Archive for September, 2010

Finding a teen or friendly neighbor to babysit your child for a reasonable fee is tough enough. But when the child in question has special needs, finding someone reliable becomes both more fraught, and more difficult.

Care.com, a site that connects those looking for sitting with those who do the work, doesn’t look like that special of a site; nothing about it that makes it canonical. But it’s frequented by an unusually high level of quality special-needs nannies, leading special needs moms in various areas across the country (New York, Miami, San Francisco) to recommend it to each other.

Parents who are looking for help (babysitting, nannies, tutoring) can either post a Craigslist-style ad with their specific needs, or search through Care.com’s roster by ZIP code. All of the caregivers recommended by Care.com have been background-checked, information which is available free to members, and many have references provided by other members who have used their services. Most have photos, and some even have videos of themselves, a fantastic tool for picking out those you may be simpatico with.

Care.com is particularly stocked with high-quality special needs sitters and nannies, but they also offer pet sitters, senior home help, and housecare help.

Have to admit I cringed a little bit when I heard that there was a Cat in the Hat PBS show in the works. How, I wondered, would they transform the cool counterculture sass of the cat into non-offensive afternoon entertainment? The best part of the Cat in the Hat is that he was an ambivalent figure at best, just as scary and off-putting and dangerous as he was wild and fun.

Happily, The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That manages to hang on to a nicely honed sense of the absurd, while shoehorning in lessons on science. The conceit is that the two kids in the original story (still siblings, though one appears to be brown and one pink) wonder about this or that while whiling away a dreary day, and then the Cat shows up in his Thingamajigger flying machine to take them, oh, into a bee’s nest to learn how honey is made, or on a cross-country migration journey with birds. Thing One and Thing Two make appearances to turn things upside down right on cue, and the Fish provides tart commentary.

It’s all pleasingly loopy, with plenty of songs and silly rhymes, no annoying voices, and the focus on educational material that makes PBS-loving parents feel less guilty for using the TV as a babysitter.

The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That, airing in various PBS markets, see your local schedule for details

Equipped with the right tools (and a patient adult to show them the ropes at first), even a child of 18 months can do certain cleaning activities. Get ‘em started young and make it fun with the same tools that Montessori teachers use in the classroom.

The window washing set includes a spray bottle, six cloths, a caddy to hold it all in and, best of all, a small child-sized squeegee, soon to be your small child’s favorite object. Set your child up at a window at her height, fill the bottle with water, and let her spray, wipe, and squeegee to her heart’s delight. $15

The dusting set will enchant children, with no water necessary. Kids love to dust, particularly low and elaborate furniture like china hutches and grandfather clocks. Turn their playtime into house-cleaning goodness with the dusting set: six dusting cloths, a lambswool duster, a dusting brush for getting dirt out of crevices, and a basket to hold the whole shebang in. Kids love to take it out and put it away, and the lambswool duster really does attract and hold dust better than chicken-feather or plastic dusters. Plus lambswool can be washed with soap, air-dried, and used indefinitely. $17

Who knows why certain animals are in style at various times? In the ’50s, it was all about French poodles, which showed up on skirts, lamps, and figurines galore. In the late ’90s, slinky long-necked cats were all the rage; images of birds and nests eclipsed them at the beginning of the 21st century. And now, right now, it’s owls. More and more owls are making their way into jewelry, decorative, and textile motifs.

Grab hold of this trend and bring it right on into the nursery with the magnificent DwellStudio Owls Sky Crib Set, soft as a puppy’s belly and rendered in cool blues and greens. The set includes crib bumpers, a fitted sheet, a crib skirt, and a blanket. $360 is a little steep for all that, so maybe you don’t feel like shelling out still more for the coordinating pillow, changing pad, and storage bins. But the options are available. If you go really owl crazy, DwellStudio offers storage bins, aprons, bibs, towels, duvets, and other items in the same print.

Owls Sky Crib Set, $360

It’s officially fall, Harvest Moon and all.

You and your family have no doubt noticed the darkness creeping in earlier in the evening and staying longer at dawn. Change is coming, but with it comes an opportunity for your little ones to become backyard naturalists. Old-fashioned outdoor play is back in (green) style.

The Nature Connection: An Outdoor Workbook for Kids, Families, and Classrooms by Clare Walker Leslie takes your child through a month-by-month nature quest where they learn to observe their surroundings, ask questions, and embrace nature all year long.

Children follow simple activities, such as tracking sunrise and sunset times, and other simple journaling techniques to enhance their environmental education—observing plants, animals, and sky. A quick lesson in basic sketching techniques allows children to record seasonal observations.

Continued outdoor activity in children’s lives improves their physical fitness and mental health as well as fosters an important connection to the natural world around them. It’s so important that the Obama administration announced in April the creation of the America’s Great Outdoors initiative to develop a 21st century conservation and recreation agenda and to reconnect Americans, especially children, to nature.

Your child can explore: nature treasure maps, pretend play, nature writing, phases of the moon, tides and cycles, weather maps, and field expeditions.

And it’s free.

Available at Amazon.com

Additional Nature Connection Worksheets

Clare Walker Leslie is a naturalist, author, artist and educator.

New children’s clothing boutique rabbitmoon really has something with its Neopolitan Collection of girls clothes. The pants, tops, dresses, hats, tights, and bodysuits in the collection are all rendered in absolutely edible shades of pink and brown, with a little soft blue thrown in for contrast. There are dots, there is soft ruching, there are little buttons and bows. All together, the pieces have an old fashioned ice cream shop effect that’ll make you want to give your little girl a lick or two to make sure she’s not melting.

Rabbitmoon’s first boy’s collection takes a different color tack, with a lot of blues, browns, and oranges. But the clothing is just as soft and comfortable as the girls’, with flat seams and clothing tags on the outside, not the inside of clothing (great for those “tag-and-seam” kids).

Whatever you choose, ground shipping is free through November 8. And if you’re buying something for a gift, rabbitmoon will wrap it and enclose a handwritten message of your choice for a mere $5 extra.

Highlights from the boards for the week of Sept 16-22:

Difficulty Conceiving Linked to Good Parenting? (104 Replies)

“Do you think people who have a more difficult time getting pregnant are ultimately better moms?”

Nanny Envy (41 Replies)

“Does anyone else have a possessive nanny? Every time I try to spend some time with my baby, she butts in or says she will take him so I can have some mommy time. It is getting on my nerves…”

Facebook Etiquette with MIL (22 Replies)

“My MIL does NOT respect boundaries. I specifically asked her not to post photos of our children on Facebook and she did. We’re not on Facebook, another relative told me…”

School Anxiety (13 Replies)
“Looking for suggestions for 6 year old who is experiencing lots of separation anxiety at school drop off…”

Miscellany

Hysteria Over Processed Food (90 Replies)

Do Working Mothers Set the Best Example (58 Replies)

Natural Childbirth Misconception (40 Replies)

It’s no secret to the parents of little girls that bubble bath is not kind to their vaginas. Immediately after a bubble bath, many girls feel irritated and itchy, a sensation that can linger for days and even sometimes develop into an infection of some sort. Boy parts, thankfully, aren’t as tender, but boy skin is: both boys and girls can suffer from dry skin or eczema after bubble baths.

As it turns out, the bubbles are fun, the stuff used to produce the foaming action, not as much. The culprit is usually something called sodium lauryl sulfate (a.k.a. sodium laurilsulfate, sodium dodecyl sulfate, sodium lauryl ether sulfate, this stuff gets around), which is a detergent and surfactant found in just about anything that foams, from cleansing products to toothpastes. It does make a nice long-lasting white foamy froth. It also irritates skin, particularly when kids sit in it for a long time.

So ditch the bubbles for bath bombs instead, which make a gentle, fun baking soda fizz that won’t hurt later. Good Clean Fun’s Dino-Fizz is a particularly kid-friendly option, with an intriguing smooth egg that foams away, leaving a little “hatched” sponge dinosaur floating on the water’s surface. That’ll get those kids in the bath without complaint!

Good Clean Fun Dino-Fizz, $2

More than almost any other celeb-kid, photos of Suri Cruise seem to bring out the Internet cranks. That kid never lets go of her blanket! She goes outside in the wintertime in sleeveless dresses! Oh my God, now she’s wearing heels.

Now beloved Project Runway host Tim Gunn is piling on, saying on Access Hollywood Live (as reported on DListed): “Suri is, she’s her mother and father’s dress up doll and I feel in many ways she’s a fashion victim and it’s just very inappropriate. I think it’s unsafe too. She’s a little kid and [she’s] tottering around on these stilettos or quasi stilettos. It’s really inappropriate and I feel bad for her in a manner of speaking.”

My take? As the parent of a child with sensory integration disorder, I suspect Suri is what’s called “tactile defensive,” or bothered by certain clothing and/or textures (seams, tags, etc.). Witness this 2009 page from OK! Magazine that says Suri loves her blanket because she “resists wearing a coat.” This is extremely characteristic of children with sensory problems, who often appear ill-dressed for the weather. Some kids can’t bear the feeling of a jacket; clearly Suri is one of these children. Suri is often photographed covering her ears; this is also characteristic of children who have difficulty with loud noises. Her famous heels? Her parents are probably happy they can get her to wear shoes at all; the heels are probably an alternative to her being barefoot and carried (as she often is in photos).

So whatever you may think about her celebrity parents, give Suri a break–and tell Tim Gunn to shut it.

Wow, have Halloween costumes gotten more realistic. Remember when we were kids and state-of-the-art was a plastic cape and mask? That doesn’t cut it these days, when kids have options. And lots of them.

Speaking of options, here’s one: an exceedingly detailed pint-size version of Gene Simmons’ stagewear. You’ve got your spiked cape. You’ve got your studded choker, your boot covers, your black-and-silver belt, your fingerless gloves. All you need is a little facepaint, a ponytail holder (or a wig, for the short-haired)….oh, and a child who’s heard of KISS.

Toddler KISS Demon Costume, $69