Grasshopper New Media Presents...

Welcome to GNMParent’s Festival of Family Flair! As usual, we have some great stuff to share with you this week. Please remember this Festival is very new, and we would appreciate your help in spreading the word. We would love it if you linked to this week’s Festival from your own website. If you are interested in hosting in the coming weeks, please leave us a comment. It is lots of fun and a great way to bring some new visitors to your site!!

Kicking things off this week is the lovely and talented (and clearly brave,) Michelle. Poking around her blog “Scribbit: Motherhood in Alaska” can provide hours of entertainment. This week she shares her fearlessness in A Bathtub Boticelli.

Personally, I have a deep rooted phobia of kids painting on the walls. I guess that’s a story for another day. Suffice it to say a 5 and 6 year old can create quite a masterpiece if they have 20 bottles of craft paint and 15 minutes alone. After I read Michelle’s post and saw the photo of her kid clearly lovin’ life, I was almost ready to try it. Unfortunately, the scars left by the incident are deep. Perhaps someday. Maybe those of you who do this activity can speed up my recovery by sending in some photos? Thanks for another great contribution, Michelle!

Barb Lattin of GNMParents, Great Family Gadgets and Naturally WAHMs (busy Mom!), presents Three Kitchen Gadgets That Will Happily Occupy Your Child. I love the ideas here. It goes back to the old adage that kid’s don’t need toys, they are just as happy with the wrapping! My kids really like helping out in the kitchen. One of their favorite activities is using the juicer with a lemon or lime. The 7 year old enjoys it as much as the 2 year old! Great ideas, Barb!

Our next submission is from Karen at The Thomas Institute. I usually hang on to the photo cards that I get during the holiday season. I keep them in a basket and we enjoy looking at the photos from Christmas’ past. Karen’s scrapbooking idea is not only a creative project, but also creates less clutter when the decorations come back out! Please take a moment to read Karen’s Post-Christmas Project, posted at The Thomas Institute.

Another Karen, Karen Shanley of My Life as a Writer, Mom, Dog Nut, has found a creative way to teach her daughter about helping others. Her post describes their knitting project and how they have chosen to help newborn babies. There are so many societal pressures on kids, maybe we can offset some of that by helping our children to Build a Social Conscience . Stop on by and maybe leave a comment letting us all know what your family does!

Next up is last week’s host, Erica Douglas from Littlemummy, and from GNMParents. Erica’s sharing a recipe for Gunge: Make Play-Safe Kiddie Gunge. Kids love gooey stuff, so this is sure to be a big hit with them!

I confess that this next submission caused a little bit of hesitation- is it right for the Festival, as it’s about planning a wedding. That lasted half a second, because I quickly remembered that lots of parents get married, lots of parents have kids that get married, and lots of families plan big parties. Many of Sarah Winfrey’s ideas are transferable to planning any event. Planning a party? Need invitations?

Costco.com

Dave and I more than paid for our entire year’s worth of membership in the deal we got on our invitations. And we got it all, down to the envelope liners and the little pieces of tissue paper between the invitation and all of the goodies that come with it. I got so many compliments on them, and people were shocked to find out I’d purchased them at Costco!

Sarah’s submission, 55 ways young couples can save money on their wedding can be found at Wise Bread. While you’re there look around a bit, discover boxed wine that’s “Not Just Some Junk in a Box.” I like wine. Do you like wine?

Jeremiah McNichols shares the 1st of 2 memory games in this week’s Festival. Holy creative, Batman! This looks like a ton of fun! Craft Project: Sound Memory Game posted at Z Recommends. It’s not often you find a game that engages a child’s sense of hearing. Please spend some time looking around this site, it is chock full of creativity. I hope we will see lots of submissions from Jeremiah in the future!

Stu Mark, also of GNMParents fame, presents It’s Only A Paper Balloon… This seems pretty complicated, but also sounds really cool. I’m a visual learner, so I am anxious to keep my eye on Stu News and Photos for when the photos are posted. Thanks Stu!

Beth Blecherman contributes a very creative list of ideas for how to pass the time while your child is blowing a nutty. It’s not always easy to decide how to respond to a tantrum, and often I find myself second guessing my choice. In her essay, Beth shares her approach of stepping back and waiting for the child to work it out. The post, Top Ten Things to Do While Your Kids Have Tantrums is helpful and hilarious. You can find it posted at theSilicon Valley Moms Blog.

Last week Rory Sullivan contributed 10 Terrific Signs to get Parents Started. This week Rory takes us a step further with Baby Signing - 10 More Terrific Signs To Help Parents Persist. I have some experience with signing with infants- we did it with our 3 kids. My 1st born took to signing immediately and knew about 50 signs by his second birthday. We avoided many screaming fits when he learned the sign for “help.” Signing was a really interesting addition to verbal communication. Both of Rory’s contributions can be found at hamelife.

My own submission (I’m Megin Hatch, by the way. It’s nice to meet you!) is another type of home-made memory game. It was a big hit as a Christmas gift for a 2 and a half year-old, although my older kids love it as well. I call it Hatch-ory for our family. Hatch-ory: How to Make a Meaningful Matching Game, uses family photos to promote recognition and matching skills. It’s a great way to use photos that you love, even if they aren’t perfect for a frame.

The End! I love this Festival, I really do. It is so fun to read through everyone’s ideas and I find it inspiring. This weeks submissions are really great and I look forward to reading next week’s. Please submit your ideas early! Don’t forget to think about hosting; you can put your touch on it and show us all what you can do with the Festival!

[tags]humor, memory game, signing with babies, tantrums, wedding planning, gunge recipe, painting, arts and crafts, creativity, family, parenting[/tags]