Welcomes Summer in the June/July Issue

This month’s issue of Parent & Child has some hot and sizzling features that will get your family ready for summer. From Fourth of July crafts, to a Father’s Day gift guide, a great story about balancing tech in your family and managing your “inner” stage mom. See some of our favorite articles below. For full articles or more information visit www.scholastic.com/parentandchild.

Don’t Sweat Tech! by Sharon Miller Cindrich – Not sure how to handle your kids’ technology time this summer? You’re not alone. Sharon Miller Cindrich, mom and author ofpluggedinparent.com, answers questions every parent wants to know and shares some ideas for keeping a tech-life balance.

• At Sleepaway Camp: Should you let your child bring his iPod to sleepaway camp? We wouldn’t. Camp offers kids an opportunity to connect socially with peers, enjoy new activities, and get plugged into nature — which means unplugging from technology.
• In Line at the Amusement Park: Is it OK to let your child play with your smartphone while you wait in line at the amusement park? Sometimes it’s the easiest way to avoid the fuss. Try educational apps like iMake Faces, Sound Shaker, and 8 Planets, all available at very low cost (some only $2) on iTunes for the iPhone.
• In the Backseat: Should you set a time limit on DVD time in the car? Yes, just like you would at home. Make any trip less than two hours screen-free. Instead, try a traditional travel game, like “License Plate Bingo” or “I Spy” to stimulate family interaction.

Father’s Day Gift Guide by Samantha Brody

• Cool Gifts for the Best Dads: Give dad something really unique this Father’s Day – our editors searched for the coolest gifts and came up with things such as:
  • Pocket-sized video and photo projector
  • Beer & pretzel-flavored truffles
  • Solar-powered pocket charger for cell phones and iPods

Fighting for First Place by Amy Levin-Epstein – While we all want our children to be the next Serena Williams or David Beckham, it is important for parents (and kids) to have a healthy perspective on competing and winning. The article highlights different situations that trigger competitive behavior and offers expert advice for handling them.

• Gold Stars and Stickers: Rewarding a child for every little thing might put their focus more on receiving a prize than on being proud of their accomplishments. Talk to kids about what it means to be rewarded so that they will start to understand that feeling proud of themselves is the real reward.
• Tennis or Soccer Camp? Or both?: Just because your son kicked his first soccer ball doesn’t mean that it’s time to sign him up for the team and plaster his walls with soccer decals. If you want to encourage his emerging physical skills, start simply by buying him a toy soccer ball — and a softball, a football, blocks, and a toy piano. Let him choose what direction he wants to go.
• Your Kids Are Not You: If you were a softball star, it’s natural to want to see your daughter swinging the bat as you once did, but be sure that she wants to practice for her own enjoyment and not just to become better than you were. If you put too much pressure on your child to succeed in an area in which you excelled, she may eventually resent that activity.

Born in the U.S.A.! by Gina Provenzano

• Fourth of July Creations: Red, White and Blue crafts for every age! Learn how to make:
  • Fireworks Diaper Bag
  • Stars and Stripes Watering Can
  • Sand Art Centerpiece
  • Patriotic Pom-Pom Sandals.

For more information, please visit www.scholastic.com/parentandchild. For press inquiries, interview requests or to request a print copy of the issue, please contact Kristen Joerger, 212-389-3343, kjoerger@scholastic.com

My Mother taught elementary school, mostly second and third grades. And she LOVED books. She would go to teaching conferences and come home with canvas tote bags stuffed full of the latest Newberry and Caldecott Award winners.  When she passed away, my Dad had me go through the books and choose ones I wanted to keep before donating the rest to a special collection created in her honor at the public library.  I definitely think that I inherited my love of a cute  canvas tote from my Mother

I lived with my parents for a while after I graduated from college, and after my Mom retired in 1991, I helped her catalog her books. As we went through them, she would hand me certain ones and say “just look at these illustrations”. She had an eye for books with the most amazing illustrations, and she taught her second graders as much about the artists as she did about the authors and their stories. To this day when I browse the childrens books at Barnes & Noble, I look for ones with unique  illustrations as much as a good story line.

My Mom loved Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit. I have a tea set in my china cabinet, with tiny plates and cups and a teapot, with the most beautiful Peter Rabbit illustrations on them.  I find myself drawn to Peter Rabbit stuffed toys and board books, to baby blankets and onesies, to Christmas ornaments and china figures.  I’m saving the tea set and the little  The World of Peter Rabbit books in the presentation box, and I would be thrilled if one day, one of my kids said “hey Mom, can I have that?”

So. Those are the things my Mother left me, the things she passed down.  The Parent Bloggers Network Mother’s Day Blog Blast is sponsored by JOHNSON’S® Brand,  Their second annual Celebrity Hand Me Down charity auction runs from 7 pm PT on Thursday May 7 through 7 pm PT on Thursday May 14, featuring items donated by celebrity moms Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Alba.  All proceeds will benefit the new global JOHNSON’S® NO MORE TEARS® Clean Water initiative via their well-known charitable giving site, Baby Cause.

So tell me in a comment- what did your Mother pass down to you??

My son Nathan and I sat and talked about it for a minute, and we came up with something pretty terrific. See, our next-door neighbor Steve is blind. And his Mother lives in the house on the other side of us, so he regularly walks down the sidewalk between his house and hers. Our idea for a meaningful minute is to spend a minute sweeping leaves off his sidewalk, or shoveling snow or sprinkling a little salt on ice, anything we can do to make it safer for him to walk down the sidewalk. Plus, the act of sweeping or shoveling is a minute of physical activity, and any time we can get off the couch and move, even for just a minute, that’s definitely a good thing!

Starting this Friday, visit http://www.happymeal.com/ to find suggestions for online and offline activities, track your family’s “minutes moved”, and enter special codes found on McDonald’s lowfat Milk Jugs and Apple Dippers to enrich the activities on the site. The site also features an inspirational 30-second video with Olympian Shawn Johnson, which airs this weekend through November 16 on Nickelodeon, Nick.com and Nicktoons. Visit happymeal.com next week to see the video. And ask your family, what can you do in a minute that is meaningful?