10 Water Games Kids Can Play

Before posting this article I would like to thank Debbie Denard from Nanny.net who recently sent me an email that said :" I spend a lot of time on the Internet browsing blogs, and I must say that yours has caught my attention. Coincidentally, we recently published an article entitled (10 Water Games Kids Can Play) that I believe would draw considerable interest from your readers. If you are interested in sharing with them, then feel free to do so" 
Thank you Nanny.net 

Enjoy the article!

Whether it comes from a sprinkler, a swimming pool, or the beach, there’s nothing quite like playing in water in the summertime. The mere mention of water is enough to move kids to paroxysms of joy, especially when a trip to the pool is relatively rare. From the sprinkler to the shallow end, here are ten great games that kids love to play on long, hot summer days.

1. Water Balloon War – Older kids love the competitive nature of a good, old-fashioned water balloon fight. A laundry basket makes a great container for freshly filled balloons; simply line the bottom with a towel to prevent any sharp edges from puncturing the balloons, causing them to detonate early. For a new twist on an old favorite, stage a game of dodge ball, replacing the ball with water balloons.
2. Water Hose Limbo – Replacing the stick in a traditional round of limbo with the stream from a water hose takes the game to an entirely new level. Limbo is better with several players, so save this one for a day when your brood has their buddies over.
3. Sponge Relay – A relay race is even more fun when the object is to fill a bucket with the water from a sponge. To play, each team gets two buckets and one sponge; one bucket is filled with water, which kids dunk their sponges into, and the other is left empty. Running to the opposite side of the “track,” each team member wrings the sponge out in the empty bucket and returns to their team. Rather than passing a baton, they pass the sponge. First team to fill their bucket wins.
4. Marco Polo – Generations of kids have played a rousing round or two of Marco Polo whenever they were poolside; keep the tradition alive by teaching the rules of this classic game to your own youngsters.
5. Not-Quite Piñata – Everyone loves a piñata; in this twist on the classic party game, water rains down in the place of sugary treats. Fill a ten-gallon garbage bag with water, and suspend it from an overhanging tree branch or other structure. Follow the traditional rules, allowing kids to take turns whacking at the bag with a broomstick. Helpful hint: dress kids in swimsuits, as they’ll get soaked when someone succeeds.
6. Water Gun Tag – Put those water guns to good use by launching a tag offensive; the person who is “It” gets the water pistol, while all other players attempt to evade her. Because a successful “tag” will leave discernible evidence, there’s no disputing a changing of the guard. Don’t be surprised, however, if the chance to wield a water gun inspires kids to compete for the honor of being named “It!”
7. Swimming Pool Ring Toss — With nothing more than a handful of ping-pong balls and an inner tube, kids can enjoy hours of entertainment. One child is put in charge of the inner tube, moving it slowly back and forth as another tries to toss the ping-pong balls into the middle. For a low-competition alternative that keeps rivalry at bay, instruct kids to work together to get all of the balls into the middle of the tube, rather than pitting one against the other to prevent it.
8. Liquid Jump Rope — Substitute the rope for a stream of water from the hose for a great way to keep kids cool while encouraging physically active play during the warm summer months. An older child or adult should control the hose to keep the stream consistent.
9. Sharks and Minnows – Another classic pool game, Sharks and Minnows is a variation on the traditional game of Tag, modified to suit a swimming pool. At the beginning of the game, the “minnows” line up at the side of the pool while the shark hovers in the middle. At the shark’s count of three, the minnows attempt to swim across without being tagged. When a minnow is tagged, they join forces with the shark and work to capture their former teammates; last minnow swimming is declared the winner.
10. Swimming Pool Volley Ball – Inexpensive pool volleyball sets can be picked up at your local big-box retailer, and provide hours of summer fun. Because the resistance of the water makes it almost impossible to move quickly, a game of swimming pool volleyball becomes a bit more challenging than its dry-land counterpart. These sets often come with several rackets and a shuttlecock, allowing kids to switch to swimming pool badminton as the mood strikes them.

Though kids absolutely love them, slippery slides with small pools at the end are quite dangerous. Kids should always have strict supervision when using such toys to prevent reckless behavior. Also, pieces of rubber left behind by broken water balloons present a significant choking hazard to small children and can be dangerous to wildlife. Make cleaning up part of the game to ensure that each piece is properly disposed of, and slather on the sunscreen to avoid painful burns.

http://www.nanny.net/blog/10-water-games-kids-can-play/

Handy Manny Memory Game

Late Potty Training Pros and Cons

Potty training is one of the important milestones in a toddler's life and in ours as well. It takes a fair amount of time for a child to be well trained and requires a lot of patience and creativity from our side to help him be motivated to use the seat and stop wetting himself. The ideal age of starting the training is 2 years old, by then the child's bladder and bowel movement are well developed, his motor skills are improved and his cognitive skills are well established (When are most children potty trained?). But some parents choose to start early training (The early potty training pros and cons) and others decide to go by the late training which is usually discouraged and linked to many health side effects.
In order to give you a reliable article, I went through a number of books, studies, and interviews made with doctors in this field.
All of you must be wondering when is it considered a late potty training?
A late potty training is from 3 years old and up, since most pediatricians and specialists consider that the perfect age is at 2 years old. But as in every subject we find  people that encourage late training and others who assure that it has considerable side effects on a child's mental and physical health.
Dr. Baruch Kushnir, creator of the children DVD "The Magic Bowl: Potty Training Made Easy"  considers that potty training symbolizes progress in the acquisition of independence and control. He warns in an interview on www.sheknows.com that: "When a child is not completely potty trained by the age of four, he becomes an 'exception' and may suffer personal and social embarrassment and disappointments. He may also be exposed to unpleasant reactions from the social environment … and they may damage the child's self-image and self-confidence and interfere with his developing personality.


I- Pros:

• Fully developed bladder and bowel movement.
• The child will have achieved his verbal and communication skills.
• A child after 3 can understand better the concept of rewards.
• He can master his motor skills - therefor pulling up/down his pants and climbing to the seat sounds very easy to him.
• He's emotionally ready.

II- Cons:

• Our child will be ashamed of being one of few untrained kids which will effect his mental health.
• Physical consequences: When young children become dependent on diapers or pull-ups, they don't learn how to recognize the need to go to the bathroom. Their inability to control their bladder and bowels at an early age can actually affect their bladder and bowel control as they grow older.
• Late training could lead to bladder control problems and urinary tract infection.

Most of the pediatricians and child care specialists have agreed that the best age to start toilet training is between 1 1/2 and 3. As for the methods to follow, there isn't one golden rule, methods change depending on the child we are dealing with and the degree of development he has reached in all the important skills he will be needing for his training progress.

Reference:

Weltford, Heather. Successful Potty Training
Dr.-Kushnir.com
www.sheknows.com 

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Potty Training step by step program

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Early Potty Training Pros and Cons

Many parent worry that early training could harm the baby emotionally and mentally; this idea has been promoted by pediatricians and child care professionals and it goes back to the bad training methods. Parents in 1920's used harmful and abusive techniques that leaded to emotional side effects upon children.  Pediatricians, like Benjamin Spock and T. Berry Brazelton, argued that pushing children may cause a variety of troubles, including stool withholding, stool toileting refusal, regression, and bed wetting. On the other hand, the few scientific studies on potty training revealed that early training does not cause any problems.
In this article, we will review together the pros and cons of early potty training.

I- Cons:

1. Children trained earlier tend to take longer to complete training: the youngest the child is the less prepared he is for potty training which will slow the progress.
2. Infant training steals the child of the sense of pride older children develop when they accomplish the skill on their own, says T. Berry Brazelton, MD, a renowned pediatrician and the author of Toilet Training: The Brazelton Way (Da Capo Press). "When you start that early, you train a reflex, something that isn't conscious in a child," Dr. Brazelton says. "When it works, I'm sure it's rewarding. But when it doesn't, it could increase the parents' tension to the point where they say: 'Oh, my God, I put so much into this, why are they not getting it?' It's a parent-oriented kind of approach, and not a child-oriented approach."
3. Pushing the child to potty train too early will cause a variety of troubles, including stool withholding, stool toileting refusal, regression, and bed wetting.
4. Early training is unpractical for parents since they have to analyze their child's every facial expression,it is better to wait until age 2. That's typically when a child expresses interest in potty training and shows signs of readiness ( When are most children potty trained)

II- Pros:

1. Fewer diaper rashes
2. Fewer illness: The Rotavirus is less likely to spread among children in daycares if they had fewer diapers to change since this illness is spread by fecal to oral contamination and is extremely contagious. Few studies showed that children wearing diapers and in daycare are at higher risk of getting infectious diarrhea and infectious hepatitis.
3.  Less risk of bladder problems: Studies showed that late potty training increased risks of bladder control problem and urinary tract infection.
4. Positive effect on both the environment and economic situation: Early training has financial benefits related to the substantial costs of diapers and environmental benefits when we cut the use of diapers.
5. Natural bonding experience: Just like breastfeeding, potty training is a natural bonding experience between baby and his mother. Social connections develop as they both communicate, touch and spend quality time together.

In general, it is advised to wait till your child is 24 months, then he will be ready and the process will be easier to both of you. You will still benefit from all the advantages of early training even if trained after 2. My advice to you, is to start preparing your baby to the idea since he is 18 months. Always refer to the fact that you and his dad use the bathroom instead of diapers, take him to choose the potty or baby seat (as I did), let him decorate it with stickers of his choice. Start practicing sitting on potty once a day without expecting any progress since you are just preparing your kid to the process; this way when he is ready the concept of urinating in the seat will be already planted in his mind and this will lead to faster progress in the training.

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When Is The Best Time To Start Potty Training?

Potty training is one of the important milestones in a toddler's life and in ours as well. It takes a fair amount of time for baby to be well trained and requires a lot of patience and creativity from our side to help our child be motivated to use the seat and stop wetting himself. But before starting, we should understand more about the bladder and the bowel movement development.

The bladder

The adult bladder can hold about 280 ml of urine before the urge to urinate is felt. Urine is made in the kidneys. The kidneys work all the time to regulate the water and salt content of the body, and they maintain the right balance in order to prevent illness.
In a small baby, the physiology of urination is similar; though the kidneys are comparatively immature in their functioning, and aren't designed to cope with a high salt intake or to withstand dehydration. Urine is stored in the bladder in much the same way as in the aduly, thoufh the capasicy of the bladder starts off very small, and grows throughout infance and childhood.
In a baby, the emptying of the bladder is a totally involuntary action, and the sphincter opens in response to the fullness of the bladder; though the reflex can be conditioned to respond to other stimulation like the rim of the potty being placed on the baby's bottom. the frequency of peeing seems to decrease as the months go on, and parents will notice that as their baby grows her diaper is less to be wet. At some point, the child becomes aware that he has passed urine. The next phase is when the child he knows he needs to go in the next second or so. Little by little the child will learn to hold for longer by deliberately controlling the sphincter muscle by not releasing it. this ability increases with physical and social maturity, and with the growing capacity of the bladder.

The Bowel

The function of the bowel in human beings is to complete the digestion and absorption of food begun earlier in the digestive tract, and to send waste material to the rectum where it is stored and later excreted as faeces.
the baby's first bowel motion is called meconium, over the next few days, in average 3 days, the stool changes they will be very loose and daffodil-yellow if breastfed or pale brown and firmer if formula fed.
Again on the pattern of bladder control, the knowledge that she's about to pass a motion is the next stage reached by the child and from there she gets to a phase were passing isn't too urgent.

When is the best time to begin potty training? 18 months? 24 months? or even later?
How to be super mom made all the research needed to give you a helpful answer.

Many parent worry that early training could harm the baby emotionally and mentally; this idea has been promoted by pediatricians and child care professionals and it goes back to the bad training methods. Parents in 1920's used harmful and abusive techniques that leaded to emotional side effects upon children.  Pediatricians, like Benjamin Spock and T. Berry Brazelton, argued that pushing children may cause a variety of troubles, including stool withholding, stool toileting refusal, regression, and bed wetting. On the other hand, the few scientific studies on potty training revealed that early training does not cause any problems.


To be ready for potty training a child should develop certain skills.

1- As we have mentioned before the first thing to be achieved is the bladder and bowel development
2- The second sign of readiness is motor skills. On the average, children will walk around the age of 12 months. Once your child has mastered walking and running, then s/he may be interested in acquiring other "grown up" skills and will start developing other gross and fine motor skills required for potty training. The main motor skill is having enough finger & hand coordination skills to dress and undress and more specifically to pull his/her underpants down and up.

3- Cognitive and verbal skills: the potty training process reuqires a complexe combination of verbal and physical actions. A chid should be able to pull down/up his underwear, stay long enough to finish emptying and all this requires certain amount of concentration for him to understand your explanations and responses and to be able to put them together to understand the whole training process.

4- Emotional growth and social awarness: This is probably the hardest readiness to achieve, especially since children go through phases. The components that will help in determining your child's emotional and social readiness are self mastery manifested by "I can do it" or "I am a big boy/girl now", desire for approval, and social awareness.

In average, kids will have achieved those development around 24 months then, I believe is the best time to start taking potty training seriously.
Follow us everyday to find more articles about potty training.


Reference:
D.G. Vulliamy (1982 edition), The New Born Child (Churchill livingstone)
G.H. Lowrey (1973 edition) Growth and Development of Children (Yearbook Medical Publishers)
http://www.pottytrainingconcepts.com

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How can I make my child eat healthy food

How can I get my kid to eat better? How can I make him eat healthy food?
These two questions are asked by almost all parents, we all want what's best for our children. We all wish we could put them on a healthy, well balanced diet. And in order to do so, you should ask these two questions from the day you give birth. We should not wait until after the damage has been done and say: Oups! My kid hates veggies and fruits and healthy food, what can I do? By then, the solution is hard to be applicable. A kid is like a sculpture, once broken fixing it takes a lot of hard work to be repaired and the damage will always be showing.

Start offering healthy food since day one: cut off all junk food, fried food, plain starchy food like plain pancakes, plain pasta, plain bread and plain rice. Don't let these be a choice of a meal. If you want to offer pancake, offer them with some fruits on the side. You can even draw funny faces to make eating more enjoyable.
When you want to offer pasta to your family, cook it with homemade sauce. It could be a plain tomato sauce or one that is full of vegetables, the importance is to let you child get used to different tastes. Therefore your weekly menu must be rich with different ingredients ( for more help you could use our weekly menus).

Teach yourself how to cook healthy and eat healthy:Learn that you are your child's role model and he will follow your steps. When he sees you eating fruits and veggies he will be encourage to do so.
When you cook, make sure to skip using butter and oil to be serving the best ever for your family. Try steaming or grilling instead of frying. And reduce the use of fattening ingredients: like yellow cheese, heavy cream,... etc.

Let meal time be fun time. It is very important to teach our children discipline during meal time but it is no harm  to add a little fun so kids will look forward to it. Let them help set the table. Kids love to do so. Allow them to choose the color of napkins, set the places of each person, you can even help them make colored place cards.
Invite them to join you at the kitchen, for once they will learn how to cook and this will be very useful to them from many different views and they will be more familiar with the ingredients and enjoy eating what they have helped making.

Make adorable plates: You can make faces with pancakes or vegetables. Make a drawing from colored mashed potatoes. Add shapes and colors. Get creative, that is the key.

So from the first day you look at those small adorable loving eyes, start planning how you will get them to eat better. Don't let things go out of hands but in case they do I will help you with more articles and solutions.

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Thyme & Tomato Salad

A Delicious & Refreshing Lebanese Salad!

Ingredients

1 bunch of fresh thyme

2 medium tomatoes, sliced

1 small white onion, chopped

1/4 cup olive oil

4 tbsp lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Wash the fresh thyme well, toss all the ingredients together and Bon Appétit!

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Lebanese Potato Salad

Lebanese Fish & Rice (Syadyeh)

This is the easiest Syadyeh version created by How To Be Super Mom

Ingredients

*For the fish marinade

1 kg fish fillet

The juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup olive oil

1 medium onion, cut into julienne slices

2 tbsp cumin powder

1/2 tbsp cinnamon powder

1 tsp salt

*For the rice

1 1/2 cup long grain white rice

1 medium onion, chopped

2 medium onion, cut into julienne slices, caramelized

1 tbsp cumin

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 cube Maggi fish broth  

5 cups warm water or 5 cups fish bouillon

*For the "Tajen" or sesame paste sauce

1 1/2 cup Tahini ( sesame paste)

1/8 cup lemon juice

1/3 cup water

1 tp salt

1 large onion, cut into julienne slices

1/3 cup roasted pine nuts

*For the display

Pita bread or Lebanese bread sliced and grilled

Directions

Tip: Read the recipe well, and start preparing the rice, fish and tajen in the same time to finish faster.

Fish Directions

1. Marinate the fish over night in all the mentioned ingredients
2. In a preheated pan, grill the fish on high heat until golden
3. Cover, reduce the heat and leave for 6 minutes or until cooked through

Rice Directions

1. In a large heated pan, place 1 tbsp olive oil and the 2 onions cut into julienne. Keep stirring until the onions are caramel brown and partially roasted.
2. Remove from heat
3. In a pot, pour 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 chopped onion, cook until golden
4. Add the rice, and stir for 1 minute
5. Add the cumin, cinnamon and salt, stir.
6. Add half of the caramelized Julienne onions, stir well.
7. Add the water, cover and bring to the boil
8. Add the Maggi Fish cube
9. Reduce heat and simmer until water dries

Tajen Directions

1. In a large pan, pour 1 tbsp of olive oil, the onions and cook until golden
2. Meanwhile, in a bowl pour the Tahini
3. Add the lemon and keep stirring while adding the water little by little. What we want is a diluted cream texture. Stir in the salt.
4. When the onions are golden, add the Tahini on a high heat, keep stirring to keep it from sticking.
5. The tahini will have a bubbly appearance when it is done.
6. Add the pine nuts and serve, aside, in a small bowl 

Syadyeh takes a long time to cook,  and if I was to follow my grandma's recipe I would never dream of finishing on time. That is why I decided to make my own recipe. Do try it and tell me what you think.

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Egg-less Chocolate Custard Cream

Super Mom egg-less custard cream is amazing with pound cake!

Ingredients

2 cups milk
3 tbsp flour
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp butter
2 tbsp Wiskey
A marble pound cake 

Directions

• In a sauce pan, pour the milk and add the flour. 
• Keep whisking and place over high heat.
• Add the sugar and bring to the boil, then reduce to low heat while stirring constantly.
• Add the rest of the ingredients and keep stirring until the mixture thickens about 10 minutes.
• Remove from heat and allow to cool.
• Cut your pound cake into 3 layers, spread the egg-less custard, put the layers all together and frost the cake with the same custard cream. 
• Chill for 1 hour before serving. 
• Serve it cool.

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Pound Cake: Vanilla, Chocolate and Marble

Let your children participate in the baking, my 4 year old did most of the job on these cakes!

Ingredients

1 cup smoothed butter or for a lighter version 1 cup of Canola oil

2 cups of white sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract or a pinch of vanilla powder

1 tsp lemon zest

2 tsp orange Grand Marnier or any liquor of your choice

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 tsp Baking Powder

1 cup milk

4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, for the chocolate batter

Directions

Preheat oven to170 degrees C

Prepare 3 rectangle 8*20*8 cm baking tin or one round shaped, 20 cm diameter, baking tin.

Brush butter on all sides, sprinkle with flour and set aside.

Whisk the butter and the sugar until you get a whitish creamy mix.

While the electrical whisk is still on, add the eggs, vanilla, lemon zest and liquor.

Add the milk and keep whisking.

On the side, mix the baking powder and the flour in a bowl, and start adding the mixture little by little to the batter.

When all the ingredients are well combined, pour approximately 1/3 of the cake batter in one rectangular tin, only to 2/3 of it's height. In the second tin, pour a little of the vanilla batter and set aside.

Add the Cocoa powder to the cake batter, mix well and fill one whole tin of chocolate mix As for the tin half full of white batter pour the chocolate over and with a wooden spoon make a wavy move.

If baked in rectangular tins, bake on a 170 degrees C for 25 minutes, then on 130 degrees C for 35 minutes or until baked through. 

If baked in a round cake, 30 minutes in a 170 degrees heat will do it.

Fill it and frost it as wished and you got yourself a delicious, easily made cake for the whole family to enjoy.

P.S: You must know that you should never open your oven until the cake has been baking for at least 25 minutes.

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