Simple Steps to Make Time for Family When Busy

Posted on | by KD Novelties
Spending time with family is important, especially for children, but finding the time in order to have complete unstructured family time may be more and more difficult to come by.

Many families run on tight schedules these days. In most families, both parents work full-time and kids are enrolled in any number of after school activities. With such hectic lifestyles, it may be hard to make time to enjoy each other’s company. Studies have shown that there are plenty of benefits to spending quality family time. Family relationships help kids build relationships with others, it helps their academic performance, and it can even help their overall health. Here are some ways to make time in your busy schedule to help make sure that you squeeze some time in for your kids and your whole family.

Family Time at the table
1.   Have a home cooked meal. Kids who eat dinner with their families are much better at forming and maintaining relationships, perform better at school, and are even healthier. Home cooked meals made from scratch are usually much healthier than fast food meals grabbed on the go, and they also provide kids with the opportunity to become acquainted with what they are eating. Sitting around the table and having a quality dinner together is beneficial for the whole family while creating lasting memories. If you are pressed for time and think that it may be impossible to cook when you’re swamped with work and busy schedules, take one afternoon or evening out of the week to prep meals ahead of time. Do all of the prep work and simply stick the food in the refrigerator until it’s ready to be prepared. Even if you don’t eat a home cooked meal every day, having at least a few will help improve your child’s health and will help get in some quality family time as well.

2.  If you can’t eat in, eat out! If you are, in fact, too busy or too tired to cook, it might still be helpful to spend a meal time with everyone in the family out at a restaurant. Dining out can be fun, but usually only if children are a little older. But planning an afternoon or evening around a family meal at a restaurant can be both fun and relaxing. Even if you are not the one cooking, everyone is gathered around the table, making conversation and spending time together. You can pick a day out of the week if possible that is family night out time.

3.   Plan a movie night. Between sports practice, after school activities, work, meetings and a variety of other things, it may be difficult to find an overlapping period of time where everyone in the family is free. If you have the luxury of examining everyone’s schedule ahead of time, even if it is just by a few days, schedule a movie night at home. Get popcorn and kick back – you can all take a breather from your hectic lives and unwind while also enjoying some family friendly entertainment together!
Family Movie Night

4.  Make small talk. There may be days where you find that everyone in the family seems to be in different places at different times. With this sort of schedule, it may be difficult to really catch up and have a quality conversation. For kids, it is always important to have strong interpersonal relationships, and parents can still accomplish this by taking time out of their day to ask their child about school, what they’re up to, or even just shoot the breeze. Having conversations with kids, especially ones where you treat them like contemporaries, helps boost their self-esteem. When they hear that you are genuinely interested in their thoughts and feelings, they will take the time to form genuine answers which can be vital to their personal and mental development. Even though more unstructured family time is preferable, even small interactions can build up over time and will still mean a lot.

5. Take a break! Even when we’re unwinding and relaxing, we can find ourselves preoccupied. Whether our eyes are glued to our phones, laptops, or even the TV, it’s important to take a step back and interact with those around us. Sure, indulging yourself in some entertainment can help relax you after a long, busy day but it is much more important to interact with your family, make conversation, or even share in these activities together.

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How To Read With Your Kids When You’re Not Around

Posted on | by KD Novelties

Many of our first memories of books and reading go back to our parents. Many children read bedtime stories with mom or dad just before drifting off to sleep. Research has shown that reading with children or reading to children is integral in building a relationship with books, as well as the act of reading itself. Reading with your child is a heartwarming activity that can build memories and moments that you will cherish forever.

So what are you to do when you are not at home to read with them? If you are a parent with an occupation that requires that you travel often or if you happen to work nights, it may be difficult to keep up with this tradition but it is still important that you make time to read with your child. Sure, kids can read with others and will learn to read on their own, but studies have shown that the special relationship between kids and parents in regards to the act of reading itself is important. Luckily, there are plenty of things you can do in order to make sure that you never miss a bedtime story.

Reading Books via Video Chat

1. Call them. The simplest thing you can do is to call your child around the time that they’re going to sleep and read to them over the phone. Not only is this something that you would normally do anyway, but by reading a story during your phone call, you can make your conversations even more special. Even though you would call them to say good night and to ask them about their day regardless, adding the story to your conversation will build even more memories even if you are not physically present.


2. Video chat with them. Thanks to smart phones, tablets, and laptops many parents can use video chatting or web chatting to see their child face-to-face as they talk, share thoughts about their day, and provide them with the opportunity to share a book visually as well as audibly. This way, your child can see your face and interact with you as closely as if you were right there with them. Alternatively, your child can read a book to you as well! No matter who’s reading, it’s the interaction that really counts.

3. Tape a video or a CD. Sometimes, time differences can make video chatting or calling in real-time difficult. This may be an issue for parents who are in the military or work overseas for other reasons. Taking the time to tape yourself reading a book can allow your child to access the story and your voice whenever they like. Even though you may not physically be interacting with them at the time that they are listening to or watching your recording, this gesture can still hold a lot of meaning for both you and your child. This means that your child can listen to or watch a recording whenever they want to read the story, and especially whenever they miss you, which can help with the distance a great deal. If you want to make sure that your child has watched or listened, make sure to ask them questions about the recording as well as the story when you get the chance to call or correspond with them. By doing this, you can incentivize them to read and make sure that they are getting that quality time with you while also building their reading and listening skills.


4. Write a book together! Get out the crayons and construction paper, it’s time to write your own story. Just as having recordings available provide you with some cherished keepsakes for the rest of your lives, making a book together can help you make memories more concrete. Sit down with your child and write! Come up with a creative story, each of you writing and illustrating your very own copies. This way, you can keep your books on you wherever you are and your child will never feel alone.


Earth Day: Fun Stuff to Do with Your Kids

Posted on | by KD Novelties
The state of the environment is a major issue these days. When it comes to motivating others to take up more environmentally friendly activities and practices, one of the main points of argument happen to be that the world needs to be healthy and habitable for future generations. But in order to guarantee that these efforts are successful and continue to be so, it is imperative that the kids who make up the future generation know just how important this issue is and how best to help care for the world that they live in.
Earth Day April 22, 2015
Earth day is the 22nd of April, and what better time to teach kids about what’s good and green in the world? The snow has melted and making way for budding flowers, plants, green grass and trees are finally growing their season’s leaves. There are plenty of fun ways to get kids interested and involved in this day that will stress its importance in the present as well as the future. 
1. Read about Earth Day. Getting kids interested in the topic may first require some familiarity with this particular day, for starters. Books with pictures and easy digestible facts can help pique kids’ interest while educating them at the same time.

2. Get outside! It’s important for kids to have a relationship with nature if you want them to care more about Earth Day. This way the weight of the issues mean even more to them. Take them to the local park, go on a mild hike or even take them to national landmarks if you happen to live near them.  If you don’t you can always play around with Google Earth, plus you can explore natural wonders all around the world that can benefit from their protection!

3. Volunteer! Your child’s school or even the local park that you may have visited might have ongoing cleanup programs or they might be running something special for Earth Day itself. Find out what’s going on in your community and make a fun family outing of it!

4. Plant something! Whether you plant some flowers, some vegetables to feed the family or plant a tree as part of an Earth Day program or event, this can be a positive experience all around. Knowing that they are responsible for a living plant that will continue to grow can help kids feel more a part of Earth Day as well as an integral inhabitant of this planet as well.

5. Instill good habits all year round. Encourage your kids and your family to recycle, not to litter and to partake in other planet and environmentally friendly activities and practices. These are the things that are truly important and are helpful to practice all year round, not just on Earth Day. While such practices and ideas are important every other day of the year as well, you can still use Earth Day as an opportunity to teach kids these important lessons and to make positive memories that will stay with them forever, encouraging them, too, to teach future generations the same things as well.

Year Round Tip: We have great outdoor personalized books that can instill the love of the environment to kids.  Our Fishing Adventure personalized book and My Camping Adventure that helps kids understand the beauty in the mountains and all around them.  
Camping Adventure Personalized Book

Now is the time to purchase these two personalized books as we have an April sale of 15% site-wide. Use AprilShowers-KD at checkout – expires April 31st.