DAILY RECIPE: Crunchy Chicken

3 cooked boneless chicken breasts, cut in half
1 stick butter
1 cup sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
40 Ritz crackers

Place cooked chicken in baking pan. Mix chicken soup and sour cream and pour over chicken. Dot with butter. Crumble Ritz crackers on top. Place in 350°F oven for 20 minutes.

TIP OF THE DAY

Are you on a tight budget? Write down on a small pad the amount of everything you spend, from groceries to a piece of gum. This will help you keep track of where the money is going and hopefully where you can cut off a few cents!

ARTICLE: First Day of School Jitters

Children get a little anxious about going back to school. This anxiety increases if your child is starting a new school or if it´s his or her very first time going. Try calming and reassuring your child that everything will be ok and that feeling this way is common. Here are a few tips:

• Set aside school clothes or uniforms a few days before and comment on how exciting it will be to wear that on the first day.
• Have your child go to bed extra early the night before and read a good school story. (For example: Franklin goes to school)
• Take your child to the supermarket with you and pick out first week´s lunches.
• Talk about your own first days of school and share stories on how you felt nervous, too.
• Take a picture of your child before walking out the door with backpack and name tag ready: this will make the day exciting and nerves will tend to fade.
• If possible, have both mother and father take the child to school on the very first day.
• Prepare a small treat (chocolate bar, pencil, stickers) to take to your child when you pick him or her up from school.
• Try to be there to pick them up on time or as early as possible. They´ll be ready to talk about their day and will want you to be there as soon as they come out.
• Most of all reassure your child that you are there for him or her and that everyone has to go through the first day of school.

GOOD LUCK and the best for BACK TO SCHOOL 2009!

ACTIVITY: Homemade play dough

Playing with dough is always fun. But what about starting the fun a little earlier? Try making the dough from scratch. Mix 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup salt in a small bowl. Add 1/4 cup water and stir. Knead in a drop of food coloring, and you´re ready to play! Let your children help with the mixing and kneading.

TIP OF THE DAY

If you speak a foreign language, or at least know some words in another language, try using it at home from your baby´s first months. Children will become familiar with it and when they do study it, it will be much easier for them.

DAILY RECIPE: Busy Day Cheesecake

2 pkg. cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. lemon juice

graham cracker crust

Beat all ingredients together and pour into a graham cracker crust. Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes or until set. Chill and serve or top with your favorite fruit topping when cool.

TIP OF THE DAY

Pack non-sugared breakfast cereal, such as Cheerios in small zip-loc bags and drop in your purse. Hand them to your child to snack on when on the go.

DAILY RECIPE: Easy Corn Flakes Chicken

1 chicken, cut up
2 cups buttermilk
Crushed Corn Flakes cereal
Salt and pepper

Clean chicken and remove fat. Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray a cookie sheet with Pam. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Dip into buttermilk and roll in the crushed corn flakes. Place on the cookie sheet and bake for about 45 minutes or until done.

ACTIVITY: Mirror, mirror

Mirroring your baby´s gestures, noises or expressions is a great way to stimulate development and enforce mother-to-child bonds. Hold your baby in your arms and mimic his hand movements, the faces he makes and the noises he babbles, too. Don´t stop this activity, however, as they grow older. Toddlers love this activity too. Only at this age, movements can be much more elaborate, and faces and expressions more varied. Also, now you can play this both ways. You can mirror your child, and your child can mirror you. It´s a simple activity that can take place at any time and any place, without previous preparation. Try it. You have no idea how this simple action can help you and your child bond and laugh together.

ARTICLE: Setting Cause and Effect Corrections

Many times, when we correct our children, we set an inappropriate punishment for their action. We must keep in mind that it should be a cause and effect situation. This makes the action clear to young children and we have a better chance of it not happening again. For example, if they ate cookies before dinner after being told not to, the punishment cannot be that they don´t go to the park the next day. That won´t make any sense to them. However, if the punishment it that there is no dessert, we do enforce a cause and effect action. Each household is different and each mother knows what can be allowed and what can´t, so only you can set corrections. Just keep in mind that the clearer we are with our children, the better. Next time you have to correct your children remember cause and effect, their misbehavior must have a logical consecuence.