It’s your child’s birthday and the ritual of receiving gifts and presents is an exciting moment. The atmosphere, friendships, laughter, the cake, the ‘blowing out of candles’ and birthday songs are all fundamental ingredients of the simplest Birthday party. Whilst inwardly glowing at your child’s happiness on the day, it is also important to teach them about the necessities of ‘giving’ after ‘receiving’ a plethora of presents. As the birthday guests begin to leave, one little gesture goes a long way ~ a party bag! Light up the little mites’ faces as they say “Goodbye” after such an amazing day! A party bag is the perfect gift to illustrate the importance of the words ‘thank you’. As a parent, you should teach your child the reasons behind these customs. Explain why it is polite and courteous to send ‘thank you’ cards and other reciprocal gifts of ‘thanks’. You will be paving strong foundations towards your child’s future development. You will be instilling manners at an early age. These manners will go a long way during your child’s upbringing. They will serve your child through time and time again; through their troublesome adolescence and into adulthood. It could help them flower into a well grounded personality. You, yourselves will feel pride for your child’s achievements and their natural kindness; their apparent innate ability to be sensitive enough to understand and respect other people’s feelings – where warranted of course!

In the days leading up to your child’s birthday, invite them to assist with the preparation for their special day. Kids love to be useful and love to help. Take advantage of this innocent aspect – it keeps them out of trouble, trust me! This is one way that you can give your full undivided attention to your child whilst dealing with the domestic duties.

Let them help you prepare the food for THEIR Birthday! Pass on a sense of wonderment and achievement. Get them excited about the ’surprise’ Birthday cake. Let them be creative and write (or scribble) the names on invitation cards. Let them have ownership of THEIR birthday.

Explain to them that it is their special day. You don’t have to go into any deep metaphysical conversation as to why, keep it simple and explain that because iof the time of year, they will be receiving presents from their friends, and that because they will be receiving presents it is very polite to ‘give’ something back in return.
If the child asks “why?” – try and give them an example of a situation – one which could have been a prior experience – or perhaps a hypothetical role play scenario would be more appropriate? Play out a scene – paint the picture of an innocent misunderstanding whereby your child was not included in a given situation. Help them understand and reason how that situation would make them feel. Stress how important it is to be thankful for THEIR friends / guests arrival, to make them feel welcome, happy and appreciative and that sometimes, the best way to show this is with a physical gift. Explain to your child that the simplest gift like these party bag toys can be a perfect gesture for this. Let them reflect about how excited they were when they went to their friend’s party and received a surprise ‘party bag’. Get your child thinking generously…ask them “What do you think your friends would like?”.

Involve them in making the decisions as to what toys and sweets fill these party bags. Your toddler quite possibly has no concept of the value of money. They could ask for something totally impractical for their friends’ party bags. Perhaps they suggested a “space ship for Harry” or a “talking Lightening McQueen for everyone!” – some suggestions might surprise the parent, but this is pure innocence and should warrant a light hearted response. With the right guidance and direction from the parent, your child will soon be contributing a wealth of affordable ideas such as sweets, stickers, marbles, whistles and balloons etc. Let them contribute and put time and effort into the party bag. Take them to the shop. Let them choose penny sweets. If you have a really hectic lifestyle and work life then order pre-filled party bags online! Just make sure that when they arrive you let your child individualise these with name tags or by some other form of involvement. Maybe ask them to choose a really unique cheap toy to add to each individual’s party bag. Let them think about their friends ‘likes’ and dislikes’ Doing this can only help your child understand the personal needs of others. They will be thinking about their friends ‘likes’ (and as we are innately quite selfish beings – their own!) This could help your child associate with others in more depth and build more foundation to existing friendships. Let them discover and understand who they are associating with. Let them uncover the boundaries and various forms of etiquette that differ so vastly from person to person.

• ISBN-10: 0810979772
• ISBN-13: 978-0810979772

Greg Heffley, star of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series has always wished he could race to the finishing line and get the awkward adolescence stage over and done with. He tries to get into things older boys do to get there faster – dealing with girls, bigger responsibilities, looking sharp among other big-boy things to do and be. He’s doing this without best friend Rowley so he’s for the most part alone.

I am certainly no boy but being a mom, I sure could appreciate how lessons and messages are sent to growing boys. The book is a valuable guide especially to boys who are growing up without their fathers or other positive male father figure in their lives. It’s also a great way for dads to get to talking about those topics that are sensitive or tough for growing boys to talk about.

It comes in form of a diary, so boys can pour out and sort out their feelings in this journal, an idea that boys previously balked at as writing in a diary is mostly a girly thing to do. The kids are asked questions like their likes and dislikes, their secrets, getting into and out of trouble and other aspects of growing up. There are ruled and plain spaces for them to write on. There are also full color comics of the characters for them to collect.

It’s recommended for kids aged 9 to 12. My son is already 11 and this book has definitely earned his two thumbs up.  You can get your copy at Amazon.

As far as mazes go, here’s one that my kids are finding a-mazing (pardon the pun): the Perplexus Maze Game. The only trouble I have with it is getting them to fold it away and go to bed. This is a maze game that has the players maneuvering a small marble around a series of barriers that are quite challenging. The sphere is transparent so the players enjoy a three dimensional view over the whole maze and barriers. One has to find their way through by twisting, flipping and shifting the transparent sphere to maneuver the marble past the barriers.

Apart from giving the kids hours of fun, I like the Perplexus Maze Game because it improves their motor skills and their hand-eye coordination. It also improves their thinking skills as they have to think about the best way to get out of the maze and into the clear or final destination. It is recommended for children aged 6 and above who can understand that they need to negotiate their way round the turns and bends rather than simply go over the barriers.

I also like the fact that no cleaning up is necessary and I don’t have to keep getting new batteries. Truth be told, am often at it after they have gone off to bed, determined to beat that maze in the shortest time possible.