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Raising Financially Responsible Teens

Wednesday, April 27th, 2005

In today’s money-driven society, teens are constantly bombarded by magazines, television ads, and peer pressure which make them feel less than ideal if they do not wear the latest clothing style and drive a “cool” car. Briefly visit your local mall and you will observe multitudes of young people who shop as if credit cards have no maximum spending limit. With all this push for extravagance, is it even possible to raise your teens with money sense and save them from making serious financial mistakes?

Although I have yet to have teenagers of my own, I was blessed to be raised by parents who taught me from a young age to be a wise steward of money. Let me share some things my parents did to instill in me that money is a limited resource and must be spent with care.

1. Start Early

Just because your child is too young to have a real job, does not mean it is too early to start teaching basic financial principles. From the time we were little, we always received an “allowance” from our parents. We only received this money if we had done all of our daily/weekly chores. This taught us that money is not free; it is earned.

2. Set An Example

You cannot expect your teens to wisely spend money if you do not set a good example for them. Do your children see you buying things on credit because you want them now and do not have the patience to wait until you are able to save up enough money? My dad was an excellent example in this area. Before making any large purchase (such as a car), he first decided what he could afford. Then, he began shopping around. Sometimes it would take him close to a year to find what he was looking for, for the price he wanted to pay. His patience always paid off and it left an indelible impression upon me.

3. Don’t Buy Everything For Them

It is easy for many parents to want to “help teens out” by buying most everything for them. But, is this truly “helping”? When your teenager enters the real world on their own, they are going to have some hard lessons to learn if you always bought everything they needed and wanted for them. As soon as we were able to begin earning money, my dad had us start paying for some of our own things such as clothes, gifts for other people, things we wanted, and so on. Because my parents did not buy everything for us, it taught me the value of hard work, to think before I spend, and to look for the best buy.

4. Teach Your Teens the Value of Hard Work

In a day when laziness is rampant, teach your teens instead the importance of being a hard worker. What you work for, you usually appreciate more. If your teenager has worked hard to buy themselves a car, it can be almost guaranteed that they will appreciate it more and take better care of it.

5. Train Your Teens to Think Before They Spend

This might seem like a no-brainer, but learning to think before I spend has literally saved me hundreds of dollars over the years. Teach your teens to ask themselves at least three questions before making any purchase:

Do I have the money on hand to pay for this?
Do I need this?
Can I buy this somewhere else for less?

Oftentimes, in asking these questions, I will talk myself out of making the purchase! I will realize I don’t really have the money to pay for it or I don’t need the item. Other times, I will think of a way I can purchase this item for less.

6. Encourage Your Teens to Get the Best Buy

In addition to asking these questions, also train your teens to look for the best deal. It is amazing what variation in prices you will find out there. For instance, the water pump burst on one of our vehicles recently. When we took it into auto shop for repair, they said that we would have to take it to a more specialized shop, since the engine would need to be taken out in order to replace the water pump. The first price we were quoted was $775. Knowing that was out of our current budget, my husband began calling around to different body shops. One place quoted him around $500 another quoted him a little over $300. By calling around to find the best deal, we are going to be saving hundreds of dollars on this repair job.

Posted in Money & Finance, Teenagers | No Comments »

Raising Creative Kids

Saturday, February 12th, 2005

“Where did he come up with that?” Kids often amaze us with their imaginative ideas, and we should give ourselves a pat on the back for playing a role in this development. Innovative thinking is essential for success in school and in life, and it’s our job as parents to nurture our kids’ innate desire to be creative. Inventive play fosters original thinking, an asset when children are confronted with new situations. By providing activities that use their creativity and imaginations, we are giving our children an important tool to deal with life down the road.

Give them ideas

Children come up with things to do on their own, but we also need to provide them with new ideas of interesting activities. Think back to what you did as a kid. Did you write a diary, create elaborate puppet shows, or sing and dance for relatives? Share ideas from your own childhood experiences. Offer creative writing ideas like writing an episode for a favorite television show or writing a new ending to a favorite story. Craft projects offer another outlet for inspiring imaginations. Craft kits, especially those from Curiosity Kits and ALEX, offer a wide variety of unusual and fun projects. They’ve brought us a long way from the sock puppets of our youth. These manufacturers offer ideas and supplies to make such things as scrapbooks, powerballs, soaps, candy, sun catchers, dolls, planes, dinosaurs, jewelry treasures, and lots of decorative items. Kids can gather ideas from the instructions, and then give the projects their own unique touches.

Keep ideas fresh

Pick up any parenting magazine and you’ll find lots of ideas to get those creative juices flowing in your kids. Search the web and check out craft stores. Keep a journal or file for magazine clippings and ideas as you find them. Stockpile so that you’ll know how to answer the whiny “I’m bored” call from your kids.

Give them freedom

Once you’ve given your kids some suggestions and supplies, step back and see which they choose and where they go with them. This unstructured play time gives kids an opportunity to stretch their creative muscles. Watch as they incorporate your ideas and branch out on their own.

Set an example.

Chances are, if you are a creative person, your child will be too. You display creativity in your everyday activities like when you reason with a disgruntled child, change lyrics to songs, and maybe even do some interpretive dancing to entertain a toddler. Your children see your silliness and it rubs off on them. You surely use creativity to juggle your and your family’s schedules. It’s a great idea to point out to your kids how you use creativity in your daily life.

As parents, we always try to do the very best for our kids and provide opportunities that will help them mature into intelligent, capable adults. Nurturing their creative spirits helps them along this road. With their well-developed imaginations, maybe they’ll turn it into a yellow brick, pink polka-dotted road with sparkles!

Posted in Education, Family, Kids Crafts | No Comments »

Top 3 Lessons Learned from an Expectant Mom

Thursday, January 20th, 2005

Getting pregnant today means being overwhelmed with warnings from family, friends, strangers, the Internet, books, and a number of other sources. These sources can become so domineering that they can begin to take over, making an expectant mother feel inadequate even before the new bundle arrives. In the third trimester of my first pregnancy I would like to offer the top three things I’ve learned to other expectant mothers – not about how to mother, but about how to cope in this age of fearful pregnancy.

First, don’t let everyone else dictate what’s important to you and your family. You may want to listen politely but don’t feel obligated to take the advice you’ll hear. Stick to your guns if something is important to and your partner. I never wanted to find out the sex of our baby – a rarity these days – but my husband was almost pushed into it. When we broke the sad news that we wouldn’t, in fact, be able to find out whether my sister gets the nephew she so desperately wants or my mother-in-law gets the granddaughter she intends to spoil, our families were shocked. Devastated! How could they plan for this child without knowing its sex!?!

Still, it is important not to give in to everyone else’s ideas about how you should treat your pregnancy. Some decisions – most of them, in fact – are between you and your partner and really should be firm decisions the two of you make together without your parents or siblings or friends interfering. Everyone in the world, from your co-worker to complete strangers in the bookstore, will try to tell you about why you should breastfeed or have cameras in the delivery room. It is wise to make decisions independently of this “advice,” no matter how well intentioned.

Second, beware of what you read. I went out and faithfully purchased a pregnancy journal, a baby name book, and What to Expect When You’re Expecting shortly after I found out we were having a baby. The journal has come in handy; I must admit. As a writer, I want to record this journey to look back on fondly and to give my child an idea of what Mommy was like before he or she entered the world. The baby name book is quite a distraction. With 30,000 names, definitions, and origins at our disposal, we’ve still returned to the few names we came up with on our own before the baby name book entered our lives.

What to Expect, the anointed Bible of pregnancy, has some helpful information. I’ve found the answers to questions I didn’t want to ask my doctor or ones I asked but didn’t get answered. Still, the book is part of a culture of fear surrounding pregnancy today. I cannot count the number of times I’ve thought, “Didn’t women have babies for millennia before they knew this?” Granted, I’m glad we know that milk and other calcium-rich products are necessary for a healthy baby. I want to know that my doctor can order an ultrasound to tell if there are problems in my pregnancy. Reading all of the information out there, though, is impossible given the short time-span in which a pregnancy occurs. Trying to sift through that information is even more daunting a task, and forget about making sure you get just enough zinc but not too much magnesium in your diet. A pregnant woman could drive herself crazy thinking about all of the admonitions she hears during what should be a joyous time.

Finally, savor the moment. With baby due in 10 weeks, I actually feel relaxed. We have some of the décor for the nursery but not all of it. We are spending a weekend painting and rearranging – okay, I’m mainly supervising – to get everything ready for our little miracle. My husband and I are probably the only expectant parents who laugh hysterically when we visit baby stores. We’re shocked at the material possessions our baby needs to be a happy child. A compulsive list-maker, I have a list of all of the people my husband will need to call once the baby’s born. I have a list of what I’m packing for us to take, and I even know the date I will lug the suitcases out and pack them. Of course, I’m hoping our little one does not plan on an early arrival, but even in that event, I have my list handy. I picked out a place to order food to pick up for our first night home.

I am pretty organized about this pregnancy, but it is important to do it in a relaxed manner. I love sitting back and watching my tummy contort with the baby’s movements, and I’ve enjoyed spending quiet time with my husband in our last months before parenthood. It is key not to feel caught up in the whirlwind of modern parenting, buying everything out there for your child and forgetting to put emphasis on the most precious cargo – the baby.

Posted in New Parents & Babies | No Comments »

How to Potty Train a Toddler in Two Days

Saturday, January 8th, 2005

Ah, potty training!

Go to a local bookseller and you will find dozens of books on the subject. Search the Net and there are thousands of websites with information on how to do it stress free. There are even people who are capitalizing on a parent’s frustration with potty training by offering to do it for you, for a hefty sum! I honestly can’t imagine anything more unseemly than paying someone to teach my child to “go”.

Ewwww!!!

I have successfully potty trained two out of 3 kids so far, baby number 3 is only 14 months so she is off the hook for a few months at least!

I seem to be the envy of the playgroups when other Moms see that my 3 year old son has been in whitey tighties for over a year. My oldest was also 2 when he potty learned.

For me, potty training starts with a newborn. Now don’t get me wrong…I do diaper my babes (unlike the native African mothers who wear their babies on their backs and who, to avoid being soiled on, learn to read their babies’ cues so well that they know when their newborn needs to be held over a bush…no, I’m not kidding!) but I have always used cloth diapers, which encourages babies to train early. I’m not a longhaired, barefoot, off-the-grid hippie (not that there’s anything wrong with that, but you’re more likely to find me in Doc Martens than Birkenstocks!) but I have been cloth diapering since the beginning.

It has saved me hundreds and hundreds of dollars, but I also like the fact that my babies begin to make the association with the uncomfortable wet feeling and the knowledge that they can prevent it. Most babies will wake up dry in the morning at several months of age, demonstrating that they are physically able to “hold it”. In my opinion, Pull Ups are evil and yet another invention that some clever businessman came up with that parents now think is a necessity. Along with formula, baby swings, and the like. Pull Ups just enable a 5 year old to keep soiling himself. Research has shown that cloth diapered babies potty learn several months earlier than disposable diapered babies.

So here’s Grandma’s recipe (and I do owe it to my Mother, like most of the good stuff I know about parenting) for easy potty training, even if you choose not to cloth diaper.

Let your baby come into the bathroom when you go. That way, they know what’s going on in there. You don’t have to get graphic, just talk to them about what toilets are for. If you are a woman at home all day with boy children, encourage Daddy to show ’em how it’s done. You don’t want them thinking that if they go on the toilet their equipment will fall off, like Mum’s obviously did. Strange, but true…some tots will come to this conclusion.

Buy 3 or 4 of those cheap little molded plastic potties and put them around the house. At least, one in each bathroom and one in the kitchen or the room where you spend the most time with your child. Stick a towel underneath for the sake of your carpet if said child is a boy. Speaking of boys…you can take advantage of nature here by keeping an open mind. I know at least one boy who was trained when his Mom let him go off the side of the deck.

The summer that your child is closest to two, take two days and don’t leave the house. Let your child run around naked from the waist down, with a big tee shirt on top so that private parts stay private.

Every 10 minutes, place the child matter-of-factly on the pot. DO NOT ASK inane questions like “Do you need to go potty sweetie pie!?” We are talking about dealing with a two year old here! Just do it like it’s the thing to do, and don’t ask permission. Don’t force it, and if he/she wants to get up right away, let him or her.

If you have a resistant child, set a timer to go off every 10 minutes. It’s amazing what a child will do when the power dynamic is taken away. When the “potty timer” goes off, it’s time to sit on the pot!

Use praise but don’t go overboard. Act like this is the expected thing. Be cool. Say “You put peepee in the potty, just like Mommy and Daddy (and big brother, and your older play group friend…3rd parties are gold here!!) do.

Don’t make a big deal out of what’s happening. Don’t spend hours reading potty training books or videos to the child. Again, be cool. If you make it into a big deal, your child will be more likely to dig in and resist.

Have some “big boy shorts” or “big girl panties” that you know your child will like, perhaps that you have picked out together, ready for the end of the two days. Your child will be less likely to have accidents if s/he is going to mess up their new undies.

When the inevitible accidents happen, don’t scold. Be patient and gracious. This is part of the job. Remember that even if you decide to spring for carpet cleaning, you will still come out ahead if you don’t have to buy diapers for another year or two!

Posted in Early Childhood | No Comments »

Surviving Winter Break

Saturday, December 18th, 2004

Winter break is much shorter than the summer break, but for many parents it feels like the longer of the two breaks. Being cooped up in the house can make parents and children crazy after a few days let alone weeks on end. Here are ten ideas for you and your children to help you survive the long winter days without blowing your budget or losing your sanity.

Have an indoor picnic with your children. Spread out a blanket and pack a basket of your favorite picnic foods. Take this time to chat about what you miss most about the summer.
Have a family night playing your board games. Offer a grab bag of prizes (purchased from your local dollar store) or let the winner give up their chores for the day.
Indulge your children in fun winter craft ideas. My two favorite sites to hit during the winter season are dltk-kids.com and familyfun.com. Make sure you are stocked on plenty of craft supplies so you don’t have to make a trip out in the cold weather. Do these crafts with your children because they are the types of activities your children will remember for years to come.
Have a day of cooking with your children. Cooking with your kids teaches them valuable skills and also gives them precious time with you. Have smaller children help you measure, stir dry ingredients, and count out ingredients with you. Allow older children to do things themselves under your supervision. Be sure to eat some of the treats you made together and have your child present them to your spouse. It is such a joy to see our children looking so proud of what they have done.
Find out what your local library has to offer. Many offer amazing classes and story hours for children during the winter months. You can also take them to pick out their own books, movies, and music to be enjoyed together or alone.
Play in the snow with your kids. Help them build snow angels, go sledding, build a snow fort, or create a snowman. After a hard morning of playing in the snow, come inside and have a nice warm cup of hot chocolate complete with marshmallows and whipped cream.
Have a beach day in the middle of winter. What could be more fun than a little beach music, drinks with little umbrellas, a big beach ball, and beach chairs? Dress in your swimsuits (if you dare) and toss around the beach ball.
Make your own snow. All you need is soap flakes, water, liquid starch, and white powdered tempra. Mix soap flakes with water into a thick paste. Let your child mix this with a hand beater. Add a small amount of liquid starch and tempra. Let your child create designs by painting with this mixture.
Find a pen pal for your child. ks-connection.org is a website that is devoted towards providing children and schoolteachers pen pals from all over the world.
Exercising is the one thing neglected by all members of the family when the colder weather comes around. Pop in an exercise video or some music and exercise with your children. Older children can be encouraged to use exercise equipment or join you in your own exercise routine. For those who are more creative, let loose and just dance.

With these ideas, winter does not have to be a bore. Don’t forget to stop by your local library to find more resources on activities for children. I hope with these tips in mind your break will fly by and the time spent with your children is treasured in both of your hearts forever.

Posted in Early Childhood, Holidays | No Comments »

Homeschooling and Home Business

Monday, November 29th, 2004

“You want to homeschool your children AND run a home business? And you think you can do both of those things—and do them well?”

The answer to that question is a resounding YES! There is no reason why you cannot home educate and have a thriving home business at the very same time. What is one very important ingredient that you must have to be successful at both?

Time Management Skills!

Now is not the time to throw organization to the wind. In fact, in order to fulfill all the obligations on your plate, you will want to have an orderly schedule for each day. A Day Planner or good calendar is a must!

Having a scheduled day does NOT mean that creativity and/or spontaneity is thrown to the wind. Quite the opposite. An orderly schedule ensures that spontaneity can arise without wrecking havoc with the rest of the day’s obligations! It provides you the ability to be creative, without sacrificing your family’s needs at the same time.

Avail yourself to the numerous time management resources that there are out there—free for the taking, including books at your local library. You will be encouraged, even if you don’t adopt their particular approach, and some things you will want to schedule:

Household chores

Both yours and the children’s. One warning: Do not attempt to schedule in your husbands, unless he specifically requests for you to do so. We have found that scheduling a husband makes for more difficulties in a marriage than it does help! Let your husband decide for himself whether or not he wants to get in on this scheduling thing—and in what manner.

School Work

There are so many different methods of home education that I won’t try and tell you how to schedule in your style. But regardless of your particular style of homeschooling, the work won’t get done if there isn’t a designated time to do it. We prefer to set aside 3 hours for “school” every morning after breakfast—an hour for math, an hour for writing, logic, and other such tasks, and an hour for educational reading (good living books full of history, philosophy, etc).

Those three hours are serious school time—and the children get more accomplished during those three hours than they ever would during a typical eight-hour public school day! Thus, school doesn’t drag on and on, boring everyone to tears and putting more demands on me than I can meet…and yet enough time is given (and taken seriously) that we are able to accomplish quite a bit more than you’d think possible!

Business Time

You have to set some “office hours” for your business, or you’ll rarely work your business. For me, my office hours are the wee hours of the morning, before the children arise, and the one hour each afternoon when we have our “rest time.” The little ones take naps, and the older ones have a “lie down” period where they can read silently, and/or listen to a story tape (we are huge fans of Patch the Pirate, by the way!) or classical music—something relaxing. That is my office time, where I make my phone calls, do my computer work, send out cards to my business team, etc… The children benefit from having a time each day to mellow out, and our business is able to grow—maybe not as fast as it would if I could put in 8 hours a day, but it DOES grow!

My priorities are as follows:

My God (or whatever that means to you)
My husband
My children
My business

When I put my business first, everything else suffers. It can be tempting to do, but I’d recommend NOT even “going there.” In my opinion, more important than a monthly check is a healthy spiritual life, having a happy husband and a good marriage, and growing thriving children. And the funny thing is, that even though my business receives approximately 2 hours of my time each day, which is not a lot of time, it’s still growing much faster than we’d expected! Those two small hours are taken seriously, and I use them as efficiently as I can…and the business grows, step by little step.

But some of you might not suffer from putting your business ahead of other priorities. Some of you may suffer from not putting your business anywhere at all! That’s fine…if you don’t ever want anything to happen with your business, that is. Let me explain. We homeschooling parents are BUSY people. We have so many demands on our day that often, the loudest voice wins. Therefore, if you don’t put your business SOMEWHERE in your schedule, you will rarely work your business, if ever…which translates into very little money made.

You know what your business goals are, right? Make sure they are reasonable, and then…make sure you provide yourself the time to make those goals come to life! Even a half hour a day is something—and that small investment of your time (day in, day out, when it’s fun and when it’s not) will help your business grow.

Homeschooling your children and running a successful home business, all at the same time? Yes, it takes disciplined effort, but YES, it CAN happen!

Posted in Family | No Comments »

Reading to Your Children

Tuesday, September 21st, 2004

When is a good time to start reading to your children? The answer is, as soon as you can! Babies in utero can hear the outside world starting at 4-5 months, so you can start reading aloud to your baby before he and/or she is even born. Reading aloud to your children is one of the best things you can do to promote language development and to encourage a love of reading. This can prime them for future school success. You also don’t have to stop reading with or to your child once they learn to read by themselves. Reading together can be a lifetime joy.

Reading to your young child (age 0-4) fosters their understanding of language. It provides and introduces them to new vocabulary words. It enhances their speech and language production. Children this age also love to hear the same stories again and again, then to “read” it themselves from memory. This is great practice! Plus, reading to your child is a great bonding time together.

Reading with your preschooler can be a great avenue into their own world of reading. Furthermore, it can enhance problem-solving skills, listening skills, and foster attention span. As you read, move beyond the words on the page to point out the pictures, ask questions, have your child predict what will happen next, etc. These are all great pre-reading skills to foster. Additionally, children at this age are learning “concepts about print”: how we read left to right, how you hold a book right side up, how you turn pages as you read. These skills are important pre-reading skills.

As children start school they will be learning to read themselves, if they haven’t started reading on their own already. Reading aloud to them continues to model reading expression and fluency and encourages them in their own reading attempts. One thing to incorporate at this stage is “fingerpoint reading” – pointing to each word as you read. This “points” out for the child that each word is a unique entity. (Studies done at UC Davis by Linnea Ehri have indicated that fingerpoint reading actually helps children move into independent reading).

As children begin to read on their own, many parents feel they should no longer be the readers, but the audience. While it is wonderful, and often necessary, to listen and support your child as they learn to read, this doesn’t mean that reading to them has to stop. Beginning readers often want to read or hear books that are far above their reading levels (the “Harry Potter” books are a good example). This is a great time to select a challenging book that they are interested in but cannot read on their own. As you read to them, you will be continuing to foster their reading and language skills.

So while there is no magic age at which one should start reading to his or her children, there also is no magic age at which to stop. Sharing books aloud can continue into adulthood! Developing a love of reading and literature is a lifelong gift that you can give your children.

Posted in Education, Family | No Comments »

Organizing the Nursery

Thursday, August 26th, 2004

With the arrival of your new baby, the nursery quickly becomes the most important room in the house. You will want to make sure that the nursery is organized and fully functional, helping to make the transition of a new little one in your home as easy as possible.

The planning and preparations for a new baby offers no better “dreamlike” time to showcase your creativity, let your imagination run wild and create the perfect space for your new baby, after all the nursery will be her first dwellings! Make it a special and functional room, one that will always be cherished.

Begin with a theme and allow a few months for ample planning, shopping and decorating. Choosing a character or just picking a color is a great place to start! Make sure you have the essentials (whether borrowed or purchased new), if borrowing; remember to make sure all safety standards are met. The necessities are a crib, changing table and/or dresser, rocker/glider with or without ottoman and quality lighting. When purchasing your crib sheets it is a good idea to have one or two extra sets to use when laundering the other or when baby spits-up! A “Sheet Saver” is clever quilted terrycloth “mat” that lies across and on top of your sheet under baby to catch spit-ups and drool so that you only have to wash the “Sheet Saver” and not the actual sheet. These can be purchased at major baby stores nationwide.

A good way to save some money is to convert your baby’s dresser top into a changing table by adding a changing table pad on top. The drawers of the dresser can house your diaper change necessities as well as clothing. Whether placing these items in the drawers or using baskets on a changing table you should include: diapers, wipes, diaper rash ointment, Vaseline, cotton balls, burp clothes and baby lotion or powder. A small toy helps to entertain baby while being changed!

Investing in a quality glider or rocking chair helps to ensure comfort and ample opportunities for snuggling in the wee hours of the night. If nursing, an ottoman offers a place to put your feet up and get comfortable alleviating extra strain on your back.

Extras for the nursery might include a side table, perfect next to the glider for late night-feedings. This can house a clock and lamp and glass of water (if nursing) or bottle and other feeding items. Many parents swear by an armoire which is quite functional and almost always a lovely addition to a nursery. Great for little shoes and clothing and also offers additional storage for toys blankets and books. Shelving helps to display special keepsakes, organizes books and picture frames. A music box, CD or tape player helps to soothe baby to sleep. The newest versions attach right to the side of the crib and are operated by remote control so as to not wake baby.

The single greatest nursery organizer might be the basket! Varying in all shapes, sizes and colors they offer endless storage solutions for books, blankets, toys, stuffed animals, clothing, shoes, etc. In white wicker they look especially sweet in the nursery.

Special touches such as monogrammed linens or wall hangings, murals, sterling silver keepsakes; photos and framed artwork add character and panache to a nursery.

While getting the nursery prepared do not forget to pack the diaper bag…this is a great thing to have ready to take with you to the hospital or prepared for your first trip out with your bundle of joy. Diaper bag essentials are diapers, wipes, a change (or two) of clothes, burp clothes, plastic baggies, snacks and water for you, a pacifier, small toy, cell phone and lip gloss of course! Pack the bag and hang it by the door you come and go from. Other great ways to get “organized” ahead of time is to launder the baby’s clothes, hang them or put them into drawers. Organize the bathroom essentials such as the medicine cabinet and “bath caddy”. Be sure your medicine cabinet includes rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, gas drops, a First Aid Kit, Ipecac Syrup and an infant pain reliever/fever reducer. The bath caddy should include all you need to bring “bath” to baby…baby soap and shampoo, washcloths, a small toy, warm soft towel and baby lotion!

Follow these tips and you will have a beautiful, organized nursery in plenty of time for your baby’s arrival…Wishing you lots of love and joy with your new baby in his or her beautiful new (organized) nursery!

Posted in New Parents & Babies, Organizing | No Comments »

Make Your Own Baby Food

Friday, August 13th, 2004

I am definitely by no means an earth mother. I wish that I had more concern for our environment or had more time to think about what my child is eating. I know many mothers try to only buy organic products for their children to eat, but if my son is happy eating an overly processed disgusting hot dog, then that is what he eats.

Before I had my son I was going to plant my own garden, grow my own vegetables, and everyday I would go out to my garden to find that special piece of fruit or vegetable to serve to him. I would cook it and serve it at the perfect temperature and consistency. I frowned on mothers who actually bought store-bought baby food because you just “never know what is in those jars.”

I never did have a garden and I never hand selected each vegetable and fruit to put in my son’s mouth, but I can proudly say that I made my child’s baby food. To be honest, it is extremely easy and will save you an incredible amount of money if you can find the time and energy to do it.

I did a lot of research on the topic and found the best way for me was to devote a weekend to just making baby food. I honestly made a six month supply doing this and it took me two days, but we did save a lot of money.

I went to our local wholesale club and bought fruits and vegetables in bulk. The ones I found to cook the easiest were the ones that baby food you would buy on the shelves at your local grocer’s. Some of the fruits and vegetables I chose were pears, carrots, peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, and apples. I also bought tons of ice cube trays and a food processor to complete the task at hand.

The best way I found to do this was to devote my time and efforts to a couple pots of veggies/fruits at a time. The important thing is not to overcook them and not to add a lot of extra water to the pot. The reason for this is that all of the good vitamins and preservatives will become null and void if you overcook the vegetable or saturate them in water.

After the vegetables have softened either through boiling or steaming them, remove them from the heat and put them in the food processor with either a little bit of water, breast milk, or formula. I chose to add water because the baby food will last longer if you do not put milk into it.

After they were pureed to a good consistency (very smooth when they are first beginning to eat, chunkier as they get older) then I spooned the mixture into ice cube trays. The reason for this is because this is the perfect size for their little tummies. When they are first starting out, they are only eating one ounce portions which are the exact size of one ice cube. I then topped these cubes off with water and then froze them. Once they are frozen you can pop them out of the trays and store them in whatever is convenient for you and your freezer space. We had a very small freezer so I stored them in large Ziploc freezer bags. Clearly label the bags with the date that you made the food, the date of expiration, and the type of food that you are storing. It is as simple as that if you want to do a large session of baby food cooking.

Many other parents chose a different method than this. You have to find what works best for you and your family. Some mothers simply puree whatever they are eating for dinner for their child at each meal. My main complaint with that method is that sometimes I chose to eat a little less healthy and my poor son (although he might have enjoyed it) would end up eating pureed chicken nuggets, burgers, or french fries. I also hate cleaning the food processor so I wanted to do this as little as possible as well. You have to find the system that works best for your family though. Below I have included just a few guidelines for making your own baby food. Please feel free to contact me if you have any of your own inventive baby food recipes or helpful hints to our novice baby food making mommies.

Freezer Storage Guidelines for Baby Food

Vegetables = 6 months
Fruits = Six months
Purees with milk = 4-6 weeks
Fish = 10 weeks
Meat & Chicken = 10 weeks

Sweet Potatoes

Peel or scrum and cut into ½ inch slices. Cook for 12-15 minutes or until fork tender. 2 1/2 pounds of sweet potatoes yields about three cups of baby food. Mash to the correct consistency.

Apples

Peel, halve, core, and slice the apples. Put them into a pot and add just a little water for cooking. Cook them on low heat until they have cooked down and are very soft. Puree the apples in your food processor or baby food grinder. If you would like to add a little extra flavoring, add nutmeg or cinnamon. Six medium apples should yield approximately three cups of baby food.

Pears

Peel, halve, and core pears. Cut them into small pieces. Put these into a pot and add a little water for cooking. Cook on low heat until they have cooked down and are very soft. Puree the pears in your food processor or baby food grinder.

Papaya

Cut medium papayas in half and remove seeds. Scoop out the flesh and steam the flesh for three to five minutes. Puree in your food processor or baby food grinder.

Carrots

Use the small baby carrots for this recipe. Boil the carrots in a small amount of water until they are nice and tender. Puree the carrots in your food processor or baby food grinder.

Peaches

Cut an “X” into the flesh of each peach and blanch in boiling water for approximately one minute. Cool the peaches in cold water and then remove the skin and pits. Steam the peaches for about five minutes. Four medium peaches yields two cups.

Posted in Food & Recipes, New Parents & Babies | No Comments »

Back to School Tips

Thursday, August 12th, 2004

It is hard to believe that summer is coming to a close, but the fall and school season is fast approaching. Our son will be beginning his first year of preschool this year and we are both excited and nervous. How nice it has been to not be on a schedule and to be able to lounge around in our pajamas, yet at the same time I am looking forward to having some time on my hands to tackle those projects that have been looming before me all summer long.

I remember the hectic mornings of my youth with three children in our parent’s house. I remember the constant fight over the bathroom, the rushed breakfast, our poor mom driving us to school every single day, and the frantic sense of urgency that we all had to get to where we need to be. I hope that with a few of these organizational tips that you can avoid those hectic mornings and be able to really sit down and enjoy that cup of coffee before your hurried day begins. Here are a few of my ideas for staying organized during a more stressful part of your day.

Plan Ahead

Much of the stress in our lives can be avoided if we can plan ahead and this is the case with returning to school. Usually the teachers send home with your children a list for what will be needed for the next school year and it is important to get all of the required items as well as several back-ups for later during the year. Take advantage of all of those back to school sales with the huge bins of notebooks, loose leaf paper, and pencils and stock up. Designate a spot in your home, which is accessible to the children, for storing all of your back up supplies. Be sure to check your local dollar store as well for the pricier items that your child will need in order to get started for the year. You will be very grateful when the spring rolls around and you do not have to make another trip to the store and pay higher prices for the same items later in the year.

Next, label, label, label. Everything will need to have your child’s name on it and you will be glad that you labeled your child’s items when another child accidentally brings them home with them. You can write your child’s name in permanent marker on belongings such as backpacks, lunch boxes, gym shoes, and other fabric items. For notebooks, pencil totes, and books it might be a good investment to purchase a self-stamping rubber stamp with their information on it or purchase address labels. A good place that I have found to get these is ChecksUnlimited and they offer a wide selection in different styles and fonts.

Be sure not to miss the child’s Back to School night and introduce yourself to their teacher. Be involved in any capacity that you can whether it is room mother, volunteer teacher, or just to help on those field trips. Not only will your child be grateful, but you can establish a relationship with the teacher and open the doors of communication. Remember that if you do not have a wonderful first impression of the teacher to reserve this information when you are around your child. Your negativity can rub off on them and immediately start the year off on the wrong foot.

Clothing Wars & Other Battles

Around the age of two or three you will start to see your child developing their own opinions on what looks good and what does not. Maybe looking like a “fashion don’t” isn’t of any concern to them, but it might be a concern to you on your child’s picture day. It can be a true battle of wills, but there are ways to help your child choose their own clothing with your help.

Invest in a five compartment sweater organizer and use the top one for Monday, the second one for Tuesday, and so on. On Sunday evening have your child help you plan the clothing for the week. Preset everything down to underwear, socks, barrettes, whatever you can do to help make their morning easier.

For younger kids, preset their combs, brushes, toothbrush, towel, and toothpaste so that they can quickly get ready in the morning without you getting everything out for them.

Be sure to have purses, briefcases, coats, and backpacks waiting at the door ready to go for you so that you don’t have to rush around getting everything together in the morning. You will be grateful when you don’t have to spend twenty minutes looking for that one paper or your keys when you are already rushed to get to where you need to go.

Meals

Much can be said about meal planning not only for your hectic morning, but also lunch preparation can be particularly cumbersome when you are trying to get your children to school on time. The supermarkets offer a variety of food that is both unhealthy and pricey, catering to the harried parent who doesn’t think that they have time to be creative. You will waste a lot of your money by buying these convenience and individually sized items. Instead of buying these, look for foods that are nutritious and which will offer your child the nutrients they need for energy to get through their school day. Buy large packages of crackers, cheese, milk or juice, carrots, celery, and other healthy foods and start by dividing these large packages into small lunch-size portions in baggies. Keep these baggies in a Rubbermaid container and then just grab them and drop them in the lunch boxes in the morning. Save your used yogurt containers and refill these with the boxed pudding or Jello that you can make large batches of for a fraction of the cost or refill them with yogurt from larger and less expensive containers. Instead of purchasing juice boxes or individual milks, fill a thermos with the drink of your choice. For younger children you can dilute the juice so that they are not getting too many empty calories. Be fun and creative with lunches and a little note to your child (or your husband for that matter) will really make their day and remind them of how special they are to you. By preparing these meals the night before, you will save yourself some time in the morning.

With that being said, don’t forget to offer your child a healthy breakfast in the morning. It is proven that children perform better on tests and have less health problems later in their life if their day is started with a healthy breakfast. Have a variety of foods on hand such as fruits, whole grain cereals, whole grain bagels, and other healthy foods on hand that your child can prepare for themselves. For the more motivated mother, you could even prepare large batches of French toast, waffles, or pancakes and then freeze them in individual portions for your child to zap in the microwave in the morning. I like to do this on Saturday mornings when I have more time on my hands to really prepare a nice morning brunch and just make tons of extras for those days during the week when I have less time.

Preset your table with silverware, bowls, and plates the night before. Place cereal and other breakfast items on the table where they are accessible to your child to help prepare their breakfast in the morning. Also make sure that your dishwasher is empty the night before so that you can immediately move breakfast dishes to the dishwasher avoiding a sink full of dishes to come home to after your busy morning.

Papers, Paper and More Papers

The beauty of your children’s craft projects from school will wear off if you are saving every single picture and drawing that they have done. Save yourself the loads of clutter by allowing your child to help you pick their most favorite projects for saving. Invest in a couple of inexpensive frames for their bedroom and reframe these periodically with their beautiful artwork or choose one picture for the refrigerator or front of one of your cupboards for saving. By allowing your child to help you choose, they learn the importance of weeding out paperwork.

It is also smart to create an area in your file cabinet or a plastic file crate for your child’s papers and report cards. Have them help you with labeling the folders or decorating them with stickers that they have chosen. This will give them a sense of ownership of their work and also teach them the importance of filing their own papers.

As a parent, your child will be bringing home lots of papers that require your reading or signature. Designate a spot in your home for an inbox and outbox for these papers. Label them clearly for your child and instruct them to unload their papers into the inbox. It also helps if you can create a box for them for their own room where they can put their own homework in that they need to do for the evening.

For papers such as emergency contact sheets, permission slips, and immunization records which come up frequently during the school year for field trips and sports, it is a good idea to invest in photocopying these documents and keeping them in a file for yourself so that you don’t have to constantly be signing and writing the same things over and over again.

When you get papers on bake sales, field trips, and other school events, be sure to immediately transfer these dates onto a calendar. If you have more than one child’s events to attend, assign each child and family member a color for their events. It will make it easier to see that it is Susie’s concert that you need to attend and not Billy’s. Buy a calendar that has plenty of room in it for all of your information and by immediately putting this on your calendar in a neat and organized way, you will have less chance of missing those important events. Consult your calendar first thing in the morning so that you know exactly what you need to do for the day.

A+ Work

Don’t forget to set aside some time in the evening for your child to work on their homework. By setting aside time in the evening you will not have to be trying to complete homework pages first thing in the morning. Take the time to check your child’s work and discuss their homework with them. If you have no idea what they are doing, bluff your way through it or run over to the internet and see if you can figure it out. Trust me, our parents did it- we just really believed them.

Now you truly can enjoy that cup of coffee, your morning paper, and your smooth morning.

Posted in Early Childhood, Education, Teenagers | No Comments »