As my own children are growing, we’ve been slowly adding little traditions into our lives as well.  We make a dinner of all of our favorite foods on Christmas Eve each year.  On New Year’s Eve we put a folding table in our family room and load it with all of our favorite snacks and we play Wii Sports and other games all night long until the ball drops.

Our traditions are not all centered around holidays though.  The kids have come up with a few traditions of their own.  They have named the first Saturday or October as “Role-Switching Day”.  The kids play the parents and the parents play the kids on this Saturday.  It has been pretty funny so far.

I’d love to hear your family traditions, not only around the holidays, but all year long.  Don’t be shy, let’s hear them all…..

My kids tend to like their veggies uncooked, so that is the way I serve them most of the time.  I also add a fruit to their lunch bags and to the dinner table.  I am lucky that my kids do like many fruits and veggies.  But, not every child is so accepting.

I recently came across this great article about hiding veggies in your kids’ meals.  I LOVE it.  I’ve done it a few times, but love the great ideas at ParentDish.com.  To think that adding just a few pureed veggies to your typical meal could lower their calorie intake and almost doubled their total vegetable intake!  That is fantastic!

I have added fruits to various things as well, such as mashed banana to boxed muffin mix.  Simple things like this can make your kids’ eating habits a little healthier.  What are some things that you do to add veggies and fruits to your child’s diet?  I’d love to hear your stories and perhaps other parents can get a great tip from you too.

Hand-made items are great, especially when you make them yourself.  You can buy hand-made items too, which can become expensive.

In the past, we have given coasters that were hand-painted by my boys; calendars made of family photographs; bird houses built and painted by my boys and pottery, also made by my boys.

This year I’ve had a few hand-painted ornaments made and I hope to have my boys make a few things for various people before it gets too close to Christmas.  Framed pictures are always a nice gift, especially if the picture is of someone you love and care about.

I have yet to decide what sentimental items to give to my two boys.  They are only 7 and 8….plus being boys they aren’t exactly gushy over too much.

I would love to hear some ideas of special mementos that you may have given in the past or ideas for what you are giving this year for whatever you celebrate in your life.

What special gift have you given or will you give that has evoked sentiment, joy and surprise?

Things are different now…different than when we adults were children.  There is more knowledge about the effects of the sun on our bodies, and as most of us know the ozone is being depleted causing less filtering of the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation.   That being said, we and our kids need more protection from these harmful rays.

How to protect our kids

1. Do not allow skin to burn – this increases risk of future skin cancers
2. Avoid tanning & tanning beds
3. Generously apply sunscreen – it is recommended that you apply sunscreen 20 minutes before exposure to the sun.  Also, choose a minimum of 15 SPF protection.  Make sure it protects from both UVA & UVB rays.  Reapply every two hours even if it is cloudy outside, especially when children are sweating & swimming.
4. Choose protective clothing.  There are lots of choices out there now that actually provide UVA & UVB protection in the clothing.
5. Stay in the shade.
6. Make sure you are consuming enough vitamin D, which often times can be low due to the lack of sun exposure that we are allowed to have.
7. Babies that are 6 months old or younger should be kept out of the sun completely.
8. Pay attention to the expiration date on the sunscreen.

How to choose sunscreens

1. Choose broad-spectrum or multi-spectrum protection for both UVA & UVB rays.
2. Look for ingredients such as benzophenones (oxybenzone), cinnamates (octylmethyl cinnamate and cinoxate), sulisobenzone, salicylates, titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, avobenzone (Parsol 1789) and ecamsule (Mexoryl SX).
3. SPF 15 is typically sufficient.  If you have fair skin or a family history of cancer you should increase this to SPF 30 or more for added protection.
4. If you plan to sweat a lot or are going to be in the water, buy sunscreen that is meant for that.

Sunscreens for children

1. Buy a sunscreen designated for children.
2. Avoid sunscreens with para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) and benzephenones like dioxybenzone, oxybenzone, or sulisobenzone, as these may irritate young skin.
3. For sensitive skin, look for titanium dioxide or zinc oxide instead of chemicals like para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA), dioxybenzone, oxybenzone, or sulisobenzone.  Also avoid sunscreens with alcohol, fragrances, or preservatives.

As always, enjoy the warm weather but be safe!

You’ll find some tips about composting, growing tomatoes and ways to involve your children on a previous post titled “Summer Gardening with Your Kids”.

Gardening Resources

This topic is almost endless when looking online, but I’ll mention the resources that I enjoy.  Some are related to organic gardening, including sites where you can order organic plants online.

• Burpee.com is a wonderful resource for almost every aspect of gardening…buying plants, seeds, gardening tips & tools, advice and videos.  This includes both veggie and flower gardening, organic and not.  I LOVE this site.
• The Natural Gardening Company is the oldest certified organic nursery in the USA.  You can purchase your seeds and plants online for shipping at the appropriate planting time for your zone.
• Ed Hume Seeds has a great resource for what to grow for a family of four.  They offer a seed planting chart.  This has been a great help to me.
• If space is an issue, check out How to Grow a Vertical Garden in Raised beds.
• If you live in an area like me, you’ll need to consider a fence to keep the critters out.  I found some great tips at OrganicGardening.com.  They offer tips for do-it-yourself fencing.

I’ve also found a fantastic blog called “5 Minutes for Mom” and they are giving away Love Your Veggies Books & Garden Supplies.  All you need to do is go to the blog and make a comment.  How easy is that.

I hope I’ve helped you a bit.  It is so important to make gardening a family oriented tradition.  We have a great time with it and my boys really love getting dirty.

Let me know if you have any great tips, ideas or other input….even if you  have a question, I’d love to hear from you and find you the answer you are looking for.

Thanks and happy gardening!

Rae Lynn @ Kidz Comfort

My boys are 6 and 7 years old, and fortunately they are still willing to snuggle.  The public displays of affection are decreasing, but they will still kiss me goodbye when I drop them off at school (albeit a quick smooch) and they will hug and kiss me goodnight, good morning, etc…

So why does this happen to so many families?  Many experts believe that there is an association with public displays of affection between child and parent that is somewhat stereotyped as being for babies by the child.  This is much more prevalent with boys and their mothers.

Parenting consultant Barbara F. Meltz suggests making light of your child’s wishes to not hug or kiss by joking around with your child, perhaps suggesting another way of saying goodbye or goodnight that is less “childish” in their eyes.  You can also create a “house rule” such as “bedtime requires a kiss from Mommy & Daddy”, but forgo kissing at other times.

There are always exceptions to this typical scenario of kids wanting less public affection from their parents as they age.  I’d love to hear your story.

For more good reading about raising a son, Meltz suggests:

• Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons From the Myths of Boyhood

• Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys

• Packaging Boyhood: Saving Our Sons from Superheroes, Slackers, and Other Media Stereotypes

March also includes the following:

• March 5^th – Potty Dance Day
• March 7^th – Daughters’ and Sons’ Day
• March 12^th – Girl Scout Day
• March 17^th – Absolutely Incredible Kid Day
• March 18^th – Forgive Mom & Dad Day

To encourage reading with and about your children, we thought we would have a contest.  Sign up for our newsletter and you’ll be entered to win a one-year subscription to one of the following “Top 10” Parenting Magazines:

1.       Family Fun Magazine

2.       Parent & Child

3.       Parenting – Early Years

4.       Parenting – School Years

5.       Parents Magazine

Just subscribe to our free newsletter before March 31^st and you’ll be entered to win!  It’s as easy as that.

Good Luck!

-Rae Lynn @ Kidz Comfort

I found this to be SO interesting and wanted to do the same for my kids.  It sounded so fun!  And, it’s also educational.  How can you beat that?!

I started to do my own research so that I knew where to get started.  I found a great website called Kids Cooking Activities.  This website has some great tips and explains why it is important for families to cook together.  I believe the ten bullet-points on the website whole heatedly.  I always find that my kids are more likely to eat when they are involved in the preparation.  Here are a few examples of what Kids Cooking Activities teaches.  Cooking with your kids…

1.       Teaches kids the importance of nutrition and healthy eating

2.       Boosts their self-esteem

3.       Is wonderful family together-time

These are just a few of the fantastic points of the importance of cooking with your kids.  You can read them all at Kids-Cooking-Activities.com.

Sticking with my original idea to teach my kids about cooking meals from around the world and learning about other cultures, I dug a little deeper and found the website’s International Gourmet Recipes for Kids that helps kids learn about multi-cultural foods.  Check out International Gourmet Recipes for Kids.

So get your kids involved and help them learn about cultures from around the world without ever leaving your home.  Make it a family tradition…perhaps a monthly fun activity that you can all share together.

Bon Appetit

This is not an uncommon story.  More often than not are siblings competing in one way or another.   If it’s not for attention, then it is for recognition, an item or something else.   Sometimes it can be healthy such as wanting to have as many reward stickers on a chore chart as a sibling, but it can also lead to anger and resentment within a family if it crosses a line.  It can make a family game night very tense and not fun at all.

I recently read an article about minimizing competition between kids that I thought was meaningful and relevant.  It touches on five of the ways that you can help to eliminate competition between your own kids.

Do your kids show jealousy of each other?  Read more about Jealousy: 5 Ways to Minimize Competition Between Kids.

Sleep Well!

Rae @ Kidz Comfort

I personally had no idea of the dangers of simple xrays and CT scans, and over the years my children have had plenty.  Between typical home injuries from rough play, to a very scary virus that attacked my then 4-year old’s kidneys, he’s already had several xrays and a CT scan…and he’s only 6-years old now.

Dr. Mercola has a very intriguing article regarding the exposure of radiation on our children, and tips on how we, as parents, can curb that exposure to hopefully reduce the possible outcome of too much radiation over time.

The fact is radiation scans, especially CT scans, will raise your child’s risk of cancer.  From irreparable chromosomal mutations to DNA changes, CT scans alone will end up causing nearly 30,000 unnecessary cancer cases.

To learn more about ways to avoid unnecessary exposure of radiation on your child, visit Dr. Mercola’s site and check out his article entitled:  “Tragically, Average Child in U.S. Gets Seven Radiation Scans”.

I, for one, will be more cognoscente of any future xrays and CT scans that I am told my children may need.

We would love to hear your thoughts.