Park it up front for a safer ride. Credit: The Silly Wagon
The Wisey Car Bag helps minimize distractions while driving alone with the kids, so you can keep your eyes on the road, where they belong.
Designed to hang on the front passenger seat, this innovative bag keeps all your little one's essentials within easy reach, with lots of pockets for holding bottles, diapers, pacifier, books, toys, snacks and more. It even has a special holder for your water bottle and a removable pouch that dispenses wipes.
It folds up or moves aside easily to make room for a passenger, and can be turned around when your child is old enough to grab their own stuff.
Open your child's mind with art. Credit: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images
Want to spend some quality time with your kids, but can't spend a lot of cash? Schedule a two-part "date" for art appreciation.
Many art museums and galleries have one weekday, or a specific time period, during which admission is free. For example, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago offers free admission every Tuesday. The Museum of Modern Art in New York City has "Target Free Friday Nights" every Friday from 4 to 8 p.m., sponsored by Target.
The Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC both have free admission every day. Even museums that don't provide a time slot for complimentary admission often permit children under the age of 12 to enter at no cost, or have a "recommended" price for tickets, but allow you to pay what you can.
Exploring an art gallery or museum together will encourage you and your child to talk about topics that deviate from everyday issues, such as school or home. This diversion from daily life will increase the bonding impact of your adventure. Discussions about color, shape and dimension will expand both your horizons.
5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1... Birthday! Credit: Big Day Chains
Big Day Chains puts a new spin on an old tradition with its 30-day countdown chains for birthdays, weddings and baby's arrival.
The Days 'til Birthday kit is a great way to help little ones manage the seemingly endless wait until their big day, and definitely provides more fun than crossing off days on the kitchen calendar. Each kit comes with 30 perforated paper links that feature colorful printed designs on one side, and outlined birthday shapes to color in on the other. It also includes non-toxic glue dots for easy, mess-free assembly.
Rebels that we are, we love the idea of letting the kids count up, not down, coloring and adding a link to the chain each day so it can be used as a birthday decoration when it's done.
There's a reason why babies fling food at the wall.
So, we were psyched to find out about a line of 100 percent organic, yummy-sounding (think sweet potatoes, pumpkin, apples and blueberries) baby food from Ella's Kitchen. Care to try? We're giving away five sampler packs of goodies from Ella's Kitchen.
Enter our giveaway by leaving a comment telling us what your child's least favorite baby food flavor is.
CONTEST RULES
• To enter, leave a confirmed comment below telling us what your child's least favorite baby food flavor is.
• The comment must be left before 5 pm ET on Friday, July 30, 2010.
• You may enter only once.
• Five winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Five winners will receive a sample pack of eight Ella's Kitchen baby food/smoothie fruit pouches, including all six Stage 1 Baby Food flavors and both Smoothie Fruit flavors. The Stage 1 Baby Food flavors are strawberries & apples, broccoli pears & peas, carrots apples and parsnips, peaches & bananas, apples & bananas, and sweet potatoes pumpkin apples & blueberries. The two Smoothie Fruits are the Red One and the Yellow One. Retail value of each prize is $15.
• Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
• Click here for complete Official Rules. Winners will be notified by email, so be sure to provide a valid address!
Is it a battle every time you need to reapply your kid's sunscreen while you're at the pool, park or beach? UVSunSense wristbands can bring peace to your play day.
Simply wrap one around your kid's wrist, apply sunscreen to their body and the wristband, then monitor for color changes that tell you it's time to reapply or get out of the sun. The bands work with sunscreens of SPF 15 and higher, and change color at different times depending on the SPF level.
They're also designed to be used in salt, fresh or chlorinated water, and in showers -- so readings stay accurate no matter what your kids are up to.
Experts say kids with lice can stay in school. Credit: Sharon Gekoski-Kimmel, Philadelphia Inquirer / MCT
Your daughter's teacher notices a tiny speck moving near the nape her neck: It's lice. Should she:
A.) Call you to come pick up your child.
B.) Ask the nurse to confirm her diagnosis of lice.
C.) Let the child finish the school day, but tell you not to bring her back until you are sure the infestation has cleared.
According to a revised clinical report issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the only correct answer is B. There is no need to send a child home from school because he or she has been found to have head lice, the report states.
The reason? They've probably had the lice for ages, anyway. Lice can live on a child's head for six to eight weeks before itching starts, Cynthia Devore, a pediatrician, chair elect of the Council on School Health for the American Academy of Pediatrics and a co-author of the revised report, tells ParentDish.
Perhaps you're familiar with the French cookies known as Le Petit Ecolier (translation: The Little Schoolboy).
Across the channel in Great Britain, the name might have to be changed to Le Grande Ecolier. A number of schoolboys have apparently made themselves a little too familiar with various kinds of cookies.
So much so, in fact, that British retailer Marks and Spencer knows a plump market when it sees one. The company now offers a line of school uniforms for the horizontally-challenged youngster.
The BBC reports the retailer's new line, Plus, provides clothes for preschool children with waistlines up to 23 inches. Such pants usually are worn by children twice that age.
Some children welcome the adventure of a new school year, eagerly heading off to explore the classroom and make friends, and barely noticing as you say goodbye. But for other children, every school day begins with tummy aches, frantic tears, and desperate drama.
If you have a child who struggles with separation anxiety, here are some tips for helping them successfully manage a new school year:
Develop a bond with your child's new teacher
During the school day, your child's teacher becomes her source of security and comfort. Visit the classroom before school begins and help your child forge a special connection with her new teacher. Look for common interests, and help the teacher begin to take a personal interest in your child, to strengthen a natural attachment between them.
Read a story -- and shop while you're at it -- with Ralph Lauren's new virtual storybook. Credit: Ralph Lauren
Kids often look to TV, movies and music videos for a little fashion inspiration, and now they can add virtual books to their list of style resources.
On Aug. 18, Ralph Lauren is set to launch its first virtual storybook on Ralph Lauren.com and Bloomingdales.com for readers ages 2 to 8. Narrated by Grammy and Emmy award winner Harry Connick Jr., father to three girls, "The RL Gang" tells the tale of eight uber-stylish kids -- four boys and four girls -- who encounter an adventure on their first day back to school.
Of course, there's a large fashion component at work here, too. The virtual book features 24 new looks from the Ralph Lauren children's wear fall collection that parents can simply click to purchase. See something you like, but aren't quite ready to buy? Tuck it away in a virtual closet to possibly return to later.
Fifteen percent of proceeds from the sales for the month after the launch will benefit Connick's charity, the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music in The Musician's Village in New Orleans.
"Draw the curtains" just took on a whole new meaning.
The Ty D.I.Y. Edition shower curtain is a blank canvas that just begs for your kids to transform it into their own masterpiece with the included permanent marker.
Breathable #2 PVC-free plastic means there's no toxic vinyl smell, and less of a chance that gross mold and mildew will sprout up. The shower curtain is machine washable, and can be recycled when you're done with it.
Warning: Be prepared to have your kids escort visiting friends and family to the bathroom for a private viewing.
Reading by iPad app-light. Illustration by Christopher Healy.
Whatever you want to do, there's an app for that: It's already a stale joke.
But, as they say, there's truth in jest. And when it comes to bedtime stories, yes, there's an app for that. Many, actually. And a lot of them are (ahem) not very good. But there are a few picture book apps out there that are mind-blowingly great. Here's a look at just how cool virtual storytime can be.
The Little Mermaid and other stories by Hans Christian Andersen (Game Collage, $8.99)
With the look of a well-worn tome, pulled off the shelf of a long-forgotten library in Grandma's house, the cover of this e-book alone is enough to entice book lovers to dive in. And once you start flicking pages, you'll come across Andersen's original text, augmented by beautifully lifelike three-dimensional illustrations, nearly all of which you can interact with on your iPad. Light and unlight swaying lanterns, swat mosquitoes, pop bubbles, swish the tendrils of sea anemones -- even set off fireworks. These are truly interactive illustrations. There are even neat Easter eggs in the text (tap the word "bells" and you'll hear them tolling). The app also includes equally interactive versions of "The Emperor's New Clothes" and the garden snail fable, "The Happy Family." If you're squeamish, you should love the unbelievably real-looking bugs and slugs that crawl across your iPad screen in that last one.
The people who gave the world and its arteries the Whopper just unveiled a new breakfast menu for children. Kiddies get a breakfast sandwich, apple slices, calcium-fortified orange juice and a toy (to make eating fruit worthwhile).
The meal clocks in at 410 calories, 11.5 grams of fat and 4 grams of saturated fat. Burger King execs boast it conforms to lower fat and calorie standards defined by the Council of Better Business Bureau's Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative.
Sam Moran and his wife, Lyn, welcomed daughter Eloise to the family earlier this year. Credit: Photo courtesy Sam Moran
The Wiggles need to make a little more wiggle room inside the big red car.
Sam Moran, the yellow Wiggle and lead singer of the kiddie group, became a dad earlier this year.
Moran and his wife, Lyn, whom he met in 2003 when she played the lovable Dorothy the Dinosaur on the show, welcomed daughter Eloise Isabella Moran on Jan. 18, in Sydney, Australia. She weighed in at 6 pounds, 7 ounces and, like her famous father, Dad says Eloise came out singing.
Moran, who hits the road July 28 with rest of the Wiggles to embark on a 26-city American tour, spoke exclusively with ParentDish in his first U.S. interview discussing the birth of his baby girl and the impact parenthood has had on him.
Back in May, we discovered a most adorable video of Jessica, a little girl who looked in the mirror and cheered to her daily affirmation that everything in her life is great.
Now, we found her younger self, meeting her newborn sister, Vanessa, for the first time. From the way she's able to quiet the baby, it's evident that Jessica is all about making everyone around her happy.
ZOMG! No more trashy "teen" dolls with too-short skirts, high heels, cell phones and video screens embedded in their chests.
Outfitted with a sports uniform, a backpack and sporty accessories, each Go! Go! Sports Girls doll offers a secret themed message hidden on her huggable tummy such as "Dream Big Run Fast" or "Dream Big Score Goals." What a great way to encourage young girls to develop positive life skills like self-appreciation, daily exercise and healthy eating and sleeping habits.
Do-good alert: Five percent of the profits from the sale of Go! Go! Sports Girls dolls are donated to Girls Inc. to support the organization's empowerment programs for girls.
