Parent Projects

Another week, another round-up! Now that we’re past Valentine’s Day, I’m already starting to get spring fever - which to me means vacation. Road trips, sunshine, maybe a beach! Trips like that can be a little tough with small kids though, so I thought I’d share a few ideas I’ve come across that keep the little ones busy while on the road or in the air. And who knew there’d be SO MANY ideas – and Web sites – out there to help parents with this challenge! Here are a couple of my faves: ...read more

Finding cute Valentine’s Day cards for a two year-old to give away is no easy feat. I don’t like cards with licensed cartoon characters – it seems so commercial for a toddler. And the other cards I see are too…well…“mature.”

Michael Digiacomo, a team member from one of our FedEx Office stores in the Boston-area, wrote in and suggested making “custom cards straight from the heart.” And it got me thinking of fun ways to make personalized cards for friends and family. ...read more

It seems like birthday party season is upon us. My refrigerator is covered with invitations to toddler birthday parties. So I’ve started making my own gift tags that are reusable and that the moms adore – they’re backpack nametags that tie on perfectly to each kid’s gift bag.

To make them, I use the following steps: ...read more

With living in the Midwest, I find myself continuously looking for indoor activities to entertain my toddler when it gets too cold to go outside. Thought I’d share a couple of great ideas I’ve found from other bloggers that are easy and fun.

If your kids like arts and crafts projects, you can help them create a paper plate snowman with easy-to-find objects around the house. The Busy Bee Kids Crafts blog has step-by-step instructions and tips for creating this. You can read it here. My favorite part is how little clean-up is involved with this one! ...read more

Being a mom means being a worrier sometimes. Worst case scenarios are always rushing through my mind. I’ve heard about the campaign to add an emergency contact to your cell phone directory under the label “ICE,” which stands for “In Case of Emergency.”  So, if you are ever in an accident (heaven forbid), the emergency personnel will be able to easily locate someone on your behalf.

I did this, but then I took it one step further. What if the cell phone isn’t with me or is damaged? What about my child, who doesn’t carry a cell phone? What if the emergency personnel don’t know how to work my phone? (Even I can’t figure it out half the time!) ...read more

All the talk about resolutions this week among the Out of Office blogger team got me thinking about how I can help the family keep things under control on the home front. Even more, how I can teach my son the importance of helping out around the house, even in little ways. ...read more

 How’s this for an easy and creative table-setting idea that also keeps your kids occupied? Give each of your children some construction paper and art supplies (stamps, markers, and paint all work well, but don’t use crayons) and let them create some holiday-themed artwork to use as placemats. They can even create designs specific for each guest, and the placemat can double as a seating assignment as well. (Or if you’re really short on time and don’t want the mess of an art project, just dig out some of their old artwork from past holidays and use that instead.)

You can take the artwork down to your nearest FedEx Office location and laminate it yourself. The laminating machine has very specific instructions next to it, making it easy to do it yourself. It took me less than five minutes to do eight pieces of artwork and it was pretty inexpensive. Each 8.5x11 sheet cost less than $2. ...read more

My son has been coming home from pre-school for the last few weeks laden down with arts and crafts projects – everything from Thanksgiving handprint-turkeys to Christmas count-down calendars.  I saw this great article on the Examiner Web site I just had to share for all the parents out there battling this issue too!  Check it out here. She’s got five great ideas, and I have at least one more to share. ...read more