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My house is stocked with cars and trucks, monsters and dragons, Stars Wars action figures and Lego in all shapes, sizes and colors. There’s not a pink anything in sight — no sparkly crowns, magic wands or frilly dresses in all of our 2,000 square feet of living space. I have two nieces, though, and they have a crazy love for all things princess. If your little ones are like my favorite girls, then you’ll love this Wondertime magazine feature devoted to the princess-obsessed. There’s matching outfits for girls and their dolls, backpacks, books, tiaras and more. Shop on over, and take your girly girls along for the ride.

Photo: mthomps00, Flickr

You can never have too many balls for your kids. Well, maybe you can. But these Spalding Rookie Gear balls are definite must-haves for young ones. They are the same size as regular youth balls, but they weigh 25 percent less. Score!

Do you have a pool nearby? Doesn’t need to be your own, maybe just one in your neighborhood, or a pool belonging to a friend would work too. If so, consider booking it one late afternoon for a pool party hosted by your kiddos. That’s what we’re doing. The idea came from my 8-year-old who wanted some buddies to come over and swim in our subdivision’s pool and eat pizza in the clubhouse. And here’s how we’re putting the whole thing together:

• Joey and his little brother Danny came up with a guest list.
• We picked a date and time — we’re going with 5-8PM for cooler temps.
• Together, we brainstormed a menu (pizza, side dishes and drinks).
• We signed up with evite (online invitations galore!), picked our design, entered email addresses of every guest, personalized our invitation and sent it off.
• We indicated on our invite that everyone should bring something, and we included our wish list (chips, fruit, dessert and drinks). We’ll provide the pizza and paper goods, and as folks RSVP, they check off what they’ll bring — this way, we’ll be able to keep constant tabs on how our buffet is shaping up.
• We invited parents to stay and play or drop and go — although, we’ll need a few stragglers to help us watch the masses (pools can be danger spots for kids, you know?).
• We told kids to bring with them swimsuits, towels, sunscreen and pool toys they wish to share.
• And now we’re watching our guest list grow — we get notified by evite every time someone RSVPs, and we know already that eight adults and eight kids will be splashing around with us this Saturday. We also know we’re getting some chips and dessert so far.

Any pool party plans for you this summer?

]]> http://planetkidonline.com/2009/06/23/what-to-do-this-summer-pool-party/feed/ 1 http://planetkidonline.com/2009/06/18/toys-fit-for-summer/ http://planetkidonline.com/2009/06/18/toys-fit-for-summer/#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:04:17 +0000 Jacki Donaldson http://planetkidonline.com/?p=2032

My kids subscribe to Highlights magazine. Well, mom and dad subscribe, and the kids are the lucky recipients who get to fish it out of the mailbox every month. It’s a good publication — short and sweet stories, activity ideas and best of all: Hidden Pictures.

You don’t have to sign up for your own subscription (although I’d recommend it, and it would make a great gift too) — just head on over here, pick your level of difficulty and play online. Give it a whirl, then let us know how you do.

Photo by: Hightlights magazine

My kids love it when school’s out (three weeks left), but summer break makes me a little nervous, because it’s hard to fill all the free hours with purposeful plans. You know, I want my kids to be active, and I want them to learn some stuff, and I want them to have a lot of fun. Oh, and I don’t want to spend loads of cash.

I’ve started making my list of possible plans, and I’m going to share any winners with you when they pop into my head, OK? Here’s one: Chalk!

You can buy a bucket of chalk for cheap, and for Easter, I stuffed my kids’ baskets with packages that cost me just $1 each. My boys still have their assortments of colors, so I’m going to challenge them this summer with some driveway and sidewalk chalk games. Family Fun magazine lists lots of ideas, like Do the Math Hopscotch, Driveway Baseball, Splat! and more. My kids also like to have their bodies traced so they can decorate their outlines, and they love to draw cities with all their favorite buildings and modes of transportation — they’re experts at train tracks.

What are your summer plans? Share some good ideas, and we’ll write about them here.

Photo by: stevendepolo on flickr

Maybe it’s for good reason that I’m not a lover of electronics for kids. Seems keeping children in the great outdoors, not the closed-up indoors, is best for the little bodies of the world.

Did you know there’s actually a “No Child Left Inside” bill geared towards getting environmental education into schools so that kids can learn in nature, not just learn about nature. Nothing in the bill about plugging in. Nope, just fresh air. And research reveals that our kids need lots of it.

According to a Kaiser Family Foundation study, children are disappearing from the natural world and are spending more than six hours a day in front of computer screens, video games and televisions rather than outside. In the past 20 years, the amount of time kids spend outdoors has declined 50 percent. And as we all know, our kids are getting fatter and fatter as a result of their sedentary tendencies. Our kids have what experts call “nature-deficit disorder,” and this condition contributes to poor physical and mental health.

I like that education might one day be more geared toward outdoor learning, but I’m not confident it will happen. It seems all the extras in my kids’ school (like PE, art and music) are being cut. How, then, are administrators going to work in outdoor programs when the budget doesn’t support a game of kick ball in the field behind the school? I think it’s up to us — parents — to get our children outside. No reason to wait for Congress or our schools to make it happen.

Where are your kids right now: Inside? Or outside?

Photo by: celebdu on flickr

I’m wondering: How do you feel about electronics for kids — TV, computer, Wii, video games and, yes, that Nintendo DS that everyone seems to have? Leave me a comment and share your opinion, please.

Don’t think of workouts as work-outs. Think of them as play-outs, says MizFit, who demonstrates how you can get fit while at the playground with your kiddos.

You might want to bookmark the site of this fit momma — she’s like the queen of fitness and food, and I know she can teach you a thing or two.