Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Plant some creative ideas and watch your kids grow.
Warm weather and the end of the school year beg us to get outdoors and just play, and while we conjure images of blissful summer days in our heads, the reality is that sooner than later, you will hear your children whine, "I'm bored!" After a school year full of being told what to do when, your kids may need a kick start to get their imagination working on its own. This time of year I stock up on supplies that can be provided for some creative play when summertime boredom rears its ugly head. Here are seeds of imagination you can plant with your children to help them grow their creative play all summer long. Kid Garden: Let them dig, plant, and play. Find an area of the yard that you don't mind them taking over. If your kids are old …
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Can Dad wear Mom's shoes? Yes, that would be funny.
Not so long ago in a house not far away something rather ordinary happened one ordinary day. A mom woke up achy, with a fever and a sneeze, and turned to her husband, "I need a sick day, please." Mom went back to bed, After making a to-do list. Dad gave it one glance, and thought, I can handle this. SuperDad was determined to get it all done, to do all the chores, and still have time for fun. So off he went to be Mr. Mom Lunches packed, out the door, "Wait! You only have one shoe on?!" With one kid at school, House chores, no big whoop! "I wanna 'nack!""I havta go POTTY!" "Doggie made a BIG poop!" Where did the time go?! The laundry's only half done. With the big kid home now, Dad starts the after-school run. First to dance class, then …
Friday, May 11, 2012
Patch's Cinema Siren reviews the new Burton-Depp flick, Dark Shadows.
Tim Burton, as the stylized director of such glorious oddities as Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, and Ed Wood, is the pied piper to the inner goth in all of us. So it is with a heavy heart Cinema Siren has to report Dark Shadows, while it might have moments of loopy greatness and top-notch production and costume design, it is on the whole the most tragic of cinematic sins, a bore. The greatness is in some particularly exciting and fast paced scenes, that are strangely intermittent in its 116 minutes, and so at odds with the soap opera ploddings of the rest of the film. The first minutes of Dark Shadows show great promise. Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp, in his 8th partnership with director Burton) is the rakish son of a 1770s New World …
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Will Obama's announcement hurt his chances to carry Virginia in 2012 as he did in 2008?
Facing pressure to take a stand, President Barack Obama on Wednesday said he supports same-sex marriage. In an interview with ABC News’ Robin Roberts, Obama (D) described his “evolution” on the issue through talks with friends, and reflection on military personnel and members of his own staff who, he said, “are not able to commit themselves in a marriage,” adding that “at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.” Excerpts of the interview are scheduled to appear on ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer on Wednesday evening. The full interview is scheduled to appear on ABC’s Good Morning America on Thursday morning. …
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Teacher gifts that aren't complex or expensive, but say a whole lot.
There are only 26 days left of school! If you think your kids are excited, just ask a teacher how she feels. The summer-is-coming energy has permeated the classrooms and even the teachers are counting down the days until the last day of school. This week is Teacher Appreciation Week around the nation, and the timing couldn't be better. It may be just the little pick-me-up the teachers need to get through the end of the school year. As with any teacher gifts, it is easy to get caught up in the crafty competition between parents; don't let this be you! Sure, Pinterest.com is great for fabulous gift ideas, but it's not intended to make you feel inadequate or overwhelmed by all the creativity. Here are a few Pinterest teacher gift ideas that …
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Facebook executives announced the new feature Tuesday morning on Good Morning America encouraging its 900 million users to let others know if they are organ donors, according to a Washington Post report.
You might be familiar with the tiny heart on driver's licenses marking the license's owner as an organ donor. Now, you might find the tiny heart on Facebook, too. Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the social networking giant added the ability to both register as an organ donor and demonstrate it in your profile on ABC's "Good Morning America" Tuesday morning. The new initiative, which encourages Facebook's 900 million users to let others know they are organ donors, was motivated by Zuckerberg's relationship with Apple's late co-founder, Steve Jobs, and Zuckerberg's girlfriend, according to The Washington Post. The two each encouraged Zuckerberg to use Facebook as a means for spreading social awareness. asd Facebook's FAQ …
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
A NY Times article explores the era of the $250 baseball bat.
Have you bought a baseball glove for your Little Leaguer lately? Did you pay more than $100 for it? How about a $250 bat? A New York Times story headlined "Big Price Tags Attached to Even the Littlest Leagues," looks at the big business of equipping youngsters for participation in youth baseball and softball leagues, quoting those costs and more. "A batting helmet protects tiny heads for $39.99," the Times reports. "A pair of Nike Jordan Black Cat cleats will make your child fast and fashionable at $51.99 until he or she outgrows them." So what do you think? Has the cost of bats and gloves taken our kids too far from the simpler days of sandlot and playground ballgames? Or have you had better luck finding more modestly-priced equipment for…
Thursday, April 19, 2012
How one mom is helping her child cope with life's tough lessons.
Watching your child cry over a friendship could be one of the most heart-wrenching experiences I've had a parent. I would go to the ends of the earth to protect my child, but her feelings are just out there on her sleeve, and I'm quickly learning that there are some things I cannot protect her from. My daughter is in the throes of a friendship threesome. The moment a third little girl entered the picture, I knew we were headed down a tough road. As a child, I spilt many tears over sleepovers, friendship necklaces, and seats at the lunch table. No matter how much my girlfriends and I loved one another, there inevitably would be a divide, where two would stick together and one would feel so left out. I had a Freaky Friday moment the other …
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Learn how to add your events to the Patch calendar
Check out the first of our Patch 101 videos, designed to show you how to best use Woodbridge Patch.
How much do you love your phone?
Do you resent your work PC as being slow or “boring?" Is your cute smart phone the first thing you check in the morning and last thing you look at before sleep? Not many of us have emotional attachments to our household tools, but often we have strong feelings about the tech we use at home, work or out and about. More Than Just Hardware When Google announced changes to its privacy policies, people went online to say how much they “loved” Google and its products or how they felt “betrayed” by the business practices of a corporation that managed their interaction with the Internet, videos and email. With the latest news of Facebook buying photo app Instagram, Twitter news feeds filled up with people saying they would delete their accounts to…
Rachel Leon
3:09 pm on Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Keri, I love it. Hahaha. more ›