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I just found this great idea and I love it so much I had to share! A Summer Fun Container holds strips of paper, each with one thing you and the kids want to do this summer. Every time you use one, clip it on the outside of the container as a reminder of all the fun you had. It`s sort of like a `honey do` jar, but WAAAAAAY more fun. This will be perfect for those mornings where we have nothing planned and by 8:30am the kids are climbing the walls and I`m counting the minutes to bedtime. Get instructions on how to make your own from The Girl Creative.  Kudos to Becky from Clean Mama Blog for submitting this awesome idea.

Wow, I can’t believe it’s already Tuesday and I’m just getting this week’s “un-bore your kids” feature up.  Summer is flying by.  (Oh right, it’s only July 6th. Maybe I should pace myself or I’ll be burnt out before the first of August.) This week we’re planning on being very daring at our house and trying tie-dye. My kids are (almost) 3 and (just) 4 so I don’t know if this is a good idea or not. My husband is, of course, firmly planted on the NOT side of this debate.  But I have always loved to live on the wild side so I am going for it! I did some research and there are two techniques we’ll be trying. One uses squirt bottles of dye and the other uses submersion in a bath of dye. Checkout that second link from MarthaStewart.com for different patterns to try.

To make this even more fun (and much, much messier) I have invited a couple of my friends and their preschoolers to join us.

Does anyone know how badly fabric dye stains the skin?  Will the kids be normal color again by the time school starts?  Here’s hoping!

So whataya say, are you willing to be daring with me?

I would buy everything my family eats organic if I could.  But alas, I am not rich.

So as a comprise I shop using the Dirty Dozen list of the most pesticide laden foods. These are the ones that even with scrubbing still contain 20+ different types of chemicals.

The thought of that literally keeps me up some nights!

Now there is a fun way to remember which foods to avoid with the adorably illustrated Dirty Dozen Cheat Sheet. This printable sheet shows which foods to avoid on one side and on the other side has a list of foods with the least amount of contamination (so you can feel alright about not buying those foods organic).

Print our your copy now and have it handy for your next trip to the supermarket.

Enjoy!

Summer vacation is here and for many families that means a long trip with lots of  ”Are we there yet?  Are we there yet?”  Here are some ideas (other than music, movies and video games) to pass the time before you get “there”.

1.   Turn your vehicle into a pirate ship and become the Pirates of the Caravan.  This is such a great idea, especially if you make yourself the Captain whose orders must be followed!
2.  Help your kids anticipate the journey by planning a scavenger hunt of things they will see on the way.
3.  Let you kids follow their imagination and use their creativity by making finger puppets and putting on plays.  You can use the templates found here or design your own.
4.  I absolutely love this idea.  Have your kids write postcards or letters to friends, family or even themselves during a long trip.  When you finally do get home, your kids will have great souvenirs waiting in the mail.
5.  Playdough is a lot of fun, but not during trips where it can be smeared on all sorts of surfaces.  I think aluminum foil is a great alternative.  Kids can mold and sculpt to their heart’s content without needing to wash up afterwards.
6.  Another great, no mess, creative material is colourful paper clips.  Your kids can try making this bracelet or just play around and see where their creativity takes them.
7.  Kids love to unwrap presents!  Keep your kids entertained by occasionally offering them an inexpensive toy or snack to unwrap.  It doesn’t really matter what you give them, just that you are giving them them a surprise gift.  Check out these inexpensive ways to wrap presents.  Just a reminder, if you are traveling by plane, you will need to wrap the presents after you have boarded.
8.  Spend some family time together by playing some of these classic road trip games.
9.  When you need some quiet time let your children try these printable activities like cryptograms, mazes and sudoku. Cryptograms, especially, are a lot of fun and once your kids understand how they work, they can create their own.
10.  This a great craft activity that helps your child remember the trip.  Make a personalized suitcase to keep souvenirs.
11.  In my family, no trip is complete without someone getting car sick.  Here are some tips to help prevent and treat car sickness.

Do your kids love getting mail?  Mine do!  But after a few letters from Grandma and Grandpa and a failed attempt at a sticker chain letter, I’m out of ideas. I am happy to report I have found the solution! Buddy Notes is the brainchild of mom Tracy Bass. Because she has kids, Tracy knows what they like. So she has created several characters who mail your child one time or once a month for six months.

The characters focus on themes every child loves – Coloring Buddy sends coloring pages, Puzzle Buddy sends puzzles, Ben Buddy talks sports and Belle Buddy loves to cook. There are even one time mailings for kids starting school, the 4th of July, those who have lost their first tooth and many more.

Best of all, Tracy is completely flexible in what she can write in the personalized letters. Include multiple children’s names, put in a special note about an accomplishment your child will be proud everyone knows about or add a life lesson (like “share with your little sister”).

Check out Buddy Notes for lots of fun options and surprise your kids with mail addressed to them. I’ve ordered ours and am going to use this as a gift idea for my nieces and friend’s children.

In today’s edition of the Daily Mail UK there is an article that has me laughing. It’s titled You thought work was bad? Spouses cause ‘more stress than our bosses’.  After spending lots of money and time, researchers have learned what married people have known forever, having a spouse is stressful. Seriously, who does these studies? Obviously people who are not married. I love my husband but let’s face it, living with someone day in and day out, keeping a house together, raising kids, dealing with inlaws (did I actually write that)… it’s the type of stress you can’t leave at the office.

I’m lucky because even with all of that, there are way more good points than bad

What do you think?  Which one stresses you out more?

Today my friend and I sat down and planned activities for every Tuesday and Thursday during the summer. We did this last year too and really enjoyed having a schedule (she’s a teacher so she’s all about the schedule!) This year we’ll be meeting up with our mom friends and their little ones at the local zoo, a beach, the firehall, a wading pool, for bowling and for LOTS of nature walks. One of the activities I am most looking forward to is having the kids decorate their bikes and then go riding in their own parade. We’re lucky to have a great park with a paved trail that runs through it. If you have a neighborhood with a good spot to ride this could be a fun activity to get everyone on your street involved in. With Canada Day and Independence Day both coming up this week this would be a great addition to your holiday celebrations.

Our plan is to have all of the supplies out and give the kids half an hour to do the decorating. The supplies we’ll be using are:

• Paper triangles and poles so they can make their own flags
• Cardboard rectangles with holes that they can turn in to license plates
• Foam stickers (letters are fun so they can personalize their bikes or helmets with their names)
• Streamers and garland
• Playing cards with clothespins (to create an engine sound)
• Large artificial flowers
• Tinfoil (because you can create so many neat things with tinfoil)
• Small balloons
• Chenille straws (growing up we always called them pipe cleaners)

For some other ideas, I found these fun suggestions for bike decorations:

• Handle bar bling
• Instant engine (more advanced than the playing card and clothespin)
• Spirited bike spinner
• Personalized number plates

All of these items are available at the dollar store so it won’t be expensive.  If you’re going to do this don’t forget several rolls of tape (masking tape works best), kid friendly scissors and twist ties or zip ties to attach flags, license plates and tinfoil creations.

At then end of the parade route we will be putting up bunches of balloons so they know when it’s time to turn around.

This is a great summer time activity whether you’re entertaining just your own kids, or including their friends.

Hope you have fun with it!

My son is starting Junior Kindergarten in September so I am becoming very familiar with the school system. I live in Canada so I don’t know if you are having the same issue in other parts of the world, but something that is REALLY bothering me is the emphasis on learning and testing. Yes, yes I know school is all about learning.  I get that. But when I was in school we didn’t start learning how to read until grade 1. Now they want kids to start in Junior Kindergarten (when they are 4!!!) and they give them homework (WHEN THEY ARE 4!!!). I’m sorry, but this just seems to be getting out of hand. How smart do we need our kids to be? I would never proclaim to be a genius, but I graduated with a business degree from a prestigous business school and have managed a successful career for the last 10 years.

And I *gasp* did not learn to read until grade 1.

How much smarter than me do I really expect my kids to be?  Are all kids today expected to be NASA rocket scientists?

One thing I do know though is that my good friend who is a resource teacher has told me many times about the alarming rise in stress among children.  I am sorry but a 4 year old should not have anything to be stressed about.  If it is coming to that we are going too far.

Am I missing something?

Friday marked the end of nursery school for my kids and although at 2 1/2 and 4 they don’t yet whine “mommy I’m bored”, I want to make sure I have lots of activities to keep them busy this summer.

So I’m adding a new feature to Parents Only Zone. Every Sunday during the summer I’ll post a new activity we’ll be trying that week.

The first activity has me so excited. My new friend Janet who has an awesome parenting blog at JanetLansbury.com made this suggestion that I LOVE:

I knew my kids would have a great time with this idea so I got more details from Janet and drew up a set of cards for our scavenger hunt. You can get creative and draw your own or download and print these ones.

One word of warning from Janet, be prepared that their “something that smells bad” may be a little piece of dog poop!  Oh well, at least they’re having fun.

Be sure to visit Janet’s parenting resource blog for informative articles on how to elevate your children.

Thanks so much Janet for a great idea and for being the inspiration behind this post.

The other day I got together with my cousin who I haven’t seen in a couple of months.  Right away she commented that I was looking thinner (yay!) but that my butt was looking flatter (boo!). As you may have read in my previous post In Pursuit of a Flat Belly I am following the Prevention Magazine’s Flat Belly Diet.  As the name suggests it doesn’t really focus much on the butt.   But they didn’t tell me my butt would disappear. This is not what I signed up for.

So I went in search of a great “butt building” routine to get my derriere looking shapely again.  After trying a couple the one I like best is 10-Minute Routine: Butt Toning Exercises from Kaboose.com.  Since it only takes 10 minutes I should be able to squeeze it in to my hectic schedule.

Don’t worry, there will not be any before and after pictures posted.  No one wants to see that.