Ever noticed how kids will keep pestering you just when you are intent on doing something. The more engrossed you are, the more they will bug you. You just want an hour to enjoy your game and they want to play it for you. It can be annoying!

Truth is they just want to be part of what you’re doing. If you are having fun, they want to have fun with you. If you enjoy cooking, they will try and enjoy it too. They love helping you decorate for christmas. They’ll even try to help wrap presents.

Of course there are times that you have to say no but before you tell them they can’t why not check if there is someway they can take part. For example, you’re busy in the kitchen getting dinner ready and you don’t really want them around your knives. How about just having them peel the veggies or wash the potatoes.

If you’re painting, why not give your kid a paintbrush too and assign him his own corner to color? He may not do as big a space as you and his corner may not be as even but that is easily taken care of.

Do you love word games, the crosswords maybe? Get a book of word puzzles that the two of you can do together. Invite him to bring his puzzles to where you sit and you can sit companionably together as you each solve your games.

These may seem like small things for them to do but the effect on them is huge. Kids love to “help out”. Let them and watch as they amaze you with what they can do.

Some times our kid’s need a little helping hand in remembering what we ask them to do. If you are a parent of a child who is old enough to start helping out around the house…You will know what I mean.

Some children just do not comprehend and know how to complete tasks from start to finish. So they ask mom or dad over and over how to do whatever it is they are attempting to do.

I thought I would take a moment and list a few things that might be great to put on a child’s list of To Do’s and To Not Do’s. Making a list and posting it in words your child can read will not only help you save all the questions. It will also help you to encourage your child to read.

Toddlers Ages 3 to 5

1. Pick up your toys.
2. Put your toys where they belong.
3. Put your dirty clothes in the hamper.
4. When you are done playing put your things
away.

Kindergartners Ages 5 to 6

1. Pick up your things in your room.
2. Put everything where it should go.
3. Put your dirty clothes in the hamper.
4. Set out your clothes for the next morning.
5. Try and make your bed.
6. Help set the table.

Children Ages 6 to 10

1. Clean your room.
2. Make your bed.
3. Put toys away and other play items.
4. Put dirty clothes in the hamper
5. Help fold and put clean clothes away.
6. Help set the table.
7. Learn to pick up around the front room.
8. Learn to vacuum.
9. Learn to dust and clean surfaces in bathroom.

Children Ages 10 to 12

1. Clean your room.
2. Make your bed.
3. Put belongings away after play or use.
4. Put dirty clothes in hamper.
5. Help fold and put clean clothes away.
6. Set the table and wash dishes.
7. Learn to clean and vacuum front room.
8. Clean the bathroom.
9. Take care of personal belongings.
10. Put your bike away or any outside items.
11. Feed and take care of a pet.
12. Take out the trash.
13. Help around the house.
14. Be willing to learn new things.

Teenagers 13 and up

1. Do all of the above listed things.
2. Help mow the lawn and pick up around the yard.
3. Do extra chores for added allowances.
4. Baby sit as you grow more responsible.
5. Clean the house.
6. Learn to cook a little.
7. Learn to do laundry.
8. Learn the value of money.
9. Do some volunteer work.

Now Don’ts For All Ages.

1. Do not break house rules.
2. Do not talk to strangers.
3. Do not go any place alone or without
your parents permission.
4. Do not disrespect other people.
5. Do not talk back to teachers, parents or
people with authority.
6. Do not leave your bike or belongings in
places they do not belong.
7. Do not go places by your self.
8. Do not leave your mess for others to clean up.
9. Do not hit, kick or bite.
10. Follow all of your parents DO NOT Rules.

I am sure you get the basic idea of what you want your child to do and to not do. Just make up a list and post it on the door. You may want to add a how to clean your room list. It is always helpful to use simple words that the kids understand and can relate too. You may want to show them where the dirty clothes go.

Just a few ideas to help make life a little easier and more pleasant on the home front.

One Dad’s Rhymin’ Requests

by David Levin

On Father’s Day each father plans
A morning of sleeping late.
But on his day, Dad finds that he
Just can’t sleep in past eight.

On Father’s Day it’s hammock time.
Pile on newspapers galore
And please don’t worry if I doze,
Dig me out by half-past four.

On Father’s Day that dirty car
Will not be washed by me.
Let Mom and the children do the job,
While I laze beneath a tree.

On Father’s Day the kids all think
Dad probably needs a tie.
But I just want a hug and kiss
(And maybe a new hi-fi).

On Father’s Day the household chores
Well, I refuse to do ‘em.
The lawn, the trash, the dishes?
Let Daddy snooze right through ‘em.

On Father’s Day the ballpark calls
Baseball, the bleachers, the sun.
While Dad is off fetching the snacks…
Crack! Hey, was that a home run?

Father’s Day ends with story time,
The highlight of Dad’s fun day.
We cuddle up, the kids and I,
Without them it’s just Sunday.

Let’s face it. One of the things we parents have to deal with is our kids getting sick or injured. It’s a part of growing up, especially if you have accident-prone kids like I do.

My four-year-old Ollie gets a bump/wound/scratch almost daily, and a few months ago had a bad accident in our garden where he cut his head open and was rushed to the ER. While playing with his big sister, he fell through the fence constructed by our handyman and nearly fell into our pool (which had just been cleaned out and empty). He was grabbed just in time by the handyman, so didn’t fall into the pool but slammed his head on the tile. My husband saw the whole thing and was going to kill the handyman for his shoddy work (it wasn’t nailed in properly), but he did save Ollie’s life…so it was a hard one. Luckily Ollie didn’t need stitches and aside from my husband being covered in blood ala Carrie, it turned out to be a minor injury. It could have been much much worse though, so we are grateful and have since taken extra precautions to make sure that all areas in our home were safe. Ollie was feeing a bit traumatized for the next few days (as were all of us), but I think he’s recovered now.

Here are some great tips from After The Injury, a really useful website for parents who have to deal with their child’s injuries. Whether your child’s injury is big or small, it helps to remember these things so that your child recovers faster.

While doctors know that injury prevention is the best “medicine,” the sad truth is that kids still do get hurt- lots of them- even with the most vigilant parents. In fact, 9.2 million children are treated in an emergency room for an injury each year, making it equally important for parents to know how to handle what happens after the injury.

1. Let your child know that he or she is safe. In the first days and weeks following an injury many children fear that something bad might happen to them again. Learn more about helping your child with new fears or worries.

2. Allow children to talk about their feelings and worries, if they want to. Let your child know that it’s ok to feel a little upset. The circumstances of an injury can be frightening, and it’s not always easy to know how to talk with your child about it. Here are some things that other parents have found helpful for talking with their child.

3. Go back to normal routines. It is important to help your child get plenty of sleep, eat regular meals, keep up with schoolwork, and spend time with friends. Here are some options to consider if the injury gets in the way of things s/he used to do.

4. Increase time with family and friends. Children who get support from family and friends seem to do better in recovering after upsetting events. Try reading together, playing games, or watching movies together. Listen to what some parents had to say about how to help their children remain connected after an injury.

5. Take time to deal with your own feelings. In addition to all of the things you do to help your child, it’s important to remember to take good care of yourself. Learn more about your own reactions and get tips for taking care of yourself.

6. Keep in mind people in the same family can react in different ways. Your child’s feelings and worries about the injury might be different from yours. It’s important to monitor how your child is doing and when reactions might signal trouble. Learn how to gauge your child’s emotional recovery and identify any reactions that might need special attention.

Visit After the Injury to read full tip sheets, learn more about child injury and pain care, take a quiz to rate your child’s reactions to injury, and create a personalized care plan to help parents help their child recover from injury.

We just got back from a perfect beach holiday over the Easter break. Well, it was nearly perfect as holidays-with-kids go if I don’t count:

1. Squabbling between my 4 and 7 year old over so many things I can’t remember anymore.
2. My accident prone 4 year-old’s scraped and bleeding big toes – where he scraped it, we have no idea.
3. 1-year-old Wills getting cut on the lip a grand total of 3 times. He learned to love ice and I found a “cool” way to distract him for a while on the high chair (pardon the pun) – a cube of ice!
4. Our “Marley-esque” Basset hound Wendy going on a destructive spree and chewing 3 bedspreads and a chair, not no mention several toys and my husband’s favourite sandals.

But that aside, my husband and I both agreed that it was one of the most relaxing and lovely holidays we’ve ever had. The kids were outside most of the day, swimming and playing – happily NOT on the DS, Wii, Gameboy or logged on to Nick jr.. Dad had real quality time with them as did I, and we had several family games (amazingly no cheating occurred) of Star Wars Monopoly, Guess Who and The Game of Life, Moms fave which, to my disappointment was too long for my kids (for now). They loved Guess Who, another one of my sister and my favourites. We discovered it on holiday in Paris when we were kids, and I think it was called “Qui est-ce?”. Gosh, how we loved that game, and I think the French did too. Here’s a hilarious video I found of the “Guess Who International Tournament”.

Having experienced medical emergencies as a volunteer which developed my abilities to recognize life-threatening and trivial injuries, just hope more people would recognize this as a vital skill to have for it helps you lower your insurance premiums. Do some research on the web for health tips that can add to your knowledge of which emergencies to treat seriously and which are mere casual. Information and knowledge is the key, the more trips you take to the ER, the more a risk you are for the insurance firm so they have the option to ask more for insurance.

Now I’m not a political person, but I must say that I think it’s great that there’s a young family in the White House. My eldest is pretty close in age to the younger Obama daughter Sasha, so it will be interesting to see how the new President and First Lady fare, not just with the monumental task of running the country, but as parents.

I like how the President wrote a letter to his girls (printed in Parade Magazine), telling them the reasons why he decided to run for President, and what he wanted for them. Here’s my favourite bit:

“….When I was a young man, I thought life was all about me—about how I’d make my way in the world, become successful, and get the things I want.But then the two of you came into my world with all your curiosity and mischief and those smiles that never fail to fill my heart and light up my day. And suddenly, all my big plans for myself didn’t seem so important anymore. I soon found that the greatest joy in my life was the joy I saw in yours. And I realized that my own life wouldn’t count for much unless I was able to ensure that you had every opportunity for happiness and fulfillment in yours. In the end, girls, that’s why I ran for President: because of what I want for you and for every child in this nation….”

Okay, cynics may find the last sentence a bit of a political cliche, but I couldn’t agree with him more on the rest. And you can see how he really is a doting Dad, just from the way the girls have such smiles and warmth when they are around him. Did you notice how 7-year-old Sasha gave her newly-sworn-in Dad the thumbs up sign on inauguration day?

First of all, I have to tell my dearest husband: Honey, I LOVED your post! Only you could have come up with reasons that make such brilliant sense…..and I agree with all of it, except that the idea of our children glued to the television screen (wii remote in action or not) for HOURS on end just doesn’t sit well with me, whatever the multiple benefits are. But because you were the Superdaddy while I was away – keeping our three angels happy, entertained and relatively healthy (I heard about the monster-size cones at Dairy Queen) while I lazed on the beach and drank cocktails, I won’t argue with you on this one – for now at least

But back to my absence – going off with your girlfriends for a few days is one of the best things a Mom can do, and I highly recommend it. I am speaking of my best friends from high school, who I only see about once a year (if we’re lucky) as we live on opposite sides of the globe. To be honest, I wasn’t raring to go – they practically forced me on the trip, while I worried and hesitated, nervous that my little family couldn’t survive without me, or me them. Especially as I am still nursing Wills, the youngest. The answer to that one? f.o.r.m.u.l.a (I brought my breast pump too, of course) and some gentle (and unselfish!) encouragement from the hubby.

It goes without saying that my husband was absolutely right in saying that they’d all be fine and that I’d have a great time – and all my worrying was useless (as it always is). The past 5 days with my girlfriends was a totally lazy but lovely experience – we lay by the pool and read, went island hopping and mangrove exploring, ate and drank like we were teenagers, and best of all, talked, talked and talked. Oh, and it was also nice to be able to listen to my iPod without interruption.

And while I’m blissfully happy to be back home tending to scrapes, whining, and sticky kisses, I am so grateful for the trip, mostly because I remember who I was before I became a Mom.

It’s Daddy here. Apologies for that last post- not by Lara- just something I found in the drafts by an old author, as I’m supposed to be covering for Lara while she is away at the beach for a few days with some friends. Obviously, I haven’t done a very good job….:-)

Natasha, our six year old, and Oliver, our three year old, LOVE playing Wii. When Mummy is home and in charge, there is a very strict rule that Wii is only to be played on weekends and even then there are time limits. Well when Mum is away, we all come out and play! Parenting Daddy-style. The kids love it of course, as we stay up until the wee hours and they know it’s a one-off as Mummy would be furious!

I admit that it’s completely lame on my part. It reflects on my laziness to be more creative and proactive as a parent. It’s terrible, really, and I do get why. The kids should be outside running in the fresh air using their own imagination to play. And I should be laying down foundations for life that are not based on instant gratification. In my defense, I find it quite hard to be a single-parent to two young chidren (even if just for a few days) when they are so used to Mum being the central figure of discipline. This especially as it’s the holidays and they don’t normally have so much time on their hands. Plus there is little Wills to keep an eye on (who also seems to have an early affection for Wii himself!)

The latest Wii obsession of the kids and I is the Mii Golf game. It’s completely addictive and just an incredible amount of fun!

So here are five points that I have prepared in my defense, in anticipation of Lara’s wrath when she comes back tomorrow. It’s the best I could come up with!

1. Physical co-ordination

There is no doubt that the kids have gotten to improve some of their physical skills. Eye-had coordination for one- whether that be with their aim, timing or anticipation. Nat is naturally sporty and so has a very good eye for the ball already. But she also tends to be a bit clumsy, so Wii games do help learn her own strength and use more “touch” and deftness. Ollie doesn’t seem to have a natural eye for the ball, and Wii has improved his timing.

2. Learning to win & lose

This is a big one. Nat is incredibly competitive and has been ever since she could walk and talk. Especially against her little brother, who luckily doesn’t share the same character trait and is very sweet even if he doesn’t win. So if I take a shot for him and misses, he’ll say: “Don’t worry, Dad, it’s okay…” and have that cute look about him when I could just hug him to death! But going back to Nat, we are talking serious tantrums, sulking, crying and bad moods if she isn’t “the winner”. One might think that Wii would actually make this worse, but in fact Nat has started (very slowly…) to learn that she doesn’t need to win all the time and be more graceful when she loses. I can tell that it still hurts her like mad and she loathes losing, but the fact that she is now pretending not to mind as much is certainly a start in the right direction. And the other side of the coin is also learning how to win gracefully and in this respect Nat is much better than Ollie (probably as she has so much practice at it, as we let her win so much…), who does tend to gloat when he wins and say things like “I’m good, you’re bad, I’m the winner, you’re the loser, na, na..”. Again, from playing Wii, Ollie has started to learn that it’s not nice to gloat over your opponent when you win.

3. An introduction to business

With Mii Golf (& quite a few of the other Wii games) there is a lot of “stuff” that one wants to acquire. In this case things from the “shop” like the Dinosaur mask, the Amazon golf club, the Cat Jester or the Spook-a-Rama hat! And as one has to buy these with “coins” that you win by completing holes and courses, or one has to win them from another player when playing for “items”, a whole new realm of “trade” becomes introduced as a concept. Both kids learn the value of the coins that they have won and that they can’t afford to buy everything with them, so need to selectively choose. Plus they learn to attach additional value to the items they do own according to how hard they worked to acquire them, so it isn’t like a “pocket money for toys” lesson, as they have to also decide which items they care least about when betting them in a game (wait…am I encouraging gambling? Yikes!).

4. Patience & tenacity

A lot of the holes one has to complete in Mii Golf are pretty hard to do, even for me. The only way to master them is via trial and error, sometimes doing them over and over until you want to pull your hair out! Both Nat & Ollie obviously like to get immediate results when they play any game. And this is definitely one of Nat’s weak points when doing her homework, for instance. Unless the answer is obvious straight away, she tends to panic and give up, not wanting to solve the problem with more thought and effort (especially with Maths!). Weirdly enough, Wii has helped them both learn that “trying and trying again until you succeed” can reap rewards.

5. Teamwork

Quite often in Wii games, as is true in Mii Golf, one has to work as a team to win. In this instance, to beat Barker and win coins from him. With this set-up, nobody is a “winner” or “loser” and the kids have learned to use encouragement to help each other do well in order to defeat their opponent. So Ollie will say “good shot, Nat” even if she had in fact put the ball in the bunker! And Nat will instruct Ollie what he needs to do and so takes on the role of “teacher”. Practically every other game the two of them play (even if it’s just throwing around a ball) involves some kind of competition and thus a winner/loser, so I really like it when they play and and learn to work for each other.

As I said, pretty thin, no? I have surfed a bit trying to find some resources that might back up my “clutching at straws” excuses…

Kotaku has a neat post about the motor skills aspect.

Edutopia writes about the potential benefits of cooperation.

Gamasutra talks about the health benefits.

Evening Standard has a piece on how the Wii improves intelligence.

And some some other interesting reads:

How a University lecturer was paid £5,000 to study benefits of Wii.

Time asks if Wii really is good for your health.

And finally some childish streams of consciousness about Wii.

I fear none of this will suffice when Mummy returns and I’ll be in the dog house! And thus Lara will answer her own question on this blog and we’ll be subjected to an even stricter set of rules…:-(