Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Fun Fourth of July Facts

The Fourth of July 2010
On this day in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress, setting the 13 colonies on the road to freedom as a sovereign nation. As always, this most American of holidays will be marked by parades, fireworks and backyard barbecues across the country.
2.5 million
In July 1776, the estimated number of people living in the newly independent nation.
309.6 million
The nation’s estimated population on this July Fourth.
Flags
$3.0 million
In 2009, the dollar value of U.S. imports of American flags. The vast majority of this amount ($2.5 million) was for U.S. flags made in China.
$920,277 Dollar value of U.S. flags exported in 2009. Mexico was the leading customer, purchasing $333,882 worth.
$301.5 million
Annual dollar value of shipments of fabricated flags, banners and similar emblems by the nation’s manufacturers, according to the latest published economic census data.
Fireworks
$209 million
The value of fireworks imported from China in 2009, representing the bulk of all U.S. fireworks imported ($217 million). U.S. exports of fireworks, by comparison, came to just $42.9 million in 2009, with the United Arab Emirates purchasing more than any other country ($14.5 million).
$331.4 million
The value of U.S. manufacturers’ shipments of fireworks and pyrotechnics (including flares, igniters, etc.) in 2007.
Visit Mom-Stuffto make your Fourth of July extra sun this year. We have some fun flip flops that you can help your girls make for the Fourth. We have a blanket back pack that is perfect for your kids to use at the parade and fireworks.

We also have some Star Rockin Bobbie pins that will make your girls look patriotic. We have some great recipes for your backyard barbecue. Have a wonderful day celebrating  our nations freedom. The mom-stuff team wishes you and your family a safe Fourth of July, marked by parades, fireworks and backyard barbecue

Scrapbooking with Kids

From Jill at scrapbook.com
Scrapbooking is a great way to spend time with your children, share your favorite hobby, and even reinforce skills learned in school without them realizing it. And, really, what kid doesn’t like cutting up paper, peeling off stickers, or drawing pictures? Try channeling some of your child’s creative energy into scrapbooking. Here’s how:
Choose a kid-friendly album theme. Just like adults, children will enjoy making layouts about the people and things they love such as their family, friends, a vacation, holidays, etc. If an album is a little ambitious for your young child, start with one of these great kids crafts ideas using your scrapbook supplies. Visit the Kids Crafts section of our Superstore for easy project kits, too.
Create boundaries.  Let children work with smaller pages such as6” x 6” or 8” x 8”. Specialty albums such as tag books or mini-albums are also a great starting point for children. Smaller spaces and more finite albums won’t seem so intimidating. Likewise, it can be overwhelming to a child if you let them choose supplies from your entire scrapbooking collection. Set out a couple of embellishments and paper choices that work well with the photos or theme they’ve chosen and let them decide which supplies they want to use. Themed kits purchased especially for the child are a great way to encourage a sense of ownership over their work.
Set aside basic tools and supplies of their own to use. Go through your supplies and set out things that would be of interest to your child and help them build their own supply stash. Punches,stamps and stickers are always a home run!
Teach basic design principles. Show them how to mat a picture, how to look at the picture to pick color schemes, and the importance of adding a title and journaling to each layout.
Allow creative freedom. Let your child decide which pictures they would like to scrap. Give them the option of choosing a color scheme, what embellishments they would like to use, and whether or not to mat a photo. They may not make a page just like you would, but they’ll love the process of creating “like you”.
Work for short periods of time. The younger the child, the shorter they will be able to sit and work on a project. Usually when working with four and five year olds, a project will take only 10-15 minutes. Older children can handle longer periods. Determine what works best for you and your child.
Help when asked. Remember, they don’t need to do it the same way you do it! Let them enjoy experimenting!
Regardless of the details, the result of scrapbooking together will be precious “together time” for you and your child and a wonderful book that you can enjoy together. It will show the things that they love combined with their own sense of taste and style. Together, you will create something that you both can be proud of and that will last forever.
For scrapbooking supplies and inspiration visit scrapbook.com

Monday, June 21, 2010

Today is the First Day of Summer

The first day of summer officially kicks off today at 7:28 a.m. ET, the beginning of the summer solstice and the longest day of the year—at least in the Northern Hemisphere.
The summer solstice is a result of the Earth’s north-south axis being tilted 23.5 degrees relative to the sun. The tilt causes different amounts of sunlight to reach different regions of the planet.
Today the North Pole is tipped closer to the sun than on any other day of 2010. The opposite holds true for the Southern Hemisphere, for which today is thewinter solstice, the shortest day of the year.
As a result, at high noon on the first day of summer, the sun appears at its highest point in the sky—its most directly overhead position—in the Northern Hemisphere.
That doesn’t mean the sun will be exactly overhead at noon for everyone, said James Bell, an astronomer at Cornell University in New York State.
It depends on the viewer’s latitude. “The sun is only shining down directly overhead [at noon] at the Equator. It’s still at a low angle if you’re up in Alaska,” Bell explained.
No matter where you are in the Northern Hemisphere, the path of the sun across the sky—which rises in the lead-up to the first day of summer, then begins descending over the rest of the summer—seems not to change for the few days before and after the summer solstice.
In reality, the sun’s position is still changing, but at a slower rate.
Today is the perfect day for the summer site to launch at Mom-Stuff.com.
For summer scheduling and activities visit http://www.mom-stuff.com/public/151.cfm.
Want some fun kids crafts to make with your children this summer? Visit mom-stuff kids craftshttp://www.mom-stuff.com/public/94.cfm
Help your girls make some Fancy Flip Flops to match their summer outfits http://www.mom-stuff.com/public/273.cfm
Before you go on your summer vacation check out our Vacation Scrapbooking Pages Using Souvenirs http://www.mom-stuff.com/public/143.cfm
Have a wonderful summer with picnics, BBQ’s vacations, and some get family time.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

The History of Father's Day

Father’s Day, contrary to popular misconception, was not established as a holiday in order to help greeting card manufacturers sell more cards.
In fact when a “father’s day” was first proposed there were no Father’s Day cards!
Mrs. John B. Dodd, of Washington, first proposed the idea of a “father’s day” in 1909. Mrs. Dodd wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart. William Smart, a Civil War veteran, was widowed when his wife (Mrs. Dodd’s mother) died in childbirth with their sixth child. Mr. Smart was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington state. It was after Mrs. Dodd became an adult that she realized the strength and selflessness her father had shown in raising his children as a single parent.
The first Father’s Day was observed on June 19, 1910 in Spokane Washington.
At about the same time in various towns and cities across American other people were beginning to celebrate a “father’s day.”.
In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea of a national Father’s Day. Finally in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father’s Day.
Father’s Day has become a day to not only honor your father, but all men who act as a father figure. Stepfathers, uncles, grandfathers, and adult male friends are all honored on Father’s Day. Make this Father’s Day special for the men in your life. Visit http://wwwmom-stuff.com for your father’s Day ideas. We have Family Fun, Recipes, Kids Crafts and more.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Social Networking, Moms and Kids


The Mom-Stuff Team wants to share this survey with you.  Tracy-Hope-Ross recently spoke with 1,000 moms about their kids online behavior. What do you think? Do you agree with these moms?
Great post by Tracey Hope-Ross on the Engage Moms blog as Media Post recently spoke with nearly 1,000 Moms of kids aged 8 to 13 years about their kid’s online behavior and why they worry about their actions online.
Online Behavior
Tracey reports that kids express an interest in “social networking” sites around the age of 10. At that age, 44% of kids join online communities to connect with friends and other kids from school. One-third also turn to social networking sites to communicate with family members online, as well as to stay in touch with others who may be separated by distance.
Why Moms Worry
  • Moms worry that their children may be exposed to inappropriate content and “stranger danger.”
  • 61% Moms worry about their child unknowingly posting personal information
  • 40% fear their child might post information online that can never be removed or deleted
  • 30% worry their kids might lie about their age
  • 23% fear their child may be involved in cyber-bulling behavior
Moms actively supervise their children’s use of social networking and gaming sites:
Most children who spend time on social networking or gaming sites do not play unsupervised. Nearly 70% of Moms retain control of where and when their 8-13-year-old children play.
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Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Empowering Kids Through Music


Mom-Stuff wants to interduse  you to a very talented mom who is sharing her talents and love of music.  Her name is Pamela Ott. She is a Musician, Mother, Board Certified Music Therapist and believer in music’s ability to encourage, enhance and assist in a child’s development. Since Music Therapy is out of the reach of many children that could truly benefit from it and music programs have been reduced due to budget cuts, She has started a blog with regular posts with music, activity and instrument ideas for parents, therapists and educators in the hope that it will encourage the use of more music in the education and development of children!
You can visit her at blog Empowering Little Learners Through Music at http://www.musicforspecialkids.com/
I am really impressed by Pamela’s musical knowledge and her willingness to share with today’s parents.  Her blog is a great resource for mothers.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

When I Have Children…

I came across this post yesterday by Holly Renee at Love Imagine Create


I really enjoyed it and I thought you would too.
I loved the comparison of parenting our children to nurturing our own inner child.
I am going through a chapter in my life with some big changes.  As I contemplate these changes I have been pondering or evaluating exactly where I am at with these issues. This post was just what I needed to hear. I love how the exact information comes to you when you need it. Thank you Holly for sharing. I hope all of you moms will enjoy her post. Make sure you visit her site. She has some great posts.

When I Have Children…


When I have children I want them to be happy, to feel unconditionally loved, to love their own body, to be comfortable expressing themselves, to feel safe, to dream big, to have true friends, to laugh, to learn how to be independent, to feel grateful, to have a sense of humor, to appreciate nature, to know how to share, to love animals, to treat others well, to marry the spouse of their dreams, to let their imagination run wild, to be accepting, to know who they are, to learn patience, to play, to be healthy, to understand where other people are coming from, to listen to their hearts, to respect other’s beliefs, to be creative, to forgive, to celebrate, and to grow.
I spend time with my nephews.  I read so many blogs about parenthood.  I constantly see adults interacting with kids.  I notice the exchanges that seem to help or hinder children.  And I truly hope that I can someday give my ‘babies’ all the nourishment they need, both emotionally and physically.  I want them to have thoughts and experiences that make their souls light up.
Then I think about my inner-child.  The beautiful little girl who liked her hair in pigtails and wore two different colored shoes. The adventurer who liked to catch bugs and build forts. The athlete who played soccer for hours and ran faster than the boys.  The investigator who collected rocks of every shape and size.  The child who knew she was something spectacular.
She deserves all the things I want to give my children.  And she is me, but she is also my child.  The child I get to re-parent. She is a source of vulnerability and beauty for the Holly Renee I am now.  She inspires me to treat myself with all the kindness in the world.
Without unconditionally loving her I will never heal and grow into the fullest Being I can be. Without learning from her I won’t know how to care for myself, or my future children.  Thank you Little-Holly, I have decided this post is for you.  You are passionate, beautiful, sensitive, and inspiring.  May you dance with our future children and help ignite their souls with love.
You might also like:Facing My Fear What is True Love? Guess Who Has A New Best Friend LinkWithin |MOREPOSTED BY HOLLY RENEE

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Facebook Privacy


Recently I have recevied some questions and concerns about using Facebook. I want to share this article about Facebook privacy controls. I hope you find this helpful.

by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, May 26, 2010 at 11:55am
When we started Facebook, we built it around a few simple ideas. People want to share and stay connected with their friends and the people around them. When you have control over what you share, you want to share more. When you share more, the world becomes more open and connected.As News Feed became more central to your experience, weadded privacy settings
so you could control who could see each individual status update, photo album, video and everything else you share into the stream.
As Platform became more popular, we restricted the way applications could access your personal information. Now all applications and websites can only see content that is already visible to everyone. They must get permission to access anything else.
As regional networks grew to include more and more people, we decided to phase them out
since they were too big for you to effectively control your information. While this was not a big issue in the United States, more than 50 percent of you worldwide were in networks that spanned whole countries like India and Turkey.
Replacing regional networks meant we needed a new model for control. In general, we recommended that you share basic info like status updates and posts with everyone, content like photos and videos of you with friends of your friends, and sensitive items like contact information with only your real friends. We asked each of you to look at your settings
and choose what you wanted.
More recently, we also launched community pages and other ways to give you personalized and social experiences
on other sites you use.
Since then, you have sent us lots of feedback. We’ve listened carefully in order to figure out the best next steps. We recognize that we made a lot of changes, so we really wanted to take the time to understand your feedback and make sure we address your concerns.
The number one thing we’ve heard is that there just needs to be a simpler way to control your information. We’ve always offered a lot of controls, but if you find them too hard to use then you won’t feel like you have control. Unless you feel in control, then you won’t be comfortable sharing and our service will be less useful for you. We agree we need to improve this.
Today we’re starting to roll out some changes that will make all of these controls a lot simpler. We’ve focused on three things: a single control for your content, more powerful controls for your basic information and an easy control to turn off all applications.
Today, I want to share some thoughts on how we’ve evolved to this point, what we’re doing now to give you more control, and what you can expect from us going forward.
Looking back, the first version of Facebook was very simple. There were almost no features. There were no status updates, photo albums or messages. There was no News Feed or Platform. The only people who could use it were college students in the United States.
The way the site worked was that everyone could see some basic information about you and the rest of your information was only visible to people in your networks and your friends by default.
As the site grew and as we rolled out new features, Facebook became less about colleges and more about sharing lots of content with different groups of people. So a little more than a year ago, we started working on a new privacy model to reflect how the site had evolved.

I would suggest you go through your privacy settings and set them to your preferences . Make sure you go to Applications, Games and Website section. It takes some time but it is worth knowing that your facebook site is set up they way you want.