My husband and daughter (age 16) played a game of Scrabble today and tied with 305 points. As a tie breaker, I set up a spelling competition. Each “overtime” consisted of 10 spelling words. I chose commonly misspelled, but mostly every day words to make it more challenging. Each of them wrote the words down and then switched to correct the other’s work, as I read the correct spellings. They tied during the first two rounds. My daughter finally won in the third round.It was actually a lot of fun! (You can do this with younger children, but just pick easier words.)

Clipart from FreeFever.com

Here are the some of words we used. How would you fare if you had to spell these?

• pasteurize
• omelette or omelet
• nuisance
• nauseous
• myrrh
• mesmerize
• marshmallow
• lieutenant
• embarrass
• hemorrhage
• zucchini
• euthanasia
• vinaigrette
• troubadour
• somersault
• pseudonym
• schizophrenic
• rhinoceros
• reconnaissance
• paraphernalia
• Czechoslovakia

More and more we are reading and hearing about global warming, pollution and environmental protection. How can we raise our children to understand the importance of protecting our natural environment? Lilly P Badilly loves Costa Rica because she respects the environment and the creatures that live in it. Costa Rica would not be home to 5% of the world’s biodiversity if it were not for that fact that 25% of this country is protected wildlife.

Here are simple ways you can start teaching your kids without alarming them:

• Kids love animals! Explain to young children that animals thrive when they have a clean, safe place to live. Read stories to them about animals they love. (Millipedes!)
• When they are old enough, discuss deforestation with your kids. They can research this further on their own and learn about the organizations that strive to help save the world’s forests. I like this website: http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC052139/Prevent.htm
• Talk to your children about conserving energy – electricity and gas mostly. Turn off lights at home and have them help you monitor the use your A/C and heat. Show them that you are doing your part to cut back on driving whenever possible by walking more, combining your trips for better efficiency, and carpooling when possible.
• Show them your concern about garbage by ALWAYS recycling. Kids will love to help you by putting items in the recycling bin.
• Show them videos about the environment. I found this great website full of short science videos you can watch. http://www.sciencedaily.com. There is also Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. The film’s official website offers a downloadable study guide for teaching. http://prod.takepart.com/social_network/action/ait/studyguides.html
• Pick up garbage. When you see litter on your street, in a park or other public place, pick it up and throw it out properly. Kids will follow your lead. You can even volunteer for a street or beach clean up in your area.
• Beware of the products you buy. Take your kids shopping with you and explain how important it is to choose products that protect the environment.
• Plant a pesticide free vegetable garden with your kids. They will learn to research alternative ways to solve problems, protect the environment, learn to garden and save you money by NOT having to buy those veggies at the store! When you do buy, look for organic veggies whenever possible.
• Consume less stuff. Talk through potential purchases before you buy. Do you really need it? Teaching your kids to consume less stuff can be one of the most valuable ways to protect our environment. Less stuff = less waste. And what about the money saved?!!
• Talk to your child about trees and paper.Together you can decrease your paper consumption. Your kids can make an effort to waste less paper at the computer and with their school work. Show them how you disapprove of all that junk mail you receive!
• Don’t smoke! Teach your kids the importance of NEVER starting to smoke.

The bottom line is that your kids will learn to respect the environment mostly from observing your habits and listening to your opinions. Show them that they can make a difference!

My daughter is almost 16 now, so themed birthday parties are a thing of the past. That makes me a bit sad! I can honestly say she had the BEST birthday parties growing up! They were always homemade, inexpensive and creative. I dug out these old photos, which are almost 11 years old (way before digital photography) and took photos of the photos with my digital camera. I wanted to share them with you.

We always had small parties so they would be manageable, less stressful and more fun! I used to go crazy when I’d take Rachel to parties years ago where there were dozens of kids running around and parents yelling. And who wants all those gifts all over the house? We actually attended one party for a 3 year old with more tan 80 guests. It was horrible, and we left as soon as possible. No one was having fun. And I’ve never seen so many gifts scattered all over the place! Can you imagine a 3 year old opening 80 gifts? It really repulsed me. I think parents forget that young kids can get easily overwhelmed. A good rule to follow is to invite around the same number of kids of the age of the birthday party child. So when or child turns 5, have 4 guests plus your child to equal 5 kids for a 5th birthday party.

Now, back to the party….I remember that first I sent out invitations that looked like a treasure map. I drew water and a pirate ship and land with squiggly lines that led to our house. (You can use clip art if you like.) There were only 6 invitations, so I made each one by hand. (You can make 1 and take it to a copy center also.) I did them on yellowish/cream paper and them burned the edges to make them look authentic.

I made this cake to look like a pirate ship, with the back end starting to sink a bit. I always started each cake by making a sheet cake first and then cutting it up and stacking it to look like whatever I wanted it to be.

I bought a cardboard treasure chest from a catalog that came with pirate related finds and I also added more goodies for the kids. They had to play a game and do a treasure hunt to find the chest. I hid clues all over the house. First I gave them one index card that I aged and crumbled a bit. It had a rhyming clue that would lead them to the next rhyming clue on an index card and so on. I think I had about 10 clues before they found the chest. One was hidden in the dishwasher, another in a flower pot in the back yard, in the shower, pillow case, etc. The kids were running all over the house and were so excited when they figured each one out. The parents were following them back and forth across the house and yard. It was a blast.

I dressed my husband up in this homemade pirate costume and pinned a stuffed parrot to his shoulder, and he held some sort of hook in his hand. He came out of the bedroom in costume playing his guitar, singing “yo ho ho…” and since the kids were only 5, they did not recognize him as Rachel’s Dad. They REALLY thought he was a pirate. All the parents were hysterically laughing. We even had a pinata of a pirate filled with candy. We blindfolded the kids and let them take several whacks at it. They loved that! The pinata was so hard to bust, that my husband had to do it at the end with his hook hand!

I hope you try a pirate party. Not only will your kids have a great time, but so will you!

I’ll be sharing many more party ideas with you. Stay tuned!

The St. Lawrence River – Canada and the USA

The house on the left is in Canada, and the island on the right is in the USA. We were told on a boat tour that the bridge in the middle is the shortest bridge between two countries. My question is, do the Canadian people who live in the house need a passport to get to the island? Also, if you stand in the middle of the bridge, you could essentially have one foot in Canada and the other in the USA at the same time. How cool is that?

Are you dreading that, “I’m bored!” comment you are sure to hear from your young ones this summer? If you plan ahead you can come up with dozens of ideas to keep them busy. Here are 15 of the many I have used in the past:

1. Color - Get a fresh coloring book and new HUGE box of crayons. Challenge your kids to color the entire book, page by page. If you have 2 kids, they can each take a page and do this together.

2. Blow Bubbles – Put together a basket of really fun bubble toys. They are inexpensive and can really go a long way to entertain kids.

3. Sprinkler Fun – Get a funky sprinkler and watch your kids have the time of their lives with friends. My daughter, at age 15, will still do this with her best friend, Molly, this summer and the dog! They can be out there for hours. Don’t forget the sunscreen. (Just keep in mind if there is a water shortage in your area, you will not want to waste water.)

4. Summer Olympics – Have the kids design their own games they can play with friends for a Summer Olympics. Ideas include hopscotch, basketball, ring toss, running, jump rope, hoola hoop, swimming and more. Participants can even make medals out of foil and ribbon for the winners.

5. Acting – Ask your kids to practice putting on a play for you. You may suggest they take their favorite book or movie for inspiration. Encourage them to get creative putting together costumes and props. I promise you will be thoroughly entertained with the results.

6. Board Game Marathon – Have the kids gather their 5 favorite games and suggest they play one after the other in a marathon. They will think this is fun, and it will take up a nice chunk of time.

7. Helping Others – Ask your kids to make cheerful cards for lonely senior citizens at a nursing home in your area. They can draw pictures and write silly jokes and tell them to just have a great day. It would be a double bonus if they could deliver them with you in person.

8. Toy Tidy – My daughter actually enjoyed doing this in the summer, and it was a big help for me. She would go through all her toys and art supplies and reorganize them. The exciting part of all this is that she would find toys she forgot she had, and old toys seemed new again.

9. Make a Time Capsule – This has to be one of the most exciting activities of all time for kids. Give them a plastic jar with a lid or a sturdy box. Have them fill it with little trinkets and notes that will remind them of the past year. Or pick a theme (like sports, books, travel, etc) and have them will the jar with treasures new and old. They can bury it somewhere in the yard and dig it up in next summer.

10. Make a Fort - This can be inside or out. My daughter used to make forts out of chairs and a sheet and play in it for hours with friends. You can serve lunch in there for them to really make it exciting.

11. Bug Adventure – Ask the kids to search the backyard for insects. They can use a magnifying glass to look at them and take pictures with a digital camera. Then ask them to go to the computer or look in a reference book to identify what type of creepy crawlies they have discovered. They can also read to learn more about the bugs they find.

12. Puppet Show – Have the kids practice putting on a puppet show for you. If you want to keep them really busy they can make their own puppets out of old socks or paper bags.

13. Car Wash – Ask your kids to wash your car. You can pay them a small amount or reward them with cookies.

14. Botanical Press – Encourage your kids to take a few flower and leaf samples from the yard or alley and press them in paper towels in a thick book. In a few weeks they can use the dried flowers to make a craft.

15. Recycle Crafts – Challenge your little ones to make some sort of craft out of items from your recycling bin, such as plastic bottles, cans or cartons. Make sure you clean the container before they use it.

Send me your ideas for fun summer activities!

It is the middle of May, and I felt compelled to write about our mystery pumpkin, we have named, “Cucurbita,” meaning “pumpkin” in Latin. For those of you who do not live in South Florida, let me explain that it is hot and humid here most of the time. Pumpkins do not grow in the tropics, since they need cool temps to thrive. Generally when we buy a pumpkin in mid October, it is rotten before Halloween – even though we leave it indoors in the air conditioning and do not carve it. In prior years when we carved it, it molded over within 24 hours, and I do not even wish tell you about the critters that visit if we leave it outside overnight. For some reason this year, our pumpkin is still alive and well in our dining room, more than 7 months after we brought him home! And how it has stayed fresh this long remains a great mystery. If any of you can explain this, please let us know. And yes, we are 100% certain it is real and not plastic. We’ll update you later on the status of Cucurbita.

    Creativity is the root of all original ideas. It is responsible for our greatest inventions. It’s the reason for solutions. And it is the foundation of a young child’s emotional, spiritual and intellectual development. Often, those with the most vivid imaginations not only become the best artists, designers, actors and writers, but they also find great success in the business world.
We’ve all heard time and again that everyone is creative, whether he or she knows it or not. But what makes one child more creative than another? Well, other than the obvious answer relating to genetics, it is the child’s environment. Freedom to think independently and opportunity for self-expression are critical elements of a creative environment.
Here are some ideas to spark the imaginations of your children:
1. Play The Story Game – Either you or your child start to tell a story. Only tell a little bit of the story. For example, “A boy named Jack and his sister, Julia, rode their bikes to the grocery store to buy some candy..” The other person will add on to it. “But just Jack and Julia were about to go inside the store, they saw something amazing in the parking lot…” The goal is to try to add as many twists and turns and surprises to the plot as possible. “A woman dressed in circus clothes was riding on an elephant in the parking lot!…” What results is always a lot of imaginative thinking and even more laughter. Each storyteller, whether the child or the adult, is always surprised at what wacky ideas the other storyteller comes up with. That in turn generates new ideas for both involved. And this game can be played with the entire family, to really make it interesting. Often there are many rounds until the story gets so ridiculous that one person finally ends it.
2. Play The Picture Game – In line with The Story Game, one person starts with part of a drawing on a page, usually a simple shape lie a rectangle. The other person adds on to the picture to start shaping something recognizable. This is a great game to play in the car, passing the paper back and forth. You can play until the entire page is filled with drawings of a scene. The fun of it all is looking at what the other person created from your lines and shapes and figuring out what you can do to change into something else.
3. Take a Walk in Your Neighborhood – Walking through alleys and parks can help you get started on a fun and imaginative project. Look all around you. Notice all you can about the birds, insects and plants. Start collecting items you find on the ground to bring home. Depending on the place and time of year, you might find interesting leaves, sticks, acorns, pine cones, pieces of paper, rocks and so on. Bring them home and make a craft. If it is autumn, you can press the leaves in a book between paper towels. You may want to use other items to make a wreath for your front door or to give a friend as a gift.
4. Encourage Writing – Young children love story paper that you can buy from an educational supply store. You know the kind of paper – with space for a picture on the top and lines to write on the bottom. Challenge your child to write a story for you. Display it proudly on the fridge.
5. Lay on a blanket in late afternoon with your children in your backyard (when it’s warm enough!) and look up at the clouds. See what shapes the clouds form. Look for clouds that look like animals, faces, flowers and other objects. Can you see the same shapes as your kids? Can they see yours?

You’ll find that when you do these activities with your children, you will get your creative juices flowing as well. And best of all, you’ll be spending quality time with the most important people in your life – your kids.
What’s your favorite way to be creative with your child?