Choosing Unique Toys for Kids

Whether you are searching for the perfect birthday gift, Christmas present, or just for every day imaginative play, choosing unique toys that every kids doesn't have is a challenge. Having toys that are fun and educational are a necessity to the modern home. This guide will help you choose toys that you child will love. You will love the price tag and the functionality as well.

1. Leap Frog Tag Reading System
This toy is great because your preschooler can read on his own. He simply runs a special computerized pen across a special book and it reads the words for him. Of course, this does not replace one on one time reading with your child, but can allow him to get some reading done and learn new words when you are unavailable. Easy to store in the garage or on a covered porch. Price: $35

2. Razor Pro Scooter
A scooter is a great way to get your child motivated to play outside. You can get them for girls or boys and they are great fun to play with! You can invited neighbor kids over for a scooter play date too. This is a great way to get inactive kids to get off the couch and outside to play. Price $25+

3. Play Food
Anything imaginative is great for a toddler or child. Kids love to play with things that grown ups use. This is why play food is a great gift or toy for your little girl or boy. She will love to bake a cake, make cookies, shakes, eggs, pancakes and more with this fun and imaginative toy. Price $5+
4. Dress Up Clothes
Many children love to pretend and dress up in costumes. They may like to pretend that they are a princess or a pirate. What little girl doesn't love Cinderella dress up clothes? Crowns and wands are also very popular. What little boy doesn't love to pretend to be a knight who saves Princess Rapunzel, or damsel in distress? Make sure you get costumes that are machine washable. Price: $20+

5. Games
Games are great family activities. Whether you have a set night of the week you spend time together, or just get together with friends and family to play games, for older kids Settlers of Catan is a really fun game that will keep them captivated and learning for hours on end. Price $25+

Whether you are on a budget, or the sky is the limit, this guide will help you on your quest to finding the perfect toy for the perfect child. Not only will they learn lessons and valuable skills with these toys, but if you teach them, they will learn how to love and respect their belongings.
by: Shelby Strong

7 Critical Mistakes Parents Need To Avoid With Their Kids

Critical Mistake # 1 Trying To Be Your Child’s Best Friend Although it is an admirable thing to want to be your child’s best friend, kids do not need that kind of relationship with their parents or carers. What your child needs is an authority figure to be the boss. This doesn’t mean that you have the right to be bossy. However, there needs to be a distinction so that your child realises that you are the final authority. I have seen many a single mum with one child, trying to be a “buddy” to them, possibly trying to make up for the fact that there may be no father in the child’s life. Don’t get me wrong. I am knocking the single mum; I am one of them. And as a single mum I need to be especially careful to let my children know that I am still the boss and that they are accountable to me. This gives the child a sense of security, knowing that someone is in charge. Critical Mistake # 2 Yelling At Your Child I know that all of us have yelled at our children at some stage. Some of us do it regularly, others just occasionally. What we need to realise is that it does our child no good to have us raise our voices at them. It will actually breed disrespect towards you. If we can learn the art of being non-reactive when our kids misbehave, we have learned a valuable skill to help our parenting efforts. Once we master this, we will realise that our children will react to us becoming more non-reactive and will calm down also. Our example actually helps to breed more harmony in the household. Praying or meditating each morning for a few minutes is a really good way to start the day when you are raising children. If you can put your mind at ease before you start the day, you will be more likely to feel relaxed when the inevitable happens. Critical Mistake # 3 Not Being Consistent Believe me, I know that this one can be really tough. I am a mother to four children and at times they seem to hound me all at once. It can be so easy for me to give in to their every request. However, we need to remember that not everything our child wants is beneficial for them. And often, children don’t understand the ramifications of what they do. That’s why we are the parents and they are the children. I sometimes have to say to my teenagers, “it’s just not my job to be liked. It’s my job to be consistent with you”. It is vitally important that we are not afraid to say this to our child. We are not trying to make life difficult for our children. All the same, left to their own devices they can make some pretty silly decisions. Critical Mistake # 4 Not Providing Good Boundaries I could write a whole book on this subject (hmmm, that’s not a bad idea at all)... all children, no matter what their age, need boundaries. When kids are given healthy boundaries they can function well at home, in school and in society. The real world operates with boundaries. If you break the law, you end up going to jail. That is a boundary the government puts in place to stop people from committing crimes. I provide boundaries for my children’s friends who come to play. Do I have the right to give boundaries to someone else’s child? Absolutely, if they are in my house. And I have had remarkable results from children who don’t usually behave elsewhere. When neighbour’s kids come to my house I simply explain to them what my house rules are. Once a child understands what is expected of them, then, and only then can you expect them to comply. Children need things spelled out clearly for them. Critical Mistake # 5 Entering Into Power Struggles No! No! No! Don’t do it. For those of you who don’t know, a power struggle is when you enter into a heated conversation with your child that never seems to end. There can be no winner because your child refuses to give up. Even if they are wrong, they won’t give up. When a child is in this kind of mood, everything you say or do will be wasted. Children that are emotional and angry cannot see or think clearly. This happened with one of my sons last night. He was very angry because the computer game wouldn’t let him win at a level. He became verbally abusive and refused to calm down. Two minutes later he told me that he was ready to talk about the incident. I sensed that he was still angry therefore I wasn’t prepared to talk and made him wait about half an hour before I saw that he had calmed down enough to talk rationally. Teenagers especially, have no logic when they want to argue about many things. They can know that they are wrong, yet still argue very persuasively that they are right. This is quite normal development for a teenager, however unacceptable as far as I am concerned. At least you know that it is relatively normal. But our job is to choose not to engage them in the argument in the first place. We need to find a way to end the discussion quickly without arguing, even if we must simply walk away. Critical Mistake # 6 Giving A Child Too Many Choices I shall explain myself. Firstly, it is a good idea to give your child choices within reason. But too many choices can become problematical. Take for instance the four year old that is asked what they want for breakfast: cocoa pops, corn flakes, weet bix, nutri-grain, rice bubbles or fruit loops. The problem here is that a young child isn’t capable of making decisions that involve many choices. A good choice for a four year old would be offering them rice bubbles or cocoa pops (just two). What we are trying to achieve is an amount of success with our children. If we give a child two choices and they pick one, they have experienced success to some degree. That allows us to build upon that success by adding more choices. However, when we start with many choices we are simply confusing our children. We are not doing them a favour. I use this technique with my strong willed daughter. Instead of telling her to have a bath each night, I say to her, “Becky, would you like to have a bath before dinner or after dinner?” This gives her a chance to express a bit of individuality and freedom to make a choice. But I have control over the choices and must be happy with both outcomes if I use this strategy. Not only does this method work really well with my daughter, it also gives her a feeling of power and kids love to feel in control. There’s nothing wrong with letting your kids feel like they can be decision makers sometimes. It can greatly enhance self esteem. Critical Mistake # 7 Lack Of Quality Time With Your Child For many children, love is spelled T-I-M-E. As parents, we must understand that nothing else will do. Not gifts, not food, not anything else. I remember last week my fifteen year old said to me “Mum, would you please get off that computer. You love that computer more than you love me”. He really made me think about the amount of time I spend working when the children are at home. David even said to me, “Mum, I would much rather have you spend time with me than a million dollars in the bank. I don’t care about your stupid web site. I want to spend time with you”. At the time that he said that, he had just finished an hour on the computer and was peeved off that I had removed him from it. But I still took the opportunity to think long and hard about what he had said. Parenting is one big learning curve and I never want to be so proud that I am not willing to learn something. I took my son’s words to heart that evening. I do hope you have learned a few things from this report. These are just seven things that came to mind as I was thinking today. My prayer is that you will act upon some of these things and improve your capacity to be a happy and consistent parent. Have confidence in all that you do and you can only do your best. Parenting is a journey and it is meant to be fun.
by: Kim Patrick

know Your Child, Listen To Him

Parents are often heard complaining to their child, "Why don't you listen to me?" But why do parents forget that it's a vicious circle. How good you are at listening to your child will determine how well he responds when you talk. Pay full attention : Don't be distracted by T.V. or the book you are reading. Don't just hear, but listen to him attentively to make him feel important. Be patient : Children cannot be expected to be articulate. Give him ample time to express and help him ascertain his feelings. Don't deny his feelings : If your child says that he is hurt after falling from the bed, don't tell him he is not. A child needs his feelings to be accepted and respected. Sensitivity works better than logic : When a child talks about an upset, don't interrupt him with logical or philosophical explanations. Rather hug him, hold his hand and let him speak his heart out. Listening adds confidence: Children begin to trust their feelings, believe in their perceptions when parents listen to them. This goes a long way in making a child a good conversationalist, a confident personality and the one who likes to listen to his parents. Listening helps in understanding your child : Know your child's needs, discover his interests, help him to come out of his problems and complexes by listening to him. Listening to your child will help you to become not only a better parent but also a friend much closer to your loved one.
by: Sudha Gupta

Internet Safety for Kids: 10 Guidelines to Help You Protect Your Children Online

Many kids these days are technically savvy, and their abilities on a keyboard often develop more quickly than their ability to recognize a potential threat. A young person's innocence and natural sense of trust can put her into dangerous situations, especially online, where everyone is virtually anonymous. Here are ten tips to help you protect your kids when they are using the internet: 1. Install a filter or firewall so that your child can't access potentially harmful sites. It's easy to find filters that are low-cost and even free. Start your search on CNet, which catalogs a number of filters with a variety of features for a child's different ages and stages. 2. Don't leave your kids alone in front of the computer. Allow them to use the Internet only in a common area of your home, where you can see the sites that they are visiting and the types of activities that they are engaged in. While it's important to have a filter on your computer so your child doesn't stumble onto the wrong websites, it's also important to not rely on that filter 100 percent. Some filters don't always block everything, and your child may even have the technical savvy to work around it. You still need to monitor what they are looking at. 3. Let kids know to never give out their name, phone number, address, email address, or password. They should know never to give information that could identify them in any way, such as the school they attend. Make sure they know to ask your permission before entering their email address in an online form or registering on any website. 4. Bookmark family friendly websites or save a link directly to the desktop so their favorite websites are one click away. That will save them from stumbling on the wrong website because of a typographical error. 5. Enable the security settings of your favorite search engines. Google, for example, has a SafeSearch option, which will block websites with sexually explicit content from appearing in the search results. You'll find this option by clicking "Search Preferences" from Google's main page. 6. Keep your kids from triggering malicious popups by using your browser's popup blocker settings. You might also consider disabling Java, depending on the kinds of sites your children visit. 7. Consider creating a family email address (instead of allowing individual ones) so that you can access and monitor emails. 8. Let kids know the importance of not opening emails or downloading attachments from senders whom they don't know. If you allow your kids to use email and instant messaging, reiterate that these services are ways to connect with their existing friends and not a way to make new friends. Emphasize that they should not reach out to strangers online or answer emails from people they don't know. And if they are approached by a stranger online, they should let you know immediately. Instruct your kids to let you know right away if something unexpected happens on the computer (if they get a popup asking them for personal information, for example, or if someone whom they don't know sends them an instant message). 9. Emphasize that, just because something is published on the Internet, it doesn't mean it's a fact. Give children and teens guidelines for discerning which sites are trustworthy and give them examples of sites that you turn to for trustworthy information. 10. Teach your kids what to do if they feel scared or threatened when they are online. Make sure your children know that they can come to you with any problem.
by: Jamie Jefferson

Five Benefits Educational Toys Can Give Your Toddler

The first five years of your child is critical. This is what experts consider as his formative years. This is why it is crucial that parents pay attention to the needs of their children during these years. At this point, the child acquires basic understanding about things. He learns by what he sees and what he is taught. At this stage, the child welcomes almost everything. He is receptive of love, teachings, and trainings. How a parent deals with his child at this stage will greatly influence his child in his future endeavors. One of the best ways to help develop the full potential of a child at this point is with the help of toddler educational toys. Here are the different benefits that children can get from these toys: 1. They help your child have fun. Although they are learning toys, your kids can still have fun with them, which is the best part. Although you want them to learn, you can be sure that these tools will not bore them because they will surely find tons of things to do with their toys. 2. These toys can improve the creativity of your child. The toys will have your kids imagining about different things especially if you have assisted him in playing. Children love to play with their imagination and this helps develop their creativity. This will greatly help them since creativity is very important trait of successful people. Giving your children the support and the instrument they need, will surely help develop their creativity to the fullest. 3. Certain toys will enhance your child's problem solving ability. There are toys that train your child to think and analyze. Among them are puzzle toys. This will help train your child to be patient and use his analytical skills to solve the puzzle. Puzzle toys are not limited to jigsaws. There are bricks, mats, and other toys that require the child to connect the dots. 4. You can use the toys as tools to teach your child. Aside from playing by himself, your child learns best with you around. You can use the toddler educational toys as instruments to communicate with him. You can assist him in his make believe games and teach him relevant ideas in the process. If he imagines that he is in a wonderland, you can help him arrange his play room. His green chair can be the grass or tree because leaves and grasses have green colors. His blue toy map can be the sky and his white bear can be the clouds. This way, you can help enhance his imagination and creativity while teaching him about colors. 5. You will get to know your child better through toys. You will learn his interest by observing the kind of games he wants to play. You will find out his favorite colors by the toys he picks. You will also learn if he needs help in certain fields like analyzing stuff because he cannot finish a puzzle that most kids his age would easily do. These toys are indeed beneficial for the well being of your kids. However, they can never be substitute for your presence and assistance.
by: Rachel Nunez

The Benefits Of Bedtime Stories For Children

Do you want an easy way to bond and connect with your children? All it takes is a book and a little time. One of the favorite activities for many families is reading stories to the younger ones just before they go to sleep. You only have to think back to some of your own childhood to remember how much you looked forward to hearing a story. Children have very vivid imaginations that take flight when they hear a book being read aloud. To them this story becomes so real that it seems to be taking place in front of their eyes. Parents will often be faced with the plea for “Just one more page, please.” It can be difficult to say “No” to a child’s eager request and it is very satisfying to a parent to realize how much happiness they are creating for their little ones with a simple story. While you don’t have to wait until the evening hours to read to your child, there are many benefits that accompany the beloved childhood ritual of bedtime stories. 1. Children enjoy listening to stories as they prepare for sleep. This helps them settle down quietly for the night. Listening to the familiar and much loved tones of their parent’s voice is very soothing and comforting. 2. Bedtime stories stimulate the imaginations of children and may even help them become more creative. Children whose parents read to them on a regular basis score higher on most standardized tests at school. 3. When parents or older siblings read to younger children it fosters a love of books and will make kids want to learn how to read. 4. Reading bedtime stories helps young ones develop a large vocabulary. 5. Parents that spend time reading to their children are creating warm memories that will last a lifetime. You can be as campy or as “over the top” as you like when pretending to be different characters in the story. Use funny voices or different facial expressions and really put some emotion into the words and your child will believe you to be the most brilliant actor in the world. 6. One of the most rewarding experiences for a parent is when they can share their own favorite bedtime stories with their own children. Many of the stories your parents read to you were some that your grandparents, or great-grandparents, read to them. You might even consider bedtime storytelling to be a way of continuing a family tradition. 7. Reading and listening to stories engage more areas of the brain than video games or television. If you want to initiate curiosity and thinking skills in your children there is no better way to do it than with books.
by: Stanley Lewis

Mommy & Baby: Facts On Feeding

How you choose to feed your baby, bottle or breast, is a decision you alone get to make. Do not listen to pressure from outside sources that tell you that you “must” choose one way or another in order to be a “good mom,” or that you are “doing harm to your baby” if you opt against what they tell you. The fact is, your baby needs food. If you give your baby the nutrition she needs, you are a good mom. Period! Whatever form of feeding you choose, the most important thing to consider is the gentle, tender cuddling you provide for your baby during the feeding.
Mother’s milk is the complete and perfect food, and is nothing short of miraculous. But if you choose to feed formula, you’re not a bad mother, and you’re not doing irreparable harm to your precious bundle of joy. While breastfeeding is preferred by most pediatricians, there are women who are unable to successfully nurse their babies, and then there are moms who are unable to sustain the feeding patterns they are told are “necessary” to breastfeed.
With parent-directed feeding (PDF), parents will feed their babies on a 2-3 flexible routine based on the baby’s cues. Crying is a late hunger cue, so don’t assume that your baby doesn’t need food until she cries. Some newborns can go 5-6 hours between feedings, which is entirely inadequate for their nutritional needs. This is why solely following baby’s cues may lead to a sickly, undernourished baby who has failure to thrive. Under-fed babies often lack the strength to cry and thus don’t get fed at the appropriate intervals.
So how do you nurse successfully with PDF? You establish the routine—most newborns can go between 2.5-3 hours between feedings. This time is counted from the beginning of feeding to the beginning of feeding. Latch the baby on to your breast appropriately and allow the baby to nurse. Your child will receive foremilk first—a watery thin milk with little nutritive value.
As your baby drinks the foremilk, you will experience letdown in which your glands will release the rest of the milk stored in them—sometimes this is tingly or painful, other times moms have no sensation. The milk your baby now gets is the hindmilk, it is rich, fatty, and full of nutrients. The best indication that you’ve achieved letdown is the consistent and rhythmic swallowing as your baby nurses. Once your milk comes in, most mommies have success nursing for 15 minutes per side, which permits baby to receive the hindmilk she needs to grow strong and healthy.

by: Kirsten Hawkins