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There have been several times in the recent weeks where the morning shows have discussed New Studies about talking and reading to your babies to improve their brain power. I didn’t pay that close of attention to any of these stories because my little ones are all big ones now and quite verbal. But the one comment that did catch my attention was that it was very important to talk to your child and that you
should keep the conversation on topics that interest the child. What? Your baby can’t talk yet and you are supposed to discern what topics are interesting to them?

Here is the topic that is of most interest to your child - YOU. Whatever interests you, will interest your child. There is a scene in the movie 3 Men and a Baby that is a perfect example of this. The Tom Selleck character buys a Sports Illustrated and is later seen reading the latest basketball news to the baby. When one of the other men questions him about this and suggests that SI is not really baby material, Tom Selleck replies “It’s not what you’re reading but the tone of your voice that is important”. I thought that was Great!

Read to your kids and talk to your kids and when you do cover topics that interest you as well. Exposing your kids to a wide vocabulary early on can only help. So go ahead and read Green Eggs and Ham but perhaps toss in an article from the Readers Digest or a chapter at a time from a classic that you have wanted to read for a long time. Sure, they won’t understand what you’re saying but they will love hearing your calming voice and they will love that time with you. And when they grow up they will more than likely develop a love of reading as well.

In the pre-millenium decades kids wrote in their diaries and hid those books under their beds or in their closets with their deepest, darkest secrets. It was a reasonable discussion by parents “to read or not to read” the diary inadvertantly unearthed while helping the child clean their room. This was considered by some parents as a breach of trust while other parents saw it as a necessary componant of the parenting responsibilities.

Now, post-internet explosion, times have changed. Diaries in book form are rare. Blogs and personal web sites are the norm. Kids text message their friends and exchange thoughts and ideas online. This can be great but it can also be dangerous because the kids often have a scewed perception of who is reading their online information. Perhaps they are thinking that it’s cool and that only their friends or other teenagers are reading their pages and that anyone else that comes across the page wouldn’t even pay attention.

In the mid 90’s I started reading and studying Parry Aftab’s series of books on keeping your kids safe on the internet and have tried to instill these ideas with my kids as they have grown up with online access. In the past we have taught our kids how to avoid strangers walking down the street but now we have to teach them about how to stay safe and avoid getting into trouble from strangers online. One of the craziest things about that is that strangers online are never seen. Once a kid posts information it goes out to a world wide audience of strangers.

When my pre-teen son asked for a computer in his room (we were upgrading our computer and he suggested we put the old one in his room) we told him to choose between the computer or the door to his room. He chose the computer. So, now he has a computer in his room but no door on his room. That may sound a little extreme but it has worked out really well. When we come up the stairs I can look into his room and see what he is looking at before he realizes I am even there.

The other option is to assert parental control and only allow the computer in a central family area. This way everyone can only surf sites that are ok to view by everyone else.

The reason this is the topic of the day is because of a news story we ran across online today about high school partiers posting their party plans on their personal web sites that are often times provided by their local high schools. If your kid has a Myspace.com web site it should be reviewed and discussed as a family on a regular basis. Ask them to show you their friends web sites as well. Here is the story that prompted this discussion. Parties On MySpace.com

It is now the time to start thinking about spring cleaning. I highly recommend clearing out stuff until it’s painful. Once you have reached the point that is painful then you know you have just about cleared out enough stuff. My objective is to set a good example for my kids - that we take care of the stuff we do have but that we don’t let our stuff own us. So, we all went down into the basement over the weekend and in the process of sorting and organizing I found that we had two shelves that had just been filled up with empty cartons and other miscellaneous junk that we were able to get rid of easily.

So, now that I have shelves cleared off in the basement it is now time to stock up! Ok, that does sound sort of silly but the word from the news wire this morning is that the Health Dept. is now recommending that we stock up on Tuna in cans and powdered milk. (See the link below) Tuna fish and powdered milk? yuck. I’m not sure I could get my kids to eat and drink that combination no matter how hungry they were. Here are my recommendations:
* Canned Fruit - buy it when it is on sale. Do Not buy the dented cans for supplies you are planning on storing. That is not based on any scientific information I have but using my mothers intuition I’m just not sure about dented cans for fruit products. Not only are you buying fruit but there is also juice in each can. This is an old camping trick to pack canned fruit in a survival pack because of the liquid along with the fruit.
* Soy Milk in boxes - This is a better alternative to powdered milk. It can be stored at room temperature and even though it does have an expiration date it still lasts a long time. If you get the vanilla flavored soy it is much more palatable than powdered milk.
* SlimFast powder - to mix with the soy milk and make a great treat for the kids plus it has other nutrients that are good for them.
*Bottled Water
* breakfast bars
* And Ok, Tuna Fish

The main thing to remember when stocking up is to think about actually eating these supplies. So, with nor further ado click on the link for more from the news wire about stocking up: STOCK UP