I find that the world is in such sad shape these days. There are so many chemicals in everything from what we wear to what we eat. It scares me to think of what the next generation will be facing in twenty years. With all of my children, I chose to go as natural as possible, both in what they would consume, as well as the things that surrounded them on a daily basis. They all wore organic baby clothes.

Organic baby clothing contains no bleaches, dyes or chemicals and is safe for baby’s skin. If you think about it, most babies have contact with chemicals against their skin 24 hours per day. I did not want to do this to my children.

They also slept with organic baby bedding, as babies spend so much time sleeping. I have very healthy children and I attribute it to the fact that they had such a good start. I would recommend using these products to any new parent. It tends to be a bit more costly, but you can’t put a price on the health of your baby.

My son just turned fourteen.  Now, this has been quite a change as he wants to be treated as an adult, not just a kid.  Perhaps the biggest change we have seen is that he has started noticing girls and he is trying to get his personal hygiene and grooming up to a new standard.

Besides shaving every couple of days, and getting frequent hair cuts, he has been actively trying to get rid of his acne.  Just like many kids his age, he has some pimples on his face, and he has tried many skin cleansers, but has has little luck.

I decided to help him out by finding some acne treatment alternatives to the cleansers he has been using.  We tried using Vitamin B5, which helps control oil production in the skin, but unfortunately it did not eliminate his acne, it only reduced it.

While at the drug store the other day, we did find Vilantae, which promises to eliminate acne by controlling the oil production more than vitamins can.  Also, the side effects are negligible compared to prescription acne medication.

We are going to give Vilantae a shot and see if it works - from what I have read online, it should work out good for him.

Last week, my son was able to enjoy his first plane ride at the ripe old age of five.  Now, he has always been fascinated with airplanes, and you can find a plane or two on the floor in his room to step on.

While we were on the plane, he had so many questions that a stewardess took notice.  He was invited to join the pilot in the cockpit to have some of his questions answered.  As he entered the cockpit, he had a look on his face like a child on Christmas day - a look of amazement and wonder. 

The captain pointed out many of the aircraft parts that you could see in the cockpit.  He taught him a new word (avionics) and patiently answered the five million questions William needed answers to.

He let William take some spare fasteners as a souvenir as we returned to our seats in preparation for the landing.  Even a week later he still talks about the airplane ride and how he wants to be a pilot when he grows up.

A big part of the responsibility of being a parent, is moderating what your child does and sees.  Depending on their age, you should help them choose what to watch on television and what video games they play.

I am at the point where my children want to play video games - and I need to step in and help them make responsible choices.  Since I do not know a whole lot about the video games today, I make choices based on the reviews I read.

From the Wii game reviews and Xbox 360 game reviews I read, my choice is clear: the Xbox 360 is not appropriate for my children.  Their games are full of violence and geared towards adults - and for my five year old, he would be to impressionable to play those games.

So, my decision is clear - I should get a Nintendo Wii.  With the bunch of family oriented game and potential exercise they could get from playing, this is definitely what I will buy.

Now that I am a parent and I have a child in school, I finally realize the effect of some of the things my parents did for me.  Without parent involvement, there would be no memories of field trips, bake sales, hot lunches, after school events, and even band trips to cherish.

Sadly, I see the lack of parent involvement in schools increasing.  Sure, the same parents come out to help with field trips or hot lunches is good, but what about all the other parents in the class.  For example, at the start of the school year, only four parents out of the seventeen in my son’s class signed up to help.  I realize that some of them cannot come because of work, but you would think could make the time to help once in awhile.

If you really want your child to succeed, parent involvement in education is critical.  Now this can be helping out at the school (as above), being on a parent committee, attending school meetings, attending parent teacher interviews, and even just taking the time to help your child learn at home.  I see my son having a big edge over some of his classmates that do not have help at home - and quite a few of them struggle because their parents don’t take the time to value their learning.

So, if you are a parent, get involved.  By taking the time to show that you care, your child and the other children will benefit with a better level of education.

My four year old son just got his first computer complete with Internet access.  Many people think that there is something wrong with that, but in this technological age, I feel that being computer literate will give him advantages in life.

There is so much that he can do already on his own.  He can start it up and logon to his favorite free online games.  This gives him something to do with his free time besides watch television.  Most of the games he plays are educational. 

He is quickly learning his way around the web and I try to use his computer as a teaching tool.  If he has a question, we go to the computer to try and find the answer.  This is also teaching him problem solving skills.  We also like to look up interesting facts about his favorite interests.  I have learned a lot about dinosaurs and he has sure absorbed a lot of that information as well.

So, until I am proved wrong, I think my son having a computer is a good choice for us.

As some of you know, I have two children, that are two and four.  For their regular checkups, they go to our family doctor.  But, sometimes when they are really sick, it is good to get a specialists’ opinion.

For those of you that don’t know, a doctor that specializes in children is called a pediatrician.  There are a few noticeable differences between a regular doctor and a pediatrician:  they are more familiar with conditions affecting children and they (usually) are very good with children.

Now you might ask, how do you go about finding a good pediatrician?  Probably the easiest way is to ask your family doctor who they would recommend.  Another good way is to ask your friends that have children who they would recommend, or who they have experience dealing with.  We went about it another way:  we took our son William to Emergency at the hospital nearest to us and they admitted him to pediatrics.  We asked the doctor that was examining him if he accepted patients: and he did.

If none of the above methods work for you, you can always check in the yellow pages.  In fact, that is how my sister found a pediatrician in Ridgefield when she moved there.

My daughter asked me today if he could use the computer and go on the internet.  Being a concerned parent, I was leary as to whether or not I could find a site with activites that were appropriate to her age.  She is only four after all.

After browsing the internet awhile, I found a promissing site: thedollpalace.com.  They offer activities that are appropriate for her age and her interests.  She like coloring very much and the coloring pages had many pictures that she could color.  Don’t feel like digging out the crayons?  You don’t have to with this site as your children can color right on the computer (yay, no mess!).  If you do feel like letting them color, you can also print these pages out for them to color later.

She is also in love with dolls.  She has fun with the dress up games with the cartoon dolls on the site.  In fact, she could spend the whole day there, dressing up the cartoon dolls and changing their accessories.  We have even sent some of the ones that she has made of her grandparents to them by email.

So parents, if you have little ones, thedollpalace.com is a good site for you to visit.  It will keep them entertained and develop their creativity.