Obama… “cotton candy”

Clinton… “soft pillows”

Bush… jumped out and said “oh crap” …guess what: he landed in crap!

Making and keeping good friends requires some attention and time. With all the wild demands of parenthood it is no wonder that busy parents often put friendships on the back burner. However, friendships are key to happy and effective parenting and need to be made a priority. Luckily, friendships give back so many wonderful benefits that the TLC devoted to them is time and energy well spent.

Moms and Dads often think that taking time to spend with a friend is selfish and that it takes away from their child. Quite the opposite is true! After enjoying a walk, a dinner or even a quick phone call with a friend there is a biological change that actually calms you and prepares you to take on the next parenting task with reduced stress. We are all hard-wired for this need and our bodies and minds respond so positively when we take time to enjoy with friends.

Friendship has been shown to protect against major depression and anxiety. Social and emotional support is linked in many studies to lowered heart rates, lower blood pressure and decreased stress hormones. It has also been shown to increase longevity through all of these health benefits. Parents are wise to prioritize their health needs. Just as you would be sure to buckle your seat belt, keep a healthy diet and exercise adding, “Take time to spend with a friend” is just as important. The research has proven it but you don’t need to read the studies, instead take that time to do your own experiment. Call up a friend and schedule some time to do something together. Then see how you feel when you return home to your family. You’ll see that everyone will benefit from you taking the time to refuel with a friend.

The Author, Christine Cook is the founder of truebluematch.com, a friendship matching website for parents of young children. It matches moms with moms and dads with other dads for face to face friendship with others in their area. She is certain that the true blue friends in her own life have been a key element in enjoying the past 16 years of happy, healthy parenting.

Crown Craft

Who doesn’t want to be the king or queen? With a few sheets of construction paper, tape, glue, jewels and crayons anyone can make a crown that announces to the world who is in charge. Let the kids cut out their own crown pattern and set them loose on decorating their new headwear. You’ll probably be entertained by some of the designs the kids come up with.

T-Shirt Painting Party

Having a T-Shirt painting party is a load of fun that won’t cost a lot of money. Have the kids bring an old white shirt (or provide them yourself for about $10 per pack of 3) and set up a painting station with brushes, glitter, and laundry-safe paint. Scissors allow for cool frayed sleeves that can be tied off with beads.

Cake Pops

Is there any better craft than a craft you can eat? I contend that there is not. Kids will love to contribute to the birthday cake at this party. Making cake pops is as simple as preparing a regular cake, crumbling it up, mixing in 8 sticks of softened cream cheese, refrigerating the mixture, then rolling the mixture into a bunch of 2-inch balls. Once the mixture is in 2-inch balls and you’ve stuck popsicle sticks into the balls, melt chocolate bark over low heat and let the kids dip their cake balls into the melted chocolate. They can then cover their cake pop in sprinkles, frosting, whipped cream or any other delicious treat you can think of.

Lisa is a guest writer and party planner who specializes in organizing a great Super Mario birthday party.

This reaffirms my idea of individualized learning, as well as embracing the sporadic lessons of life.

In addition to a matriculated routine, a child’s undying curiosity is a source of learning that cannot be contained to a methodology. I have been astounded the questions Riley and Henry have asked me, often that spark conversations and explanations compel heart-felt conversations. Questions like— do we all have to die? Why are we at war? Why are there bullies? These hit heartstrings for any adult who remembers asking similar questions about the world with our own child’s perspective. Answering in a calm and thoughtful tone, I never dismiss these curiosities and fears. Naturally my intention is never to overwhelm or scare, but I always tell them an honest answer, (kindergarten version— understandable words and concepts) and let them know this is what I think. These conversations bring me back to my own learning process, and make me re-imagine why I formulated that answer. Explaining something in such a way that a child understands it is not only therapeutic, it is a basis to understand ourselves and the way we’ve met the needs of learning.

Assessing the development of children is a fundamental aspect of teaching, but throughout my experience working with children I have rarely assessed my development learned from kids. As teachers and caregivers there is that tendency to think that we need to instruct in order for children to learn and grow into upstanding adults. It is just as important to  take some time to realize how much they teach us, and make us remember, imagine, and slow down—and how being an upstanding adult in my mind means also to be able to connect to my own childhood which I get to every time I work with children.

Kyra

*Names have changed in order to protect family privacy

1. Parent League of New York is a huge resource to New York City Parent’s by providing guides, advisory, publications, and unique events from the preschool admission process to how to apply to high schools through out the city. This resource is a crucial to remaining a sane parent in this overwhelming city.

2. InsideSchools.org is one of my favorite as a go to resource. This is an independent guide for parent’s to public school’s in the city. They go beyond test scores and check out the full story of a school from diversity to quality of teachers. Parent’s can see what is the real deal happening with a child’s school and be apart of the positive change in their child and other students lives.

3. New York Family Magazine is a monthly publication that is dedicated to focus on the interest, needs, and concerns of Manhattan and Brooklyn families. It’s a great resource of parenting advice as well as great directory of family services and after school classes. They also have a digital variation on their website.

4. Babybites is a social and educational community for moms and moms to be. They have an array of parent supports form mom support groups to family luncheons to mom conferences. It is a great reminder to all that everyone needs support no matter how big or small.

5. Queens Mamas is a wonderful online resource and social community for Queens moms to check out what is happening in their neighborhood, it was made by parents for parents. They are able to use parent reviews and local experts to get the know how in Queens. And create social media hubs and events to build their community of families in through out.

6. Parent Connect can be an overwhelming site at first with its many tabs, however once you know what you are looking for it is a gem. It has everything that has to do with kids in New York City, powered by Nickelodeon including events, schools, camps, leagues, and a hub of parenting blogs.  My personal favorite is the seasonal activities that parent’s can do with their children at home.

To write a song together, you could base it on a story you have just read or anything at all ~ the children can sing as they come up with the words and sitter can write it down.

You could also make a dance to the song .

Also, doing yoga including animal poses as an ongoing story where you go on a trip and see different things and do the animal poses with each animal you see…

or other poses like child’s pose, warrior, triangle ~ make yourself into all kinds of things in the story.  Bow pose, rainbow pose, etc.

You could also write all this down and make it into a story, make a song for it, and also make scenery and feel like you are really on an island, for example, or the jungle!

Try also using different kinds of music to do yoga with ~ including freeze dance/yoga (freezing in yoga poses).

What are you ideas?

Plus, we want to give you an inner look into our process so that no matter how you find a sitter, you can make sure you find the right sitter for your family needs!

1. Needs: Be clear in your childcare needs in regards to family needs –

Do you need a Nanny vs. Sitter?

Do you need a person to engage your children after-school for homework help a few times a week?

Or would you need someone to act as you while you are working?

Everyone has different needs according to their life situation. It helps to plan your childcare schedule out in order to make sure your family’s unique needs are being met.

2. Budget: This seems like an obvious one, however you will be surprised when families aren’t clear with their needs, they usually spend an unnecessary amount of money and time on finding and using childcare.

3. Background: Background checks and references give you a full view of the person. We recommend our standard which is for 7 points of reference from Childcare Background Corporation.

4. Personal Connection: It is human nature, to align yourself with someone with whom you have a personal connection, we do it with life partners and friends. So why not with childcare providers, if you like them it’s a strong indicator they might be a great match.

5. Vibes:  Trust in your gut – your intuition is a powerful indicator that the person you choose to take care your children is genuine and sincere. And if you are not connecting with someone, don’t worry, it’s okay, you will find the right person.  This is why we have frequent Speed Sitting Soirees ~ so you can meet our sitters and find one that is a good match for your family!  Our October Speed Sitting Soiree is just around the corner on October 23!

Questions?  Give us a call at 347-436-8357 and we’ll get you some answers!  Or, take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions about Creative Sitters.

Courtesy of our very own Sitter, Caroline Fermin.

Key Lime Pie Popsicles

1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk

1 cup of plain yogurt

Juice of 4 limes

Zest of 2 limes

1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients. Pour into 6 large Popsicle molds or a dozen Dixie cups. Freeze overnight or longer (the thick mixture takes quite a while to freeze!)

Add chopped strawberries or raspberries to the mix for added flavor and color.  Enjoy!