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Articles, Links and More
- Hey Mom, Need Some Help?
Here are some quick tips for changing the family dynamic this holiday season and forevermore. And for anyone else needing help getting help around the house, these are for you too.
- The Benefits of Music with Children and Family Relationships
Music can advance our intelligence and shape our future, beginning within the womb and continuing throughout childhood. It can play a crucial role in developing mental, physical and emotional growth. Music also can be used as a tool to strengthen family relationships and bridge generation gaps. Learn more from Marc Herstein.
- Four Secrets to Searching the National Archives
As an American, do you love researching and learning about your nation's history? Do you need to help your child perform research for a school paper? If a search through the National Archives is in your future, it's not as easy as it look in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Author Phil Stewart shares his four secrets for finding what you need.
- Do Your In-laws Drive You Crazy? Coping Tips For New Parents
It's quite possible that you have in-laws from hell, but don't assume that until you've communicated your needs and given them a chance to respond appropriately. It's usually not necessary to have a big serious confrontation to communicate your needs. Here are some examples of how to be respectfully assertive from Jenna Barry.
- Grandparents Make a Big Difference in Today's Challenging World
Childhood is eroding out from under our grandkids, but we grandparents can do a lot to get it back. Learn more from Nancy Carlsson-Paige.
- Give Presence Not Presents
As if rising food prices, stock market instability and skyrocketing health care costs weren't enough, parents now have the added concern of finding available money for presents. Perhaps the answer lies in the gifts that are given. Give children what they really want from their parents, presence not presents.
- Five Things Nature will Teach Your Child
Deep in the woods, something small is lurking and just waiting to be discovered. Leading children into the arms of nature will expand their horizons and help make them become well-rounded individuals. Here are 5 things your children will learn by interacting with nature.
- Four Ways to Keep Family Harmony
History itself affirms that the family is the foundation of society. But the most important place for family is inside each of us; it is who we are. We're living in days when the traditional family is challenged to the hilt. More than ever, parenting and nurturing roles are important and necessary. Like an orchestra, each family member is an instrument, with notes that blend the unit. Here are four ways to stay in family-tune.
- Children's Artwork and Craft Projects - Save Only the Best!
Are you drowning in a sea of craft projects and artwork that your children bring home from school? What do you save and how do you not save it all? Cheryl Butler, writer and mom of eight, explains how she launched Operation S.O.B. (Save Only the Best) to prevent her household from sinking under the weight of her children's artwork.
- Talking Politics with your Children
This year’s Presidential election is a significant historical event. There is no better time than the present to include your entire family in the election process and learning about our government and how it works. Honor your role as your child’s most important teacher by using these tips to help you and your children be a part of history together.
- Kids Party Etiquette for Parents
Ever feel like you're out of the loop when it comes to the unspoken rules of kids party etiquette? Experienced Moms and Dads know the do's and don'ts of both hosting and attending kids
parties. Here are some pearls of wisdom from these parent experts to those just starting out on the party circuit.
- What Did You Do on Your Summer Vacation?
Whatever experiences you share with your family this summer, take the time to sit together and reflect on the experience by discussing it. Creating experiences and reflecting on them adds meaning and builds a lasting, significant memory.
- Mother's Intuition
Mothers and fathers, but especially mothers seem to have the ability to know their children with uncanny accuracy. There is an unspoken connection between a parent and child that bypasses logic and reason. This is commonly referred to as mother's intuition and it can empower a parent with almost phenomenal abilities. Learn more from Sherrie Dillard.
- Real Life Support for Moms: Motherhood and More by Melissa Stanton
It's essential for women to accept that they needn't be solely defined by or worse, consumed by, motherhood. Be proud of being your child or children's mother-and your parent's daughter and your partner's spouse. Just don't forget to be proud of, and concerned about, your non-mom self as well.
- Use Nature to Boost Your Child's Learning
Nature can play a big role in helping your children advance their learning. There are many activities you can do with your child to help him or her mentally and emotionally grow during the outdoor season. Lead the way to your children's learning experience in nature. Before long, they'll be pulling you off the couch with their green thumbs.
- Estate Planning Tips for Parents: How to Choose the Right Guardian for Your Children
Estate planning and choosing a guardian to take care of your children is difficult. Yet, you can make a tremendous difference in your child's life by planning ahead. You can ensure you have chosen the right guardian by following just three easy steps.
- 6 Tips for Keeping Your Kids Busy During the Summer
If you need a few ideas for keeping your children busy this summer, Vielka McFarlane shares six great ideas that will enrich your child and occupy their minds.
- Working with Nature to Stimulate Your Child's Senses
Getting your kids out in nature is the first step to awakening your child's senses for a lifetime of joy and learning. We use our imagination to inspire and develop our senses every day. Here are some of the ways you can help your child do so, too.
- Helping My Child When I Was Diagnosed with Cancer by Cathy Nilon
When Cathy Nilon was diagnosed with Stage 2-b invasive breast cancer at age 43, she frantically searched for a book to help her young son understand what she would be going through in order to get well. Unfortunately, there was nothing suitable that would hold his attention. Here are some tips that got them through their painful journey.
- Top Tips For Exercise Motivation by Tracey Mallett
We all need a little help to get motivated sometimes! Life is hard and we are tired at the end of the day. Who wants to work out? Here are some tips to help you keep you motivated!
- Keep Up with Daily Responsibilities: Get Back to Your Post, Soldier!
Even if you're not in the military, a well-defined Post is an important pillar of personal productivity. When you do your job well, other things in your life fall into place more smoothly. When this pillar is weak, your personal responsibilities seem to get in the way of life. Try these tips for defining and handling your life responsibilities by Laura Stack.
- Four Ways to Complement your Child's Nature Discoveries Indoors
Getting outside with your children can be a vital part of a happy family life. You can use indoor activities to expand on your outdoor discoveries and round off the experience. Here are four ways to complement outdoor discoveries with indoor activities by Mark Stevens.
- Exercises to Get You and Your Kids Awake in the Morning by Tracey Mallett
How do you get ready for an energetic day with the kids? Try these fun tips, stretches and exercises with your little ones to stimulate the nervous system and open the many channels of the body. You'll love it and so will your kids!
- Rainy Day Activities for Kids and Dogs
Rainy days with stir-crazy kids and dogs can try your sanity. When your kids wail that there's nothing fun to do, have them try some of these simple games with the family dog.
- Beyond Flowers
How do you plan on saying "I love you" this Valentine's Day? Here are a few ideas to communicate, "I love you," on February 14th and on every day following. They are designed to touch the heart and the soul of your partner as well as those of your children.
- Kids and Dogs: Things Change When Your Baby Learns to Crawl
If your dog is going to have problems with your baby, the crawling stage is typically where you see the first significant signs. What can you do to make sure kids and dogs continue to see each other in the best light? America's Kids and Canines Coach Colleen Pelar shows us how.
- Inspiring the Next Generation
Obesity in children has tripled in the last 20 years and obese children are now likely to develop Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, upper respiratory problems and severe asthma. Parents can be great motivators to teach children that to move the body and exercise is fun and exhilarating. So get off the couch and start making small changes to create a healthier and happier family!
- Send Love Letters To Your Kids
It's not enough to love your kids. You have to tell them that you love them. They need your love poem tattooed on their hearts so they can take it with them wherever they go. Don't just say it; write it down for them. Words seem to carry more weight when they are on paper. Write love letters to your kids, send cards, and leave notes for them around the house.
- Rekindling Your Holiday Spirit
Is it time to rekindle your holiday spirit? Are you in need of bringing some life, meaning, and enthusiasm to you and your family's holiday season this year? If so, it's not too late to implement a few of the inspirational ideas suggested in this article by Chick Moorman and Thomas Haller.
- Teaching Children to Appreciate Nature on Thanksgiving
As Thanksgiving Day nears, the temperatures begin to drop and the leaves begin to fall. It is again time to pass the message on to our kids about just why we are giving thanks for so many things, including the amazing wonders of nature.
- Culture of Divorce: How Our Moral Values Affect Our Children
Whether the final outcome is good or bad, the whole trajectory of an individual's life is profoundly altered by the divorce experience. Perhaps it's not too late for us to rethink divorce and society's moral values and how our family relationships affect our culture and the generations to come.
- How to help kids really know their grandparents - regardless of where they live
We live in a very mobile society so it's not uncommon for grandparents to be states or countries away from their grandchildren. But even if we aren't right around the corner from each other, there are still many ways that our children can connect-at any age-with their grandparents. Here are 3 tips for building a strong bond between children/teens and grandparents.
- Host a Haunted Halloween Fright-Fest
Whether it's super scary or just plain silly, your Halloween Haunt will be a hit with these quick and easy party tips.
- 13 Halloween Party Activities For Kids
If you're planning a Halloween party and don't have a clue what to do for games or activities, here are 13 great ideas that are inexpensive, easy to do, and lots of fun!
- Visiting Children and Your Dog
Each year, approximately 2.8 million children are bitten by a dog. Parents play a huge role in keeping children safe around dogs. The most important thing we as parents can do is learn a little about dogs and their body language. Once we understand what a dog is telling us, we'll be much better equipped to help our dogs and kids understand one another.
- A Puppy Party for Kid-Friendly Dogs
Hosting a puppy party is a great way to help your new puppy begin enjoying and feeling at ease around kids. Puppies under 5 months old can learn a lot in an easy 30-minute play date. Here are a few tips from Colleen Pelar.
- Healthy Treats for the Whole Family: Furry and Non-Furry
Before you allow the kids to share their snacks, you should determine if it will help or harm your child and your pet's health. Many of today's processed foods are not good for any body; human, canine or feline as they contain rancid fats, sugar, and questionable chemicals. Home-made treats are a healthy and delicious option to processed products for all family-members including the furry ones!
- Gardening with Children
Starting a small garden with your child or grandchild is an excellent way for children to learn to learn how to care for the environment and gain an appreciation for the many birds and insects with whom we share our gardens. Author Jill Black shares how to have gardening fun with your little ones.
- Creating a Less-Stress Holiday Season
It's National Stress-Free Family Month. The time between Thanksgiving and New Year's is a very stressful time for many, whether it is stress as a result of time constraints, money constraints, or emotional overload. But stress does not have to be accepted as part of the holiday package. Here are ways to combat it.
- Special Thanks This Thanksgiving by Chick Moorman and Thomas Haller
What if your appreciation this Thanksgiving took on a new look? What if the blessings you count this year included situations that aren’t usually regarded as helpful, useful or valuable? Consider these typical parenting scenarios and how you can be thankful for the opportunities such events bring.
- Family Stories Month
What better what to preserve one's heritage than to get things documented. There are numerous anecdotes, legacies, and trinkets that should and could be passed on to future generations. The internet has made it much easier to document one's genealogy. It has also made it easier to perform family searches and to get the ball rolling on your family history project. With digital cameras, camcorders, voice recorders, and assorted websites, documenting family history has gotten easier and easier. Are you ready to take the leap?
- Remembering the "Thanks" in Thanksgiving
November is the time of year when family and friends gather to break bread together to give thanks for the people, places and things that have impacted their lives over the past year. It is a time for acknowledgement.
- Breaking Bread Together
Studies show that for decades the family ritual of dining together has been steadily declining, but a focus on bringing attention to the importance of family meal times has started to turn things around. Family time is important for building and maintaining relationships. So get out the calendar and grocery list and start planning the menu today.
- Seven Ways to Keep our Parents Young
What are some things we can do to help keep our parents young? Here are seven ideas to explore, which may slow down the ageing process and help keep your folks sharp and young at heart for years to come.
- Let's Plan a Family Reunion
July is National Reunion Month. Reunions (like friends and family members) can take on many different personalities. They are a wonderful way to connect with friends and family who may or may not live close enough to see regularly. Let us help you get started on planning a memorable family reunion for next summer!
- Universal Father's Week
During Universal Father's Week the importance of fatherhood to the family is celebrated. We should acknowledge and assist those men who are taking an active role in the lives of children whether or not they are actually their birth fathers. They are fathers, but also grandfathers, stepfathers, uncles, brothers, friends, Big Brothers, teachers, coaches and even professional athletes who selflessly develop relationships with children because they recognize the importance of having a positive male role model present in young lives.
- Pick up a Book and Read, Read, Read!
Reading is one of the best free ways to entertain everyone from infants to the elderly. How does one instill a love of reading at a young age? Learn how during Get Caught Reading Month!
- Turn it Off and Tune it Out ~ Celebrate National Turn Off Television Week!
Did you know that the average American watches approximately four hours of television each day, including children? That by age 18 the average American child will see more than 200,000 violent acts (including murders) on television? That the proportion of overweight children has more than doubled in the last 25 years. Do something about it in your own family and turn off the TV!
- Gentle Hands and a Loving Touch - Prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome
April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Unfortunately child abuse can occur in many forms to children of any age. Shaken Baby Syndrome is one such form of abuse that in recent years has been forefront in the media as it typically affects infants and toddlers, but can occur in children up to age 4. Learn more about this completely preventable lethal condition.
- It's Closer Than They Think - Celebrate National Library Week
All of the answers to the endless supply of questions your kids can come up with are closer than they think - at their local library. April 2-8 is National Library Week - the perfect time to introduce or reinforce the love of reading to family members and support local libraries and their staffs.
- Balance Your Roles: Partners vs. Parents
It's not easy to keep a healthy balance between thinking of ourselves as both partners and as parents. How do we achieve the right balance that makes us feel that we are doing a good job as parents without losing sight of the reason you became a family in the first place? Kathryn Sansome, author of Woman First, Family Always: Real-Life Wisdom from a Mother of Ten shows us how.
- Creating a Healthy Lifestyle for Your Family
The human body is like a machine, if you put sub-quality things into it, that's exactly what will come out of it. Compare the body to a car - if you fill your gas tank with the inappropriate mixture of fuel will it work? Of course not! Yet, each day human bodies are being filled with sugars, processed foods, bleached flours, and artificial colorant and flavors. Starting children eating right early on is ideal, but it's never too late to introduce nutritious eating. Learn how during National Nutrition Month.
- A Daily Dose of Cheer - For Y-O-U!
Welcome to National Self-Esteem Month. Want to know what your self-esteem has to do with the winter blahs? Well, a person with a positive self-esteem won't allow the blahs to move in. They're so busy doing things they love, with people who love them, at places they love, that they're having WAY too much fun to be glum. So how does that help you? It's time to give your self-esteem CPR.
- The Valentine Gift Every Child Wants
Certainly love can be expressed with candy, flowers, notes or gifts. But is that what your child really wants or needs? Are those the things you want your child to associate with love? How about taking a different tact this year? This Valentine's Day, why not spell love the same way your child does: T-I-M-E.
- Notes for Valentines Day and Beyond
For parents and their children, Valentine's Day includes the lovely ritual of expressing their love through the exchange of cards. But if you're only giving your children cards and notes on Valentine's Day and on their birthdays, you're missing out on a wonderful opportunity.
- February is for Lovers - Library Lovers, that is!
February is the month devoted to lovers of all kinds - including Library Lovers. A month devoted to supporting local libraries and their staff. Can you think of ways to show your local library the love? We'll show you how.
- Getting it All Together Again!
January is Life Balance Month--a month dedicated to helping moms recognize imbalance and find ways to implement, secure and maintain balance in their daily worlds. Let us help you make 2009 a much more balanced year.
- Stop Resisting Your Life and Embrace ALL of Your Life
New Year's is a time to embrace the whole of life and all that has happened, both what we love and what we would rather run away from. This year, for all events that have come about from bad luck and tough circumstances, here are three ways to wake up to yourself and embrace your whole life.
- Plan a Princess Birthday Party-the Frugal Way!
Kids' birthday parties seem to have gotten a little "out of hand" these days. The only parties some children have ever attended have been at places like McDonald's or Burger King! However, with a little planning, you can throw a great party in your own home, for a lot less money! A princess theme might be just the thing for your little girl--what little girl doesn't dream of being a princess?
- Give Yourself Permission to Celebrate the Holidays with Joy
During the holidays, rampant materialism turns us away from what is truly supportive in any spiritual fest, the nourishing of our inner being. This is particularly true of kids. So with the holidays coming up, let's look at what we can do to reduce the focus on toys, presents, and exposure to the commercial frenzy and put it back on activities that truly support our children's spiritual growth and awakening.
- Healthy Habits: Starting Family Food Traditions
Whether you carry on the traditions of your family, or invent new ones, they provide your family with something to talk about, something to look forward to, and something to remember. Outside of the serving traditional meals during your holiday feast, here are a few ideas for starting a tradition that may remain with your family for years.
- Birthday Party Photo Tips How to Make Yours Truly Stand Out
Follow these 11 tips for shooting the best photos with your digital camera; your pictures will be so good, you'll need to start getting used to being asked to photograph other people's birthday parties!
- Decorating a Child's Room - 8 Simple Strategies to Make You Both Happy
When it comes to decorating a child's room, your approach should be much different from decorating an adult bedroom. That's because a child's bedroom should reflect his or her personality and not yours.
- Planning the Ultimate Kid Birthday Party
Need help picking a theme for your child's birthday party? Here are tips to help you sort it out and create a memorable day for your child.
- Fun Preschool Activity - Let's Draw Together
When you take the time to do a drawing with your preschool child you have the opportunity to enjoy working together to make something beautiful that both of you can take pride in. Share this fun activity with your your preschooler!
- Frugal Springtime Fun With Kids!
Spring is here, and that means the kids are going to be ready to play outdoors more. But the time always comes when
every mom hears "I'm bored!" Be prepared with these ideas to beat boredom before it begins! Cyndi Roberts shows us how.
- Birthday Party Fun: Goodie Bag Alternatives
If you're looking for alternatives to pricey goodie bags, here are a few ideas that will make your guests--and wallet--happy by Deborah Shelton.
- Fall Fun 4 Kids! by Colleen Langenfeld
Looking to make some sweet Fall memories with your little ones? Here are some great ideas to get your family laughing, smiling and enjoying each other's company during these crisp Autumn days.
- Travel Tips/Vacations With Kids ~ a collection of ELEVEN articles!
- Domestic Violence Discussion with Jennifer Bowles, MSW, LCSW
- Guest Interview with Mimi Doe author of several books, including Busy But Balanced, responds to questions regarding how to create a nourishing, warm, caring family environment and how to add a sense of peace back into our lives. Stop by for a dose of inspiration!
- Guest Interview with Darcie Sanders and Martha M. Bullen, authors of Staying Home; From Full-time Professional to Full-time Parent spoke with StorkNet members about stay-at-home parenting. Stop by and enjoy!
- Dads/Fatherhood Web Links
- Military Families and Friends Web Links
- Single Families Web Links
- Stepfamilies Web Links
- Guest Interview with Susan Branch ~ Author, artist, decorator and talented creator Susan Branch spoke with us about scrapbooking, creating and saving memories, and much more. Susan has donated three beautiful gifts which were given away at random to participants of this "interview." Enjoy our talk with Susan!
- Guest Interview with the FlyLady! ~ "FlyLady" is the Internet's newest organizational secret! Her no-nonsense approach to getting your home and self back into order has worked for thousands. She will guide you through babysteps to get rid of your clutter and set down new daily routines. Enjoy her interview on StorkNet! Then find your lace-up shoes and get ready to organize your life.
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