Summertime Fun

Sharon writes:

My children and I like to play outdoors all year long, but the warm weather let’s us incorporate some “messy” fun into our routine. Here are some suggestions for some good old summertime fun:

Use small cups of plain water and some paint brushes and let kids “paint” on fences, driveways, or sidewalks. The water will dry quickly enough so that they will always have a fresh canvas on which to paint.

Fill beach pails with sand box sand and add water. Your kids will spend hours making mud pies. When they are finished, dump out the mud on a patio or driveway. When it dries, sweep it up and put it back in the sandbox.

Fill empty plastic soda bottles with a little water. Arrange them like bowling pins and have an outdoor bowling game.

Use sidewalk chalk to draw roadways on a patio or driveway. Be sure to draw in an area for a “car wash”. Children can take turns washing their tricycles and bikes.

Set up obstacle courses in your back yard. Include a tunnel to climb through, a hoola hoop, a jump rope, bouncy balls, and a ring toss. Kids can take turns rearranging the course or making up new uses for the equipment.

If you’re looking for some new toys to add some fun to your summer, here are my favorite picks. They are my absolute favorites and my kids love them too!

Favorite Toy for Turn-Taking:

Stomp® on the Launch Pad and a blast of air propels the Stomp Rocket® over 100 feet in the air! The kit comes with 4 foam rockets. The Junior is designed for ages 3 and up.
http://www.stomprocket.com/stomprocketjunior.html


Favorite “Make-Pretend” Toy:

Let children’s imaginations run wild when they play with this tent. With the look of 2 castle towers and a connecting passage there is plenty of space for them to play with friends or alone. Closeable doors and windows help to keep the castle private, but don’t prevent airflow. The castle also provides a place to store toys and stuffed animals.

http://www.littlepeoplescove.com/playtents.html

Favorite Ride-On Toy:

PlasmaCar Ride-On Vehicle
• Kid-powered ride-on toy is set in motion by your child’s energy• This unique vehicle moves with gravity, centrifugal force and friction—no batteries required• Turn the steering wheel from right to left to propel it forward• Made of sturdy plastic with a contoured seat; holds up to 220 lbs. on smooth surfaces, 120 lbs. on rough surfaces• For ages 3 yrs. and up; 16.5Hx31.13Wx14.25D"• 2005 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal
Available at Target.

The Best Bubbles Ever!

Five bubble ports are the secret to making oodles of bubbles with one easy blow. Set includes one easy-grip wand, a non-spill tray and four ounces of Bubble Oodles formula. Through play, children develop the self-esteem, coordination and social skills necessary to grow. Use Bubble Oodles to develop your child's fine motor skills and cause and effect cognitive skills.
Available at Gymboree.

Food Fights

Sharon writes:

Getting toddlers to eat their fruits and vegetables is tough. Getting three toddlers to eat their fruits and vegetables is nearly impossible. I have found a few simple “tricks” that help to ensure that meal time is a little easier to digest:

Almost any child will eat vegetables if they can be dipped in something, whether it’s ketchup or ranch dressing. My daughter even dips cooked carrots in ketchup!

Kids love to eat with their hands. I never get an argument if I serve corn on the cob or watermelon as a side dish.

Sometimes I’ll serve “snacks” for lunch. This consists of chunks of cheese, raisins, black olives, and small crackers. When all the food is snack-like, kids don’t realize that it is also good for them.

When making french toast, I add a few tablespoons of mashed sweet potato to the egg mixture before soaking the bread. It gives the toast a light, sweet flavor and boosts the nutritional value.

Audrey's Hardcore Food Policy:

I never cooked different foods for my children. Luckily, neither of them was a picky eater. Even when they were babies, I would puree whatever I'd prepared for their father and I, and that's what they got. My daughter loved pureed stir fry though it looked like the dog's dinner to me. When the kids got older, if they said they didn't like whatever I'd prepared for supper, I'd simply say, “That's fine, the next meal is breakfast.”

The last year I made my daughter's lunch, she convinced me that she hated peanut butter so I spent a year without using that marvelous staple of sandwich making. When September rolled around again, I told her that she was now in charge of her own lunches. She made herself peanut butter sandwiches almost every day.


Rachel adds:

Really, I think the most remarkable thing about the food fight in our household is that it is a total non-issue. Right from the start, I decided that this was not going to be a battle I was interested in fighting. I serve the kids whatever we are eating. I have never made a big fuss about having to eat anything in particular, I just put things on their plates and have discovered that most of the time they will eat their vegetables without a problem. In fact, my kids love veggies now. A pediatrician once told me that as long as they had a more or less balanced diet on a weekly (not daily) basis, they would be fine. From that point on, I never worried about it.

Kathy has a great solution!

I wish I could take credit for the wonderful sense of adventure my children have regarding food. The hotter and spicier the better, as far as they are concerned! This all comes from their father, who does most of the cooking, and will truly eat anything. What I tell the moms who ask for my advice on this topic, comes from Ellen Satter, a nutritionist out of the University of Wisconsin. She writes great books about feeding children. She states simply that is our responsibility to provide healthy food for our children, it’s their responsibility to eat it… or not. As a young mother, this was liberating for me! I did my job, and put a reasonably healthy meal in front of them. If they didn’t eat it, that was their problem. Another meal would come along in a few hours, and then maybe they could get Dad to cook it!