CookiesKids.com Blog

A lonely wind howls through the swing set. A tumbleweed rolls across the nature trail. Backyards, front yards, side yards – all abandoned. Where are all the kids?

It’s no secret that kids are spending more time indoors than they used to. Between homework, various screen entertainments, and after school activities, there seems to be little time left in kids’ schedules for unstructured outside play. And some parents are concerned about everything from neighborhood safety to their kids’ clothes getting muddy. But despite the risks, being outside is an essential way for kids to get active and learn to appreciate nature. This spring, take these tips to get your kid outside – and loving it.

If your kids need some motivation, start inside – by planning fun outdoor activities. Make a list of some group activities to do outdoors, and ideas for individual play outdoors, too. Activities with family and friends might include capture the flag, a nature hike, or even a scavenger hunt, complete with treasure maps. Sorting through the garage might turn up some fun items for outdoor play: that pogo stick might just have some spring left in it, and – who knows? – maybe the kids will love bocce. Encourage your child to find some activities they can do on their own outside, too, like skateboarding, bike riding, tending to a few plants in the garden, or even bird watching.  

To get kids interested in the outdoors from a young age, go outside with them and point out all there is to wonder about: “See that tree? Did you know it’s alive?” If scheduling outdoor time is difficult for you, hire a babysitter for a few hours or skip the gym in favor of a bike ride or walk with the kids.

For older kids, outdoor play is a great way to explore their independence. But be sure to set clear boundaries. Let them know exactly where they’re allowed to play – that abandoned construction site should definitely be off-limits. And if your child is out playing with friends in the neighborhood regularly, try to be in touch with your child’s friends’ parents. Knowing that other parents are keeping an eye on your child can be a confidence booster if you’re concerned about neighborhood safety.

As for parents concerned about dirt and mud, there’s really no way around it. But ultimately a little mud isn’t so bad – it’s a small price to pay for a fun time outside. A bone-chilling soak in the rain is another story however, so if your children are going outdoors this spring, make sure they have the right equipment. Rugged outdoor clothes from CookiesKids.com can boost your child’s confidence, motivating them to experience the outdoors no matter the weather. Rain? Wind? Mud? Bring it on! 

Sources:

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/kids-television-47102701

http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/family/travel/kids-play-outdoors

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303695604575182250254315196.html

Love coloring Easter eggs but hate being left with multicolored hands? Long Island Mom x 2 found a great solution: using a whisk!

“No messy hands, no splashing, no cracked eggs from dropping them into the dye….The eggs fit so secure in the whisk, and it is so easy for even the littlest ones to participate!”

Click here to view the original post from Long Island Mom x 2

Do you have any tried-and-true methods of dying your Easter eggs? 

 The chore chart: such a well-intentioned grid. Hanging on the fridge, it tries to keep your kids informed of what chores they must do, it really does. But sometimes your daughter misses Table Setting Tuesday to eat dinner at a friend’s house. Sometimes your son has WAY too much homework to fold laundry. And so the chore chart sits unheeded, like a calendar stuck on last month. A few days pass, then a week, and soon the chart is forgotten. If you’ve made chore charts nobody seems to pay attention to, it’s time for a new approach. Check out these tips to get your kids to do their chores – complaint free! 

Start your kids on chores from a very early age. It’s not unreasonable for a 2-year-old to be able to pick up their toys and put dirty clothes in a hamper. And young kids, unlike some older ones, actually like to help out. Harness this eagerness by assigning tasks whenever you can, but be sure to keep your expectations low. The idea with young kids is to get them to enjoy doing chores, not necessarily to complete chores efficiently. Even if you have to completely redo your 4-year-old’s laundry folding attempt, if you let them do it from an early age, they’ll be more likely to think it’s fun and keep doing it once they can do it properly.

Whatever you do, don’t step in and take over completely. You wouldn’t take over your child’s homework assignment if they were doing it wrong, would you?  Chores can be an opportunity to teach your child a necessary, if not exactly thrilling, life skill, so you should try to instruct rather than correct. Teaching kids how to do chores is just like teaching anything else: it takes patience, but eventually you’ll be rewarded – in this case, rewarded with not having to do a chore yourself anymore!   

Chores are not fun, so how do you inspire kids to do them? The most reasonable and pleasant approach is to let kids choose which chores they want to do from a set list. Start by tallying a huge list of chores – aim for 30 or 40 – and narrow down to find the ones your kids are most capable of doing. Then, write the chores up on note cards. Be specific with the way you write them: “empty desk trash, pick up clothes, and sweep under bed” is a much more actionable item than “clean room.” When you give kids a choice between specific tasks, they’ll have a lot less reason to complain.  

Even if they have a choice, chores can be a lonely business: sometimes a trip to rake leaves in the backyard can feel like an exile. So, whenever possible, try to establish times to do chores as a family. This can be an opportunity to show young kids how to do certain chores, but it’s also a chance to demonstrate how much effort everyone – yourself included – must put in to keep things tidy. And everyone can have a lot more fun doing chores together. Pick certain songs to put on, or play a word-game that you can shout above vacuum noise. Chore time will be over in no time!   

Sources: 

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/why-children-need-more-chores/?ref=parenting

http://www.babycenter.com/0_chores-and-your-child-what-to-expect-and-when_3658995.bc

http://organizedhome.com/family-ties/kids-chores-chilling-chore-wars?page=2

You’ve been tapping your foot all morning. “We’re going to be late!” you announce, but your daughter keeps primping her hair, your son starts another round of foosball with his little brother, and none of them have brushed their teeth yet. If this sounds like your household in the morning, it’s time to talk to your kids about punctuality. As kids get older, there will be more and more situations where they’ll need to show up at a certain place at a certain time. These tips will make sure they show up on time.

First, make sure you’re on time yourself. If you’re ever late, don’t make excuses. Explain that your lateness was inexcusable, that it showed selfishness and a lack of respect. This kind of profuse apology might seem like overkill, but trust us: your kids will remember every time you were ever late – in vivid detail – if you start nagging them about punctuality.

Nagging is no good. Try buying them a watch instead. Both analog and digital watches have their benefits: digital is easier to read; analog is easier to get a sense of how time passes. The sooner kids can tell time, the sooner you can hold them accountable for being on time.  

The next step is to schedule one event at a very specific time every day: dinner, for example. If kids know they absolutely must show up for dinner at 6:00 PM – or no dessert – they’ll learn pretty quickly how to keep track of their time. Try not to call out “Almost dinner time!” at 5:55 either; let kids figure it out independently.  

For older kids, more drastic measures may be necessary. If they’re persistently late, and their excuses are getting more and more implausible, it might be a deeper issue. Be sure to talk seriously with your kid about how their lateness makes you feel, and also try to discern whether it’s symptomatic of a deeper lack of respect. Without being confrontational, ask them exactly what they were doing that prevented them from being on time. If they answer honestly, they’ll realize that the things they were doing were probably not worth being late – and disrespecting you – over. If they can admit this, they’ll be less likely to be late again.

Like most things you teach your kids, positive reinforcement is also a good trick to get results. Try adding up the minutes when kids are early, and doling out treats based on these amounts. Or, let’s say your kids want to go to a really hyped-up concert. Show them how you have to be early to get the best tickets: take them with you when you stand on line, and be sure to bring snacks and entertainment for the long wait. When concert time rolls around, and you’re all living it up in the front row, your kids will realize that sometimes punctuality…rocks!

Sources:

http://www.babycenter.com/404_how-do-i-speed-up-my-dawdler_70971.bc

http://www.forefrontfamilies.org/content/view/179/9/

http://www.wikihow.com/Help-Your-Kids-Become-More-Punctual

The bond between siblings is one of the most common yet least understood types of relationships. For some, a sister or brother can be a lifelong source of comfort, reassurance, and love. But for just as many others it can be a constant stream of resentment, anger, and rivalry. Differences in temperaments, personalities, interests, and ages can all fuel unrest between siblings, but teaching them how to work through their problems is an excellent way to prepare them for life’s more difficult moments.

One of the simplest ways to prevent rivalry between children is to treat them as individuals. As tempting as it is to want children to be equals, parents sometimes do them a disservice by not nurturing their own unique skills and abilities. If Jack throws a mean curveball but John can barely swing a bat, don’t encourage them both to try out for the Little League team. Instead, praise them for their own special talents. This will boost their self-esteem and help them understand that being different isn’t such a bad thing.

Even if you do encourage siblings to do their own thing, disagreements between them are bound to arise, and the way you intervene in these situations can deeply affect a sibling relationship. Take tattling, for instance. Any sibling rivalry is bound to manifest itself in one child tattling on the other, because, ultimately, they’re both seeking your approval, and sometimes the easiest way to get that approval is to throw a brother or sister under the proverbial bus. When faced with a tattling child, it’s often best to ignore them. This will make it clear that not only is tattling not the way to gain your good graces, but it’s also not an effective way for Sibling A to punish Sibling B.

But tattling goes through an important change when a child tells you not what their sibling did (which is probably exaggerated anyway) but how that action made them feel. In such a case, be respectful of a child’s feelings; listen, and show them their emotions are valid. Then, encourage your child to tell their sibling about their feelings. If a child can respectfully confront their sibling about something they did, it’s a big step in the development of their conflict-resolution skills.

Sibling relationships are often the first time children experience how to work out a conflict independently of you. So don’t just encourage good behavior between siblings; encourage siblings to resolve their conflicts together. The sooner they can do this, the better prepared they’ll be to navigate the unpredictable personalities and tough situations they’ll encounter in school, work, and beyond.

Sources:

http://www.childperspective.com/sibling-rivalry/7-tips-to-minimize-sibling-rivalry/

http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/parenting/sibling_rivalry.shtml

http://www.babycenter.com/0_managing-sibling-rivalry-between-a-preschooler-and-an-older_65481.bc

“So, how was school today?” If this dinnertime conversation starter is often greeted by a shrug, it’s probably time to try a different question. Getting kids to open up about their lives can be difficult when they reach grade-school, and nearly impossible as high school approaches. But don’t despair. Take some of these tips to regain your child’s confidence and build a sturdier bridge into their lives.

Deep down, your children want to share their everyday tribulations and feelings with you. Often, the trick is asking the right questions of them. Make sure your questions require real, complex answers, not just “yes” or “no.” Avoid general questions; ask specific ones. Who won capture the flag at recess? Was it anyone’s birthday today? What was for lunch in the cafeteria? Did you see any sports cars on the bus ride? The more specific the question, the more it shows you’re interested in the details of their life. And even if they can’t recall seeing any sports cars on the bus ride, it might remind them about that driver that got angry at another driver and made the gesture that they didn’t really understand. As you can see, asking about unimportant details can often lead to more important stuff. 

Once you get your child talking, listen. Good listening requires patience, and when kids open up to you, it requires a particular kind of patience. As your child talks, you’ll probably feel a surge of really great advice build up in you. Wait. Save that advice till later. Keep asking questions until your child unspools the entire situation. If you do this, you’ll ultimately gain a wider perspective than you would have if you jumped in at the beginning; your advice will be better informed and more potent. Most importantly, holding all advice until your child has finished talking proves to them that you’re a good listener. They’ll be a lot more likely to tell you things in the future.

Once you’ve gained your child’s trust as a listener, don’t betray their confidence by telling their secrets. If, for whatever reason, you feel a secret must be told, it’s crucial to ask your kid before you go telling someone else. Even if the secret doesn’t seem like a big deal to you, it may be to your kid, so ask. An even trickier situation: tweens and teens may tell you about bad choices their friends are engaging in, but think twice about picking up the phone to call that friend’s parents. Unless the friend’s behavior is truly dangerous, keep it to yourself.  

It’s a wonderful feeling to know that you’re the person your child trusts most in the world. But it takes daily determination to prove that you deserve that trust. The only effective way of doing this is to make time to connect with your child, every day. Establish a specific place, a routine, or even a special ritual – anything to get them talking. Work to gain your child’s confidence. It’s worth it.  

Sources:

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/why-i-dont-rat-out-my-sons-friends/

http://www.ahaparenting.com/parenting-tools/communication/foolproof-strategies-talk

http://www.womansday.com/sex-relationships/family/parenting-tips-gaining-your-childs-trust-37845