The Mom I Want to Be

Australia is known as the “The Land Down Under,” because it sits at the bottom of the globe, in the Southern Hemisphere. Australia is home to some of the most unusual creatures in the world: kangaroos, koalas, platypuses, kookaburras, and wombats—animals that are found nowhere else in the world. Take a trip to your local zoo or simply explore the internet to see some of these amazing creatures.

 

Check out some photos of Aussie animals.

Use this day to teach your child an all-important beginning concept. All you need are lots of items representing opposites—for example, a soft cotton ball, a hard rock, a smooth piece of vinyl, a rough piece of sandpaper etc. Ask your child to place an object on one side of the table, then its opposite on the other side. Continue until you have two equal piles. Now take a tour of the house or backyard and ask your child to point out all the opposites he or she sees. Finish with a snack of Oreo® cookies. Ask your child to find the black part of the cookie, and the white part; the inside and the outside; the soft part and the hard part. Point out that before you both eat the cookies, your stomach will be empty; after you eat them, it will be full!

Feet come in all sizes and shapes—even within the same family. Trace each family member’s pair of feet on a long roll of paper. (Go from the oldest member to the youngest.) Now label each pair of feet with a name and measurement. The kids will be surprised to discover that both their feet are not exactly the same size. Date the roll, store away, and do another annually. You’ll be amazed by the difference a year makes in the size of your children’s feet!

Explore little bitty feet by singing this song and wiggling toes as you go!

This little piggy went to market,
This little piggy stayed home.
This little piggy ate roast beef,
And this little piggy stayed home.
And this little piggy went,
Wee, wee, wee, all the way home!

When loved ones are too far away to hug, send them an embrace through the mail instead! Cut a length from a roll of drawing paper that is as long as your child’s arm span. Ask your child to press his or her hands firmly in an aluminum pie plate filled with red tempera paint. Have your child make a hand print at either end of the paper, fingers pointing out. After the paint dries, write “a great big hug from me to you” in the space between the prints. Roll up the strip, place it in a mailing tube, and ship off to a special loved one.

Penguins are one of the most adorable and comical birds on the planet. With their “tuxedo” outfits and waddling ways, it’s impossible not to look at them and smile! There are seventeen species living in a variety of climates—from the frozen tundra to sandy beaches—in the Southern Hemisphere. Penguins can be found in such far-flung locations places as Antarctica, South America, Africa, and New Zealand. One of the ways penguins keep warm is to fluff their many layers of feathers to trap air between them. Demonstrate this to your little one by filling two small re-sealable bags with ice cubes. Squeeze all the air out of one bag before sealing, trap air in the other before zipping it shut. Let your child have a turn holding each bag. Which one feels colder?

 

For more penguin info, photos, and activities, go to the activities page on Kidzone.com.

This loveable bear’s holiday falls on the birthday of his creator, A.A. Milne (born 1882). The adventures of Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger and the rest of their friends in the Hundred-Acre Woods have touched parents and children for generations. Read a Pooh story with your child today, or watch a delightful Pooh video. Later, set up a bunch of teddy bears (the more Poohs, the better) for a tea party featuring—what else?—honey graham crackers, of course!

This elder statesman of the American Revolution was born in 1706. He was the oldest signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Franklin was also a scientist, diplomat, author, printer, publisher, philosopher, philanthropist, and inventor.

 

One of the things Franklin invented was a musical instrument called the “armonica.” Franklin’s inspiration for the instrument came during a visit to London in 1757, where musical compositions were performed on drinking glasses of various sizes arranged in a row and filled with varying amounts of water. This gave each glass a different pitch. Franklin created a new form of the instrument capable of more tones, and that was easier to play.

 

Build your own armonica by filling different sized glasses with varying amounts of water. Slide your finger around each rim and listen to the music each glass makes.

 

To learn more about Benjamin Franklin, go to Ben’s Guide.

In a famous line from Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, he says “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

 

To illustrate Dr. King’s message, show your child a brown egg and a white egg. Then break the eggs open. Remind your child that (just like the eggs) though people might look different on the outside, they are the same on the inside.

 

Finish off the discussion by explaining that Dr. King was a civil rights leader who worked for the equal treatment of African-Americans in a time in America when their were denied the same rights and privileges as white Americans.

 

Ask your child the complete this sentence: “I have a dream that one day all people will __________.”

For info about Dr. King, go to The King Center.