Filed under: Child Development, Lifestyle, 6-7 years, 8-9 years, 10-12 years, Pre-teen, Creative projects

Did you know the youngest person to be awarded a patent for an invention was only two years old? She invented a suction cup device that could be used by handicapped people to open a door.

They say necessity is the mother of invention. But what if you are the mother (or father) of an inventor? How do you encourage their creativity and stimulate their inventiveness? The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Ad Council have created a website, Invent Now, that hopes to do just that. Using games featuring space, sports and entertainment, children gain the knowledge they need to start thinking up their own inventions. If they come up with something new, they can even submit it online.

Invent Now is also sponsoring Camp Invention, where kids will come together to experiment with hands-on activities including inventing methods of futuristic travel, communicating with aliens and following clues to solve mysteries. The camp is open to kids entering first through sixth grades. Enter your zip code on the site to see if there's one coming to your area

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Filed under: 4 years, Preschooler, Celebrity style

Tom Stancombe attached a message to a balloon and set it loose in Hampshire, west of London, hoping to find a penpal in another country. The four-year-old released the balloon at a school festival with the goal of reaching France or even points beyond. The balloon, however, travelled less than twenty miles, returning to earth at Windsor Castle.

Queen Elizabeth II got wind of the balloon's arrival and asked her personal assistant, Angela Kelly, to respond. Miss Kelly wrote the boy, saying "She [the Queen] was delighted to find that your balloon had travelled all the way to the gardens at Windsor Castle." Naturally, young Tom was extremely proud of having gotten the letter. He wrote back wrote back, noting that his great, great grandfather, Petrus Johannes Arundzen, had been commissioned to copy Dutch masters on display at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.

Miss Kelly, wrote to tell Tom that she would get in touch with the Royal Collection to find out what had happened to the artwork. Two weeks later, Tom got another letter: "I am absolutely delighted to be able to tell you that the Royal Collection do indeed have three etchings by Petrus Johannes Arundzen. They form part of the print collection in the Print Library and are printed on vellum rather than paper, which means they are very special deluxe prints."

She also had a favour to ask of Tom: "Would you be able to ask your Mummy and Daddy for me if they know anything more about your great, great grandfather. Royal Collection would love to know more about him." Tom -- and his parents -- wrote back to help fill in the missing information.

This is a pretty cool story. What kid doesn't dream of somehow making contact with a famous person? I'm sure that, in the UK, you can't get much more famous than the Queen herself.

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Filed under: Lifestyle, Moms, Dads, 6-7 years, Books, Discipline

According to this article, many parents have a hard time saying no to their children. I personally don't have this problem and sometimes say no just because I can. I don't even need a reason. But I have forwarded the article to my husband because he does find it hard to refuse Ellie sometimes and it concerns me.

David Walsh has written a book titled No: Why Kids - Of All Ages - Need to Hear It and Ways Parents Can Say It. In this interview with Scholastic, he talks about why parents find it difficult to say no and how that can harm their children in the long run. Not surprisingly, Walsh says that many times a parent's desire to acquiesce is rooted in guilt. We are busy and and feel bad about not spending enough time with our kids and try to make up for it by granting their every wish. I am sure this is the underlying issue for my husband.

Some parents worry that when their child suffers any unhappiness it may negatively effect their self-esteem. According to Walsh, this couldn't be further from the truth. He says, "Self-esteem is not a new idea, but it was mis-defined in the popular culture during the 1970s and '80s. We got the idea that self-esteem comes first and behavior comes second. In other words, if we feel good about ourselves, we'll behave ourselves."

I agree with Walsh's ideas on saying no to children. What about you? Do you find it hard to say no to your kids?

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Filed under: Child Development, Feeding & Nutrition, Family togetherness, Eating, Restaurants

We're about to enter a new culinary phase at my house. This summer, at least four nights a week, my sons (who are seven and five) will eat what my husband and I are eating for dinner. No exceptions, no substitutions, and no complaints.

Before you berate me for taking so long to get to this point (yes, my oldest son is SEVEN and yes he's been eating dinner every night since he came home from the hospital, and YES, I have been making him a SEPARATE MEAL for most of that time), let me tell you this: my son has some serious sensory issues, many of which are related to food, particularly taste and texture. He also has anxiety issues, which mean that he is quite literally afraid to try new foods because the fear that they might taste or feel weird can be overwhelming. Two years ago, the mere suggestion that he have some sweet potato or broccoli or pork chop on his plate would cause him to become hysterical; now, I can serve him anything and while he will leave it where I put it, he will only rarely even taste it. And by "taste" I mean "touch it to the very tip of his tongue as quickly as possible and then slug down the rest of his milk to drown out any remaining particles of food that MIGHT have gotten in his mouth." Okay, I exaggerate, but not much. Really.

Yesterday, when I read David's Kamp's essay "Don't Point That Menu at My Child," I found myself nodding along. Kamp writes that after an initial love affair with the children's menu, "I came to the realization that America is in the grips of a nefarious chicken-finger pandemic, in which a blandly tasty foodstuff has somehow become the de facto official nibble of our young." He goes on to say that 'Far from being an advance, I've concluded, the standard children's menu is regressive, encouraging children (and their misguided parents) to believe that there is a rigidly delineated 'kids' cuisine' that exists entirely apart from grown-up cuisine."

Kamp writes about how, when he was a child, there were no children's menus, and no alternative dinners in most American homes. We ate what we were served, and if we didn't like it, we were at least expected to be polite about it. This summer, we will be trying to teach our son that same lesson--that food is good, even foods you don't think you will like initially, and that the dinner table isn't about getting what you want, but about being part of a community of people who are sharing a meal. While I can't (entirely) blame the ubiquitous kids' menu for my son's limited eating, I think Kamp is right that we have been seduced by kid cuisine and have lost that sense that food is more than just stuff that comes in nugget form.

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Filed under: Outings, Amusement parks, Vacations

There's Disneyland, there's not Disneyland, and there's Diggerland. Diggerland is just one of several unusual amusement parks highlighted recently by our friends over at Gadling. I think Diggerland is my favorite of the bunch because, well, let's face it -- who doesn't love construction equipment? And the only better than construction equipment is construction equipment you can operate. And that is exactly what happens at Diggerland. Plus, that's a Land Rover in the upper left corner.

If that's not your cup of tea, perhaps you'd prefer the rather bizarre Bon Bon Land? As you might guess from the name, it was built by a candy company. Since kids are not allowed to tour the factory -- due to hygiene issues -- the company built the amusement park instead. There, you can enjoy rides such as Hundeprutterutchebane. According to Gadling, "Also known as 'Dog Fart Switchback,' Hundeprutterutchebane takes riders on a fun-filled journey around a hound's piles of poop and allows them to listen to the sounds of his farts."

Lastly, there's always Vietnam's Suoi Tien Park, a Buddhist-themed amusement park. This park includes a huge splash park with, yes, a giant monument of an old man with a waterfall beard. There are also displays of Heaven Palace for those who have been good and the twelve torments of Hell for the rest of us. How can you not be booking your flight already?

Check out the Gadling story and be sure to fill us in on any of these places you might have visited. Me, I'm going to get to work on figuring out how to get to Diggerland. For the kids, of course.

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Filed under: Health and Safety, Lifestyle, Grandparents, 6-7 years

Common wisdom has it that when grandparents are caregivers for their children's children, they pay a price with their health.The physical demands and stress of child-rearing combined with an aging body would logically result in poorer health, right? Not so, according to a new study of nearly 13,000 grandparents between the ages of 50 and 80.

Researchers at University of Chicago and three other universities found that caring for grandchildren does not have "dramatic and widespread negative impacts on the grandparent's health." "These findings suggest that health declines are not an inevitable consequence of grandchild care," the authors wrote. Declining health due to caring for grandchildren is actually the exception.

Among the surprising results of this study was the discovery that grandmothers caring for grandchildren in the absence of the children's parents did suffer an initial health decline. But over time, if the arrangement didn't change, their health improved.

See? Grandkids are good for you! I know that at 41 years old I am probably outside the average age of a grandparent raising a grandchild. But I am much older than I was when raising my own daughter and I can tell a difference. However, being with Ellie requires me to be more physically active than I might otherwise be and that helps keep me healthy and strong. Plus, all that laughter is good for soul.

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Filed under: Feeding & Nutrition, 6-7 years, 8-9 years, Pre-teen, Teenager

Kids like pretending to be grown-ups, right? So next time you're having a dinner party, or just cracking open a Budweiser after a stressful day at the office, let your kids join you -- with fake beer.

I'm not sure how well this idea would go over in most countries, but it's apparently been very successful in Japan. That's where a company called Sangaria created a line of fake alcoholic drinks intended specifically for children -- they've made beer, wine, champagne and cocktails. Apparently, you can even by six-packs, and the beer (flavored like apple juice) foams at the top when you pour it into a glass.

Puts the sparking grape juice you give the kids on New Years Eve to shame, doesn't it?

I wonder what happens when the kids get older, and realize that beer, in fact, packs a little more punch than the apple juice they were used to.

[via Neatorama]

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Filed under: Lifestyle, Media, High school

I think it's harder to do almost anything as an adult. It's harder to learn a new language, to swim, to make new friends and admit when you're wrong.

That's why I find the patriarch of this three-generation graduate team so inspiring.

72-year old Jim Nunley had been thinking about getting his high school diploma for over 50 years. He regretted that he'd never finished high school after dropping out with one year to go to work in the family business, and finally decided he was going to tie up loose ends. He asked his 36-year old son James to join him in taking some night classes, and his son obliged.

Father and son will graduate along with Jame's daughter Brittany, who is 17. Three generations will graduate from high school on the same day, and I hope somebody bakes them all a delicious strawberry cake. It's well deserved.

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Filed under: Teenager

I don't know very much about "The Secret," but what I hear makes it sound more or less like positive thinking -- so I'm not sure what all the fuss is. However, Bob Proctor, creator of the self-help method for personal development and "wealth coaching," is followed by millions of people -- so he must be making sense to some of you.

Now the self-help guru is going after a new market -- your kids. On his new (but not quite finished) website, Bob33.com, Proctor outlines how he can help your high schooler achieve his or her adolescent dreams. He promises: "Great marks in school, the girl or boyfriend of your dreams, a great career, earning your own money or great sport results."

This feels just a little bit odd. Isn't adolescence when kids are developing their social skills -- growing to understand their personality quirks, and recognizing their strengths and weaknesses? Spoon-feeding them a pre-constructed method for social success seems to preempt this natural process.

I'm a big believer that whatever works is whatever works, so please don't interpret this as me passing judgment on those who've found success with The Secret. However, I worry that people will turn to Proctor and Bob33.com to "fix" their children -- before those kids have a chance to establish their own identity.

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Filed under: Lifestyle, Moms

Yesterday, I took my kids to the park; while they were digging and sliding and running, I started chatting with another mother. She asked where my sons went to school, and then proceeded to tell me that they looked at those schools, but chose something else. She asked how old the boys were and what grades they were in, and when she realized that Charlie would be five and in preschool, she said that she thought about holding her son back but decided not to, because he was reading in preschool and it just didn't seem fair to keep him back.

I spent a lot of time nodding and smiling and wishing my cell phone would ring.

This kind of competitive parenting drives me crazy. I don't really care if your child walked before or after mine, nor do I feel compelled to tell you what my sons' first words were or what books they are currently reading. I also don't believe that this kind of competition is a necessary part of parenting, but columnist Leslie Wilson disagrees; instead, she argues that "moms feel compelled to enlighten their peers with every aspect of their kid's experiences." Such one-upmanship is inevitable, she says. According to Wilson, "With every anecdote, the mom's volume, intensity, and shock factor increases. Each succeeding saga involves greater risk, higher stakes, and more skin or more blood, depending on the genre."

In other words, one-upping each other--telling the best story, ideally involving the largest expenditure of money or the most significant possible blood shed--is how mothers bond. "We find," Wilson argues, "as we participate in social one-upmanship-itis, that life is a sisterhood, especially when we compare notes, or better yet, war wounds."

But is this competitive one-upping really a necessary part of female bonding? Can mothers only enter the "sisterhood" by outdoing each other with elaborate stories of how smart and cute their kids are? I say no; I say the mothers who always have to outdo me with their stories about their Preshus Baybees are the ones I don't want to hang with at the park.

What do you think--do moms only bond through competition? Or do we have other ways of talking about our experiences as mothers?

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