Just For Kids
SUMMER DAZE
by Lucretia Voigt
Back to school - while this may turn most children's smiles upside down, we parents greet this day with a well-deserved second cup of coffee and 10 minutes of silent solitude. That's about the extent of our relaxation, however, since after 10 minutes the toddler has realized the world is too quiet and needs his input.

Maybe your children became tried and true friends over the summer, playing together harmoniously, little bluebirds chirping around their heads. If so, you can quit reading this article and skip happily to Never Never Land. For the rest of us, however, we're just happy that no one ended up with scars or permanent damage.

One way to foster a closer relationship between your children, or keep the new relationship going if they happened to get along this summer, is to include your toddlers in packing your school-age children's lunches. Toddlers can help bake mini muffins to put in the lunches. Have your toddler measure and mix together well 1/2cup milk and 1 egg. Add to this mixture 2 cups quick mix, like Bisquick, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Your child can line the muffin tins with paper muffin cups, and you can count out the paper cups for a fun math lesson. Have your child fill the muffin cups about 1/2 of the way. A teaspoon is the best way to facilitate this and can be handled easily by toddlers. Bake the mini muffins for 14 to 16 minutes, or until the tops are brown. Most kids will eat these since they include chocolate chips!

Another easy treat is snack mix. Have your toddler mix 1 cup each of nuts, raisins, pretzels, Whole Wheat or Rice Chex cereal and M&Ms together with 1/2 cup each of shredded coconut, and dried banana and pineapple slices. Divide the mixture into several individual plastic containers or bags.

Your toddler and your school-age child can work together in the evening to pack the next day's lunch, and hopefully, while your child is enjoying the fruits of his sibling's labors, he will begin to think of ways to reciprocate.

Now, I don't want to bring anyone down, but even though the weather is still beautiful outside, we all know that winter is coming. Take those summer vacation photos and put them together in a box, along with any ticket stubs, receipts, menus, etc. from summer travels. If you went on a family trip, add a map showing the area you visited, or the road you took to get there. I know this sounds a little like I'm having you clean up and organize, but don't worry - there is a method to my madness, and this is not some lame attempt to get you to scrapbook. In fact, it's a lame attempt to get your children to scrapbook!

Awonderful keepsake that your children can work on together over the upcoming cold indoor play months is a keepsake memory book of this past summer. Purchase a journal or sketch pad with heavy pages. You don't need them to be cardstock, but they should be more substantial than notebook or computer paper. Drawing pads work well because you can remove the cover page and the first blank page, after creative manipulation from your children, can become the personalized cover. In addition, they are usually spiral bound, which makes it easier to work on, and you can get them in various sizes. Also, once your children have finished their project, any blank pages can be easily removed and used for later sketching and coloring.

Put together a project box with washable markers (I'm hoping you have realized the brilliance of these as opposed to the non-washable, clothes-ruining type), crayons, stickers, construction paper, age-appropriate scissors, glue and anything else your children can think of to put in their memory book. Your children can work together on one page at a time, or lay out separate pages and then work together to add them to the book. Don't force the "working together" part at the beginning or you will end up with a memory book of your trip to the emergency room. Your children should gradually begin to work together at a pace that they feel comfortable with, or at least that the dominant child dictates.

By creating a memory book of the summer, your children can relive the fun activities and summer days all through winter. The only problem you will have is deciding who gets to keep the memory book once the children are older and have families of their own. By then, however, we parents will probably be suffering from stress induced dementia or at least selective hearing, so we can just pretend we can't hear them fighting. If it ends up in blows, just be happy that they are old enough to drive

themselves to the hospital. I