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How to Entertain Kids at the Doctor's Office

Whether you have an appointment, or your child does, taking children to the Doctors office can be quite daunting.  There can be lengthy waits in the waiting room, or the Doctor is trying to examine you while your child is climbing all over you or whining they are bored.

You want to keep your child entertained and reasonably quiet so that those who are feeling unwell around you aren’t bothered by screaming, whining or children running around and climbing over furniture.

I keep a bag full of fun activities handy to throw in the car now at a moments notice, especially after being caught out one too many times racing off to the emergency room with a child and then having no way to entertain them once I am there.  Now this bag works for last minute trips like this, as well as for pre-scheduled Doctors office appointments.

Some of my favorite items to include in the bag are:

A travel game – one that doesn’t take too long to play because the last thing you want is the kids to be in the middle of a game and have to pack it up because it is time to leave or you have been called back to the Doctors room.

Activity book – I really like this Eric Carle “The Very Busy Doodle Book” because it is not just coloring, but each page is also an educational activity such as just coloring the letters of your name, drawing what you see outside a window, drawing an animal other than a cicada that has two wings.

Reading level book – pack a book that is at your child’s reading level so you can read to them and they can practice reading on their own too.

Flashcards – our kids are currently learning their sight words, so this pack of cards is perfect for them. Choose flashcards that are at your child’s level.

Pencils – they will need coloring and writing pencils for any coloring, educational activity, or homework packets you take for them.  Choose pencils with an eraser at the end (that is one less thing you will need to pack).  Ensure that you sharpen pencils once you get home so they are ready for the next time you need them.  I really like the Crayola Erasable Pencils but I keep them in a pencil case as the cardboard boxes can become torn too easily.

If you are looking for more last minute items to throw into your grab bag, try these:

Homework

Library books

Paper or cards for your child to write or draw a picture to send to family member for the holidays

Pipe-cleaners with printouts to make pipe-cleaner animals and objects

Portable DVD player with headphones

Your child’s favorite comfort toy

Store bought or handmade Doctor kit so your child can role play

A healthy snack and bottle of water

Things to avoid taking:

Loud toys – anything that requires sound is not advised, as it may bother others in the waiting room and the Doctor needs to not only concentrate, but be heard.

Games that take a long time to play.

Games, activities, or books that require constant interaction from you.  You will want items that your child can do as independently as possible.

With these tips you are sure to have a child who is entertained in the Doctors office.

Emergency Comfort Kit

Recently the twins teacher sent home a note asking us to prepare an emergency comfort kit for our children.  These kits are placed in a large barrel in each classroom and used in the event that there is an emergency at the school.  I thought this was such as a fabulous idea that I wanted to share here.

School Emergency Comfort Kit

This is little man's kit.  Miss M has one that is very similar.

Each kit contains:

Family photograph

Travel game

Book

Emergency contact card: allergies, medications, Dr's number, our phone numbers

Wipes

Water bottle

Granola Bar

Notepad with pencil and crayons

Letter from mummy and daddy

They suggested using a 1 gallon clear zip-lock bag for these, however I used some clear zipped bags that had once contained body wash and lotions.

I plan on making two more of these kits for home that we can take with us when we have emergency room visits.

Emergency Room Comfort Kit

If you did not hear, little man was attacked by a dog 2 weeks ago.  It pulled him over our fence while he was talking to the little girl who lives next door and mauled him.  He had claw marks across the side of his head, down his back, a graze across his stomach from the fence, a large scrape on one leg and his arm had been bitten quite severely.   This happened right as a blackout occurred in San Diego.  The local fire crew were the closest to us and came by within minutes, helped secure the bite and gave us a ride to the emergency room in their fire truck.  Unfortunately emergency service crews were incredibly busy due to the massive blackout.   Of course the hospital was without power too and were using back-up generators to help critical patients and those on respirators.  They were unable to operate on Flynn that evening and after about 5 hours in the hospital we went home to sleep for a few while we waited for the power to come back.  Thankfully by 6am we were able to head back in there to meet with the plastic surgeon.  He needed to have a few stitches in his head and have the bites in his arm stitched together (the bites stretched over halfway around his arm and required stitching inside as well as externally).

The point of all of that rambling is that in the chaos of calling 911 and getting to the emergency room I didn't have time to pack up a kit of things to entertain Flynn at the hospital while we waited.  I wish I had a small kit that I could just grab as I run out the door.  So this is what I will be putting into a home kit:

Travel Game

Book

Change of clothes

Notepad with crayons and pencil

Coloring book or work book

Snack (for once your child is able to eat again)

Water (again for once hospital staff allow your child to drink)

Tissues (travel pack)

Wipes

Comfort toy

Let me explain why I suggest some of these items.

Clothing: The fireman had to cut Flynn's Shirt, he was covered in blood and missing a shoe when we got to the hospital.  That is how he then had to leave the hospital and spend his five hours there.  Seeing all of the blood upset him.  I wished I had a change of clothes for him so he did not have to see that.

Activities:  During the blackout we also had no cell phone reception and could not charge phones, this meant that Flynn couldn't even play games on my phone because I needed to conserve the battery in the event the power returned and I could make calls, he also couldn't talk to other family members.  To say that he was bored and needed distraction is an understatement.

Tissues and wipes:  As you can imagine there were a lot of tears shed, he was also covered in dirt so to have been able to clean him up a little would have been wonderful.

Power outage kit: 

For a few years I have kept a power outage kit stocked at home.  This kit contains

Flashlight (for each family member)

Candles

Batteries

Portable DVD player with a spare battery (that is charged) & DVD's

Lighter

Lightsticks (for the kids)

LIVE CHAT TONIGHT

From 6pm-7pm PST Ewa, Cat and I will be hosting a live chat in the Horizon Dairy Community discussing organizing ideas.  We would love for you to join us and share your tips for organizing your family.

If you cannot make it to our chat tonight there will be another chat on the 22nd of September 6pm-7pm PST where we will be discussing Fun Fall Activities to do with your Kids.  Join us that evening and you could win an iPad 2.

Disclosure: I am being compensated for my role as Community Leader in the Horizon Healthy Families Back to School Community.

Advice: Prepping For Pre-School

Marisol and Flynn started Kinder last week. Such a big milestone.

Initially I was a little hesitant to start them. I was worried that they might be too young, and that they weren't ready academically. I initially planned on enrolling them into a 2 year kinder program. I thought this would ease them into the school environment and the new going to school every day schedule.

After they met the teachers however, it was decided that they were ready for regular kinder. I attribute this to the fact that they went to pre-school and that we did extra activities at home to prepare them. They attended pre-school for 2 years. The first year they went just two mornings a week, then the second year they went three mornings a week. We wanted to ease them into what would eventually be a full day and not have them feel overwhelmed all at once.

I want to share some advice for getting your kids ready for pre-school.

There is a fabulous PDF 'Today I Will Get Lost In A Book' by KinderCare that I highly recommend. Here are just a few tidbits of information you will find on there that we actually did both before and during the time they spent in pre-school.

• Read with expression. Alter your voice for characters and become animated during exciting parts.
• Make up games while looking at pictures, such as “Where’s the girl’s nose?” or “Where’s Mommy’s nose?” or “Where’s your nose?”
• Take your child to your local public library to borrow books or to enjoy story time.
• Cook with a book. Read a book with a food theme before you head to the kitchen to cook something together.
• Bring books everywhere you go — in the car, to the doctor’s office, to the park.

I would like to add something to this list. Craft with books. Let's say that you are reading a book about caterpillars, make an egg carton caterpillar with the kids, or have them paint a caterpillar, or take them out into the garden to look at and photograph caterpillars. Even better study them like we did recently.

With reading you can teach your children so much. Aside from spending quality time with them, they will learn how to read, how to recognize words and letters, how to tell a story by looking at images, how to craft and cook and do science experiments by following instructions or using their imagination.

Here are a few other suggestions on preparing your kids for pre-school.

• Try to view the classroom and have your child meet their teacher before the first day.
• Have your child practice getting out of bed and getting ready for school before the first day.
• Establish a good bedtime routine - both when they go to sleep and what time they wake up, even if you have to wake them.
• Let them help choose their clothes. Plan in advance if you can. Maybe they can choose all of the outfits they will need for the week. Hang the outfit on a hanger and put a tag on the hanger with a letter or number corresponding to the day they should wear it.
• Don't forget your camera on their first day.
• Keep all important dates in a calendar. I use Cozi to schedule everything for our house. It works on my smart phone as well as my computer and I can send myself reminders on when special dress days and celebrations are, if the kids need to take something special to school or if they have a day off.
• Allocate an area to display all of the wonderful artwork they will be bringing home. We have a wall in our house with rope and large clips. We rotate artwork on and off the clips. Once it comes off, we photograph it and recycle it if possible. This prevents the clutter in the garage. Wait until you get coupon codes for photo books and turn your child's art into a coffee table book.
• Make sure they have a good breakfast before going to pre-school.

I’m curious to know: What advice do you have for moms prepping for preschool?

KinderCare will choose one lucky participant and make donation in their name to the Reach Out And Read chapter of their choice!

Disclosure: This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of KinderCare. The opinions and text are all mine. Official Contest Rules.

Jewelry Organizer (and a giveaway)

UPDATE PART 2:  My Jewelry Organizer won the Elmer's Spring Creation Contest.  I'm absolutely thrilled.  Aside from receiving a visa gift card for winning, I also had the privilege of drawing 3 more winners from the comments via random.org to each receive an Elmer's DIY kit.  The winners were: April, Barbara (VinoLuci), and Bestie.

UPDATED:  This giveaway has closed.  The winners as drawn by random.org are wendyp, JulieB and Miranda Taylor.  You will all be receiving emails from me shortly.

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Remember when I made the jewelry organizer for Marisol's bedroom?  Well, recently I received an email from Elmer's reminding me about it being that time of the year for spring cleaning, organizing and make overs and they wanted to challenge me to create something either on my own or using their Spring Creation Guide as part of an Elmer's Spring Creation Contest.   The only stipulation being that I had to use their newly improved Glue-All.

I'm always up for a good challenge, especially when it comes to crafting and decorating so I happily accepted and set to work making this:

Cause, mama didn't have a pretty jewelry organizer, and instead her jewelry looked a little like this:

Yes, I'm hiding my head in shame.  Terrible isn't it. 

In my head I knew how I wanted to organize it, but it was a matter of finding the right supplies.   I briefly considered picking up a few drawer organizers that I had seen at my local craft store and sticking them together, but the thought of spending over $20 per organizer was not going to be a cost effective way to tackle this so I decided to hit up my local antique mall to see what I could find.  Tucked away in a corner, I found this fabulous type set tray for only $15.

But it obviously needed a lot of work.  First order of business was to break out that Glue-All and set to work making repairs to the cracks and sections that needed to be stuck down again.

Next up was to cut a piece of wood using my X-Acto knife to the length of the tray to attach to the top with Glue-All, I also re-inforced it with a couple of nails. 

Now we are onto the fun part.  I wanted to keep with the antique feel of this type set tray so thought I would try my hand at creating a cracked finish.  I've never done this before, but it was actually much easier than I thought, albeit a little time consuming.

Step 1: Apply a sealer to the wood.  Set aside to dry.

Step 2: Apply your first color - I used walnut.  Again, let it dry.

Step 3: Apply the crackle.  Don't dry completely, but allow it to dry enough that it becomes tacky.

Step 4: Apply a second color of paint - I used coral.  Within minutes you will see the cracks starting to appear.  By the time the paint is dry, it looks fabulous.

Step 5:  Apply a varnish.

The final step is to attach hooks and whatever else you want to hang your jewelery.  I opted for a  few different items: hooks, eye screws and some decorative rings.

UPDATE: JUNE 14, 2012 - Just recently I came across 7 Gypsies antique brass loops and hooks.   These have a sticky back on them and are perfect for hanging earrings and bracelets in the small compartments. You can hang them from the back of the organizer, or hang them down from the top of each compartment.  Use the hooks if hanging bracelets, but leave it off for hanging earrings.

 

And now you have a beautiful space to hang all of your jewelry.

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And now I have something for you too.  A GIVEAWAY!

3 winners will each receive an Elmer's Spring DIY Kit containing:

• Elmer’s Glue-All
• CraftBond Tacky Glue
• CraftBond Extra Strength Glue Stick
• Elmer’s Multipurpose Spray Adhesive
• X-ACTO Gripster Knife

 Just answer this question to enter:

What needs a Spring makeover in your home?

Leave your comment below and please ensure that I have a way of contacting you if you are one of the three winners.

This giveaway is open to all residents of the United States over the age of 18 and expires on Thursday May 12, 2011 at 10pm PST.

This post linked to:

AS SEEN ON:

The Spunky Diva | The Glitter Guide | Newly Woodwards | Tip Junkie | Creative Jewish Mom | The Vintage Pearl | Pretty Parade | Pretty Zoo | Rookie Moms | Indie Craft Parade | At Home with Kim Vallee | A Typical Type A | The Home of Brit | Babble | Chloe and Isabel | paperblog | Decoist

Disclosure: I recieved an Elmer's Spring DIY kit and compensation to purchase other products needed for this project.

Tips: Photographing and storing kids artwork

Today I'm back on the Creativity For Kids blog sharing simple tips that I use for photographing and storing my kids art and craft projects.  It's all about clearing the clutter.

Come by and feel free to share your own tips in the comments.  I'd love to hear what you do with your child's art and craft projects.

Disclosure:  As a Creativty For Kids Ambassador I am compensated for my posts on their blog.

Hall Organizer

Trying to get the kids organized before school was becoming quite the chore, with things constantly being forgotten (such as lunch money) so I finally (with a little prodding) worked on our home organizing system that had been sitting in our hallway gathering dust for ... ummm .... 6 months or so. 

So now each member of the family (including the dog) has a corkboard with pins and a hook underneath.  Little gift tag envelopes on the cork board hold lunch money and payments that need to be dropped off the next day and notices that need to be returned can be pinned on.  School back packs are stocked with necessities the evening before and everything can be grabbed as they head out the door in the morning.

I purchased the existing organizer on clearance from World Market.

Disclaimer: This Elmer's DIY Project was sponsored by Collective Bias.