Must Have Mondays – The Art Roll To Go

Posted on March 1, 2010February 22, 2010 by fromhedgefundstohighchairs

Not every trip to a restaurant with your preschooler can be perfectly executed. As much as parents practice ‘please’ and ‘thank yous’ and encourage dinner conversation, children have different needs than adults and certainly different patience levels. For this reason, many family friendly restaurants provide paper placemats and crayons. That said, many restaurants do not provide child friendly activities.

I came across a neat solution to stave off boredom without being too burdensome to parents.

It is called Art Roll to Go. The product can be found here: http://www.thepiggystory.com/artroll.php. It is a great way to organize a set of drawing tools for your little one in an aesthetically pleasing and kid friendly package. The roll is crafted from 100% cotton and is an eco-friendly answer to the pencil boxes of our childhood. Instead of dingy old ziplocs, broken crayons or a rainbow of colors drawn onto the inside of your purse, this compact holder offers a great ‘grab and go’ solution.

They offer some adorable designs including princesses, mermaids, dragons, dogs and more.

With crayons in hand, your little artist can draw until the Lion Special (spaghetti with one meatball, my childhood favorite) is served. If the restaurant doesn’t have a place mat with activities, grab paper and your art roll and have your child try a few of these:

Draw what he/she saw on the drive or walk to the restaurant
Draw what he/she is getting for dinner or dessert
See how many little words they can make out of R-E-S-T-A-U-R-A-N-T
Draw a placemat and then draw table items into their proper place (ex fork, knife, glass)
Make a family portrait (or a portrait of those sitting around the table)
Count the people at the table (or tables near by) and write the numbers down.

Parents should evaluate the appropriateness of any product in their own child’s situation. Please feel free to check the consumer product safety commision (http://www.cpsc.gov/) or with other groups that test the safety of children’s products.

Must Have Monday

Must Have Monday – Handmade Blankets

Posted on February 22, 2010February 22, 2010 by fromhedgefundstohighchairs

I have long been a supporter of local, small businesses. It’s not to say I don’t love Whole Foods or Starbucks however there is something so wonderful about buying something gorgeous from the actual person that made it! So many businesses are built on the dreams of amazing people just bursting with ideas of how to do things better or how to creativity make something beautiful. In my childhood, I was always told I could do whatever I wanted but I had to put my heart and energy into it. That belief in me has taken me places I never imagined! I truly believe that by supporting talented small business owners, we are telling them same thing! “I believe in your dream, I think you are amazing at what you do, put your heart and energy into it and you can be a success!”

So what does all this have to do with Child Development? Well, for families with pre-school age children, many times there are also babies or friends with babies and certainly baby showers! An acquaintance/friend of mine has such a talent for putting together gorgeous designs and hand-making baby blankets, cloths and baskets. She can take the planned colors of the baby’s room and make it into a beautiful handmade gift. http://www.etsy.com/shop/enolaashley

Sweet Baby Blanket Amy Butler French Wallpaper

When I look around at what I have kept with me, move after move, it is the handmade items that I have saved all these years: a purple patch blanket from my Nanna, a cross-stitch framed saying from a best friend. There is so much love that goes into items like these; they deserve to be treasured.

On all the other ‘Must Have Mondays’ I have provided the disclosure that I was not compensated for my post. In this case, I feel I must share with you that I do know the business owner and I do have a shoe carrier from EnolaAshley (which I LOVE!) I ask, as always, that you make the decision based upon your own assessments.

Must Have Monday

Must Have Monday – Book Recommendation

Posted on February 1, 2010February 24, 2021 by fromhedgefundstohighchairs

I am a big proponent of reading to your children. I have listed some studies on the subject to emphasize the importance.

(Carey, 1978) Estimated that pre-school age children acquire 5 new words each day. That’s 10,000 by the age of six.*
(Anderson, Heilbert, Scott and Wilkenson, 1985) Found reading aloud is the single most important activity for building the knowledge needed in reading.*
(Schickendanz. 1999) Discusses the strong relationship between language development in the early years and reading later on.*

*Studies quoted were sourced from the following paper: Teacher’s Use of Interactive Read Alouds Using Nonfiction in Early Childhood Classrooms http://www.cluteinstitute-onlinejournals.com/PDFs/1601.pdf

One of my Subject Matter Experts and Mom of Three recommended ‘Big Words for Little People’ by Jaime Lee Curtis as a favorite of her kids. This book can also help boost vocabulary as it is full of big words!

The book teaches children big words like patience, cooperate, persevere and respect. It’s a fun way to incorporate new words into your child’s rapidly growing vocab.

Remember – Make it a habit! Read to your children every night!!

Must Have Monday

Must Have Monday – Teaching Your Children about Money

Posted on January 25, 2010February 24, 2021 by fromhedgefundstohighchairs

According to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, the real national debt is $56.4 trillion dollars as of the day this was posted. Not only is our nation in debt, many of our fellow Americans also have deep personal debt. These debts, amongst other things sent our country spiraling into a recession last year. We experienced the worse financial market volatility since the depression. Many people are now facing the stark realization that they will not be able to pay for their own retirement.

Looking at our own financial situation, addressing the problems, making decisions and putting away money for retirement is a conversation even many adults avoid. What can we be doing now to raise children that understand money? In a society in which our children are barraged with material goods, how do we get them to understand save, invest, donate and spend on the important items?

Todays featured must have addresses many of these questions.

This is the Money Savvy Pig. Instead of just one slot at the top there are four: save, spend, donate and invest. Each of these are important lessons to learn on the road to fiscal responsiblity. The product has won the ‘Parents Choice Gold Award’ ‘Napa Gold, National Parents Publications’ and the ‘Prefered Choice Award Creative Child Magazine’ to name a few.

In addition, there is reading and curriculum resources. The above is the Money Savvy Kids Activity and Coloring Book. According to the site “These 24-page books are the perfect accompaniment to the Money Savvy Pig or the Money Savvy Cow because they help teach many of the same important concepts contained in our school curriculum. Kids can color the pages while they learn about important concepts such as bartering, interest on your savings, goal-setting, smart-spending, philanthropy, long-term investing and entrepreneurship. Other activities include establishing personal savings goals, creating a spending wish list, designing a worthwhile charity, and crafting a business idea.”

You can find out more including cost and other products at the Money Savvy Website: http://www.msgen.com/assembled/home.html

In addition, there are some great website for kids such as the U.S Mint (http://www.usmint.gov/kids/games/) and even banks like Valley National Bank (http://www.vnbkids.com/kids.asp)

Happy Savings!

The blog is in no way compensated for items featured. Parents should evaluate the appropriateness of any product in their own child’s situation. Please feel free to check the consumer product safety commision (http://www.cpsc.gov/) or with other groups that test the safey of children’s products.

Must Have Monday

The Perfect (Educational) Gifts for your kids – finding them and ‘gift-listing’ them.

Posted on January 24, 2010February 24, 2021 by fromhedgefundstohighchairs

I am often asked by parents where to look for quality (educational) gifts for their children. Parents today are faced with hundreds if not thousands of choices when it comes to purchasing toys, books, dvds and video games for their children. Walk down an aisle in Target or BabysRUs or any store for that matter and you will see the extent of the options. In addition, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, friends and your children’s peers ask you for wish lists around birthday and holiday time.

Today, we will address these two topics: where can parents find information on quality products for children and how can parents’gift-list’ them for those that would like to buy their children a present?

In doing product research, I found the Parents Choice Award. This award is given by The Parents’ Choice Foundation. “It is the nation’s oldest nonprofit guide to quality toys and media.” “The Foundation’s purpose is to search out and recommend products that help kids grow – imaginatively, physically, morally and mentally—fairly priced products that are fun, safe and socially sound.” The group has given these awards in the following categories: audio, book, dvd, magazine, software, television, toy, video game and website. The foundations principles include: children deserve material to sharpen young minds not blunt them, children learn most easily when they enjoy it, knowledge gives parents confidence to teach their children. Parents can access the website for the Parents’ Choice awards here http://www.parents-choice.org/aboutpcf.cfm. The website is a great resource and provides guides for parents, adventures in your area news and recalls plus information on reading, learning and play.

So now that you have identified some great gifts, where do you store the information and share it? Amazon is a great place to search for the toys. Amazon now has a great feature called Universal Wish List. It allows the user to find items on ANY website and then add it to their Amazon Wish List. Therefore, all the great toys you find on the Parents’ Choice website or else where can be stored on one personalized list and shared easily with Grandparents and friends. Instructions are listed here http://www.amazon.com/gp/wishlist/universal/ref=cm_wl_xt_r_c_uwl_u.

Category: Must Have Monday

Must Have Mondays – The Art Roll To Go

Must Have Monday – Handmade Blankets

Must Have Monday – Book Recommendation

Must Have Monday – Teaching Your Children about Money

The Perfect (Educational) Gifts for your kids – finding them and ‘gift-listing’ them.

Today, we will address these two topics: where can parents find information on quality products for children and how can parents’gift-list’ them for those that would like to buy their children a present?

Happy Shopping and Enjoy Playtime!