Ideals To Life

My favorite crafts are those that require only two or three craft materials. Easy construction, easy clean-up. They also become some of my kids’ favorites because I am much more willing to repeat them!

Crayon Rubs are one of those fun and easy crafts. All you need is a piece of paper (printer paper is perfect) and a crayon with the paper peeled off. The child can then go around the house looking for surfaces of varying textures. Lay the paper on top of the surface, turn the crayon onto its side, and rub it on top of the paper. As you rub, the texture of the surface will come through. This is a simple and fun sensory activity!

*Tip: For an added educational twist, ask the child before the rub is made what they think the rub will look like.

I know that you never hurry bedtime for the sake of a little peace and quiet…

Toy catalogs can flood our mailboxes during the holiday season. But instead of tossing them in the trash, turn this free resource into hours of entertainment for your kids! Set the catalogs aside and save them for your kids to look through. They will spend hours pouring over the pages and dreaming. Do you remember doing the same thing as a child? It is classic!

For an added activity with the catalogs, the child can cut out their favorite toys and glue them onto a piece of paper.

*Tip – Save these magazines for road trips or other times when quiet entertainment is needed.

Fall is filled with beautiful colors. Creating a simple fall collage provides a great opportunity to discuss the changing seasons with your child as they observe, touch, and interface with the autumn colors.

Start by going on a treasure hunt for your colorful items and then let your child arrange and glue them onto a piece of poster board or thick paper. Bring fall to life!

As our thoughts turn towards holidays, many of us start to think about gift ideas for our kids. Yet as we look around at our full closets and overflowing toy boxes, we see piles of cheap and broken toys and the much-coveted, yet short-lived toy wonders. Most of us parents would agree that we would rather have quality over quantity when it comes to toys, but the application of that ideal often gets lost between the pleading eyes, the desire to shower our kids with with everything good, and well-meaning grandparents. But ultimately, quality does trump quantity. Most fad toys and almost anything with batteries won’t make it through the year, let alone turn into an treasured toy that lasts through the rest of the children or even grandchildren. As adults, we look back lovingly on what we refer to as “classic toys” because they come from an era where quality did prevail over quantity. They are from a time when children had fewer toys.

Here are a few tips to help direct your steps as you try to gradually build your supply of high-quality toys:

1. Lay out a long term vision for your toy collection.

2. Buy toy collections that can be added onto such as Legos, Playmobil, Little People, dollhouses, dress-up, etc. This gives gift-givers a general guide for purchases. It also allows the child to develop more focused play. By expanding their options within an already-existing collection, they will return more frequently to that toy set to expand, grow, and tweak their previous play experiences. This ultimately enhances creative play.

3. Find a couple of websites that sell toys of the more classic nature and forward those to extended family gift-givers. Additionally, you can usually request a free catalog from the company and pass those on to your children to look through. This helps direct your child’s thoughts away from the advertisements of this year’s popular toys and towards more classic toys.

4. Select toy collections that can be used across multiple age groups and can grow with the child.

5. Ask yourself if the toy requires the child to create something (mentally or physically) and move away from toys that simply entertain.

As you focus more on building a collection of quality toys, you will probably find that it grows more slowly, but look around you again. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

It would be horrible the be caught liking something that you previously fought to hate.

(Comic copyright The Family Circus)

Moments of solitude become rare once you enter parenthood. We adore our children, but those quiet mornings of sleeping in and waking up slowly while sipping coffee are often missed. Sometimes as we wish for a few quiet minutes to ourselves, we can forget that giving some time of solitude to our spouse just might be the breath of fresh air that they need.

Arrange to give your spouse a Saturday morning of solitude. Get up with the kids, close the door, and let your spouse catch up on some much needed sleep. And then take it a step further. After letting them get some extra sleep, sneak in with breakfast, coffee, and the newspaper and create an atmosphere for them where they can relax and have an easy morning away from demands and expectations. By allowing them some extra time tucked into the sanctuary of your room, you will breath a little bit of life into them, and certainly a little bit of love.

Outings to the local pumpkin patch are classic, classic, classic.

Bundle up your family and make an event of it. If you can, pick a pumpkin patch on a farm where they have other family-friendly events such as corn field mazes, hayrides, and animals. Make a day of it!

Then, pick out the perfect pumpkins and bring them home to carve or cook. As your day draws to a close, cozy up with your little family and pour the hot chocolate.

These are the things that traditions are made of.

It is usually just coincidence, but in moments like this, I like tell myself that it happened because I did something right as a parent.

When Dad goes on a business trip, the days can feel extra long. You don’t get backup and companionship at the end of the day and the kids can get restless.

By forming traditional Dad’s-out-of-town events, you can fill the extra hours as well as give the kids some fun memories and extra time with you. You can let the kids plan dinner or pick the restaurant, cuddle up with a movie night, or have a slumber party in Mom and Dad’s bed. Try to plan one or two extra events or treats each day that you and the kids can look forward to.

Another way to help count down the days, while simultaneously creating a homecoming gift for Dad, is to do a simple craft a day until he comes home. At the beginning of the trip, mark a piece of paper (i.e. Day 1, Day 2, Day 3) for each day that he will be gone. Then let the kids do a simple craft on the corresponding day of the countdown. They can paint, draw, glue, make a collage, color, write a letter, etc. This provides a visual for the child to see the number of days before Dad returns while also providing them with an opportunity to be active in their excitement about his homecoming.