fudge

Delicious no-cook fudge!

Ingredients

• 1 can of vanilla frosting
• 1 small jar of peanut butter (plain or with nuts)
Instructions

Stir ingredients together until well blended then spread it out in a dish. Refridgerate about 30 minutes.

You can also use this recipe for choclate covered peanut butter balls. Just roll into balls and cover with chocolate..IT'S GREAT!!

Child Arts & Crafts Activities:

“Golden Ornaments”

What you need:

• Glue gun

• Glue sticks

• Freezer paper

• Cardboard

• Black marker

• Masking tape

• Dish washing soap - liquid

• Container/bowl filled with water

• Gold spray paint

• Scissors, gold thread for hanging, paper towels

On plastic coated side of freezer paper draw outlines of various Christmas shapes with black marker. i.e. Christmas tree, Candy Cane, Angel, Christmas package, Stocking, Gingerbread man. For stability place cardboard underneath. Heat glue gun.

With your fingers spread a thin layer of dishwasher soap over patterns on freezer paper. Using the glue gun outline each pattern with glue. Experiment with doing inner lines as well. Let glue set firmly.

Once dry carefully peel ornaments from paper. Gently wash and dry to remove any soap residue. Spray the front of each ornament with gold paint. Just the front, not the back, flat side. Allow paint to dry completely before completing.

Once ornament is dry gently float in water with gold side down. Using glue gun put glue inside each ornament making sure it comes in contact with the outline at some point. You do not have to fill the entire ornament - instead leaves gaps to give the appearance of crystal once dry. Do one ornament at a time in the water. Do not spray paint new glued areas. Once done carefully remove from water and pat dry.

Hang with gold thread. Additional gold bows or metallic ribbon can be added for decoration.

Positive Parenting Resources:

Making Quality Time for your Children

The Importance of Spending Quality Time with Your Children

The modern set up of the family is truly evolving and ever changing. Nowadays, it is normal that the dad and the mom are both working to help the family make both ends meet.

Thus, in the modern-day situation, the welfare of the child is aggrieved. It is very crucial that a child has his parents to turn to during the critical days of his life, when he experiences new things and realizes new insights.

A child’s formative years are also significant to molding the overall personality of the child as he gears toward adult life. Thus, a child who grew up as a responsible individual will tend to become a good citizen when he becomes an adult.

As parents, you should take note that your responsibility to your child does not end in providing him with his basic needs like food and shelter. It is hard to earn a living nowadays, but that is no excuse for not taking the time to attend to your child's emotional needs.

Spending quality time with children is imperative because that is what creates the finest moments in a child's memory. With the modern family set up, it is hard to maintain a harmonious parent-child relationship, but as a parent, you could always try and realize that it is not actually difficult doing so.

Helpful tips

There are numerous ways you could spend some quality time with your child.

Here are some simple activities and tips that will give you some ideas when you aim to spend quality time with your kids.

• Take a little joyride. Perhaps, you could spend one weekend day driving around. You do not need to get to a destination when you do so. Just taking your kids for a ride, perhaps around the neighborhood, sets a good opportunity for you to laugh along with each other, play jokes, talk or just enjoy sights.

• Play a simple game when you get together. Perhaps, you could play a simple board game or a computer game. By doing so, you are setting the impression to your child that you are game and willing to have fun with him.

• Give individual attention to each child. If you have around three or more children, it is important to set quality time with all of them at the same time. But also be sure to plan or set quality time with each of these kids individually. To do so, you could just tag along a child when you go to the grocery, or simply help one in doing his school homework. Be careful not to get the other kids jealous, though.

• Find a common interest with your child. Your interests may, of course, not be similar and jiving, but for once, be simple and stoop down to the level of the child. Perhaps interest in a cartoon series or a simple action figure toy may put you at the same spot and talk about a lot of things.

• Act like a child for once. By doing so, you could set an example that you are willing to compromise and adjust to your child's needs. Doing so would also let your child know that you are fun to be with and that you could also be just a friend or a playmate to him in addition to being a dad or a mom.

Creating such simple activities make for quality time between you and your kids. You could also set a good quality time by taking meals, like dinner, together. Eating together would set a perfect opportunity to talk about personal things.

Moreover, you should always remember that to spend quality time with your kids and make it work, you should be genuinely interested in doing so. Children will always sense if what you are doing is against your will. When they do that, the quality time is spoiled and you would find it hard to set a fun get-together again.

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

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