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• Thunder Burp and Executive Function Aren't Superheroes

  This recent story about play from NPR is exactly the sort of report that gives me hives. As it turns out, all of those hours kids used to spend pretending to be princesses or pirates were more helpful in their development than it appeared.   Read More... Posted Feb 26 2008, 02:30 PM by Adrienne Martini with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: kid activities, games for kids, executive function, simon says

• Crafty: Here Fishy, Fishy, Fishy

  Quick -- before you get snowed in! Angarad at Whip Up tells you how to make your own fish soap. Not only will it keep hands occupied in the making of it, the fish soap will also keep those hands clean. It's a win for everyone.   Read More... Posted Feb 22 2008, 02:30 PM by Adrienne Martini with | with no comments Filed under: fish, kid activities, crafty, plastic bags, soap

• Crafty: Spring Flowers

  One can never go wrong with a bag of pipe cleaners. Simply bending the flexible, fuzzy boogers into a variety of shapes can keep a kid occupied for a hefty chunk of time. Read More... Posted Feb 15 2008, 10:00 AM by Adrienne Martini with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: kid activities, crafty, egg carton crafts, glue, pipe cleaners, Flower

• Fighting A Giant Rat

  Quick Note: Hi, I’m Cole and I’m the new guy on the blog.  My handle is The Good, The Dad and The Ugly (my wife’s choice out of many far more ridiculous names).  Enough about me, on to the booze and rodents. Borderline alcoholic parents worth their salt know that Chuck E. Cheese serves beer. There is nothing that helps you get through your kid’s birthday party extravaganza like a little hair of the dog. Of course, the collision of alcohol with family friendly fun does create some awkwardness, such as the following inappropriate exchanges: “Hey why don’t we skip the pitcher of beer and just set me up with an IV, eh Chuck? Just kidding, but seriously, keep those pitchers coming. Dad’s in some pain and he needs his medicine.” Read More... Posted Feb 15 2008, 05:00 AM by Cole Gamble with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: kids, alcohol, beer, Michigan, kid activities, playland, Chuck E. Cheese, fight, gangs

• Greenhouse: Carpool Duty Made Easier

  With gas prices pretty firmly stuck around the $3 mark in many places, and families facing tighter schedules and tougher commutes all the time, carpooling is an attractive — and green – option. The more people you carry, the more efficient that gas you burn becomes.   And if you're driving a big status-symbol vehicle anyway, why not put all that space to good use? A new website offers parents the chance to coordinate carpools with each other based on each driver's individual needs and create a driving schedule based on that. It works somewhat similarly to a social networking site... Read More... Posted Feb 06 2008, 09:53 AM by AmyinMotown with | with no comments Filed under: kid activities, greenhouse, carpool, Divide The Ride

• Crafty: Cherished Kid Art

  Like every other parent in the flippin' universe, I have a drawer full of kid art that I just can't part with. Problem is - it does me no good in a drawer where I can't see it but I don't know what else to do with it. I've framed bits of it as holiday gifts. I have a rotating gallery on the fridge and on a magnetic wall. Still, there are pieces I can't put in the trash with all of the kitty litter and coffee grounds because they are just too special.I've heard rumors of crafty chicas who duplicate the art on quilts or t-shirts. While I think it's a fine idea, the process of copying of art to fabric eludes me. But Fiona at hop skip jump hit on a solution even I can do. Read More... Posted Jan 25 2008, 02:00 PM by Adrienne Martini with | with no comments Filed under: sewing, kid activities, crafty, drawing, markers

• What to Do With One Glove

  Those of us in northern climates have reached that special stage of winter where your kid has managed to lose one glove. I've heard tales about kids who lose their gloves by the pair, which simplifies things, but I don't believe these children exist.  Which is a long way to say I have a stack of lonely gloves, none of which match each other but that are still too useful to throw out. What will I use them for? Ah, that's where Marie LeBaron comes in. Read More... Posted Jan 11 2008, 01:00 PM by Adrienne Martini with | with no comments Filed under: kid activities, crafty, felt, glue, gloves

• Kidventor Part II: No-Wedgie Underwear

  In our continuing coverage of kidventors, we bring you 8-year-old twins from Ohio who have invented wedgie-free underwear. Like the Iowa kid who devised a way to end fights about raised toilet seats, these twins and their invention were also featured on a recent Ellen Degeneres show. The “Rip Away 1000” are rigged shorts ...   Read More... Posted Nov 04 2007, 05:02 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: inventions, Ellen Degeneres, Madeline Holler, kid activities, underwear, wedgies

• Kidventor Part I: Boy Designs Auto-Lid For the Toilet

  An Iowa 9-year-old has invented a handy little tool for guys who just can’t remember to put the toilet seat down. He and his “Privy Prop” won an inventors competition at school and went on to be showcased at the Iowa State Fair this summer. Read More... Posted Nov 04 2007, 04:03 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: toilet training, inventions, Ellen Degeneres, Madeline Holler, kid activities

• Kids Collect Art. Don’t Yours?

  This Wall Street Journal article about children who collect art gets on my nerves. I’ve got nothing against art, nothing against collecting and nothing against kids. But I hate how a gallery owner gushes about a young girl’s “great eye” after the nine-year-old handed over more than $5,000 for a porcelain basket covered with tiny platinum elephants. Basket? Elephants? Sounds like something four out of five nine-year-old girls might pick out if given such a substantial knick-knack budget. The rest of the girl’s 40-piece collection – which the young collector says focuses on animals, “happy colors” such as pink and yellow, and includes a Warhol panda – is equally as unsurprising if you ignore the cost, value and artist’s signatures. Parents of these young collectors are nonetheless impressed. Read More... Posted Sep 17 2007, 02:40 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: tooth fairy, kid activities, allowances, 7Eleven, Basquait, Warhol, art collectors, Koons

• Idiotic Idea of the Day: School Bans Tag

  A Colorado Springs school has banned tag. In fact, they banned any game involving chasing. How come? "'It causes a lot of conflict on the playground,' said Assistant Principal Cindy Fesgen. In the first days of school, before tag was banned, she said students would complain to her about being chased or harassed." And it's stories like this that make me wonder if I'm becoming some crotchety libertarian crackpot, poised to start scrawling letters to the editor. Because I think this is ri-stupid-iculous. Here's how my rant will start: "We are raising a nation of namby-pamby kids, unable to resolve conflicts or function in the world because there's a damn ban on everything remotely controversial." Read More... Posted Aug 30 2007, 11:30 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 7 comment(s) Filed under: fitness, kid activities, bans, school rules

• Travels With Kids: Abroad Is Better Older

  Not that I'm bitter that the extent of my summer traveling was a seven-hour van ride to Disneyland: here's a nice piece on the pros and cons of traveling with kids. Most of the folks agreed that for any kind of big-deal, sightseeing vacation, you are better off waiting until the children are old enough to appreciate the adventure. I like these tips from Lonely Planet co-founder Maureen Wheeler. She advises "waiting until kids are 3, 'when they're out of diapers, when they can eat food, when they can talk.' If you're planning once-in-a-lifetime trips, 'then maybe you don't start traveling with your children until the age of 7 to 10.'" Because do you really wanna deal with changing a poopy diaper at the Sistine Chapel? On the pro side of venturing forth with kids, travel author Pauline Frommer says, "'So what are parents with wanderlust to do? Just stick with the tried and true theme park and cruise vacations, squelching their own desires to see the world? For many, leaving the kids at home over vacation just isn't doable, financially or emotionally.'" I know a few families that have traveled extensively with tiny babies and toddlers, and I will tell you they posses an easy-going, adventurous attitude I will never have. They also do things like eat food from stands on the side of the road and meet locals who invite them to stay in their homes. If you are one of those people, you could probably roam the streets of Nepal with two children under the age of three and be fine. Me, I'm just glad I survived the van ride. Posted Jul 09 2007, 06:33 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: Europe, Disneyland, kid activities, travel advice, vacations

• Video Games Maybe Not Good For Book-Learnin'

  So you've got the high score on Dance Dance Revolution, but can you read a book, Junior? Yeah, a study came out reporting kids who spent more time playing video games were behind on reading.  Well, they spent less time on reading and homework. They did spend time with family and friends, so it didn't affect social skills, but that's not nearly hysterical and scare-tactic-y enough, is it? We could do all kinds of speculation about why this is the case, but since I like a win-win, maybe they ought to come up with a video game that incorporates reading in a good game. So many educational video games are totally lame, with annoying characters and cheesy graphics circa 1987. I guess once they get the educational experts involved, the fun goes right out the window. If you know of a good one, do tell. Or perhaps the next edition of Grand Theft Auto could just have a part where you have to read yourself your rights or something.   Posted Jul 05 2007, 12:21 PM by Kelly Mills with | with no comments Filed under: education, video games, reading, literacy, kid activities

• Weekly Check Up: Diet Ain't the Answer For Childhood Obesity

  Ah, the childhood obesity studies. Feels like not a day goes by without someone reporting that owning an Easy Bake oven plus having a single parent raises the risk for childhood obesity by half a percent or something. And here's another one, although this one at least says two good things: Diets are really not effective for treating childhood obesity. Imagine. You mean kids can't stick to a regime despite the fact that they often don't cook or do grocery shopping, are frequently surrounded by adults making less-healthy food choices, and the straight up fact that diets suck raw eggs? (Ooooh, maybe the kids should go on the raw egg diet.) In this study, diets couldn't even be evaluated, because 83 percent of the kids in the diet group dropped out of the study right away. And I don't blame them. Exercise, however, did show some benefits. Here's what the researchers did: "For the first six months, children and caregivers in the Bright Bodies program attended 50-minute exercise classes twice a week -- including games and sports -- along with a 40-minute session of nutrition information and behavior modification. They were also encouraged to exercise on three other days at home." Sounds like the classes offered a weekly commitment, involved family members, and even included some (wow) fun. Now how could that be more effective than a rigid eating program?  I'm with the kids on this one.   Posted Jul 05 2007, 08:26 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: nutrition, obesity, childhood obesity, exercise, kid activities, weekly check up

• Bugaboo Tells You Where To Go, and It's Soooo Pretty

  Bugaboo makes one purty-ass stroller, and they'll tell you what to do with it in a New! Modern! Different! Artsy! way. Enter Bugaboo Daytrips, a site that gives you culture-lovin' walking tours of some of the world's nicest places. Of course each tour is illustrated by a contemporary artist, because this isn't your everyday boring old map. You can click on the numbers on the map to see photos and a compelling description of each location along the way, then download a map to take with you on your journey. It's all so lush and modern and fabulous, I feel like I oughta wear nicer shoes just to browse the site. So far my only complaint is that the clean look makes this puppy a little tricky to navigate at times. And we'll hope the walking tours don't have the same problem. I strolled around Portland for a while--online, of course (it's not like I get to go on vacation or anything, she says bitterly) and it was nice. Then I decided to check out San Francisco, since I'm familiar with what we arrogantly refer to as, "the City." Golden Gate Park without lots of homeless people? How did they manage that? But I will confess, even as a longtime local, I did not know we had gnomes. Next time I'm doing the tour in UK English, so I can read about all the pretty colours.   Posted Jun 28 2007, 11:33 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: Modern parenting, bugaboo, kid activities

• Weekly Check Up: Maybe One Million Kids Have Personal Trainers

  You know how McDonald's had that sign about more than a billion served? I guess your Gold's Gym and your YMCA are launching the counter-attack. Almost a million kids between the ages of 6 and 17 are now using personal trainers, according to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association. One possible reason: P.E. classes have been cut from schools, so parents who can afford trainer fees want to make sure their kids get some exercise. Hmmm, could this be one of many reasons childhood obesity is rising so fast among low-income families? In addition to weight worries, some parents want their kids to have better coordination or do sport-specific training. But as one expert cautions, the trainer should know how to work with kids' developing bodies to avoid overuse injuries. And kids can get exercise in ways that don't cost money, like biking swimming, and playing tag.  In my non-blogging life I work as a personal trainer, so you might think I read this and see dollar signs. But really, I can think of some other problems with kids in training. For example, I'd caution parents against signing up really young kids, unless there is a compelling reason they would benefit from one-on-one attention. The last thing you want to do is to pressure your child into sessions and watch them develop a serious rebellious aversion to exercise. And I'll be honest: there's a ton of unqualified people in this business, so you really have to make sure the person has skills and knowledge. Look for trainer certification from a reputable organization, and make sure the person understands kid needs and will make the sessions fun. Fun exercise? That's crazy talk! Now try telling that one to adults.     Posted Jun 28 2007, 08:13 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: sports, obesity, exercise, kid activities

• Family Surfing: A Site We Like

  There's debate over the benefits of family video game playing and T.V. watching, but around our house, we surf together. The internets. You know, we use the Google to find stuff we like, and then gather around the monitor as a snuggly family, screen light reflecting off our pasty faces, and we laugh. I think I've seen almost every wacky kitten video ever posted on Youtube. The current favorite is Cute Overload. Lots of baby animals, pets wearing clothes, strange interspecies co-mingling, and so on. We wuv the widdle animals, oh yes we do. In fact, every time I try to sneak off to fold laundry or make dinner, I hear, "Mom! C'mere!" or "Sweetie, you've got to see this kitten and turtle. Awwwwww."  Someday I may actually get my laptop back to do actual work. And since many of these things have no audio, there's real human interactions happening too. How 1900's! I doubt this is messing with our child's social skills, unless people actually expect her to make eye contact. Posted Jun 27 2007, 11:05 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: video games, internet safety, family activities, television watching, kid activities

• Smile! You're On Doll Camera

  New art film: “My life as a dolly's belly button”. These odd little action figures live a double life as fully functional webcams. Perhaps “action figure” is a misnomer, since it looks like the only action they could take would be taking their freaky hair for a stroll and eating doughnuts, but the secret weapon on these babies is they can capture resolutions up to 1280x960 at 30fps. Be very what you say of do kids, cuz the dolly is always watching you. Even though this has shades of surveillance and reality television, I kind of like the idea of filming the kid through a toy for a day. Right now I'm reduced to tiptoeing up to her door and holding my breath if I want to hear the cute games she plays with her stuffed animals and dolls, and with these little space invaders I could capture the whole thing for posterity while simultaneously wasting time reading trashy gossip sites working. Though most likely my plan would be foiled he minute she dropped this thing in the bathtub, dressed it up in a camera-covering Groovy Girls tanktop (they don't all wear half shirts), or traded it to her friend for a poop-scooping Barbie. Posted Jun 18 2007, 03:03 PM by Kelly Mills with | with no comments Filed under: gadgets, toys, video, kid activities, dolls, webcam

• Gymnastics Good For Girls' Bone Density

  Watch my cartwheel, now. Researchers found that girls who participate in high-impact sports like gymnastics before puberty had greater bone density than girls who primarily engaged in low-impact activities. The gymnasts also had lower body fat, and girls in artistic gymnastics had more muscle mass than their peers. Apparently engaging in activities that put stress on bones helped them become more dense. Dense bones are good for preventing osteoporosis later in life. Okay, before we all run out and sign on the little ones for back-flip camp, check this out from the study author: "This doesn't mean, however, that the tumbling of artistic gymnastics is necessarily 'healthier' for girls, according to Vicente-Rodriguez. Instead, he said, children should take up a variety of activities, with both low and high impact." Jessica already told you about the problems with year-round training in one sport. And I'm gonna tell you another thing about gymnastics: the coaching style and culture of a portion of those folks is seriously effed up. Not all, of course, but there's some sports and activities (ballet also springs to mind) where temperamental and abusive trainers are more often given a pass, where eating disorders are encouraged, and where the well-being of injured girls takes a backseat to the drive to succeed. In my fitness forays I've encountered former kid-gymnasts, and some have been truly wrecked both physically and emotionally by the sport. So if you are interested in enrolling your girls in gymnastics, just make sure you vet the program carefully, and should things go the competitive route, help your daughters keep things in perspective. They might want intact knees when they are thirty.   Posted Jun 10 2007, 02:02 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: kid activities, gymnastics, children's sports, osteoporosis, girls and sports

• Old Children's Games Being Revived

  Here's where I lapse into my old-person voice: when I was a kid, if the weather was nice and the homework was done, we played outside until it was too dark to see. Lots of tag and hopscotch and stuff like that. In case you need a timeline, this was some time between the invention of the automobile and the rise of the CD player. Now some parents and advocacy groups are trying to bring back ye olde timey games, like marbles, stick ball, and four square. The idea is to move kids away from the video game consoles and computer monitors and into some good old outdoor, unstructured play. The benefits are kinda obvious, like increased physical activity for stress relief and healthy weight maintenance. Whether or not the kids will ditch the video games for the outdoor games is another question. I'm not at all anti-technology, but I think it is good to have a balance. I wouldn't want to force my own games on my kid out of nostalgia, but I think a little fresh air and low-tech time is crucial. One fact that barely gets mentioned here: I agree with some researchers that the rise in media reporting of crime and problems with urban and suburban planning have meant many parents are scared to let the children roam freely outdoors. And that's a problem we'll have to address, whether or not freeze tag is a hit with this generation. Posted Jun 07 2007, 05:22 PM by Kelly Mills with | with no comments Filed under: games, video games, technology, childhood obesity, outdoor activities, kid activities

• Strollerderby Playdate: No Ordinary Laughs

  Hey, being a parent isn't all fighting off 'razzi at red carpet premieres and bungee jumping out of a hot air balloon over the Grand Canyon in the middle of the night. Sometimes we write about the little things in day-to-day life that irk us or excite us or just feel bloggable. Here's some examples of how to funny-up the mundane. The Institutional Mouthpiece of Kjell is all prepped to get himself into double trouble with coldness. I am doing the best I can discovers what happened to all that mail.  The Hygiene Chronicles gets it on with Verizon. Bloggers relate.   Mothergoosemouse teaches some basic phone etiquette.   I don't know if A Little Chaos and Tied Down With Battleship Chains have kids on the same t-ball team, but boy, they both are making me real excited for the beginning of the season. And the latter is my new favorite angry person.   Posted May 25 2007, 07:01 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: strollerderby playdate, Dad blogs, mommy blogger, t-ball, kid activities