Sports are important for teaching teamwork and instilling a sense of personal pride and accomplishment! Not every sport is for every kid, though, so you have to find the right one for your child.

My daughter started begging for a basketball goal when she was four. We bought her a full sized one, and she learned how to shoot baskets! When the church in the center of town sent out flyers announcing a basketball series, she signed up at age seven.

Wow! The church was great. They recognized that the kids were little, and instead of focusing on fierce competition like the school teams did, they really worked on teamwork. They didn’t formally keep score, but of course we parents did. (My little girl’s team was made up of some of the very smallest kids, and they developed such a solid team that they won every single game that year!)

It really helped her make friends and did a great job on teaching her she had to step back and not always be the center of attention.

My son was five, and very unsure of himself. I didn’t feel right throwing him out on the soccer field, where I was sure he’d get trampled! The bowling alley had just started a league for kids as small as four, so we signed him up.

He got better then me! You never saw such a little kid take to something like my boy did to bowling. He soon decided he didn’t need bumper rails, and developed a solid skim down the middle that resulted in a strike on more than one occasion!

At the end of the season, he had two patches and a trophy for his scores and for the most improvement in a young bowler. He also had his very own ball and bag. It was a huge confidence builder for him!

Last year the bowling alley was remodeling, so we didn’t do as much bowling… and my daughter broke her finger at the third basketball practice and was out for the season. We are looking forward to this fall, though - both of our kids have found the best sport for their personality!

Helping your child with homework should be just that - helping. Not doing it for them, not giving them all the answers, not correcting it before they turn it in.

Just helping. In my house, that includes:

*  Making sure they have had something to eat so they aren’t distracted by hunger. Just a quick, healthy after school snack.
*  Providing a neat, quiet place for them to work, and keeping the TV off until after homework is finished.
* Being available to give them direction - not the answers, just clues to point the way, and help them figure it out on their own.
*  Looking it over and pointing out any problem spots - not correcting it, but just showing them where they might want to take a second look.

My kids know that doing homework in the morning before school is a no-no. They’ll just have to take the late grade if they forget they have a paper, because it is their responsibility to show me what is in their backpacks when they get home from school.

We all want our kids to succeed! That’s why we have to give them the tools to learn to do things for themselves. They will be the ones in the classroom taking that test, so we want to be sure they can do it on their own!

My daughter wants to be everyone’s friend. She’s a natural! At the same time, she can have her feelings hurt if she is excluded - she doesn’t understand why anyone would want to shut her out!

I have to encourage her to find the right sort of friends, who will build her up and appreciate her for who she is. Some little girls only want to play with others who wear the same jacket or have expensive bracelets. That’s OK, I told my daughter it is their loss.

Then she found another little girl who didn’t have the fancy bracelet either, and they got to be best friends!

My little boy is the shy one. He is never sure if he should talk to other kids, because he is afraid they will not like him. He finally made friends with a little boy who was shy too - he was from Israel and the other kids made fun of the way he talks.

My son told me the other boy was crying, and I asked him if he thinks the little boy could use a friend. The next day the teacher told me that they played together at recess and ate lunch together. From then on they were always together!

The little boy moved to another school district last year, and my son was the only one from our school who got invited to his birthday party. My daughter still talks to her friend on the phone, even though they will be in different classes this year.

I’m glad both of my kids have made such good friends!

I’ll never forget my daughter’s first day of school. She had never been in daycare, was babysat infrequently, and I was worried about my baby girl!!

Even preschool had been skipped because she didn’t qualify in our town, so the kindergarten with its bunch of social, rowdy kids had me concerned she would be knocked over and her feelings hurt - and I was sure she wasn’t going to want me to leave her there! We had never been apart!

Wow, was I surprised. Not only did she take off from my side like a bullet when she saw kids her own age, she didn’t even notice when I left - and I was the one sitting crying in the parking lot. She didn’t want the fun to end at the end of the day either, and I had to pry her off of her teachers legs when I picked her up!

My son was a different story. He started worrying about school from an early age, and I ended up taking him to a half a dozen vacation bible schools the summer before he started pre K to try and get him used to other kids. The pre K offered a half day for him in the town we had moved to, so we went with that option as well.

He was OK, didn’t cry or get freaked out, but you could tell it took a toll on him by the way he would come home and conk out for a three hour nap after school! He is my shy one, just the reverse of our daughter (who is very social), so we have had to make sure we handle each one a little differently.

I have no idea what my third will be like - he is different than the other two already, so I expect I will have my hands full with him!  He is only 15 months old, but already we can see he inherited my temper along with my red hair, so I can see we may have quite a time learning to get along with others!

Just pay attention to your kids and make sure you walk them through any anxiety they may have - then the first day of school will feel safe for your timid children, and be a blast for the outgoing ones!

Sarah P.

I just wanted to share one of the terrific yard ideas I found this summer and did with my kids!

We wanted to make our yard a place where parents, kids and pets would be comfortable and enjoy ourselves. We built benches along two sides of the concrete patio, and put a fire pit in the middle for cold winter nights.

We ran a small fence with a gate along one end of the yard, and made it a sanctuary for the kids so they could play without our big dog knocking them down. We decided to plant a little garden in the middle, and so we started by letting the kids dig a hole.

After they wore themselves out, we tidied away the remnants of sod to make a perfect circle and dug the soil down about eight inches. We stuck long bendable metal rods in the ground around the outside of the circle and gathered them together at the tops to form a teepee.

We scattered handfuls of seeds around the base of each rod and wrapped chicken wire around the back and sides of the teepee and were done. It was the end of April, so  I was constantly rushing about, kids were busy with end of the school year activities, and we didn’t really get back out into the children’s yard for almost a month (although I made it a point to water lightly once a day).

By the time school let out the end of May, plenty of sprouts were sticking up through the soil! The kids were amazed, and I gave them the chore of keeping the sod from growing back into the circle.

The teepee gradually was covered with vines, as squash, beans, mini melons and tomato plants wound their way up the chicken wire! We had planted a row of sunflowers behind the teepee for shade, and the squirrels were a sight as they bounced on the huge flower heads looking for seeds!

I am already making plans for our garden tepee next year - the kids are lobbying for each to have one of their own. I actually got them to eat some of the veggies that grew this year, and they had a great time hiding in their green shady wigwam!

 It’s been a long, fun summer break, but the real summer heat has finally kicked in, camp is over, and boredom is rearing its loathsome head! We did a lot of fun stuff this year. Event after event was planned for the first few giddy school free months, but once August arrives you are just marking time.

With the majority of the summer gone, you don’t want to fall prey to anxiety about the new school year or fall into lazy habits that will be hard to break! The best way to avoid the end of summer blues is to make sure the last few school free weeks are something to remember! 

First, make sure that you have all your supplies in order for the first day of school. If you are smart and hit the sales early, you can get this chore out of the way in record time. I make a gala day out of the collection process, letting my kids pick out different colored supplies and their own backpacks, then letting them label everything with a permanent marker.

Then we plan one last great adventure before school starts. Usually we drive into town and pick out a special outfit for the first day in a new grade, and laugh ourselves silly, then stop for a bite at our favorite eatery before heading home.

Sometimes we manage a trip to the zoo a week or to before then end of summer, hitting it early in the morning and taking plenty of pictures so we can scrapbook them with all the other activities we documented. Don’t let your last days of summer fall flat - make them days to remember!!

It’s the end of summer. Time to wrap it up, and start thinking about school! Fortunately, there are usually a LOT of great sales before school starts. You can plan ahead and decide where and when you can get the most out of your clothing budget!

Coupon sales are popular at some big chains, and often they will give you another coupon at check out to encourage your return. One year a local outlet offered a ten dollar off coupon with each purchase of $40 or more.

I had $200. Did I go and spend it all at once, and get a $10 coupon for a later visit? No, I did not. I went in, spent $40, got my coupon, went back the next day, bought $50 but only had to pay $40, and so on!

Six trips later, I had $250 worth of merchandise, and I hadn’t broken my budget! (OK, this was back when gas was still affordable, and the store was close to home!) I am a bargain hunter, I admit it! Also, the clothes from the outlet were much better quality than what I was normally able to afford.

Back to school sales are also a good way to save money.  Those ‘tax free weekends’ are a great time to stock up, and each year more items can qualify for this special discount. Save your change through the summer so you can make sure to get the most out of your money!

Hopefully you will be ready for fall in plenty of time, and be able to avoid the big rush. Happy shopping!

Does your house look like a tornado picked it up and shook it? If you have kids, you know what I mean! There’s clothes on the floor, and toys, and books, and schoolwork, and - OK. You get the idea. As you probably know if you are a parent, children have that mysterious tendency to drop what they are doing at a moment’s notice and move on - and I do mean literally DROP.

I blamed it on my husband’s genes (he will always drop his socks exactly one inch to the right or left of the laundry basket, but never, ever IN it) and so I suffered in silence for years. Then I realized that I kept a flashlight by the bed not for emergencies, but for when I needed to get up in the night for a sip of water, because I was afraid of mutilation of my feet by a Barbie shoe or a Matchbox car.

So I invented the Monster Maw. I made a big sack with a drawstring out of a large piece of furry brown and green fabric, and hot-glued yellow triangles of felt around the opening for teeth. I added scary eyes made out of more felt, and introduced my children to my new friend. “Hey, Kids, meet the Monster Maw!”

My husband began crawling around on the floor with it, and growling. He started picking up the kids’ stuff and putting it in the bag! I told the children with a smile that they would now be visited by the Monster Maw every night at an unknown time. Any toys or clothes eaten by the Monster Maw would be put away for one week, at which time they would have the chance to earn them back by performing a special chore.

I would keep a list, and if a toy was eaten by the Monster Maw more than twice, it would be forfeit! Same for items not redeemed within one week. The kids stared at us like we were out of our minds, and ran to clean their rooms and rescue there most precious things. By bedtime, the Monster Maw had nothing left to eat, and within the week the kids had the rest of the house sparkling as they earned back their belongings!

It actually worked really well, and made the kids’ job of keeping their rooms clean much more a priority to them! The Monster Maw hasn’t made a visit in over a month, and my kids have learned how important it is to pick up after themselves.  ☺
Sarah P.

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from  Boyfriend 5.0  to  Husband 1.0  and
noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance,
particularly in the flower and jewelry applications,
which operated flawlessly under  Boyfriend 5.0 .

In addition,  Husband 1.0  uninstalled many other valuable
programs, such as:    Romance 9.5  and  Personal Attention 6.5,

and then installed undesirable programs such as :

·          NBA 5.0,
·          NFL 3.0   and
·          Golf Clubs 4.1.

Also   Conversation 8.0  no longer runs, and  Housecleaning 2. 6
simply crashes the system.

· Please note that I have tried running  Nagging 5.3  to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,
Desperate.

DEAR DESPERATE,

First, keep in mind,
·          Boyfriend 5.0   is an Entertainment Package, while
·          Husband 1.0  is an operating system.

Please enter command:  ithoughtyoulovedme.htmland
try to download  Tears 6.2  and do not forget to
install the Guilt 3.0 update.
·    If that application works as designed ,
Husband 1.0  should then automatically run
the applications  Jewelry 2.0   and   Flowers 3.5.

However, remember, overuse of the above application
can cause  Husband 1.0  to default to
Grumpy Silence 2.5 ,  Happy Hour 7.0  or  Beer 6.1 ..
·          Please note that  Beer 6. 1  is a very bad program that will download the  Farting and Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do,  DO NOT under any circumstances install
Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will
eventually seize control of all your system resources.)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the
Boyfriend 5.0-program These are unsupported
applications and will crash Husband 1.0 .

In summary,  Husband 1.0  is a great program,
but it does have limited memory and cannot learn
new applications quickly. You might consider
buying additional software to improve memory
and performance. We recommend
·          Cooking 3.0  and
·          Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck!
Tech Support

I love Sundays! I always plan to do something relaxing with my kids. Yesterday I decided to take my eight-year-old daughter and nine-year-old niece to see a movie. We love going to the movies - it can be such a great experience! We always buy popcorn and soda and we hold hands. Everybody feels connected and close, and we have a wonderful time.

We decided to see “Wall E”. The kids and I loved it! For those who haven’t seen it, this is a new, very sweet Pixar’s movie about small robot named Wall E who saved the earth. After the movie we discussed about importance of recycling, and how love can save the world.

The kids were funny - they felt really connected to the little robot and the problem of pollution. They talked about how is it important to save, and not to litter. I felt that the girls not just had a good time but learned something!

After that we had an ice-cream and did some shopping. We bought t-shirts with “I Love Green” logos and matching flip-flops. I saw some very nice sweaters and asked the girls if they wanted one, but they said “We have clothes - let’s not waste!”

I was so proud of my girls. I felt that I learned something too!