Parenting Press E-zine

Welcome to the July 2010
“News for Parents”

Dear Friends of Parenting Press:

Books, info sheets, teaching plans, kids’ activities: we’re always in a whirl at Parenting Press with dozens of ideas that we hope you’ll enjoy and find helpful. Many are described in this issue; others will be published in later issues (see Coming Attractions).

“News for Parents” is available in two formats: by e-mail and, complete with color and photos, online. We appreciate your comments and to make it easier for you to comment on an article, you’ll see a “feedback” link after each article. Want to make sure you receive every issue? Subscribe now, and this newsletter will be in your e-mail box the beginning of every month.

Got a story idea? Use any of the “feedback” links to contact us. Although “News for Parents” is created by the Parenting Press staff, your suggestions for topics are appreciated. Want to advertise in “News for Parents?” Sorry: this is an advertising-free zone!

You can also contact us via Facebook and get almost daily news from us via Twitter.com/parentingpress.

If you write for a newspaper or school, extension, or child care newsletter, you’re welcome to excerpt or reprint our information, as long as you credit us and send us a copy. Advance copies of selected stories from the next issue (see “Coming Attractions”) are available the last week of this month for excerpts in print publications. E-mail our media contact.

Looking for a conference speaker? Check our list of authors available for speeches and interviews, and the online media kits. Each media kit has a feature story that will tell you more about an author.

IN THIS ISSUE

WHAT’S NEW?
FEATURES
POTPOURRI
COMING ATTRACTIONS
- Get Kids Ready for Kindergarten
- Sharpen Small Motor Skills for School
- Fashionista Fun: Teens, Tweens, Moms and Dolls

I. WHAT’S NEW?

Dozens and Dozens of Ideas for Summer Fun, Episode 2

If you’re like us at Parenting Press, some of your best memories from childhood are of unstructured summer fun: watching bugs, floating sticks down a creek, reading under a shady tree, blowing soap bubbles, picking berries and trying to make daisy chains. Some days our kids need a nudge or two from us, or a little help brainstorming, before they can create similar fun for themselves. Wherever you are, whatever your children’s ages, here are projects and games your family may like.
- Origami. Those sailor hats we used to make from newspaper: did you know that’s origami? Kids can make these for themselves and for their dolls and teddy bears, and they can flatten the peaks a bit and turn ‘em into boats for the wading pool or nearby pond. Paper airplanes are almost as easy, and they can be decorated with airline logos (“Andy’s Airways,” perhaps!) or windows with faces peering out. For more complicated designs like origami boxes, stop at the library or check the Internet for how-to’s. Besides special origami paper, you can repurpose colorful pages from catalogs and advertising flyers.
- Gift bags. Want to pack up a special origami design or another small gift? We had such fun reusing paper for our sample bags. Home, Paper, Scissors by Patricia Zapata (Potter Craft) has a pattern you can use.
- Puppets. Got a crabby kid? Pull his sock off his foot and onto your hand for an instant hand puppet. If you’re struggling to get a child into bed, turn down the lights and use your fingers to create shadow puppets. In between, let the kids glue cardboard circles to Popsicle sticks and add yarn or shredded paper for hair and beards. Presto: stick puppets!
  
  Other puppet ideas: lunch-size or smaller brown paper bags, cootie-catchers modified to make mouths that open, old gloves with each finger decorated for a different character—or even your own fingers, with faces drawn with felt-tip markers. Kids old enough to handle sharp scissors can cut shapes out of felt and stitch them together or tack cloth bodies to heads made of papier mache or bread dough clay. Don’t forget garage sales and thrift stores: you’ll probably find lots of finger and hand puppets that other kids have outgrown.
- Pinhole cameras. A tightly lidded box and a sheet of photographic film—that’s almost all you need to make a pinhole camera. Pioneer camera maker Kodak offers detailed instructions.
- Sun prints. Or skip the camera and make prints using only paper and sunshine! You can buy kits or special sun print paper, but you don’t need it for simple images. Just put a sheet of dark construction paper (red and purple work especially well) in a spot that will get several hours of sunshine, and arrange objects on the paper. If necessary, put a piece of glass from a picture frame on the images to keep them flat (for example, if you’re using leaves or flowers).
- Catapult. Quick! Can you name the three kinds of catapults? (Answer: Ballista, Onager and Trebuchet.) Even the catapult built with Popsicle or craft sticks needs a little cutting, and the larger ones that can hurl tennis balls require lots of help from someone handy with tools, so this is probably a parent-child project. For blueprints and instructions, you’ll find books and online tips. If you’re a woodworker looking for a gift idea, consider creating a catapult kit for your favorite ‘tween. Ideally, you’ll assemble all the pieces and then take the catapult apart and package it with step-by-step directions and any necessary tools. (Maybe also check with the gift recipient’s parents in advance to make sure they approve!)
- Book safe. So often kids want special hiding places, and this is an easy one to create with a discarded book. Pick a thick one like a dictionary, and cut out the center of a hundred or more pages.
- New twists on traditional games. Introduce your kids to games like Simon Says, Red Rover and Ring around the Rosie and then challenge them to give the games a summer update. When it’s hot, for example, combine Simon Says with water balloons: “Simon Says take one step forward and toss!” Or, “Red Rover, Red Rover, have Carolyn toss one over!” Image playing Ring around the Rosie in a wading pool or at water’s edge—a great way to cool off.
- You’re all wet. Or you could be, if you help the kids organize rubber ducky races in a pond, the community wading pool or a washtub in your own back yard.
- Bubble up. Mix up a bubble solution, get the washtub back out, and let the kids create bubbles of all sizes with hoops, metal canning jar rings and other implements. All you’ll need for the solution is glycerin, available at a drugstore, liquid dishwashing detergent and water. Check the Internet or a library book for the “recipe.”
- Invisible ink. Show the kids how to keep secrets really secret by writing notes or drawing treasure maps with “ink” that disappears. Try lemon juice or vinegar on white paper. When the “ink” dries, read the message over a flashlight.
- Pig Latin. Rather speak in code? Children old enough to know how words are spelled can try pig Latin, which even Thomas Jefferson reportedly used! Take words that start with consonants rather than vowels and transfer the first sound to the end of the word. Then add “ay.” So “hello” becomes “ellohay” and “goodby” becomes “oodbygay.”
- Morse code. Or speak in dots and dashes (also known as “dits” and “dahs”). The oldest form of electronic code still in use today, Morse code can be transmitted with sounds, lights, mirrors or other visual signals. The emergency message “SOS” is one of the easiest to learn: dot, dot, dot, dash, dash, dash, dot, dot, dot. For a history of the code and how it’s been used in communications, walk the kids to the library or check the Internet.
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Critter Visits with Kids

What’s more special than chicks and ducklings that look like balls of fluff and lambs that are fuzzy with wool? This time of year, each state has 4-H and county fairs and many zoos and amusement parks have petting zoos. At farmers’ markets, chickens and rabbits are often in cages between the fruit and vegetable tables, and sometimes you’ll even see demonstrations of goats being milked or sheep being shorn.

Starting July 4 will be the Gibson County Fair, and starting July 5 the Floyd County Fair, both in Indiana; in Oregon, the Marion County Fair opens July 8, and the Linn County Fair July 15. If you’re in Minnesota, visit Blue Earth or Preston, where fairs both start on July 20. Meanwhile, the California State Fair kicks off July 14, and the Hawaii State Farm Fair runs July 24-25. Can you wait until Sept. 24? That’s when kids can gather eggs and milk cows at Big Tex, the State Fair of Texas.

Laurie Sharp uses wool from her sheep Hazel to create the toys shown in her Wool Toys and Friends and Wool Pets.

When introducing children to critters, remember these tips from Laurie Sharp, who has a small farm in northwest Washington and is the author of two books that use wool from her sheep, Wool Toys and Friends: Step-by-Step Instructions for Needle-Felting Fun and the earlier Wool Pets: Making 20 Figures with Wool Roving and a Barbed Needle.

“Make sure children understand to behave calmly and quietly around animals,” she emphasizes. “And it’s very important to wash your hands after visiting or petting farm animals as they sometimes carry germs that can make people sick.”

Sheep are among the animals that are easily startled by loud noise or fast movement, Sharp goes on. “They have a timid disposition, so children need to be quiet and move slowly if they want to pet a sheep.”

What else should we remember, the “News for Parents” editor asked Sharp.

“It’s always good to have a handful of treats,” she replied, but not vegetables. “Grain or alfalfa pellets that you can get at a feed store.”

If you irritate a sheep, it won’t bite, she assures us, but it might stomp its hooves!

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Batter Up!

Mix cake batter, cookie dough, scrambled eggs, smoothies and so much more with the kid-friendly instructions in the new magazine “ChopChop.” Published by the nonprofit Kid2Kid, this quarterly has no ads, just a page listing sponsors (see www.chopchopmag.com).

The issue we previewed had a dozen recipes, all starting with “Wash your hands with soap and water.” Because one of the founders’ missions is to provide kids with nutrition information, you’ll also find features such as, “Two Champs Square Off: Which is better, oranges or bananas?,” “Garden in a Box,” and “For the Love of Chickens,” about a 12-year-old with a flock of 25.

Besides the fun of making a mess and getting to eat something you made yourself, there are lots of reasons for kids to cook. One is that it introduces all sorts of cause and effect relationships: what will make chocolate melt? Can you make a cake without eggs? (Can you make a cake without salt?) What happens to pancakes when a griddle isn’t greased?

Cooking also teaches kids about fractions, especially if a recipe must be divided or doubled. And it’s a great way for them to see the importance of following directions carefully.

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Duck and Cover: Tantrums While Traveling

Looking forward to a road trip? Scheduled for a flight with the family? As much fun as we all hope traveling will be, it’s almost impossible to go anywhere without someone getting at least a little crabby.

Eileen Kennedy-Moore, the author of What About Me? 12 Ways to Get Your Parents’ Attention (Without Hitting Your Sister), is a clinical psychologist and the mother of four children born within an eight-year period. She’s criss-crossed the country—and gone all the way to Australia—with her brood, and she’s got some tips for us about both avoiding problems and handling unhappy kids.

Her favorite strategy: Prevention.

“Traveling is hard on kids because it disrupts their routines. Being in unfamiliar places, with long days, constrained seating, strange food, and a strange bed can be exhausting and sometimes overwhelming for children, whether they are toddlers, teenagers or in between,” she points out. “This means that everyone will find the experience more enjoyable if you plan ahead to make the travel as child-friendly as possible and if you intervene quickly at the first sign of crankiness.”

To prepare children for the trip, start by explaining what will happen: the security checks at airports, the waiting, the time changes. Ask them what “loveys,” small toys, books and games they’d like to take along.

What else is important?
- Food. Because children may feel desperately hungry at odd or inconvenient times, tuck some easy-to-eat snacks in your bag.
- Surprises. Novelty is appealing, so bring along activities with which to surprise your children. These don’t have to be expensive, and they can be as simple as cat’s cradle, tic-tac-toe and other games.
- Pillows. An overtired child is a tantrum waiting to happen. A travel-style pillow can encourage a child to rest—and the squishy ones can double as a squeeze toy.
- Music. Having the right music can help a child feel more cheerful or relaxed.
- Movement. Kids simply are not capable of sitting still as long as adults can. “Take lots of breaks to let your child move around,” advises Kennedy-Moore. (This can mean pulling the car into a roadside rest area every hour or it can mean researching which airports have children’s play areas.)
- Travel at “kid pace.” Your goal in traveling as a family is to enjoy each other, not necessarily to see every single site. “Do shorter visits to fewer places and have a good time rather than exhaust the children and end the day with a tantrum,” Kennedy-Moore continues.
- Choices. The older your children, the more you can involve them in planning where you go or what you do, but even little ones can have some say. Offer two or three choices that are all acceptable to you (e.g., “Do you want to visit the monkeys or the elephants first?”). Offering too many choices too often will be overwhelming for children, but a few options can give kids a positive sense of control.
What if it’s too late for prevention and your child’s tantrum has already hit? This is a parent travel nightmare! You’re probably exhausted and cranky, too, and you may also feel trapped by the circumstances and embarrassed by disapproving looks or comments from other travelers. Ignore everything except your child, advises Kennedy-Moore: that’s who counts right now.

Her strategies for solving problems:
- Get some space. If possible, help your child out of the difficult situation. Getting outside is best, but at least move to a less crowded area such as a hallway or a bathroom. “Getting some breathing room can help your child calm down, and it also reduces how much you’re disturbing other travelers—which means you and your child no longer have an audience for the tantrum.”
- Allow time. While your child is emotionally flooded, he or she is physically incapable of thinking or of comprehending your reasonable suggestions. Muster compassion for how overwhelmed your child must be and stay close, listening for a downshift in the tone of the crying or yelling. That’s your signal that you can start to touch or talk to your child.
- Reflect feelings. “In the history of humanity, the words, ‘Calm down!’ have never soothed anyone,” reminds the psychologist. “What does help is acknowledging your child’s feelings.”
  
  By reflecting your child’s feelings, you show you understand, and you also wrap those feelings up in words, which makes them seem more manageable. You could say something like: “It’s hard to wait,” “You’re fed up with sitting,” or “You’ve had enough of being in strange places.” You may not be able to doing anything about the cause of those feelings, but just acknowledging them lightens their burden for children.
- Use the “foot in the door” technique. Salespeople know that if they can get customers to agree to a small thing, they are more likely to agree to a larger thing. Once the worst of the storm passes, use the same technique to help your child inch out of a tantrum. Start with a minor request that your child is very likely to agree to, such as “Here’s a tissue. Why don’t you blow your nose.” You can follow that with “How about a drink of water?”, “Let’s go sit on the bench,” and “Would you like a snack?” With each little decision, your child is regaining self-control.
- Soothe your child’s senses. After the climax of the tantrum, your child will feel raw. Sensory activities can be soothing. For a little one, this might mean a cuddle on your lap or listening to you sing softly. Other children might appreciate washing their faces gently, eating or drinking, chewing gum, listening to music, smelling something pleasant, looking at pictures, or getting a soft shoulder scratch. If possible, try to wait until your child’s body seems fully relaxed before returning to the difficult situation, to allow your child to recover enough to avoid a second round of a tantrum.
- Don’t scold. The experience was much worse for your child than it was for you. When your child seems calm, just say matter-of-factly, “Okay, let’s head back.” If you know the difficult situation won’t last much longer, you can also mention that.
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Books You’ve Gotta Read with Your Kids

1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up is the kind of book that makes you wish your children would never grow up—or at least not until you and they have enjoyed the 900-plus pages of wonderful contemporary and classic children’s books from authors and illustrators all around the world. Most of the book descriptions are illustrated with cover images, many of them fabulous art in themselves.

Space in this newsletter limits how many books we can describe, so our June issue (see the archives) describes books for the youngest children, and this month we’re looking at stories for children 3 and older. Each listing includes the author and illustrator, if known, the publisher, a plot outline and a brief history of the story, or how it came to be. If you don’t have these books in your home or in your local library, you can use WorldCat to see where you might obtain the books as inter-library loans.

Kate Greenaway’s Mother Goose and Marigold Garden are among the first books in the section for preschoolers, which continues with such other wonderfully illustrated books as Beatrix Potter’s tales of Peter Rabbit, Jeremy Fisher and Jemima Puddle-Duck. There’s Winnie-the-Pooh, The Story of Babar, The Story of Ferdinand, marmalade cat Orlando, and Little Toot.

Then there’s Madeline, Mike Mulligan, Curious George, Eloise, Harry the Dirty Dog, The Cat in the Hat, A Bear Called Paddington, Where the Wild Things Are, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, Richard Scarry books, Corduroy, and Lotta’s Bike, about a character almost as adventurous as author Astrid Lindgren’s famous Pippi Longstocking.

If it’s hot where you live, your children may love The Snowman, wordless and full of winter images, Frog in Winter, or the bundled up bear and mouse in Ernest and Celestine Have Lost Simon. Other favorites, old and new, are Angelina Ballerina, Fire-Engine Lil, Guess How Much I Love You, Olivia, and Knuffle Bunny.

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Helping Kids Who Feel Abandoned

How does a child cope when a parent disappears? Florida clinical social worker Mary Kilgore and her son Mitch, a Rochester NY school social worker, have created a gentle story that is ideal for sharing with a child who can’t understand why Mom or Dad is gone, and when—if ever—the parent might return. Where Is My Mommy? helps children work through loss and grief. It can be used by therapeutic child care programs, school and preschool counselors and social workers, in support groups and individual counseling, and by family members, guardians and foster parents and is especially helpful in situations without closure such as abandonment. $12.95, paperback. ISBN 978-1-884734-46-5.

The first children’s book about abandonment with a father and son as the central characters, Where Is My Mommy? shows the confusion and agony of a little boy whose mother has disappeared. It also shows how his father recognizes that the boy’s actions demonstrate his fear and sorrow.

“This book is for children who seldom or never see their parents,” emphasizes Mary Kilgore, who has worked extensively with day and residential programs for children. “It’s also for the adults in these children’s lives, the custodial parents, the foster and adoptive parents, the grandparents and legal guardians. It helps them address the fear of abandonment when they respond to children’s questions and behavior.”

Both Mary and Mitch Kilgore remind us that being abandoned by a parent can create a wound that never heals.

Mitch Kilgore has first-hand experience with this. Besides dealing as a single father with his own child’s anxiety, Kilgore works with middle- and high-school students who struggle with stress, anger, sadness and unresolved grief over the loss of one—and sometimes several—parent figures.

The healing process is a long one, and there are no short cuts, warns Kilgore, a school social worker in upstate New York. It is also important to recognize, and empathize with, a child’s sense of being abandoned, even when the parent did not choose to leave. Another issue is guilt. When a parent or caregiver dies or when children are separated from a parent because of incarceration, mental illness, neglect or abuse, a child will always feel to blame at some level.

Adults sometimes overlook the significance of a child’s loss and the child’s need to grieve. Most of us acknowledge death of a family member as traumatic, but the changes in daily life caused by a divorce or a parent’s chronic or terminal illness or imprisonment sometimes are more troubling to a child than adults appreciate. Similarly, when a child is moved to a foster family or group home, or moved from one such situation to another, there’s a sense of loss, even when parents were abusive or neglectful or the foster situation inappropriate. Besides the grief that’s caused by separation from parents, siblings, extended family, pets and familiar setting, a child may mourn the loss of a supportive teacher and child-care provider.

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II. FEATURES

Tips for the month

Each Saturday, Parenting Press posts a new parenting tip and the previous week’s tip is moved to the archive. The topics planned for July are:

July 3 — Empowering Kids When Things Go Wrong at Home, Part I
July 10 — Empowering Kids When Things Go Wrong at Home, Part II
July 17 — When a Parent Leaves and Doesn’t Come Back
July 24 — Summertime Fun, Part I
July 31 — Summertime Fun, Part II

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Family Fun Ideas — “On the Air”

Television is so yesterday. . .especially when it’s rerun season. And most radio talk shows aren’t focused on the topics that interest kids. The answer: create your own radio program! Yes, you can, with online radio!

Interview each other or people about your favorite sport, your neighborhood, your community service project, anything that’s not copyright-protected. And you can do for almost nothing. That’s right, with web sites like ubroadcast, you can download any necessary software, get your parents to review the paperwork with you. . .and then you’re good to go!

You can start for free. Once you’re set up, some programs (ubroadcast is one) charge if you’d like to broadcast to more than two computers or other devices. In other words, if you’d like your audience to include your neighbors or members of a club—or a very large extended family—it might cost you $10 a month to broadcast. (An expense that possibly could be defrayed with advertising, if you’re broadcasting to a group that businesses want to reach.)

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Community Service — Books for Troops

Our goal with this column is to suggest ways that you can model the concept of sharing and giving back to your community. There are practical advantages to community service, too. Kids can use these projects to meet school or youth group requirements for community service and to start building resumes that they’ll use when applying for first jobs or college.

During World War II, many Americans bought books to send overseas to soldiers.

This month, join a Phoenix bookstore’s drive to send 100,000 books to members of the armed services who are abroad.

Dog-Eared Pages Used Books is asking everyone with friends or relatives in war zones to send the soldiers’ names and addresses to the store. Be sure to mention what kind of books you think your friends would like. If you’re in the Phoenix area and have new or gently used books you’d like to donate, contact the store to ensure that these are titles that can be sent. (Do not send books to the store without approval of its staff.) Besides names (packages cannot be sent to “Any Service Member”), the owners of Dog-Eared would appreciate donations to cover postage to the Middle East.

Store owner Melanie Tighe says, “We’re donating the books, we’re packing them, we’re addressing them and enclosing a personalized letter explaining who provided the recipient’s name, we’re filling out the customs forms, and we’re standing in line at the post office.”

What the rest of us can do: e-mail our friends and encourage them to send contact information for those serving in the Middle East, add the same information to our Facebook and Twitter accounts—and sponsor a fundraiser to provide postage money for the effort. A few possibilities:
- Used book sale
- Read-a-thon
- Fund-raising meal, serving fictional characters’ favorite foods (pancakes from “Nate the Great” with Winnie the Pooh’s honey, perhaps)
For more information about the book drive, contact Dog-Eared Pages at info@DogEaredPagesUsedBooks.com, (602) 283-5423, 16428 N. 32nd Street, Suite 111, Phoenix, AZ 85032.

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III. POTPOURRI

Special of the month — Keep Kids out of Harm’s Way

This special has expired.

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Books by Topic New Books NEW! Feelings Child Guidance Problem Solving Development & Issues Temperament & Values Quick Help Kids’ Personal Safety Spanish Translations Other Resources Books by Author Books by Title Instant Help NEW! Qwik Books Qwik Sheets Special Services Book Fairs Pre-Pub Club Gift Certificates Our Catalog Parenting Resources Weekly Parenting Tips Downloadable Brochures Monthly E-Zine Parenting Quizzes Professional Resources PEP Talk Activity Plans Leader’s Guides Links About Parenting Press FAQs Mission and History What’s New NEW! Our Authors Manuscript Submissions Advisory Group Contact Us Subscribe to Newsletter	Parenting Press® Welcome to the July 2010 “News for Parents” Dear Friends of Parenting Press: Books, info sheets, teaching plans, kids’ activities: we’re always in a whirl at Parenting Press with dozens of ideas that we hope you’ll enjoy and find helpful. Many are described in this issue; others will be published in later issues (see Coming Attractions). “News for Parents” is available in two formats: by e-mail and, complete with color and photos, online. We appreciate your comments and to make it easier for you to comment on an article, you’ll see a “feedback” link after each article. Want to make sure you receive every issue? Subscribe now, and this newsletter will be in your e-mail box the beginning of every month. Got a story idea? Use any of the “feedback” links to contact us. Although “News for Parents” is created by the Parenting Press staff, your suggestions for topics are appreciated. Want to advertise in “News for Parents?” Sorry: this is an advertising-free zone! You can also contact us via Facebook and get almost daily news from us via Twitter.com/parentingpress. If you write for a newspaper or school, extension, or child care newsletter, you’re welcome to excerpt or reprint our information, as long as you credit us and send us a copy. Advance copies of selected stories from the next issue (see “Coming Attractions”) are available the last week of this month for excerpts in print publications. E-mail our media contact. Looking for a conference speaker? Check our list of authors available for speeches and interviews, and the online media kits. Each media kit has a feature story that will tell you more about an author. IN THIS ISSUE WHAT’S NEW? Dozens and Dozens of Ideas for Summer Fun, Episode 2 Critter Visits Batter Up! Duck and Cover: Tantrums While Traveling Books You’ve Gotta Read with Your Kids Helping Kids Who Feel Abandoned FEATURES Tips for the month Family fun ideas—On The Air Community service—Books for Troops POTPOURRI Special of the month—Out of Harm’s Way How to receive your complimentary subscription to this e-zine Reprinting articles in your newsletter COMING ATTRACTIONS Get Kids Ready for Kindergarten Sharpen Small Motor Skills for School Fashionista Fun: Teens, Tweens, Moms and Dolls I. WHAT’S NEW? Dozens and Dozens of Ideas for Summer Fun, Episode 2 If you’re like us at Parenting Press, some of your best memories from childhood are of unstructured summer fun: watching bugs, floating sticks down a creek, reading under a shady tree, blowing soap bubbles, picking berries and trying to make daisy chains. Some days our kids need a nudge or two from us, or a little help brainstorming, before they can create similar fun for themselves. Wherever you are, whatever your children’s ages, here are projects and games your family may like. Origami. Those sailor hats we used to make from newspaper: did you know that’s origami? Kids can make these for themselves and for their dolls and teddy bears, and they can flatten the peaks a bit and turn ‘em into boats for the wading pool or nearby pond. Paper airplanes are almost as easy, and they can be decorated with airline logos (“Andy’s Airways,” perhaps!) or windows with faces peering out. For more complicated designs like origami boxes, stop at the library or check the Internet for how-to’s. Besides special origami paper, you can repurpose colorful pages from catalogs and advertising flyers. From left, they are made of a travel brochure cover, a page from a corporate annual report, and the inside of an envelope. Gift bags. Want to pack up a special origami design or another small gift? We had such fun reusing paper for our sample bags. Home, Paper, Scissors by Patricia Zapata (Potter Craft) has a pattern you can use. Puppets. Got a crabby kid? Pull his sock off his foot and onto your hand for an instant hand puppet. If you’re struggling to get a child into bed, turn down the lights and use your fingers to create shadow puppets. In between, let the kids glue cardboard circles to Popsicle sticks and add yarn or shredded paper for hair and beards. Presto: stick puppets! Other puppet ideas: lunch-size or smaller brown paper bags, cootie-catchers modified to make mouths that open, old gloves with each finger decorated for a different character—or even your own fingers, with faces drawn with felt-tip markers. Kids old enough to handle sharp scissors can cut shapes out of felt and stitch them together or tack cloth bodies to heads made of papier mache or bread dough clay. Don’t forget garage sales and thrift stores: you’ll probably find lots of finger and hand puppets that other kids have outgrown. Courtesy of Kodak Pinhole cameras. A tightly lidded box and a sheet of photographic film—that’s almost all you need to make a pinhole camera. Pioneer camera maker Kodak offers detailed instructions. Sun prints. Or skip the camera and make prints using only paper and sunshine! You can buy kits or special sun print paper, but you don’t need it for simple images. Just put a sheet of dark construction paper (red and purple work especially well) in a spot that will get several hours of sunshine, and arrange objects on the paper. If necessary, put a piece of glass from a picture frame on the images to keep them flat (for example, if you’re using leaves or flowers). Catapult. Quick! Can you name the three kinds of catapults? (Answer: Ballista, Onager and Trebuchet.) Even the catapult built with Popsicle or craft sticks needs a little cutting, and the larger ones that can hurl tennis balls require lots of help from someone handy with tools, so this is probably a parent-child project. For blueprints and instructions, you’ll find books and online tips. If you’re a woodworker looking for a gift idea, consider creating a catapult kit for your favorite ‘tween. Ideally, you’ll assemble all the pieces and then take the catapult apart and package it with step-by-step directions and any necessary tools. (Maybe also check with the gift recipient’s parents in advance to make sure they approve!) Book safe. So often kids want special hiding places, and this is an easy one to create with a discarded book. Pick a thick one like a dictionary, and cut out the center of a hundred or more pages. New twists on traditional games. Introduce your kids to games like Simon Says, Red Rover and Ring around the Rosie and then challenge them to give the games a summer update. When it’s hot, for example, combine Simon Says with water balloons: “Simon Says take one step forward and toss!” Or, “Red Rover, Red Rover, have Carolyn toss one over!” Image playing Ring around the Rosie in a wading pool or at water’s edge—a great way to cool off. You’re all wet. Or you could be, if you help the kids organize rubber ducky races in a pond, the community wading pool or a washtub in your own back yard. Bubble up. Mix up a bubble solution, get the washtub back out, and let the kids create bubbles of all sizes with hoops, metal canning jar rings and other implements. All you’ll need for the solution is glycerin, available at a drugstore, liquid dishwashing detergent and water. Check the Internet or a library book for the “recipe.” Invisible ink. Show the kids how to keep secrets really secret by writing notes or drawing treasure maps with “ink” that disappears. Try lemon juice or vinegar on white paper. When the “ink” dries, read the message over a flashlight. Pig Latin. Rather speak in code? Children old enough to know how words are spelled can try pig Latin, which even Thomas Jefferson reportedly used! Take words that start with consonants rather than vowels and transfer the first sound to the end of the word. Then add “ay.” So “hello” becomes “ellohay” and “goodby” becomes “oodbygay.” Morse code. Or speak in dots and dashes (also known as “dits” and “dahs”). The oldest form of electronic code still in use today, Morse code can be transmitted with sounds, lights, mirrors or other visual signals. The emergency message “SOS” is one of the easiest to learn: dot, dot, dot, dash, dash, dash, dot, dot, dot. For a history of the code and how it’s been used in communications, walk the kids to the library or check the Internet. Comment on this story Top of page Critter Visits with Kids What’s more special than chicks and ducklings that look like balls of fluff and lambs that are fuzzy with wool? This time of year, each state has 4-H and county fairs and many zoos and amusement parks have petting zoos. At farmers’ markets, chickens and rabbits are often in cages between the fruit and vegetable tables, and sometimes you’ll even see demonstrations of goats being milked or sheep being shorn. Starting July 4 will be the Gibson County Fair, and starting July 5 the Floyd County Fair, both in Indiana; in Oregon, the Marion County Fair opens July 8, and the Linn County Fair July 15. If you’re in Minnesota, visit Blue Earth or Preston, where fairs both start on July 20. Meanwhile, the California State Fair kicks off July 14, and the Hawaii State Farm Fair runs July 24-25. Can you wait until Sept. 24? That’s when kids can gather eggs and milk cows at Big Tex, the State Fair of Texas. Laurie Sharp uses wool from her sheep Hazel to create the toys shown in her Wool Toys and Friends and Wool Pets. When introducing children to critters, remember these tips from Laurie Sharp, who has a small farm in northwest Washington and is the author of two books that use wool from her sheep, Wool Toys and Friends: Step-by-Step Instructions for Needle-Felting Fun and the earlier Wool Pets: Making 20 Figures with Wool Roving and a Barbed Needle. “Make sure children understand to behave calmly and quietly around animals,” she emphasizes. “And it’s very important to wash your hands after visiting or petting farm animals as they sometimes carry germs that can make people sick.” Sheep are among the animals that are easily startled by loud noise or fast movement, Sharp goes on. “They have a timid disposition, so children need to be quiet and move slowly if they want to pet a sheep.” What else should we remember, the “News for Parents” editor asked Sharp. “It’s always good to have a handful of treats,” she replied, but not vegetables. “Grain or alfalfa pellets that you can get at a feed store.” If you irritate a sheep, it won’t bite, she assures us, but it might stomp its hooves! Comment on this story Top of page Batter Up! Mix cake batter, cookie dough, scrambled eggs, smoothies and so much more with the kid-friendly instructions in the new magazine “ChopChop.” Published by the nonprofit Kid2Kid, this quarterly has no ads, just a page listing sponsors (see www.chopchopmag.com). The issue we previewed had a dozen recipes, all starting with “Wash your hands with soap and water.” Because one of the founders’ missions is to provide kids with nutrition information, you’ll also find features such as, “Two Champs Square Off: Which is better, oranges or bananas?,” “Garden in a Box,” and “For the Love of Chickens,” about a 12-year-old with a flock of 25. Besides the fun of making a mess and getting to eat something you made yourself, there are lots of reasons for kids to cook. One is that it introduces all sorts of cause and effect relationships: what will make chocolate melt? Can you make a cake without eggs? (Can you make a cake without salt?) What happens to pancakes when a griddle isn’t greased? Cooking also teaches kids about fractions, especially if a recipe must be divided or doubled. And it’s a great way for them to see the importance of following directions carefully. Comment on this story Top of page Duck and Cover: Tantrums While Traveling Looking forward to a road trip? Scheduled for a flight with the family? As much fun as we all hope traveling will be, it’s almost impossible to go anywhere without someone getting at least a little crabby. Eileen Kennedy-Moore, the author of What About Me? 12 Ways to Get Your Parents’ Attention (Without Hitting Your Sister), is a clinical psychologist and the mother of four children born within an eight-year period. She’s criss-crossed the country—and gone all the way to Australia—with her brood, and she’s got some tips for us about both avoiding problems and handling unhappy kids. Her favorite strategy: Prevention. “Traveling is hard on kids because it disrupts their routines. Being in unfamiliar places, with long days, constrained seating, strange food, and a strange bed can be exhausting and sometimes overwhelming for children, whether they are toddlers, teenagers or in between,” she points out. “This means that everyone will find the experience more enjoyable if you plan ahead to make the travel as child-friendly as possible and if you intervene quickly at the first sign of crankiness.” To prepare children for the trip, start by explaining what will happen: the security checks at airports, the waiting, the time changes. Ask them what “loveys,” small toys, books and games they’d like to take along. What else is important? Food. Because children may feel desperately hungry at odd or inconvenient times, tuck some easy-to-eat snacks in your bag. Surprises. Novelty is appealing, so bring along activities with which to surprise your children. These don’t have to be expensive, and they can be as simple as cat’s cradle, tic-tac-toe and other games. Pillows. An overtired child is a tantrum waiting to happen. A travel-style pillow can encourage a child to rest—and the squishy ones can double as a squeeze toy. Music. Having the right music can help a child feel more cheerful or relaxed. Movement. Kids simply are not capable of sitting still as long as adults can. “Take lots of breaks to let your child move around,” advises Kennedy-Moore. (This can mean pulling the car into a roadside rest area every hour or it can mean researching which airports have children’s play areas.) Travel at “kid pace.” Your goal in traveling as a family is to enjoy each other, not necessarily to see every single site. “Do shorter visits to fewer places and have a good time rather than exhaust the children and end the day with a tantrum,” Kennedy-Moore continues. Choices. The older your children, the more you can involve them in planning where you go or what you do, but even little ones can have some say. Offer two or three choices that are all acceptable to you (e.g., “Do you want to visit the monkeys or the elephants first?”). Offering too many choices too often will be overwhelming for children, but a few options can give kids a positive sense of control. What if it’s too late for prevention and your child’s tantrum has already hit? This is a parent travel nightmare! You’re probably exhausted and cranky, too, and you may also feel trapped by the circumstances and embarrassed by disapproving looks or comments from other travelers. Ignore everything except your child, advises Kennedy-Moore: that’s who counts right now. Her strategies for solving problems: Get some space. If possible, help your child out of the difficult situation. Getting outside is best, but at least move to a less crowded area such as a hallway or a bathroom. “Getting some breathing room can help your child calm down, and it also reduces how much you’re disturbing other travelers—which means you and your child no longer have an audience for the tantrum.” Allow time. While your child is emotionally flooded, he or she is physically incapable of thinking or of comprehending your reasonable suggestions. Muster compassion for how overwhelmed your child must be and stay close, listening for a downshift in the tone of the crying or yelling. That’s your signal that you can start to touch or talk to your child. Reflect feelings. “In the history of humanity, the words, ‘Calm down!’ have never soothed anyone,” reminds the psychologist. “What does help is acknowledging your child’s feelings.” By reflecting your child’s feelings, you show you understand, and you also wrap those feelings up in words, which makes them seem more manageable. You could say something like: “It’s hard to wait,” “You’re fed up with sitting,” or “You’ve had enough of being in strange places.” You may not be able to doing anything about the cause of those feelings, but just acknowledging them lightens their burden for children. Use the “foot in the door” technique. Salespeople know that if they can get customers to agree to a small thing, they are more likely to agree to a larger thing. Once the worst of the storm passes, use the same technique to help your child inch out of a tantrum. Start with a minor request that your child is very likely to agree to, such as “Here’s a tissue. Why don’t you blow your nose.” You can follow that with “How about a drink of water?”, “Let’s go sit on the bench,” and “Would you like a snack?” With each little decision, your child is regaining self-control. Soothe your child’s senses. After the climax of the tantrum, your child will feel raw. Sensory activities can be soothing. For a little one, this might mean a cuddle on your lap or listening to you sing softly. Other children might appreciate washing their faces gently, eating or drinking, chewing gum, listening to music, smelling something pleasant, looking at pictures, or getting a soft shoulder scratch. If possible, try to wait until your child’s body seems fully relaxed before returning to the difficult situation, to allow your child to recover enough to avoid a second round of a tantrum. Don’t scold. The experience was much worse for your child than it was for you. When your child seems calm, just say matter-of-factly, “Okay, let’s head back.” If you know the difficult situation won’t last much longer, you can also mention that. Comment on this story Top of page Books You’ve Gotta Read with Your Kids 1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up is the kind of book that makes you wish your children would never grow up—or at least not until you and they have enjoyed the 900-plus pages of wonderful contemporary and classic children’s books from authors and illustrators all around the world. Most of the book descriptions are illustrated with cover images, many of them fabulous art in themselves. Space in this newsletter limits how many books we can describe, so our June issue (see the archives) describes books for the youngest children, and this month we’re looking at stories for children 3 and older. Each listing includes the author and illustrator, if known, the publisher, a plot outline and a brief history of the story, or how it came to be. If you don’t have these books in your home or in your local library, you can use WorldCat to see where you might obtain the books as inter-library loans. Kate Greenaway’s Mother Goose and Marigold Garden are among the first books in the section for preschoolers, which continues with such other wonderfully illustrated books as Beatrix Potter’s tales of Peter Rabbit, Jeremy Fisher and Jemima Puddle-Duck. There’s Winnie-the-Pooh, The Story of Babar, The Story of Ferdinand, marmalade cat Orlando, and Little Toot. Then there’s Madeline, Mike Mulligan, Curious George, Eloise, Harry the Dirty Dog, The Cat in the Hat, A Bear Called Paddington, Where the Wild Things Are, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, Richard Scarry books, Corduroy, and Lotta’s Bike, about a character almost as adventurous as author Astrid Lindgren’s famous Pippi Longstocking. If it’s hot where you live, your children may love The Snowman, wordless and full of winter images, Frog in Winter, or the bundled up bear and mouse in Ernest and Celestine Have Lost Simon. Other favorites, old and new, are Angelina Ballerina, Fire-Engine Lil, Guess How Much I Love You, Olivia, and Knuffle Bunny. Comment on this story Top of page Helping Kids Who Feel Abandoned How does a child cope when a parent disappears? Florida clinical social worker Mary Kilgore and her son Mitch, a Rochester NY school social worker, have created a gentle story that is ideal for sharing with a child who can’t understand why Mom or Dad is gone, and when—if ever—the parent might return. Where Is My Mommy? helps children work through loss and grief. It can be used by therapeutic child care programs, school and preschool counselors and social workers, in support groups and individual counseling, and by family members, guardians and foster parents and is especially helpful in situations without closure such as abandonment. $12.95, paperback. ISBN 978-1-884734-46-5. The first children’s book about abandonment with a father and son as the central characters, Where Is My Mommy? shows the confusion and agony of a little boy whose mother has disappeared. It also shows how his father recognizes that the boy’s actions demonstrate his fear and sorrow. “This book is for children who seldom or never see their parents,” emphasizes Mary Kilgore, who has worked extensively with day and residential programs for children. “It’s also for the adults in these children’s lives, the custodial parents, the foster and adoptive parents, the grandparents and legal guardians. It helps them address the fear of abandonment when they respond to children’s questions and behavior.” Both Mary and Mitch Kilgore remind us that being abandoned by a parent can create a wound that never heals. Mitch Kilgore has first-hand experience with this. Besides dealing as a single father with his own child’s anxiety, Kilgore works with middle- and high-school students who struggle with stress, anger, sadness and unresolved grief over the loss of one—and sometimes several—parent figures. The healing process is a long one, and there are no short cuts, warns Kilgore, a school social worker in upstate New York. It is also important to recognize, and empathize with, a child’s sense of being abandoned, even when the parent did not choose to leave. Another issue is guilt. When a parent or caregiver dies or when children are separated from a parent because of incarceration, mental illness, neglect or abuse, a child will always feel to blame at some level. Adults sometimes overlook the significance of a child’s loss and the child’s need to grieve. Most of us acknowledge death of a family member as traumatic, but the changes in daily life caused by a divorce or a parent’s chronic or terminal illness or imprisonment sometimes are more troubling to a child than adults appreciate. Similarly, when a child is moved to a foster family or group home, or moved from one such situation to another, there’s a sense of loss, even when parents were abusive or neglectful or the foster situation inappropriate. Besides the grief that’s caused by separation from parents, siblings, extended family, pets and familiar setting, a child may mourn the loss of a supportive teacher and child-care provider. Comment on this story Top of page II. FEATURES Tips for the month Each Saturday, Parenting Press posts a new parenting tip and the previous week’s tip is moved to the archive. The topics planned for July are: July 3 — Empowering Kids When Things Go Wrong at Home, Part I July 10 — Empowering Kids When Things Go Wrong at Home, Part II July 17 — When a Parent Leaves and Doesn’t Come Back July 24 — Summertime Fun, Part I July 31 — Summertime Fun, Part II Top of page Family Fun Ideas — “On the Air” Television is so yesterday. . .especially when it’s rerun season. And most radio talk shows aren’t focused on the topics that interest kids. The answer: create your own radio program! Yes, you can, with online radio! Interview each other or people about your favorite sport, your neighborhood, your community service project, anything that’s not copyright-protected. And you can do for almost nothing. That’s right, with web sites like ubroadcast, you can download any necessary software, get your parents to review the paperwork with you. . .and then you’re good to go! You can start for free. Once you’re set up, some programs (ubroadcast is one) charge if you’d like to broadcast to more than two computers or other devices. In other words, if you’d like your audience to include your neighbors or members of a club—or a very large extended family—it might cost you $10 a month to broadcast. (An expense that possibly could be defrayed with advertising, if you’re broadcasting to a group that businesses want to reach.) Comment on this story Top of page Community Service — Books for Troops Our goal with this column is to suggest ways that you can model the concept of sharing and giving back to your community. There are practical advantages to community service, too. Kids can use these projects to meet school or youth group requirements for community service and to start building resumes that they’ll use when applying for first jobs or college. During World War II, many Americans bought books to send overseas to soldiers. This month, join a Phoenix bookstore’s drive to send 100,000 books to members of the armed services who are abroad. Dog-Eared Pages Used Books is asking everyone with friends or relatives in war zones to send the soldiers’ names and addresses to the store. Be sure to mention what kind of books you think your friends would like. If you’re in the Phoenix area and have new or gently used books you’d like to donate, contact the store to ensure that these are titles that can be sent. (Do not send books to the store without approval of its staff.) Besides names (packages cannot be sent to “Any Service Member”), the owners of Dog-Eared would appreciate donations to cover postage to the Middle East. Store owner Melanie Tighe says, “We’re donating the books, we’re packing them, we’re addressing them and enclosing a personalized letter explaining who provided the recipient’s name, we’re filling out the customs forms, and we’re standing in line at the post office.” What the rest of us can do: e-mail our friends and encourage them to send contact information for those serving in the Middle East, add the same information to our Facebook and Twitter accounts—and sponsor a fundraiser to provide postage money for the effort. A few possibilities: Used book sale Read-a-thon Fund-raising meal, serving fictional characters’ favorite foods (pancakes from “Nate the Great” with Winnie the Pooh’s honey, perhaps) For more information about the book drive, contact Dog-Eared Pages at info@DogEaredPagesUsedBooks.com, (602) 283-5423, 16428 N. 32nd Street, Suite 111, Phoenix, AZ 85032. Comment on this story Top of page III. POTPOURRI Special of the month — Keep Kids out of Harm’s Way This special has expired. Top of page Subscriptions to this e-zine We hope you have enjoyed PARENTING PRESS NEWS FOR PARENTS. Subscribing: If you received this newsletter as a forward from a friend or colleague, you can have it delivered by signing up for an e-mail subscription (there’s no cost). If you received the e-mail edition from Parenting Press, you are already subscribed. If you enjoyed the newsletter, don’t hesitate to tell your friends. If they wish to continue receiving the newsletter, they will need to subscribe. If you are a parent educator, feel free to tell your colleagues, students, or friends who might be interested. Thank you! Top of page Reprinting e-zine articles in your newsletter. If you publish a school, preschool, day care or parenting newsletter, you are welcome to reprint articles from this e-zine. 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