Dads and kids: Making paper doll chains

Making a paper doll chain is a perfect activity for dads and children on a sleepy afternoon. It is simple and does not require either time or money. Most importantly, it will be an exercise in creativity that the children will surely enjoy.

Things you will need:

* Some cardboard or hard paper

* A pair of scissors

* Pen, crayons, markers, and color pencils

* Glue

* Colorful paper or fabric scraps, buttons, beads, ribbons, sequins, and stickers to decorate the dolls

Steps to make the doll chain:

* Cut out a broad strip of the cardboard or paper. This could be about 10 cm high and as long as you want to make your doll chain.

* Fold about 6 cm of one end of the strip. At the point where the folded end overlaps, fold the strip again, but in the other direction. Go on making similar, alternating folds, so that the entire strip is folded into accordion style panels.

* Hold the folded panels bunched up tightly, with the top panel facing you. Help your children to draw the outline of a doll on this top panel, with the hands and legs spread out so that these extend to the panel borders.

* Carefully cut around the doll, taking care to retain the folds where the hands and legs touch the borders.

* Now unfold the strip to see your chain of dolls, joined by their hands and legs.

* Let your children decorate the dolls using the crayons, markers, color pencils, pieces of fabric, beads, ribbons, etc.

* You can even help your kids cut out little shapes from fabric scraps that they can use to create colorful dresses for the dolls.

You can use this chain to decorate the walls of your living room. You could even stick it around a lampshade, hang it as a mobile, or use it to decorate your child’s door.

Moving is the Best Exercise for Babies

We know that exercise is important for our health as adults, but did you know that the same philosophy applies to babies? It is recommended that babies should work their muscles at least half-hour each day, although not necessarily all at once. Here are basic exercises that you can do with your baby, to stretch and tone the muscles:
Stretching
With your baby on his tummy, roll a ball in his direction so he has to extend his arms to grasp the ball and then roll it back to you. Alternately, you could sit facing each other with your feet bottoms touching and roll the ball back and forth, stretching in the process.
Standing
If your baby is trying to stand, encourage him by making him want to move towards you. Make sure you do this within the safety of a crib or on well-padded baby bedding. Play with a toy to get his attention and then re-position yourself on the other side of the crib or bed to get him to come to you. You can also make the stretching motion yourself and show him what it looks like when you stand up.
Crawling
Your infant’s attempts to crawl are naturally going to help him exercise his little body since he will work hard to push himself forward with his arms and legs. Motivate him to move by clapping your hands and motioning your child to come towards you. You can also use a noise-making toy to grab his attention.
Jumping
Toddlers require a more advanced activity like jumping to help practice motor skills. You can make a line on your carpet using a folded piece of construction paper and help your baby hop from one side to the other. To add to the excitement, make up rhyming tunes as you go or listen to music.

Dine Out with Your Baby

Just because you are a parent now does not mean you can’t occasionally dine out without feeling guilty about leaving the baby at home. The problem is that your baby, who may not find the prospect highly exciting, could end up feeling bored or neglected.
A little forethought and planning however can ensure that eating out will be as much fun for you as for your child. Here are some valuable tips to make dining out with your baby a pleasant experience for you:

• Keep your baby busy: Carry interesting toys or games to keep your baby engrossed in playing while you are at the eatery.
• Ensure you baby is comfortable and safe: You may carry your baby’s favorite chair to the eatery so your baby feels at home. Alternately, take some time to choose a suitable place in the restaurant—far away from kitchen odors and noise.
• Be ready for food-spills: Bring in your baby’s towels, diapers, and napkins to take care of those food-spills as soon as they may occur.
• Order your baby’s favorite food: Your baby needs to be equally attracted by the food on its platter, as you would be with yours.

Dine in a quiet and un-crowded eatery: Crowded restaurants will tend to make your baby restless and cranky.

• Reserve early and pre-order the food: Avoid long waits to be seated and consider ordering the baby’s food immediately after sitting down.  Most restaurants will have simple pasta and butter and steamed veggie options for babies.   Don’t hesitate to ask.

Basic dining etiquette for little kids to learn

Quick ! You have 25 days to get the kids in shape to make a good presentation at Christmas dinner. Like a lot of stuff in parenting, consistency and patience are by-words and yes, you can teach a toddler few new tricks. Here are the basic etiquette skills little ones should have:

• “Please,” “Thank you” and “You’re welcome” are not optional. Repeat them over, invite your kids to correct you, and you’ll find by Christmas a pleasant and polite Pavlovian response.
• Eating with fingers is for babies, with the obvious exceptions ( pizza, ribs, chicken legs for example ). Little kids can use a fork, though you may have to help load it up from time to time. Resist the temptation to feed them and they will pick up this skill, leaving you free to get them another glass of milk.
• Kids need to ask to be excused to leave the table. Teaching kids not to run around during dinner is not that easy, but you’ll make it harder if you chase them around to get them to eat.
• Salt and pepper go together. Pass them together for a polished impression.
• Even little kids can and should use napkins, keep them on their laps, and learn to use them rather than wiping their hands on their pants.

You can make it easier for the kids by eating dinner in a room without distractions like TV, and make a rule not to allow toys or books while eating the family meal together.
Good luck and Bon appetit!

Child Behavior Suggestions – Cleaning up their Mess

Are you tired of your kids acting like royalty around the house? Making a mess of their rooms as they throw away their clothes and food, expecting you to go picking after them?

Enough is enough – pull yourself out of the mess by teaching your toddlers to help. Its time for Operation Clean Up! As a parent, the following steps will certainly help with the clean up:

• STEP 1: Make an announcement. Let your toddlers know that it’s time to clean up. Give them a specific place to put the toys – a plastic tub or a toy box will do fine. Place the container in the middle of the room.
• STEP 2: Using a loud voice, say “Look at this huge mess. Is there anyone who can help me?” as you are setting the container down. A toddler’s attention tends to pick up this tone. You can also make up and sing a cleanup song to get them into the swing. Remember to be happy and positive about the task.
• STEP 3: By means of demonstration, pick up some toys on the floor and place them in the container. All the while you can continue with the singing and coaxing.
• STEP 4: Now is the time to ask your children to (please) pick up a specific toy. Thank them when they start placing toys in your hand or in the container.
• STEP 5: Always keep a back-up plan, as a consequence for not helping. Give them a timeout or better still, you can threaten to take away one of their treasured items till they start cleaning up.
• STEP 6: Warn the toddlers only once and then follow through with the consequence they don’t help.
• STEP 7: Continue cleaning up the toys until all of the toys are picked up.

Related Article: Kids Activities

Know Why Kids Scribble

Most children are fascinated by the possibilities of a pencil or crayon stub and become engrossed in their activity as they scribble away for hours. As a parent, you may find this a heaven-sent solution to keep your kids quiet and relaxed in their own self-contained zone.
However, you may worry that your child is obsessed with this one activity, and wish he or she would play at something else. It is important for a parent to understand that scribbling may actually serve a greater purpose than mere entertainment. Here are some of the major advantages that scribbling has to offer to children:

• It helps develop independent thinking in children, since a scribbling child gets to think without bounds and without help from anyone.
• It helps develop greater finger control in children, enabling them to be fast and efficient with activities such as writing or brushing.
• It introduces children to the power of the writing—through the process of scribbling, your child learns that a lot can be achieved by writing on a blank space.
• It allows children to express their thoughts and feelings without any inhibitions. This can be a very good way of letting out both negative and positive emotions in a pleasant and subtle way.

With these benefits and more, you would want to ensure your child continues scribbling whenever possible. Here are some tips on how you can make this activity a pleasure for all:

• Teach your child that scribbling is acceptable only on certain surfaces such as notebooks and sand and not on walls, or any other places.
• Provide your child with notebooks of their own and always bring paper and pens to restaurants or anywhere your kids will have to wait. Put an extra stash of pens and paper in the car, so you always have some on hand.
• Give your kids some good educational themes to encourage constructive scribbling—like learning to draw buildings or a simple room.

Making Paper Doll Chain with Your Kids

Making a paper doll chain is a perfect activity for dads and children on a sleepy afternoon. It is simple and does not require either time or money. Most importantly, it will be an exercise in creativity that the children will surely enjoy.

Things you will need:

• Some cardboard or hard paper
• A pair of scissors
• Pen, crayons, markers, and color pencils
• Glue
• Colorful paper or fabric scraps, buttons, beads, ribbons, sequins, and stickers to decorate the dolls

Steps to make the doll chain:

• Cut out a broad strip of the cardboard or paper. This could be about 10 cm high and as long as you want to make your doll chain.

• Fold about 6 cm of one end of the strip. At the point where the folded end overlaps, fold the strip again, but in the other direction. Go on making similar, alternating folds, so that the entire strip is folded into accordion style panels.

• Hold the folded panels bunched up tightly, with the top panel facing you. Help your children to draw the outline of a doll on this top panel, with the hands and legs spread out so that these extend to the panel borders.

• Carefully cut around the doll, taking care to retain the folds where the hands and legs touch the borders.

• Now unfold the strip to see your chain of dolls, joined by their hands and legs.

• Let your children decorate the dolls using the crayons, markers, color pencils, pieces of fabric, beads, ribbons, etc.

• You can even help your kids cut out little shapes from fabric scraps that they can use to create colorful dresses for the dolls.

You can use this chain to decorate the walls of your living room. You could even stick it around a lampshade, hang it as a mobile, or use it to decorate your child’s door.

Building a Tree House for Your Kids

Building a tree house is a great project idea for a dad. For one thing, it is a fun activity for the kids that also has learning value to it. Besides, a tree house means that the kids have their own special place to spend quality hours with their friends in the safe environment of your own backyard.

While you don’t have to be an engineering expert to build a tree house, it does require some thought and care. Apart from the crucial safety aspect, you also have to ensure that your tree house is functional and aesthetic. Here are tips to help you build one.

1. Select an appropriate tree: As the foundation for the tree house, you need to select an appropriate tree. To start, it has to be big and sturdy enough. Ideally, it would have to be one with the ‘V’ shaped formation to support your house. Lastly, ensure that your tree is located away from potential hazards such as high voltage wires.

2. Plan a foundation: A strong foundation is essential to hold up your tree house. Decide the size of the house you are building and determine whether you will need extra supporting posts for balance.

3. Build a base: Once the foundation is in place, you can start building a strong base for your house. A simple way to do this is to lay out flat boards across the branches (and supporting posts, if you have used them) and nailing or fastening them together to make the house; make sure you don’t leave nail ends sticking out to hurt your kids. An even better way, especially if this is your first tree house, would be to refer to some tree house plans and building directions featured in books or on the internet.

4. Finish the house: Once the main structure of your house is complete, it’s up to you to add the smaller details to make it more appealing to children. They will be very happy to help you decorate it the way they’d like it. Don’t forget to include a ladder, preferably one made of sturdy rope, that the kids can drop down or pull up as they want.

How to Play with Your Ten Month Old Baby

Babies around ten months of age will enjoy being introduced to new toys or games. This is because they become increasingly curious and variety stimulates them. Exposure to newer experiences helps their ability to perceive and understand things better.

These are some of the ways in which you can play with you 10 month old child:

• Encourage your child to imitate what you do. Clap your hands, pull your nose, toss a ball and get your child to do these things just like you. Then start improvising on the theme. For instance, you pull your child’s nose, so that your child pulls yours.

• Children at this age are fascinated about how things fit inside other things. Show your child how to collect assorted toys and put them into a box. Then teach your child to empty the box into another container.

• Hide a toy inside a box or bag and encourage your child to retrieve it.

• Teach your child to balance blocks to build a column and then give it a nudge to see it collapse.

• Show your child how to push a ball or a toy truck along. Play a game where both of you push the toy across the floor to each other.

It is important that you remember that these play sessions are primarily meant to be enjoyed. Do not force your child to ‘learn’ at the cost of fun. Allow you’re the baby space to grow and develop. However, if you are concerned about some aspect of your child’s behavior, consult your pediatrician.

NASA Info for Dads and Kids

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to take your children on a journey into space—lifting them up on your shoulders can bring them closer to the sky. It wouldn’t hurt though if the kids actually knew what a real rocket scientist does. That’s where NASA comes in.

What dads and kids need to know about NASA:

* NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
* It’s headquartered at Washington DC.
* NASA’s mission statement is to “pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery, and aeronautics research.”
* NASA explorer schools promote and support the incorporation of NASA content and programs into science, technology and mathematics curricula in classroom grades 4-9 across the United States.

NASA is perhaps our only gateway into the universe and let’s face it—kids today need that kind of exposure. Not only will children be introduced to a world beyond their imagination but also they might just get off aimlessly chatting on the Internet and learn to focus their skills productively into math and science. A trip to DC headquarters could be a great way for dads to get things moving in the right direction.

If DC is far off for some dads, here are other NASA destinations in the United States they can visit. Click on the hyperlinks below to view details on timings and special attractions.

* Kennedy Space Center (has a space camp program for kids ages 8 to 14 yrs)
* Johnson Space Center
* Jet Propulsion Lab Open House
* Ames Research Center
* Goddard Spaceflight Center
* Edwards Air Force Base
* Marshall Spaceflight Center
* Langley Research Center
* Stennis Space Center
* Wallops Flight Facility

NASA also delivers a wealth of internet resources that are safe, fun, and educational for children. Dads and kids will find reliable, easy-to-learn information on space-related topics, as well as games and web quests. There are places where you can even chat with NASA experts.