Posts Tagged: children

Parties — Comments Off
3
Jul 11

Wiggle Your Way to a Great Party with a Kids Wiggles Theme Birthday Celebration!

The Wiggles are known the world over for their brightly colored outfits and catchy tunes. Their show is geared toward younger kids and makes for an outstanding birthday party theme for little children. The sounds of Greg, Jeff, Murray and Anthony have kids all over the world clapping their hands, dancing and singing their chart topping hits!

After you have selected the date for your Wiggles party, send out Wiggles invitations. Pre-printed invitations, decorations and party ware can be found at almost any local party supply or discount store. Also there are an abundance of outlets on the Internet selling Wiggles-ware!

To avoid paying the high cost of pre-printed Wiggles gear, make your own invitations using the colors the Wiggles are famous for; purple, red, yellow and blue! Also buying solid colored plates, utensils, napkins and tablecloths will help keep money in your pocketbook while not wavering from the themed colors of the Wiggles party!

Everyone has a favorite Wiggles song, so make sure to have plenty of Wiggles music on hand for the Wiggles party. If you do not own a Wiggles CD call your local library system to see if they have one available to be checked out, or borrow one from a friend or family member. Put on some of the children抯 favorites and have a dance party!

Don抰 forget to include your favorite Wiggles characters at the Wiggles party! Have the children draw pictures of Dorothy the Dinosaur, Wags the Dog, Henry the Octopus, and Captain Feathersword.

Singing and dancing to the Wiggles tunes will have your guests wiggling with laughter!

Parties — Comments Off
27
Jun 11

I Love You, You Love Me, Kids Love a Barney Party

Barney Parties are fun for even the smallest of dinosaurs. Purchase pre-made Barney invitations, or design your own by using purple, orange, yellow and green paper, glitter and Barney and Friends stickers.

Invite your guests to bring one stuffed Barney toy to play with during the party. This will not only add to your decorations, but will keep little hands busy in between games, while showing Barney videos, or when serving snacks. Make sure these little Barneys make it back home as the guests leave.

Decorate for the Barney Party by hanging orange, purple, yellow and green streamers or crepe paper from the ceiling. Twist two colors together and hang them down the walls to brighten up a dark corner.

Make your own Barney cake or cupcakes by purchasing Barney figurines from a dollar or discount store. These figurines will be of higher quality and your child can play with them well after the party is over. The homemade cake can be frosted in purple, orange, yellow and green to match the decorations. Often these homemade cakes are much tastier and cheaper than store-bought cakes.

To keep the guests of all ages entertained gather them in a circle and sing Barney songs. While snacks are being prepared keep the children busy by having a Barney coloring contest. Free activity and coloring pages are available to be downloaded off of Barney抯 official website.

Most importantly, don抰 forget to have the camera ready for the Barney party. Reward your hard work by snapping photos of your terrific event!

Babies-Toddler — Comments Off
24
Jun 11

Making a Kid’s Party Exciting

For small children, it isn抰 very difficult to have a kid抯 party that is fun for everyone, but as they become older, it becomes more difficult. You want to make it exciting for everyone, but you aren抰 sure just what to do. You need suggestions for things to do that won抰 bore the older children while keeping the younger children entertained.

It is usually about the age when children begin school that they start wanting to have their birthday party somewhere besides home: bowling alley, skating rink, amusement park, beach, and the like. If you are in a financial position to schedule your party at one of these places, it抯 great fun for the kids and gives them an opportunity to do something with their friends besides sit around the television or play video games all day. For those who can抰 afford a party away from home or simply don抰 want to plan that kind of party, there are other alternatives.

Most children under the age of twelve enjoy seeing a clown perform his magical tricks and make animals out of balloons. For the older child who feels he is too mature for a clown, it抯 still possible to hire a magician to come and perform some magical tricks for the children at the party. Though games such as 揚in the Tail on the Donkey?have been played for years, you can put a new twist on it with a change in the rules for prizes ?instead of everyone getting something, have 2-3 nice prices for those who are really good at the game.

If it抯 a summertime party, and you have a pool, developing some pool games can be a fun change of pace. All children love the pool, and if they can play games to win prizes, that抯 even better. You as the party planner may have some ideas of your own, but remember, making a party exciting means something different for different ages.

Parenting — Comments Off
20
Jun 11

What Would You Do If Arrested For Talking About God?

“I would be singing, praying, reading the Bible, doing the moonwalk, thanking God and then pretending to be miserable when I see the guard coming,” says Langdon, age 11.

That’s great, but can you read the Bible and do the moonwalk at the same time? You might be the first prisoner in history to be locked up in solitary confinement for having too much fun.

“I would ask, ‘Why am I getting arrested?’” says Zach, 9. “Then, I would say to myself, ‘God is doing this for a reason and a good one.’ Then, I would tell people about Jesus.”

To face a crisis can be exciting when you know God’s plan for you is bigger than your understanding. Every day, I trust in a computer to store what I write even though I don’t understand how it works. Similarly, I don’t have to understand everything God does or allows in order to trust him.

“If they threatened to hurt me if I didn’t stop talking about God, I wouldn’t listen to them because I know that I am pleasing God,” says Megan, 9. “No matter what happens to me, I’ll have Jesus with me.”

Megan would be following the example of the Apostles Peter and John upon their release from jail. When religious leaders commanded them not to speak in the name of Jesus, they said: “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20).

Confronting authorities may not always be God’s will, says Stephanie, 9: “As soon as they let me go from jail, I would move somewhere else to talk about God.”

Shortly after the Apostle Paul switched from being a feared persecutor of Christians to their greatest evangelist, he became the most wanted man in Damascus. The governor had an all-points bulletin out for his arrest. Paul’s friends lowered him down a wall in a basket, and he escaped.

“I would send a letter or go talk to the president,” says Ruth, 8. “And maybe we could talk about God. I would also pray to God.”

In effect, this is what the Apostle Paul did when he appealed to Caesar during one of his trials. By this legal tactic, he avoided an assassins’ ambush and continued to speak and write from jail. The letters Paul wrote to churches during his house arrest in Rome form much of the New Testament. Appropriately, they’re called the Prison Epistles.

“In Acts 16:16-34, Paul was arrested for believing in God and never stopped singing and praying and worshiping him,” says Shane, 11. “While he was doing these things, the guard asked him how he could be saved, and Paul told him to just believe in the Lord Jesus, and the guard let them go.”

Shane, you’re amazingly concise, but you omitted one important detail — the earthquake. Paul was the first earthquake evangelist. Immediately after the quake, the guard asked his now-famous question, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved,” Paul replied.

Let’s pray for persecuted Christians and support organizations that help them. Christians in Sudan, China and Saudi Arabia immediately come to mind. It’s a capital offense in Saudi Arabia to convert from Islam to Christianity. For years, Muslim leaders of Sudan have continued to bomb Christians in southern Sudan.

Point to ponder: Jesus promised tribulation in this world and the power to rise above it.

Scripture to remember: “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Question to consider: If police were told to arrest all Christians, would they come to your house?

Parenting — Comments Off
19
Jun 11

Raising Kids – Learning to Be Patient!

Raising kids has never been an easy task and it is definitely a task that requires parents to be very patient! If you are a parent or a teacher yourself, you will know what I mean by that. It is true to say that patience is a virtue but in no way does it mean that it is an inborn quality. In fact, patience can be learned over time and I’m saying it from experience!

With a little effort and some humor to amuse yourself over past events that had annoyed you at that time, you will slowly be able to learn to be patient. I know because I have a pair of twins (a girl and a boy) and they have totally different characters. If you have children, you will know how difficult it is to raise one kid but two of the same age can really drive you though the roof sometimes! So what can you do to develop patience?

First and foremost, you must first learn to be patient with yourself. Why do I say that? This is because it is impossible for everything to go the way you have planned, so you must not blame yourself for everything that had gone wrong and remember to show tolerance too. However, you must also not fall into the trap of self-content! Happily for children, adults are mature persons and know, most of the times, to keep their nerves under control. It is vital not to raise your voice at your kids when they have done anything wrong, otherwise they will grow up thinking that they have to shout to get things done. You need to impose your wants with a calm but firm tone, regardless of what the problem is.

The next thing you should keep in mind not to overwhelm yourself with perspective problems. Try not to think of tomorrow. Focus only on immediate problems, because if you do otherwise you will only worry a lot more and you will get upset easier. That is not going to help you to develop your patience because only with a lower level of stress can you inflict more patience internally.

What you need to do is to explain things calmly to your child. Tell him what your expectations of him are and how he can rise up to your expectations. It is important to note that you should not blame him for the mistakes made. Instead, you should explain what he had done wrong and how he should behave instead. Depending on his age, it is vital not to ask of him more than he can give you.

Children sometimes seem to try on purpose to test the limits of their parents’ patience. If you feel that this is what your little one is doing, ask yourself what might have pushed him to this. Maybe he is trying to cover some frustration, maybe he wants revenge for a moment when you were unfair or maybe he feels neglected and he’s only trying to get your attention. You need to find out the reasons behind what he is doing before you can find a remedy for the problem. Simply reprimanding him is not going to solve the problem.

Maybe it would be best if you look at the problem from his point of view for a change: if he won’t learn to make himself a patient person, then he probably won’t try to help you on this. So that comes to the question of how can you make your child become a patient person? Well, there are indeed a few things that you can do to nurture that patience in your child and below are some suggestions that you can use.

1. Teach him to plant a tree or to take care of a flower. That will train him to be patient until he sees the results of his work as he will have to wait for the plant to grow up.

2. Play interactive games with him as this will teach him to wait until his turn comes. Preferably, have more players for the game as he will have to wait longer for his turn!

3. If he wants a bike, give money, a little a time, and tell him to save them for that bike. Of course you will be the one that will give him the present, but your child will learn to have patience and, at the same time, the value of money. Teach him to allocate a portion of his weekly allowance for the bike.

4. Read to him thick books and long stories, leaving to follow-up for the next evening. Do not give in to his pleads to find out the ending in the same evening. This will not only develop his patience, but will also build up his love for reading as well!

Parenting — Comments Off
15
Jun 11

Free Fun for Kids

Being a stay-at-home mother of 3 kids I constantly hear “We’re bored”, so I created a list of things we can do for no money (or almost no money). I’ve broken it down into 2 categories: inside and outside.

Inside Activities:

* Go on a treasure hunt – look for a missing sock or toy, or just hide something for them to find. You can even draw a map to find the treasure.

* Read a book – Go to your local library and check out a book then read it together. Talk about what happened in the story.

* Make a collage from old magazines, photos, junk mail, newspapers or anything else you have around the house.

* Play post office. Using some of the junk mail we all get pretend to send and receive letters. You can also write your own letter or draw pictures and pretend to mail them.

* Play store. Pretend to shop for groceries, clothes, or anything else you can think of. One person can be the salesperson and the other person can be the customer.

* Play restaurant. One person can be the waiter and the other person can be the customer. Pretend to take the order, prepare the food, serve the food and collect payment.

* Let the kids help you cook. Even the littlest kids can help pour or stir under your supervision.

* Watch a movie together. Check out one from your local library or rent one from a video rental store. Then break out the popcorn and enjoy the show.

* Play hot and cold. One person hides an object and the other has to find it. When the seeker gets close the are getting warmer and when they are moving away from the object they are getting colder.

* Start your own band. Use pots and pans for drums. Pizza pans, pot lids and wooden spoons work well also.

* Act out a story. Many people know Little Red Riding Hood or Three Little Pigs.

* Make a fort using pillows, blankets and sofa cushions.

* Put together a puzzle. You can also make a puzzle of your own by drawing a picture, cutting it into pieces, and then have fun putting it together again.

* Play dress-up. Let them wear your clothes, shoes and make-up.

* Have a picnic inside.

* Tell them a story. Your favorite trip, holiday, a funny event, etc.

* Color with crayons or color pencils. There are tons of site online to print out free color pages with every cartoon character you can imagine. Another option is draw your own pictures that tell a story.

* Get a cardboard box and let them play. Depending on the size it could become a car, house, space ship, train, castle, etc. Many grocery stores will give you boxes if you ask.

Outside Activities:

* Visit a local or state park.

* Visit a local playground. Many apartment complexes have playgrounds for their tenants which anyone can use unless it says for tenants only.

* Play tag – our favorite is freeze tag.

* Search for acorns, leaves, flowers, seeds, or four leaf clovers, etc. See who can find the most or find one first.

* Go for a walk in the snow.

* Make a snowman or snow family or anything out of snow. Check out my aunt’s site at http://www.snowart.org for really neat snow creations using food coloring.

* Watch the sunset in the evening or sun rise in the morning.

* Look for stars or planets in the night sky.

* Have a snowball fight.

* Search for tracks – squirrel, deer, dog, cat, people, bird, etc.

* Plant seeds and help them grow. One inexpensive way to get seeds is to get them out of pumpkins, watermelons, apples, cucumbers, peppers and then plant them outside or in a plastic cup.

* Visit friends or neighbors.

* Have a picnic outside.

* Go to the beach, a lake, a river and enjoy the view or go for a swim.

* Make mud pies.

* Play in a sprinkler or in a baby pool.

* Go for a walk.

* Rake leaves into a big pile and jump in.

Most kids just want to spend time with people who care about them. If you include them in some of what you do each day it will help them learn about this great, big world around them.

Babies-Toddler — Comments Off
13
Jun 11

Educate Yourself About SIDS Before You Have To

Sudden Infant Death: No vaccine is risk free. These immunizations have been said to be the safest tools in modern medicine. That is probably true for the most part. The immunizations have eliminated a lot of disease, but it is now coming to light that the immunizations are also killing more than 27,000 babies per year before the age of one year old.

The side effects of vaccines can be a rash, a sore arm or mild fever. There are more serious side effects. A child can have severe allergic reactions. It can even go as far as brain damage that is irreversible. They can have apnea or hypopnea, which is related to their breathing. If they get apnea, they will stop breathing and could die. Hypopnea is what they will get before the apnea, which is their breathing pattern becomes irregular. The irregular breathing usually happens the day after the immunization.

There are charts you can look up online to show you what their breathing is like after receiving the vaccine. For years, people used to let their children become exposed to such things as mumps, chicken pox and measles because it is a childhood disease and could actually kill an adult. When they came out with the vaccines, they did not complete their research on what age to actually begin the immunization process.

When a child is born, parents are led to believe that if the mother breast feeds the child, that the child will have the mother’s immune system. That is true to a point. The child will get some antibodies from the mom, but the rest, they get on their own by being out in the world. Their siblings might have a cold and that child builds their own immunity to it. By the time a child is two years old, they have a strong immune system that can handle the immunizations. Diphtheria is the biggest culprate for killing children, considering that it is respertory.

That is why hypopnea and apnea come into play. The vaccine can cause minor and temporary redness and swelling, but it can also cause heart and neurological complications, and death. About 5 to 10 percent. Parents need to understand that the effect of a vaccination can happen because they are live virus’ that they are injecting your child with. The child’s body is not strong enough to handle what they are giving them. They have to build their immunity to their surroundings.

Another thing that parents should know, is that because of the effect, death, caused by the vaccine given too early in life, the government has set up what is called an “Immunization Compensation Fund”. If there was no effect from receiving vaccinations, then there should not be a fund that will pay you $600,000 in the event that your baby dies from a vaccine.

I feel that is showing guilt on the part of the government. It is an admittance. All you have to do is educate yourself about SIDS before you have to. Other countries have done research where they would wait until the child is two years old before starting the vaccines. Their research was thirteen years long, and in that thirteen years, their SIDS rate diminished to nothing. It is now a choice in America for the parent to decide how old the child should be to receive vaccinations. The cause of waiting until the child is two years old, will have the effect of lowering the amount of children that die each year due to the vaccines.

Parenting — Comments Off
10
Jun 11

Choosing Toys For Your Children

Throughout the year, we see advertisements for children抯 toys. These advertisements are on television, on the radio and in print, both in magazines and in the newspaper.

Of course the amount and intensity of these ads is multiplied the last few months of each year. Our experience has often been that many toys are just fads. They are promoted in a way that children are just begging to receive them, and then once received, they are often discarded after just a few uses.

Over they years, I have often opted for toys that encourage creativity or thinking. For example, we抳e always owned word games. We抳e owned Scrabble, Boggle and Word Yahtzee, both the adult versions and the children抯 versions. These games have helped my children develop a love of words. My older daughter can not be beat at Boggle. I laugh that no one will play Boggle with her, as no one can win against her.

When my kids were young we owned blocks, Duplos and Lego. Building and creating are wonderful activities for children. My kids created all types of structures. They built homes for their dolls. They would follow patterns and build robot type figures and they would just create made up structures with no real definition. They loved building and creating. When they were old enough we bought the iron on bead designs and again they would create and create. They made magnets and bookmarks galore.

Crossword puzzle books, logic puzzle books and word find books have also always been very popular in our home. Of course these types of books are for older kids, not the under 5 group. We also always bought many workbooks, which both of my kids loved to sit and work on. Under 5, we bought a lot of shapes and counting games. Both of my kids loved Candy Land. They had to match their color cards to the space on the board. They could play this for hours upon hours. We also loved the game Sorry. Reading numbers and counting spaces was fun when they were young.

Over the years we have purchased hundreds of reading books. We actually discovered used book stores when the kids were young because we just couldn抰 keep them in books. As the kids learned to read, they went through every book the library had that kids could read themselves. They read everything we had bought them and so we began visiting the used book store. Any gift giving holiday the kids knew they could expect at least a couple of books.

My final suggestion is an assortment of age appropriate art supplies. You can buy crayons, markers and paints. As my kids got older they also began loving rubber stamps. They loved making their own cards and wrapping paper with rubber stamps.

We almost always skipped the newest advertised fad and instead chose the educational and creative toys on the market.

Parenting — Comments Off
8
Jun 11

How to Be Your Child’s Friend

There is a need for you to learn to be the best friend your child could ever have if you want to be the best parent you have been aiming to be since your decision to start to procreate.

It’s just a pity that some parents have not learn to see things from this perspective.But this is the exact way to view the relationship between you and your child or children from now on if you want to be successful as a parent.

Our parents’ time were different from ours,and everybody must recognize this fact of life for us to make a headway in the everyday stress of parenting the young ones around us.

Now the question you may want to ask is…

Why must l be my child’s friend being the parent?

The simple answer to that will be listed below for your understanding:

- It will stop your child from depending on his friend’s advice especially where the friend’s advice is not the same as yours.

- The child we learn to be self-confident and be able to question adults
who may guide him aright.

- You will have the opportunity to question your child easily about their reason for taking some actions that are somehow injurious to them from your on understanding of the possible result and guide them appropriately.

- Your child will always feel free to let you know whatever may be worrying him before it turns harmful and beyond control.

- It provides avenue for you to monitor the friends your child is moving with and possible opportunity for you to get to know them and their background.

Finally….

Being your child’s best friend makes for a very happy home environment and less worry for both of you at your work place and his own school.

The reason for this…

Well…

People usually find it somehow very hard to do the things that will hurt the friends.

How about this for developing a friendly attitude towards your child and be your child’s friend?

pregnancy — Comments Off
7
Jun 11

You Are Pregnant? Then Take Care of Yourself

When you are pregnant you should be in contact with your doctor who will guide you through all the checkups you should need.

The doctor should be familiar with your medical history in order to care for you properly. Before you do anything unusual check with your doctor first to make sure it is safe.

Important you know that the changes are different from woman to woman and each pregnancy is different from the previous one. Your body is constantly changing physically along with emotional and mental changes you will experience,

One of the first things you might experience in the beginning of pregnancy is morning sickness which makes you feel like throwing up and not wanting to eat, this could happen at nighttime also. This usually lasts a few weeks to a month but then you should feel like eating again and your menu is endless.

You may also feel very tired and sleepy, that is natural. Then usually around the 4th or 5th month your stomach will start growing and you will feel the additional weight you will carry around. Sometimes you will feel moody and sensitive, you will want attention, a cozy home with lots of love and support from your partner.

Food
During your pregnancy you can eat almost anything that is healthy and nourishing. Sometimes you will find yourself craving something strange or unusual for you, that is common.

You may find that food you used to like doesn’t appeal to you now and foods you didn’t like will appeal to you. This is a hormonal thing and is natural. Just remember everything you put in your mouth will affect the baby.

If it is a food product that causes gas both of you will suffer from it so choose wisely what you eat. You want your baby to come into this world healthy and strong.

Vitamins

Vitamins are very good for you during your pregnancy. They are good as a back up to your diet and they are good for the baby.

If you are not sure you eat enough good food the vitamins will do the job. You need to get advice from your doctor as to which vitamins you should take. There are a lot of vitamins and companies that make them but it is best to talk to your doctor.

The doctor may prescribe different vitamins to different women so it is best to talk to him/her.

While pregnant the body is transforming to a different level. It has 9 months to prepare for the due day.

Everything is very gradual and has a reason. As we have said before it is different from woman to woman. Some women grow a lot while other women hardly increase in size, but the stomach seems to always look like a balloon or a basketball.

There are physical changes because you are now living for two. You need to take care of yourself and pay attention to any pains you may feel, blood spots, marks on your skin, etc.

Usually around the 5th month you will feel the baby move. It will feel like a flutter and as it grows it will start to kick and move around.

During the pregnancy you can become very moody and sensitive .you may cry very easily or become angry very fast or on the other hand you will have moments of joy and happiness. Always remember to keep your heart open and try to get everything through love.

To listen to the real you deep inside this is the time you develop a new sense called “mother’s intuition”, it is something you just know and there is no explanation as to where it comes from or how. Well pregnancy is the beginning for you to listen to your intuition, what is good for you, what kind of food makes you feel good, and what is good for the baby and you together, whether it is a boy or girl.

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