Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with kid

songs for an eclectic nine year old

mandymanwasregistered — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:17:51 -0800

Help me load my 9 year old nephew's ipod with parent-friendly songs for Christmas! From what I can tell, he likes the following things: 1. Johnny Cash 2. Who Let the Dogs Out 3. Current pop music such as Taylor Swift and the Black Eyed Peas.

He's only 9 and I'm not trying to impart music snobbery onto him, so what sort of songs (with an emphasis on current pop) would be good? These songs need to not have any swear words (either bleeped out or nonexistent) and hopefully the sexy talk wouldn't be obvious if it's in the song.

Help me prevent my house from hurting this child

reenum — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:58:03 -0800

I need to temporarily kid proof my house for a party tomorrow. Any suggestions on how I do this? I'm having a party tomorrow, and one couple was unable to find a sitter. So, they'll be bringing their two and a half year old son with them. I don't mind him coming. I love the kid.

But, I want to make sure my house is safe for the youngster. I'm single and have no kids, so drilling holes and installing baby gates and the like isn't something I want to do.

Are there any temporary measures I can take to make sure the boy doesn't hurt himself while running around my house tomorrow?

Looking for info on marketing to children

elpapacito — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:46:37 -0800

I am researching the topic of marketing to childrens and tweens and looking for related of books / e-books ,papers,journals, websites/databases. Any recommendation ?

Magazines for Toddlers

stray — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 23:27:38 -0800

I wanna get my two year old niece a magazine subscription. But she's not so much into the New Yorker yet, so do you have any suggestions? I've seen this, but I'm wondering if there's one in particular that you recommend.

Deets: Two year old girl, Canada, Bilingual-ish (English/French) might be cool.

Also, feel free to tell me that this is a dumb idea!

Simple bread recipe for kids?

swrittenb — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:40:36 -0800

Anyone have a good recipe for a safe, tasty, and digestible "first bread" for an infant? I love making breads, and look forward to the day when my little boy can really start mowing down on a lot of tasty treats. However right now, he's a seven month old still working on getting those teeth to erupt. He's working through the solid food list, and is getting more and more curious about semi-solid foods that he can play with while eating. The soft inside of a fresh loaf of bread seems like a good option (small pieces that aren't a choking hazard, obviously)

Has anyone made bread for little kiddos, and could you share a recipe? Is a good plain white loaf acceptable, and at what age did you start giving things like whole wheat flour? Are there things we should be concerned with, or reasons to wait? We're not in any huge rush, but it would be fun to help him explore new treats.

Three Year Old Birthday Party Ideas

Pater Aletheias — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:42:25 -0800

Our daughter is turning three next week, and we're looking for ideas for a fun time with her and her little friends, about eight to ten kids ranging from two to five years old. What makes for an excellent birthday for preschoolers?

What's the best way to teach my daughter to read?

lexfri — Sat, 16 May 2009 13:06:33 -0800

What's the best way to teach my daughter to read? I didn't find anything in the MeFi archives; I apologize in advance if I missed some obvious discussions.

My 2-and-a-half-year-old loves books, knows her letters and their sounds, and has expressed distinct interest in learning to read her books herself. I've found dozens of methods (both free and commercial) online for teaching kids to read, even at this young(er) age, but I thought maybe some folks here had good recommendations (or warnings!).

Help Anya learn to read. She's pretty cute!

Is it possible to introduce my kid to NYC's musicians?

agentwills — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:46:40 -0800

NYC music filter: How can I find musicians who would be willing to let my kid hang with them? I’ve got a musical eight year old on my hands. I’m in Manhattan, which is an awesome place to raise a musical kid, and I feel like there’s this whole city of possible mentors for him that I just don’t know how to tap into. Other kids his age can’t keep up, and since he’s only 8 years old it’s not like he can go to open mic night. Nothing motivates him like playing with or being around musicians…but where to find them? I think he’d even be happy just sitting in on a rehearsal or something.

Before you file me under “crazy stage mother”, I’m really just looking for opportunities for him to be encouraged and for him to pursue his love of music (plays drums/piano, and composes/writes lyrics). We have a few resources that currently work and some we’ve tapped out, e.g. his school, our church, music camps, and of course his instructors.

I’m looking less for structured lessons (which he does take) and more for inclusion in that atmosphere with people who get him and he can really, really learn from just by being around them. Obviously safety is an issue so random Craigslist postings are completely out of the question.

Need to Poop, Stat 911 (for a kid)

snsranch — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:24:49 -0800

Help me help my constipated Kid! Here's the quick and dirty; kid (10) broke his arm and has had a LOT of pain medication before during and after surgery.

Now he needs to poo and can't.

Any over the counter or hopefully Home remedies would be greatly appreciated! Fruit? Veggies? Water laced with soy sauce?

Many thanks in advance!

How does a kid from a South American slum become a FBI Agent?

Sully — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 10:54:17 -0800

I am writing a fictional story about someone who lives in the slums of some small South American country. When he was ten, during a fever, an angel appeared to him and told him that he would become an FBI Agent. He may have seen a movie with FBI agents, so he has some sense of what that means. Step by step, what does he have to do to fulfill that prophecy in a real way? I recognize that there are many challenges my character faces - reaching the age of majority, immigration, citizenship, money and resources, background checks, that sort of thing. But I am a little unsure as to the exact steps to follow for someone to completely transform their life in this way. Can anyone help? Any sort of feedback regarding any step in this process would be appreciated.

A psychic kid...yeah right.

zouhair — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 04:19:43 -0800

Here's a little video in Arabic of a kid that is playing a game of Pairs. The only thing is that he finds pairs without seeing them beforehand, he take one and just find the other one just by overlooking the chips and never misses. There must be a trick. I first thought of some same little sign on the backside of each pair.
What pisses me off is that the people on the video are not stopping from blessing God over this and don't even get me started on the comments.
This reminded me of Clever Hans, and I would really now if someone here knows what kind of trick is this. I don't know the origin of the video, seems like some Syrian, Jordanian or Lebanese accent; so it maybe just a pure fabrication for all I know.
Some friends of mine believe this stuff and it just irks me.

PS: didn't know in which category to put this one, so I just put it in Education as it is happening in some kindergarten.

Daddy, can we build the Manhattan Project on page 6?

TigerMoth — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:38:50 -0800

SantaFilter: Looking for a fun, durable, relative inexpensive electronics kit/lab for wiz-bang 7-year old girl... I started by looking at the old stand-by Radio Shack offerings, but the majority of reviewers said they break quickly and no replacement parts are available. Beyond that, my web trollings have lead me to believe that there's something even more fun than the standard 100-in-1 snap-circuit make-a-doorbell "lab" out there. Found a Lemon Clock, but, well, meh... Robotic or even remote control would be pretty cool. Come on, MeFi Elf-Geeks: what is it?!

Sleep, that knits up the ravelled sleave of care...for a three-year-old?

leahwrenn — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:34:07 -0800

How can I get my three-year-old to take naps again? My three-year-old daughter stopped taking naps about a year ago. Recently (say, the last three months, off and on), she's been a whiny, cranky pill to varying degrees most of the time, especially in the afternoons and evenings. (Compounding things is that about 3 months ago, her sister was born...) We've been to the doctor (when the crankyness was really bad about a month ago, it turned out to be an ear infection), and everything checks out ok (as much as they check in a 2 minute visit!). So our guess is that she's just really tired a lot of the time and needs naps. She goes to bed at 7:30-ish and usually sleeps until 7-ish, but typically will wake up in the middle of the night with some crying and upsetness.

So: any suggestions for actually getting her to take a nap in the afternoon? She's in daycare three mornings a week (8 - 1) and home the other two days with me. (The all-day daycare kids do nap, from 1-3, for what it's worth.) She doesn't want to stay in her room for the naptime, and I'm less thrilled with gating her in (although that's an option), in part because of the potty issue (namely, that she needs to be able to get to the potty in time!). I'm not averse to some option that involves bribing with a half-hour of Diego (we've got TiVo, so there's always an episode), but I'm not sure how to make that work. I'd be happy to buy a timer, if that would help.

Advice would be appreciated---she (and we) will be a lot happier if she gets some more sleep!

Help me come up with activities for a nine-year-old boy

schroedinger — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:20:46 -0800

Concrete ideas of things to do with a nine-year-old boy in the Baltimore, MD area. I am going to be the Big Sister of a boy in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program, and as much as I love doing things this kid likes and things kids like in general, I'm having a heck of a time trying to come up with specific activities--for example, I can't exactly schedule an activity day for sword-fighting or reading. I have a few ideas--going to the aquarium, zoo, or local museums for instance. And going to a movie, DC, taking a tour of a firehouse, and cooking at my apartment would be great once we get to know each other. But I'm drawing a blank on other things.

I see two types of activities: relatively low-key things to do for the first few meetings so we can get to know each other, and more extravagant, cool things that we can do once we've established a rapport and his parents are a little more comfortable with me. The first type is what's really giving me trouble.

Unfortunately, I can't find an up-to-date activity calendar on my program's website. I would greatly appreciate any ideas!

Help me find a short story.

Steph1en — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:54:12 -0800

Help me find the story about an upset kid who changed the outcome of an election. IIRC, the story is about a kid and his dog. His neighbor poisons/hurts/kills the dog after finding the dog shitting in his yard. This neighbor is the towns mayor. To get even, the kid drives all the homeless people to the polls and asks them to vote against the incumbent mayor because the mayor had killed his dog. The story ends with the neighbor losing and the kid going into politics.

I'm guessing the story is fiction but would like to know more. Thanks for any help you can provide.

Help me design my boy's room -- He loves Dodge trucks!

jseven — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:13:09 -0800

Help me design my boy's room -- He loves Dodge trucks! My boy is 8 years old and moving into his own room away from his brother. I have painted murals on his walls before, but was wanting to give him more of a grown up, but still fun room. The hope would be that he is happy for at least 3 or 4 years with what we come up with.

He wants the theme of the room to be Dodge trucks. He loves the everything Dodge related.

I'm hoping you can all give me general ideas of things to put in his room, or make things out of (I'm pretty crafty) etc. so it can be a fun place for him and his friends to hang out.

Specifically, I'm also looking for:
High Res pictures of Dodge trucks
Links to any sites that provide large quality stick on stuff like fathead.com
Dodge accessories etc.

Thanks!
J

Helping a kid deal with losing...

unixrat — Fri, 23 May 2008 08:25:23 -0800

What to do (if anything) about a kid (Kindergarten) who cannot deal with failure/losing? Right, so school 'Spring' concert last night, each grade stands up front as a group and sings 3-4 simple songs. Three songs in, I can see our daughter forget some of the words to a song, look a little nervous, burst into tears, and walk off during the song. She's inconsolable, wouldn't sit with her class ("Embarrassed"), wouldn't rejoin her class for the whole school sing at the end, nothing.

Not the first time this sort of thing has happened. Our parent-teacher meetings have been glowing - great kid, good worker, friendly, but always with the 'She will avoid doing something if she thinks she'll get it wrong'. We've run into it at home - she won't guess at things, won't try new games without an example or demonstration, that sort of thing. Once you do that, she's a-ok, but she'll never attack it on her own.

We don't punish mistakes, we're very supportive, and she's certainly seen us make our share of mistakes. I play sports and she's seen my softball team get whipped regularly. :) Hasn't seemed to help though. Her response is avoidance and tears, not anger or lashing out or anything.

Okay, crux of the issue: The wife and I got into a (private - after the kid had gone to bed) fight last night over what to do - the wife wants "Professional Help" and I wanted to do nothing - she's six.

The rub is that this is my daughter has picked up a miniature version of my wife's personality, pretty much since birth. My wife is almost exactly like this - she won't play on our co-ed softball team because she's "no good", I had to play with a neighbor's wife during the neighborhood Best Ball golf game because she "doesn't know how to golf", etc., etc. Neither my wife nor my daughter will accept the rationale that "it's only for fun and no one cares."

Apparently this has caused my wife much pain during her life - missing out on things, stress, and so on, and she wants to try and help our daughter avoid the same problems. The problem I have is that I am mystified by these actions. The solution (to me) with not knowing how to play softball is... to play softball. Same with golf. And singing. And life.

So, Mefi, have you any advice? Does my six year old need some sort of professional help? Is there some way we can help her deal with this on our own? My guidance of "Just Do It" isn't working - help!

What books do you recommend for babies and toddlers?

k8t — Sat, 17 May 2008 02:04:36 -0800

What are your recommendations for good baby and toddler books in English? In an effort to create a great library for our upcoming spawn, I'd love to have some MeFite-approved suggestions. If you could also give an estimated age appropriateness, so that this can later be made into a list, that'd be great. Thanks!

New Orleans - You know, for kids

fijiwriter — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:39:44 -0800

Weekend in New Orleans with a 15-month-old - need shopping and eating recommendations. I'm taking Mrs. and Baby Writer to New Orleans this weekend, and we haven't been since before Katrina, and we need your help. Specifically, we need unique baby clothing stores and family friendly places to eat.

Our hotel is in the Convention District, and we already have the aquarium, park and Children's Museum as go-to places. But if you have other ideas, I welcome them.

Help me help my son learn to play baseball.

qldaddy — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 07:49:52 -0800

I need some coaching tips and resource suggestions for a nine-year old boy heading into his first year of little league, please. My (just turned) nine year old son asked us to sign him up for little league this year. While brilliant and talented in many ways, he has never before shown any interest or aptitude for atheletics. He's never really wanted to play catch or wiffle ball or anything like that. As a result, he is pretty terrible right now. Bad thrower, bad hitter, bad fielder.

He is also four years behind almost everyone he'll be playing with and I am worried about the other kids being mean b/c of his lack of skill - he's a real sensitive kid and I want to him to enjoy this experience b/c I think team sports can be a great learning experience for kids.

I know I can't turn him into Chase Utley before opening day (nor am I looking to) but I want him to be competent enough to enjoy himself and avoid derision. So, Mefites, what should I do? Suggestions on drills, videos, pep talks, etc anxiously awaited.

Stuff about him that might help inform answers/suggestions. He's a big kid - 4'9" and 94 lbs - which isn't helping him since he's got that too-big-for-his-age difficulty with coordination thing going on. He's left-handed and I'm not. He loves performing (plays, guitar, etc.).

Skippito

mcarthey — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:31:36 -0800

Help me find humorous books for kids that will interest them in learning some spanish, ala. Skippyjon Jones. Not that it's a particularily educational book, but my kids love the energy and humor of 'Skippyjon Jones' but I haven't found anything similar. I'm not strictly looking for a 'learn spanish' book, but rather something that is entertaining and will introduce words and phrases.

I did recently find the incredible resource of Children's Digital Library but without being fluent in the language it's hard to find one similar to what I'm looking for.

Also, I realize there are probably hundreds of these sorts of books out there, but I'm looking for something that I wouldn't mind purchasing and keeping on the shelf. There are too many books of this sort to wade through.

Thanks!

"I need more pieces, please!"

Soliloquy — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:13:56 -0800

Is there any way I can get my hands on some cool Scalino marble run pieces before Christmas? For Christmas last year I bought my darling little cousin a Scalino marble run complete with "ski jump" piece. He adores it, and I'd like to add another accessory or two this year. The site I bought it from now only lists three Scalino items without pictures (extra marbles, and what I think is a basic set, and probably a waterfall type piece) and my email to their customer service address asking about availability and clarification on what the "Modelkasten Kaskade" piece did received no reply. I checked out Scalino's web site but my Deutsch ist nicht so gut. Ebay came up blank too.

The little guy would probably prefer a y-shaped switch I remember seeing last year, or the xylophone piece shown in the picture, to a waterfall. Heck, I was looking forward to seeing what he would build with all the cool pieces I added on over the years. So if anyone knows of other sources or can assist me in contacting the company, I'd appreciate it. I'm in New York City if there's anything local.

My little cousin will spend many happy hours sending marbles whizzing around the track in your honor.

Web fun for 3 to 4 year olds

rolypolyman — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 06:36:26 -0800

Please recommend a good puzzle or activity website that's suitable for a 3 or 4 year old. Good: Boobah Zone seen here is ideal. You can click just about anywhere and just have fun.

Not so good: Well, for example, BBC Cbeebies -- the ones I tried invariably start out with instructions and require very specific keypresses that have to be memorized. It's for an older age group.

Ideas? Thanks.

What is the best Windows desktop publishing software for kids?

raddevon — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:23:43 -0800

What is the best Windows desktop publishing software for kids? I work for a school system, and we have an elementary school teacher whose class is publishing a newsletter. What is the most kid-friendly publishing software for Windows? Bonus points if it's free.

Can anyone remember the name of a book from my childhood?

D Dear — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:20:16 -0800

Can anyone remember the name of a book from my childhood? Kid lit from the late 60’s/early 70’s. Book is about the Holocaust, I think. Bought the book from the Scholastic Book Club (they don’t have lists from back then). The book has a red cover with a picture of a girl with dark brown hair. Part of the story takes place on a train going to Siberia(?). Hope you can help me find this book!