• Jumping jacks, snow angels (on the carpet), wall push ups – yes, they are exercises, but you can make them fun.  Movement is an essential part of learning.  Take a commercial break and call it a jump up break.  Everybody jump up and do 10 of each.  Next break, do 15.

    

• Have your kids do animal walk races around the house – bear walk, inch worm, crab walk, etc.  Put a bean bag animal on their back and have them slither like a snake without dropping the animal.  Try adding two or three bean bags.  

• Try some hopping activities.  If you have tiles, play indoor hopscotch on them.  See how long your child can hop on one foot or two feet.  

• If you have an agile gymnast like mine, see if they can stand with their back against the wall, put their hands on the floor in front of them and try to walk their feet up the wall.  Alternatively, my daughter will spend hours trying to do handstands against the wall starting from a standing position.  She will do the same thing on the couch.

   

• Obstacle course – Incorporate crawling under the kitchen table, climbing over the side of the sofa, jumping in the hall, climbing up the stairs, jumping on a pile of pillows, walking on bubble wrap, squeezing stress balls, etc.  You might want to mention to your child that this is only allowed when you supervise and say it is okay.  

• Clay, model magic, play dough (see recipes below)

• Punch holes in paper using a variety of hole punches

• Legos – great for boys and girls, kits are fun, but open ended bins really exercise imagination

• Tape a large piece of paper under a card table and have your child lay on his or her back and color upside down

• Squeezing bubble wrap

• Make a clay tray to write in with a stylus – fill a small tray with a thin layer of clay.  Have your child draw with the back end of a paint brush then squish to erase

• Make soft pretzels – prepare the dough (recipe at bottom) and have your child roll them into pretzels.  You can give your younger child a ball of dough to knead and roll while you make the ones to be eaten.  

• Shaving cream in the tub (may be better for ages 3 and up and those without sensitive skin) – squirt shaving cream on the wall of the tub and have your child draw on the wall.  My daughter loves to practice her spelling words this way, and we no longer yell at each other while she practices.

• Medicine droppers with a bin of colored water or in the tub.  Kids love medicine droppers!  If you have a surplus from medicines, wash them out and repurpose them for your child’s amusement!  Add a little soap and color to the water.  Throw in some baby formula scoops and old yogurt containers as well.  If you have time in advance to plan, make different sized ice cubes out of different yogurt and applesauce containers to put in the bin with the water.  You can even freeze a small toy in the cubes and have your child work to get it out.  

• As you are out without children, grab a few small activities or toys to pull out on rainy days or as rewards for good behavior.  The dollar section of Target is great for this, as is the dollar section of your craft store.  

• Fruit loop or Fruit Cheerio stringing!  That box of cereal can do much more than be eaten or ground into your family room carpet.  Use shoelaces or yarn with a bit of tape rolled around the end to make it easy to go through the loops.  Make patterns or just string them and eat them.  

• Jigsaw puzzles…if you have more than one child, give them each a puzzle appropriate for their age group and have a race to see who can complete their puzzle the fastest.  Then, see how long it takes them to complete one together.  

• Make a fort out of kitchen chairs, pillows, and blankets.  Let the kids play inside their fort.  My rule is that the kids can make a fort with any of the couch cushions as long as they leave one cushion for me to sit on throughout the day!

• Ask for a large box from the grocery store or repurpose one you have from a tv or other large appliance, etc. and make a car, spaceship, house, puppet theater, etc.  

• Collect some toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, wrapping paper tubes, etc and create some tracks for your little cars.  You may have to cut them in half, making a half pipe, if the cars don’t fit inside the tubes.  Use tape and a creative mind to make them stay together and upright so the cars go down.  

• As a last resort, learn about your town and locations you can go to let your kids run around inside.  

• 1 cup cold water
• 1 cup salt
• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 3 cups flour
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch
• Food coloring

• 4 cups flour
• 2 cups salt
• 2 Tbsp cream of tartar
• 4 cups water
• 4 Tbsp cooking oil

• 1 envelope yeast
• 1 ½ cup warm water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 4 cups flour
• coarse salt 
• 1 egg, beaten

• Early Signs  Family history is a big flag:  up to one half of kids with a parent or sibling with dyslexia will also have it.  Early speech delays can also be a predictor.  Note if your child is not saying words by 15 months, and once he is readily talking, notice if he has difficulty pronouncing words, slurring them or mixing up sounds, as this may be an indicator of future reading issues.  Another key to early detection for dyslexia is a lack of appreciation for rhymes.  If your toddler doesn’t enjoy “sing-songy” games and doesn’t seem to repeat the nursery rhymes you read her, pay attention as she enters the preschool years to see if she struggles with recognizing letters and their sounds.  

• For School-aged Children  Pay attention if your son or daughter has a disdain for reading or becomes frustrated with school work.  If your child is depressed or exhibits behavior problems at school or at home, these may be ways of masking his frustration.  Children with dyslexia may struggle with “left vs. right” or be uncoordinated.  A dyslexic child may have difficulty remembering or even understanding what he hears.  Recalling a sequence of events or more than one command at a time can also be difficult. When he speaks, words may come out wrong, or he may use the wrong word or a similar word instead.  Children who struggle with dyslexia usually know what they want to say but have trouble finding or forming the words to express their thoughts.

1. You should eat for two.  Oh, if only this were true.  I might consider spending the rest of my life pregnant!  Okay, maybe not.  Unfortunately, this one is false.  You don’t need any additional calories in the first trimester (which is probably good since many of us spend it with our heads in the toilet).  During the second trimester you only need about 300 extra calories a day and during the last trimester 450 extra calories is all that is required for baby to grow healthfully.  This equates to an additional snack or small meal each day, not seven full course meals a day.  Eating too much while pregnant increases your risk of developing pregnancy complications, including gestational diabetes.

2. Don’t eat fish, especially sushi.  Actually, eating cooked fish is very healthy for a pregnant woman.  Fish is a valuable source of omega-3 fatty acids, such as DHA, which help promote healthy brain development in your baby.  However, steer clear of shark, swordfish, mackerel and tilefish.  Because of their lengthy life-span, they have a tendency to adsorb much higher mercury concentrations.  Similarly, it would be wise to cut out tuna during your pregnancy.  While the FDA asserts that no more than 12 oz. a week is safe, a report published in Consumer Reports recommends avoiding it completely to decrease your risk of mercury exposure.  Mercury poisoning is a cumulative effect so don’t panic if you’ve eaten tuna recently.  Just keep your tuna intake to a bare minimum.  As for sushi, if it’s cooked then go for it.  Most OB/GYN doctors will tell you that the minimal chance of contamination from eating raw sushi (also called sashimi) is not worth the damaging effects of a parasitic or bacterial infection.  If you’re craving sushi, stick to the California rolls or the unagi.

3. Don’t eat hot dogs or lunch meat.  Not quite.  If you’ve got a hankerin’ for a chili dog then feel free to indulge on occasion if you cook that sucker until steam is pouring out of it; same goes for lunchmeat.  Hot dogs and other deli (processed) meats can harbor a deadly foodborne bacteria called listeria.  It is particularly detrimental to your developing baby and can often cause premature labor and stillbirth.  Thoroughly heating all processed meats will kill off any unwanted bacteria.

4. Get rid of caffeine.  While research has linked caffeine intake to higher miscarriage risk, don’t go cryin’ in your cup o’ Joe just yet.  Studies indicate an increased risk for those who consume more than 200 mg of caffeine a day which equals approximately one 12 ounce cup of coffee or 25 ounces of tea.  Stick to one cup a day and you should be fine.

5. You should decrease the amount you exercise during pregnancy; take it easy.  It would seem that the 9-month pregnant marathoner has sufficiently debunked that myth.  This is an extreme case, to be sure, but it makes the point that, if your pregnancy is normal, a regular exercise routine is not detrimental to your health or that of your baby’s and, in fact, can provide many benefits.  An exercise routine tailored to your abilities can help to reduce stress, backaches and fatigue and ward off gestational diabetes.  If you haven't exercised regularly before getting pregnant then you will want to talk to your doctor about beginning a low-impact (walking, swimming, yoga) routine but, if you are no stranger to regular exercise, then you should be able to continue your routine under the supervision of your doctor as long as you are comfortable.

6. Steer clear of hot tubs, heating pads and electric blankets.  The danger here is in raising your core body temperature above 100-103°.  In the early stages of pregnancy, this can cause malformations in your baby and in later stages it can cause fetal distress.  Sitting in a hot tub, hot bathwater or under an electric blanket set on high can raise your core body temperature to levels that are dangerous for your baby.  If you can control the water temperature in your tub or Jacuzzi to keep it at or below 100° then it is safe to use.  Likewise, if you are using an electric blanket and it is not causing you to sweat or overheat, then it is safe.  Because heating pads target only one area of the body and, therefore, do not heat up your entire body, they are safe to use during pregnancy.

7. Air travel is a no-no.  Wrong.  As long as you have a healthy pregnancy and your doctor’s blessing, there should be no health concerns with flying.  The airline, however, may have a policy against allowing women late in their pregnancies to fly.  This is more out of concern for their liability than your health since you may go into labor en route.  You’ll have to take that one up with the airline.  If your flight is particularly long, be certain to walk around, stretch and move your legs as often as possible to ensure good circulation and decrease your risk of blood clots.

8. Bye-bye, Hair Dye.  Relax, you don’t have to let your roots take over.  Doctors will suggest that you avoid dying your hair in the first trimester as a precautionary measure.  Hair dye is made up of some pretty noxious chemicals, after all.  Research on the effects of hair dyes in early human pregnancy is scant but animal studies using up to 100 times the normal amount have shown no increase in birth defects.   

9. Lose the laptop and the microwave.  Today’s models of microwaves have more radiation shielding than older models but recent research from Kaiser Permanente showed a three-fold increase in asthma in children born to women with the most exposure to electromagnetic fields from appliances such as microwaves.  To be on the safe side, reduce your use of the microwave while pregnant and, if you must use it, stand on the other side of the room while the microwave is heating up your food.  Laptops, on the other hand, have not been shown to cause any abnormalities in pregnant women.  

10. You shouldn’t have sex while pregnant.  Oh, yes, you should!  In a normal pregnancy, you can get busy right up until your water breaks or you go into labor.  As your body gets bigger, it might take some creativity to find a position that is comfortable but there is no reason that you should abstain from sex unless your doctor or midwife says otherwise.  Orgasm may cause some slight uterine contractions but they are usually temporary and no cause for concern.

11. Give Fluffy the cold shoulder.  Cat-lovers will be glad to know that they can continue to cuddle their furry, feline friends.  However, leave the litterbox cleaning to your partner.  Cat poo can harbor a creepy, crawly parasite called toxoplasmosis which can wreak all kinds of havoc on you and your baby.   

12. Cocoa butter will prevent stretch marks.  Sorry, but, no.  There is very little you can do to prevent stretch marks if you are pre-disposed to them.  Stretch marks are caused when the skin is stretched due to rapid weight gain.  Keeping your skin well moisturized will help your skin stretch more easily and calm the accompanying itch but, unfortunately, there is little that can be done to keep them from showing up.  The good news is that, about a year after you deliver, those ugly fault lines will have faded considerably.  If your new badges of motherhood honor still bother you, make an appointment with your dermatologist.  While nothing will completely remove stretch marks, there are treatments available that can help reduce their appearance.  These treatments, however, are considered cosmetic and are not covered under most insurance policies.

1. “Bake” your ribbon to curl it, and cut it into pieces approximately 4” long. Click here to get the full “recipe” from Nikki, In Stitches.   (Remember, you could also use ribbon you would typically use to wrap a gift. You know…the kind where you open your scissors, and run the ribbon along the blade to curl it?  Super simple!)

2. Gather your curlicues together, matching up the centers of each. Use a needle and thread to join them all together. Do not clip your thread!
   

   

3. Slide your ponytail holder through the center of your curlicues.

   

4. Using your needle and thread that’s still attached, take a few stitches again in the center of your curlicues, this time overlapping the ponytail holder to help keep it in place. Again, do not clip your thread!
   

   

5. Fold your curlicues together over the pony tail holder, and make a few stitches to secure in place. Clip your thread and enjoy!

   

Take a peek at Nikki’s full how-to for this Valentine’s Day wreath on her blog, here! 

Happy Valentine’s Day!