Why Pets are good for Kids

Pets are good for kids. Kids learn to care for other creatures and through this understand sharing and caring. It's a great way to understand that we share this world with creatures of all kinds. Many families which cannot have a pet frequently get a virtual pet.

Kids and Pets 021 by Paul L. McCord Jr.

While virtual pet games like Neopets allow you to nurture creatures of our imagination and play with them, sites like Furry Paws allow you to raise your own dog by choosing the breed and the genetics. Both games allow feeding the pets and playing with them. In fact Neopets even allows a pet to have a pet pet!

Advantages of having a pet:

Learning Responsibility
Looking after pets, feeding them regularly and making sure they are happy is a big responsibility. But if a pet joins a child at a young age, the child could start with playing with the pet and slowly over time it could include walking and grooming them. Social interaction is generally the first things that comes into play. Looking after another creature as per a schedule, makes kids become responsible. This should be encouraged. Kids enjoy nurturing.

Learning Capability
Parents have the tendency to baby their kids, with the result that kids grow up not knowing their capability. While caring for a pet, kids and the parents realize the capability of the child(kids under 10 find it difficult to care for a dog on their own). Many a time parents assume that kids cannot discipline pets. Kids can get pets to be well behaved. They just might take more time or effort, but they do get around to it.

Learning to Connect with Nature
When kids grow up around pets they understand that pets and humans have a lot in common. Their involvement with Nature increases. Respect for other creatures great and small increases. As the overlap in our lives with the lives of animals increases, kids also understand how everything in nature is connected. In a way a doorway to Nature is opened up via a pet.

Kids can benefit a lot by having a pet. If there are constraints of space or other medical reasons, a virtual pet is a great alternative.  In fact here are 3 sites with great virtual pet games. If you have a wee bit of patience, you just might be able to pet your virtual pet with Virtual Reality in the near future. Until then, enjoy the real thing!

Eggs + Lights = Eggciting Lights!

Easter has a strong association with Eggs. Traditionally eggs were gifted to symbolize life. Kids got decorated wooden eggs gifts. Over time things have changed, but the association of eggs with Easter has remained strong. Interestingly on the White House lawns, the President has traditionally had families with children over for some fun egg rolling.

world egg by Javier Vieras

After all the Christmas fun, this is a a time when family gathers and shares memories. It is also a time when families and schools try out a variety of egg crafts. Kids learn egg blowing in homes where they try out crafts with actual eggs. It's a good time for Easter trivia. In many other homes, plastic eggs are used for craft. The former is a fun though messy pre step to crafting.

One of the most interesting egg craft ideas revolves around light. Here are the details:

1. You need about 10 hollow egg shells.
2. A string of fairy lights
3. Tape or a glue gun

Gently insert a fairy light into each egg shell. Tape the mouth neatly shut or use the glue gun to seal. Well, that's it. Hang it up and enjoy the lights.

Happy Easter!

Activities to Keep a Sick Child Occupied

It kid of gets dull around the house when a child falls ill. The schedule which is built around the child changes. Regular childish babble disappears and the house is abnormally quiet. Crankiness and tiredness are common in sick kids, and it tests our patience.

Don't Want to be Sick by Korean Resource Center

Here are 18 activities to keep an unwell child busy:

1. Make easy and simple Valentine's Day Gifts.

2. Play virtual pet games to give the child a feeling of happiness and comfort. Feeding and playing with a pet is kind of calming.

3. Pull out old images and recall happy memories. Talk of times when the child had a good time. Not only doe it take the child's mind of the sickness, it also helps solidify the memories.

4. Get the child to speak to a grandparent he or she loves a lot. Talking to an older much loved relative can make a child very happy. 

5. Play simple games the child enjoys and understands well. That way the child does not have to tax her brain. Count cars or play an 'I spy' game. 

6. If your window overlooks a park or a road, sit and watch the outside world along with the child. 

7. Start an art project the child would enjoy. 

8. Introduce the child to instruments and their music. 

9. Makeup a game of your own and play it. 

10. Try some homemade puzzles.

11. Build a land of your own and decorate it. 

12. Get a whole bunch of empty cardboard boxes and have some fun. 

13. Watch animals on TV. Then try and imitate them - walk or make sounds like them. Its a great way to 'talk nature' with kids. 

14. Go fishing!

15. Get the books out. It's a great time to catch up on some reading.

16. Try out a recipe where your kid can help you with. Make sure its not a strenuous activity. 

17. Build a tale. Alternately add a line to the story you build as you go. See how long you can sustain it. 

18. Talk about numbers. What they represent and how they look. Things you know which are in a certain number. Like 5 fingers and 2 hands. Make it fun. Try to count the hair n each other's head. 

In the duration a child takes to recover, she might go through a variety of moods. It's for us to gauge what might entertain the child in question. Picking one of these activities is sure to keep an unwell child busy for a long time. 

Resolutions in the New Year

Well the New Year has rolled in and some of us have gotten back into our routines. Every New Year, we make resolutions, and for the next month or so, we try hard to keep them. As the year rolls on, we get lax and the resolutions are forgotten.

Apple Bonanza by Mads Boedker

This year I decided to help kids with healthy New Year resolutions, that they could keep. What's the point of helping them with resolutions, if we don't help them in keep them. Just nagging them about their resolutions is pointless. It leaves the child feeling negative about trying to bring change via resolutions and it will only make them them give up easily on their resolutions. So, I decided to help them keep it. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Writing out lists

Encourage kids to write out their resolution. Pick a place they see regularly at home, and put it up there. If the kids are too young to read, get them to draw or put up a picture which will remind them. E.g.: If the resolution is to eat more vegetables, get them to draw something which will encourage them to eat more vegetables. Perhaps smiling vegetables or a funny cartoon.

2. Specific reminders

If a kid is trying to change something specific associated with a habit he or she is trying to break, encourage them to put up a reminder to do so at that specific place. E.g. If a child is trying to spend less time on say dragon games, they could put up a reminder near the device/computer. This helps in reduced reminders from the parent and helps the child build good habits.

3. Making things easy

LEGOs by davitydave

Many of the resolutions most of us make are for better habits. Children are encouraged to do the same. E.g. They might put down 'Clearing toys after play'. In such instances grownups can help by encouraging kids to put the toys into a large carton or plastic tub, if the kids are unhappy about putting things back into a cupboard. This way it's easy enough for the kids to stick to their resolution and the toys get cleared.

4. Non-nagging reminders

As grownups it's our job to help kids in their growing up. This includes what I call a timely reminder service. We do need to remind kids to stick to their resolutions, but we must avoid becoming nags (for the greater good!).

If at any juncture, we feel a resolution is too hard for the child to keep or that the child is simply too young, encourage the child to scratch it off the list. Perhaps they could add it as a resolution in the future when they are ready for it.

Christmas Fun!

Kids are excited about Christmas. Especially when they are young. They love the run up, the excitement, the planning, creating lists and all else that is associated with it. It's also a good time for family to bond, be it over games, food, cooking, travelling or just spending quality time together.

Christmas-postcards-348 by artvintage1800s.etsy.com

This excitement for Christmas is a great tool to play some fun games. Here are 2 simple games based on Christmas:

1. Making Giveaway Bags

Make giveaway bags with the help of your kids. Give each child empty bags and the goodies they need to pack in. Ask them to ready it all and then start the timer. Whoever finishes packing all bags with every item correctly in the shortest time is the winner.

2. The Blindfold Game

Load a bag with pairs of things, be it candy or small toys. Make sure none of these things can cause harm. By turn, blindfold a child and start a timer. Give each child a minute or two (this is dependent upon the age of the children) and see how many pairs of things they can fish out. The winner is one who pulls out the the most pairs within the given time.

The tricks to games is keeping it simple and fun. Simpler the rules, easier it is for kids to slide into these games. 

Three things to do this Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a harvest festival. The earliest recorded religious Thanksgiving Day in Plymouth is from 1623. When the rains came after a two month drought, the colonists gave thanks. Initially it was celebrated along with the Native Americans. The celebration included merry making, drinking and included local produce of deer, corn, roasted meat and shellfish. Yes, nothing to do with turkey and pudding, which is standard fair nowadays. In fact most of our celebratory food was not even available in the 1600s!

Happy Thanksgiving by liz west

Over time, in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared two national Thanksgivings. Yes two. One was in August to remember the battle of Gettysburg and the second was in November to give thanks for 'general blessings'.

Today it is a weekend over which families gather, eat, celebrate and bond. Here are three things for families to do together this year:

1. Feast
Yes, a great time to gather and feast together. Seasonal produce like squash and sweet potato are a must. Vegetarian get a tofu turkey, while others get a turkey and use their own recipes to cook it or it could be a store prepared one. Everyone pitches in to cook a part of the meal.

2. Play
Yes, families can gather and play games - board games, outdoorsy games or perhaps some scavenger games, to make it big, noisy and fun. Nothing can be better than playing together for families to come together.

3. Explore
This is a great time to explore your city. Walk, drive or take the bus. Make it multi-generational. Get the older members to show you places you did not know about. Great way to bond with grandparents. Explore parks. Make sure you bundle up. The good time must not lead to unwell times.

Food is essential to human survival. Even after all these years, it feels perfectly natural to give thanks to the bounty that nature gifts us. Tell us how you plan to celebrate this Thanksgiving.

In the Halloween Spirit

Halloween has gone by, but the kids are still having some Halloween Fun. There's candy to eat, images to see and apps to play on. All these years, Halloween meant trick or treating, dressing up and scaring people. Now with the onset of online games, Halloween has it's own set of apps!

Who dressed YOU? by Juhan Sonin

Traditional Fun

Interestingly much of the traditional fun revolved around agriculture, primarily because that was the predominant occupation. Young people pulled out cabbage from the field believing that the shape and taste of the stalk would give a clue about what and how their loved one would be!

Many looked into mirrors and asked the devil to show them the face of their future spouse. Trick or treating was called 'souling'. Kids went from home to home saying prayers for the souls of dead people. In return they got a soul cake, which brought them good luck and the soul, freedom from hell. 

Modern Day Fun

We always find this a good time of the year to brush up on our Halloween facts, play a few games and enjoy colorful Halloween food. Kids (and some adults too) dress up in their gory best to go trick or treating. Older family members pull out old photo albums to see old images of their kids in costumes. Some get into the decorate mode, and we end up with spider webs and skeletons floating around the house. Discussions of the costumes they had stitched or borrowed for their young are aired. It's a time when family gathers, eats and makes merry. Children hoard and hide their candy. Some make deals to exchange their surplus too!

Halloween Apps

As most festivals go, Halloween too has changed over the decades. From a strong Christian festival, it morphed into one where religion took a back seat. Today the morph continues. Kids and adults enjoy Halloween apps and digital games!

Some of the interesting Halloween apps include:

Wonster Words - This helps younger children learn their spelling in a fun way.

Ghost Lens(this one's real fun) - Add ghosts to your images and edit videos to make them look eerie.

Five Nights at Freddy's - Protect yourself through the night with just a flashlight. 

Skullduggery - This one is for those who like skulls and the afterlife. 

Weather it's an app, candy or seriously finding answers about one's beloved, Halloween is all about having fun with family and friends. Tell us how your Halloween was.