Welcome to the 47th Carnival of Family Life. Our family here at More4kids is very happy to be the host this week. More4kids is proud to host this weeks carnival. Everyone is in for a special treat if you have not experienced a blog carnival before. The Carnival of Family Life is where people share their thoughts, stories and experiences on Family, Spouse, Children, Kids, Pets, Mom, Dad, or just about anything family related.  This weeks Carnival is informative, funny and inspiring. In fact it is one of the biggest ones so far and is becoming more and more popular. So, sit back, relax and enjoy this weeks festivities! 

Kate Baggott presents Read My Blog for Charity: Mothering Sunday to Mothers’ Day posted at Babylune. Mothering Sunday in the UK was March 18th. Mothers' Day in the US and Canada is May 13th. Between the feasts, Babylune is hosting a charity campaign to benefit mothers. For every 1000 page views served up between March 18th and May 13th, $1 goes to one of three charities as chosen by voters in the poll.

Family Stories
MyBestInvest presents I'm a c-list invite, but I'll take it posted at My Best Investments. This is a touching story where a preschool daughter invites her daddy as her special guest.

Jenny Blackburn presents The Master Negotiator posted at Absolutely Bananas. Jenny comments that the antics of her 3-year old son either makes her either want to laugh…..or cry!

Rachel Starr Thomson presents The Blessing of Family posted at Inklings. Homeschool graduate and author Rachel writes on being a product of "generational blessings and generational grace." With Easter coming up we should all be grateful for the Family we have.  

Laura presents a goodbye posted at Adventures in Juggling. Story of a growing family finally retiring their bunk bed which served them well and was full of memories.

Jennifer presents Food Fight! posted at Parenting Toddlers. Life happens, and Jennifer just reminded me what I have to look forward to as my youngest son gets older!

Karen Shanley presents I've Created a Monster posted at Karen Shanley: Author, Mom, Dog Nut. Great job Karen on raising your daughter to truely appreciate healthy food!

Karen presents pull over posted at Lion and Magic Boy. This story reminded me how sick I used to get during car rides. I hope my kids don't take after their daddy.

Stephanie presents The Stubborn Gene Dominates posted at Adventures in the 100 Acre Wood. Its funny when we look at our children and some of the traits we see in them. it is also kind of scary when we see those traits in ourselves! However, as Stephanie points out, even someone with a very strong will can do a lot of good if pointed in the right direction. Thankyou for pointing this out.

Summer M presents Boys, like plants, need sunshine and dirt to grow posted at Wired For Noise. Summer at Wired For Noise talks about her son's new gardening set and how happy she is that she can still be his positive influence in Boys, like plants, need sunshine and dirt to grow.

Childrens Crafts and Activities
KevinL presents She's Crafty posted at Weekends With Dad. Great idea. I did not know that Michaels had a kids craft program. I will need to check out local store. Thankyou for sharing. 

Lori from FunPlaydates presents Global Moms - What Life is Like for Kids in Hawaii. Ever wonder what it might be like for a child growing up in Hawaii? Then you want to read this for Loris perspective.

Tips, Advice and Wisdom 
Dr. Hal presents North Star Mental Fitness Blog: Thank You for Giving Me Back My Parents! posted at North Star Mental Fitness Blog. Thankyou Dr. Hal. Your story has pointed out how important it is to make sure our children know how much we really love them. I truely enjoyed reading this article.

Hueina Su presents Take Time for Friendships posted at Intensive Care for the Nurturer's Soul. This is wonderful advice. As parents we can become so wrapped up in our kids and their activities we may forget or neglict some of our friends we have known for years. While they may understand, we all need a balance in our lives and don't want to lose those lifelong connections.

Lisa presents Introducing Your New Baby to Your First Babies posted at Let's Talk Babies. So how will your pet react to your new baby? Lisa offers some great advice. I especially like when she said to….. well you will have to read her article.

Megan Bayliss presents Teaching Emotional Intelligence for Personal Safety and Clear Communication posted at Child protection: serious business.. Megan gives great advice on the importance of being able to communicate their feelings and emotions.

Chef Tom presents How To Make Quick & Easy Meals For Your Family | Chef Tom Cooks ! posted at Chef Tom Cooks - Recipe Blog. Great article on how a little preparation and sharing of responsibility can help your family make the most of the family meal, and make it less of a chore.

Christopher Pepper presents Values Check posted at Daddy Dialectic. Christopher has a great list of core values he wants to instill on his child, values as a parent I also want my own children to know and appreciate. Probably the most important one is that they are loved unconditionally. Thankyou for sharing this list with everyone.

Christine presents Gardening is the Answer . . . posted at Everyday Disasters. Nice advice on the values that can be taught to a child though the simple act of helping plant a garden.

Education and Homeschooling
Megan Bayliss presents Droughts and Flooding Rains: Home School Australian Drought Relief posted at Home Schooling Aspergers.. What better way to teach kids about the environment than incorporating real life examples into your homeschool lesson plans? Whether or not you are a parent of a homeschooler you will want to read this.

Muse presents Never too young! posted at me-ander. Muse points out kids are never too young to start learning.

Dana presents Simple pleasures posted at Principled Discovery  I loved the end of this story where Dana says after an hour of her daughter working through a book, she paused and looked at her and said:  "Mommy, I love reading. I just want to read and read. Can we just read today?" .

Julee presents Homekeeping Tuesday posted at Homeschool Daze. Julee shares her thoughts on creating her own homeschooling curriculum.

Sports and Kids Activities
Summer presents We love baseball! posted at Wired For Noise. Thanx for reminding us spring is almost here. In fact down here in Tennessee we are seeing the 70's and our kids have some serious spring fever. 

Maureen presents Trinity Prep School - Considering Swimming Lessons? posted at Trinity Prep School. Great article explaining some of "Lifes" lessons that can be learned from competitive swimming.

DigtialRich presents Fatigue Fatigue posted at DigitalRichDaily. This family keeps busy!

Liz Smith presents Afterschool Program Readiness for Kids  posted at Modern Sage. Liz gives her thoughts on after school programs and explains why she is not pushing her children into those programs.

The Internet and Kids
Liz Smith presents Expert Q & A: Teenage Internet Access posted at Modern Sage Online: Practical Living Blog. Thanx Liz for reminding us how important it is to let us know what our kids are doing online.  

Child Safety
Our own Kailani presents Some People Shouldn’t Be Parents posted at An Island Life. In a tragic story of a father leaving his child in a car for over 90 minutes it proves that some people just have no right to be parents! You can never rant to hard on something like this!!!

We here at More4kids Parenting and Family Life would like to present some Tips for Talking to Your Kids About Strangers.

Housework and Getting Organized
Jeremy Adam Smith presents Housework vs. the Rest of Life posted at Daddy Dialectic. How many hours does your family spend on housework? I had been wondering where all the time in my families life goes until I read this article. 

Mama Duck presents Using toddler energy for a cleaner house… posted at Lil Duck Duck. Great post Mama Duck. This article helps respond to Jeremy's article on how we can reclaim some of the time we spend on housework: Get our kids to help! Starting them out young not only helps with the household chores, but also helps teach responsibility.

Other Good Stuff
Karen Weideman presents How To Pay Cash for College posted at Thrifty Mommy. Some of us may have teens that are getting ready for college. Karen gives some good solid advice on how to help pay for it.

Leisa presents Black Dogs (and I don’t mean the furry kind) posted at downwiththekids.net. Leisa does a great review of the book The Optimistic Child by Martin Seligman.

Super Saver presents Upromise - Not Saving Much For Our Daughter posted at My Wealth Builder. This story makes me think about what I am doing to save for my childrens future.

Csara presents Favorite 80's movies!! posted at Baby Talkers. Were you still in high school during the 80's? What were your favorite movies as a kid? I remember most of them mentioned by Csara and many of them have brought back some good memories.

Kerri presents Mommy the Junglegym… posted at Play Library. As Mommies and Daddies our bodies really take a lot of abuse, from playing horsey to just carrying our children around, but it is all worth it as Kerri points out. I started my kids out with airplane rides and graduated to being my oldest sons pet horse, now I am seeing a chiropractor, hehe.

Jordan presents Six of one, half a dozen of the other posted at MamaBlogga.  She explains that there are challenges at every age and looks forward to the time when she can talk to her son without screaming, but will goes on to say "I’ll take Hayden’s abounding (and bouncing) excitement upon seeing me every time he wakes up for as long as I can get it"

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 Next week's host of the Carnival of Family Lifes will be Play Library.  

The Carnival of Family Life has come to a close…….Thankyou from More4kids to all our readers and all the people who submited such great articles. From our family to yours have a safe and enjoyable week!