Things change and so do the ideas and modes of liking. At present, your child might just prefer a birthday party having an atmosphere of his or her favorite television show. There is a variety of this. You can have a Sesame Street or Barney and Friends, or a Teletubbies cake and cardboard cut-outs of the characters, or Ninja Turtles plates, pizza and green punch- all such things will rock the party of your child. Moreover, if not satisfied, you can go on to engage someone to dress like the characters from the show.

A pirate themed party is definitely amongst the creative birthday ideas. This reminds us of the pirate-themed movies and television shows and in accordance with this theme you can plan for a cake that looks like a pirate ship. To enhance the effect of this idea, you can surely arrange Swedish fish and fish-shaped sandwiches and importantly a treasure hunt ending in chocolate gold coins. These small things enrich the party atmosphere.

A theme following a particular location can be definitely in the list of creative birthday ideas. You have many options like you can go for Tiki Torches, glasses of Hawaiian punch with umbrella’s, and shell necklaces in order to create a fun island party. If not enough, surely go for the idea of Mexican fiesta with taco’s, a pinata, and paper sombrero’s. Bear in mind that an apt French or Italian party with perfect music and decorations can give a final touch.

Creative birthday ideas should, by no means, overshadow your child’s personality. It can have its desired effect only if your child likes it first.

Kid Birthday Cakes
Many recipes are available for your cakes and you can even simply buy a frosted cake to add later “edible cake toppers” in accordance with your theme. This endows you with the opportunity of having a colorful, professional looking theme cake.

Kid Birthday Party Food Ideas
Always keep pace with the sense of creativity even when you are planning for the food or snacks.
Finger sandwiches, candy sushi, royal colored jelly beans, grapes, sparkling apple or grape juice- these things are apt in use if it is a Princess birthday party.
Idea should be different if it is an Incredibles birthday party. Things change over there and Ketchup that becomes ‘super sauce’, carrot sticks that become ‘energy sticks’ come in the front row.
Whereas, peanut butter & jellyfish sandwiches, Gold Fish crackers and tuna fish sandwiches will be as perfect as anything if your birthday party enacts an underwater theme like Finding Nemo.

Be Creative
The catchword is creativity and a perfect plan solves the problem. For a perfect planning, you also have to take photos of the fun-time.

1. Usually names that contain the vowel clusters ue and oe indicate umlauts (Schroeder -> Schröder), providing a clue to German origins.
2. The names with the vowel cluster ei (Klein) are also mostly German.
3. If the beginning consonant clusters is Kn (Knopf), Pf (Pfizer), Str (Stroh), Neu (Neumann), or Sch (Schneider) they are probably German.
4. If the name ends in -mann (Baumann), -stein (Frankenstein), -berg (Goldberg), -burg (Steinburg), -bruck (Zurbrück), -heim (Ostheim), -rich (Heinrich), -lich (Heimlich), -thal (Rosenthal), and -dorf (Dusseldorf) then they likely to be German.

The Origins of German Last Names
German family names are more often than not derived from following sources:

• Patronymic & Matronymic Surnames – It is based on a parent’s first name. This category of surnames is more common in other European countries than in Germany. They are found largely in the Northwestern areas of Germany; however they may be found in other areas of Germany too. (Niklas Albrecht - Niklas son of Albrecht).
• Occupational Surnames – Here the last names are based on the person’s job or trade (Lukas Fischer - Lukas the Fisherman). They are more commonly found in German families than almost any other culture. Generally these three suffixes point to a German occupational name:
  • er (one who), commonly found in names such as Fischer, one who fishes;
  • hauer (hewer or cutter), used in names such as Baumhauer, tree chopper; and
  • macher (one who makes), found in names like Schumacher, one who makes shoes.

• Descriptive Surnames – It is based on a unique quality or physical feature of the individual. They are often developed from the person’s pet name.(Karl Braun - Karl with brown hair)

• Geographical Surnames – They are derived from the place of the farmhouse from which the first bearer and his family resided or trace their origin from. (Leon Meer - Leon from by the sea). Sometimes they originate from the state, region, or village of the first bearer’s origin, which often reveals a divide among the tribes and regions, i.e. low German, middle German and upper German. (Paul Cullen - Paul from Koeln/Cologne). Usually the surnames preceded by “on” are confused as a sign that an ancestor was an aristocrat . It need not be so. They are often clues to geographical surnames. (Jacob von Bremen - Jacob from Bremen).

German Farm Names
The locality names and farm names are often named after the families that own them. The farm name usually comes from the original owner of the farm, so when a person moves on to a farm, he changes his name to that of the farm! If the wife has inherited the farm, then a man might also change his surname to his wife’s maiden name. Thus children in same family can have different surnames. Am sure these facts seem interesting unless you are a genealogist;-)

The verbal-linguistic intelligence involves the usage of both spoken and written language for communication. The individuals who possess the verbal-linguistic intelligence are responsive to the sounds, meanings, and rhythms of words. They like reading , tongue twisters, poetry, humor, riddles, puzzles and puns.

The logical-mathematical intelligence involves the use of nonrepresentational relationships present in terms of either symbols or numbers. It also includes the use of analysis and logic in the sense of analyzing poetry or the logical construction of an essay. The individual’s who possess the logical-mathematical intelligence enjoy problem solving, pattern games, number games, and experimenting. They also do well in writing which entails argumentation, classification, analysis, explanations and definition.

American schools favor the children who stand out in the analytical and linguistic areas since these skills are valued highly in the American culture. However, this kind of approach leaves some students neglected trying to make sense of themselves in an educational institution which does not give any value or credit to their unique capabilities. A multiple intelligence test for children is necessary in schools. Traditional approaches, i.e. the development of linguistic and analytical skills of children, should not be rejected in favor of radical approaches to a child’s education. Yet, both the nontraditional and traditional approaches to education should be used in conjunction to build a model of education which suits the students in the classrooms.

The concept of a multiple intelligence test for children as formulated by Howard Gardner, provides a balance which instructs students what they should know to achieve success in the American society in a way which compliments the distinctive qualities which every child possesses.

How do you implement this theory of a multiple intelligence test for children in the classroom? A lot has been done in the name of multiple intelligences without actually making any difference to the child’s brain. A student who conceives of a dance based on a literary work and expresses the nature of the work to an audience is definitely portraying the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, but a student running around randomly in the classroom without any thought being stimulated in the child’s brain does not amount to a demonstration of the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. You can implement the multiple intelligence tests for children by:

• You can use a situation which is associated with your content - controversial content works the best - and make students discuss it. You can use a situation called ‘the Soldier’s Dilemma’ to talk about themes found in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and in literary works from the Realism movement.
• You can use an opinionnaire as an introductory activity which induces thought in the students and can also be used for essay assignments.
• You can take a novel or a play by Shakespeare and ask your students to enact a part from the work of literature that you have selected.
• Ask your students to do a research project in a way which matches their own intelligence, such as a research of 1920s America as a background to The Great Gatsby.

Television is not to be blamed. With growing corporate interest in media and increasing competition with the cable programs the only answer to hold the viewers seems to be- Violence and Sex, More violence and More sex. Although ratings have been issued and program locks are offered with cable subscriptions, is this enough to protect our children? Studies show that television is contributes to the delinquency of today’s American children. On an average, children in the United States watch 3 - 5 hours of television every day. The younger children watch preschool shows which are often educative but the primetime cable shows are often not so. The effect of the visual medium on the behavior of the children and their mental make up is known.

Excessive viewing of television violence can lead to increase in aggression in children. Few studies have shown that too much television viewing may cause children to become immune or numb to the horror of violence. The violence is always justified in these shows as the only way out. Onscreen violence emotes them and since the kid more often than not is unable to differentiate reality from the make believe world, they try practicing the horrors the watch on television there are several cases where children in their attempt to be superman, iron man hurt themselves. Most kids end up bullying their peers in imitation to their heroes.

Sometimes the impact of television violence may not surface until child grows up to be a teen or later, and irregardless of race, religion and socioeconomic development, all children are affected by violence on television.

News channels are also not spared from this violence. Be it crime reports or Iraq war all the gory details are explicitly shown making the effect even larger. The kind of news is such that they make even adults cringe, if only we would think of its effect of our kids.

In the name of freedom of expression in art, and true real news is it fair that we let our children pay heavy prices? Is there a way out of this mess? One thing that every parent can do is to limit the television viewing time. Encourage them to have hobbies, painting reading, outdoor games. Nature can be a better teacher than a television. It is about your kid and its future and the whole of nation’s next generation in question.

In America alone over 3000 contests are held every year for toddlers. With the entry fees being as high as ?500 and more per child, the junior beauty pageant is a booming business. For a short period this business did suffer a setback when in 1996 six- year old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was murdered. Yet since past ten years the beauty contests are steadily gaining popularity in US.

Yes, few do have certain ethical problems sometimes with beauty pageants. They seem to go beyond harmless fun to represent the growing materialistic dragon sweep across the world. But then one does stop to wonder if it is one of those American things that the rest of the world desire to imitate and ardently follow too. Leaving aside the ethical complications involved in the business if ever I were to ask you why would you want your child or grandchild enter into a beauty pageant? What would be your answer?

Human beings are inherently narcissistic. A very politically incorrect I may be, but who are we kidding? Don’t we all love to show off? Be it clothing, accessories, house you name it. You want the world to envy you. “Neighbors envy, Owner’s pride” goes the punch line of Onida Television.? Our beauty pageant goes by the same caption. Every parent likes to believe that their child is the prettiest of all. Well there are a few who would want to prove this to the world by making their child compete with the other kids.

If you want this for your child, what do you need?

Firstly you need few good shots of your baby. If are good at camera and can manage to click fairly click good snaps then you can take different snaps- in close ups or whole length shots, in various poses, in different outfits, different settings like in the bed, in the bath tub, in the yard, in the beach, in the play area or any other setting which you think looks good.

Getting in on a beauty pageant

You can either enter baby pageants online or offline. They are called by different names-sweepstakes, pageants, contests. If it’s a baby beauty contest the first place to look for would be the places where baby products are sold. Their packages usually mention the new contests. If that is not a viable option, try searching online. (Type baby contests or baby pageants) usually pageants are foe kids below one year, so do read the rules carefully and the age limit prescribed.

Prizes!!!!!

The prizes in baby pageants usually depend on the particular contest or pageant you enter. National level contest fetch you bigger and better rewards. However the local contests run by local malls, newspapers, magazines, television channels, schools, local libraries are worth a try too.

As the child grows…

Nothing lasts forever. Your baby is no longer a baby but a toddler that runs around. Generally, the baby pageants are for kids below one year. But do not be disheartened there are toddler contests which are as exciting as the baby contests. You also have teen and young adult contests too. So go ahead!!!You never know your luck; your child may be the next “Little Miss Sunshine”.

There is a good chance your child is using using the internet to either watch, download, or post videos. In the past few years, a lot of focus as been placed on internet safety. Many parents, as well as teachers, politicians, and police officers, are concerned because predators are luring children online through the latest video posting craze online. Until recently, much of this focus has been placed on the monitoring of online chat rooms and social networking sites. However, as a parent, you should also be concerned with online video websites. (more…)

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Fire Prevention:

What kinds of things can you and your family do to actually prevent a fire? (more…)