Need some quality family time? Unless you have a house of game-night fanatics, try making a homemade toy with your child. From colorful playtime dough to musical instruments and bouncy balls, these 10 fun toy ideas are easy to make with your kids, plus they can provide hours of entertainment. Click through to find your kid's next favorite toy!
A 16-year-old girl's life has been saved, thanks to the online detective work of
Rosas is no stranger to the blogosphere, as she frequents Tumblr, a social networking site. On May 6, she saw a posting on a teen blog discussing suicide. Rosas told USA Today she had previously followed the teen's depression on the girl's blog, so she knew the suicide threat was serious.
Would you let your child poop in the potty in a restaurant?
That's just what one Manhattan woman did at an outdoor restaurant, allowing the boy to do "No. 2" right next to the table while others were dining nearby, Today reports.
Even if you needed to keep your child on a strict schedule, Today show hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb suggest moms choose less offensive options, like taking the potty to the bathroom and having the child use it there.
After all, Gifford says, "Children on a potty are adorable, but . . . "
"Not what happens after, which is the wiping portion," Kotb concludes.
We know the dangers of huffing and smoking, but who knew that our kids' safety could be in danger from a simple spice in the cupboard? Kids are actually dying from taking the "Cinnamon Challenge." What is it, why is it so dangerous, and what are moms doing to address it? Keep reading.
Having a baby is the most emotionally charged time of our lives. Within hours, minutes sometimes, we can swing from elation to despair and back again. The first days, weeks, and months after having a baby, our body (not to mention our life) goes through so many changes, it is no wonder we may experience massive highs and lows.
So how can we tell what are normal, natural responses to an incredibly emotional time? And what are in fact warning signs of something more sinister? Postnatal depression is discussed a little more than it used to be, but the subject of postnatal anxiety is hardly ever spoken about.
Having suffered with anxiety myself, and running a 40,000-strong online community for mental health, I have come into contact with literally thousands of anxiety sufferers. So here I have put together a checklist of what are regular emotions for new parents, and what are likely warning signs you should contemplate seeking help.
Some kids collect rocks or marbles. Ten-year-old Archer and his 6-year-old brother, Ansel, collect napkins . . . their mom's, that is.
Every day since Archer was in nursery school, Nina Levy has created colorful napkin illustrations and packed them with her sons' lunches to remind them that she loves them and is mindful of what they're doing each day, reports the Huffington Post.
"The act of drawing something for them every evening reminds me to pay attention to what they are thinking about, even if it is the 15th rendition of Batman," she says.
The creative napkins became such a hit that Archer and Ansel slowly began bringing more and more of them home at the end of the day. And after garnering even the New York Times' attention, Levy has begun collating the art into a series, "24 hours of dysfunctional parenting," that tells the story of a day in the life of her family.
With such works of art, the boys might give up a tuna sandwich or even a cookie from their school lunches, but it's unlikely that they'll trade away their napkins.
A 7-year-old's suggestion for gun control recently received a surprising response after it was brought to the attention of Vice President Joe Biden.
Wisconsin second-grader Myles wrote a letter to the vice president a few months ago suggesting that guns shoot chocolate bullets to help make the nation safer, according to the Associated Press, via the Huffington Post. If his idea could be implemented, no one would get hurt, he explained.
To the boy's surprise, Biden agreed. He recently sent a handwritten note, agreeing that, "If we had guns that shot chocolate, not only would our country be safer, it would be happier."
Perhaps a chocoholic himself, Biden added: "People love chocolate."
It can be tough to keep toys from accumulating in homes with kids, and keeping them organized is even harder! To help you keep the mess at bay, we've rounded up 15 smart ideas, from a clever stuffed animal "zoo" to a perfect storage solution for Legos!
Do you think yelling and being firm are the same thing? Many parents do. They believe in order to be firm, you have to yell. I believe yelling is yelling, and that firmness is authority in action and requires no yelling.
Ask yourself this: do you think there's a connection between the intensity of a parent's voice and how much learning a child is able to accomplish? I think there is. I believe less learning occurs when parents yell at their children.
There are others who agree with me. Nikki S remembers her childhood, "I was yelled at constantly as a kid and to this day I hate yelling, if someone yells at me it makes me want to hide."
A New Hampshire teen surprised fellow competitors and judges when she took home the top prize in a Boston computer-programming contest. The mostly male field of 80 competitors included professionals from ESPN and Klout, yet the Associated Press reports that Jenny Lamere was the only person to complete a project. Her winning idea: Twivo, or TiVo for Twitter, which allows you to block tweets using key words, in case you don't want tweets to spoil the ending of a show you haven't yet viewed.
Lamere says she got into computer programming thanks to her dad, a tech company developer, who would routinely share "intriguing" stories about projects he was working on. With women representing only 12 percent of the US workforce with computer science degrees, Lamere's win is a source of inspiration.
How can you, too, spark your daughters' interest in male-dominated careers?
