Archive for Guest Article
Making Valentine’s Day Fun for the Whole Family
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To be someone’s Valentine is to be loved by another. Romantic? Of course, but Valentine’s Day is not the sole property of loving couples. It can also be a wonderful day for loving families.
Here are some ways parents can use Valentine’s Day to introduce new family traditions and create some special memories for their kids.
1. Food is often the way to the heart. How about getting the whole family involved in making a heart-shaped meal. Place a cookie cutter into a pan. Pour in an egg or some pancake batter to cook into a heart-shaped breakfast treat. Using a heart-shaped template, trim French toast or sandwiches into a heart-shaped lunch. A larger template can make a Valentine’s Day pizza a favorite dinner or evening treat. And don’t forget the heart-shaped cookies. Get the kids involved in the preparations, and let them decorate their heart-shaped goodies with pink sprinkles or red strawberries. They’ll love it that much more.
2. Kids would love a Valentine’s fashion show. Have each participant, including Mom, Dad and even Brother, put together an outfit from items found around the house. The only rule is that the models can only wear white, pink or red. Get creative – a silk flower bonnet, a white tablecloth evening gown, a red sports equipment ensemble. (Older siblings can help younger ones who are unable to do it themselves.) Then, invite Grandma and Grandpa to see the crazy ideas everyone has come up with to showcase their Valentine’s spirit.
3. Create a family gift that will keep on giving. Work together to create a jar of special notes — include anything that will make the other people in the family feel loved when they read them (a special memory about a great time together as a family, a meaningful poem or quote, something you love about every member of the family). Work on them individually or together. Then, over the next several months pull one from the jar during family nights and share it.
4. Set up a Valentine’s Day scavenger hunt. Hide Valentine’s treats around the house with clues that lead family members from one spot to the next. This is an easy game to modify for children of different ages simply by setting different levels of difficulty for the clues — little ones can be given pictures and older children can follow written clues.
5. Instead of giving gifts, make “coupons” for each other. Every person could give one or two coupons to every member of the family to redeem whenever they want. Parents could exchange backrubs or a night off from the dishes. To their children, they can give an extra bedtime story, a special meal or treat. Children can make coupons up for their parents and siblings for hugs and kisses, help with another’s chores or a week of taking out the garbage.
Get creative. Put on your thinking caps and you can make great Valentine’s Day memories your family will treasure forever.
About the Author:
Jennifer Kirkpatrick is a busy mom of two and an entrepreneur who creates and sells unique items for kids of all ages. Visit her online store Pipsqueak Boutique for great baby gifts. And check out her clothing line, Define*Me Clothing for fun personalized kids clothes.
Household Chores for Preschool-Aged Children
Posted by: | CommentsChildren can learn to do household chores at a young age. Even toddlers can be taught to pick up their clothes and toys and put them away.
Preschool-aged children should be doing a wider variety of household chores. In our home, I keep my preschoolers’ chore list short and simple, but they have come a long way in learning to clean up after themselves.
Not too long ago, I was still helping my four-year-olds get dressed in the morning. That was one of the first tasks to be put on their chore chart! I thought if I made it a “chore”, and that if doing chores would earn them a special reward, then they would be more motivated to get themselves dressed in the morning, and I was right.
Another chore I have my preschoolers do is put their dishes in the sink after they eat, including scraping their plates into the garbage can first. The first couple of times I had to remind them to do it after they ate, but very quickly it became a new habit for them and they started doing it without even thinking about it.
Young children have a way of making your home look like a tornado tore through it. Picking up all their toys day after day gets really tiring, and some days I just want to give up. I don’t make my boys pick up every single toy laying around the house, but every afternoon I have them do a general cleanup to get most of their toys put away where they belong. If you label containers for them, this exercise is also a great way for teaching them simple words as they look for the correct container to put away their toys.
At night time my boys put on their own pajamas and brush their own teeth. There are many rinses available that make brushing teeth fun for kids…who wouldn’t want their teeth to turn blue!? My boys look forward to brushing their teeth every night.
Every night before bed my boys get to choose a small toy from a “treasure” box I put together to reward them for doing their chores. This box is full of small plastic lizards, frogs, stickers, temporary tattoos, and other small toys. You would think a child wouldn’t go to all that trouble just for a small temporary tattoo, but you would be surprised. The novelty still hasn’t worn off for my kids, even after several months. They really look forward to picking out their treasure every night.
My main goal in choosing these simple chores for my children was to have them start doing the things for themselves that I do for them day after day. It frees up more of my time for other household chores, and they are learning to take more responsibility for taking care of themselves.
Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com
Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom who is the author of What’s for Dinner?, an e-cookbook containing more than 250 quick easy dinner ideas. For more recipes, organizing tips, home decorating, crafts, holiday hints, and more, visit Creative Homemaking at www.creativehomemaking.com
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