There are some parents who avoid taking their children on airplane flights until they’re certain to be old enough to sit still without problems. However, there are many of us that don’t want to postpone our family air travel until our kids are in their teens.

For those of us who want to get back to the business of exploring new places with our families, it’s important to find ways to reduce the hassles associated with travel. This can be hard when we’ve got toddlers and especially hard when the flight is a long one. But it can be done without too much trouble.

Here are some tips for taking toddlers on long flights:

• Try to plan for a long layover … or two, or three … Layovers are nice for kids because they break up the trip. This reduces the restlessness that they’ll experience and makes the trip go more smoothly. You can spend the time snacking, resting or exploring the airport.
• Include a variety of entertainment options in your carry-on. You’ll want to make sure that they’re noiseless and aren’t going to bother the people near you. Things that you and your child can do together will be the best – such as books to read together.
• Bring presents. If you can fit an extra bag into the stuff that you’re carrying, bring one full of small presents wrapped for your child. They’ll enjoy receiving them (one at a time to make the most out of the gift) and using them throughout the flight.
• Bring several types of snacks with you. The key to a good trip is being able to provide your child with choices and variety despite the fact that you don’t have a lot of stuff with you. Since your kid is probably going to get hungry, this is one area where it’s nice to have some choices.
• Make sure a comfort tool is with you. A favorite blanket, a stuffed animal or anything else that makes your child feel more comfortable can go a long way towards making the trip nicer.
• Have certain carry-on items that are for the plane only. Games, books, magazines, toys … whatever it is that you’re bringing along should have be designated for flight time only. In other words, don’t let your kids play with their toys in the waiting area because they’ll be bored with them by the time they get on the plane. The reward for waiting is that they’ll be engaged on the plane.
• Let your child carry a kid’s backpack for carry-on. Yes, you’ll probably end up carrying it yourself at some point. But making a point out of the responsibility that your child is showing with the suitcase will encourage your child to try to act more grown-up. This will reduce tantrums at least for a short time.
• Make sure you have what you need for emergencies and problems. A sick bag and/or anti-nausea medications. Gum and/or earache medication. Ginger ale. A change of clothes. A jacket. Teething gel and diapers depending on the age of your child. You don’t want to be stuck with a problem that you could’ve solved if only you’d had what you needed to do so.
• Consider whether naptime is a good time for the trip. For some children, a flight that happens during their normal naptime is great because they can just go to sleep and wake up at their destination. However, kids who won’t be able to fall asleep in the crowd of people or who get ill on flights are kids who will end up tired and cranky if you fly during their naptimes. Assess your child and plan the timing of your trip with this in mind.
• Bring a car seat. Many parents don’t take advantage of the fact that airlines are generally equipped for the use of car seats. It’s safer for your child and is going to help him or her feel like the place is comfortable and familiar even though it’s foreign.

All of these tips can help make a long flight with a toddler go more smoothly. However, the real key is in preparing yourself. You need to get yourself into a calm state of mind to be able to deal with whatever comes up. Expect that there will be problems and try to feel confident that you can face them. Give yourself plenty of time to catch the flight and make connections. Pack in advance so that you’re less likely to forget the items you’ll need. And try not to worry about what other people are thinking if your child starts acting up on the plane. If you’re in a nice calm emotional place, there’s a good chance that your child will be as well.

If you’re going to be purchasing a crib mattress it’s important that you get a good quality one. A top quality crib mattress is going to be very beneficial to your baby. It’ll help them to get to sleep better and it’ll also help support their ever growing bones. The bottom line is a top quality crib mattress is one that’s going to keep your child very safe when their inside of it, especially when their sleeping.

How do you go about the process of purchasing a crib mattress though? Well that’s what we’re going to discuss.

You’ll want to select an option that’s going to be very firm

The first thing you want to do is avoid any options that don’t feel firm enough. One of the best ways to do this is to always make sure the mattress was created solely for babies. If you get a crib mattress that’s too soft it can pose all kinds of risks. When a sleeping surface isn’t firm enough it can lead to the possibility of suffocation and also increase the possibility of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Purchasing an option designed for older kids or even adults isn’t a good way to go.

The main things you need to consider in your purchasing choice

Things such as brand matter, but not to all parents. Certain brands have a good reputation, but this doesn’t mean you don’t have to do your homework. You need to consider the cost, the overall comfort and the quality (durability). You probably plan on your child using the mattress you purchase for them for a few years right? Well in order to make sure they can do this you need to make the right decision the first time.

Two types of crib mattresses you’ll be able to select from

There are many website explains this like bestmattress2020.co.uk that explained about the best mattress 2020 in UK. According to them, you have two main options to choose from when it comes to purchasing a crib mattress, foam or innerspring. If you decide to go with a foam option you’ll end up spending less money and it also tends to be on the lighter side. If you go with an innerspring option you can expect to spend more, but on the plus side these last way longer than foam. If you go with innerspring chances are it’ll last you the entire time you need it to. With a foam option there’s no guarantee you won’t have to replace it down the line.

Organic options

There are a lot of parents who are deciding to go with crib mattresses that are made from all natural materials, because they believe these to be safer overall. Is this true though. Organic options are going to be very expensive, because they’re designed to cater to a small niche of people.

Air mattress options

There are air crib mattress options you could choose from, but these are usually not safe for children. The main reason for this is because of how soft the surface tends to be. This increases the risk of suffocation.

Buying criteria list:

• You’ll want to make sure the crib mattress you get is firm
• You’ll want to make sure that the crib mattress is the right size
• You’ll want to make sure that the cover is sturdy
• The mattress should have some vent holes in order to allow air to come in and out
• The crib mattress should be certified

Following this simple criteria will make it easy for you to make a choice. If you still have some doubts than don’t be afraid to ask questions before you make a purchasing decision.

Targeting children five and up, these educational robot toys introduce basic programming concepts to children through the use of music and art. One app lets children program the robot to play notes on a xylophone accessory, and is a good way to introduce them to basic programming loops.

Another app involves drawing. “Kids can draw a path that the robot will follow, and then along that path they can draw instructions for the the robots to do. That gives them a sense of how sequencing instructions can work,” Gupta explains. “We wove together programming and play, so that kids don’t feel like they’re programming but are drawn into it in a visual manner.”

The firm had to make some innovative design decisions when prototyping the unit. It began with a modular robot that kids could snap together into different configurations, but it abandoned that idea after the projected price skyrocketed.

Gupta’s team also decided early on to ditch the idea of an internal ‘brain’ for the device. Instead, it relies on the tablet to do most of the computational heavy lifting.

“We can leverage the computer capabilities of an iPad and not have to pay the price of the expensive brain on the robot,” says Gupta. “That helped us to bring the price down because we don’t have to have a lot of memory.”

This decision freed the design team to concentrate on the sensors and actuators for the robot toys. These include distance sensors at the front and back to help them avoid running into walls, and transceivers to detect other robots nearby. It will also sense when you pick it up.

From point and poke to Objective C

The iPad is also the interface for programming the robot. Kids use a visual programming language to guide the unit around, making it suitable for children from five and up. But Gupta also wanted the robot to last longer than just a couple of years, growing with children as they began to expand their programming capabilities. The idea is to introduce other programming languages that are more text-driven, and include more sophisticated concepts, such as object orientation.

Kids from 5-8 can play with the visual programming apps, graduating to Google’s Blockly from 8-12. After that, things open up even more.

”The applications that we’re developing are built using the same API that we are giving to developers,” Gupta says, meaning that teams can try their hand at developing their own iOS and Android apps to program the devices.

Designing for everyone

A lot of work went into producing a gender-and culture-neutral design, Gupta explains. “It’s not a shape that seen elsewhere on the planet. It moves around, and it has one eye rather than two, so it looks different to things that you’d normally see,” he explains. This enables kids to interpret it in their own way without bringing any external baggage to the table.

The baggage can show up in unexpected ways. Gunter says that in early focus group work, Dot had wheels outside its chassis to help it move around. However, young girls were put off by the idea, seeing the devices as robot toys for boys, because they were too car-like.

When the designers integrated the wheels inside the chassis, girls opened up to the robots, and began to engage with them.

“It becomes anything that kids can imagine it to be,” Gupta says. “It’s not something that we force onto them, and that has helped us reach across age and gender and social economic strata. It doesn’t matter where the kids come from.”

There have been some schools in the mix, but the main target audience is parents, explains Gupta.

“We do work in schools where we work with teachers to develop the materials for these robots, and we do work with them to have the robots in classrooms,” he says. “We’re piloting with some schools in the spring quarter.”

Wonder Workshop is feeling its way around the classroom environment, which presents different learning challenges. After all, it’s unlikely that many schools would ever purchase one of these educational robot toys per child, especially given the $169 price tag – and the need for an additional tablet to control the thing.

“We are not the experts here. We want to learn from the teachers. We want to collaborate with them to see how they would best use it in the classroom,” he says.

With educational pricing not on the radar either, it’ll be a while before Dot and Dash find their way into lots of schools.

Wonder Workshop has just been through a major rebranding campaign, renaming itself from Play-i. Dash and Dot used to be called Bo and Yana. Here’s a pre-rebranding video from the firm:

In my home tea and hot cocoa are consumed on a bi-daily basis. Our hot drink habit is enabled by our Breville SK500XL Ikon Cordless 1.7 Liter Stainless-Steel Electric Kettle. This sturdy, quick working kettle is constantly on, heating up water for another round of drinks. It’s easy enough to use that my nine year old daughter has no problem using it, but sturdy enough that I can use it for my own cooking experiments.

This is one of the best kettle 2019 UK and will boil 1.7 liters of water at a time, which is the perfect amount for everyone in my family to have all they want. The easy on/off switch and cushion controlled lid make it supremely easy to use. The brushed stainless steel housing and cord storage make it look neat and pretty on our counter, while the soft grip handle makes it comfortable for anyone to pick up and move around.

I always look for safety features in my appliances, especially ones that I let my daughter use. This kettle has both an auto shut-off and boil dry protection to make sure nothing damages the heating element. There’s also a “ready” bell that makes sure we don’t forget we put water in it.  A removable scale filter is a nice touch that helps us make sure our water is the cleanest possible.

Pros:

• Comfort: Something that sticks out to me about this kettle the longer I have it is how comfortable it is to use. The handle is a comfortable size and is perfectly insulated. The lid opens and closes easily at the push of a button. As a whole it feels solid – there’s none of that feeling that makes you think it might break if you set it down the wrong way.
• Good Looks: This isn’t the first thing I look for when buying something for my kitchen, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a factor. The brushed steel that makes up the housing looks really nice and is easy to keep clean. The cord storage is also a nice touch that keeps things looking tidy.
• Safety: Features like auto shut-off and boil dry protection are a must for any kettle I buy. This is mostly because I can be pretty absent minded. Knowing that the kettle will shut off once it reaches a boil puts my mind at ease, as does knowing it won’t heat up if I accidently turn it on without water in it.
• No Plastic: With all the worry going around about the chemicals in plastic, I’m glad to have switched to a stainless steel kettle. I haven’t noticed any strange flavors in the water at all. Having a scale filter probably also helps in this regard.

Cons:

• A Little Heavy: This kettle does have a tendency to be a little heavy, especially if you really fill it up. While it’s certainly not a strain for me to lift it, it does have some heft and may be difficult if your wrists aren’t strong. I see this more as a statement of quality than a true negative, though. It’s made with tough materials, which is turn require a little more energy to lift.
• Water Level Indicator is Hard to See: The designers helpfully included a water level indicator with this kettle. However, they unhelpfully placed it so it is partially obscured by the handle! This is by no means a big problem for me, and once you get used to it it’s not too difficult to tell at a glance where your water is at.

The Breville SK500XL is a great high end kettle, but the cost may put a few people off. In that case, I’d recommend the Rival 4071-WN 32-Ounce Hot Pot Express. It heats up water just as quickly and costs much less. However, it doesn’t have the capacity or the safety features of the Breville, so it’s really up to you to decide what’s worth spending your money on.

All in all it’s hard to find much wrong with this kettle. It’s tough, it works hard, has some great safety features, and even looks great. It’s been keeping me and my family in hot drinks for a while now, and I foresee that it will continue to pull its weight for a long time to come. If you’re looking for a quality water kettle, you really can’t go wrong with this one.

Does your child need some extra help with homework? Many children have no problem learning but may not currently posses the interest or the perseverance to excel at do at home tasks that are commonly assigned at school.

There are many different programs that promise to help children with leaning and more importantly focusing on their homework tasks, but most of these items cost outrageous prices. To get help on homework from online services is the new rage. Many parents and students are learning that you can get free homework help online and this is a great way for children to have fun while they learn. It is important to make the time spent doing homework enjoyable. If learning time is not an enjoyable experience kids will not look forward to it. You must always keep motivation in mind and having successful study sessions is so much easier when your child is enjoying what they are doing. Finding educational games and flash card games are some of the most common ways online homework help web sites can bring a touch of entertainment to the learning process. There are many ways to learn and finding the methods that works the best for your child is one way you can really help them get ahead with their studies.

Does Using Computer Aids For Homework Really Help?

There are some people who believe that children can learn more effectively using books and other paper materials. However, it has been proven time and time again that the rich multimedia presentations and interactive learning programs available on many of the leading homework help web sites can really boost the learning process and help children learn more quickly. There are many new and imaginative ways that students can get science homework help, match homework help and help with almost any other subject imaginable. If you have never experienced online learning you are in for a real treat. The way that most web sites and learning tools on the internet utilize video, animation, sound and today’s high definition graphics make the learning experience very interactive and engaging to students of any age.

The internet has many great resource sites that offer a variety of tools and information that allows you and your children to find the learning solution that best suits your specific needs. This is the problem for many kids, the path to learn at school is linear and if you don’t pick up information the way that it is being taught you will simply be left in the dust. When you can try different ways to learn and find the specific type of games, learning methods and techniques that your child responds to the best, you will be able to get more done in less time. Once your child realizes that they can learn easier than ever, they will be glad to sit down and start their homework. When you find the right way to learn for your child, homework really can be just as much fun as playtime.

Does My Childs School Offer Any Homework Help Online?

Some schools are starting to use computers and internet tools more and more in their standard curriculums and this varies quite a bit from school district to school district. You may want to contact your child’s teacher to see what type so online learning resources your student can use at home. Many of the more recent school books may even reference more information online. This can be a great way to find more pictures or some videos on certain topics. Some schools are part of various homework help service providers that have content specifically developed for the curriculum that they use in the classroom. These systems are very effective and allow children to access much of their learning materials from anywhere without the need to carry a book around with them.

These new age learning aids are great for children who have a hard time keeping track of their homework duties as well as children that need something to help them learn the concepts they need to pick up even if they are at home. Not every school offers online help, but almost every school does have program that offers kids homework help from other students or tutors if needed. The best place to start is by getting in contact with teachers and seeing what they suggest.

Where Can I Find More Information Online?

If you are looking for help with science homework there are many sites that are specifically this topic and there are plenty of web sites that have information for those in need of history homework help and algebra help too. The problem for some is finding a web site that puts the information in a logical order and offers enough information on the topic to really make the learning process easier than reading from a book. The web sites listed below are some of the top online learning resources so have a look and see which ones can help your child get homework help online.

hippocampus.org – This web site is one of rare totally free resources that shares information for students on many topics. You will find information about science, math and US history all on this one web site. There are over 9 different high school courses ready for students to start learning on this cool free educational site. This site has been given very high marks by some of the top parenting magazines and it is a great resource for solid learning material for students looking for quick answers or trying to learn new concepts.

schoolexpress.com – This web site is offering over 16,000 free worksheets to students. You can get all sorts of test questions, activities and more on this free online homework help web site.

jiskha.com – This site offer unique way for students and tutors to come together online. If you are looking for help in almost any topic you can find a tutor to help you here