Polls and Tips for Raising Kids

We've experimented with no screens for a set time (a week, a couple of weeks, a day), with the length of time determined by our goal. For example, when it seems like the kids are getting too dependent on their screens and it is becoming difficult for them to have healthy limits, we'll do two full weeks with no screens. The first several days are rough, but just before the 1 week mark, we see that they "re-learn" the ability to play on their own and otherwise entertain themselves without screens. It makes it really tempting to swear off screens altogether, but they are such useful and versatile tools I doubt we'll ever truly go there.

For my teens in particular, I will sometimes have them leave their devices with me, and then come to me to request permission to use them for a particular purpose (to message friends, play a game, etc). Here, my goal is to help them be thoughtful about the time they spend on their phones, rather than to keep them from doing the things they enjoy on there. It is too easy to move mindlessly from one thing to another on our phones, so this helps them have a specific (and somewhat time-limited) purpose for being on their phone.

If there are six apples and you take away four, how many apples do you have? Four.

The more you take away from me, the bigger I get. What am I? A hole.

AMC movie pass

Afternoon tea time at a fancy hotel. Enjoy a decadant three-tiered array of goodies! But, you may want to confirm if the service offers a children's tea menu should you have a picky eater.

What did the shark say when it ate the clown fish? Tastes funny.

Why does a duck have feathers? To cover his butt quack

An OT told me this one: use small writing utensils such as golf pencils and broken crayons. This helps prevent children from grabbing the utensil with a fist and encourages the correct pencil grasp.

Peeling and placing stickers. Sticker books are great for this - we like the "paint by sticker" series, though it may be a little challenging for some little ones. My 4-year-old is awesome at it, but my 6-year-old (whose fine motor skills definitely need work) struggles a bit. I also really like the Phidal line of reusable sticker books - the quality is such that they truly are reusable!

Pass the Parcel! We'd never heard of this one until we saw the Bluey episode about Lucky's Dad's Rules (best. episode. ever.), and now my kids want to play it ALL the time. Similar to Hot Potato, kids pass around a wrapped gift while music is playing. When the music stops, whoever is holding the gift gets to unwrap it. According to the Bluey episode, the original way to play is to wrap a single gift in various layers of wrapping paper, so you go through several rounds before a child actually opens the gift, which they get to keep. Another version of the game includes small prizes within each layer of paper, and strategically stopping the music to make sure every child gets a prize.

Hot potato. We just had a birthday party for a five-year-old, and ended up playing hot potato along with pass the parcel. Though I’ve loved pass the parcel since we discovered it on Bluey, think the kids enjoyed hot potato even more, as they were able to toss the “potato” (we used a small plushy) to each other out of order, which made the game more active and the kids more engaged. When the music stopped, whoever was holding the plushy got out, and the last person in got the prize. This kept the kids from slow passing, too, since the goal was NOT to get caught with the plushy!

I put together little gifts (think Dollar bin) wrapped up in bags with a time on them. My kids look forward to these gifts and it helps to pass the time on long trips!

Download an audiobook and/or pick a podcast that's appropriate for your kids' ages and would be interesting to the adults, too.

The Chinese soft-shelled turtle pees from its mouth.

Honeybees can recognize human faces.

If you could have any super power, what would it be, and why?

If you were an Olympic gold-medal athlete, which sporting event would you want it to be in?

First day of school photos on our front steps, and couple more in front of the school too.

My husband and I will usually take the day off work (when we can) so we can be there for drop off and pick up on the first day, which makes it feel extra special for all of us.

My 6 year old loves his running program and I see a fair number of kids who don't love team sports there. They do individual activities, like quick sprints and longer jogs, and the coaches have them work together and build team spirit in other ways.

I am a huge fan of martial arts. I love that they provide great physical exercise, but also promote and support important life skills like discipline, confidence, and respect for self and others.

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. ~Maya Angelou

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. ~Wayne Gretzky

"The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem. Do you understand?" – Pirates of the Caribbean

"When one can see no future, all one can do is the next right thing." – Frozen 2