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Family Garden : Planting the Seeds for Gardening with Kids

New guide helps you get your family garden growing

Spring isn’t just a beautiful time to enjoy the outdoors, it is also a great time to get outside with your kids and start your own family garden. A new guide, titled “Get Your Family’s Garden Growing” released by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) shows just how easy and fun it can be to garden with your kids. The new guide is part of the National Wildlife Federation’s Be Out There movement and is being released in celebration of May is Garden for Wildlife Month.

Get Your Family’s Garden Growing is a simple 6 step how-to guide that provides the basics for even the most novice gardeners to start planting. The 6 easy to adopt steps include:

Best Handmade Gift for Mom

by Samantha Conner

Although the stores are filled with everything from perfume to jewelry, nothing tops a handmade gift. Even if you have to make it yourself!

With that being said, the best handmade gift for Mom (or someone special) this year has got to be a silhouette. Silhouettes are all the rage right now. Surf the web or browse Pinterest, and you will find these vintage images are getting a modern make-over.

For Mom: A Silhouette

But without Photoshop or a degree in graphic design, these projects might look a bit intimidating at first. And yes- I know people have been making silhouettes forever! But when I googled the process and read how to do it the ‘old fashioned way’, I was a bit perplexed. How do you get a child to hold-still that long?!

Helping Your Child Overcome Test Anxiety

Tips on Helping Your Child with Test Anxiety

By Lori Lite

Finals, a quiz, or standardized testing can evoke feelings of stress, fear, even panic. These strong emotions can affect a child’s ability to think clearly and access information. It’s normal for kids and teens to feel a little nervous before a big test, but anxiety left unchecked can affect grades. Studies have shown that students that practice relaxation achieve higher test scores. Teachers and parents can help students of all ages by introducing relaxation techniques into their lives. Deep breathing, visualizing, and affirmations or positive statements will increase wellness and increase grades.

Tips to Help Your Baby Sleep Better

Instilling Good Sleep Habits in Your Baby

by Visa Shanmugam

If you are a first time parent, congratulations! You have brought this tiny little human being home and it is your sole responsibility to care, feed and teach everything you know to him/her. It can be extremely overwhelming and despite all the child birth classes that you have taken and books you have read, it still doesn’t fully prepare you for the task ahead. No matter how much you prep, you learn by doing when it comes to taking care of a little one. But, a little bit of education and knowledge goes a long way in calming fears and building confidence.

Facts about Infant Sleep

It is a well known fact that infants (0-3 months) need a lot of sleep. In fact, they sleep 16-18 hours in a 24 hour cycle, however the longest stretch they sleep is 2-3 hours. It doesn’t mirror an adult’s sleep habits, hence the reason that parents of newborns are so sleep deprived and tired.

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7 Last-Minute Savings Tips for Prom

How to Save Money on Prom

According to the annual prom survey conducted by Visa, parents making less than $50,000 per year intend to spend nearly 10-percent more on prom than those in higher income brackets. Prom costs an average of $1,139, with families in the northeastern U.S. planning to spend the most on the one-night event.

Though prom is an important milestone in your teen’s life, there’s no need to spend an exorbitant amount of money to make it memorable. Consider these tips for keeping your budget grounded while helping your teen achieve his or her dream night.

Discipline That Works

Types of Discipline for Your Child

Guest post by Kids ‘R’ Kids of Dallas/Fort Worth

The most frequently ask question among parents is, “When do I start disciplining?” and “How should I discipline?” Childcare experts wish there was an easy explanation to give desperate parents, but that’s just not the case. The answer is both simple and complex. Childcare professionals recommend you start disciplining a child as soon as he’s capable of understanding what you are doing, that way he can learn why you are doing it. Experts say this occurs usually around 18 months, although some children may be closer to 2 years of age before discipline can become effective.

Anti Bullying with Defeat the Label

2 Million Students in Over 40 Countries With Anti-bullying Message

Celebrating Stand4Change Day on May 3, 2013

Defeat the Label, an international anti-bullying organization, announced today that more than 2 million students, in all 50 states and across 7 continents have already pledged to participate in this year’s Stand4Change Day on Friday, May 3rd.

Stand4Change Day is a worldwide event hosted by Defeat the Label to bring attention to the issue of bullying in our schools. Defeat the Label provides a short lesson plan, student pledge, video and additional resources for educators to share with their students.