Make Recycling Fun

Ah, Earth Day. One of the few things in life that’s older than me. Thank goodness for Earth Day. No longer an occasion celebrated solely by tree huggers, hippies and flower power people; Earth Day is now a mainstream event commemorated around the world with the hope of raising awareness about our planet’s needs and promoting the modern environmental movement. Translation: Use the day to show your kids how recycling can be fun. Let’s face it; most of our homes are filled with junk. And by junk I mean items that sit around collecting dust until you can figure out … Continue reading →

Cheap Labor Day Fun

Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer. The end of summer! That’s no fun. Or, is it? For most families, the long holiday weekend is the last chance to relax and enjoy each other’s company without the stress of homework, scheduled sporting events and other school-related functions. However, if you are trying to keep a handle on your spending habits, Labor Day may not be the time to splurge on an expensive getaway. Fortunately, you can have a blast bidding summer a fond farewell, bond with your family and preserve your budget, all at the same time. Here’s how: … Continue reading →

Game On!

The 2012 Summer Olympic Games are officially underway in London, England. After a night of pomp, circumstance, and psychedelic performances during the Opening Ceremony, the world’s top athletes are getting down to business. The Olympic Games are the ideal vehicle to teach kids about good sportsmanship, dedication and a host of other principles that will serve them well in life beyond the playing field. For example, as you and your kids tune in tonight to watch swimming superstar Michael Phelps face off against rival Ryan Lochte in the 400 individual medley, use the opportunity to discuss the power of dedication, … Continue reading →

Healthy Can Be Fun

Sure, it can. Most of the nation’s school children have already headed back to class for a new academic year. Meanwhile, the rest will be starting after the Labor Day holiday. Regardless of when your kid officially begins the new school year, you’ll want to make sure that he has a healthy way to refuel once the dismissal bell sounds. Don’t let the word “healthy” throw you off. Just because a food item is good for your child doesn’t necessarily mean that he will automatically reject it. The Centers for Disease Control recently published a report with some startling statistics. … Continue reading →

Is Back-to-School Fun?

It is if you are a parent dying for some peace and quiet. Have you seen the Staples back-to-school commercial? It’s the most wonderful time of the year… Hi.lar.ri.ous! I realize that I may be jinxing my good fortune by revealing this, but my soon-to-be first grader is actually counting down the days until the first day of school. It’ll be interesting to see if she is as enthusiastic as she enters seventh grade. Still, according to the calendar, she has less than a week to go before she is reunited with her school chums. Kids in Oklahoma return to … Continue reading →

Fun Egg Carton Learning Games

I’ve been asking my friends for creative ideas and here’s one from a Kindergarten teacher that I just love. It’s such an open ended craft with great learning potential. My friend uses this as an introduction to numbers. She takes empty egg cartons and labels each compartment with numbers 1 through 12. A permanent marker works, but you can get really fancy and do stickers or computer printouts. The children have to find one of something, two of something else and so on. She provides things like counting bears, paper clips, buttons, pennies, or small pebbles. She says it’s a … Continue reading →

Playing Shop

Over the past several weeks the toy cash register, a gift from Santa Claus for Christmas 2006, has finally been seeing it’s first major action this year. This is as a result of the toy-repositioning project of autumn ’07 (also called never-ending home reconstruction). The cash register has helped turn our home, and virtually everything in it, into a pretend retail superstore – like Wal-Mart only with employee health insurance and really low prices – most everything in our house apparently will cost you somewhere between one and 8 cents! My girl, wife and I take turns playing customer and … Continue reading →

Fun with Fonts!

I can say that I am mildly obsessed with fonts. I own an encyclopedia of fonts and I labor over every stylistic decision I need to make for my online tee shirt and gift shop. Even years ago, I used to spend hours upon hours designing my old record label’s website. To this day, I pay close attention to the layouts and fonts used in magazines, websites and on product boxes – yes, I am a little strange. One evening, while writing an article for Families.com, my girl climbed up on my lap and wanted to see what I was … Continue reading →

Fun with an Abacus

Our daughter celebrated her third birthday this past weekend, and one of the gifts we bought her was an abacus. We chose a wooden abacus made by Imaginarium, which I think is quite colorful and lovely. It has ten rows of beads, with two rows each of five different colors: red, blue, orange, green and yellow. I’m happy to say that so far, my girl loves it! One day out of the gate and the abacus is the early favorite, along with a beautiful wooden high chair and cradle that Grandmom and Grandpop gave her for Baby Nora. As she … Continue reading →

Prisms and Rainbows

I think every home should have a prism or two. Prisms break our normal white light into a band of rainbow colors known to scientists as the color spectrum or the visible spectrum. In plain language – they make rainbows. Older kids may be ready for a science lesson, but all kids will be fascinated by the rainbows they can create. We have four prisms. We have two inexpensive prisms that can be moved, or taken outside. We have two crystal prisms that hang from our kitchen window. The morning light makes rainbows on our kitchen walls, which never fails … Continue reading →