Bring Back The Fire In Your Family By Cooking Together

By Rachel Yoshida

Most families in this day in age don't really know each other. Sure, your kids may call you mom and dad, but what else? In most families, both parents have to work just to make ends meet to put food on their tables, clothes on their bodies, and to pay for your heat and lights. In older times, you heated with wood and used candles you made for light. Also, in these times the wife stayed home and raised the kids. To get to work you rode a horse or a donkey. You planted your own vegetables and raised your own chickens and cows.

Now, in our modern days, these kinds of things are not heard of. Most upper class people, mainly children, have never seen a chicken or know where an egg comes from. If you were to ask them where an egg came from, most of the time they will tell you that an egg comes from a grocery store. Sometimes these same children can't tell the difference between a cow and a bull or a horse and a mule.

We need to get the fire back in family. Set a time when the family can just get together and read. Or, as they get older, set aside one night a week for everyone to be together when they can help with dinner. Have them pick out what to have for dinner.

This is to be a fun and safe time, so start out easy. This would be called "fun food" or "fun night". Keep it simple so that the kids don't get tired of this idea, and let them think it was all their idea. Each one can pick out an item and then let him or her make it. You might want to help them if they are too little.

They should also be told that they will be helping to clean up afterwards. Bring out the cookbooks, pens, and paper. Let them give you a list ahead of time so you can get these items from the grocery store. The ideas will be endless, and the kids will also learn to cook. This will help them when they move out on their own. It will make them move from being a simple or normal kid to someone that really enjoys and loves to cook.

Parents, you really need to learn to influence these young minds. Everybody can really have fun. To keep the fire on throughout the evening, watch a special movie that the whole family can watch after dinner. Lift their bedtime schedule, and just let them stay up as late as they want. Let them sleep in the living room or den, if that is where the television is. Remember that this is to help bring fire back into the family unit.

Rachel Yoshida is a writer of many topics, visit some of her sites, like
Water Damage and Flood Damage Cleanup.

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Free Cooking Games For Kids

By Kenny Vanderburen

On the Internet there are many many free cooking games for kids, but are they as fun as the real thing? It doesn't matter if you have children that are fussy eaters or if your children will eat just about anything that is in front of them, cooking is something most children like. That is why there are so many free cooking games for kids online. You can put your child in front of the computer and let them play a free cooking games for kids, or you can take some time and truly start cooking for and with your kids. It is the perfect way to combine your love for food and your love for your children.

In the free cooking games for kids, there are games where they are shown how to cook breakfast, they need to stir the eggs and so on. Cooking with kids in real life can be done whether it is for the morning meal, the evening meal, or for those many snacks in between. You can use the free cooking games for kids as an excellent way to get the kids involved in real cooking as well so this can be used as a valuable teaching time for you and your little ones.

When children get themselves involved in the free cooking games for kids, they are more likely to help you cook and they will eat what was made more quickly. This can be very beneficial for those who have children who are difficult eaters. Starting with free games to take on cooking for kids is also an excellent way to get in ingredients that you would normally wont get them to eat, you can dress up the ingredient as something fun and exciting. Many parents find cooking for kids an excellent way to get nutrients into their children, and the free cooking games for kids can help them with that.

Where do you find these free cooking games for kids?

First you find a recipe that you would like to make for your kids and then you go find the cooking game on the internet, 99% they are free, pick one out yourself, that is related to what you are going to cook in real life, there are so many that it should be easy to do.

About the recipes

There are probably millions of recipes to choose from because parents and daycare workers have posted their recipes and ideas on the Internet so you can start cooking for kids.

The free cooking games for kids, are often in some kind of Asian language (Japanese), but that is really no problem, most of the games are so intuitive and simple to understand that your children wont even notice that they are in Japanese. And when they are done playing you have already set up the same cooking tools or ingredients in the kitchen so they can play the same game in real life.

Teaching your children cooking with the help of free games can be fun. And in the end your children will learn that repeating the game in the kitchen together with you is double the fun. So start cooking with your kids today.

Kenny Vanderburen is the main blogger at www.kitchencookings.com. The kitchen might as well be his living room, that's how much time he spends there.

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Exciting Fun for Family Picnic

By Mitch Johnson

Does your family enjoy a picnic? Is there any better way to enjoy the balmy air and bright sunshine than to get the family, and perhaps some congenial friends, together in some pleasant spot out of doors, lay aside your dignity, along with your town clothes and join the children in a real frolic with some good things to eat thrown in?

The lunch need not be an elaborate one because the enchantment of the outdoors makes the simplest food delicious. Roasted potatoes, sweet corn roasted in the husks, and steaks grilled over the open fire never fail to please, or if you are not the boy-or-girl-scout type, and do not enjoy outdoor cooking, the food can all be prepared at home. Good old potato salad with deviled eggs, hearty sandwiches and fruit are always easy to serve.

A true and tried way to prevent too many fist fights and too many ducklings in the creek by the younger members of the crowd is to keep them busy with games planned ahead of time. On the way to the picnic ground usually excitement prevails. To calm the younger members of the family and to ease that sense of tenseness, we divide our carload into two teams. One team watches the right-hand side of the road and the other the left. The teams count cows, winning one point for every cow seen except for the white ones which count five points.

This keeps the children busy, and busy children are not restless. To add spice to the game for the older youngsters we have a ruling that whenever a member of one team sees a white horse on the opponent side of the road, it cancels all the opponent's points, and that side must start over again. Usually a total of 100 or 150 points is agreed upon as game.

If our chosen picnic spot is so secluded that we must hike through the woods to reach it, we play the game by giving one point for every tree of a certain variety seen and five points for something special. For instance, in our locality we award one point for every spruce spotted, and five points for every white birch. This is a most fascinating game and incidentally teaches the children to be observing.

Right after our picnic lunch we try to have a game that is not too active and still exciting enough to interest even the most energetic. "Air, Water, and Fire", is quite a favorite with us. Many times we have played it as a car game while motoring through the country.

Here, at the picnic spot, all but one of the entire groups sits in a circle. The extra player stands inside the circle and throws a small ball or knotted handkerchief at someone and at the same time calls out one of the three words, "Air, Water, or Fire," and then quickly counts to ten.

Children are fond of picnic. They love going out and playing with their Mom and Dad. So, it is important to get everything prepared before going out to picnic.

Mitch Johnson is a regular writer for http://www.celebrex-n-vioxx-alternatives.com/ , http://www.coinsmadeeasy.info/ , http://www.goodbudgetholiday.info/

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The Sweet Summer Treat That Banishes the Bulge

By Chris McCombs

This is my favorite time of the year. The summer fruits start hitting the supermarkets and produce stands. Every cooking magazine is chocked full of simple and delicious recipes with fruit as the main ingredient. Fruit is a powerful food when it comes to health, happiness and weight loss.

Truth be told, you don't really have to do much to summer fruits to make them taste amazing, you just merely wait until they're ripe and dive right in.

When I was a kid, my mom used to buy a big basket of strawberries and cut them up, put them in a bowl, and sprinkle sugar on top. She would put them in the fridge and wait a few hours until they mixed with the sugar to make a syrupy sweet mess at the bottom of that bowl. I used to love that. But these days, I don't want to ruin berries, or any fruit for that matter, with silly sugar. Let the delicious summer fruits subtly seduce you on their own. Taste the sweetness only nature can produce.

Luckily, new trends in weight loss are now showing that perhaps we don't need to steer clear of the calories in fruit, but instead load up on mostly fruits that contain more water in a larger package. Watermelon is the perfect example. It is a huge fruit, can take up a lot of room on your picnic plate, tastes amazing and is mostly water.

Which means, you can eat a bunch of watermelon, feel full and eat fewer of the high calorie foods you would have eaten instead (i.e. evil culprits like mayonnaise-laden potato salad or an extra hot dog). This little trick can help you fell fuller longer and might even eliminate those cravings for the brownies or ice-cream that can be typically served at summer get-togethers.

Other great fruits to consider are raspberries, grapefruit, melons, peaches, and pineapple (and to me these are the all-stars). These fruits are full of a soluble fiber called pectin (which is also sometimes contained in fruit-like gummy candies and jelly beans) which can cling to fats in the digestive tract and flush them out before they can be absorbed by the body. Don't go crazy though, this is merely meant as an aid in slimming down, not an excuse to eat more.

Another great tip and one that is dear to the green movement, is to try to buy and eat local produce whenever possible. It supports your own community, and because it doesn't need to travel as far, it doesn't require as much gas to be consumed and in turn can even be slightly less expensive these days. In addition, because it travels a shorter distance to the consumer can actually be picked and sold when it is ripe. Vine-ripened fruit is shown to contain twice as much of something than that of green-picked fruit- super-oxidants known as nonfluorescent chlorophyll catabolites (boy is that a mouthful!). These fabulous NCCs (can we call them that?) assist the liver's ability to burn fat. Hoorah!

It does make sense that the longer something is in the soil and absorbing the sun, the more nutrients it contains...

I have to say, this is the some of the best news I have heard all week. So go out and buy some ripe and local sweet fruit and have a fun weekend. You may just be a delicious baby-step leaner.

Owner of Positively Fit Personal Training, Chris McCombs runs a program called Personal Trainer Long Beach that specializes in helping people lose fat fast. To discover more about this program go to http://www.socalworkout.com/

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Summer Learning: 8 Fun Ways to Keep Your Kids Learning All Summer Long

By Jamie Jefferson

Most kids look forward to three months of nothing but fun and games, but, as a parent, you know that learning should take place year round.

And while it can be hard to get your child's attention among all the swimming pools, video games and television shows that they'd rather be spending their time on, it's important that you keep the learning going (at least at some level) during the summertime. That way, when they return to school in the fall, they'll be enriched and ready to learn.

Here are eight fun ways to keep your kids learning all summer long, including some educational websites your kids will love.

1. Start your summer learning adventure by heading to your local library. Most libraries offer reading programs each summer that challenge your child to read. They may have flyers to help your child stay on track and reading suggestions divided by age group. Taking a weekly trip to the local library will be a great family activity to look forward to each week.

2. Instead of letting your child sit in front of video games all summer long, why not make the process educational? There are many educational computer games and games for video game systems that allow your child to have fun and can help them keep up to date with their basic skills at the same time. Keep in mind though that too many computer games, educational or not, will reduce your child's activity level, so make sure to use the video games in moderation.

3. Check out some free learning websites for kids. Three to try: Funbrain.com, math.com and abcteach.com (which has printable worksheets). If your kids prefer online communities, try Webkinz.com, which requires the purchase of a webkinz toy; ClubPenguin.com, which is geared for 6 to 14 year olds and is free to play but also has activities that required a paid membership; and WhyVille.net, a free online community for pre-teen and teen boys and girls.

4. Summer is a perfect time to discover, or re-discover, the unique learning opportunities in your neighborhood. If you haven't been to the local museum or other historic location within driving distance of your home, now is the time to do it. Make sure to talk about the history, science or other subject you'll be learning about so your kids can get the most out of the experience. Big metropolitan museums, zoos or landmarks are also great destinations during the summer. Even though gas is expensive, a road trip every now and then may be just what the teacher ordered.

5. Allow each of your children to choose a comprehensive workbook that they can work on a bit each day. Some workbooks cover math, reading, social studies and science. You might want to work out an incentive program to make sure they get their worksheets done each day. For example, each worksheet equals one ticket. Once they reach five tickets, everyone is rewarded with a few hours at the pool or a run through the sprinklers.

6. Play some educational, age-appropriate games, such as Scrabble, Boggle or chess. Purchase some family favorites in travel editions so the kids can play them on car rides and on vacation.

7. Learning during summer vacation can also take a more formal role in your child's life. If there was a subject your kids struggled with during the school year, now is the time to get tutoring or enroll them in a program to help them catch up. Make the experience fun by balancing their study time with some good old-fashioned family fun.

8. Vacation is the perfect time for sharing non-traditional lessons with your child that expose them to concepts they won't find in regular school. If they learned about plants this year in school, help them plant their own garden so they can see the concepts in action. Reinforce their knowledge of fractions and measurements by having daily or weekly cooking lessons with you in your kitchen. Many schools have had to cut back on arts and music, so summer gives you the perfect opportunity to let your child's creative side flourish.

If you tried to pack all of these ideas into one summer, you'd have a tired kid on your hands! Pick a few to try and keep the learning going throughout summer. By making learning fun, your child won't realize they are learning at all.

Jamie Jefferson writes for Momscape.com and Susies-Coupons.com, where she shares book warehouse coupons and Limited Too coupons.

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Summer Sponges: Minds of Children Soak Up Knowledge

By Beth Butler

The time is upon us parents, teachers and care givers. We have the charming challenge of keeping the troops happy. Most of us know that there is a probable decline in cognitive development in our children during the summers if in traditional school settings. In fact, the latest report from a professor of Duke University states that most children lose approximately one month worth of learning over the summer time - many losing math and reading skills.

What is a parent to do? Our vision of a perfect summer for our kids involves hopes of making great family memories with those all-family vacations, relaxation combined with rejuvenation for both children and parents not to mention the fending off of the ever-famous daily statements of boredom and inability to find one thing to do.

What is a child to do? Their vision of a perfect summer for themselves involves hopes of sleeping in, having fun and only fun not to mention the fending off of any learning-related task, activity, book or program.

I play both sides of the fence when it comes to summer. Having spent more than ten years in the classroom I truly relished the countdown to summer. I loved my students, but I loved my summers free just as equally. Having been a mother for more than seventeen years I truly relish the countdown to the end of summer! I love my children, but I love the regular routine and schedule that the school year provides our family.

The following tidbits come from both sides of the fence and combine to create some sizzling moments for those little sponge-like brains to soak up the knowledge and keep their brains active during the dog days of summer.

*Read! Read! Read! Oh I know! You are busy - you do not even have time to read the business section of the newspaper each morning much less plunk down on the floor with Junior for 5 and read a cool book to him that has been sitting in his room since the Holidays - unread! Come on! You are the best teacher for your child. You are the best role model for your child. You know your child loves, loves, loves the time you spend focusing on just him! And for the older children (elementary school age) - they are probably into chapter books, and the selections these days are terrific! I have never been so into the reading selections of my child as I have been this past year. And then there are the teens! Find books about what they love right now. (For us that is billiards, basketball and World Series of Poker.) Your local library can provide you with a multitude of books from which to choose for all ages of children.

*Problem Solvers of America stand up and be recognized! Yes! Your children need your creative genius to kick in and keep the math mind active during the summer months. You can do this. At restaurants use the menu as a math mini lesson, ask them to estimate what the total bill would be, have them calculate the tip based on 15% and then 20%, check your time of placing the order and have the kids time the food preparation. You get my drift! Use your car time for math problems - mental math is something our generation of children is losing thanks to cell phone calculators, math/science calculators and more. Once you are back in the house use your cooking time for fractions, measurements and time lessons (SSSSHHH! Do not mention the word lesson please!) If you give out allowance get the kids involved in totaling the value of their contributions around the home and their designations for the money.

*Mindless Couch Potatoes Beware! You are the parent! You need to limit the TV time, the computer time, the Nintendo DS, Game Cube, Game Boy, Game Player, Game Watcher, Game Gobble-Your-Child-Mind-Machine now, today, ahora, pronto! It is so hard. I am no saint, no poster mom for this one, but I do know how important it is. We all read the studies, and we hear the reports on the negative effects of multi-media entertainment on children (whether attributed to the violent nature, the amount of time involved, the over stimulation, the constant barrage of media hype). We all know it is in the best interest of our children to monitor what is going into their brains via these devices. So try to get your children balanced in their outdoor time, reading time, quiet/down time, family time and life in general.
Make the summers work for you and, more importantly, for your child!

Turn your vacations into a classroom without the kids knowing it by sneaking in the local museum or park or zoo for a few hours. Use that portable DVD player for some edutaining DVDs (local libraries are great places for rentals). Travel to a spot none of you have been and so some great research together incorporating map skills, science skills for the weather/climate of the destination and language skills by learning new languages specific to that area.

Beth Butler is the creator of the BOCA BETH Language Learning Series for young children. Find out how fun and easy it can be to introduce Spanish to your child. Sample the BOCA BETH bilingual music and movies for free at http://www.bocabeth.com
Call toll free 1.877.825.2622

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