Happy Birthday, America!

Perhaps one of the easiest (and most fun!) ways to explain Independence Day to youngsters is as America’s Birthday. Below are just a few ways for you and your preschool patriot to help America celebrate:

1. Make a paper or felt flag – older kiddos may enjoy learning what the stars and stripes represent (50 states and 13 original colonies).

2. Play patriotic music and sing along! Songs like Yankee Doodle and the Star Spangled Banner aren’t just patriotic, they’re fun and a symbol or respect for our country.

3. Pick out a red, white, and blue outfit for each member of the family to wear today!

4. Color in a map of the United States and start teaching your preschooler the names of each of the 50 states.

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Summertime Travel Tips

Summer’s here and for many families, that means travel. Whether by plane, train, or automobile, your child is bound to get bored at some point in the trip. While it’s so tempting to hand your little one the iPhone press play on the laptop for two hours of peace thanks to a movie, the truth is, you could be using this time to 1. Connect with your child and 2. Help him or her learn. Here are some ideas on just how to do that and I’ll give you a hint: remember when we were kids? Yes, the days before technology...

1. Play ‘I Spy’ – Perfect for waiting on the airplane before it takes off, ‘I Spy’ challenges children to be observant and use a critical eye. Use different variations like colors, numbers or shapes (“I spy with my little eye something with three circles”), or letters (“I spy something with an S in the name of it”).

2. License Plate Game – This game is perfect for long road trips and can be done over a period of days (or weeks!). Try and find as many different license plates as you can. Can you find all the states? How many countries? Be careful, it can become an obsession...

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Parenting Quick Challenge: New Year's Resolutions

Are you sick of the same New Year’s resolutions year after year? Lose weight get organized, start exercising. Why not try something different this year- a parenting resolution!

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Maybe you want to spend more time with your kids. Resolve to spend an extra 30 minutes per evening (after work or after dinner) reading a book or working on a puzzle with them. Think about it. Thirty minutes each weekday adds up to 2 ½ hours a week. That’s roughly 10 hours each month of extra time your kids get with you!

Or maybe you want to be more patient with your kids. It’s easy to get frustrated with little ones, whose brains don’t work quite as fast as we sometimes wish they did. Young children need lots of reminders and are still learning to live in the world adults have created. Resolve to make yourself take a deep breath before you snap at them, say something that may come off as a put down, or let your frustration come out in what you say or do.

Maybe you haven’t had enough ‘me’ time and it’s affecting your parenting. Resolve to have a babysitter once a week or once a month and make time for yourself. After all, you have to take care of you in order to take care of your children. (The same goes for your relationship!)

What’s your parenting New Year’s Resolution for 2011? Comment and share!

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Cheap Fun: Winter

The holidays are over- the decorations have been hung (and possibly unhung), the gifts have been opened, but the kids are still out of school...have you heard this yet: “I’m bored”? If so (or even if not) here are a few quick ideas for after-holiday winter fun!

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1. Involve your child in holiday un-decorating- Especially great for very young children, make a tradition of saying goodbye to the holidays by helping them put away special holiday decorations and ornaments. This will give closure to an exciting time of year.

2. Start a countdown to the next holiday- Groundhog Day is only a little over a month away, so why not start a countdown? In fact, why not make an entire calendar of the year’s holidays?!

3. Make a dried apple garland – This is a fun craft for which you probably already have most of the materials. Bonus: It will make your home smell delicious!

• Simply core & slice 6-8 apples into ¼” slices & soak in lemon juice for 6 minutes.
• Pat dry with paper towel & sprinkle both sides with mixture of 8 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp allspice, 1 tsp cloves
• Bake in single layer at 200 degrees for 6 hours until completely dried & slightly pliable

String apples onto jute or other craft rope, alternating with fabric strips or holly sprigs. Hang and enjoy!

4. Go ice skating! Okay, so this one costs a bit, but what better winter activity?! Not only is it fun, but it’s a great way to help your little one start learning some heavy duty coordination! Tip: try googling a coupon for your local ice skating rink.

5. Make a Snow Globe - How magical to have your very own homemade snow globe! It’s super easy and requires only a few materials. Here’s a great tutorial.

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Thought for the Weekend

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas time.
-Laura Ingalls Wilder


Happy Holidays from Avant Garde Parenting! Read more...

Parenting Quick Challenge: Stay Sane for the Holidays (Part 2)

Part one was the food holiday- Thanksgiving. But you got through it, right? Now it's the gift holiday. More fun, but also more stress. Now not only are you dealing with your relatives, in-laws, food and cooking, unfamiliar people staying in your home (or you staying in unfamiliar people's homes), but add in the stress of... Gifts.

Now, if you're like me, you know exactly what to get each and every person on your list- you know just what will make each loved one smile and warm their hearts in the most personal kind of way. You've also finished all your shopping by December 1.  Wait. That's not me at all. As I write this, I'm still not finished shopping and each year I convince myself a little more that gift cards are in fact quite a thoughtful, personal gift- after all, it’s like money, only better. Right? RIGHT?

But I regress. The point is: the holidays can be are stressful. If you celebrate Hanukkah, congratulations! You. Are. Done. Pat yourself on the back, put your feet up, and take a rest. If you celebrate Christmas, stay tuned: what follows is my highly philosophical, well thought out, took me days to come up with it, top two reasons to remind yourself NOT to be stressed out for Christmas 2010:

1. Christmas is on a Saturday. Sleep in on Sunday.

2. If your kids get up at the crack of dawn on Christmas day, the will likely zonk out for a nap by noon.

TAA-DAAA! There. Don’t you feel less stressed already?!

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Going to Visit Santa- Full of Excitement or Full of Nerves?

I have this coffee table book that was given to me by a friend called ‘Scared of Santa: Scenes of Terror in Toyland.’ It’s a compilation of photos of children sitting in Santa’s lap. Crying. While I have to admit that it is funny and if you could see some of the Santas in this book they might even make you cry, I feel the need to take this opportunity to make the following holiday public service announcement: PLEASE don’t let this happen to your child- examine your motivation for taking your child to visit Santa.

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As I was flipping through the book, I started thinking- do parents take their children to visit Santa because the children want to? Or is it because parents want that annual holiday party favor of a photo of their child on the lap of the big guy? Or maybe we parents really want our children to love Santa the way we loved Santa, so we try, year after year, to no avail. Or maybe (and I empathize with this one, really I do) it’s because we stood in line for over an hour at the mall behind a screaming kid, having to smell Cinnabon the entire time, and We. Are. Not. Giving. Up. Now.

Now, I should say, some children LOVE visiting Santa. I myself have a memory of going to visit Santa and, when it was my turn, taking the liberty of completely reclining on his lap as if to say, ‘Okay, dude, this is going to be a while. I’ve got a lot on the list and this happens once a year. Let’s both get comfortable.’ For those children, go forth. Visit Santa.

Some children really want to visit Santa in person and then get nervous at the last minute. We’ll call it ‘Santa anxiety.’ For those children, here are a few tips that may help the process:

• Explain what it will be like before you go. Show her pictures of Santa. Tell her exactly what will happen.
• When you get there, approach the Santa station slowly, explaining again exactly what will happen.
• If needed, go with him to sit on Santa’s lap. Don’t be embarrassed. Santa’s seen everything. I promise.
• If she’s still scared, come back later, or come back next year. The stress, the tears, the anxiety- they’re NOT worth it.

Still, some children just aren’t the ‘Santa visiting’ kind. For those children, I encourage you to find other ways for your children to connect with the Man in Red. Your child can send Santa an email here. And guess what? Santa will email back within 3 days!

Always, always reassure your little one that Santa will absolutely still visit on Christmas Eve. The visit beforehand is just for fun J

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In Moderation: Kids & Holiday Lists

The holiday list. I know when I was a kid, my mom would plop the JCPenney catalog down in front of me with a pencil and a pad of paper and I would go to town. Nowadays, it’s different. Kids are inundated with commercials and demos at the mall. They know what they want months before the holidays.

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And let me get ‘old lady, here’s-what’s-wrong-with-the-youngsters-of-today’ for a second,’ but don’t we all want to teach our children that it’s okay if they don’t get everything on their list? I think, as parents, we want to preempt the sense of entitlement that we (cough) see all too often these days. Okay, stepping down off soapbox...now.

One way to navigate this with young children and holiday lists is to remind them that the holiday list is just a suggestion for mom, dad, grandparents, and yes, even Santa. The conversation can go something like this:

You: “Oh I’m so glad you thought of so many ideas for what you want for Christmas/Hanukkah! Remember, though, you won’t get everything on your list, just some of the things.”

Child: “Why?”

You: “Well, Mom/dad/grandma/grandpa has other people to buy gifts for, too. So she’ll get you a few things, but not everything. Why don’t you put a star by the two things you want most, so she’ll know what to look for first?”

A good way to end this activity is to teach your child that the holidays are a time for giving to others, as well. When he gives his list to the respective aunts, uncles, and grandparents, have him ask what they have on their lists. 

How do you do Holiday lists with your kiddos?

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Parenting Quick Challenge: Stay Sane for the Holidays (Part 1)

Okay, dear readers, as we embark on the Thanksgiving holiday I know that many of you will be celebrating with family and extended family over the next few days. And family + extended family + cramped living quarters + lots of food + lots of kids = lots of STRESS LOVE, right???


So as you go into this first of two back-to-back holidays (up next: Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa), I realize that you're thinking: 'You know what I need? I need one more challenge.'


I'm on it.


Here's the challenge: When you're about to lose it on an in-law, when you're about to throw out the burnt dressing and buy the whole darn dinner from Kroger, when you're about to pack up the kids and just go home and turn on Dora because at least you will have 30 minutes of peace...just look at your kiddos for a minute. Just for a minute. Maybe they're playing- and it's probably the cutest thing you've ever seen. Maybe they're zonked out on the sofa from a mashed potato, cherry pie induced coma- and it's the most peaceful sight of the day. And just remember: you do it for them.




P.S. To my Canadian, UK, German, and Indian (and anyone I forgot) readers, thanks for sticking with me through the past few American Thanksgiving posts. And to everyone, I'll be back on Monday, November 29- well fed and well rested! Read more...