Take Your Kids to a Movie This Summer

As summer is fast approaching and the school doors will be shut for 3 months, what will you do with your kids? Even if you have preschoolers in daycare, this is something that every family should take advantage of this summer.

Take your child to the movies. If you are like me, you are probably thinking, “HUH? Right, like I can’t get my preschooler to sit still on the couch for 45 minutes, how will he/she sit for 1hr+?” You don’t have to worry, the movies are FREE. That’s right, F-R-E-E!

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The Daddy’s Toolbox Carnival | First Edition

I Haven’t Been Able to Shake The Weight, Only My Belly

Hey Dads, how much weight did you gain during each of your wife’s pregnancies? Or the weight you tacked on from nibbling on chicken nuggets or french toast sticks while making you kids meals? Well if you are like me, the addition of our second child also added an addition to my belly.

It All Started Back In 2004

With our first child I didn’t gain a whole lot, my wife was not a huge “craver” of food and I was good when it came to not overeating and watching portion sizes. Well that ALL went out the door when Baby #2 came into our lives (in Aug 2006)! Or maybe it was that our son was almost two years old and eating foods like French toast sticks, Toaster Strudels, PB&J, mac ‘n cheese, etc. I guess it all started with a nibble here and a nibble there.

I am the type of guy that sees a plate of cookies and just can’t resist. I know it’s bad to take the cookie but I always justify it with, “but it’s only one cookie”. Not a good combo, seeing cookie / eating cooking. Really leads to packing on pounds. Portion control is also a major factor, also the super quick dinners and lightning fast eating habits don’t help much, but with both parents working, kids in daycare, we get home around 6pm and create chaos in the kitchen as I prepare dinner (yes I’m the cook in the house and love it!).

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Sharing Links: A Handful of Parenting and Daddy Tips

Here are a few links that I found interested that were listed on LeapTag this evening. From time to time I’ll just include simple posts like this with a list of great links! Hope you find some useful information.

• Your preschooler will thank you
• Transitioning from a Crib to a Bed
• Difference between Dads and Moms

Discovered with LeapTag

Spend the Day at the Animal Planet EXPO

I was on twitter early this morning and one of the tweets I read was about the Animal Planet EXPO in Chester County, PA on Saturday, May 31st. (The EXPO is touring the country, click the above link to see if it’s coming to a location near you!)

If any of my readers live in the Great Philadelphia (Delaware Valley) region this would be a great day trip for the family. Fun for ALL ages! Moonbounce, animals, crafts, and more!

EXPO Details

Time: 10 AM to 4 PM

Where: Hibernia County Park

Address: 1 Park Road, Coatesville, PA, 19320

As a bonus to the EXPO, Jeff Corwin will be visiting between 12:00pm and 2:00pm to meet and greet visitors and probably sign an autograph or two!

The original post can be found here on West of Philly Burbs, by Kim Wood.

Safe Around the House = Safe Kids

Hey there readers. I wanted to spend some time this evening to review some of the safety products we have used for the past 2 years as our son (an now daughter) reached his developmental milestones: from sitting in one place, to scooting around, to crawling, to pulling himself up, and then finally walking — and falling. With each milestone in your child’s first 2 years comes a lot of smiles and happiness but also a lot of stress and worry that they may hurt themselves.

If you’re a first time parent, or a family that has a new toddler growing up, buying good home safety products is a must. My wife and I have used KidsSafe for product reviews, tips and ordering. KidsSafe is a one-stop shop for all of your home safety products from kitchen safety to child/pet gates, indoor to outdoor, and pretty much anything you can think of!

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The Manival #4 is Now on The Art of Manliness

I’m linking back to this week’s Manival #4 which is being hosted on The Art of Manliness, by Brett McKay.

Well, it’s time once again for The Manival. For those of you who don’t know, the Manival is a weekly blog carnival dedicated to bring together posts from blogs by men and for men. If you would like to participate in next week’s Manival, please submit a post using this handy submission form.

I have my first post on this week’s blog carnival as well, check out my post and others by going to The Manival #4.

I will also be running my own Daddy’s Toolbox carnival next week, submissions are due Friday, May 23rd. Submit your post using this submission form.

If you like what you read on my blog why don’t you subscribe to my RSS feed or weekly email.

Tags: manival, blogcarnival, men, manliness, dads, daddy, parenting, marriage

My Son’s First Baseball Game

It was a half decent Sunday afternoon, about 65 degrees, partly sunny. Weather report is calling for spotty showers and maybe a t-storm later in the day. “Hmmm, ok, probably be safe at the Philadelphia Phillies game a 1:30pm,” I think to myself.

Well, definitely NOT the case. The rain came during the two national anthems, Oh Canada! (Toronto Blue Jays were in town) and the Star Spangled Banner. It was just a light trickle of rain while we stood with our hats off, “can I sit down yet, Daddy?”

“Not yet bud,” I said, “We have to stand for our National Anthem.”

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Increase Your Child’s Math Skills with Board Games

I spent some time this evening reading a few of my digital magazine subscriptions on Zinio. I ran across this article in the May 19, 2008 issue of US News & World Report.

The article discusses that playing board games can turn your child into a math whiz. This is especially true with number-based board games such as Chutes and Ladders, dominos, pick up sticks and other math oriented children games.

From my view point I can definitely see this in my son’s knowledge of numbers and counting. Logan is going on 4 years this fall and he loves to count items, find numbers, and is getting close to figuring out some simple addition or subtraction. I repeatedly tell him when he gives me an item, “He buddy you have one block and if you give it to me how many will you have left?” Or “you have one truck and if you take mine, how many trucks will you have?” I can see him think it through, which is so cool! His little mind is moving so fast but he is definitely pondering the question.

“Parents and preschool teachers should know that playing number board games increases young children’s numerical understanding and lays a solid foundation for future learning of mathematics as well,” says Carnegie Mellon Prof. Robert Siegler, coauthor of the study.

Original Image by Jeffrey MacMillan for USN&WR

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Tags: math, children, learning, education, board games

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Introducing Daddy’s Toolbox Carnival

I’ve been using Twitter (follow me at http://twitter.com/DaddysToolbox) a lot lately and meeting some great fathers and some of them have turned me onto Blog Carnivals. So I would like to set up my own to help generate great content on my blog as well as feature other Daddy blogs and their authors.

Since I am just starting this, my first event will be Monday, May 26th with the deadline for article submissions being Friday, May 23rd at 9PM EST/DST.

So here is what to do,

1. Write your blog article on your blog and publish,
2. Click my Daddys Toolbox Carnival link to submit your article,
3. The carnival will be published monthly with the deadline for submissions being the 2nd Friday of the month by 9PM EST/DST.
4. Please keep your posts related to parenting, children, experiences of being a dad (or mom).

Or you can visit Blog Carnival and browse for Daddy’s Toolbox Carnival to submit your post(s).