Christmas Day is creeping up on us. I always seem to find that the gap between opening the presents and visiting the family quickly becomes quiet & boring for the little ones so I put my thinking cap on to try & think of ways to resolve it. Thankfully a few nights ago I came up with a solution!

I came up with a poem to leave on a letter from Santa at the ends of their beds on Christmas Eve night. They will awake in the morning to see the letters & wah-lah! we have a solution for the empty time space - a candy cane hunt around the house in our PJ's!

I have left a 2 blank designs below, both the same but with different pictures, but you can make your own of course! We have our printed out on a 4x6 matte photo card because we couldn't find any special Santa Paper - maybe this is a job for next years 'Christmas To-Do List' ;)

Each poem reads:

I have just finished delivering toys,
To all the good little girls & boys,
I left some candy canes behind,
How many of them can you find?

So yesterday I shared an idea to get everyone kick-started with their spring/summer activities. It was a wonderful little trick I started last year with my pair when we found ourselves lost for what to do in what we considered a new & foreign town as we had not long moved to Melbourne & had spent all winter in hibernation because us Queenslanders just weren't used to the cold weather AT ALL! Anyway - this became the birth of the "You're not bored!" Jar, a plastic jar filled with originally 101 rainbow paddle pop sticks with one activity on each stick that were free for kidlets to do (or at least try), over the past year we have slowly added to our collection & I think we are sitting at about 130 ideas now BUT here is the first 101 that we started with :) 

Eating habits are something that is learnt not something someone is born with. So when your kidlets grow up, what they eat, will be based on the habits they picked up as a child..

Every day less & less people cook their meals from scratch because it’s faster & simpler to grab some take away on the way home from work or nuke up a frozen meal.

When you think about it, all it takes is a few simple tools & tricks as well as an idea on how to better balance yours & your little ones diets is all that is needed to fight against the 'fun' image that the fast food industry portrays.

1. Be a good role model.

Practice what you preach. Kidlets are very monkey-see-monkey-do, if you want to encourage healthy eating you need to lead by example.


2. Make mealtime special.

There is a never ending list of things you can do to make mealtimes fun, from making the appearance of the meal appealing to kidlets, to having mealtimes in a special place, but your number one priority in attempting to make it a special time is to set a routine. Teach your kidlet to sit at the table & enjoy the meal with the family, cherish the time & make it enjoyable for everyone.


3. Make sure your child eats breakfast.

Yes, we have all heard it before, "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.". But it isn't said for the sake of saying it, after a long nights sleep & all those hours without food or drink it is important to refuel the engines with a healthy, wholesome breakfast. Some kids don't take to eating breakfast too well & if you find that is the case then start small & work your way to bigger meals. Try to avoid a sugary breakfast, while it gives a fast boost of energy from the sugar content, it wears of a lot quicker than a healthy, balanced breakfast would.


4. Take your kids shopping with you.

It may be easier to go alone when it comes to food shopping but taking your little ones with you & allowing them to question & explore the raw foods around them is a good start to introducing them to healthier eating habits. Take them with you when you aren't in a rush & take your time walking down the aisles that contain the natural, organic & unprocessed foods - produce & deli/meat departments. If your kidlet seems interested in a certain food, encourage them to explore the item & answer any questions they may have. Take it home & allow your kidlet to try it so that they can make their own choice as to whether they like it - never assume your child will not like the taste of something, kidlets like feeling like they are making the choice when it comes to what they eat.


5. Be flexible!

Anything in moderation is okay. Remember to give a treat every now & then. Obviously take away or candy every day for a week is not 'in moderation' and is unhealthy but a cookie or an ice cream in amongst a balanced diet of healthy meals & snacks is fine, even healthy, for anyone. 


6. Don’t be a short-order cook.

Don't cook different meals for each kidlet as well as a meal for yourselves. Make one whole meal as a family & adapt it slightly to suit the kidlets. Be patient, if they don't take to it straight away then try again the next week. There are hundreds of studies out there that state that it can take up to 12 attempts to get a child to try something new, so if they don't take to it straight away then try again.


7. Let kids help in the kitchen.

Even a 2 year old can peel a potato & wash a carrot. Get your little ones more active in the kitchen & encourage them to help prepare & cook their snacks. Kidlets love eating food they create & it will make them more likely to try new foods. 


8. Don’t buy into marketing for kids.

Kidlets don't need chocolate bars, frozen pizzas, chicken nuggets or any of the other snacks that the media like to make the kids feel is a priority. Encourage your little ones to eat healthier rather than suckering into their wants which are based on the advertisements they see everywhere that are aimed at kidlets.

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In our home today, we have our 3 kids. Being a blended family as well as foster parents, there are often 5 or more kids here at a time. The question of pocket money comes up frequently and so does the nagging to have kids help with chores. If you ask around, all kids have chores. They range from taking care of animals to the dishwasher to the vacuum. Some get paid, some don't. But what is right? I sure haven't got it figured out yet and my oldest is about to turn 15! 

A family is a team and in a team we all have positions. Offence and Defence. And, my new tactic is to use that team play as a way to conquer my house. We are breaking the chores down into three groups. Red for difficult, Orange for medium and Green for easy. I'm going to write the chores I want done in cards, and categorise them accordingly. Each family member is going to get a traffic light system of chores. Parents included!



As far as pocket money goes, we have tried that. Did it work? No, I say. I think it encouraged the kids to spend the money on junk food at school. Having coins in their pocket, and an open canteen in school meant that they were spending their money on food! What? It was never enough for a delicious thing at school (a chicken parma sub is $10 in high school!) so it went to biscuits, cakes and ice-creams! So pocket money just became a way to eat junk food. 

So, how do we manage the "need for spending money" situation? Well, we set up a debate type system. The kids need to come to us and argue a point to us about what they want money for, what they need it for and how they are going to use it. It has to be a worthwhile and sometimes gets to be hilarious as they argue that they want to buy a slurpee from school because its a hot day. We argue reasons back of course, like it might dirty their socks, and they are learning how to stand up for themselves, think things through and be creative.


Who knows if what we are doing is right or wrong? Its always such a gamble and everyone seems to be an expert, but you. This is what I do and hopefully if you are confused about your kids and chores, maybe I've given some ideas!

Written by guest writer Alice Slamani. Known as The Laundry Fairy and also Creative Consultant at gFocus Photography (www.gFocusPhotography.com)


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