funforkids

  

I guess it is the simplicity of the story that makes this a favorite for little ones and Moms and Dads too.  I still remember reading this over and over to my now 6 year old.  Oh where does the time go?  Enjoy this video of the classic tale.   

 A friend of mine referred me to a group on Facebook called Ella Bella Hairclippies.  A friend of hers had started her own business and she wanted me to take a look at her items.   Of course friends pull together for one another and I joined the group.   As many of you know, I don’t have any daughters of my own, but I checked out the shop with the hopes that I would like what I found so that I could refer people to the site.  I have to tell you, I found some really REALLY cute things!  Her items are all personally hand crafted and are all SO CUTE!  I like the little ducky clip shown above—It’s my favorite!   She also has princess and ballerina inspired clippies as well as nature inspired clips with animals and flowers.  There are lots of different styles to choose from and the prices are super reasonable.   Your biggest problem will be choosing which style you like best!       

     Mary, the founder of Ella Bella Hairclippies, has just added 5 new lines to her Collection and she has expanded and re-designed some of her previous lines. SO if you think you’ve seen all she has “in store”, think again –no wait, LOOK AGAIN!      Finally, Funforkids.today.com wants to congratulate Ella Bella Clippies on their new venture with  SNIP-Its, a great hair salon in Westchester which will be selling Ella Bella clippies in their salons! This is an exciting step and we congratulate you on your much earned and deserved success!    To view the entire line of Ella Bella Hairclippies, visit their site http://www.ellabellahairclippies.com/

        

I found a great site for the little ones today and thought I would provide a link for you here.  The site is http://www.funbrain.com  The site has fantastic games that are simple enough for your 3 year old to play as well as games for the older kids.  I find that many sites are too hard for my four year old; he gets frustrated when he can’t win or if their is reading involved.  Some sites have games that are too violent and have links to other more adult sites.  funbrain is educational and safe with activities that include subjects such as reading, math and science for the older school aged children, but also has simple games that are geared for the 3, 4 and 5 year olds.  My favorite game so far is Pigs Fly where the child has to use the mouse to help the piggy bounce from cloud to cloud and catch food along the way.  It helps improve hand eye coordination, and helps fine tune motor skills development AND it is just plain FUN!  

The site is also teacher friendly.  The site helps teachers find games that are age, skill, and subject appropriate for their classrooms and there is even a grade-book application.  Funbrain is really one of the nicest sites I have seen on the web.    

Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.   

  Traditional Dora -VS- Grown up Dora  

Okay, you know her, you love her; she is the cute innocent little girl whom our children love to go exploring with everyday, the one the only Dora the Explorer.  What you may not know though is that Mattel and Nickelodeon (in an attempt to earn some more of the old mighty green) is planning to give our cute, somewhat, tom-boyish (some have even called her androgynous) little girl a glammed up makeover.  Gone will be her short bob-cut hair and shorts in exchange for longer hair, jewelry, and more stylish outfits.  The new Dora is in the developmental stages, but has already raised many eye-brows and many complaints have been voiced against her creation.  They plan to have both the younger version and the “grown up” version but we all know which version our little girls (and little boys) will prefer.  When the companies released the new look last week parents began a petition  to pressure Mattel and Nickelodeon to reconsider the newer version.   Apparently Mattel plans to release a doll with the new, more grown-up look and a plug into your computer option which will somehow enable your “tween” to change Dora’s hair length, jewelry, and eye color.  What ever happened to the old saying:  Be happy with what God gave you?  Change her eye color?  Come on.  Last year I did a short stint working in a mall to earn extra money for Christmas and I can’t tell you how many little girls passed by my store with their fake Hannah Montana wigs on.  It just made me ill—it was like that time when M&M performed on the MTV Music awards and had a ton of blonde wigged look alikes take the stage with him.  These little girls looked like a bunch of drones walking by.  Its hard for mom and dad’s to say no to these trends–I know, but maybe we should begin to put our two cents in by not buying these toys from the companies.    Granted we all like to dye our hair and change things about ourselves as we get older, but seriously, what message are we sending to our daughters when we make them think they should have blonder hair and blue eyes and tattoos to be attractive.  All that can come later.  Let a kid be a kid!  What happened to:  “It’s what is on the inside that counts”?  There is already way too much pressure on our little girls to “fit in” and look the part.   I think its a bad idea to take such an innocent role model and make her a superficial girl who is all about the shopping and her appearance.  Come on Nick and Mattel, don’t take away one of the few wholesome role models we have left for our little girls. 

    Theodor Seuss Geisel

Some interesting facts about Dr. Seuss

1.  His real name is Theodor Seuss Geisel

2.  He published over 60 books in his career–not all of which were children’s books

3.  He worked as an illustrator for advertising campaigns working on ads for companies like General Electric and NBC

4.  He was a political cartoonist

5,  During World War II he worked in the Animation Department of The US Army

6.  Although he wrote lots and lots of wonderful children’s books, he never had any children of his own.

7.  His first wife committed suicide while suffering from a serious illness.

8.  He took on the pen name of Dr. Seuss during college so that he could continue writing for the college magazine The Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern which he had been banned from after being caught throwing a party and serving liquor–which at the time was forbidden due to National Prohibition Laws.  He wrote dropped his first and last name and published an article using his middle name Seuss and the title Dr. before it.

9.   He used “Dr.” before Seuss in acknowledgement of his dad’s wish that he would one day get his Doctorate from Oxford.

10.  He wrote the book “Green Eggs and Ham” on a dare made by his publisher Bennet Cerf who bet him $50 that he could not write a children’s story using ONLY 50 words; 49 of which were one syllable words.    He succeeded.  The words Dr Seuss used were:

a am and anywhere    are be boat box car could

dark do eat eggs fox goat good green ham here

house I if in let like may me mouse not

on or rain Sam say see so thank that the

them there they train tree try will with would you

 

“The Very Hungry Caterpillar” is a very famous children’s book by Eric Carle.  A classic among toddlers, pre-kindergartners, kindergarten children and parents alike, ”The Very Hungry Caterpillar” tells the story of the cycle of life for a caterpillar.  From the moment the caterpillar hatches from its egg, its entire life is spent searching and eating in preparation for its metamorphosis.   The pictures are beautiful and the story simple, educational, and entertaining.   I recently found a video on youtube which brings this lovable story to life.  The narration and the illustrations are wonderful and the film truly captures the magic of Eric Carle’s story. 

      What makes this story such a great book to have in a classroom and home is the fact that it is not only simple enough for a young child to read, but also educational.  ”The Very Hungry Caterpillar” teaches and indentifies the days of the week as well as basic number counting from 1 to 6 as the caterpillar eats 1 thing on Monday, two things on Tuesday and etc.  through Saturday when he eats a combination of 6 things.  (On Sunday he eats just one item because he isn’t hungry any longer.)  The story, of course, also teaches the life cycle of of a caterpillar from its initial egg stage and hatching as a caterpillar, to its short week long quest for enough food to sustain itself inside its chrysalis, to the actual forming of its pupus (chrysalis) and then on to the final stage of butterfly.    

     If you have not read this story to your little one, I highly recommend that you read it together soon.  In the meantime, enjoy the video version of this wonderful classic.

   With the recent death of Jett Travolta still fresh in my mind I thought I would take a look on the internet and research Kawasaki Disease which is an illness that he was diagnosed with at age 2.    According to kidshealth.org Kawasaki disease is an illness that “involves the skin, mouth, and lymph nodes” and usually affects kids under the age of 5 years old.  It’s cause is unknown.  Kelly Preston has alleged that chemicals found in carpet cleaners and fertilizer brought on the illness in her son Jett at age 2.  Once diagnosed, Kawasaki is easily treated and the child can make a full recovery in a few days.  If left undiagnosed and untreated, the illness can lead to serious complications that can affect the child’s heart.    According to kidshealth.org  19 out of every 100,000 kids in the United States is diagnosed with Kawasaki disease.  The illness is most commonly found among children of Japanese and Korean descent, but it can affect all ethnic groups.   The illness can not be prevented.

      Some of the symptoms of Kawasaki disease are:

Phase one includes a “persistent fever higher than 104 F and lasts for about five days.  The fever may be accompanied by:

severe redness in the eyes, a rash on stomach, chest and genitals, red dry cracked lips, swollen tongue with white coating and big red lumps, sore and irritated throat, swollen palms and soles of the feet with a purple-red color, and swollen lymph nodes.

The second phase comes usually within 2 weeks of the fever and includes the peeling of the feet and hands in large pieces, joint pain, diarrhea, vomiting or abdominal pain.  If YOUR CHILD HAS ANY OF THESE SYMPTOMS, CALL YOUR DOCTOR IMMEDIATELY!

      Luckily, if the illness is treated within 10 days of the beginning of the symptoms, heart problems usually do not develop.   If a case goes undetected it can lead to more serious complications such as “vasculitis, which is an inflammation of the blood vessels which can be particularly dangerous because it can affect the coronary arteries which supply blood to the heart.  It can also cause inflammation to the heart muscle, lining, valves, and the outer membrane  surrounding the heart. ”

     There is no single test for the disease; doctors have to rule out other illnesses and evaluate the child’s particular symptoms before he/she can make the diagnosis of Kawasaki disease.  A doctor usually orders an echocardiogram to monitor the child’s heart, and takes blood and urine samples in order to rule out other illnesses such as  scarlet fever, measles, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, or an allergic reaction to a drug.

     Once diagnosed with Kawasaki disease a child is treated with “intravenous doses of gamma globulin (purified antibodies) which is a natural ingredient in blood that helps the body fight infection and a high does of aspirin to reduce the risk of hear problems. “

The information above was based on an article by Joel Klein, MD (October 2008)

I hope you found it useful and/or interesting.

    

I thought it would be fun to start a new section on my blog.   I will be posting pics online and asking you to add your own captions.   Come on, you know you want to!  Add your caption by clicking the comment link–it is usually found close to the top of my posts near the advertising or under the title.  Hope to be reading YOU soon.

             * Just in time for Christmas and coming soon to a theatre near you: Home Alone 4:  Lost in Space.   

              *Please make sure all of your belongings are secured in the cabin prior to take    off! 

               *Houston, we have a problem!” 

The kids were up bright and early this Thanksgiving morning and ready for family fun.  The only problem is, the family fun does not start at 7 A.M.!  With lots of things that I want and need to do and two boys that are amped up already I turned the television on with the hopes that they would find something great to watch and thus give me a little time to gather my thoughts and to get some things done.  Luckily Thanksgiving day is usually a great day for Holiday movies, marathons, and t.v. specials so I was able to find quite a few great choices.  We began with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (a movie I love) but we ended up changing it because the little guy is afraid of the tunnel scene.  Do you remember that scene?  I was terrified of it too as a child; as Mr Wonka loads everyone onto the boat (just after Augustus Gloop has been lost down the chocolate River) and he begins to sing that eerie haunting song:  “Is it raining? Is it pouring?….”    Chills.  Poor kid–He’ll probably have many nightmares now.  Gene Wilder was amazing in the movie though, and there are so many memorable moments too such as the introduction to the factory where Gene Wilder sings that sweet song.  Second up in the line up was “The March of The Wooden Soldiers”  which was/is also a great movie.  That movie has been played on channel 11 on Thanksgiving day ever since I was a young child.  My brother Michael and I always watched it.  Talk about another crazy but classic film!  If you have never seen the movie you must take time out to see it.  The main characters in the movie  are Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy who become unlikely heroes in this storybook town where everyone in the movie is a fictional character taken from the various fairy tales that we grew up with as children.  Little Bo Peep is being courted by I think it’s Little Boy Blue but he goes by the name of TOM-TOM, but the evil Mr. Barnaby wants her to marry him at all costs.  When he fails to win her, Barnaby kidnaps her to the land of the bogey men (boogie men?) and Stan and Ollie promise to return her safely home.   So why is this considered a holiday movie?  Well, There are huge Wooden Soldiers that were made by accident by Stan and Ollie for Santa Clause and in the end the Wooden Soldiers help to rid the Storybook Village of the Bogey Men and the evil Barnaby.  It really is a great movie.  Unfortunately it is a bit too scary for the little ones.  My five and three year old children liked the movie up until the time the Bogey Men were introduced.    In the end we put on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Tonight we will cuddle up on the couch and watch The Peanuts Thanksgiving special.  I am looking forward to the next few weeks of Christmas classics.

    Don’t you just love the school candy drives and fund raisers that have you hitting-up your friends, families and co-workers for both their money and their pitty.  As a teacher I saw first hand the “BIG SHOW” that the actual companies put on in the school auditorium to get the kids hyped up and ready to go out and make those big sales.  Let me paint you a picture of the company’s sales pitch to your children and mine:

       The stage of the auditorium is full of those fabulous prizes; you know the ones:  The huge boom-box, the pin mall machine, The Ipod Shuffle, The karaoke machine with flashing lights and other huge valuable prizes.  Then unseen to our children’s adorable little eyes are the cheap less than a dollar prizes that each seller gets as long as they sell at least $15 or so of their merchandise.   The amped up man pics up the microphone and says:  HEY KIDS!!!  A hush falls over the crowd but still a few kids can be heard saying:  “I WANT THE…”  All settle down and he begins his speech.  The pep talk usually begins with something like this:  “What do you think of all these prizes up here?”  ROOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRR goes the crowd of excited children.   “What if I told you that you could win one of these great prizes today?”  YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH! proclaim our kids.  “You could win one these great prizes by becoming salespeople for our company’s great products.”  The spokesperson then begins to tell the kids about the various prizes and how everyone will win a prize for selling just one item.  The kids are also told that they should not go door to door because it is dangerous and that they should have a family member help them.  “ASK your PARENTS to take the envelope to work and sell it for you.  ASK your parents to call Auntie Jennie and Uncle Bob and have them do some early holiday shopping.”  After all is said and done, the kids are released from the auditorium with envelope in hand and ready to sell a ketchup lollipop to a woman in a white dress.  They come home to us with the great news that WE “have to take the envelope to EVERYONE we know and sell a zillion things so they can get the limited edition Mercedes which although was not on stage is available to the one who sells a trillion dollars worth of candy and/or wrapping paper.”  Of course I exaggerate –a little.  Being the wonderful parents we are, we want our children to get a great prize so we look at the contents of the envelope and see that once again the prices for the items are higher than they should be and that the level of the prizes are completely unrealistic.  Most of the items are worth 90 percent less than the amount of items the kids actually sell.  However, we do our best to sell at least $25 to $35 worth of the stuff so that the kids get at least the second level prize which  is the choice of  three things:  Cheap, paper-thin bingo cards with cardboard chips, a pen with a fuzzy head and google eyes, or the package of mini midget markers that last about a week.   This year we managed to sell $230 worth of wrapping paper, jewelry and candy and my son’s prize was a square color change alarm clock which is adorable really—but not even worth $5.  Don’t you just love it.