Welcome to the Parent Portal

Our goal at After School Snacks is to support you in the lifelong work of parenting. We have designed The Parent Portal as a special place for you. Here you will find additional resources, articles, and tips to help you in one of the most important roles of your life, whether that be as mother, father, grandparent, nanny, teacher – or anyone at all who is committed to nurturing children.

What guides us is children’s response, their joy in learning to dance, to sing, to live together. It should be a guide to the whole world.
-Yehudi Menuhin

Resources for “The Talk”

The inevitable Talk with our daughters about their changing bodies can be a scary prospect. There’s the anxiety of what to say, how much to say, and when to say it. Taking the time to prepare and having the right resources can make all the difference in the world.

After reading a variety of books, some designed specifically for parents and some especially for girls, I’d like to share my favorites. I hope you will also find them valuable.

For Parents

  • The What’s Happening to My Body? Book for Girls by Lynda Madaras – Although it says it’s for girls, I didn’t think it was appropriate for my ten-year old. There’s some information about sex (sexual arousal and orgasm for a start) that I just wasn’t quite ready for Kathryn to be exposed to. However, it was good for me to see what kinds of things girls might be (or will be) thinking about and to start gearing my mind around that.
  • Ten Talks Parents Must Have With Their Children About Sex and Character by Pepper Schwartz, Ph.D, and Dominic Cappello – This book covers in detail conversations parents should have, not just about sex, but about safety, character, peer pressure, ethics, and other important topics. With sample questions and quizzes, it’s a great reference.

For Kids

  • Ready, Set, Grow by Lynda Madaras – This is the precursor to the What’s Happening to My Body? Book for Girls, and it’s absolutely excellent. If you only buy one book, buy this one. It has great, funny illustrations that help alleviate any embarrassing moments, and it really covers the information in a way that young girls can understand.
  • The Care & Keeping of You – the Body Book for Girls (American Girls) – Kathryn thought it was amusing that this book was published by American Girls. “What does American Girls have to do with my period?” she asked. However, despite the potential for riding on the coattails of a famous product, the book does a good job of covering all parts of a girl’s body: face, hair, teeth, ears, and the like.

Summer Sanity Strategies

While summer can be a fun time for the whole family, it presents its own set of challenges. For one thing, I don’t want to be on-call for 24 hours every day. Over the years, I’ve tried a variety of things to get through the summer without turning into a blubbering idiot (or threatening divorce) while at the same time keeping my kids fairly mentally healthy.

  • Mother’s Helper- hire a preteen in the neighborhood to come over and play with your kids. Kids LOVE being around older kids, and the preteen gets a little extra money – her first job!!!! You can get some things done around the house or the yard or maybe – and this is a biggie – even nap. Shhhh. We won’t tell anyone!
  • Nanny- Hire an older teenager, college student, or professional nanny to help out, part-time or full-time. In our family, we’ve done two days a week, five hours each day, and it has afforded me the opportunity to go out and run errands (yes, shopping for clothes for Mommy IS an errand!). The best places to find a nanny: posting on college bulletin boards and Craig’s List. Craig’s List is amazing. Under the Childcare section are ads for people looking for nannies as well as nannies looking for positions. There are all sorts of situations (“Need part-time nanny Tues and Wed from 2:00 to 6:00.” “I’m available Monday through Thursday 9:00 – 2:00.”), so you’re sure to find something to fit you.
  • Childcare Share- Have a friend with kids who is looking on the summer with the same trepidation? Do a childcare swap once a week. You watch her kids one day, and she watches your kids on another. Gives you both some much-needed free time, and your friendship gets stronger (as long as your kids don’t break any windows in her house!).
  • Summer Camp – Yea!!!! Structured activities rule!!!! Sure, I can do the whole let’s-do-play-doh-followed-by-painting-followed-by-reading-time-followed-by-outside-activity-time for about a day, but then I start to run out of ideas. Summer camps to the rescue! In our area, we have one-week, two-week, half-day, and full-day camps offered through the county. Then there are what are called sleep-away camps (which we have not ventured into and I don’t know that we will any time soon!) in which the kids, gulp, actually sleep there!
  • Structured Activities at Home- Even though I can’t do structured activities all day every day, some structure is nice. We started two years ago with the following summer schedule, and it still works. The girls are allowed to play computer games, Gameboy, or video games on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. We have piano lessons every Wednesday. We go to the library once a week. Not structure all the time, but enough so that the kids aren’t wandering around with a dazed look on their faces.

Family Organizer

  • Cozi.com An online organizer. Let Cozi help you keep track of appointments and lists, coordinate home and work schedules, and share favorite memories and photos, all in one place.

Gift Ideas

In the spirit of good money management (see Money Management Skills for Kids), we’ve compiled resources for inexpensive holiday giving from all sorts of sources (including you!), and we want to share it with you. Of course, gift ideas are useful the year round, so you can make frequent use of our Holiday Gift Giving Guide for gift ideas for all sorts of categories: moms, dads, grandparents, caregivers, hostess…. We hope you’ll find everything you’re looking for!

Gifts for mom under $25

Gifts for mom under $50

Gifts for Dad under $25

Gifts for Grandma under $25

  • Beautiful Handmade Candles – www.zenamoon.com
  • Fabric Photo Brag Books in a wide variety of fabric covers ($17) – www.crane.com
  • Mirth and Laughter Mirror ($24.95) – www.signals.com
  • Wonder Vases – these come flat as paper – fill with warm water to form a vase in the shape you want. Fill with cold water and forms a solid vase. ($14.95) – www.signals.com

Gifts for Grandpa under $25

Gifts for Children Under 3 under $25

Gifts for Children Under 10 under $25

  • Mini Robsapien (motorized dinosaur) ($14.95) – www.sharperimage.com
  • Barbies, Polly Pocket, Sweet Streets (of course!), and Brat Dolls are huge for girls this age – Target, Toys R Us, KB Toys
  • Cranium Games offer many award winning games. Cadoo is great for this age as it incorporates creativity through clay, charades and drawing –
    Target    , Toys R Us, and most toy stores.
  • Legos of all shapes and sizes are great for this age. Big now are the Star Wars Legos and Bionicles for boys and girls.

Gifts for Preteens under $25

Gifts for Teachers Under $25

  • Gift Certificates to a great local restaurant or local movie theatres

  • Magic Stones – order a stone in almost any color with any design and any word.  We’ve done “teacher” in garnet red for our teachers ($10 per stone) – www.magicstones.com

In The Spirit of Giving

  • Here’s an idea shared by an After School Snacks  subscriber: “Instead of giving a toy or unnecessary item, you can give certificates (made up on the computer for the occasion). The certificate is for a ‘memory maker event’ to be shared by the giver and the recipient. The date is to be determined. Money may be spent or not. The important ingredient is time spent together creating a memory. It could be a trip to the park or a movie together, sleep over certificates for children’s birthdays, or you can put whatever spin on it you like. Bottom line, you are creating lovely memories and have the pictures to remember them by!”

Halloween Costumes

In an attempt to free every parent from mind-numbing pain and stress over costumes, we’ve compiled a list of resources for Halloween costumes. There are even a couple of links for those darned handmade things! Be sure to check out my article on The Terror of Handmade Halloween Costumes!

Costumes You Can Buy

Ideas to Make Your Own Costumes

Halloween Books

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