age 7

Crafts

Creating a birthday scrapbook

Keeping a scrapbook for your children is a great way to keep the birthday memories alive! If you need some inspiration for birthday...

Family Activities

10 Family fun nights under $20

In the age of texting, tweeting, blogging and skyping, families can go days without face-to-face conversations. That's why planning...

Toys and Play

5 Fun ways to get wet this summer without the beach

Not near a beach? No problem! Check out our five ways to have some water-related fun this summer no matter where you are.

School Age Kids

How to recognize when peer influence turns to pressure

As much as we talk about helping kids to resist “peer pressure,” it exists. Even for the most self-assured, independent-thinking...

Family Activities

Make a summer bucket list with your kids

Hot, lazy days spent lounging and playing are great -- but they shouldn't be the only kind of days you and your kids have this...

Child Development & Health

How to talk to your kids about natural disasters

When natural disasters -- like floods, earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes -- happen you can’t shield kids from the news and they...

Child Development & Health

How to help your child manage simple fears

It’s that shriek you know well. “Mommy, I’m scared!” What is it this time, you wonder and groan? A dog? A dust bunny? Something else...

School Age Kids

Talking careers with your younger children

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” It’s a ubiquitous question. And it’s the way we start, at a very early age, to introduce...

School Age Kids

School safety measures every parent should take

It has happened to every parent at one time or another -- you're late to school to pick up your child (and of course your cell phone...

Child Development & Health

Why is one child a risk taker and the other a couch potato?

Every day mothers across the country and across the world marvel: How can two children from the same home be so different?! Same...

Children's School & Education

What is unschooling?

To those brought up in a strict school environment, the idea of unschooling seems almost unfathomable. But this growing movement...

Parenting Advice & Columns

Supplementing your child’s art education

School budgets all over the country are taking hits. Hard, hard hits. Even while there are increasing demands on academic...

Mom & Dad

Skechers Shape-ups for girls: Cute or inappropriate?

Skechers recently introduced its apparently not-so-functional and previously adult-sizes only Shape-up shoes for young girls, and...

Child Development & Health

Small changes: Improve your family’s eating habits

We constantly hear about the obesity rate in the United States -- how children today are far heavier than they should be and how...

Children's School & Education

Homeschool: Why are so many parents choosing it?

What is behind this growing movement in home education? With over two million students being homeschooled in the United States,...

Family Activities

7 Kid-friendly outdoor activities

With spring fast approaching, it's time to get the kids back into nature. Exposing them to a wide range of outdoor activities at a...

School Age Kids

Is the iconic Barbie bad news?

Barbie might be an icon, but she’s also a hot button topic for controversy. Some say the blond bombshell is all in good fun, while...

Crafts

Sunshine prints: Make art from the sun

If you have sun and have kids, here's a cool craft project to try (though if you just want to get a set just for yourself, we won't...

Monday Mom Challenge

Monday Mom challenge: Define your family traditions

Routine. Kids tend to thrive on it -- and adults find comfort in it, too. Whether it’s the rhythm of a morning as the house rouses...

Child Development & Health

Sunscreen for kids: Ask the expert

How often does your child really need to wear sunscreen -- and which type is best? A pediatrician has some advice for you!