Ways to entertain children and beat the Texas heat

Living in the Lonestar state where August temperaturs can hover near triple digits by 10am inspires parents to become creative in how they entertain their children. The Dallas/Fort Worth area has many local attractions that are budget-friendly and kid-approved. Best of all, almost all of them offer air-conditioning along with a great time for both parent and child.

Local Library

Story time at one’s local library is a great way for both parent and child to enjoy book, crafts, and songs together. The Grapevine, Southlake, and Irving libraries all host a variety of programs designed for children as young as 18 months up to children in middle school. Many libraries also host summer reading programs with great incentives to foster an interest in reading among children.

Farmers Markets

The Dallas Farmers Market is one of the largest public markets of its nature in the country. It offers a wide variety of locally grown produce, specialty foods, and landscaping materials such as shrubs and flowers. Introducing children to an abundant selection of fresh produce (Farmers often pass out complimentary pieces of fruits and vegetables to sample.) is a great way to expand their palate. The market is open seven days a week, 362 days a year. Check out the market’s website for a list of produce that is currently in season and to learn more about events and classes hosted there.

Coppell and Grapevine also host Farmers Markets on the weekends.

Free Children’s Workshops

Both the home improvement stores of Lowes and Home Depot offer free     children’s workshops that allow caregiver and child the opportunity to complete a project together, such as building a birdhouse or constructing a pirate ship. These workshops are typically held on Saturday mornings and are for ages four years and older.

The Lakeshore Learning store in Dallas offers free crafts for children ages 3 and up every Saturday from 11am-3pm.

Complimentary First-Time Class Pass

Emler Swim School, with locations in Southlake, Arlington, Plano, and Dallas, hosts a free Waterbaby orientation class for parents and babies age 6 months to 2 years old. This one-time free class is offered the last Saturday of each month.

Gymboree Play and Music offers a free class pass for first-time guests. With a wide range of classes offered and locations in Southlake, Plano, and Lewisville this is a great place for kids to release energy and enjoy a group setting.

Mall Play Areas

Indoor playscapes at area shopping malls allow children to burn off energy in a safe, comfortable environment while letting parents tackle a few errands along the way. Some local favorite play areas include the jungle-themed playscape at the Galleria mall, the expansive play place at Stonebriar Center in Frisco, and the Old Town Lewisville play area at the Vista Ridge Mall.

Lynley Baker Phillips is a stay-at-home mommy to two, blogger, former special education teacher, and referee in all major toy disputes. Her writings have been featured in various publications and on her mother’s refrigerator door. Contact her at savethephillipsfamily@hotmail.com

Events this Week – August 9 to 15

Here are some of the really fun things we found on the Family eGuide calendar for families in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex:

When you click on the event links below they will take you to Family eGuide’s information about the event – while you are there be sure to sign up for the weekly e-newsletter and check out the other fun things on the calendar.

Week of August 9 through August 15 – Events and Activities for DFW moms, dads & kids!

Sunday – Wizard of Oz at Studio B in Highland Village – 2:30 pm

Monday – Summer Movies at Studio Movie Grill: Price of Egypt – 11:00 am

Tuesday –Free Ringling Bros. Party – Ft. Worth – 7:00 pm

Wednesday – Callie’s Kids – Feeding Nature (free kids clinics at Calloway’s) – 9:30 am

Thursday – “How to Raise A Money- Smart Child” – 6:30 pm*

*Check out Burb Mom’s take on teaching kids about money

Friday - Highland Village Balloon Festival – 5:00 pm

Saturday – The Knack Free Family Event: Summer Fun Tote Bags – 10:00 am

They Put Everything into Their Mouth!

When consulting with new parents, we explain that it is their baby’s job to put everything into their mouths. A baby’s mouth has more nerve endings than any other part of their body, so if they want to find out what something tastes or feels like, it goes in their mouth. Parents do not want their baby putting anything into their mouths that is not given to them by a loving caregiver.

March 15-21 is National Poison Prevention Week and the goal is to inform parents on how to prevent unintentional poisonings.

With some common sense precautions you can avoid the unintentional poisoning of your child:

1. Store household products safely

• Store these items out of reach of children
• Install childproof latches on cabinet doors and drawers. Lock all of them below the counter tops, especially in the kitchen and bathrooms. In addition to the poisoning hazard, Mom’s make-up drawer is one of the most expensive drawers in the house, so this may save you some expense from damaged products as well.

2. Use products safely

• Buy products that are packaged in childproof containers, when appropriate.
• Re-close childproof packaging correctly.
• Be cautious with medicine
• Never refer to medicine as candy. A handful of children’s vitamins with iron are toxic to a small child.
• Do not take medicine in front of your children. Children emulate what their parents do, both good and bad.

3. Install Carbon monoxide detectors

• CO is a silent killer, it is an odorless, colorless gas emitted by fireplaces and gas appliances.
• The recommendation is to have one CO detector on each level of the home.

As a professional baby-proofer, I recommend that the Poison Control Center phone number, 1-800-222-1222, be posted by the home telephone, and programmed into each caregiver’s mobile phone. In the event that the child swallows a foreign substance, the last thing you want to do is find yourself scrambling for a phone number. Do not hesitate to call, the people are friendly, professional, and they do not make you feel stupid.

When my twins were born we kept syrup of ipecac in the home, which was recommended by American Academy of Pediatrics to induce vomiting in the event of poisoning. Since that time the AAP recommends disposing of any syrup of ipecac. There are several reasons behind the new recommendation. Most importantly, there has never been any evidence that vomiting helps children who eat or drink something poisonous. It was a practice based on intuition rather than science.

Now for the scary numbers: More than 1.2 million children under the age of 5 were victims of unintentional poisonings in 2004 according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers. About 90,000 were treated in hospitals and sadly about 100 did not survive. About 90% of the poisonings occurred in the home usually between 4 and 11pm.

I can tell you from experience that it is not pleasant to go to Emergency Room with a sick child and it is especially unpleasant from 4 to 11pm.

They put everything in their mouth, some of it is dangerous. Take precautions now so you are not the one to say “I only left them for a second.”

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About the Author: Jack Smith is the CEO of InfantHouse.com, a baby proofing company serving the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas area. He is the Daddy of boy/girl twins, affiliated with the International Association for Child Safety and contributing author of “Chaos 2 Calm: the moms-of-multiples’ guide to an organized family.”

Octuplets…

There has been a lot on the news about the octuplets that were recently born in California.  I want to start by saying that I am amazed how far we have come with fertility medicine.  Not to mention, the amazing ability we now have to care for TINY newborns.

As the mom of more than the average 2 kids, I can appreciate any person’s desire to have a large family.  I am one of those that never thought I would have more than two kids, but somehow found myself surrounded by little munchkins.  If all things were perfect I would have a few more.  I obviously have no issues with big families.  I think you should have as many children as you like….

That is…as many as you can truly support and take care of.  The mother of the octuplets said (in what little of the Ann Curry interview I have seen so far) that people are upset because she did this as a single mom.  Let me just come right out and say that I do not think THAT is the major issue here.  Most people I have talked to have the same issues  I do.

(Nadya Suleman, the woman who gave birth to octuplets in January 2009.  Photo from www.time.com)

She already had six small children that she could not support alone.  Before people harpoon me by saying that she has said she never has been on welfare.  OK….she lied, but even so, she lives with her parents.  She stated that she will get by with help from friends, family and her church.  So, because she decided that six children was not enough she willingly took the risk to have multiples and is leaving it up to those around her to “help her out”.  We all get help from time to time from friends and family.  We get help with babysitting on occasion or a small loan to help us out from a parent.  But is it OK to continue to knowingly have children that you can not afford?  Is it OK to expect that others will help you out on a continual basis because you chose to do this? Not only that, but to take such a huge risk as to have multiples that could possibly require extensive care that, based on what has been released about this mother, she can not afford?

Here is the one thing I can applaud her for…not turning to selective abortion once she found out she was carrying multiples.

Having 14 kids is a great thing if you can support them and take care of them yourself.  But, having them for selfish reasons and then relying on others is not something I can support.

Cross posted at Frazzled LaShawn

Flower Mound Freecycle

What is the best Freecycle item that you have picked up?

A few months ago, we picked up a breadmaker!!! Thanks to my friend Holly O…I didn’t even know she was the person who offered it up. We’ve made 3 loaves of bread so far. First one turned out flat because I didn’t set the loaf size high enough. Second loaf was a white bread that turned out good. Third loaf was a 100% whole wheat loaf that was dense but still yummy.

Our next loaf will be a wheat mix…maybe it will be a little lighter & more fluffy.

 

Have you signed up for the FlowerMound Freecycle group yet?  No?

Visit FreeCycle.org and find a group in your area.  The Flower Mound group is quite active and I have just recently found a great purple floppy hat for our Maui vacation, Bingo dobbers for art projects at home, Christmas wrapping ribbons, & a bag FULL of like-new boy’s clothes…an entire trash bag full!  What will you find?

Happy Freecycling!

Come see what else Heather is up to at Reese’s View of the World.

Embracing North Texas Spring Sightings

What a difference a week makes in North Texas weather. Warm breezes blew metroplex children outdoors to play under blue skies. Spring grass is not yet poking through brown ‘burb lawns, but dandelions pop up to greet the sun.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures taken this week.

Vanishing ice.

Rising sun.

Passing breeze.

Advancing feet.

Driving laughter.

Pondering spring.

Picturing fun.

New Program Takes Argyle Texas School Worldwide

Liberty Christian School started in 1980 in one room of a church. They now have a large, beautiful campus in Argyle that hosts 1200 students. Starting this fall an online program for 7th through 12th grades will take this local school worldwide.

Liberty Christian School has partnered with Point of View Ministries to extend a Liberty education to anyone, anywhere with a computer. This type of program has become very popular among college students and the trend is growing at the high school level.

Liberty Christian School will provide 7th – 12th grade online studies from a Christian Worldview curriculum. The tuition for the program is $6000. This is not a home school program. The students enrolled in Liberty’s online school will be taught by Liberty teachers. There are online groups and clubs. Through specialized conferencing software the online students will interact with each other and their teachers through video, instant messaging and chat groups. The students at home even see what the teacher writes on the white board.

More information and a “campus tour” of the Liberty Christian Online School can be found on Liberty Christian School’s website.

Living the Vida Lola – Part One

Misa Ramirez is a ‘burb mom.

She lives in Argyle with her husband and 5 children.

Oh…and she wrote a novel.

Her book, Living the Vida Lola is being released on January 20.

We are celebrating this historic occasion with Three Days of Lola Cruz:

• Today Misa will introduce herself in her own words.
• On Monday she will share her Lola Cruz’ Spanish Rice recipe.
• And finally on Tuesday I will tell the story of our informal “interview”.  I wanted to find out more about how this funny mom of 5 ended up with what Publisher’s Weekly is calling a “muy caliente debut”.

So without further fanfare, here is Misa’s story taken from her website.

First, a little background. I was born in Southern California to amazingly devoted and talented parents. (Note to self: A person is never too old to give a parent plug.) Dad is a mega superstar Silicon Valley Executive and Mom is an über-talented watercolor artist. I pulled a pretty good parent card, in my opinion.

The middle child, between two brothers, I learned early that being the only girl gave me ‘that special something’ in my family. Mothers and daughters. Fathers and daughters. They are unique bonds that can’t be explained. I know that all my books will have strong mother/daughter and father/daughter relationships–family is what I value most in life.

My dad’s career took us to Northern California when I was in sixth grade. College, marriage, kids have all been rooted here. Until they weren’t.  With a recent move to North Texas, we are now learning new lingo…”y’all”, “fixin’ to” [the official verb of Texas, in case y'all are wondering], and “chiggers”, a fun little bug that bites and bites and bites, to name a few.

Get on with it, you’re saying. How’d you start writing? (Note to self: Stay focused.)

My major in college was French—for the first year. Then I realized that I was far more interested in communicating in English. (My aptitude for language is strong—I just didn’t want to put in the hours in the lab! Shhh…don’t tell anyone…)

I’d always been interested in writing, always kept diaries–long burned by now. (Note to self: destroy all evidence of lame behavior and thoughts.) Once my Shakespeare professor wrote on one of my college papers, “never change my captivating style”. Wow. The power of a teacher is huge.

Unfortunately, power can be positive and negative. Whatever boost I’d felt from Professor Levin’s comments, a grad student who taught creative writing my junior year of college effectively quashed. Once I wrote a story about my roommate stealing her ex-boyfriend’s truck while wearing fingerless gloves—all completely and pathetically true. I got a C- on the story and the grad student wrote, “Write about things you know. This is completely unbelievable.” Even though he clearly had zero imagination, my confidence went out the window.

During college I met a great guy named Carlos. We dated, broke up, dated some more, broke up again—typical young love. We eventually got our act together and got married. I went on to teach middle school Language Arts. He was an elementary school teacher. Eventually his career ventured into school administration and we relocated from the Sacramento area to the San Francisco Bay Area. We had two kids by then, another on the way, and I went on hiatus from teaching.

The big question for me was what I could do to keep my brain functioning now that I wasn’t teaching. The thing that called to me, the only thing that inspired me in fact, was writing. I started writing a young adult historical fiction book–by this time I had overcome the scarring of that grad student’s remarks. (Note to self: burn all college papers) It took me three years to finish that book—it’s now sitting on the shelf in my bedroom, destined never to see an editor’s desk. (In its defense, I did send it out once to Scholastic and received a VERY nice rejection—no, not an oxymoron—there are levels of rejection and a nice one is a good thing.) But by that time I’d had my third son and we were moving again. The book went onto the back burner.

Short stories for children kept my creative juices flowing while I was busy having a daughter, carpooling, moving to and remodeling yet another house, and balancing the busy life we’d carved out. By pure luck, one of these stories was published and made in to a beautiful book. I thought I’d struck gold and found my second career.

Not. Even. Close.

The children’s publishing world is brutal—unless you can really relate to kids. Even though I had a passel of them living with me, I apparently didn’t. Huh.

Obviously I hadn’t yet found my niche or my voice.

We eventually moved back to the Sacramento Valley, I had one more child (in case you lost track, that makes five altogether), and had written close to twenty-five children’s stories. I’d had no luck selling any more of them though, and was ready to throw my hands up and quit writing altogether. But it’s not that easy to give up something you love. I couldn’t stop writing. (Note to self: find another addiction to give up—maybe chocolate? Or coffee? Okay, okay, twist my arm…I’ll give up cauliflower.)

A friend and I started an informal Monday night writing group. Since I was not willing to give up writing altogether, though I’d given up any thoughts of having a second career in publishing, I was stuck. With no inspiration for kids’ books in my befuddled brain, I decided to write something for grownups. A book with a mystery and love and swearing—and sex.

Oh, it was fun! Eye opening! Liberating!

I wrote the first draft in six months.

And just like meeting Mr. Right (Note to self: Give supportive husband Mr. Right a kiss), I knew this was the one. Maybe I would have a second career in publishing after all.

That book, the first in the Lola Cruz mystery series with Minotaur Books, has been through about a gazillion revisions since I finished it—and I still love it. I think that’s a good thing, right?

Now that I’m in the Dallas Metroplex area, I’m living my calling, silly grad students aside. Whatever else happens in my life, I know I was meant to be a writer and nothing’s going to stop the story that’s knocking around my brain from being told. Writing has spread its root into the very depth of my heart—and it’s there to stay.

Check out Misa’s website for details on her upcoming book signings in this area:
February 6 @ 6:00-7:30: Barnes and Noble in Denton
February 24 @ 2:00-4:00: Barnes and Noble in Highland Village

Health and Wellness Seminar

January Health Wellness Seminar/PTA meeting
at Hilltop Elementary in Argyle
Tuesday January 20^th at 8:15 AM

Sick and tired of your family being sick and tired?
Looking for natural, non-toxic ways to improve your childrens’ immune systems? Concerned about the safety of cold medications, antibiotics, and steroid shots? Looking for safe alternatives? then come listen to Dr. Ozzie talk about herbs, homeopathics, vitamin therapy, fish oil and more.

It seems harder and harder to keep our families healthy today. We have a food supply which is very low in essential nutrients. We have a very high level of environmental toxins. This all leads to a higher duration, intensity and frequency of illness. Most parents continue to see their family doctor only to get the same answers: more antibiotics or steroids with limited results. As parents we want the best for our kids and in a time when there is so much information there does not seem to be much knowledge on how to use it. We have questions like what vitamins to take, how much do we take, what is the difference between generic vitamins and pharmaceutical grade vitamins?

Parents wonder if one diet is good for everyone or if children have unique needs. Can the fact that my child is involved in sports, has too much work at school or too much extra curricular activities cause him or her to get run down and sick? Should we eat organic or non-organic food? Dr. Ozzie will break down the three major stresses that make your family sick and how to decrease or eliminate them.

Come join us for an interactive discussion and bring your questions!

Who is Dr. Ozzie?

Dr. Ozzie is a Board Certified Chiropractor who specializes in Functional Medicine and Applied Kinesiology. Dr. Ozzie has over five years of post-graduate studies and clinical practice in Applied Kinesiology (AK); and has three years of continuing education in functional/integrative medicine. His study and practice of AK and functional/integrative medicine combined with chiropractic care expands greatly the success rate of the overall health of all his patients. He specializes in nutrition and high vitamin dose therapies and natural hormone therapies based on each individual need and what systems need support. Dr. Ozzie joined ProActiveWorx Wellness Center in Flower Mound, Texas in October 2008.

Dr. Ozzie is committed to helping restore and maintain optimal health through natural, non-toxic methods. He uses both modern diagnostic testing such as blood work, saliva testing and urine analysis as well as alternative treatment methods. He will help you understand the causes of illness and learn methods of self-care so your body can fight disease and remain healthy without frequent visits to the doctor. He creates ways to have your genetics work for you instead of against you.

The PTA meeting is free for members and open to all who would like to attend. If you are not a member, you may join for $8 at the door.