Frugality: Something New?
Over at Yahoo, there is an article from BusinessWeek about The New Age of Frugality. It talks about how people are beginning to think about spending less money, imagine that! It has some good tips and the family that the story is about also started a blog called Suddenly Frugal. I applaud the family’s decision to get themselves in the black and take charge of their finances! I just wish frugality wasn’t a fad that comes and goes so much.
Survive Anything
If you are enamoured with Les Stroud and sometimes think you might be able to survive in your backyard with no tent, then I have the website for you!
Popular Mechanics has a How To Survive Anything guide with tons of different articles and tips. Examples include 5 Steps to Get Ready for Disaster (Not Stuck in It), 22 Steps to Save Yourself When Natural Disaster Hits and the always useful How to Survive Anything Mother Nature Throws at You.
Tame That Baby Rage
According to a study done in Canada researching the roots of physical aggression, children are much more likely to be violent when they lack social skills than by playing video games, watching tv and all the other things that have been blamed.
Richard Tremblay, a professor of pediatrics, psychiatry and psychology at the University of Montreal says that aggressive behavior is natural and usually tapers off as children gain new social skills and ways of dealing with conflict.
Tremblay’s previous results have suggested that children on average reach a peak of violent behavior (biting, scratching, screaming, hitting…) around 18 months of age. The level of aggression begins to taper between the ages of two and five as they begin to learn other, more sophisticated ways of communicating their needs and wants.
Does Your Child’s Diaper Need a Hazmat Team?
Body Burden Testing is the new hot test for all of us humans. You can test your child for all the lovely chemicals and their levels that they have in their bodies.
The technology to test for these flame retardants — known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) — and other industrial chemicals is less than 10 years old. Environmentalists call it “body burden” testing, an allusion to the chemical “burden,” or legacy of toxins, running through our bloodstream. Scientists refer to this testing as “biomonitoring.”
The youngest child to have it done, 18 months old, had two to three times the level of flame retardants in his body that’s been known to cause thyroid dysfunction in lab rats.
What are we doing to our bodies and our children’s bodies?
Teaching Kids Charity
With the shopping season upon us, many parents will be dreading their kids demanding everything under the sun. Lifehack has some great tips about teaching your kids charity and tidyness with a pre-holiday cleanup. They can start to understand that giving their unused toys can be a great thing and at the same time, they can clean their room!
Babies Judging Babies
According to a new study, infants can tell the difference between naughty and nice playmates.
Babies as young as 6 to 10 months old showed crucial social judging skills before they could talk, according to a study by researchers at Yale University’s Infant Cognition Center published in Thursday’s journal Nature.
I’m always surprised that people are surprised at how intelligent humans are at such a early age. Anyone with kids know they can do amazing things within a few months of birth.
Sesame Street is Much Tamer These Days
Snuffleupagus was only seen by Big Bird, Cookie Monster smoking a pipe and then eating it! Oh, the humanity of it all. Read about how Sesame Street in it’s orginal form probably would have been adult only television. A funny read!
Reuse Those Old Toys
Wisebread has some tips on reviving those old toys to save some money and get some more life out of your children’s toys. You usually end up with piles of toys with the stuff at the bottom perfectly usable but forgotten under all the new stuff. If you go through all your old toys you can find some of the favorite ones that can last for a few more months!
How to Entertain Your Child for Cheap
No Imapact Man was asked how he entertains his daughter without television and electricity. Well, he rattled off a ton of ideas, most of them easy and free!
Read his entire blog to get some more great ideas about leaving a light footprint on the world.
Find the Lead
The Chicago Tribune conducted some lead testing in toys. I’m not sure how these things sneak into the country, obviously the testing agency are idiots or maybe someone isn’t telling the truth when reporting the lead contained in each toy.
If you are really concerned, Consumer Reports has a list of some home lead-testing kits that you can purchase and how well they work.
Also, the DailyGreen has a list of 250 lead-free toys. I can’t believe you actually need a list!
Thinking you should ban Made in China toys from your house? Well, Palm Bay, Florida is trying to ban all made in china products from the entire town. I doubt it will succeed but it will be interesting to see how far this goes.
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