Wednesday Words on Giving

"Give and it will be given to you. A good measure...will be poured into your lap."


Luke 6:38

No, you might not get back as many Halloween goodies as you give out, but there's definite merit to those Gospel words. What I often need to remind myself of is that you aren't always going to receive from the same person to whom you gave. Give your time, give your money, give your talent, give your love...whatever you can afford, put it out there. And you will receive.

Gifts For Girls: My Kids' Best-Loved Toys

Let me begin by saying this post is not sponsored in any way, shape or form. The goodies I'm going to mention were gifts for our girls, either purchased by us or family members (or perhaps created in Santa's workshop). What they all have in common: their incredible value, in terms of time the girls have spent enjoying them.

With holiday season approaching, there are lots of great gift ideas out there, and while some may seem perfect at first glance, they just don't pan out. Maybe they're impractical, or breakable, require too many batteries, or just seem like a better idea to the adults than the kids. (Or appear much more fun in the commercial than in real life!)

My daughters are now 4 and 6, and while every little girl is of course different, I can share my experience and tell you what items they have actually loved: they were thrilled to receive them and have played with them more than enough to get our money's worth.

Play Kitchen

My daughters have spend hundreds of hours (easily over a thousand hours combined) playing with this. Frannie received it for Christmas when she was two. It was a garage sale item from a teaching friend whose daughter had long outgrown it. While in good condition, it was clearly not new, but no one cared.

It came with the dishes, fake food, and shopping cart/basket which have been essential for the fun. Toddlers love pushing the cart around, and cousins even older than my girls still enjoy "doing the dishes". (Wouldn't it be nice if that lasted!)

While it does take up a bit of space, newer and trendier designs (faux or real wood, stainless steel looking appliances) are available which may be more pleasing to the eye.

Barbie House (ours isn't actually Barbie brand)

Again, we're talking hundreds of hours of play. The girls have received many brand-new dolls for various occasions, but also have a bin full of dolls, clothes, accessories, furniture handed down from me, and some from my aunt before me. They received the house three years ago and has been a hit (almost) ever since.

I can't even imagine the hours upon hours it must have taken Santa to assemble this item, but I have to tell you that he made a bit of a mistake when he set it up for Christmas morning. The house was strategically located in the family room with the included furniture placed carefully in the rooms of the home. Where he went wrong was by putting some of Frannie's dolls in the house to add to the display. This confused her greatly, as her focus went straight to the dolls, and she couldn't understand why Santa was giving her dolls she already had. (We have great video footage of her confusion.) Once that was cleared up, it was all good from there.

Other Dolls and Houses 

Really, the girls have loved any and all figurines, especially when there's some sort of house (Strawberry Shortcake, etc.) or car (they have some great remote control vehicles for both the Strawberry gang and My Little Ponies). As you can see in the photo below, I love the Ziploc bag system for keeping dolls, clothing, accessories, small furniture, etc. together, which also keeps things easily portable for taking on road trips, to Grandma's, etc. (Or - poor Frannie's teacher - school.)

Because I hate clutter, when people ask for gift ideas for my kids, I always suggest that they add to collections they already have (like another Barbie or Strawberry Shortcake character instead of a new theme).

Little People Stuff

My six year old is just starting to grow out of these gems, but we have the castle and house with the accompanying people and accessories, and these have been very well-loved. They're also nice to keep for younger visitors. When we were kids, we had the original Fisher Price castle, which is still kicking around now for children who visit my parents. (Its claim to fame is that a mouse once fell down the trapdoor into the dungeon, and you can still see where it chewed the front grate to get out!)

We also have the Fisher Price Little People Nativity Set (Frannie's gift from her grandparents when she knocked her front teeth out at 19 months of age) which is kept in storage with all of our holiday decor, and surprises them every November when I pull it out again. Oooh, that time is coming soon!

Puzzles

Frannie hit them earlier than Maggie, but from wooden puzzles right through to a 100 piece Star Wars version, these have been very popular. I suggest you pick characters they're into (or presumably will be into soon). I also find that offering to do a puzzle "with" them (placing the occasional piece while I read a magazine on the side) is a great motivator to get them going. (I'm not a terrible Mom, really, but sometimes I just don't want to "play".)

Little Tables and Chairs

We have a Winnie the Pooh set in our downstairs family room, and a little white IKEA set which started in Frannie's room and is now in Maggie's. These tables have been used for countless tea parties, snack times, crafts, colouring, forts, or as the base for a doll house.

Musical Instruments

From a tambourine with a bank logo on it to toy guitar and keyboard (kids can play their own music or push buttons to play prerecorded tunes), musical instruments are a huge hit at our house. Last year the girls even got battery operated microphones on stands which have already seen lots of love.

Hopefully some of these suggestions can help you with your holiday shopping. Anyone out there with older girls who can give me some ideas for the future? This year we're cutting back on "stuff" as much as possible in favour of things like tickets and "experience" gifts, but they still need to have something to unwrap under the tree! They're little girls, after all!

Be Ready with the New Vicks AgeSmart Family Thermometer

Believe it or not, we haven't owned a family thermometer in over two years, when our last one broke and we never bothered to replace it. So the timing was perfect when Vicks asked me to try out their new AgeSmartTM Family Thermometer.

Digital is definitely the way to go now, but with our last thermometer, I would take the temperature of one of my daughters and then flip through random parenting books, trying to find the chart that tells me how high is too high. Unfortunately my American books would give me unhelpful Fahrenheit numbers, which I would then have to convert to compare to my Celsius thermometer reading.

Enter the new Vicks AgeSmartTM Family Thermometer. Clinically proven accurate, it is the first age-adjustable thermometer (you click to indicate whether the 'patient' is under 3 months, 3-36 months, or over 36 months), using medical guidelines to interpret temperatures. The thermometer features color-coded readings (as you could probably figure out, green means you're OK, yellow is mild fever and red is high fever, using the patient's age as a guideline). It takes fast 8 second readings and has a memory system to track the last readings. It also shows the temp in Celsius and Fahrenheit, and is water resistant for easy cleaning. (Always important when dealing with germs, but particularly because this thermometer can be used for oral, auxiliary or rectal temps.)

Fortunately there has been no illness in our home since I received the AgeSmartTM Family Thermometer, but we tried it out anyway! My four and six year olds were more than willing to hold the thermometer under their tongue for the required amount of time (the end of which is indicated with a beep), with the reward of reading the number and checking out the colour code. (An actual sick patient might not be quite as accommodating!)

With a suggested retail price of $19.99 - $21.99, it's a very reasonable purchase too.

With chilly temperatures approaching, be ready for the possibility of illness in your family and pick up the new Vicks AgeSmartTM Family Thermometer.

Disclosure: I was provided with a thermometer for review purposes. Opinions are, as always, my own.

Lower Your Bills Just By...Asking?

Some bills are non-negotiable (heat, electrical) and if you want to save money, it's up to you to adjust your usage accordingly. However, as I have recently learned, some bills are up for very worthwhile discussion.

I called Bell to ask how I could lower my monthly costs. I already know that my BlackBerry plan is amazing, as I made sure to drive a hard bargain when I got it just over a year ago, so I wasn't even going to go there.




So I started by asking if I could speak to someone about lowering my home phone costs. Long story short, the agent was able to save me $6 per month by switching me to a different plan, and $5 by lowering my monthly long distance minutes allotment from 1000 to 500. (Our records showed we usually use between 100-200 minutes, so we didn't really lose anything.) 11 bucks might not sound like much, but spread over the year that's $132 saved. (I'm sure you had already calculated that in your head.)

Next, we moved on to our ExpressVu satellite. (I was transferred to a Customer Loyalty agent for this conversation.) We were paying $20 per month to rent our HD PVR. While HD is certainly an upgrade, I couldn't live (contentedly) without PVR now. But guess what? For some reason, they were able to waive that fee, and we now own the receiver. (I'm sure it's an old model now, but who cares?) The agent was also able to find a way to save us some money on our programming package each month (without eliminating any channels).

Altogether, half an hour on the phone is going to save us over $40 per month, and about $500 per year. That's significant.

Now, I also tried our Internet provider (when we went high-speed Bell wasn't able to serve our area, so we have Xplornet), but without having a record of what our monthly data usage is (apparently the company doesn't keep track) there's no way to know whether we can downgrade to a cheaper package or not without being penalized for extra usage, and they weren't up for offering any discounts.

But hey...you'll never know until you try! I'd love to hear any other success (or lack of) stories, so feel free to comment. This Mom Loves saving money, and I'm sure that you do too!

Paint the Town Red This Halloween With Nestlé

Forget about tacking on the "Disclosure" at the end of this post: I'm going to be upfront and tell you that Nestlé sent me a box of their assorted snack size bars as an incentive to share the information below with you.

While I will work for chocolate (it it weren't for my blogging ethics, a box of Nestlé would probably be enough to convince me to write about pretty much anything) when it comes to the safety of children, I require no bribery to spread the message. (Though I am slowly - okay, quickly - making my way through the delicious contents of the red box. Okay, fine, it's all gone.)

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Halloween is an exciting time for children to let their creativity run wild and live out their dreams of being (or at least looking like!) an astronaut, princess or superhero, for just one day.

It’s also a time for communities to connect and parents to indulge their kids – and themselves – with their favourite treats. After all, who can honestly say they haven’t dipped into a few bite-sized chocolate bars on or leading up to October 31st?

For years, the Nestlé Assorted red box filled with Kit Kat, Aero, Smarties and Coffee Crisp has been the go-to favourite for trick-or-treaters because it provides a delicious variety of everyone’s favourite brands. But did you know these leading snack size bars are made in a peanut-free factory too?

According to Anaphylaxis Canada, peanut allergy affects about two in 100 children and half of Canadians know someone with a serious food allergy (www.anaphylaxis.ca). It’s easy to make Halloween safer for everyone involved - including kids and their family and friends - by making the right choices.

This year, Nestlé is asking Canadians to Paint the Town Red by purchasing Nestlé’s Assorted snack size bars in the iconic red box, place the box in their window, and visit YummyMummyClub.ca to make their pledge that they will provide peanut-free treats made in a peanut free facility this Halloween.

All individual pledges will be entered into a contest to win a supply of Nestlé Assorted snack size bars made in a peanut-free facility for their street for Halloween (up to 50 households).

“As a parent of a child with severe peanut allergies, a program like this really alleviates some of the fear I have every year as I comb through my kids’ treats they recieve from door to door trick-or-treating,” says Erica Ehm, founder of YummyMummyClub.ca. “If everyone gets involved and chooses a Nestlé Assorted snack size box this October, we can really make Halloween fun, delicious AND safer for all.”

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So please - think of those children for whom peanuts are a life-and-death issue, and hand out peanut-free candy this Halloween.

KIDZ BOP Halloween Hits!

You already know I'm a fan of KIDZ Bop (versions of the songs we love, cleaned up and sung by kids, for kids).

This Halloween season, the fun continues with KIDZ Bop Halloween, featuring many "monster" hits!

I can't wait to use this for October gym lessons, and have it on in the class as we work on Halloween activities. It even comes with spooky party sounds!

I doubt my six and four year old daughters would recognize many of the titles, but if past experience is any indication, this KIDZ Bop CD will soon become a favourite in our house (and car) as well!

Available now where CDs are sold!

Disclosure: I received a copy of the CD for review purposes. Opinions are, as always, my own.

What Counts As Swearing?

My husband and I have been disagreeing lately over whether or not our girls should be permitted to use the word "heck". While hubby concedes that it's not actually a swear word, he feels it's still inappropriate and not "ladylike" enough for our six and four year olds.

When the word came up in a read-aloud I was doing at school, I asked the students if they were allowed to use "heck", and most said yes. (You can always count on Roald Dahl titles to provide teachable moments. "While this author thinks it's funny to use the word fat/stupid/heck, we know that it's not appopriate for us to do so, right? Right.")

What counts as swearing? How picky should we be? Maggie has brought home "What the heck?" and "Holy crap!" since she began kindergarten last month. I allow the former, but not the latter.

There are also the "I-didn't-really-say-it" partial expressions that children at school love to employ, like "Holy -!" and "Son of a -!". I know one student who is partial to saying (word for word, as he censors himself) "What the BEEP?"

This of course is different from innocent fouls, like when my learning-to-talk nephew received a new watch, and wasn't able to pronounce things quite perfectly when encouraging others to look at his clock. Though I don't think his parents can plead innocence regarding the time he commented, as he noticed a car turning but didn't understand it had an advanced green, "Look at this stupid bastard turning left on a red!" (He was four.)

I encourage the kids to use proper names for parts of the anatomy, but I sometimes turn a deaf ear when they are playing together and using silly expressions like "poopy bum". Kids have to have some fun,  especially if I can pretend I didn't even hear them. However, I certainly don't want them to refer to anyone's "poopy bum" when greeting Monsignor Mike on Sundays. A lot has to do with the context.

To date (and this is subject to change) I have yet to hear the f-word from either girl (let me know if you have!), and I would wager that they have never heard it in our home. (I'm not saying I've never SAID it, just that they've never HEARD it.) That seems like the worst one to me, but really I suppose it's the Lord's-name-in-vain ones that we should be most concerned about.

That said, I am often heard exclaiming (in adult company) "Oh my God!" about matters that certainly aren't worthwhile of the Lord's consideration, and in those cases I don't feel that I'm "swearing". However, I wouldn't allow my daughters or students to use that expression.

What's allowable in your house? Do you have to watch what you say in front of the kids, or do you always keep your language clean? Are there different rules for different circumstances? I'd love to know what you think!

Halloween From Hallmark: Scary, Fun and Educational!

As a clutter-phobe, you'd think I would avoid accumulating more holiday-themed decor, but cheesy seasonal decorations are a bit of a weakness of mine, especially with young daughters and students who deserve some inspiration to get into the spirit!

My autumn/Thanksgiving decor made its appearance on Labour Day, and I'll be pulling out my Halloween bin on the first of October. (And putting everything away before midnight on the 31st, which is where my neat-freakiness kicks in.)

Hallmark recently sent me some Halloween goodies to check out, thanks to my role on their Press Pause Panel. Here are my faves:

Door Decor Witch's Hat ($19.95)

A motion-activated item, as unsuspecting kids (and adults!) draw near, an evil witch's face appears and cackling sound plays. So hard to decide whether this would be a bigger hit in my home or my classroom!

Ghostly Singing Duo ($15.95 with the purchase of 3 cards)

Push a button to hear the plush ghost sing a parody of "The Addams Family" theme song. My four year old's mouth dropped when she first saw this one in action, and she will surely have the batteries worn out well before the big day actually arrives.

Trick and Treat's Book of Frightfully Fun Halloween Activities ($4.95)

Reasonably priced for an activity book (it would keep my six year old busy for several hours), you can get your kids in the mood (or keep the fun going after Halloween) with colouring pages, mazes, connect-the-dots and all kinds of playfully spooky activities. (If only the neighbourhood children would find this an acceptable alternative to candy, I would be putting this on their loot bags!)

Disclosure: I received the above items for review from Hallmark for review purposes. Opinions are, as always, my own.