How to Keep Kids Safe Online

 

I am really excited to announce that Mommy and Things has teamed up with the computer guys at TechKnowBase.com to give parents of children of all ages some advice on how to keep your kids safe online!

You know all those scary stories about kids you hear on the news? The ones you don't even want to think about? And then your heart gets heavy and you just cringe thinking "what if"? Do a quick count: how many WiFi enabled devices do you have in your home? Smart phones, tablets, iPads, laptops and desktop computers are all included. Some devices you may not even know are capable to connect to the internet, like smart TV's, iPods and even some GPS devices! Your child has access to all of these devices, and since you cannot supervise what they are doing 100% of the time.. we need to learn how to keep our kids safe online!

The internet contains a lot of harmful sites and inappropriate viewing material for children. Children can be easily persuaded to give up their address, phone number or even pictures of themselves. Children 1-18 can have a lot of freedom on the internet and you might not even know. With sites like YouTube it easy to get away from the original video you were watching and onto a completely different video, something that may contain nudity, violence or cursing. Many apps for smart phones or tablets will contain adds, so while your child might be playing a friendly game an add for a dating website might pop up. And all those website that you child goes to play games; they can have chat rooms built in or ask for credit card information. Some sites acknowledge that kids will click on anything, a disguise ads to look kid-friendly, but when clicked downloads a virus onto your computer.

So how do you keep your children safe online? Should they be allowed to have a computer in their bedroom? What are the signs that your child has been viewing inappropriate content? When is a child old enough to have a social media account or talk to friends in a chat room?

The article on TechKnowBase.com answers all of the above questions, as well as giving you a list of kid-friendly products that can help with minimize the chances that your child will run into pop up ads or be able to view inappropriate content!

Click here to view the article "Keeping Kids Safe Online"

 Why you are on their webpage make sure to leave a comment and join the discussion:

When is a child old enough to have their own phone/computer/tablet?
When is a child old enough to have a social media account or talk to friends in a chat room?

What method do you reccomend to keep kids safe online? 

If you haven't heard of TechKnowBase before, they are a great website devoted to giving free information and tutorials on anything computer related. If you are having any kind of problem with you computer visit their question and answer page here, and see if they can help you out! Hopefully this is the first of many articles that Mommy and Things and TechKnowBase team up on! 

-Megan from Mommy and Things

Fall Scented Playdough

I love all the Fall scents! Our house has been covered in pumpkin spice air fresheners and candles! So what better than Fall scented playdough?? Making homemade playdough is at lot cheaper than buying it! Plus you can great scents like PUMPKIN SPICE, that you just can't find in any store! This is a great recipe and it is so easy to make! I love Learn Play Imagine, they always have great activities for kids of all ages and this is one of them! To make the playdough, you start off by making a base recipe and then add other ingredients for the color and scent!

Ingredients for the base playdough:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1 tablespoon cream of tartar

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3/4 cup boiling water

Ingredients for Fall scents and colors:

Cinnamon

Nutmeg

Pumpkin Pie Spice

Ground Cloves

Apple Flavor

Liquid Watercolors (or Food Coloring): Orange, Green, Red, Yellow and Brown

To make the playdough:

In a mixing bowl, add the flour, salt and cream of tartar and stir.

Add the vegetable oil and stir again. 

Next, stir in the according color and spice for the playdough you are making. 

Finally, add in the hot water. Stir until the dough has cooled, then you can knead with your hands. 

Then, just store you playdough in an air tight container to make it stay soft! 

Color/ Flavor Combos:

Pumpkin Pie - Orange

Candy Apple - Green

Clove -  Red

Nutmeg - Yellow

Cinnamon - Brown

Source: learnplayimagine.com

DIY Seaweed and Barnacle Backdrop

Looking for decoration ideas for your next sea themed party? Try this super easy barnacle backdrop that uses streamers and cupcake liners! These would also look good in a few different shades of green!This was used as decoration inspiration in our Disney Movie Night: The Little Mermaid!

What you need:
Variety of shades of streamers
Silver foil cupcake liners


Here's what you do:

1. Just hang some streamers of all different sizes as a backdrop to the table or over the table for an underwater feeling! 

2. Flatten the silver cupcake liners and glue them to some of the pieces of streamers.

 For more sea-themed crafts see Ariel inspired Salt Dough Starfish Necklace!

See Disney Movie Night: The Little Mermaid for sea-themed recipes, crafts and activities!

Source: Chickabug

Ariel's Salt Dough Starfish Necklace

This is a super fun and easy craft for your little princess! I grew up making salt dough ornaments, and I have made them at Christmas with my child.. and I never thought to make a necklace! This craft is linked up with our Disney Movie Night: The Little Mermaid!

What you will need:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1/2 cup water

Star shaped cookie cutter

Cookie sheet

Toothpick

Acrylic paints

Paintbrushes

Pony beads

Cotton braiding cord

Scissors 

Here's how to make it:

1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. In a bowl, mix the flour, salt and water. Stir until dough starts to form. 

2. Place the dough on a floured surface, add flour if the dough gets too sticky. Roll out the dough until about 1/4 inch thickness. Cut our star shapes using the star shaped cookie cutter. Place the stars onto an ungreased cookie sheet. 

3. Use a toothpick to make a small hole on the tips of each of the stars. This will be used to thread the star onto the necklace. 

4. Bake the salt dough stars for 2 hours or until firm. When they are done baking, let them cool completely before painting.

5. Lay the stars on wax paper, and paint them bright sea-themed colors. While the paint is still wet, sprinkle the stars with glitter. Let the stars dry and then tap off the excess glitter.

6. Cut some of the braiding cord, make sure that its long enough for your child to be able to slip it on and off over their head!  Fold the cord in half, and pull the loop side through the hole towards the front of your star. Pull the remaining cord through the loop, and pull tight.

7. The beads are optional, I think it would like nice without them as well! If you would like to use the beads, string the beads onto each side of the string and tie the string together. 

Now you have your very own Ariel inspired starfish necklace!

Make sure to check out the Disney Movie Night: The Little Mermaid for free printables and other Little Mermaid inspired recipes, crafts and activities! 

Source: Spoonful

Disney Movie Night: The Little Mermaid

This is the first post of many! I will be making a new Disney themed movie night once a week! Be sure to follow my blog on Google +, Pinterest, Facebook or subscribe with your e-mail address to get updates on all the others to come! Each Disney Movie will come with themed recipes, a dinner menu printable, decoration ideas, crafts and activities! Disney themed dinners are so much fun to do once a week, or once a month! They are great as countdowns to a Disney Trip! Your little one's will look forward to the movie nights each time!


1. The Menu: the menu is made to give your child a well-balanced healthy meal, making sure they get there veggies in! Below each course is listed and described with links to recipes!

Click here for you Little Mermaid Menu Printable!

Entree: 
Ariel's Stuffed Sea Shells (as an alternate you can use shell mac & cheese). The pasta shells resemble sea shells! This is such a good recipe and much healthier than mac & cheese!

Click here for the recipe: Spinach and Chicken Stuffed Shells

  

Sides:

Flounder's Seaweed: Use either green beans or asparagus and make sure to line them up and down in a row on the plate to look like seaweed! 

Scuttle's Salad: Just any salad that your family likes! *You can also serve it with Titian's Trident Toast (bread sticks).

Drink:

Ursula's Ocean Water: You can use any clear liquid like sprite or water, to turn it blue use food coloring or those flavor pouches for water. You can also use blue kool-aid! 

Dessert:

Prince Eric's Banana Split Ship: Who doesn't love a good banana split? Use your families favorite toppings to make a banana split and add a ship flag on it! To make a ship flag: glue scrap book paper or construction paper to a toothpick in a square shape!

2. Crafts:

Coloring Pages 

Little Mermaid coloring pages!

*Hang your child's masterpiece on the wall to double as decorations.

Ariel's Salt Dough Starfish Necklace

3. Decorations:

DIY Seaweed and Barnacle Backdrop

In the movie Scuttle says a fork is a "dinglehopper", which is used to brush someone's hair.Try gluing a few jewels or rhinestones onto plastic forks for a decoarted "dinglehopper"

4. Activities:

Play "What Would Scuttle Say?" Just like with the "dinglehopper" find items around your house and ask your kids to come up with what scuttle would think they are called and what they are for! I bet you will get a lot of funny answers! 

Any ideas for next month's movie? Suggestions are appreciated! 

Comment below what your child's favorite Disney movie is!

Pizza Decorating for Dinner

My little girl had so much fun getting to decorate cookies for her Grandma's birthdays, so we decided to have homemade pizza for dinner! Emma got to decorate her own little pizza!

We started out by making the dough. You can buy pre-made dough or make your own (they are very simple)! We made one for daddy, one for mommy, and one for Emma. Emma's ended up being bigger than we wanted, and she only ate half of it! We baked the dough for a few minutes, so we could bake it on the oven rack instead of on a pan (John swear it tastes better that way).

On the table we layed out wax paper for an easy clean up, each of our pizza's and lots of toppings. We bought a variety of toppings: pepperoni, bacon, mushrooms, spinach, onions and cheese. I gave Emma a little bit of each topping and some sauce with a kitchen brush. 

She did a great job, we just made sure she had enough sauce and cheese.

Emma got hungry during the pizza decorating part and started eating the toppings instead of putting them on her pizza! 

Emma's pizza came out great! 

It definitely got her approval! This is a super fun activity to keep your little one entertained, and get them started in cooking with Mommy.

Try this Strawberry Pizza for a yummy dessert!

First Day of School: Back to School Breakfast Idea

I love the idea of a back to school breakfast! It's a great way to get the kids up in the morning, and to have them excited for the first day of school. There are a lot of ideas out there. You could do a back to school party and invite all your kids friends. You can do a special dinner the night before and talk about their favorite summer memories and their hopes for the school year! Or you could do a breakfast (keep in mind that the first day of school is normally hectic, so try to give your kids plenty of time and have a relaxing morning). The Diary of Dave's Wife has some great ideas, click here to see her post.

I think the best way to do a back to school breakfast or dinner is to either have the kids favorite foods, or go all out with something special. If you normally do cereal for breakfast, then try some pancakes or french toast! Make sure to start the kids out right with a balanced breakfast. Include some milk or orange juice and some fruit. 

For a dinner, make sure the kids get some veggies! Eat classics like spaghetti and meatballs or order pizza! Make sure to give the kids some dessert, especially if they don't get to eat sweets that often! Talk about their favorite summer memories and their concerns or hopes for the upcoming year! Help your kids get really excited for the upcoming year! 

The decorations: this seems easier than it really is. Fun colorful things work really well, get a colorful table cloth, plates, napkins, cups, silverware, muffin tins or cupcake wrappers, and maybe some balloons at any party supplies store. Create fun centerpieces and decorations by finding some classroom decorations (like bus or apple cutouts). Make a chalkboard sign or use a dry erase board to write a fun back to school message. Use school supplies as decorations, a glass canister with crayons or markers in it, a new notebook or pack of markers on their plate, an eraser as a name card, new books layed out on the table as a center piece, or a cup full of pencils (and be sure to decorate each item with ribbons). 

That's really all there is to it! Happy Back to School Everyone! :)

Comment below: 

What are your favorite ways to celebrate back to school?

Source: The Diary of Dave's Wife

Back to School Photo Idea: Favorites List

We all know that child's favorite anything, can change every 5 minutes. But I love this idea of writing out their favorites for the first day of school. This idea is so easy to make and such a cute way to look back and remember your child at such a young age!


Here's how to make it:
1. Find pre-made cut outs at a craft store or make your own using foam poster board. 
2. Use paint writing markers or metallic sharpies to write with, and write out all your child's favorites. Try using a plain color as the question, and a bright color that stands out as your child's answer. 


Example's of questions to ask:
1. Name
2. Age
3. Grade
4. Favorite Movie
5. Favorite Color
6. Favorite Song
7. Favorite Food
8. Favorite Book
9. Favorite TV Show
10. Favorite Outdoor Activity
11. Favorite Indoor Activity
12. Favorite Game
13. Favorite Animal
14. Favorite School Subject
15. Favorite Toy






Source: justusfourblog.com

DIY Back To School Countdown Board

 

The first day of school is getting closer and closer.. some kids might be returning students going into 2nd or 3rd grade, or you may have a little kid just starting preschool or kindergarten. Some kids may be excited, while others can be nervous (especially first time students). Try this fun activity from Becoming Martha to get your kid excited for the upcoming school year.

Here's how it works: There are 7 cards for the week leading up to school, everyday let your child pick the card (starting at 7 and going down) and read the contents on the back. On the back of the card, there will be a fun activity or back to school task that your child must do for that day. At the end of the day the can receive some kind of reward or treat! If you have more than one child going back to school, you can take turns reading the cards (which doesn't always work), or have them complete a task (like being the first one to make their bed, putting away their toys without being asked) and you can choose who gets to read the card that day!

To make this you will need:

-a large frame (the one pictured was a cork board torn apart, with fabric wrapped around the frame for decoration)

-wooden shapes for decorations (owl and "c" pictured, could use all children's initials)

-printables on card stock paper for the front of the countdown cards (get them here)

-printables for the back of the card (of course you could always personalize it and right your own, or get the pre-made one's here)

-twine or thin rope

-clothes pins (decorate with washi tape for extra color)

-treats (book bag key chain, candy, summer fun activity, ice cream date, they pick dinner out night, stickers, special pencils, diary, any type of school supplies)

Idea's for each day:

-record your favorite summer memory with decorative paper and pen

-help mom buy school snacks and pick out your lunch for the first day

-decorate a memory box with stickers to put all of the kids school work in this year

-estimate how many time you will write you name on your school supplies, then right your name on everything, the winner gets a candy treat

-bake cookies for your new teacher, but try a few with mom to make sure they are yummy

-pack your back pack for the first day, and add a new key chain to make it perfect

-pick out your favorite back to school outfit, then wear your favorite summer outfit for an ice cream date with mom

 

What's your favorite way to get your kid excited for the upcoming school year?

School Supplies Scavenger Hunt

 

Getting ready to go back to school? Get you kids excited for the first day of school with this school supplies scavenger hunt game. It's so simple! Just print out your free game piece printables from The Happy Home Fairy, and place your new school supplies around the house. Place each clue with the item they have found, give them their backpack to fill with their school supplies! After the game is over, let the kids have a fun back to school themed treat! Talk about their new school supplies, their hopes, expectations and worries for the up coming school year!

Happy Back to School Everyone!

DIY Paited Sea Shell Decorations

 

We love collecting sea shells from the beach every year! But they end up just getting broken, lost or thrown away. This a cute idea to add some DIY summer decor to your house! All you need is to wash and dry your sea shells, and spray paint them all the same color. We love using a metallic silver, gold white! Put them in a jar and set out as summer decorations. 

*Make sure to keep a few unpainted for some Christmas ornaments ideas coming this winter!

Source: loveumadly.com

Free Travel Bingo

 

Everyone knows that traveling with kids can be stressful. Kids will get bored, and as parents, we want to keep them entertained and happy! Car games are GREAT ways to keep kids entertained, and sometimes are even educational for that "summertime slump". This travel bingo is great game to bring along on your next road trip this summer. Go on over to Simple As That Blog and print out this game and be ready for a fun road trip! 

Enjoy! :)

Free Summertime Activites Printable

We love printable's! They are a great way to add a little decoration to your house! I like the idea of having a nice picture frame in a picture gallery wall and changing it out to fit the seasons and holidays!

To get this free printable, just click over to kikicomin.com, download your free printable, print it and hang it in a frame all summer long!

Enjoy! :)

Ballon Fireworks

 

  

What kid wouldn't love to pop balloons full of confetti? This seems like a great childhood memory, and a yearly tradition to start! They are easy to make too! The Red, White and Blue colors are so festive for the Fourth of July, but you can easily change the colors and use this for any occasion or birthday parties! 

What you will need: 

Red, White and Blue assorted balloons

Assorted colored confetti

Funnel

String or Ribbon for the balloons

How to Make:

1. Fill an empty balloon 1/3 of the way full using the funnel. 

2. Fill the balloon with air

3. Tie the balloons in a cluster, hanging downward

4. Let a child (over age 8) use a sharpened pencil for popping. 

Source: marthastewart.com