Helpful Mom

I always find it funny how sometimes it’s the simplest things that preschoolers find so exciting.  Today on our way to the museum we went to get our car washed, since this NY snow and salt can do a number on our cars, and the kids just get so excited about it.  When they were younger I avoided it because I feared that it would scare them, but last winter I couldn’t avoid it anymore, my previous van died due to rust so now we are taking precautions.  So I took them and explained to them what was about to happen and talked them all the way through it.  They did well, Mikayla was a bit unsure and I had to hold her hand the whole way through and point out what was happening, but Katrina loved it so much she wanted me to do it again-immediately!  So now it’s one of those things they ask to do as if it’s some sort of theme park ride.  I guess it’s one of those things we need to relearn from our children, how to find joy in the most mundane errands.  =)

Cool Kids organizes events on a monthly basis throughout the school year at GCC-Genesee Community College for kids of all ages.  During the summer months they have events every week in the Brockport area.  All of these events are totally FREE of charge.

Coming Thursday, February19 from 7-8pmish at The Forum, GCC-One College Road, Batavia, NY14020

“19th CENTURY FESTIVAL!!!! Games! Music! FUN! ”

Yes! Life before cable! Don’t miss this Cool Kid’s favorite-featuring live 1800’s music by the FlintHill Folk in authentic costume and then the Genesee Country Village Museum hitches up stilts, hoops, board games and more!  Come have fun the olde-fashioned way—and Celebrate history!

This would be a great way to get out of the house for a little bit and teach them a some about history in a fun way.  Great for homeschoolers who want to get outside their text books.

I’m not sure how it started but now every night before putting Katrina to bed I have to give her 20 kisses. Tough job but someone has to do it, gotta take those kisses while I can still get them Partly we were doing it because she kept skipping 13 so thought the practice would be good and it worked very well. In fact we worked our way up in the counting all the way to 80 but 20 is what stuck. She gets kind of silly some times wanting to strike poses between kisses, or do dance moves but it’s a fun painless way to teach your child to count. Once I was watching a friends child and I was putting all the kids to bed and gave Katrina her kisses and he requested to have 20 kisses too!

To help customers struggling with finances and winter infections, Wegmans supermarket chain announced Wednesday that it will not charge to fill generic oral antibiotic precriptions with a Shoppers Club Card between now and March 31.

The program covers up to a 14-day supply of the selected antibiotics listed here.

* Amoxicillin
* Cephalexin
* Sulfamethoxazole/Trimethoprim
* Ciprofloxacin (excluding Ciprofloxacin XR)
* Penicillin VK
* Ampicillin
* Tetracycline
* Erythromycin Stearate and Ethylsuccinate
* Doxycycline Hyclate (capsules)

There are no limits on the number of prescriptions that can be filled, for both new prescriptions and refills.

Wegmans estimates that the program could save customers in its 72 stores approximately $1 million.

If you are a parent you most likely know what I mean when I mention the name Leapfrog or a Leappad.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Leapfrog is a educational toy company that makes THE best toys.  I am an absolute fanatic about them these days.  As a mom of young children that is going to try her hand at homeschooling I am always looking ways of teaching the girls through play.  And so far I haven’t come across a Leapfrog toy that I haven’t liked, or my kids either.  They have a line of DVDs teaching phonics which has already taught my 3 yr old all her letters and their phonic sounds, and my 4 yr old is learning to spell and read 3 and 4 letter words using their Word Whammer, Word Launch, and Easy Reader Phonics kits for the leappads.

I now search out their old products on Ebay for all the coming stages of learning.  I think the more ways of teaching them the various things like reading, writing, and math the more fun and easy learning will be.  They have made a great cash register that teaches them coin denominations and sings songs that teach them different things like the fact that 10 pennies make a dime, and 2 nickels equals a dime, etc.  The girls love to play with it on it’s own, but it can also be used in conjuction with the leapfrog shopping cart, which comes with food you can actually scan on their cash register.  We haven’t gotten that fancy yet, but we do have a toy shopping cart from a garage sale and play food for their kitchen.  So sometimes we’ll play store and buy all the play food in the house, including the utensils and pans.  Bag them up with real grocery bags and charge them with those plastic credit cards that come on CC applications. (small tangent, we are not teaching our kids to just charge their stuff, we pay bills in full and earn 3% back from the CC company)  But it’s just a simple fun way to play and through that they are learning about what the different coins are and how much they are worth.  They even have fake coins that have what look like real coins in the center of a colored ring so they can really learn which coin is which.

Here’s a very simple idea as an activity with your kids.  I bought carnations(daisies work well too) and

Flower Magic

showed the girls how if you put the flower in water with food coloring the flower will change colors!  All you have to do is trim the bottom when you get home and add food coloring to the water in your vase.  I got one for each girl so they could pick their own color to try.  All they had at our store this week was yellow flowers, Mikayla picked green and Katrina picked purple.  The green worked really well, the purple not so much on a yellow flower, looked more brown.

How does it work?  When the flower absorbs the coloring in the water it shows up later in the petals.  Now this of course is not immediate so you have to warn your kids that this is an experiment and that you’ll have to check back every hour or so to see how it changes.  Or if your kids are very impatient you could do this right before bed and tell them they’ll get to see what happens in the morning(it may even get them to want to go right to bed ;P ).

As if we moms don’t have enough clutter to deal with on a daily basis, then comes the holidays with all it’s decorations, gifts, and cards.  Here are a few ideas I came across for wrangling all those cards.

1. Hang a Card Garland. To create a festive garland, laminate the cards, then punch a small hole in the top conrers of each and link them together with ribbon.  This makes a unique and inexpensive decoration and adds a personal touch to the holiday trimmings.

2. Give them a place at the table. After the holidays you can make place mats with photo cards sent by family and friends.  Arrange the pictures on poster board, add borders and text cut from other holiday cards, and laminate the finished product.  Your family can enjoy the photo cards year round.

3.  Start a Blessings Basket. This one is my favorite idea.  Place the photo cards in a basket in the kitchen, then choose one card each night at dinner.  When you say grace, ask a special blessing for the person or family whose card was chosen.

4.  Make an ornament. Cut the card front into even strips.  Stack strips and poke a hole through both ends.  Using a needle, pull sturdy thread through one hole, knot at the base.  Thread through other hole, leaving enough string to make a loop for hanging.  Push the stack of strips down into an arc, knot thread at the base.  Fan out strips to form a ball.

5.  Spice up Recipes. No you’re not going to eat them!  Cut the fronts off your cards and use them to make festive recipe cards by writing a favorite holiday recipe on the back of each one.

6.  Lend a hand. Cut out your child’s handprint from card fronts.  On the back of each hand write a kind act your family can do for others.  Attach to a garland and hang.  Each day, pick a hand, then perform that deed.

As I was perusing the events listings on Kids out and about as I do occasionally looking for fresh ideas of things to do with the girls I came across a couple that I really liked, which are good ways to introduce theatre to young kids.

The first two are FREE and would be great even for the youngest kids because it’s puppet theater.  Just make sure if your kids can’t sit still for long that you sit close to an exit so you can beat a hasty retreat in case Jr decides he no longer wants to sit in your lap but get his hands on one of those fun looking puppets.  The info is as follows:

Friday, February 6 from 10:30-11:15am at the Gates Public Library.    The Catskill Puppet Theater will delight all with their musical melodrama, The Villian’s Mustache.  Colorful 2 1/2 foot tall puppets with animated mouths will perform in this fast paced show.  Registration required, call 247-6446.

Enchanted Kingdom Puppet Show

Date: Friday, February 20
Time: 2:30 - 3:30 pm
Enchanted Kingdom Puppet Show
Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County
Cost: FREE

Age Groups: 4 - 5 years, 6 - 8 years, 9 - 12 years, All Ages, Family
Description: Come to the Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County on Friday, February 20, 2009 at 2:30 pm for Art Miller’s Enchanted Kingdom puppet show. Join Cinderella, the Frog Prince, Little Red Riding, the Big Bad Wolf and Puff the Magic Dragon in their search for clues in an enchanted library. This free, musical, mystical puppet show is sponsored by the Children’s Center and will appeal especially to kids who are between the ages of three and ten and their families.
Contact: Children’s Center
Phone: 585-428-8150
Address: 115 South Ave.
Rochester, NY 14604-1896
Web: www.libraryweb.org
Email: ChildRef@libraryweb.org
Extra Information: Pre-registration is not required.

The other idea is for a play of Cinderella that is adapted specifically to be entertaining to for young children.

Cinderella

Date: Friday, February 27 - Sunday, March 1
Time: 10am/12:30pm; Sat/Sun: 1 & 3pm
TYKEs (Theatre Young Kids Enjoy)
Cost: $14 per ticket
Categories: Music, Reading/Stories, Shows, Shows (participatory)
Age Groups: 4 - 5 years, 6 - 8 years, 9 - 12 years, Teenagers

Performed by adult professional actors

A musical adaptation of the classic tale about a kind-hearted girl who is forced to work as a servant for her slightly wicked stepmother and jealous stepsisters. Sure we know how it ends (happily ever after!) but this story, often regarded as the most popular fairy tale of all time, is sure to be a delight for the whole family!

Public Performances:

Saturday, Feb. 28 at 1 & *3 p.m.

Sunday, Mar. 1 at 1 & 3 p.m.

*Interpreted for the hearing impaired

Tickets available on-line at: www.tykestheatre.org or by calling

461-2000 ext. 235

Discounts available for subscriptions and groups of 10 or more!
Contact: Gina Donahue
Phone: 461-2000 ext. 235
Address: Jewish Community Center
1200 Edgewood Avenue
Rochester, NY 14618
Web: www.tykestheatre.org
Email: tykes@rochester.rr.com
Extra Information: Pre-registration is not required.

So perhaps as our winter wears on you may find yourself looking for something new to do with your kids as I do on this evening, and perhaps one of these ideas have peeked your interest.  And if you don’t live in our area take a look into your area libraries as they offer a wide range of free programs for young kids through the year.  And many community groups offer theatre programs for young children a few times a year.  Enjoy!