How To Keep Your Kids Entertained Over The Holidays.

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This idea will work well as part of a school Valentine party or children’s holiday party.
1. Make or buy plain cupcakes or cookies for each person who will be attending the holiday party. Buy one or two per person and allow for extras in case of less-than-perfect quality control.
2. You will also need two or three kinds of frosting, a variety of holiday sprinkles, mini M & Ms, tiny chocolate chips, toffee pieces and nuts. Choose the ones you want for the cookies or cupcakes you will be decorating.3. Be sure to bring or provide containers for the toppings and knives, paper towels, waxed paper, and a small paper plate for each child.4. Prepare a holiday cookie or cupcake menu for each child. Each child will check a box or line for kind of frosting and sprinkles desired. There should also be a space for their name. Have each child fill out the menu and collect them.5. Choose a holiday foreperson. This person is in charge of holiday decorating crews, job assignments and quality control. The child chosen should be able to work well with the other children.6. Assign children to groups of four or five. Introduce them to the foreperson and explain that they will be filling the holiday cookie or cupcake menu requests. You might want to complete one of the cookies or cupcakes as an example.7. Give the first group four or five holiday menus to complete. Each child will have a job, a kind of frosting or a specific type of sprinkle or topping to apply. Make sure they understand what their job is and that it is important to listen to the foreperson and work together.
8. The foreperson will

make sure each person does their job and that the assigned menus are completed successfully. Explain to the foreperson the importance of being firm but kind and encouraging. Help them understand the power of positive role-modeling.9. Have an activity planned for the groups that are waiting to decorate the holiday treats such as a puzzle, crossword or game. This will keep everyone busy and having a good time.10. When all the holiday treats are frosted and sprinkled, take each child’s menu and pass out the cookies or cupcakes. It’s fun to see if everyone gets the treat they ordered. Let the children know the good things you noticed while they were working together.This activity can be tailored to any holiday celebration and is fun and a good way to provide a learning experience.

Family Holiday Travel Tips

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Traveling with a family during the holidays can take some advance planning so that everyone stays happy during the trip.Here are some tips to help you organize your holiday travel plans.Book your flights early during the holidays and you will save money. Early booking will allow you to take advantage of discounts. Early booking will also give you the best seating choices. Remember that bulkhead seats offer the most leg room on airplanes. Visit the following Website to discover which seats offer you the most comfort Traveling with Baby:One inventive Website takes care of your need for many of the baby items you need when traveling with a baby. Items such as stroller, crib, high chair, and car seat can be ordered from the BabysAway Website so that they will be at your destination when you arrive therefore you do not need to pack them. The Website for BabysAway is:This Website serves over 70 different locations throughout the USA. The Website has been helping traveling babies for fifteen years. Make sure that before you let your baby use any rental equipment that you disinfect everything first.You will find great savings when you travel by air on off-peak days.Find out if the airline you are using has Self-Service Kiosks, this can save you time and frustration from dealing with long ticket counter lines. Self-Service Kiosks allow you to print tickets, select your seat, confirm reservation and check on the status of your flight. To use these kiosks you will need a credit card to confirm your identificationHoliday Car Travel Tips:Always check your car for safety before heading out on the road. Have a qualified mechanic go over the car, checking tires, fluid levels, and other esentials.Make sure you have a map of the travel areas. If you do not have a map you can print out a map using mapquest.com or maps.yahoo.com.The two busiest travel days on the US highways are Wednesdays and Thursdays. If you have to travel on these days, leave early. The biggest travel hours are between 9a and 12 noon.If you are taking a long trip, stop to rest every two hours. Do not drive more than 6 to 8 hours a day and have two adult drivers in the vehicle so you can switch every two hours.Carry along a kids survival backpack filled with books, crayons, coloring books, car games, modeling clay, musci CDs, dolls, stuffed animals, action figures and snacks.Pre-flight preparation for the Holiday Air TripWhen traveling by air with kids it is important to prepare ahead of time. Your preparation will depend on the age of the child (kids).

First, look at the length of the flight. Long air flights and young kids do not mix well. Especially toddlers have a difficult time sitting still for a long period of time. Make sure that in your preparation you consider taking along favorite toys, blankets, books, snacks. Toddlers and kids under six can be accompanied by an adult and walked up and down the aisle when the seatbelt signs are turned off.
Kids love to look out airplane portholes, which are located by the exits. Explain what they are seeing and where they are. Sometimes flight attendants will pass out little plastic flight wings and spend a few moments talking with kids about the plane.
Planning your trip and keeping the age of the child in mind is key to a successful family holiday trip.