It’s been dubbed “the most important meal of the day,” probably because eating a healthy breakfast can help you concentrate, give you strength and endurance – it can even help you maintain a healthy weight. Studies show that children who eat breakfast do better in school and common sense tells us adults who eat breakfast likely will perform better at their daily tasks, too. And yet, breakfast is the meal Americans tend to skip the most. Do you eat breakfast? Take the poll and tell us about it in the comments.
“People are often unreasonable and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you.
Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough.
Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.” — found written on the wall in Shishu Bhavan, Mother Teresa’s home for children in Calcutta
“What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.” — Mother Teresa
A membership to the McKinley Museum includes reciprocal admission to more than 250 science centers and museums, including COSI. Thanks to that privilege, the amount we saved during our recent trip to COSI added up to more than the cost of a McKinley Museum family membership! What a great way to save and learn!
Have you taken a great picture, lately? Share it with us and you just might see it here next week!
This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to our winner Ashley Huston!
The latest Veggie Tales DVD is here, just in time for Valentine’s Day!
Join Bob, Larry and all your VeggieTales pals for “Happy Together!” Featuring three classic stories about friendship, faith, and family. Plus…funny and touching thoughts from the “Veggie Kids” (as voiced by real children) sharing their perspective on true happiness as only kids can!
Also included are 3 “Happy Songs” from the popular Silly Song series – Pants, Dance of the Cucumber, and Larry Sings the Blues –adding even more happy moments to this fun-filled DVD!
Check out the trailer:
“Happy Together!” is available in stores now for a suggested retail price of $14.99, but we’re giving you a chance to pick it up here – free! Just complete the form below to enter to win!
Check this out!
A VeggieTales Valentine Candy Card Kit is available now exclusively at Walgreens stores nationwide! The kit is only $2.99 and includes 30 cards and lollipops, plus one special teacher card.
Pick yours up today!
A few giveaway items to note:
Entries will be received until February 13th at 11:59 p.m.
The winner will be selected at random and the prize promptly mailed to the address given via the entry form.
Our entry form is entirely private. Your information will not be shared. Should you win, the name you provided on your entry form will be shown when we post the results.
We received this DVD for free to share with our readers and give away. Regardless, we only recommend products or services we believe will be good for our readers. No other monetary compensation took place.
Good luck!
This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to our winner Ashley Huston!
Put your baby on an inflatable ball (on her tummy) and gently roll her back and forth while you‘re holding her securely. Try singing “roll, roll, roll the ball, back and forth we go…”
The number of words your baby hears each day influences her scholastic achievements and social graces. Sing good morning songs, count the stairs as you go up, explain how you’re making dinner while you’re making it, count the cups as you unload them from the dishwasher… you get the idea!
Sing about feelings to help your baby express feelings. Try this song, to the tune of Frere Jacques: “Are you happy? Are you happy? Yes I am! Yes I am! Happy happy happy, happy happy happy, yes I am! Yes I am!” (sing with a happy, smiling face!) Try singing about being silly, mad, or sad.
Play gentle tug of war with your older baby with a soft scarf. When he begins to pull hard, pretend to fall over, this is hilarious to babies!
Sing songs your baby knows, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, in new ways. Sing it in a high voice, a humming voice, a whispering voice, etc.
Give your baby different textured items to play with. Soft felt, smooth silk, rough sandpaper. Make sure the items you choose are safe for baby!
Hide a toy under a pot, or in a pot with a lid, and help your baby hide and find the toy.
Let your baby play with a pan of water and a clean sponge. Show him how to squish out the water and dribble water on his arms or toes. Give baby some plastic cups and show him how to squeeze water into the cups. Baby will be enthralled!
Give your little crawler a safe place to climb. Pile a few cushions and pillows on the floor and your baby will have a wonderful time.
“Read” books to your baby. If she is not quite ready for a story, just point out the different things you see on the pages, pausing only briefly between pages. Your baby will soon learn to sit and listen for longer periods of time as she becomes familiar with the books.
Air pollution can be worse inside your home than out! Indoor air pollution may be especially harmful to kids and babies, who inhale more air than adults. Open your windows to clear out the air, and watch out for these sources of air contamination:
Chemicals in household cleaners. Cleaners have been linked to higher cancer risks. Try making your own instead!
Air fresheners may cause breathing difficulties and headaches for some people. Tests by the Natural Resources Defense Council found that some air fresheners contain phthalates, a chemical linked to child developmental and hormonal issues.
Dry cleaned clothing. Dry cleaning often uses perchloroethylene, a chemical found to cause cancer in animals. Try airing the clothes in your garage for several days before wearing them.
Smoke. Living in a home where someone smokes can make children more prone to ear infections, pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, and coughs. Even thirdhand smoke — the residue that lingers in clothes, cushions, and carpet — can be harmful to kids, especially when they play or crawl on the floor. If someone in your family is a smoker, ask them to keep it outside.
Radon is a dangerous gas that can enter your home through cracks or holes in your foundation, walls, or around pipes. Radon is second only to smoking as a cause of lung cancer. Children may be more sensitive. Test for radon with a kit or call a radon inspector.
Formaldehyde is found in pressed-wood furniture and permanently pressed drapes and clothes. Children are particularly vulnerable to respiratory irritation from formaldehyde fumes. Air out new furniture and wash drapes before bringing them indoors.
Those words have been uttered countless times on road trips and in waiting rooms all over this land. Here’s a fun twist to that favorite boredom busting game your family may enjoy – an I Spy bottle! This is what you’ll need to get started.
Supplies:
Empty plastic bottle, cleaned and dried
Rice (You could also use salt or sand.)
Funnel
Glue (I recommend a glue gun.)
8-12 assorted small items (Our items included a marble, paper clip, safety pin, Barbie shoe, a broken green crayon, a bead, a jack, a ring, a rubber band, a sea shell, a penny and a button.)
Directions:
Use the funnel to fill the bottle 3/4 of the way full with rice.
(Optional) Make a list of the items you’ve collected to add to the bottle. You can even photograph them! If you really want to get creative, come up with a rhyme. For example, “There’s a button, a bow and a penny, too. Can you name the item colored blue?”
Add the small items you collected to the bottle.
Glue the lid on. Since the bottle is filled with small items that could pose a choking hazard for young children, please do not skip this step. I recommend bringing out the big guns (i.e. a glue gun).
Kids love popcorn. But microwave popcorn doesn’t love them. According to health research by the U.S. government, microwave popcorn contains chemical substances that can cause cancer and lung problems! And we all know the sodium, saturated fat, and calorie content isn’t so great.
It’s such a sad thing, too, because popcorn can be a really healthy snack. It’s naturally high in fiber, low in calories, and sodium & sugar free. Here’s the kicker: you need to make it yourself to make it healthy. We’ve already showed you how to cook it on the stovetop (easy) but here is a way to do it in the microwave (even easier).
Mix a teaspoon of oil with 1/2 cup of popcorn and put it in a paper lunch sack.
Fold the top down a couple times and put in the microwave (sitting straight up) for 2-3 minutes… be sure to stop the microwave as soon as the popping is more than 2 seconds apart. Be careful opening the bag, it’ll be steamy!
Salt to taste.
For a sweet treat for the kids you don’t need to feel guilty about, try melting a little butter and honey together, season with cinnamon and vanilla, pour it into the bag, let the kids shake it up & eat!
(If you haven’t heard of papertoys, think of them as a mash-up of paper airplanes, Origami and Pokemon.)
Papertoys, the Internet phenomenon that’s hot among graphic designers and illustrators around the world, now comes to kids in the coolest book filled with 50 original die cut monsters to set free from the pages. Just pop them them out, fold and glue. There’s no cutting. Everything’s prefolded. The graphics are bright, bold, edgy and creepy, bringing to life crazy characters like Ice Huggy, a gentle misunderstood snow yeti with a passion for singing while sledding down the slopes of the Himalayas and Yucky Chuck, the mutant lunchbox monster who reeks of rotting food.
My girls could hardly wait to bust this book open when it arrived in the mail. Though it’s geared toward big kids, my little ones were absolutely intrigued and still can’t stop playing with their monsters.
Each monster template comes with a difficulty rating. My six year old was able to make most of the “easy” monsters with some help and was happy to read the backstories of the others while I assembled them. Her favorite Paptertoy Monster? Medusa, the snakey-haired cheerleader that can do three backflips in a row (oh, and turn you to stone, if she thinks you’re prettier than her). But she’s especially excited to use the ten blank templates to design her own papertoy monsters.
Now your kid can make these fiendishly fun paper creatures. We’ll even give you a chance to score PAPERTOY MONSTERS for free! Simply complete the entry form below for a chance to win it.
Entries will be received until February 20th at 11:59 p.m.
The winner will be selected at random and the prize promptly mailed to the address given via the entry form.
Our entry form is entirely private. Your information will not be shared. Should you win, the name you provided on your entry form will be shown when we post the results.
We received 2 copies of this book for free to review, share with our readers and give away. Regardless, we only recommend products or services we believe will be good for our readers. No other monetary compensation took place.
Good luck!
This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to our winner Carol Boltz!
We all know we should read to our children every day. It stimulates language development, enhances vocabulary, attention span and ability to focus, sparks curiosity, expands knowledge of the world, serves as excellent preparation for instruction in school and is a wonderful parent/child bonding opportunity.
But how often do we actually do it?
Though our intentions may be good, it can be easy to rack up a day without reading for the same reason the living room is a disaster, it’s fast food for dinner again, and that ten pounds is creeping back on: there’s just no time. Or maybe reading that silly story seems about as appealing as a hammer to the face at the end of the day. Perhaps reading is such a high priority it happens daily without fail.
We’d like to know how often you read to your child. Take our poll and share your thoughts in the comments.
It’s been dubbed “the most important meal of the day,” probably because eating a healthy breakfast can help you concentrate, give you strength and endurance – it can even help you maintain a healthy weight. Studies show that children who eat breakfast do better in school and common sense tells us adults who eat breakfast likely will perform better at their daily tasks, too. And yet, breakfast is the meal Americans tend to skip the most. Do you eat breakfast? Take the poll and tell us about it in the comments. 
