Mom’s Exchange Advice

Find time to schedule some family fun in your parental planner. Spending time with your children is beneficial to the emotional growth and helps children to mature independantly. Whether it is planning a game while riding to your appointments or reading a bedtime story; remember to take time for family fun.

Baking a cake together helps children with fine motor skills and to focus on listening to directions in addition to giving them a sense of self, making simple chef hats out of paper bags can make your little cooks happy.

Planning a game night can bring lots of fun! and making your own game is even more fun and costs nothing. It brings imagination alive and challenges the mind and helps with memory skills in addition to bringing the family closer together.

While visiting your local farms in addition to supporting them, often you can find ears of popping corn that you can pop yourself, not only is this fun but educational. Helping children to appreciate nature and learn where their food comes from. The possibilities are endless.

Spending time with family always creates memories that will be remembered forever!

Be pretty in pink this october and support breast cancer awareness month! This month is dedicated nationally to bring increased awareness and preventation. In 1983 the race for the cure was first held in Texas where 800 people joined together to walk for the cure by the year 2002 the numbers of supporters increased to 1.3 million!

So become a ” best breast buddie” to someone you love today! Support the cause and remember your mammagrams ladies! Early detection is the key to unlocking the doors for a cure!

For more information on how you can make a difference:

www.nbcam.org

www.getBCfacts.com

www.YourLidMatters.com

www.breastcancerawareness.com

Who can’t use a more little padding in that purse/ wallet! I know I can! Turn money madness into money gladness!

1. Budget, Budget, Budget: Sure easier said than done when you are in the midst of a Mac attack, but advoiding the fast food drive ins will save you a value of a meal for sure!

2. Plan ahead. Make a list before going to the store and stick to it! Wearing ear plugs to the store will help you avoid those cookies and cakes that are calling your name. Buying the things you need and not what you want keep you on track.

3. Rather than rolling into the next gas station browse the internet for prices: www.gasbuddy.com has been a popular vote in addition to gaswatchprice.com according to sources has helped with the gas guzzling epidemic.

3. Consider powdered milk as an alterative, it has a long shelf life and costs a fraction of the price.

4. Carpool with friends to work and in warmer months if able walk or ride ( if you work close to home)

5. Get freebies at freegroceries.com.. the time it takes to cut and print coupons may be worth it in the cash you save and check out circulars on line for buy one get one free sales.

6.Buying family/ value packs and freezing portions of the stocks will help extend your budget and save on some gas as well. Its convient for those last minute suppers.

7. Recycle leftovers, that monday meat loaf makes a tasty tuesday taco!

8.Check out your local library for coupon exchanges.. bring one and exchange! Great way to save and meet new friends.

9. Dented cans will not dent your wallet.

10. Check out priceline.com for some offers and options

11. Wholesale stores like BJ’s and Sam’s may have some Big items to save you Big money

12. Dollar stores offer more for your dollar.. Many have great grocery offers

A little time can mean alot of money..  and as parents we can use a little of both!

For those little ones that continue to be frightened by those things that go ” bump in the night” can still enjoy the day happily without having nightmares. I know as an adult some of the things I see as Halloween approaches in the stores is frightening even for my adult eyes. But for those whom struggle with keeping up with the times do not surrender to tradition but explore and make your own.

Celebrate the harvest season by replacing vampires and ghosts with leaves and haystacks

Chose outfits that are more age appropriate or even create your own ( my newphew won first prize as a fried egg- a few dollars compared to store costumes won Him a prize ten time more than it cost to make the outfit)

Communicate with your school in reguards to homework assignments and projects replacing those ” scarey” things with ” fun and happy things” (scarecrows are alot less intimitaing than some of the traditional characters)

Most important have fun and stay safe.. if you are not one for treat or treating many organizations have fun filled celebrations to keep your children safe and happy.. ( our favorite chuckie cheese) and you can wear your costume too!

No matter what your beliefs as a parent there are many inventive ways for our children to be part of  everyday things without compromising fun.

Little ones need lots of sleep especially when climbing those educational stairs. So be certain to assure your busy preschooler gets 10 to 12 hours sleep a day and it may take so creativity in doing so here are some helpful tips to help you and them get rest.

1. Announce the 1o minute warning when nap/ bed time is approaching

2. Be consistent

3. Avoid beverages and foods that may give too much of a caffeine kick

4. Provide quiet enviroment for little minds to unwind from their busy day

5. Set time goals for eating before bed.. young ones are ” always” hungry when it is time to retire, often it is a normal excuse to get some extra mommy and or daddy time.

6. Schedule naps during the day

7. Read a bed time story

8. Most importantly and most difficult to perphaps do.. Understand children need to fall asleep independantly. You can still have snuggle time at other times.

Being a kid is difficult.. being a parent perphaps harder, but one day those little ones will grow up to be adults and will understand a little better to all you have done to assure their success as individuals and future parents themselves.

Satify those sweet tooths without getting cavities with the candy craze game. Played in school children this candy trivia game was a sweet success. Simply give the clues to the candy riddles and see how many your sweet ones can guess… Although I am a HUGE candy fan I am much  better at eating them vs guessing them.

Now you may not find the recipe for play dough in the cook books of Rachel Ray or Bobby Flay but that does not mean it is not a culinary classic.  Sure buying it is much easier but not a much fun! Who says you can’t play with your food?

Playing With Playdough:

1 cup flour                          

1 cup water                        

Combine all dry ingredients into bowl

Add liquid ingredients next and stir over  low to medium heat depending on range ( mixture will thicken as cooked}

Allow to cool to prevent burning of little hands and then have fun kneading

 Dough can be reused and stored for several months if covered properly.

Talking to your teen and or tween  ( one approaching teen hood} does not have to be as complex decoding the hidden languages of the teen texting world { LOL}. Being up front and  honest with your child opens up great oppuninities to share and care about what is most important. As a mom of three and although my teen is a honor student I often find his vocabulary to consist of ” yeah, ok and see ya later”. But with a little time and alot of patience you too can be surprised how smart they really are..

Teen Tips To Try:

• Come to there level with good eye contact to avoid intimidation
• Teens often are night owls so hoot don’t holler
• Don’t beat around the bush- teens shy away from ring around the rosey revelations
• See through their eyes… remember before you grew up; you were a teen
• Show them you understand.. show that growing older can mean growing wiser
• Most of all.. support and love them! No matter what.. they are your children

Studies have shown that extensive television watching derails children from exploring their naturally creative sides. Television often desensitizes the mechanisms of the brains to fall into a television trance.

Experts suggest that during the one hour of gazing into the screen during the ages of one to three increases the attention level of children by the age of seven. Right or wrong I agree there are some wonderful television shows for children to watch that promote educational benefits speaking as a sesame street scholar myself but I must agree parental supervision and discretion should always be exercised to assure the future scholars of this world are equipped and directed with positive channeling by watching positively based channels.

Did you know? That if each house hold traded in a roll of 180 sheet paper towel roll with a 100 percent reycled one that 1.4 million trees will be spared in addition to 3.7 cubic feet of landfill and 526 million gallons of water? According to ECO TIPS an average household spends an estimated $260.00 a year in paper products. Think of all the green you will save! and  others are sure to be green with envy from all the savings!

Switching from a normal 28 ounce petrolem based dishwashing soap to a regular based soap product will save 82,000 barrels of oil, that is enough for a car to drive 86 million miles! 

Information obtained from The Eco Tips Report.