Homeschooling continues to grow in popularity but is it right for your family?

A 2007 government study showed that 1.5 million children (2.9% of K-12 students) in the United States were homeschooled, an increase of 36% since the previous study conducted in 2003.

While the reasons for the growth in the homeschooling trend vary, many parents cite religious reasons, lack of faith in public education and/or differences with the curriculum taught in public institutions.

Why Homeschool?

Reasons parents decide to homeschool their children vary widely but often include common reasons such as:

• Belief that public schools are inadequate or too far from home (especially true for parents who live in rural areas)
• Philosophical or religious differences with mainstream K-12 educational institutions
• Family travels or lives abroad where access to schools may be limited
• Desire to spend more time with growing kids rather than having them away from home much of the day
• Special needs or medical treatment that makes going to school difficult or impossible

Is Homeschooling for You?

Don’t underestimate the commitment of time and dedication involved with homeschooling; whereas most teachers focus on a single grade level, you’ll have to be prepared to learn a new curriculum each year as your kid(s) progresses through each grade level.

Talk to other parents who have done homeschooling to get a realistic picture of what you’ll be signing up for and make sure you and your spouse both agree that you want to homeschool, since you’ll both be making sacrifices in terms of time, income, lifestyle, etc.

Ultimately only you can decide whether homeschooling is right for your family but making an informed, deliberate decision is the first step to doing it successfully!

Homeschooling Legalities

Become very familiar with your state/region’s legislation on home schooling; you want to stay within the guidelines to avoid any problems down the road that could affect your family or future educational opportunities for your child.

As a general rule of thumb, school officials don’t have a clue about home school laws and may give you information that is misleading so probably, public schools are not the place to go for your information. Here are additional legal resources:

• Legal Information by State (USA)
• Homeschooling in Canada

Homeschool Support Groups

Meeting other homeschoolers can be helpful, but finding a local support group can be challenging. If you belong to a church that may be a good place to start searching for other homeschoolers you could get to know.

Finding and joining a support group will greatly help you succeed in homeschooling by providing help with choosing curriculum, keeping good records, meeting regulations and giving you and your child opportunities for social interaction.

Local parents or groups who homeschool are going to be your best bet to get in touch with the proper agencies to give you insight on the home schooling rules and laws in your area, and how to make sure that you fulfill them.

Most states have a home schooling group that parents can join to assure that students receive enough interaction with other children and they will usually have brochures or welcome packets that will help you in your choice to home school and help you to find a curriculum or to develop your own.

Homeschool Curriculum

Developing your own curriculum is not difficult at all if you remember your own schooling and you can usually do it quite successfully on your own, however if you don’t feel confident with that, there are many packaged curricula out there that are developed with your children’s age and what they should be expected to know at any given time during the school year.

Most of these packaged curriculum programs are highly expensive, and may cost between two and five hundred dollars to purchase, while some at that price don’t include the workbooks and other materials that you need.

Homeschool Record Keeping

Record keeping is an essential part of homeschooling in order to meet regulations and ensure your child stays on track. Records could be in the form of a daily journal or handwritten in a notebook. You can also purchase computer software that will assist in the record keeping process.

Homeschool Scheduling

While you will have a lot of flexibility and freedom in your homeschooling schedule, it is important to set up a daily, weekly and year-long schedule to ensure you don’t fall behind. Discipline and structure in your homeschooling program is no less important than in the classroom. Again, try to learn from others what works and adapt it you’re your own family needs.

Making Homeschool Interesting (and Fun!)

It’s no secret that kids have short attention spans, so variety and keeping learning activities will go a long way in keeping your homeschool student(s) focused and engaged!

Focus on anything you can do to make learning fun and interesting. Riddles, learning games, puzzles and arts and crafts projects can all help make learning more fun.

Homeschool Tools and Aids

Many teaching resources used in the classroom can be adapted to help you set up homeschool learning centers and activities:

The pocket chart is a commonly used K-6 teaching resource that can help define your curriculum, schedule learning activities, and teach specific subjects such as word study, how to use a calendar, learn about money and many other topics. You can also easily switch the cards that go in a pocket chart, making it an extremely versatile teaching tool.

You can find a wealth of professional books for teachers available that provide complete programs on teaching reading, writing, basic math and other subjects. Many include printables and guides on how to conduct specific learning activities and exercises.

Wikki Stix are a creative, hands-on crafting material that make learning activities fun for kids. They are easy to use and clean up and can be used to teach children basic shapes, the alphabet, numbers and counting and more.

Additional Homeschooling Resources

Hopefully our basic overview on homeschooling will help get you started. You can find many free resources online. Here are a few websites to help get you going:

• TheHomeSchoolMom.com
• HomeSchoolReviews.com
• DonnaYoung.org
• Homeschool.com
• Teaching Resource Center
• Crosswalk.com
• LetsHomeschool.com

If you have experience with homeshooling, please leave your comments below and/or link to additional resources you may know of to help others on their way!

Studies are beginning to show that completely sheltering your kids from bacteria and infections can actually make them more susceptible to some of them and additionally can actually cause the development of asthma and allergies.

Bacteria are vital to good health. Killing off the normal flora of the body does not assist us in fighting disease but rather, can actually cause it. Recent studies have shown that the more educated a parent is, the more likely their child is to develop asthma and allergies in part because of the parents concern about bacterial infections.

Dr Gerald Callahan, who studies bacteria at Colorado State University explains, "Before we knew the important role of infections, we were concerned about things like polio and rabies and yellow fever. Because of that when Fleming introduced Penicillin we went crazy with joy and began to slather everything with antibiotics. Now we are paying our dues for that over reaction."

New studies show that bacteria is an important part of our every day lives, but that does not mean hygiene is less important. Photo by pyza.

The best method of cleansing for our children is to put the antibacterial things by the wayside, and use plain mild soap and water to wash up, and to toss away the antibacterial sprays unless we are in the presence of something that consistently puts harmful bacteria in our way.

Teach your children to wash their hands thoroughly; for instance try having them wash long enough to sing the ABCs. But toss away your antibacterial soaps and use plain mild hand soap. Teach your kids about preventing disease, by good hand washing, covering their mouth when they cough, not sharing drinks and so on, and leave the antibacterial soap for the surgeons.

Do you have other tips on how to teach kids good hygiene? If so, please leave your comments and help inform others too.

A sauna will offer warmth that will help your mental fatigue drain away as your tensions evaporate from the whole body experience leaving you both mentally and physically refreshed. Companies such as Finnleo, afford residential saunas that are on a par with the commercial units they sell, which offer soft heat, light steam and a very healthy environment. Whatever you use your sauna for, whether its to wind down, to relieve muscle stress or fatigue, or before you retire to promote sleep, a sauna kit is a wise investment into a healthier lifestyle. Pricing on home saunas is fairly reasonable for most. In a price comparison: Laatu Infrared Sauna: single tier, L shaped that will hold two people, retailing for about 4500.00 USD Harmony Infrared which will hold about three people, retails for about 2o000 USD

Take your Halloween pumpkin carving to another level with these tips!

The kids have their Halloween costumes picked out and are eagerly anticipating trick or treating! And one of the best parts of Halloween for most kids is carving Jack O’ Lanterns.

Around our house pumpkin carving is a big deal and we like to try creative new ideas every year. So, we thought we’d share a few techniques, creative thought-starters and tips on carving pumpkins into award-winning Jack O’ Lanterns this Halloween.

When Halloween rolls around, it is impossible to run out of create way to carve your pumpkins. Some are frightful while others are fanciful, make a big wicked grin and the effect can be positively eerie!

Whether you transform a pumpkin into a goofy ‘smiler’ or a wicked, jagged-tooth vampire, jack o lanterns are guaranteed to make Halloween magic.

The Basics of Pumpkin Carving

Scooping out seeds and pumpkin goo is all part of the job; make this a fun activity for kids by keeping the pumpkin seeds to bake later.

Before we can go on and explore some design ideas we better run through the basic procedure for pumpkin carving as this is repeated no matter what design you create or choose:

• Cut the lid or bottom off the pumpkin
• Always the first step; or a small pumpkin you want roughly a 4”- diameter lid, whereas a larger pumpkin will need 6”- to 8”- diameter lid.
• Use a larger size saw tool or a knife to cut out the lid, aim at an angle as it will provide a ledge for the lid to rest on. Also, remember to cut a key in the lid of your pumpkin as it will allow you to easily align the lid when you replace it.
• Remove the pumpkin goo! Scoop out all the seeds and strings first (delicious!), then use a scraping tool to scrape out all the inside lining of the pumpkin. The walls will probably be about 1” thick. To gauge the thickness, simply poke a pin through the wall and measure how far in it goes.

Transfer the Design onto the Pumpkin

Marking the design on your pumpkin is essential to carving a good pumpkin design.

The key to a successful pumpkin design is a sharp, clear image. Some of the smallest tricks can make a huge difference to how easy this can be:

• Draw your pattern on paper and then position this on the surface of the pumpkin. If you make cuts in the corners of the pattern towards the center, it will be easier to bend to the shape of the pumpkin.
• Little pins that are used to hold corn on the cob are great for pinning these patterns down.
• Another method is to use masking tape to stick your paper design to the side of the pumpkin.
• Then, carefully punch holes (only piercing the surface!) along the outside of the pumpkin with a poking tool.
• Check that everything is in line before removing the pattern. If you find you cannot easily see the punched holes, just dust the dots with flour and they’ll show up.

Poking Holes to Trace an Outline

• BEFORE carving, if you poke some holes into the design, you’ll make the carving job easier. This must be done before you cut though or the pumpkin will become unevenly weak in places and could crack. This does require some pressure on the pumpkin so don’t be too nervous about that.
• Use something sharp and small like a kitchen ice pick, corn on the cob holder or a paperclip to poke your holes; this makes carving as easy as ‘connect the dots’.

Jagged teeth are sure to make your Jack O Lantern scary and dramatic.

Pumpkin Carving Technique

The last step is to carve the design in. Use a saw tool and carve gently but firmly straight into the pumpkin at a 90 degree angle.

Start from the center of the design and work outwards with loose, smooth strokes. Whatever you do, do not rush; it’s a slow and steady job.

The point of taking your time can’t be emphasized enough; I am always the last one finished in our family, but the kids always say “Dad, how did you make yours so cool”?

The kids are getting a little more patient each year and I usually encourage them to carve a quick Jack O’ Lantern for immediate gratification first, and then do another that they take their time on and get more creative.

Jack O’ Lantern Designs

There isn’t a limit with to what you can do, but there is a smart way to go about it. You can pick any design, but make sure you use larger, strongly defined shapes. Pumpkins are thick and it’s very hard to carve the intricate delicate details.

Whatever you choose let it make optimum use of the space it is in, you don’t want too much bare pumpkin skin around it or the light inside won’t be effective. Also think about who will be coming to visit; a cutesy, simple design is loved by young children, but if the kids will be a bit older you might want something a bit more spooky or surprising.

A Perky Pumpkin Face

Pay attention to the eyes and mouth if you want a happy, smiling or thoughtful expression on your Jack O Lantern face.

If you like the celebration spirit of Halloween but aren’t so keen on spooking, you might like a perky, smiling pumpkin design.

Draw simple circular eyes and focus on arcing eyebrows that look like flags waving in the wind. This will work to show a happy emotion. Make the nose a simple triangle and then emphasis the mouth. A wide, jovial upward angled mouth with an enormous hanging tongue for a bit of cheek.

A hanging centerpiece in the center of the tongue will give it some definition but carve this part first or it will become too weak.

Lips in Stitches Pumpkin

A really simple design but very effective once lit up. Do two circular pupils and then emphasis them with enormous arching triangular eyes. One downward, diagonal line above each will express a frown.

Scary skull head and flames pumpkin carving design is more than just spooky!

The nose can be a simple wide upside down triangle. For the mouth, create a stitch effect like those which was traditionally drawn on a Frankenstein cartoon by making a wide curvaceous line and then drawing vertical lines across it from one side to the side for a great grimacing growl.

Skull Head Pumpkin

Always one of my favorites, the skull is a straightforward and recognizable image so it will be easy to source a picture to trace.

Make the eyes on this one very deep and wide to let the like out. Two small side by side triangles are all that is needed for a nose. Keep the face long by distancing between the features. Cut out small, square teeth either side of a line for the mouth.

A defined square line running around the outside will be effective. You can take some tinfoil and cover a couple of teeth to give long john silver treatment.

Frankenstein Pumpkin

Monster themes are always a great pumpkin carving theme in keeping with the Halloween spirit.

This is another easy one to adapt from a picture. Track down a Frankenstein cartoon.

The features you’ll want to include in your design are the hair, eyes, nose, mouth, facial stitches, ear, bottom corners of jaw and neck complete with bolts.

The traditional Jack O Lantern face makes a great Halloween pumpkin display.

These are the distinguishing features that make any Frankenstein image recognizable.

Worm Brain Pumpkin

A fun design bound to show your home off as a viable trick or treat stop. Simple carve enormous round eyes and a large cavernous mouth.

Take a drill and drill small holes around the top of the head and on the front of the face between the eyes.

Insert some lolly snakes to appear as if they are squirming out of the holes. If you drill two holes near each other, you can insert both ends of the snake and make it look as if it is crawling tunnels inside. Delicious!

Tips to Keep your Pumpkin Looking Classy on Halloween

Cute Hello Kitty pumpkin design. I bet my six-year-old daughter will love this one!

• Pick a fresh pumpkin (always pick one with a stem) without bruises. When you go shopping for it, take along a photocopy of your design to test it out for size and impact.
• If you haven’t done this before, just stick with a simple design and make it the best you can. It takes practice and you can move on to more difficult designs with time.
• Rub vegetable oil or petroleum jelly onto freshly cut areas to delay aging.
• Once carved, your pumpkin will only keep two-to-five days. Ideally, carve your pumpkin the day before you plan to use it and keep in the refrigerator. If a shriveled design needs refreshing, soak the pumpkin in water for two-to-eight hours, but DON’T over-soak or it may crack. Then dry your pumpkin off, as standing water will soften it.
• For the less creative among us, there are many sites that offer Jack O’ Lantern patterns you can print out and use to transfer the design to your pumpkin. Here are a few you can check out:
  • Zombie Pumpkins
  • Pumpkin Lady
  • Pumpkin Masters
  • Spook Master
  • JackOLantern.com

Teaching kids to wash their hands will help keep them healthy and happy.

With reports recently of an increase in staph infections that are resistant to antibiotic treatments, its important that we teach out kids to take good care of their health by teaching them good hygiene and good handwashing techniques.

Handwashing is one of the best ways to defend against infections, both major and minor and to protect themselves from spreading the common things that pass through schools like wildfire.

Here are a few tips to help your kids learn good handwashing and keep them as healthy as possible this school year:

• Be a good role model. Kids learn from what they see. Wash your own hands at the times when you would expect them to, such as when you wake up, before dinner and after handling a pet etc.
• Make it a fun thing to do. Buy a few scented soaps, some foamy kids soap and see that its fun and interesting to do, so that its not a chore but a neat thing to do. One very good one which teaches good techniques is Squid soap, that dyes their hands and doesn’t come off until they’ve washed for twenty seconds.

Try making it fun for your kids to learn the importance of good hand washing technique.
• Don’t just tell them to wash their hands, tell them why. Kids don’t like to be ill any more than we do. If they understand the need to not just wash but wash well, they usually will. Tell them there are bugs they can’t see that will make them ill and help them to understand how to remove those invisible bugs.
• Teach them in ways they understand how long to wash their hands. A good rule of thumb is to scrub their fingers the same amount of time it takes to sing the ABC’s, so maybe having them to do that while washing, even in their head is a good way to bring them to washing for long enough.
• Antibacterial soaps are usually not necessary for children. Appropriate time spans in washing will be enough.
• Don’t use very hot water, and teach your kids that. Really hot water can cause chapped hands, which will make it painful and something they don’t want to do, and also increase their risk for infection.
• Keep their nails clean and short.

Kids love to fish, especially if the trout are biting!

It the end of august and summer vacation is almost over so last weekend we took the kids trout fishing. The weather was perfect and the kids were bored, so getting out for an afternoon adventure was just the thing to do.

Now, I’m just a bit ashamed to say that we live in Oregon and went fishing at a trout farm instead of any of our water-rich state’s fresh streams or lakes. But, while I have fished with flies, spinners and worms in many of the Western US lakes, streams, rivers and the Pacific Ocean in my lifetime, I have to say we had a great time at the Rainbow Trout Farm!

Family Fishing Day

Since we had five kids along, ranging in age from 6 to 12, the convenience of the trout farm made for a fun afternoon. It’s a great way to get kids excited about angling without the boredom of waiting; I figure the can learn that over the years if the get the bite to take up fishing seriously. Planting seeds of experience is the way my dad instilled in my brother and I many interests, hobbies and pastimes we still enjoy so many years later in life.

We went with our neighbors who had never been trout fishing before, but since the trout farm folks provide you with fishing rods, reels, tackle, bait and a bucket and net, it didn’t take long for everyone to get going. We were referred to the Rules sign before being turned loose to fish on seven separate ponds.

Showing your kids the basics of trout fishing can lead to a lifelong passion for fly fishing.

Rule Number One: No Throw Backs at a Trout Farm

Now I like to catch and release for the most part, so the way you have to look at going to a trout farm is that it’s like going to the fish market except that you get to haul in the catch! They clean your fish and ice them for you, so the kids did miss out on that, although if I weren’t lazy we could have cleaned them at home. Oh well; next time I’ll take them to a real lake and make them fish the hard way.

Rule Number Two: You Bait Your Own Hook

Now teaching kids to fish invariably has its surprises. One is when you six-year-old daughter accidentally flings her flip flop into the pond during the middle of battling a 15 trout fighting for his very life.

The ruckus that ensued involved screaming, children scrambling the banks with fish nets to land the whale, me fishing the cast away flip flop with a fishing pole and trying to maintain some order … and a great photo in the end of the triumphant young fishermen holding up their prize.

The other surprise usually involves the bait, in this case worms. The old adage “Catch a man a fish you feed him once, teach him to fish you feed him for life” is nowhere more fitting than in teaching kids to fish. While the girls were a bit timid at first, after touching the fish they were soon putting the worms on their hooks with ease, despite the disgustingness of it all.

Teaching kids to fish is a fun and rewarding outdoor experience for the entire family.

The Bite Is On

While I have fished for hours on a little brook to catch a few tiny Brook trout (delicious eating, but you need a bunch for a meal!) and fished until late dusk in the high Sierra for the rare Golden trout or stalking bruiser German Browns, I have to say that getting a nibble the minute you throw in a hook is not too bad!

Within an hour the crew had pulled in 13 trout, ranging in size from six inches (great deal at only 50 cents!) to 17 inches (that one was a $13.75 trout!). I quickly figured out that your odds of getting a couple of the whoppers made up for the loss leader pricing on the little guys!

Landing a Rainbow Trout

Now one thing kids love to do is get the fish on dry land. Unfortunately, this initially means simply yanking the trout out of the water, so a little instruction with holding the rod tip up and having a partner net the fish in the water was in order.

By the time we had 5 or 6 nice trout in the bucket, they started to get the hang of netting fish. We had them switch off fishing and netting so that everyone got a chance to bait hooks, feel the nibbles, set the hook, reel in the trout and netting and hook removal.

A Great Day Fishing

After about an hour or so we had all the fish we could possibly eat and, since there are no throwbacks, we called it a day and went to have lunch while the folks at the trout farm cleaned our trout and iced them down for us. Nice!

If you haven’t taken your kids fishing I highly recommend you try a fish farm or trout pond like this first; you’ll be guaranteed to catch your limits so the kids will enjoy their first fishing trip and hopefully get excited about trying stream and lake fishing later down the road.

Cooking Your Rainbow Trout

Don’t miss our article on various ways of Cooking Fresh Trout; we’ve got several different recipes for you to try!

Create your own natural baby salve to keep your baby feeling smooth and comfy!

With a baby’s skin being new and very tender, it’s important that we take care in what we put thereon. Also, babies love to put their fingers and toes in their mouths, making a natural baby skin salve seem like the perfect solution.

Commercial baby lotions typically have a petroleum product as a foundation, but it’s not the best choice for absorption. A better choice for the home crafter is any vegetable oil.

To this base all manner of options exist. For example, you can take a little vegetable oil and add a little dried milk and cornstarch into it, forming a paste. Add more oil until its smooth and spreadable, and wa-la ‚ a soothing cream for baby’s bottom. If the baby is more than 6 months old, you may also add a drop of lavender oil into the blend.

By the way, if you can find it arrowroot powder can be used in place of cornstarch (or as a 50-50 blend). For something even more spreadable, simply add more oil or try a slightly different recipe. Follow these steps to create your homemade natural baby lotion:

1. Begin with 1 cup of extra virgin olive oil, add about 1 tbs. vitamin E (available at many health food stores), and two tbs. dried comfrey.
2. Warm this over a low heat and strain.
3. Take the strained solution and add about 1 tbs. melted wax (beeswax is best). Pour this into a wide mouth container and beat the mixture together until cooled.
4. You now have a product very close to cold cream that will moisurize, heal, sooth and provide antioxidant elements.
5. Note any time you’re making a new blend for baby, only make a little and be painstakingly aware of your proportions. Test a small amount on a tiny space of skin, such as the heel, to be certain your baby won’t have a bad reaction to it. Remember, your child is meeting various elements of the natural world for the first time, and there’s never any perfect way to know to what they may be allergic.

Learn how to make your own all natural baby wipes at home!

One of the great assists in parenting is having a good all-purpose baby wipe.

But why not make them at home with ingredients you can trust. Follow these steps to make your own all natural baby wipes:

1. To begin you‚ll need some of those soft, light weight baby blankets that you seem to have in abundance when your child first arrives. The beauty of these is that they‚re washable and reusable, and they were gifts (thereby decreasing your initial outlay). Alternatively, if you didn”t get tons of these at showers, go to a fabric shop and search the remnant bins for flannel.
2. Step two is easy. Cut the flannel into pieces that will easily fit into any food storage container you have with an airtight lid. They need to be just shy of the full dimensions to go in and pull out easily. Cut at least 12 in all so you have enough to last a day or two before washing. It’s recommended that the edges of the cloths be sewn with a finishing stitch to keep them from fraying badly, and increase longevity.
3. If your child has sensitive skin, you may wish to stop with just the clothes and dampen them with warm, filtered water. For children with normal skin a little aloe gel, lavender and rose water blended together are also good choices. Note that the lavender MUST be essential oil, and rosewater is best if its organic. For 12 wipes mix one cup aloe with 5 drops of lavender oil, and 1//4-1/2 cup rosewater. Mix this, and slowly add about 5 tablespoons filtered water so you can pour the blend over your cloth wipes.
4. By the way, some recipes also recommend adding an equal amount o grapefruit seed extract and essential oil to that of the lavender. These items seem to protect the baby’s skin from irritation nicely in combination with aloe. These are best stored in the refrigerator, and even then for not more than a few days as water can (and does) get nasty after some time.
5. If you notice the solution around the cloths growing cloudy ‚ immediately throw it out. You can always carefully warm the wipes before use with a heating pad, and the refrigerator increases longevity.

Growing a garden is something you can share with your kids and will give them a greater appreciation for how plants grow.

Why not start a garden with your kids this summer? It has all the ingredients kids love; from digging and preparing soil to choosing their own plants and crops to grow, planting seeds or seedlings and watering and caring for the plants until harvest time!

There are two basic things to keep in mind when planning your kids’ garden; how much space do you have available for the garden and how old are your kids?

If you have younger children, just a couple packets of seeds and a couple plants each of tomatoes and peppers or a couple rows of corn makes for a big garden world even if it seems like a tiny garden to you.

It’s much easier to care for a small garden than to make something that is a chore for both you and your kids; remember that weeds pop up and watering and fertilizing a large garden can be time consuming. Miniature vegetable varieties can be more fascinating for smaller children to grasp.

Watching sunflowers grow to full size is a delight for any child to behold.

Even if you have very little garden space or live in an apartment or condo, a small corner of the balcony can be large enough for a kid’s garden in containers.

If you have older kids, age five to eight, you might try growing a larger vegetable garden with tomatoes, corn, peppers, lettuce or other greens, radishes, melons, carrots, peas, squash and your favorite herbs. And sunflowers are always a child’s delight; they’ll love watching them grow from tiny seedlings until they are taller and bigger than themselves!

Label plants in your kids garden and let them decorate the space to make it their own.

Select flowering plants that excite the full senses of sight, feel and smell and let your kids have a complete sense of ownership of their garden. If you have a larger garden, set aside a section just for the kids and let them mark it with colorful decorations to make it their own space.

Older children will learn about different plants’ needs, the insects that live around and on them and how each variety grows and develops. Such lessons are invaluable in helping your kids understand the natural environment and how ecosystems work in the larger world around them.

After digging, planting, watering and weeding their garden all summer, your child will have a better appreciation for how plants and crops grow and you will both have had a great shared learning experience!

Kids’ Gardening Tips and Ideas

• Plant a Mini Garden – Make a space for a child to grow plants near your own garden, even if it’s just a small sectioned off area of yours. Provide a child sized watering can, and a sign with the child’s name on it in the garden.
• Watering Can for a Child – Don’t be too exacting in what you expect of them. The idea is to gather enthusiasm at this moment, rather than actual produce, but do help them out with their questions and watering chores and so on.
• Keep Them Interested – By sowing plants that will sprout and grow quickly, such as lettuce, radishes, and perhaps marigolds to add color. Or select plants that will stagger their harvest time. A tunnel of flowering climbers will make a play house for kids that will interest them as it grows over wire hoops that you put into the ground.
• Giving Kids Ownership – Lightly scratch your child’s name into a young pumpkin or something else growing on a vine and watch the face or name grow and change shapes, or plant the initials into the soil in green leaf lettuce or garden cress and watch as those initials fill in.
• 
  Your kids will have hours of enjoyment in their own kids garden!
  Use Caution in Your Kids’ Garden – Many plants are poisonous as they grow; avoid these so that the risk of ingestion is minimal for your child. Keep toddlers away from ivy, most flowering bulbs and philodendron and instead encourage sunflowers, things which are not toxic should they be ingested.
• A Private Space – One way to hold the child’s interest is to draw a square in the soil and plant an outline of plants that will grow tall and make a private little room. One perfect plant for this is a sunflower which will give them privacy in their garden room.

All of these ideas will help to keep small ones interested in what you are doing, and keep them with you in the garden, developing their own love of the outside as well as planting.

You only want to keep them safe and happy, but they seem to think that you’re trying to make them miserable.

Is there any solution?

Parenting a teen will probably never be easy, but you can close the gulf with this simple parenting advice.

If you have trouble getting through to your teenager, read this article to learn how to better communicate with teens.

• Spend time with your teen and actively listen to her in general. The closer your relationship is, the more likely she’ll be to pay attention and comply with your requests. Some parents expect to have a one-way conversation as they did when their children were younger. But the days of I-tell-you-and-you-do-it are long over. Your teen is now realizing that he can make his own decisions. Two-way communication can help you to influence those choices, but it will become increasingly difficult for you to control them outright.
• As difficult as it may be, stay positive. Your teenager deserves respect too, and by actively listening and treating him as you want to be treated you’re modeling the kind of behavior that you want him to exhibit. If you feel yourself losing your temper, take a step back from the conversation and regroup.
• Be as specific as possible about what you want and why you want it. With younger children, you can tell them to do things “because I said so,” but that just won’t fly with teens. Help them to understand why you’re putting your foot down and they should be more willing to comply. By if you make a logical request that is difficult to argue with, you’re more likely to succeed.
• Be honest. A good relationship and effective communication are both based on trust. Lying to your teenager or trying to obscure the truth will more than likely hurt your chances of reaching a satisfactory solution.
• Less is more. Make your point once and then stop. Your child is intelligent; give her credit and don’t patronize. You’ll find that she’s more likely to listen if you don’t read her the riot act.
• Allow your teen the space and time to respond. Once you’ve explained your point of view, let him assimilate the information and explain his point of view. There may be some factors that you’re not aware of, or he may come up with an alternate solution that will make both of you happy. Never compromise on issues related to your child’s safety, but by all means, be prepared to give a little on things that are less important.
• Don’t try to be a friend. Your teen has many friends, but they don’t have an unlimited supply of parents. By all means, be friendly with your kids, but realize that keeping them safe, happy, and healthy may sometimes require putting your foot down. Friends don’t do that, but parents of successful teens do.

In this setting, however, elves are not small, nor without serious magical power. In fact, they?re human size and nearly Divine!
The Norse believed that humans and elves could mate and bear children. This would provide offspring with qualities worthy of classic sagas, which was not overlooked by early scribes.

There’s no question that these writings imply that these nature spirits wielded power, but seemed to have far fewer limitations than humans.

Moving from Norse realms, in Scandinavia elves seem predominantly blond haired and female in gender with nearly eternal life spans.

Overall these women were regarded as helpful, friendly and very playful unless insulted. For the person who dared irk the ladies, disease or disaster loomed in the not-too-distant future.

Of course, the elves could be propitiated with little treats, especially sweet breads, which may tie into our leaving Santa cookies on Christmas! The temperamental side of elves may also have some connection with Santa’s naughty and nice list.
Scandinavian elves had a habit of entrancing humans. Anyone watching their dance would enter the fairy world only to discover they’d left the human world for many, many years. This event, however, seemed a natural aptitude rather than the result of some ire. No matter their mood, however, Scandinavian elves endeared themselves to the people and remain as the unseen people of the land that are respected.
Mind you, Scandinavian elves were not the only ones with a touchy temper. German elves wielded retribution, brought nightmares, and had a tendency to like playing pranks!

The Germanic elf was also tied to nature and represented fruitfulness. Similar to Scandinavian depictions, most images were beautiful women, or very young, handsome men with magic powers. The German word for elf is Elb (or Elbe for women), whereas the Norse was alfar.
Then there are English elves that include the images to which we’ve grown accustom, such as the winged folk. While some of these concepts arrived from other lands via trade routes and war, there’s no question that the wee folk became firmly ensconced in English tales and folkways.

Some of the traditions, like stockings, might go by the wayside due to the children’s age. Or, they might be cleverly adapted. For example, if you want to hang stockings get your teen involved in making a stuffer list, budget and then the shopping! The mall is still a big hit among the 13-18 crowd, and as you’re walking around it might inspire ideas for the house.

Speaking of which, get them involved in decorating too. Everyone can grab a box and start sorting. As you go, share a story or two that goes with specific ornaments and decorations. If there are any decorations you’ve got set aside just for him or her, have the teen be in charge of putting those up where they wish (maybe in their bedroom!). By the way, if you have more than one teen, they could have a holiday “decking” contest between their rooms. Everyone in the house votes on the result, and the winner gets dinner of their choice.

As far as parties go, some will hold interest and some will be out-right boring for your Teen. I suggest showing teens that you trust them to make these choices. Share the whys behind wanting them to “come with” but if they’re dead set against it, the event will be disastrous for everyone. In this case, rent them a movie for home and go ahead out. This is just as good for you as it is for your Teen. Every parent needs some child-free time.

In the gift giving department, have your Teen make a wish list within your budget. From there you can still come up with a surprise. Likewise, if they’re buying for anyone else in the family – help them make a budget and let them buy as they wish. This gives them a great chance to learn about creative spending (and might even inspire some wonderful home made items).

Finally, keep a grip on the big picture. Teens are often overwhelmed by what they consider expectations, and the holidays increase that stress. So the two keynotes for success, in my opinion, are fun and family. Enjoy this opportunity to reconnect, but also know when there’s just too much holiday cheer. At that juncture let your Teen have some space. They’ll come back to the festivities after hitting the reset button.

The thought was that if one wished to enter New Years with the best possible luck and providence in their pocket, following these traditions would create a great foundation. So what do we need to do for a great holiday and great year according to tradition?

Well, start your season by cutting a Yule log and bringing it in to burn. Light it with a remnant of the previous year’s log. The longer the log burns the better fortune it generates.

Similarly, this holiday of lights promotes candles. Leave these to burn throughout Christmas day to chase any shadows that linger in your life neatly away. Should either the candle flame or the Yule log go out, it’s a bad omen for the coming year.

As a time when sweet-tooth’s can get plenty of goodies, those of you who like desserts will be happy to know that eating Christmas cake (on Christmas Eve), mince pies (likewise Christmas eve) and Christmas pudding all improves serendipity in your life.

Be aware, however, that snitching before Christmas Eve or day will not only remove your luck, but probably make the household cook pretty angry! With Christmas pudding, stir it three times for prosperity or while making a wish.

If you’re having guests over, the more prosperous or fortunate their names the better, especially the first people to arrive Christmas morning. For the fun of it, look up the names of your first guests in a baby book and see what they presage for your coming year! To improve the effect of this “first footing” as its called, make sure you sweep your doorway and walkway at midnight on Christmas eve to brush off bad influences.

For gardeners reading this piece, go outside and pour a little mead into your plot. This goes back to the concept of Wassailing, which originated in leaving offering for apple trees to insure a good harvest. While you’re serving, give a little Wassail to guests as the word literally means: good health!

By far my favorite Christmas belief is that doing unnecessary work on Christmas day brings bad luck. It gives us all a great excuse to sleep in (provided the children can wait for gifts that long).

Throughout the holiday season it’s impossible to overlook all the Reindeer images.

What is the history of these creatures? Well, apart from their rather famous role in Santa’s holiday gift deliveries, reindeer are among humankind’s herd animals from ancient times.

Archaeologists have discovered reindeer bone tools dating to prehistory. This is particularly true in Northern Europe where reindeers were abundant. Nearly every part of a reindeer was used when one was harvested, the hide made clothing, the hair could be woven, etc.

It wasn’t until 1939, however that reindeer shot to fame. This was the year in which Robert May wrote a poem for Montgomery ward entitled “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”.

For that entire holiday season shoppers took home free copies of the poem – totaling some 250000 copies! Seven years later, May produced the poem again in book form, which is how many children and parents alike became familiar with reindeer.

Since that time there have been all manner of songs and movies starring our red-nosed friend. However, it’s questionable as to whether most people know about some of the very early Rudolph archetypes.

Take, for example, Gnasher and Cracker. No these aren’t Saturday morning character names, but rather two magical goats that pulled Thor’s chariot in Norse folk tales! So its not surprising to find the Swedish and Finish gift-giver of the 18th century being accompanied by reindeer. By the way, some of the reindeer’s names from the Christmas stories have Germanic meanings. Donder is “thunder” and Blitzen is “lightning.”

Coincidence or Yuletide Magic? I’ll let you decide. While you’re thinking, here is a reindeer Christmas coloring page for the children.

Children will enjoy the outdoors more, and be more inclined to develop a liking that will last their entire lifetime, if they are made comfortable there, and feel at ease entertaining their friends in styles and sizes they can appreciate.

This garden bench, styled after the Adirondack style of chairs, is just their size, with dimensions of
22.5″H x 32″W x 22″D, well suited to their sizes, with plenty of room to have a friend or two enjoy a popsicle with them.

The price is right at about 100 USD.

A miniature gazebo over their swimming pool will allow them to swim in style without your having to worry about the heat and rays of the sun.

This one, at a price of just about 75.00 USD is a great value and measures about 4 feet x 4 feet.

Round out the outside garden or lawn area for your children with this miniature table and chairs, covered by an umbrella.

The benches are spread enough in the creation to make them steady on their legs and well able to be used for children’s safe seating

A price tag of about 90 USD accompanies this item.

Your children will enjoy the outside more when they have items their own size to entertain their own friends at a a children’s birthday or garden party.

For more information on child sized lawn and garden furniture take a walk though the site at NexTag.com.

This craft is one my daughter brought home as a school project a few years ago and we have used it to decorate with since in her room or other rooms of the house. It is a nice project that will take some time and creativity yet most kids will need little help from you. It will keep them occupied for some time letting you complete other vital tasks like wrapping presents or hiding presents that are not wrapped yet.

First place the magazine in front of you. Pick up the top right corner and fold it towards the left, just above the center of the middle of the magazine. This creates the triangle that will be the branches of your tree. Continue to fold the rest of the pages in the same way, and then stand the tree upright and place on an unfolded newspaper. The tree should stand upright by itself and it is now ready to decorate.

The next step is to decorate the tree. You can either paint the edges of the pages or add the glitter and confetti before it dries or decorate the edge of each page with maker, then add glitter glue and confetti. Let the tree dry then add any other decorations you like.

You can make a mini tree by stapling a few index cards together and using the same techniques as for the magazine tree. Be sure and fasten the two ends together before displaying, a small paperclip works well for this. The hardest part is trying to decide who to give your tree to!  This craft works well is daycare or school setting.

The name changed a bit depending on the region, and the legend of Saint Nicolas traveled with immigrants to the United States. During the late 1700s the name St. A. Clause appeared in the press. Washington Irving write about this man-made-myth based on the Dutch imagery of Santa riding on horseback on Saint Nicholas’ Eve.

By the early 1800s, the famous poem The Night Before Christmas was published by Clement Clarke Moore. Thanks to Moore’s imagination we came to know Santa on a much more personal level, including how he laughs, about his elves, and even the names of his reindeer. This was followed in the mid-1800s with the image of Santa created by Thomas Nast in Harper’s magazine.

This portrait became the classic Santa Clause, and would be integrated into all manner of marketing including a Coca-Cola campaign in the 1930s.

There’s no question that Santa’s spirit lives on. Around the world its estimated that at least 500,000 letters to Santa go out every year. That number may be very low, however, because many of those letters don’t end up at the “North Pole” but instead in the hands of one or more of Santa’s helpers.

Go elves!

Made in three parts, it works up so rapidly and is so easy that even the smallest child can help with it..

Make three copies of the pattern below cut from card stock or cardboard.

Cover them with wrapping paper and glue it on tightly using glue sticks.

Embellish with buttons, ribbon, stickers or whatever you have on hand.

Hang in a bunch of three, so that the sign reads:

Full Sized Pattern

First, for service people – your hair dresser, that great pizza delivery guy whose always on time, etc. a card with money or a gift card is always appreciated. Folks in these lines of work don’t make big bucks, and that money/card could go a long way to making holidays easier for them. It’s perfectly within good taste and manners.

Returning to our teachers – what about sending a gift box that can go in the teacher’s lounge. This way everyone from the guidance counselor to the teachers and principal can get a little treat. Trust me, the goodies WILL disappear.

How about co-workers? This is where things get touchy. Some bosses (and indeed, some companies) monitor gift giving for propriety (to make sure no one is using it as a “bribe”). Obviously honor those guidelines diligently. Kindness and thoughtfulness are wonderful, but they’re not worth getting fired!

Every company has an internal “culture” of sorts – and you have to tap into that feel in gift buying.

One option is returning to the teacher idea – a gift basket that just celebrates the season without giving to anyone in particular. Or, you can find useful small items for coworkers that acknowledge their efforts without being flashy (like a combination highlighter/pen with post it notes). One big item to avoid in this setting is any joke gifts. And if you’re presenting food items make sure to provide ingredient lists so no one gets sick due to allergies.
Last but not least, don’t forget to acknowledge the gifts you receive no matter the setting. Be it a telephone call, an in person thank you or a written note, the attitude of gratitude is completely in keeping with this season!

Materials

paper towel or toilet paper tubes

one wooden bead, about three inches in diameter (that fits on top of the tube without falling down it

scraps of yarn

tacky glue

wrapping paper scraps.

two tissues per angel

paper clip

pipe cleaner

Cover a toilet paper tube with your wrapping paper, or if you are using paper towel tubes, use just half.

glue the wrapping paper at the top and bottom, tucking it inside to hide the raw edges.

using a permanent marker, or paints, make a face on your angel head, the wooden bead

cut scraps of colored yarn about two inches long and glue on several strands from side to side for hair.

Form a circle from two thirds of a pipe cleaner and take the other third and bend it straight down, and glue to the back of the bead so that the circle stands above the hair.

Glue the bead to the top of the paper tube.

Take two tissues, or two sheets of tissue paper about five inches long  and fold them accordion style..   the long way.. Find the center and clip with a paper clip to secure them.

Open the paper from its accordion shape so that it forms two fans, one on either side and the paper clip stays in the center.

make a small slit in the back of the tube and slide the paper clip down inside it, to hold the wings in place.

Making one of them is a matter of just a bit of work and they will have a very good time assisting you in the search for just the right ingredients to make it exactly what they want.

We started with ornament seeking and finally found a small glass ornament of a cottage with kittens running around it in Santa hats, that was the perfect ornament to go inside.
Glitter was the next order of business, with white and a translucent type what we chose.

You can use nearly any jar from a baby food jar on up to a small sized Miracle whip jar, which is what we chose to make sure that the ornament we had selected would fit well.

To make your snow globe you will need

a glass jar with a lid that fits well and tightly.

some distilled water

glitter

hot glue or silicone caulking

Glass or plastic ornament that will fit into your jar lid

acrylic paint

(you can also add some glycerin from the drug store to slow the falling of your snow, or in fact one of the best things to use to fill it rather than water, is baby oil, however this is rather costly.)

Here’s how:

To lift up the ornament and make it better able to be seen, place a small plastic lid under it and hot glue it to the inside of your jar lid.

Do a test run by screwing on the jar onto the base and see if you can easily see the ornament or statue .

If you can, then you will want to glue down the smaller lid and hot glue or silicone the ornament to it.

Then start by working over plastic sheeting and pour water and glycerine, or mineral oil into your baby food jar, getting it as full as you can.
Turn over the lid with the ornament and screw it into place.

Wipe the jar dry and run a bead of hot glue or silicone all the way around the jar lid, where it meets the jar.

You can, if you like, glue your jar lid to a wooden or metal base and paint it the color that you like.
Once everything is dry, you can add trims, lace, wooden beads or small ornaments on the outside as well

Typical hot water heaters offer hot water all the time, and heat it up to a certain temperature that can produce a great deal of energy loss, that not only costs you money, but uses energy.

We don’t heat our houses when there isn’t a demand for heat, so why do we heat our water when there is no demand
Most people aren’t aware that the hot water tank is the source of about 25% of their energy use on the electric or gas bill, but that about half of that is simply wasted energy from heating water repeatedly to a certain temperature even if that water isn’t being used.

Tankless water heaters will heat the water when it is turned on, and when there is a demand for it, but not when no one wants to use it.

The typical tankless water heater will offer you hot water at about a rate of 2-5 gallons per minute which is the rate an average shower will flow using a water saving shower head (which does seem to be not only water saving but to provide a better shower)

The gas models will offer a better flow rate than the electric ones, and some of them can’t handle the demand for hot water for very busy households such as two or three things like washer, dishwasher and shower running at the same time, however, for that you can install what is called a whole house on demand heater for your hot water, or install two or more on demand heaters.

While the cost may be about 3 or 4 hundred dollars for the heaters, within a 6 month time span you will have gained that back in the lowered electrical use from the hot water heater.

It is also possible to install two separate tankless water heaters for appliances that use a lot such as dishwasher or washer in your home..

To learn more about tankless hot water heaters, visit the Plumbers Surplus Store.

With that in mind, we took a second surf around to see what we might find that was good clean holiday fun for the kids, and maybe even for you. After all, if it occupies them, isn’t it also healthy for you too?

One of my favorite sites, for the nieces and nephews and also for myself is Author Jan Brett’s pages. The award winning author has spared nothing to make a set of pages that reach out and draw your child into the world of reading. Featuring over 4000 pages of kids activities, games, coloring pages and stories, this is truly a site worth spending some time on. So well done and so easy to navigate; you can read a story on your own, or listen as it’s read for you, just clicking a link to see the pages turn. you can also send an e-card and play various games there. The site encourages imagination, has some truly wonderful animal stories, not the least of which is the current animal story on site, entitled “The Three Snow Bears”
This is a page your kids shouldn’t miss this holiday season.

Heading north we find SURPRIZE!! The North Pole.com  beautifully written site it features stories, games, wallpaper and screen savers as well as kids games and a place to email a letter to Santa.

With great navigation and some interesting and fun things for kids to do, there are also some areas for moms and dads as well, with many cookie recipes, ideas for decorating and some fun activities for kids and parents alike.

Turn left at the North Pole and you’ll make your way to Santa’s House, where he is patiently waiting for you to visit. Write down your Christmas wishes for him and you will receive a free letter from Santa Claus Online.

Do a U turn and head south again and you’re on your way to the Christmas coloring pages site featuring over fifty pages of Christmas coloring fun for your kids, including cats, stockings, snow men, reindeer, candy canes, Rudolph and the North Pole.

One last stop will be the Christmas Caboose chock full of fun crafts designed especially for children and their parents.

Try taking an Internet walk with your children and see what you can find that may just amaze and delight them this holiday season.

Don’t panic and don’t automatically scrunch up your nose anticipating the worst. Just like anyone else, teens want to express themselves and their personality in living spaces.

Consider, did you like the styles your parents picked out for the entire house, let alone your room? Probably not. Now that we’re raising more independent, empowered children they’re also more likely to speak up and out about things that make them happy. So the key is to find out what they’re thinking, and then find ways to make at least some of that happen.
Many times the biggest change is paint. Teens like dramatic touches. Sometimes this means bright red, and other times black. Both have their places with a little clever consideration.

Obviously you don’t want all red walls because that won’t encourage down-time. Nor would you want all black walls as this can inspire depression especially on the heels of hormone swings. But you could have a wall with red or black stripes, or red/black pillows, a red/black throw rug, etc.

This honors your teens taste without making the space unhealthy.
Another big change comes with storage and organization. Many teens have what I call a gravity-centered system of order – when it hits the floor, they’re done.

To encourage a little less clutter (which also improves focus psychologically) have hanging baskets or bins for toiletries or school supplies. Have closet organizers that show off the latest, greatest shoes, jeans, shirts, and jackets (so that hanging them up becomes a way to provide a showcase for visitors).

Third, if space allows consider having a special area in the room that’s more of a “hang out” or a study area. The bed simply doesn’t speak of concentrating, and its also not really appropriate for just chatting. So having a chair (or two) for guests makes things less awkward.

Fourth – a space for personal art, notes, collectibles etc. is nothing less than essential. If you don’t want gluey marks from tape, or holes in the wall from tacks, put up a corkboard. What’s fun is that cork now comes in pre-glued squares so your teen could cut them into various shapes and then apply them to the wall in an inventive way.

There are certainly other things to think about, like a table where teens can enjoy their snacks, good lighting for when they study in their room, and a region for music. Overall TV / computers in bedrooms aren’t the best option. They distract too easily from other important things like homework and sleep.

Overall, just keep communicating. The time and interest you invest in working with your teen on their personal space translates into having a better overall relationship as time goes on.

Historically, it comes from the Forum Romanum, or the Roman Forums, which was, in fact, the political and the economical center of the Republic of Rome, and kept that same position well into the period known as the Imperial period.

It was also, historically, where the best and brightest of the minds of that time met, to plan and to make decisions on how best to accomplish their goals. They discussed how to accomplish magnificent feats and then went out and accomplished them, aided by the knowledge that was shared with them by fellow forum members.

Coincidentally, we have the same goal for our own forum here at How Did I Do It.

We’d love to see the best and brightest of the Do It Yourself crowd come to pay us a visit, and share with the other do it yourselfers on the DIY Forum, their tips and tricks for the best way to accomplish things, from lowering their utility bills, to building a new deck, or removing the stains from an older one. Share what you learned when you replaced your furnace, or rebuilt your basement, or even how to cook a special dish from your home country.

DIY is not just building, nor just cooking, or even just crafting, its a little of all of those things and more and the forums will give us all an opportunity to share our crafts, our skills and our passions.

We would love to see the photos of what you’ve built, check out your landscaping photos, see that stone wall you are building, and hear the stories of the little mishaps it took to build it.

Do it yourself forums are nothing new, but we hope our do it yourself forum is , if not new, then at least something far different. We’d like to learn from the DIY crowd out there, who may know something we don’t, or teach them something we know.

We invite all of you, new techno builders, as well as the old time construction crowd to come pay us a visit and teach us and our users the tricks of your trade.

How Did I Do It DIY Forums are, in the best tradition of the ancient forums of Rome, one of the most important parts of the HDIDI web site. A Place where the community comes to interact, to teach or just to make a new friend.

They offer us a central place to learn, to teach and interact in a true community-like atmosphere where everyone has something to teach and something to learn, and we share the knowledge, the trials and the little triumphs with our neighbors..