Friday Home Fun- New Year's Projects

New Year’s Book

Create a fun book to tell stories about your favorite things you did in 2013! To end the book, draw pictures and write stories of things you predict to happen in 2014. These make great keepsakes for mom and are so much fun to look back on at the next New Year celebrations to see if your predictions were right!

Family New Year's Resolutions

New Year’s resolutions shouldn't just be a time for adults to take inventory of their lives and what they’d like to change, it is important we help our children to be a part of this process too. Whether you are making a resolution for your entire family or if your child is old enough to make his/her own resolutions, it is a great time to teach your children about goal setting and self-discipline.  Setting resolutions with your children are also a great way to help them explore new hobbies and interests.  Here are some ways you can have your child join the New Year’s resolution fun!

Friday Home Fun, Travel Activities

Our previous post was all about “Traveling with the Small Child”.  Below are a few activities you and your children can make in advance to keep them occupied during the travel time!  I also found this great forum from Children’s Hospital that had some great tips on how to keep toddlers occupied during a long trip! Check out their article “Traveling with Toddlers and Toddler Meltdowns”. 

Primrose parents, don’t forget to check out more weekend home fun ideas on our Primrose Parent’s Place! Primrose Thornton website, Primrose Stapleton website, PrimroseReunion website.

Traveling With the Small Child

The hustle and bustle of the holidays can sure be stressful and when you add traveling with small children into the mix, it can add to the stress of the season. Whether it is by car, plane or train, here are a few traveling tips I hope you find helpful in making your travel enjoyable and as stress free as possible.

I’m Unique: Teaching Your Child to Value Differences

September—a time when your children are returning to school, meeting new friends and enjoying new experiences—is a perfect time to learn about how

they are the same and how they are different from others around the world. Valuing these similarities and differences is an important step towards teaching tolerance and appreciation for the many cultures with whom we share this planet. You can begin at home by celebrating your child’s own uniqueness.

Talking to Children about Wildfires

The Colorado wildfires are at center stage right now with the continuous news reporting, the topic of most conversations, the hazy skies and the unmistakable smell of smoke in the air. All of these things can become very frightening to young children and there are bound to be questions that arise.

How can we talk to our youngsters about what is happening but doing so without frightening them? To get the conversation rolling, ask them if they have questions or if they are worried or scared.

 If they do have questions, first make sure to reassure them that you will keep them safe. Be honest in your answers and use words your children understand and at their developmental level.  In most cases the wildfires are far from your home, so explain this to them and let them know that they are safe. If, however, you are closer to the fires and there may be a chance of evacuation, reassure them that you are well prepared and that you will keep your family safe.

Use this movement as a teachable moment. Talk to them about your emergency evacuation plan so that they feel prepared as well. You can do this even if you are not close to the fires to practice fire safety at your own home. Feeling prepared and informed will help ease your child’s mind.

Help them express themselves in ways that they feel most comfortable. For example, drawing pictures, writing stories and role playing with toys can help the children to work out a stressful or confusing situation and to feel comforted.

Also, letting children feel like they can be helpful can also reassure them in a stressful time. Gather needed supplies and donate them or have them create a thank you card for firemen helping to put the fires out.  Being able to help can help children to feel hopeful .

Times like these can be stressful and scary for everyone, not just children, so make sure that you are calm, honest, consistent and supportive when talking with your children. Children are resilient and are more often just curious but by creating an environment they feel safe to talk about such things and cope with stressful situations, we can help them to create coping skills that last a lifetime. 

Raising an Environmentally Aware Child

Sometimes my daughter’s creative thought process inspires me to look at the world around me a little bit differently. Many times after tossing items into a junk pile to be thrown out, I've later found them tucked away in her craft room or they artistically show up as part of the latest accessory to her playthings.

Raising an environmentally aware child is up there on my lists of “things I want for my child”. I think she is off to a great start, but this prompted me to figure out some more ways I can help her to become more aware of the environment in her daily activities.

Here are a few ways you too can help your child become more environmentally aware during your daily activities and hopefully create some “world healthy” habits while you’re at it!