Summer Sun Safety for Kids

Summer sun safety for children is a key priority for many parents.  Sure you want your kids to enjoy the outdoors in the summer, but you also want to make sure that they don’t get sunburned.

Sunscreen for kids is the first step to sun safety.  Dermatologists recommend applying sunscreen on kids at least 15 to 30 minutes before they go outside to play.  Even one serious sunburn can increase a person’s risk of getting skin cancer in the future.

Make sure your re-apply sunscreen for children every 2 to 3 hours, or even more frequently if they are swimming.   You can also practice sun safety and stay outside between hours 10 am and 4 pm, when the sun’s rays are the strongest. This is important even on cloudy or overcast days, since the sun’s rays can still come though the cloud cover and cause sunburns.

Don’t forget to keep your kids well-hydrated.  Children are especially prone to becoming overheated in summer, often not realizing just how much they are sweating while just “playing”.  Just follow these guidelines to help prevent hydration.

- Plan quiet activities for the hottest part of the day – either indoor ones or something that can be done in the shade

- Made in the shade – whether it’s in your backyard or the park, stake out some shade for kids to rest and recharge in.

- Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing.  Bring plenty of water, sunglasses and sunscreen

Sun safety for kids means more than just applying sunscreen once and forgetting about it for the rest of the day.  Just keep applying the sunscreen, encourage kids to drink plenty of water and provide quiet, shady time for breaks and sun safety for your children will be a breeze.

How to Display Kids Artwork

Kids love create art, but as a parent, you can soon feel swamped with the amount of projects that accumulate.  Here are some ideas on how you can display kids artwork without letting it overtake your home.

• Put up a clothesline in your kid’s room and let them select which pieces to hang – this art gallery can be changed at whim and allows for a lot of space for pictures
• Designate one area of your house as a family art gallery.  Hang up pieces in frames for a more organized look.  You can also put newer pieces on top of older ones. Every so often sort through the pieces and put them in storage.
• For bigger items like sculptures or crafts, consider creating a children’s art display on a set of shelves designated for that purpose.

Children’s artwork is an important way for them to express their creativity and their output should hold a place of honor in your house.   Help them feel good about their work by finding ways to display kids artwork in your home. You never know – one day their pieces might be in a real art gallery.

Fit Family Challenge

Stuck with a bunch of lazy couch potatoes at home?  Do you want a fit family?  Why not try a family fitness challenge to get everyone healthy and moving.  Follow these simple steps to create a home fitness family challenge.

Step 1. Find an activity for everyone.  Ideally, the whole family should “compete” in one type of activity, but you can allow family members to choose different activities.  Common ones are biking, hiking, walking, or swimming.

Step 2. Make a fit family schedule for everyone.  Look at everyone’s schedule and block out fitness time.  Ideally this will be the same time for the whole family, but if schedules don’t allow for it, you can schedule family members for different blocks of time.

Step 3. Set Goals -  Everyone may have different fitness goals – for mom and dad it may be a weight-loss goal, but for the kids it may be a time or distance goal.  Record your baseline stats and then create a chart to measure everyone’s progress towards their personal fitness goals.

Step 4.  Create a fit family jog  You can find these on the internet or make on yourself.  Just make sure it contains a place for the date, the fitness activity, and the time spent on the fitness family activity

Step 5: Reward Your Family Fit Team  – As a family, decide on rewards for everyone reaching their fitness goals.  You can have individual goals or family goals, or a combination of both.    Celebrate reaching goals in a healthy way.

Before you start a fit family challenge, be sure to consult with your doctor to ensure that everyone is healthy enough for exercise.

And remember, while it might feel great to reach fitness goal, the whole point of a family fitness challenge is to encourage everyone in the family to stay healthy, and be physically fit, rather than winning prizes.

Outdoor Games for Kifs

As a mom, you want your kids to stay active during the summer months.  You definitely don’t want them moping around the house, staring at the TV or playing video games.  Here are some great outdoor games for kids that are sure to keep them active and busy all season long. Sometimes the simplest games are the best.

Water Play – Summer is hot, no doubt about it.  But instead of letting the kids sit inside the air conditioning all day, bring out the water balloons.  Fill up some balloons with water and let them have at it Just remind kids never to throw water balloons or aim at someone’s head or face.

Ole-Fashioned Fun

A popular outdoor game for kids is capture the flag.  Play is simple.  Divide the kids into two teams and give each team a different colored cloth to use as a home base.  Set the bases at opposite ends of the yard.  Set up two areas for jails.  As the kids try to capture the flag and get tagged, they are “out” and get sent to jail.  If a player reaches the out base without being tagged, she can free all the other kids.  The point of the game is to capture or steal the other team’s flag without being caught and sent to jail.

Hopscotch – Another fun outdoor children’s game is hopscotch.  You can get a quick refresher course on the rules by checking online.  Use sidewalk chalk to make the hopscotch board on your driveway or sidewalk and have the kids get hopping.

Hey – you knew there were plenty of great outdoor games for children that will keep them busy in the fresh air and away from the TV.  Get them started and you will soon be excited to discover all the other fun summer activities kids will come up with on their own.

How to Find A Good Babysitter

As a parent of a tween you may think finding a babysitter for an older child is a piece of cake.  Think again.  You should still use care when choosing a babysitter for the older child.  Of course, many parents are lucky enough to have grandparents or other family members close by to help babysit, but when you’re far way from family, how can you find the right babysitter?

First turn to the mom-network. Ask friends, co-workers and other moms.  While they may not be willing to share their favorite babysitter with you, they may have additional candidates for the job.   Just letting people know you’re looking for a babysitter will cause candidates to come your way.

Don’t forget the local YMCA or a house of worship.  The Y often runs babysitting certification classes and a church or synagogue often has members of the youth group babysit kids during services.  Both places are great to find experienced trusted sitters.

The local college is also a  great source for babysitters – with more fleixibility and mobilut than high school students, you’ll likely find students who are eager for a part-time job.  Check with the education department as well – students training to be teachers often love to babysit.   And your tween will totally look up to the cool babysitter – and feel less like they’re being babied.

Once you have selected some babysitter candidates, it’s time to form a list of questions to ask the babysitter.  Start by discussing their experience.  See if they have babysat for other kids and their ages.  Find out if they have taken a babysitting certification course, including first aid and CPR. Ask them if they have preferences on what ages of children they like to watch and what they would do during their time with the kids.   Throw out some ordinary and not-so ordinary scenarios to them and see how they would react.

Ask for references and check them carefully.  Good babysitters will be happy to provide references – whether they’re other parents or coaches or teachers. If your babysitter seems reluctant to give your references that might be a red flag.

Once you have narrowed your candidate pool to one or two, set up a trial babysitting time. You should let your kids and the babysitter interact without you hovering – disappear into another part of the house, go for a short walk, or run over to a neighbor’s.  Your kids are a great judge of character and they will be able to tell you what they think of the new babysitter – and she will know who she needs to impress.  If your kids are younger and can’t talk, give the babysitter some space put poke your head in from time to time to see the interaction.

Using these strategies to find a babysitter will make the whole process that much easier. Knowing what questions to ask a babysitter will make finding a good babysitter a piece of cake.

Actually, there is more to St. Patrick’s Day than the color green, although you may not be able to tell it from a cursory look around you. Since people expect to see rainbows during the holiday, because of the leprechaun’s pot o’ gold at the end of the rainbow, you can use any color for desserts. These ideas of St. Patrick’s Day desserts may help you find desserts everyone will love without fear of their teeth turning green!

Colored gelatin can make a great St. Patrick’s Day dessert. Create a gelatin rainbow in a bowl. Make several flavors and colors of gelatin, then cut them up into small squares. Place them in a glass bowl so their colors can be seen and top the dessert with whipped cream. Children will love this idea.

Cupcakes are normally a hit for dessert. Make regular cupcakes but add some St. Patrick’s Day fun. Stir in candy shamrocks and bake. Frost with orange or yellow frosting. You can also make shamrock-shaped cupcakes by placing small balls of aluminum foil between the side of the baking dish and baking cup before pouring batter into the cup. When the cupcakes are finished, they will come out with the shape of a shamrock if you placed the aluminum balls correctly.

Nearly everyone loves home-made cookies. Find cookie cutters in the shape of shamrocks, leprechaun hats, pots of gold, Celtic crosses, or any other Irish icon. Let the children join the fun making the cookies and then decorating them. You can also make cookies and then fill them with green icing.

Adults often have a sweet tooth, too, so why not try this Toffee Shortbread cookie bar? You’ll need the following ingredients for the shortbread:

* 3/4 cup softened butter
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 2 cups all-purpose flour

For the toffee, you’ll need:

* 1/2 cup butter
* 1/2 cup brown sugar
* 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
* 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the topping, you’ll need the following:

* 1 6-ounce bag of chocolate chips
* Chopped nuts (optional)

Begin with the shortbread by preheating the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the butter and sugar in a bowl. Stir in the flour until it is mixed well and then press that into a 9-inch square pan. Bake this for 25-30 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Allow the cookie to cool.

For the toffee, melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the remaining ingredients except vanilla and bring this to a boil. Continue cooking this for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, to ensure the mixture doesn’t burn. Remove from the heat and then add the vanilla. Pour the toffee mixture over the cookie which is still in the pan. Allow this to cool completely.

The topping is made by melting the chocolate chips in the microwave or in a double boiler. Stir the chocolate until smooth, then add chopped nuts if desired, and pour it over the cooled toffee and cookie.

These are but a few St. Patrick’s Day dessert ideas you can choose from. If your family enjoys a particular dessert but you don’t consider it Irish enough, add green food coloring and it’ll work just fine!

Obviously, you’ll want to set aside St. Patrick’s Day for your party, if possible. If March 17 is on a weekday, you may want to have your party either the Saturday before or after so as many people as possible can attend. If you make the party during the evening, you may want to celebrate on the exact day.

Celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day began as early as 1737 in the United States; the first parade was celebrated in 1762 in New York City. Since that time, those of Irish descent and non-Irish descent have celebrated the holiday in a variety of ways. Some cities, such as Chicago, Illinois and Savannah, Georgia, dye their rivers green in honor of the day.

Why is St. Patrick’s Day celebrated March 17 each year rather than another day? It is said that the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick, died on this date in either 460 or 493 A.D. Although not much is known about the life of St. Patrick and he has not been officially canonized, he is thought of as being very important for Roman Catholics the world over. You don’t have to be Irish or Roman Catholic to celebrate, however.

Maybe you can’t travel to Ireland to celebrate St. Paddy’s day, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some of the things they enjoy there. Make a Blarney Stone out of papier-mâché or Styrofoam; finding a large rock would also work. Since those able to kiss the Blarney Stone are supposedly given the gift of eloquent speech, you may want to see if that legend is true.

Create your own pot o’ gold filled with chocolate covered in golden foil. Have a child dress up as a leprechaun and guard the pot. Suggest they ask people wanting candy to sing a verse of “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling,” “Danny Boy,” or another Irish song.

Decorate your home with shamrocks, rainbows, gold or orange and green flags. Prepare St. Patrick’s Day games or activities for children to enjoy while the grown-ups chat. Plan to have Irish music playing in the background to help with the ambiance.

Of course, you’ll want to offer up Irish or at least green cuisine. This could be as simple as using food coloring to dye various dishes such as cupcakes with green icing, green grapes, or chips with guacamole. You could actually prepare corned beef and cabbage, Irish stew, or Shepherd’s Pie. Offer green-dyed beverages as well.

There are so many things you can do when trying to come up with St. Patrick’s Day party ideas. You can use some of the ideas above, but you can also look on the internet to come up with others. The thing you want to remember is make the party fun for all and keep those Irish eyes smiling until next year’s party.

As soon as you can get out in the warmer springtime weather, you may want to do the following:

* Go through your garden to remove any dead annuals which remained in the garden over the colder weather. You can add these to your compost pile or begin one if you haven’t already done so.

* Now is also a good time to prune back any perennials you have in your garden. Of course, you’ll want to wait until you see new growth at the base of the plant before you prune them back.

* Woody-stemmed plants such as lavender and buddleia are cut back each year to allow for new blooms on new plant growth. Wait until you know there’s no chance of frost or you could kill the plant.

* Trim back any torn leaves from semi-evergreen plants such as hellebores or bearded iris. This will encourage the plant to send out new growth as well as help them look better while you wait for growth.

* Ornamental grasses are generally cut near the ground, within a few inches, to encourage new growth. Since these grasses are hardy, they’ll come up in their own time no matter when you trim them back.

* Pull up any weeds you see in flower gardens while the soil is damp. This will make it easier to rid your garden of the weeds, especially while they’re small. Be careful not to compost these weeds or they may take over your compost pile or possibly spread into other areas where you don’t want them.

* Test your soil to determine if it needs fertilizer. You can also amend your soil with other organic material to get it in the top shape possible.

* Divide or transplant during the spring. The earlier you get this done, the better chance your plants will have to survive.

* Stake out your garden space. You may want to go ahead and plan your garden while you’re at it, too. Planning and staking your garden will train your plants early on, rather than having to struggle with them later in the growing season.

* Place a generous layer of mulch in your garden. This will cool the plant roots when needed, feed the soil, conserve water, and help keep weeds at bay.

* Edge your garden in the springtime and it will prevent your lawn from encroaching into the flower or vegetable garden. You’d also be surprised how much nicer a garden looks when it’s edged.

There’s nothing like a tidy garden to begin the spring. Using these tips to spring clean your garden will get it in tip-top shape while you’re waiting for the flowers to bloom!