Does your family celebrate Easter? If your family is Christian, you probably do. Yet even if you are not really into the spiritual side of Easter, you can still have some fun with your kids. Personally, I enjoy activities both with religious significance and the more non-sectarian aspect. Here are some tips for a hassle-free Easter celebration with your kids.

Religious activities
If you attend church regularly, then you would probably have set plans for Easter Sunday. If not, then check with your local church and see what they have in store for the children on this special day. You could even simply go to church as a family and observe Easter. You can also hold a special Easter meal and commemorate the rising of Christ.

Easter egg hunt
For the more non-sectarian approach, you can organize your own Easter egg hunt at home. It would be fun to gather your kids and their friends for this event. To make things easier for you, why not purchase some plastic eggs which can hold some goodies? This will get rid of the task of boiling eggs and purchasing separate treats.

You can also check your local malls or events center. The chances are that they will be holding Easter egg hunt activities. This will probably be easier on you as you do not have to organize your own hunt. More so, your kids could enjoy the company of other people that they have never met before.

I was browsing other parenting blogs and I just found this post by Daring Young Mom hilarious. She was sharing an experience with her daughter wherein she withheld TV privileges for a while. Instead of throwing a temper tantrum, her daughter put her creative juices to work and went on to make a TV of her own out of crayon and paper! Imagine that!

It made me think of the times when the creativity of children come out because of “adverse” situations. I remember one time when my sister and I were kids and we wanted to have a Power Wheel. Yeah I know this was normally for boys but they looked like a lot of fun. Anyway, our parents would not buy us one no matter how much we asked and begged. Our solution? We got this tiny coffee table in our living room, removed everything on top of it, and turned it upside down. We both got in and took turns driving our “home made Power Wheel!” Lucky for us the coffee table was light enough to push around.

Sometimes, I think that not giving everything our children ask for is a good thing. Just because they want something does not mean that they should have it. They may be disappointed at first but with their resiliency, I am sure that their creativity would surface and they would come up with something that would make them quite content.

How about you, any “creative” stories that you might want to share?

The Christmas season has just ended and I just realized how BIG gaming consoles are for children. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my extended family and I was really surprised to see that most of the kids had a gaming console with them – the portable ones!

Don’t get me wrong – I have nothing against gaming consoles. In fact, I kind of like the PlayStation Portable (PSP), which my husband got for himself when it first came out. Aside from the price, I think that this gadget is quite nifty – you can do more than play games.

The dilemma I have been having is how old should a child be before he or she could get a gaming console? More so, what kind of console is right for a certain age? Take my nephew, he is only 5 and his parents bought him a PSP. I think it’s too expensive a toy for his age.

My other nephew got a Gameboy Advance and he’s 7. I think that’s a better match. Then again, he felt so envious of the PSP, which a younger cousin already has!

As a parent, it could be quite hard to make the right decisions – should you get your child a gaming console? If so, which one? More than that, how do you handle their use of the console?

I believe that it boils down to more than the game or toy itself. It is part of disciplining your children and giving them what they want at the same time. Good parenting includes treats and teaching children control at the same time.

I’ve never been into video games, which probably explains why I’ve always told N that she wouldnt be allowed a Gameboy or the like until she was 10 years old. So imagine my annoyance when at the family Christmas get-together, my 11-year-old half sister (who N adores) lent N her Gameboy, and N was entranced, showing that she clearly had some talent despite being only 5-years-old.

Then a few days ago, her friend Rose (as mentioned in the previous post) brings the latest Gameboy to school, which was a present for her birthday. It was the envy of all the kids at school, especially N. Noticing this when I picked her up from school that day, I gently (but firmly) reminded her that she wasnt getting one until she was 10. She was very-grown up about it, as if resigned to her fate….

Now feeling guilty, I spoke to my husband about it (who, has been desperate for N to be old enough to play video games with him, a hobby he gave up when we had the kids). He said that if we had a “big one” (i.e. something he can play too) at the beach house, which she can only play on weekends or holidays, then MAYBE we can bend this rule a bit. Hmmmmmmm…….

The jury’s not out on thus, but I didn find an interesting article about ways parents can make video games “good” for kids, which I’ll be blogging about next.

Ok, it isnt such a far-fetched idea really, but given the day and age we live in, when it comes to video games and kids, its just a matter of time (unless you live in Outer Mongolia - but then again, even there they’ve probably got some bootleg gameboy from the mainland).

Not that I’ve decided to give in and allow N to have one just yet- I think its better to get all the facts and get oneself ready to make the best out of a situation.

So here are some tips I found:

1. Find the “good” games and stay away from the “bad”

Find games that people can play together (team building and sportsmanship) like sports and action games. Make it more social, as opposed to a “mind-numbing” activity. Steer clear of violent titles, do your research and check out online reviews first.

2. Get �Active� Games

If like me, you’re concerned about the health aspect, then get some games which will get the kids (and maybe even yourself) out of the sofa and moving! These usually come with a dance pad, which younger kids will enjoy. Karaoke games are fun too, like Singstar, which can get the whole family spending some fun quality time together.

3. Be Involved

As with most things in your child’s life, take an active involvement. Try and spend some time together playing and discover why your child loves it. In my case though, it will be my husband playing the sports and action things - I’ll just stick to the karaoke.

The same pro-video game parent who inspired these tips had this to say (he does have a point).

Don�t believe all the popular media about violence in video games. While there have been a great deal of sensationalist news claims over the years, little legitimate supporting research has been presented that makes a strong link between games and violence. In 2001, the Surgeon General of the United States released a report that concluded, �[t]aken together, findings suggest that media violence has a relatively small impact on violence.” Besides, the debate becomes mute if you pay attention to the content of the games your child is playing.

It�s easy to want to say no when your kid asks for a video game system for Christmas or for a birthday; after all, we�ve all seen various news reports about the dangers of video games. But next time your child makes such a request, don�t be so quick with that knee-jerk reaction. Two thirds of parents with children under the age of 18 say that they feel video games are a positive element of their child�s life. You don�t have to feel guilty next time someone asks you, �You let your kids play video games?� Just look surprised and say, �We play video games together. Why? Don�t you?�

You might be surprised at how nice a ring that line has.

For the invitations, I pulled out my inner-Martha and made “message in a bottle” invitations. It involved a couple of nights work (those short precious hours between the time when the children have gone to bed and tired Mothers cant keep their eyes open for one minute longer), a printer, left-over coffee, tea, and my trusty stove’s gas burner. Throw in some sand and old shells lying around the house (from the last beach holiday), a bit of string, glass mineral water bottles, and hey, presto!

As luck would have it, both mine and my husband’s printer were acting extremely temperamental (and headed for the junk yard), so I went ovet to my sister’s house, parchment in hand. We found the perfect font, and in a few minutes, cooked up the wording:

Ahoy Matey!
Captain Natasha will be in harbour
On February 11th, 2007
at three o’clock in the afternoon
in search of a motley crew
and will navigate her way to
The Pooldeck (of our apartment building)
to meet suitable recruits
for a swashbuckling adventure bash!!

No liver-belly cowards or landlubbers need attend.

Now soak in coffee, burn the edges, tie and stuff in the bottle, seashells and sand. Easy and fun. And expect to get lots of compliments from the parents!! Oh, and I also put the bottle in a brown paper bag, with a “jolly roger” drawn on with a felt tipped pen. Those skulls get easier to draw once you’ve done them at least 10 times.

[tags]invitation, message in a bottle, pirate, birthday[/tags]

All is finally back to normal here at home. The kids are healthy, Daddy is back from his trip, and Mom is back to pirate mode. One of my major coups this week has been finding the perfect birthday cakes, and thanks to my internet-research-savvy sister, she found me a girl who makes the most fabulous birthday cakes and pretty decent prices.

I love to bake, but in all honesty, one of those fancy “themed” or shaped cakes are totally beyond me. I’ll just leave that to the experts, thank you very much. So when I found this girl called Erika, (a pastry chef in her twenties, baking from home) who could pull off not just the cakes, but matching cupcakes and cookie lollipops in pirate theme, I was thrilled. She sent me a few sketches for approval, and asked for any other input I may have to make the day as special as she could for the kids.

A few more sketches and emails later, we were set! The pirate cake is actually going to be a huge treasure chest, with booty richly overflowing out. But thats not all. Places on a cake board decorated like a desert island beach, she is going to make an edible replica of the treasure map I drew for the party! Add to that some mini-moulded pirate candles we bought to place around the map (5, of course), and we’re set. Exciting stuff aaargh!

[tags]pirate, pirate birthday, pirate cake[/tags]

If you’ll notice from my previous posts, despite my pirate-fervor, my ability to “piratespeak” is simply pathetic. I can muster an “aarrgh” or a “shiver me timbers” with as much pirate gruff as that chap Orlando Bloom….which is no way the mother-pirate of the pirate lass celebrant is meant to be.

So getting into the spirit of things, I started doing more research on brushing up my “pirate”, and just discovered that “Speak Like A Pirate Day” occurs on September 19th, the day after my birthday! Lovely. Why have a holiday for these romanticized skurvy-ridden criminals? Heres what the folks at International Talk Like A Pirate Day convincingly say:

Make no mistake. We do. But it’s a little hard to articulate why, especially when you’ve made the mistake of referring to your wife as a scurvy bilge rat and tried to order her back into the galley.

Talking like a pirate is fun. It’s really that simple.

It gives your conversation a swagger, an el�n, denied to landlocked lubbers. The best explanation came from a guy at a Cleveland radio station who interviewed us on the 2002 Talk Like a Pirate Day. He told us we were going to be buried by people asking for interviews because it was a “whimsical alternative” to all the serious things that were making the news so depressing.

In other words, silliness is the holiday’s best selling point.

Before we go any further, there’s something we need to be clear about. Pirates were and are bad people. Really reprehensible. Even the most casual exploration of the history of pirates (and believe us, casual is an accurate description of our research) leaves you hip deep in blood and barbarity. We recognize this, all right? We aren’t for one minute suggesting that real, honest-to-God pirates were in any way, shape or form worth emulating.

So what is it exactly that we’re celebrating here, if not pirates? What, you’re wondering, is the point?

We’re going to be painfully honest here, perhaps fatally so.

The point is, there is no point.

Its the last line that sold me. I love a little nonsense in my sometime serious world of parenting. Besides, it will thrill my little sea urchins em sure. Next post get ready for my favourite pirate lingo.

[tags]talk like a pirate day, pirate talk[/tags]

After my soon-to-be 5-year-old saw a fabulous pirate girl costume at our local party shop, it was a done deal. Its going to be a pirate party!! Luckily for Mom, the shop was on 50% off (hurrah!), so we stocked up on plates, hats, cups and so on. Next up was research time on the internet, as I was more of a girly kid in my youth, preferring princesses and castles to dirty, brazen-mouth pirates. I think my daughter takes after my hubby in that respect!

Online, I found some pretty great resources, like Birthday Party Ideas, which I would highly recommend for any parent planning any party. Written by parents who so kindly share their experience with loads of tips and advice, the site has all the birthday party themes any kid would want, with over 150 categories of fantastic birthday party ideas. I love it!!

For Pirate Kids party fayre, the site Pirate Party Food has some easy kid-friendly recipes to give you some creative ideas when planning for the party’s menu.

More ideas which came in handy were found at Boardman’s Birthday Party Ideas, like some thorough instructions for the invitations like how you should dip the paper in coffee for that old ragged look, and very pirate-y wording like:

“Aye…..ye be invited fer some birthday spirits at Captn Tyler’s Buccaneer Bash
Chart yer course fer the “location” ? day of month
We be a meetin at “time” fer some swashbuckling fun, grub and kiddie spirits.
Wave yer flag if ye be attendin or hav yer mum send message by yer phone to “number”
Sees ye there…..aarrgghh!

Yesterday we hit the shops in search for pirate loot for the prizes etc, and although we did find a good amount of stuff, I’m still kicking myself for not being more organized and getting stocked up at Halloween when all the pirate-y goods like skeletons, skulls and so forth were everywhere. But such is the last-minute decision making of 4-year-olds! I’ll have to search for my inner Martha now. Aaaarrgh!

[tags]Pirate party, kids’s party, birthdays, 5th birthday[/tags]

With Christmas, New Year’s and The Three Kings come and gone, most parents are sighing with relief that the frenzy of decorating, shopping, cooking, organizing and so on is officially over. NOT at our household. Why? Because in a couple of weeks time, I’ll have to be sending out the invites for BOTH by kids’ birthdays, which means more shopping, more cooking and a lot of organizing. Sigh.

My two childrens’ birthdays are one day apart. It could have been on the same day (owing to a scheduled c-section for baby # 2), but due to a mass consensus by friends and family around the globe, we decided that having their own special days would probably be what they would want later on. Two years later, I can’t help but wonder if we made the right decision. Surely a “same birthday” would mean one day of festivities (okay, two if it falls on a weekday and so theres the actual one plus the party?) rather than the double/quad celebrations I will face for the next 20 years (or more?).

Not that I’m complaining. If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ll be able to tell by now that I’m the kind of Mom who just thrives on creating happy (indulgent?) childhood memories. Unbirthday parties, crafts and baking, and frequent special “mommy day” at the mall complete with a toy, ice cream and a ride on the carousel. So, a party (or two) with all the trimmings is indeed de rigeur in my household.

In my 5 years as a parent, I’ve learnt the ins and outs of birthday planning the hard way, which includes various mistakes like a too-hard treasure hunt (where the kids couldnt find one dang clue) and inviting too many big kids (when the Barney mascot got mauled at my daughter’s 2nd) to name but a few. Last year’s bash, where my daughter turned 4 and my son 1, was a Powerpuff/Rowdyruff swimming party complete with puppet show and PPG mascot (who thankfully did not get mauled but did a very weird dance that made me nervous). It was nowhere as insane as my daughter’s 2nd (the one with the over-8’s), but it was still pretty crazy. And even if they shared the “big party” (not easy to do theme-wise with a girl and a boy, mind you), we still had to do 2 other ” actual day” celebratory planning. This year, I hope to put some of what I’ve learnt to good use and stay small and simple.

So on that note, and those two uber-special days in February drawing near, let me welcome you to The Land Of Birthdays here at the Parenting Blog!! (if you hate birthdays, please stay away from this blog because this WILL be my obsession for the next few weeks).

[tags]Birthdays, kids parties[/tags]