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By Mom Unplugged, February 24, 2008 10:01 pm

This week’s Unplugged Project theme was Alphabet/Letters. All the usual ideas seemed, well, usual. Picking up on a hide-and-seek theme proposed by my 5 year-old, I invented an Alphabet Scavenger Hunt.

First we cut 6 and a half sheets of construction paper into fourths making 26 uniformly-sized pieces. Math project anyone?? Then my oldest wrote the alphabet on the remaining half sheet of construction paper. We counted out 13 letters and made a line between the two sections. Each of my two children (5 and 7) was assigned half the alphabet to write, one letter per rectangle.

The children then hid someplace else while I distributed the letters throughout the main living area of our house. I won’t say that I really “hid” them, although some of them were harder to find than others. I wanted this to be part memory game too. I explained to them that they would see a lot of letters while searching and would have to try and remember them so they would be able to find them easily later in the game.

Once everything was hidden, I called the kids back and gave them a letter to find. They searched until someone found it and brought it to me. That child got one point. I used the alphabet list previously written by my oldest to cross off the found letter. This game continued with much raucous laughter and high-speed running around while I cooked dinner in relative peace (all I had to do was assign a letter to find, cross it off, and record points).

The memory-game aspect seemed to work as planned since the children found the letters more and more quickly as we progressed through the game. They loved it!

We will definitely keep these letters and play this again. Give it a try with your kids. The game could be easily adapted for different ages by making the letters harder or easier to find.

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So what did you come up with for Alphabet/Letters? If you joined us this week, please put your link in Mr. Linky. Mr. Linky has been a tad unreliable lately, so please leave a comment too, that way we will know where to find you if I have to delete him. I look forward to seeing what else is possible with Alphabet/Letters!

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Next week’s Unplugged Project theme is:

Music

You don’t have to compose a symphony. It doesn’t even have to be anything we can hear. Just try and think of something musically-related (however remotely) and go with it. Dance, sing, use some old piano books for a collage. Hey…the letters A through G are even musically-related! See how loose the Unplugged Project is? The key is to just have fun with your kids. Anything goes!

If you are at all interested, please feel free to jump in and join our project next week. As they say, the more the merrier!

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By Mom Unplugged, February 23, 2008 9:20 am

We all know that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) movie ratings system is ridiculous. The MPAA is hardly a neutral party, in fact it describes itself as “the voice and advocate of the American motion picture, home video and television industries.” Even disregarding the fact that that MPAA is financed and controlled by the motion picture industry itself, in my mind any kind of general label to be applied to a movie could never be an accurate indicator of what is appropriate or inappropriate for all children.

The MPAA bases its ratings on age. All parents know that just because someone else’s 13 year-old can handle and enjoy a more “mature” movie, doesn’t mean that your more sensitive 13 year-old is ready for such a movie yet. Additionally, parents differ in what they want their children exposed to. Some parents are more liberal and less bothered by bad language for example, whereas others take a more protective approach.

So how can parents make informed decisions about what movies to allow their children to see? Do parents have to pre-screen every potential film themselves? That is hardly a practical solution.

My wonderfully well-informed friend Wishy told me about a website that she uses to check out family movies before either seeing them on-screen or renting the video, and I have recently added it to the “Useful Websites” category of my blogroll (left sidebar).

Common Sense Media is a “non-partisan, not-for-profit organization” providing “trustworthy information and tools, as well as an independent forum, so that families can have a choice and a voice about the media they consume.” This organization has its own rating system whereby it determines its own minimum age for appropriateness, as well as providing a 5-star quide to the quality of a movie. Just because a movie is age-appropriate doesn’t mean you want to sit through 2 hours of nonsense, right?

Although Common Sense Media is more neutral in its ratings than the MPAA, as I mentioned above, simply assigning a one-size-fits-all recommended age is not always very helpful. In my mind, the best part of Common Sense Media’s reviews is the “Content Grid.” This is where you can find out the nitty gritty details about a movie’s Sexual Content, Violence, Language and Message (Social Behavior, Commercialism, and Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco use).

Do you want to know exactly what bad language occurs in a film and how often? Do you want to know how many times the hero picks up a can of Diet Coke? Do you want to know if there is gross comedy involving bodily functions or any potentially scary scenes? This is where you’ll find that information. Warning: this detailed information can be considered a “spoiler” for some, but as a parent seeking information, aren’t you really looking for a “spoiler?”

So go to the site, pick a movie, and read the review to see just what kind of information you can learn!

Another site that I discovered on my own while researching this post is Kids-In-Mind. I think I actually prefer this site (despite the annoying banner ads) because it doesn’t attempt to assign any minimum age or even review the quality of a movie. Instead it simply provides VERY detailed descriptions of film content. Here is an excerpt from their “About” page:

The purpose of kids-in-mind.com is to provide parents and other adults with objective and complete information about a film’s content so that they can decide, based on their own value system, whether they should watch a movie with or without their kids.

It’s like a food labeling system which tells you what a food item contains. That’s it. We make no judgments about what is good or bad or anything else. Indeed, we do not “condemn,” “critique” or “criticize” movies. And we don’t “praise” or “recommend” movies either. We advance no “beliefs” and we do not “preach” anything. We are not affiliated with any political party, any cultural or religious group, or any ideology. The only thing we advocate is responsible, engaged parenting.

They point out that often their descriptions are so detailed as to be a bit ridiculous, but as they say: “…we’d rather err on the side of comprehensiveness. It’s up to parents to decide which details are useful to them and their family, and which ones they consider fatuous.”

I like this philosophy. Non-judgmental, simply a great source for detailed information so that parents can make their own movie viewing decisions based on their personal concerns and values, and knowing the sensitivity-level of their child. Sounds good to me!

Photo courtesy of morguefile.com and photographer Michael Connors.

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By Mom Unplugged, December 5, 2007 1:19 pm

This is our “Candy Bank,” it is our extension of the Halloween “Candy Fairy” concept. Every time the kids go to a birthday party and come home with a bunch of candy and junky toys, they can choose to put them in “The Candy Bank.” When the jar is full, I give them $10.00 to donate to a charity of their choice.

My original plan had been to buy them each a small gift when the jar was full, but before I was able to suggest the gift idea, my daughter said she wanted to use the Candy Bank as a way to collect money for charity. My son was enthusiastic about the charity idea too, so that is what we are doing with our Candy Bank!

They were so excited, that after putting in their candy, they asked if toys could go in too.

“Of course!!!” I said, hardly believing my good fortune!

They rushed off to collect bits and pieces and, in under ten minutes, they had the jar completely filled. At $10.00 per jar this could get expensive, but for a good cause, I don’t mind. I didn’t realize that it would be filled so quickly, but I am so grateful for their enthusiasm.

We had a very interesting dinnertime conversation that night about some different charities and what they do. My daughter apparently still remembers seeing the Smile Train website over a year ago, because she asked me about the charity that fixes children’s mouths.

The two junior philanthropists have decided to donate the first batch of Candy Bank money to Heifer International, since my daughter is trying to earn money for her class to buy animals and seedlings from Heifer International to donate to a village in Africa. After the class places the Heifer order, then the kids want to donate to Smile Train.

Honestly, I am blown away by this whole concept that we have stumbled upon, and especially by the children’s excitement.

What a win-win:

+ The kids develop a sense of altruism and learn to enjoy helping others.

+ They also learn about saving up for something, a notion that we can extend to actual money later on.

+ Of course you won’t be surprised to hear how thrilled I am to eliminate candy and a bit of clutter from the house!

+ We have a few little toys to donate to a local charity thrift store.

+ I am also hoping to teach cooperation. Since we have only one jar and one sum of money, the two children must fill the jar together, and then together, come up with a plan for the money.

On a side note, a few days after the Candy Bank discussion, my daughter asked me if for Christmas she could get a book about different charities that exist and what each of them does. I definitely want to encourage this spirit of generosity as much as I can, so I immediately went onto Amazon and found this one which I have ordered:

If we like it, I’ll write a review after Christmas.

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By Mom Unplugged, November 24, 2007 11:25 pm

I get (a conservative estimate) 1,095 catalogs/year…my husband (at our other home and on fewer mailing lists) says he probably gets about 300 catalogs/year. We get about 1,395 catalogs/year. Let’s conservatively round up to 1,500 for the ease of calculation and to include any Holiday excess that we may have. I calculate that MY FAMILY ALONE, is responsible for the death of 4.2 trees per year. How do I figure that? Read on.

This time of year is catalog time of year. One of the many commercial aspects of Christmas that I find depressing is heaving a 100 pound stack of catalogs out of my mailbox every day, piling them in a wagon, and hauling them off to the recycle bin. OK, I exaggerate slightly, but 19 BILLION catalogs are sent each year in the US, and at this time of year, it feels like every single one of them passes through my mailbox (that equals 53 million trees by the way, in case you were wondering). Do the math like I did, how many trees do you unknowingly kill per year?

Now to the real point of my post. Heard on NPR yesterday: There is a new website which allows you to opt out of catalogs that you don’t want, yet still keep the ones you like!

I could go to Direct Marketing Association, theoretically opt out of everything, and then see how that reduces my catalog intake. But I confess that there are some catalogs that I actually LIKE to receive. Plus, living in the boonies forces one to engage in some degree of catalog and internet shopping.

Usually these days I choose quick and easy internet shopping, but there are some catalogs I like to slowly peruse “in person.” Just like real books for example (in case you were considering it, please don’t buy me a new Amazon Kindle for Christmas).

The solution for semi-catalog lovers like me? The Catalog Choice website (www.catalogchoice.org … make sure you spell it right, if you add a “ue” to the end of “catalog” then you’ll get a shopping site which is not the idea here). Here you can opt out of catalogs that you don’t want.

The site also allows you to enter a Customer Number from the back of a catalog to be sure you get rid of it, or you can enter different names and addresses (for example if you get the same catalog as: T. Brown, Teresa Brown, Sam Brown (your partner?), and Lysander Wojtasik (the former resident at your address), then you can opt out of them all.

There is a chance that you could be put back on the mailing list if you buy from the company etc. But if you request an opt out and after 10 weeks you still receive a catalog, then you can report that as an infraction.

Apparently even some major retailers are supporting this endeavor. It costs them an average of $0.80 to send a catalog. I imagine that they’d love to have you gone if you really have no intention of buying from them.

From the NPR story, I learned that this project is supported by several nature organizations including the National Wildlife Fund.

Give it a try, you’ll be helping save trees as well as your own holiday sanity, what could be better!

Listen to NPR story: The Greening of the Holiday Catalog (3 minutes 32 seconds).

ADDENDUM: Please visit Jules at Andamom.com. Her post Minimize the Clutter Before it Comes into Your Home has lots of great ideas!

Read all the Christmas/Holidays Unplugged posts here.

Thanks to morguefile.com and photographer solrac_gi_2nd for this photo.

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By Mom Unplugged, November 14, 2007 8:14 pm

I am feeling uninspired this evening, so since most people seem to be landing here at the moment from a Google search for “mitten clips,” I think I’ll move over a February post from my Children’s Stuff I Wish I Had Invented page (which I am gradually merging with this main page and phasing out).

If you are searching for mitten clips, here’s my sage advice:

(First written 2/14/07) This snowy Valentine’s day in Arizona’s White Mountains makes me think of mittens…lost mittens.

I used to sew a mitten on to each end of a ribbon and thread it through the coat sleeves. This hi-tech device used to have the now non-politically correct name of “Idiot String.”

But, one day while searching the internet for kids’ suspenders, I found these. If you are too lazy or busy to sew mittens onto ribbons, then check these out.

They are really easy. You just clip a mitten onto one end and attach the other clip to the end of the sleeve (clips are like those on suspenders). Mittens stay hooked onto coat sleeves!

Those in the photo come from Rugged Bear . Most online suspender stores seem to have these. Suspenders Online has a huge assortment of patterns and colors.

In researching this blog I also found a one-piece variety which looks a pretty good option too. It is like my idea, but instead of a ribbon, it is a long, adjustable length suspender with a clip on each end. See SuspenderStore.com and look for the “Snoggles.”