Moving can be stressful on anyone. This is especially true for a family with kids. Whether you are picking up and moving across town or moving across the country, it can be a very stressful situation. However, there are a variety of different things you can do to the make the move less stressful on you and your family.

When moving, it is important that you realize how traumatic it can be on your kids. Your current home may be the only home they have ever known. To suddenly move to a strange house can be very hard. Chances are, they have developed a routine and are very comfortable with their current surroundings. Therefore, it is important you realize how hard it will be for them to become accustomed to a new home and new friends.

One of the first things you need to do is be honest with your child. Let them know as soon as possible that you are planning to move. This will give them time to prepare for the big move. If at all possible, involve them in the process as much as possible. Allow them to go along on the house hunt and give their opinion.

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From all of us here at More4kids, Happy 4th of July. The Fourth of July celebrates the birth of the United States of America. Founded July 4th 1776, with the signing of the Declaration of Independence, America is celebrating its 232nd birthday this year (2008). 

It is a time for families and friends not only to come together and have fun, but also a time to honor our Veterans and men and women who are putting their lives in danger every day for us, and those who have made the biggest sacrifice for our freedom with their lives. Try to throw your politics aside, and let us all take a moment to think about, and be grateful to all who wear the American uniform, and to our police and firefighters who protect us day in and out. They all deserve our recognition and thanx, more than we can put in words. And don’t forget the spouses and families of those in uniform. It takes very special people to be part of a military family, and our hearts, thanx, and recognition should go out to them too.

No matter whether you travel across the country to celebrate our nation’s birthday, or decide to stay at home in your own backyard, there are many different ways to make this a very special holiday.

All that is needed for a fantastic Fourth are three key ingredients:

1. A Plan
2. Preparation
3. and much, much Enthusiasm.

We’ll provide the plan to get you started!

Ready? Set?

Not lets get the ball on the road and get going!

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Any parent knows that grocery shopping can get pretty expensive, especially when buying food for an entire family. As a mother of two I know how much groceries can cost each month, especially when buying everything from breakfast to dinner and even snacks. As kids grow bigger so do their appetites. They can all add up to a pretty penny, and can cost a family hundreds of dollars a month to keep everyone in their household satisfied. There are many ways to save money on groceries, but it requires smart shopping and a little dedication.

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There are many fun, family crafts and projects that can be pursued when it comes to arts and crafts. Many families use their computers and other electronic devices to assist them when it comes to creating a project. Now, there is a new product on the market that I have found to be extremely fun and productive when it comes to creating fun projects with my children. This product is called Cricut. When pronounced, it sounds like you are saying “cricket”. This is a cutting system that is electronic based. However, the upside is that it does not require an actual computer. Here, I will tell you a little about how you can create fun family projects – the easy way!

Today we are going to be reviewing the features of the Cricut. It is a revolutionary machine that actually cuts an assortment of materials in many different ways. No more buying special printer paper or messing with patterns that can be really difficult to work with! Now, you can just insert the material, decide on how you want it cut and go from there. There are many exciting projects that you can choose from when it comes to cutting with this particular tool:

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Dogs have long been known as “man’s best friend”; they are social animals who see the humans around them as their pack and they become strongly attached to those humans.  One of the things about a family pet is that they can help teach responsibility. A dog can be a lot of fun and a great addition to your family, but a dog can also be a lot of work, and there is always the chance the child might tire of the pet and leave the chores for Mom and Dad. Thats when your parenting skills come in to empasize how important it is and how much it means to your pet when your kids help out with them. One tip is to make the chores fun, help the child out if they need it and make it a routine.

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Juggling a family, a career and a relationship with our significant other can be a challenge for a family. With two children ourselves, a husband in a demanding career, and being a work at home mom, I know our lives can be very interesting to say the least. Here is a list of tips for daily living that can help manage your time and may help make things a little less hectic:

• Keep it simple, give two choices instead of asking “what do you want ____”
• Set limits on things like television, video games, and phone chatter … for everyone in the household.  Eliminates arguing and gets everyone doing other things
• Make adjustments when you have to, you can’t be everywhere at once
• Don’t forget to consider your travel time, prep time, clean up time, waiting time
• Deal with things as they happen, (the mail came, sort it now instead of waiting until later - also eliminates clutter that you would have to clean up later)
• Get involved in a car pool to get kids where they need to go, school, soccer, baseball, football … sharing these tasks save you and someone else time and gas money!
• Follow routines and schedules, such as getting up at the same time and leaving at the same time daily…create a pattern/routine get home, do your homework, 30 minutes to watch tv/play game/read, dinner, get a bath, quiet time, bedtime

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by Stacey Schifferdecker

My mother-in-law has been talking about for years – taking my family and my sister-in-law’s family for a cruise. But the timing never worked out until now. This year, for the first time ever, my children’s schools and my nephews’ schools have spring break the same week. So hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s off to Mexico we go. I am a vacation planner junky, so naturally I am hip-deep in research about the best way to enjoy our cruise and keep six kids ranging in age from 7 (the only girl) to 14 happy and healthy for a week. So here is what I have learned – check back with me in March to see how the reality lives up to the research.

 

Which Cruise Line to Choose?

Which cruise line to choose was the first question we had. Of course, your departure location helps narrow this choice. Unless you have unlimited time and money for your vacation, you will likely choose the departure port that is nearest your home. The major ports for cruise ship departures in North America are

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Kids learn from their parents, so if their parents grumble and complain their kids will too. Are you tired of hearing all the grumbling and complaining around your house?  Do you ever find yourself just feeling down for no reason?  Maybe it’s time the family has a positive attitude adjustment.  It may take some time to get everyone in the swing of things, but before you know it everyone will be enjoying life more.

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by Jennifer Shakeel

Family is important for all children, and even more so for the child with ADD/ADHD. What happens at home and how they are treated and interacted with will carry over into other aspects of their life at school, later on with work and it will help them build relationships. I know first hand that parenting a child with ADD/ADHD can be overwhelming and at times take its toll on the family. Frustration and chaos do not have to be a way of life for you, your child or your family. Here are things that you can do to make sure that the entire family is involved and the needs of everyone are being met.

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If someone asked you to describe the heartbeat of your home, how would you describe it – erratic, racing, consistent and steady, or always changing and unpredictable? Just as it is important for your heart to beat in a steady rhythm, research shows it is also important for the heartbeat of your home to be steady and strong.

The Warning Signs We know that high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and being overweight are all factors that contribute to heart disease. Research has shown that an unhealthy heartbeat in the home can be caused by lack of communication, over commitment, high levels of conflict, in-laws with unrealistic expectations, an unhealthy family of origin, failure to balance home and work, out of control finances, and a variety of other things.

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Back to School – Back to Schedules

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We all want a happy family and to spend more time with them. I don’t know about your family, but ours is extremely busy with work, other commitments, etc. Unfortunately our children sometimes feel the consequences of this by not spending time with their greatest role models, their parents. We have so much impact on our children and are their first role models. So what are we to do? We need to work, put food on the table. What is important is that when we are with our children to make sure we are completely focused on spending good quality time with them and developing a closer connection  with them. 

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Although you may not be able to afford a summer vacation this year, there are no-cost, fun summer activities for the whole family. Here are a few ideas.

Pick a tree in your back yard and lay down a blanket. Have some lemonade and cookies, and read the books you’ve checked out from the library. Take turns reading. Invite friends and their kids to join you. Make it a weekly event.

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For all our readers who have not experienced a blog carnival before you are in for a treat. Head on over to Everyday Disasters for the latest Carnival of Family Life. Once a week the carnival features some of the best family and parenting bloggers on the internet. It is a place fellow parents and caregivers share their experiences and wonderful stories. Christine, who hosted this weeks carnival did a fantastic job. There were over 60 entries posted. How she was able to post them all, read them and make comments on each one was truely amazing.

Being adopted myself, the article I loved the most and could relate to the most was from foreverparents entitled Finding out You are an Adoptee While her daughter knew she was adopted, she never knew there was a ‘label’ for a person being adopted. Labels can be very distructive or very positive. In this case it was positive, but it makes you think about some of the labels we were called as kids and makes me as a parent to avoid labels on my own kids.

Pass The Torch has some great Homeschool Tips and Advice. if you are a homeschooler, or especially new to homeschooling you shoudl check it out. New homeschoolers sometimes have a tendency to want their child to excel in every subject. This post points out that its ok not to. I would not want to put that type of pressure on my kids. Thanx for advising us to take a deep breath and relax.

Families are systems and the members of a family are both individuals and part of a whole; they interact and play off one another. When you think about your family that way, you can see that if one part is skewed a little bit, it will throw the whole system off balance. Since we are all skewed a bit, our family systems can get kind of crazy.

When you think about your family that way, you can also see that it’s the entire family parenting the children, not just one or two individuals. Many times one finds themselves parenting the way they were parented and don’t know any better.  Understanding family roles, history, relationships, and secrets can be helpful to straighten your family system up a bit and become better parents in turn.

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