Children’s Matters Count at Baby Bird Productions’ Egg Blog

We love cats and dogs, so one of our major projects lately has been the development of our series of designs especially for cat and dog lovers.

Although we are primarily a children’s clothing site, these pet designs are certainly not restricted only to children who love their cats and dogs. Cat and dog lovers of all ages will enjoy our new shop’s striking silhouettes of cats and popular dog breeds.

In our new CATS AND DOG BREEDS SHOP you’ll find oodles of clothing and gift items decorated with each dog breed or cat design, so go ahead and look for your favorites.

You can purchase mugs, buttons, fridge magnets, bumper stickers, tote bags, throw pillows and other fun gifts that show your one favorite dog breed or cat, or try our group dog portrait or a collection of cats together on a single design. You might dress up your entire family, from baby to grandpa, in our dog and cat T-shirts, sweatshirts and more.

If you love many different types of dogs and cats, you could even start a collection with a full series of dog breeds mugs or cat magnets, or choose a different T-shirt with a different breed for each of the dog and cat lovers you know. Use your imagination and have a barking good time in our new dogs and cats shop.

Check out theDOG BREEDS andCAT LOVERS parts of our newest shop to see all of our current designs and don’t forget that more are on the way, too. By the way, if you don’t find the breed you want contact us, because we can add it to our growing collection of dogs and cats.

Christmas and Chanukah will be here before you know it ! Even though it’s not yet Halloween, it’s not too early to start your Christmas shopping on the net. Our shop is chock full of adorable clothing and gift items for the whole family.

Try our children’s clothing like baby and kids T-shirts and sweatshirts decorated with pictures of everything from clowns to trains to Little Red Riding Hood. We have matching designs in adult sized clothing, too, so that the whole family can have fun putting together special Christmas gift sets for loved ones, or wearing matching clothing. We also have fun gifts like mugs, throw pillows, tote bags, and Teddy bears, adorned with matching designs.

If you’d like to usher in the holidays with some extra festive holiday-themed clothing, try our t-shirts, jerseys, hoodies, sweatshirts, ornaments, mugs, and more with pictures of everything from Santa Claus to Christmas trees to Chanukah dreidels, Halloween pumpkins and witches, and Kwanzaa candles.

Visit our special Holiday Gifts and Clothing Department to see special items with Halloween, Christmas, Chanukah, and Kwanzaa designs.

If it’s traditional children’s clothing fashions that you hope to put under the tree this year, check out our partner sites for brand name children’s fashions at discount prices,children’s furniture and lots more.

Children’s clothing needs to be comfortable, sturdy and practical, but items of children’s clothing should also be fun for the children who wear them. Since most children love clowns, and since kids and clowns are a natural combination, we’ve put two colorful clown designs onto our children’s clothing and baby clothes

In our children’s clothing shop you’ll find clowns on our kids’ T-shirts, jerseys and sweatshirts, plus on our baby creepers, baby and toddler t-shirts and baby bibs. We even have matching clown designs on clothing in adult sizes, so that children and parents can dress alike to add to the fun. Our cheerful clowns are also available on gift items like throw pillows, mugs, mouse pads, clocks and tote bags so that you can put together your own imaginative gift sets for all the children and babies in your life.

Our clown designs include a big bright solo clown who practically leaps off the front of our clothing and gift items, plus a series with three smaller clowns who bear the words, “Let’s Clown Around.” Visit our shop to view all of our special clown children’s clothing, baby clothes and family clothing and gifts, plus loads of other adorable designs to brighten up your summer.

Children are getting ready for another school year to end and, while some children are making grand plans for the summer, others will soon be reciting that old refrain, “I’m bored. There’s nothing to do.”

Well, we’ve got the remedy for that ! We’ve just added a new page for children in the FUN STUFF FOR FREEsection of the Baby Bird Productions site. It’s an amusing poem just for kids and it’s chock full of ideas for things that kids can do to add plenty of fun to their summer.

While the poem is meant to be silly and fun, it does include activity suggestions that are both enjoyable and productive, both physically active and mentally stimulating. They even encourage children to think about taking the time to help others this summer.

We hope you’ll share our SUMMER FUN FOR KIDS POEMwith your children.

While you’re visiting our site, you might also want to check out our fun summertime KIDS’ T-SHIRTSand the other colorful clothing and gift items in our shop.

We hope you have a great summer !

Doing their share of household chores can help all chidren become more responsible and cooperative adults, but don’t automatically make girls wash the dishes while boys take out the garbage. Teach both sexes that all family members share both in the labors of and the rewards of family life. Both can help with the housework, both can help care for the new baby, and both can learn to be responsible for the care of family pets. That way, everyone wins. The world could do with more men who see housework as something that everyone in the family shares equally, who become equal partners in the raising of their own children, and who develop their interpersonal skills, along with their muscles. With that in mind, don’t restrict your sons’ extracurricular activities to all things macho. Your son may be a budding Njinsky or Fred Astaire but he, and you, will never know it if he’s never exposed to a single dance step.

As with other types of unfair limitations on individuals’ aspirations or lack of opportunities because of culture, race, income level, or physical handicap, for example, gender is a poor excuse for narrowing children’s choices or placing ceilings on their dreams. It’s all too easy for all of us to revert to old sex roles without even thinking, as some of these are so deeply ingrained in our society, in popular culture, and in the media. With a bit of care and thought, though, we can help the next generation build a society where boys and girls, women and men are all freer to find meaning in their lives by following their personal dreams, choosing the career track that’s right for them, and developing hobbies that are a perfect fit for their individual interests and abilities. To do this, all they need is plenty to choose from and the chance to try out whatever interests them.

For more tips on how to help your children reach their intellectual and creative potential, please visit our site, Children’s Clothing, Stories and Family Gifts from Baby Bird Productions which includes special free parenting pages.

The End

As your daughters grow up, expose them to as many different pursuits, of all types, as you can. Let them know how important their intellectual achievements and success in school are to you. Show them your pride in their accomplishments, but without making them feel unduly pressured. With time, their natural proclivities, abilities and talents will become more apparent and they will gravitate towards certain activities, while dropping others. In order for each to find the career and the leisure time activities that are a perfect fit for them, however, they need to have a smorgasbord of things from which to choose. Sure, this is all just common sense but, amid the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it’s easy to reinforce old gender roles and girl/boy stereotypes without even being consciously aware that they exist.

After a childhood rich in opportunities and choices, a young woman still may ultimately choose a profession that’s always been a female-dominated one and become a nurse or a teacher, for example, and that is fine. Those can be wonderful choices and they’re important jobs in our society. I’m not denigrating any one job in relation to any other job. I just feel that a choice can only truly be a choice when it is chosen from a maximum variety of possibilities. If a girl (or a boy) becomes a nurse because it is the job that most appeals to her or him, that’s wonderful. If a girl grows up to be a nurse, however, because she never realized that her interest in health care might have led her to become a great heart surgeon, then that is sad and not a true choice.

Ii’s not just little girls who might suffer from an unnecessarily restricted set of choices. Little boys should also have the opportunity to experiment with the widest possible range of activities and interests. If dolls can help little girls practice for motherhood or for social interactions with their peers, then why can’t they help little boys learn to be more nurturing future fathers ?

End of part 3

To allow your children to develop into the most that they can be, it’s up to you to guide their education, in terms of their choices, from the variety of classes available to them at school, to their afterschool activities, public library use, the joining of local clubs, and the use of other resources which are available within your community or beyond it. You can also pass your own special skills, storehouse of knowledge, and interests on to your children.

Children are little bundles of potential. When raising your children, try to be ever conscious of this, and of the subtle sex role stereotyping that you yourself may have grown up with and how it might affect what you offer to your daughters or to your sons. As toddlers, are girls given dolls and boys given toy trucks ? Is a seven-year-old boy signed up for Little League, while a girl is offered ballet lessons ?

There’s nothing wrong with little girls playing with dolls and taking dance lessons. Those activities are fine. Dolls are fun and they allow little girls to vicariously experiment with and prepare for real life social interactions. Dance lessons may reveal a future professional dancer or give your daughter the pleasure of a lifelong hobby, a great way to stay trim and fit, or a passion for ballet music. The problem arises if little girls are only exposed to traditional “female” pursuits and interests, such as dolls and dance lessons. Starting from the youngest age, give girls the opportunity to play with toy boats and cars and trains, as well. Encourage participation in organized sports and, when old enough, give your daughters science experiment kits. Don’t limit your children’s potentials by restricting their activities to traditional gender-based categories.

End of Part 2

It’s undeniably difficult raising children in a changing world. You want the best for your children and you want them to fulfill their potential with each new activity that they undertake but, in a society where certain endeavors are still too often considered to be the domain of males only or of females only, it may take a bit of effort to create a maximum of opportunities for your children, whether they be girls or boys.

Every child, and for that matter, every adult, has innate aptitudes for certain things. Some kids may do better in school than others do, some excel in verbal skills, and for others their forte may be analytical skills or problem-solving. Mathematics and science come more easily to some children than to others, while some are good with their hands. Many are curious about how machines function. Some have the patience and perseverence to stick with a complex new project, and some don’t. Certain children have a talent for drawing or for music. The possibilities and the individual variations are limitless.

As children grow up, what each child becomes is a combination of these innate aptitudes, exposure to a variety of topics and activities and experiences, plus the character-building lessons learned from parents, teachers, siblings, peers and others. One part of the equation, without the others, may lead nowhere. A particular child may have the potential to become a great musician but, unless that child is exposed to a variety of musical forms or has the opportunity to see and touch musical instruments and learn to play whichever one appeals to him or her, it may come to nothing. Another child might grow up to contribute great things to medical science but, unless taught basic biology and other sciences, that child will never see medicine as a possible career choice.

End of Part 1

Part 3 -

SETTLING IN AND SETTLING DOWN

As you’re moving into your new home and unpacking, try to make the setting up of your children’s special places a priority. Let them help make decisions about how to decorate their own rooms and make them as homey as possible as quickly as possible. Some of their old furniture and keepsakes will provide them with some security and continuity and help them settle in more quickly and easily. Don’t forget other spots that contribute to making your kids feel at home - such as a playroom or a sandbox, swingset, or picnic table in the yard, depending on your children’s ages and what they’re accustomed to.

In addition to this, make it as easy as you can for your children to make new friends; you might have a housewarming party and invite neighborhood kids, encourage your kids to invite new schoolmates over after school, and participate in local events at school, the public library, or a nearby community center. Let them join afterschool clubs, scout troops, the local band or choir, an amateur theater group - whatever interests them. You can also get yourself involved in things that affect your children’s lives: join the local carpool or the PTA, for instance. the sooner you all ease into daily routines, the more quickly you’ll all feel like you’re truly “home.”

CONCLUSIONS AND COOPERATION

If the entire family pitches in to handle preparations for the big move, your children will feel more like they are important members of the family. Let each of them have a part to play in learning about your new locale, preparing for the move, keeping ties to loved ones in the old locale, and settling into your new home. Your children’s attitudes should be improved, their excitement about the move heightened, and their fears diminished, if you make that extra effort and take that extra time to get them involved in every step of the process.

Good luck with your move, there’s no place like home - be it old or new !

The End

Part 2 -

If it’s feasible, it might be nice to take your kids to see the new place in advance of the move. On the other hand, that might make the move itself anticlimatic, so it may depend on how inherently interesting the new location is. The more interesting and different from your old locale, the more a sneak preview visit might tantalize your children and peak their eagerness for the move itself. Either way, use books, Internet and travel videos to view glimpses of the new region.

When the time comes to house hunt or apartment hunt, involve your children in drawing up a list of criteria or desired features. What do you and they want in a new neighborhood: other kids to play with ? proximity to stores, school, park ? some woods to play in ? And what about your new home - will it have a big yard ? lots of trees ? space for a flower or vegetable garden ? How many rooms will it have ? Will there be a bedroom for each child ?

If possible, let the children house hunt with you and then compare notes with them on each place that you visit. Keep them in on the decision-making process whenever you can. The more input they have into choosing a new home, the more quickly it will feel like home to them.

Once you’ve committed yourself to renting or buying a place and so know what school each of your children will be attending, let them learn all they can about it. Perhaps the school has a website that they can look at.

As you work your way through the myriad of details that you must take care of to ensure a smooth move from one locale to another (packing, moving vans, electricity, telephone lines, change of address cards,…), try not to get mired down in the minutia. Be sensitive to how your kids are feeling and try to answer any questions that they might have. Weeks in advance you could help your children set up a countdown calendar to build their sense of anticipation as the big day approaches.

CONTINUITY AND CAMARADERIE

No matter how exciting the move will be, moving inevitably entails the sadness of leaving friends and, perhaps, family behind. Make time for special activities your children can do with their friends. Have special family days with grandparents or cousins, for farewell parties, and so forth, in the weeks leading up to the big move. Take lots of photos during these events.

Don’t forget to collect addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and photographs of everyone that you and your children want to stay in touch with. Take home videos, too. (Later on, your children’s photos, scrapbooks and home videos of life in and around their old home can be shown to new friends and complete the bridge between their old world and their new one.)

Try to think of novel ways that your kids will be able to continue established relationships. For example, your children could create a simple personal website for posting family news and recent photos and updates on their new life in the new place and for exchanging emails with old friends. They could start a group blog. Buy them pretty stationary for traditional penpal-style contact with old friends. Draw up an extensive Christmas card list that leaves out no one. Consider making advance promises (and then keeping them) for having your children’s closest old friends come stay with you in your new home next summer, or whenever.