Kiddley reader (and good friend) Lara sent us a couple of suggestions today for encouraging kids to get their daily tasks done.

She pointed us to DLTK’s Custom Chore Chart, an online generator which lets you set up your own chart ready to print off and pin-up so that your kids can check off their tasks as they complete them. It’s a simple little html table thing, but doing it this way is a lot easier and quicker than ruling up your own chart on a piece of craft paper.

Lara also says:

“I’ve also been making hand drawn simple task cards which I have laminated and will put in the order I want the tasks completed with a reward at the end. This is so I don’t have to repeat myself 100 times to get anything done - ie. ‘get dressed, shoes and socks on, brush your teeth, wash your face then TV on’.”

If you like the sound of organising your kids with task cards, their is an in depth discussion on Technomom.com which tells us about one family’s system for rewarding (and penalising) older kids with tokens for completing their incredibly detailed, daily task cards.

For parents who are keen to avoid handing out the usual bag of sugary-artificially coloured and flavoured junk that seems to be the main-stay of the take-home party favour bag, we have got together a few alternative suggestions.

Firstly, the Kiddley reader who triggered the idea for this post is Carol of Kidding-around. Instead of letting her kids distribute sweet-bags or donuts to class mates on birthdays (their preschool, like our preschool, has a no-homemade-treats policy), they put together mixed music CDs of their favourite tracks. The kids design the cover art (above) and make a copy for each class mate. This would also be a wonderful gift to hand out at the end of a party to each guest. Check out (sm)all ages for some tunes to include that go beyond Barney and the Wiggles.

I also happened upon a list of favours for a 1st birthday party on Sprout. Rubber ducks, bubbles (to watch rather than playing with alone), sand toys (pails, shovels, rakes, molds etc), homemade t-shirts, egg-shakers and beach balls.

Other ideas for things to include in a favour bag (of varying expense):
Coloured chalk
Rubber balls
Sunglasses
Water squirters
Coloring books
Novelty erasers
Mini paint sets
Stickers
Pocket flashlights
Notebooks
Balloons or balloon animals
Plastic animals
Plastic, paper or shell leis (flower necklaces)
Packets of mixed flower seeds (for a spring party)
Gift certificates (such as passes to movies)
Polaroids of the party
Jacks
Keychains
Disposable cameras
Crayons or colored pencils
Beaded necklaces
Marbles
Yo-yos
Lip gloss
Plastic costume jewelry
Mirrors
Temporary tattoos
Hair bows and clips

Clever ways to packages up party favours:
How to make a party cracker
Make a surprise ball - Megan’s were made for Valentine’s Day - but you could fill these with lots of different things

Tiny Pinatas (all from Not Martha)
Decorate a small tin (a small potato chip or nut tin would be perfect) and fill it.

Update: please respect your country’s applicable copyright and fair-use laws when putting together your party favours CDs.  Thanks!

There is no time like the present to start thinking about your family’s safety in the horrific event of a home fire.

First things first. Go and test your smoke detectors now. We just did and discovered that while the battery test seems to work, the fire detector itself is not sensitive to smoke! Yikes. As we have no idea when these detectors were installed, Phil went out and bought two new ones to replace them with this afternoon. If you don’t have any smoke detectors, install some on each floor of your house especially in sleeping zones. Make sure you test your alarms once a month, and replace the batteries once a year (a good way to remember to do this is to change them when you change your clocks around for daylight savings).

Because the Kiddley editors are not trained safety officers, we are going to defer to the real experts and send you to some places with fire drill and home safety instructions and we highly encourage you to check them out:

The National Fire Prevention Association (who recommend having a family fire drill twice a year) website has some great resources:

Some key tips for kids when it comes to cooking, safety and fire prevention. Highly recommended reading.

Home escape planning - including basic escape planning, tips for people living in apartments and clearing escape routes.

Download and use the NFPA Home Escape Plan .pdf to help you plan your emergency plan.

With the holidays either on us, or coming up fast, many families will no doubt be planning some kind of travel, whether it be by air or road. How to entertain kids on a long trip has always been a topic for much consideration. I know that the obvious answer these days is to invest in a in a cheap portable DVD player, but if you are looking for some other bits and pieces we have some suggestions for you.

It’s best if you can do a little preparation ahead of time by finding a bag or backpack and filling it with goodies which your kids can absorb themselves in during the trip. Even each activity only manages to entertain them for a few minutes (this is especially the case with little kids) it should at least break a boredom patch and stop that awful accompanying whining, fighting and grizzling.

Kiddley reader Aoiffe wrote in with her suggestions which she packs for her three year old:

“bubble wrap, manilla folders cut down to half size to stick stickers on (he’s not old enough to stick them in the “right” places in the sticker book by himself), etch-a-sketch, bath toys (minus the water) useful for games and smaller ones to chew on, and a towel per child (useful for blanket, cleaning up and generally annoying other backseat travelers with, and of course Playschool CDs and storytapes.”

You will need:
A fabric bag, strong plastic bag (for older kids only) or backpack per child
(a backpack is especially good if you are rushing through airports)
A Bottle of drinking water
Snacks
Wipes (for hands and faces and spills)
A favourite soft toy

And some of the following from each age group:

Infants:
(hopefully they will sleep a fair bit)
Finger puppet or hand puppet (for you to do the entertaining)
Rattle
Board books (especially ones featuring babies faces)
Rusks

Unbreakable Mirror
Cellophane scrunched up and tied inside an orange net
Music CDs for car trips

Toddlers:
Several small inexpensive new toys for novelty value such as plastic dinosaurs, small car, Small plastic or wooden dollhouse family etc
Finger puppets or hand puppets
Unbreakable Mirror
Magnifying glass
Notebook and crayons (thick unbreakable ones)
Stickers
Audio books or tapes (libraries usually have a good selection)
Sing along music CDs
Magnetic play sets

Preschoolers:
Notebooks and crayons or washable markers
Picture books to look at alone
Audio books or tapes (either home made ones with accompanying books or bought or borrowed)

Threading cards (we have the Chicken Socks Amazing Lacing activity book and it’s great for travel — but you could easily make some of your own with some old greeting cards, glue, a hole punch and some shoe laces)
Magnifying glass
Magna-doodle
Sticker books and stickers
Sing along music CDs
Toy phone (one that can record and playback a little segment is especially great)

5-7:
Activity books with puzzles and games

Magna doodle (great for playing games such as tic tac toe and so on)
Notebook and markers
Road diary for recording adventures or scrapbook
Stickers and tape to go along with the scrapbook
New paperbacks
A book of jokes
Binoculars
Print outs of grids for games of fences

8-10:
Stamps and ink-pad
Road diary for recording adventures
New paperback
Mixed music tapes or CDs
Portable music player
Activity books
Address books and postcards or note paper

Maybe a copy of Kids Travel: A Backseat Survival Guide which gets good reviews on Amazon.
Bird book
Travel games (including print outs of grids for games of fences)

11+:
Magic Tricks
Nail Tattoos
Road diary
Mixed music CDs or tapes
Portable music player
New paperback
Address books and postcards or note paper
Disposable camera or sticker camera
Travel games (dig out your old rubiks cube!)

I got a little stuck on ideas for 5-7 year olds… so if you have any suggestions for this age group or any of the other groups please leave them in comments — I will compile an extended list at a later date for our resources section (which does not exist as yet!) so your help will be greatly appreciated.

Right now we are being woken nightly by a little person who cries out after having a nightmare. On our next available day I am off to find a night light for her room which may or may not help. Another thing that might help is to build into our evening ritual the idea of slipping a good Dream Bag under her pillow.

A small fabric bag can be made or bought from a craft shop (a bag which would usually hold a bar of soap or some other small gift) and inside place a “magical” object. This could be a brand new shiny coin, a small polished rock or a beautiful shell. Each evening we can examine this magical object, slip it into the bag and place it under her pillow.

Another idea is to find some Guatemalan Worry Dolls which often come in their own soft bag… or make your own.

Related links:
Nightmares and Children
Beautiful night lights from Happy Owl Glassworks