Fun Summer Activities for Your Kids
Summer time, summer time.
Summer as a season has its own advantages and people and families are excited about this time of the year. Everybody has a plan to accomplish and if you have a family, you certainly have plans of going somewhere or doing something with your family this summer time.
Traveling in summer time is one of the most popular activities and kids love it. There are numerous locations that you can travel to and visit. Some prefer to take a break from the heat of their environment and travel to cold places and spend summer there and some prefer to travel from their cold environment to warmer places. No matter what place you and your family choose to spend your summer time in, you need to consider taking the right measures for your travel. One great factor that you might want to consider is to travel light. No matter what sort of transportation you are using to reach your destination, traveling light can be a great advantage on your part. You will be able to carry your load everywhere you go. Make sure to choose the right items based on the environment that you and your family traveling to. Consider choosing the right spot so your kid or kids can enjoy a lot of activities such as swimming in the sea and skiing in cold mountains.
Aside from traveling and other sorts of activity to entertain your kids, kid’s summer activities can take place in your own house such as planting a garden. However, in some places, the weather can make it challenging to plant a garden so plant a garden with respect to your environment. Here are some plants you might want to consider growing: potato, tomato, cucumber, peas, carrot, turnip, sunflower, squash and etc. To learn about how to plant these plants in your backyard and what sort of environment is suitable for each plant, you can always conduct your research online.
Other kids’ activities that you might want to consider are watching any sports game or movies since these can be quite entertaining and fun. A car race can really keep them frozen in their chairs. Baseball games can make your kid jump in his chair from excitement and a sci-fi movie can help their imagination grow. For your child, anything can be entertaining as long as you provide enough guidance during the activities. One of the main things that kids love about these activities is the snack that you provide them with. So as long as you provide a tasty snack, you can expect that they will be on their good behavior and enjoy the activity at hand.
Aside from entertainment in summer time, reading a book can be a great activity to be introduced to your kid. So many parents tend to forget the joys of reading when they were young. However, if you just take the time to remember your own childhood, you might recall how somebody would read some stories for you while you would take a look at the pictures in the book and you will feel like you’re in a new different world. To lean more about kids’ activities this summer, you can surf the net for more ideas.
Working Moms, Are Your Children Eating Healthy?
Parenting is one of the greatest tasks that you will have to face in your lifetime. The task of being a mother is so demanding and consuming that for most women, it becomes their main career. However, if you are one of the many women who are trying to balance your job with being a mom then these new findings may interest you. A British study showed that a working mom can actually create an unhealthy environment for her children. According to the case studies, children who have full-time moms who stay at home are healthier than those whose mothers are working. This health discrepancy between children became most evident in the aspect of nutrition.
The fact is kids love to eat without giving any thought to nutrition. You’re not likely to see an eight-year-old choosing spinach over ice cream any day soon. When the mom is not around to provide food guidance then the child will simply devour anything he pleases—soft drinks loaded with sugar, bags of potato chips, candy bars, etc. Needless to say, unhealthy diet or food in the early ages can threaten the health of the child in future. And it’s not just the diet of the child that suffers. Lack of exercise is also rampant among kids who have working moms. They tend to use the computer and watch TV for longer periods of time. Unsurprisingly, they also spend less time walking to school.
It’s also not a surprise that working mothers have less time to spend with their children. Most of their days are dedicated to their jobs and we all know how tiresome working everyday can be. If you’re a working mom then you probably get home every day wanting nothing better than to take a few hours to rest. And the time you take to rest further subtracts from the time you spend with your child.
According to studies, almost more than half of the female population in the United States and United Kingdom join the work force shortly after giving birth. This study about working moms and kids’ nutrition is probably igniting an understandable outcry from working mothers everywhere. After all, with the current economic crisis, unemployment for men has grown more than it has for women. Because of this, many moms have no option left but to look and apply for a job in order to ensure the financial stability of their families. Unfortunately, there are many cases when the health of the family is overlooked.
So what can working moms do in order to maintain their job while maintaining the health of their kids? Organizing your time would be a great idea. No matter how tired you are when you get home, set aside an hour every day to spend time with your kids and be sure to teach them the importance of a healthy diet. If you don’t have time to prepare dinner, order take-out from a restaurant that serves healthy food. Enjoying outdoor exercises like a walk in the park or biking are also great ways to spend some quality time with your kids while ensuring exercise for everyone. If you have money to spare then hiring a maid would also be a great option. Be sure to train the maid to follow a healthy diet program when cooking for your kids. If you have other ideas how busy mommies can squeeze in healthy eating for their kids then be sure to share your thoughts!
The Battery Fairy
There is not much I have control over in this life. I mean I have no control over my body (I think my hips spread at least 10 cm each night as I sleep), no control over my children (although they do at times pretend to know how to behave), and certainly have no control over the endless
tidal wave that is the laundry pile in my mud room. However today I got to experience God like power. Normally my interaction with our playroom falls under one of two things : I am either cleaning and organizing it, or I am pointing at it telling the children to “go play” so I can talk on the phone, do my hair, etc. Today, I realized pretty much every truck, helicopter, train, and bus needed batteries. So armed with a Phillips head screw driver, and over 50 batteries I sat down and began the task.
The first thing I thought was incredibly annoying was the fact that I actually NEEDED a screwdriver…what was is with these toy companies – it is a battery people not a toxic bomb! And just as I was getting all smug in my thought, immediately thinking it “blog worthy” Chase found a battery and stuck in his mouth. Now this in itself would be not THAT big of a deal if he had not found the ONE battery that had leaked. Seriously. 800 batteries and the kid goes for the freaking battery that is spewing toxic liquid everywhere. I immediately felt remorse for my earlier comment – for all those mothers that love to ignore their children as they play in the playroom like I, I say, thank you to the toy manufacturers that have created those screw portected battery compartments. I can not rest easy next time I point to the playroom, barking “Go Play” a call to Posion Control will not be necessary. (Well okay not for battery consumption at least).
Secondly, toys are MUCH cooler when they can do the stuff they are supposed to. Seriously those Hess trucks were barely getting played with (and since we have one for every year since oh….300 B.C.) that is a serious waste of space. Well, I popped those C batteries in like it was my J-O-B and they ALL came to life. I was soon surrounded by 40 trucks and motorcycles that were all screaming, revving, beeping. I felt like a Toy GOD. I cackled loudly at their movement, and raised my hands high above my head and screamed “DANCE little puppets DANCE” in a glorious moment of delusional power.
The only thing cooler than my momentary hallucinations of power, was the look on the boys’ faces when they saw all the toys. It was like Christmas morning – a million toys and they had no idea what to play with first.
So with the wave of that screwdriver that became little mental magic wand, I not only made the toys come alive, I created a nice quite (relatively speaking) afternoon for myself. Magic.
