Before having children, I never knew how destructive these little people were. I have nothing nice anymore, as my children have pretty much destroyed everything I have. I walked into my computer room the other day to discover that my three year old had poured corn syrup all over my office chairs.

After I started scrubbing, I soon realized that this was never going to come out of the fabric and decided that I would have to go and buy some new home office furniture. I would also have to buy a lock for the office door, so as to try and protect the new furniture that I was going to buy.

I hired a babysitter and went to the store to look at the office furniture. I quickly found what I was looking for and got back home before my kids could destroy something else in my absence. I was too late. I came home to the sound of breaking glass. I didn’t even bother to get out of the car before heading to the window store.

With my fond memories of playing baseball as a child, I thought it would be a good idea to put our son into baseball when he was old enough to play.  Sure it took a few years for him to get good at the game, but eventually he did.

It was at that point that I joined his team as the coach.  Okay, maybe I am making it sound a little more glorified than it was, but I wanted to help out in any way that I could.

My first big task as coach was to find a place that would let us design your own T shirt, so that we could make the jerseys.

Many of the places that we found that would allow you to make custom T shirts, either wanted you to purchase a huge number of shirts, or had prices that were outside of our budget.

Just as I was about to give up, we managed to find a company that would let us make your own T shirt and order in whatever quantity that you needed.  Price wise, they fit our budget perfectly.

Now, when my son puts on his jersey, I can see in his eyes that he is proud of his team, proud of his team, and proud of his father.  That is just what I wanted him to feel.

I am a concerned parent with a 3 month old daughter.  What concerns me is that Cancer runs in our family as well as other genetic diseases.  Up to this point I have been lucky not to get anything, but it may be inevitable.

But for my new baby, I can make choices that lessen the chances of her getting sick.  All her baby food is organic and we use organic baby clothing and organic baby bedding.  These healthy choices will help her have a better start at life.

The argument for organic baby clothes and bedding is that they are free from the chemicals and heavy metals found in factory made baby clothes and bedding.  Some of these chemicals can cause Cancer, so by avoiding them you reduce your chances of developing Cancer or other diseases.

Does the price I pay justify the benefits for my child?  You bet.  My baby’s health is my first priority.

My young son came home from school the other day with yet another fundraiser for the school’s playground.  This one was a little bit different than most of the others that he brought home.  This one was a catalogue of advertising promotional products.

Some people may think this to be an odd idea for a school fundraiser, but I liked that it was unique and thought it was perfect for anybody who owned their own business.

I however, don’t own a business, so I was trying to think of a way in which I could utilize the many advertising promotional items that were listed in the catalogue.  The idea I came up with was very unconventional, but I think it will work.

This summer, we have a huge family reunion and I am part of the planning committee (yes the family is that large).  I ordered a bunch of promotional T-shirts with our family name and crest on them to sell at the reunion.  This will give members of our family a great souvenir and help out the school at the same time.

I look around at parents today and notice one thing - they are all very busy.  The result of them being too busy is that the parent involvement kids today have in their lives is at an all time low.  Now this can cause a number of problems related to education, social skills, and their self worth.

Now most parents want the best for their children - so do you need some ideas on where you can help out?  First off, if you want to help your child have a better life, you have to make a commitment to it - most of us would have the time if we really wanted to do it.

Now that you have made a commitment to being involved with your child, where do you start?

A good starting place would be focusing on parent involvement in education - and this doesn’t just mean school.  It could be teaching your child a new skill, attending their music recital, or taking them shopping and explaining how you make your choices.  The point is that you take an interest in what they are learning and encourage them - make them feel like what they are doing is worthwhile.

You can start out by helping out at their school.  Parent involvement in schools is very important now because of the cut backs of staff in schools.  Now, there are more kids than ever per teacher, so the amount of one on one education has decreased.  By volunteering at school, it reduces the workload on the teacher and helps them to focus on the students that have problems.  Also, by helping out, you would introduce a different teaching style into the classroom.

So parents help you children out - get involved in their lives - they are only going to be kids once.

I attended a speech competition at a local school in our community.  Children from the fourth grade to grade twelve were competing through both their presentation and their creative writing skills.

Now, most of these speeches were about common day things: their dog, video games, computers, and different diseases.  But there was one speech that stood out, mainly because of its’ originality.

I can remember this boy’s name was Billy and he was in grade ten.  He started off with the title of his speech: "How to Write a Eulogy…"

What?

I thought I might have heard him wrong, but that was not the case.  He proceeded to tell us about the history of eulogies and their origins.  Then he began talking about ways to write a eulogy, and how funeral poems can often add the right beauty to a sad moment.

When he ended his speech, the room was quiet.  I stood up and started clapping - and the rest of the room followed.  He ended up winning first place in his age category and best of show.  All I can say, even though it was weird, it was perhaps the best effort I had ever seen.

This year, for the first time ever, I was told that I had to incorporate computer and internet education into the curriculum of my kindergarten class.  Not being a technological person myself, this scared me half to death.  In the weeks before school began for the year, I decided I had better hop on the information super highway and decide what it was that I was going to teach these fresh minds about - a topic I knew very little about.

I came across a site called thedollspalace.com.

As I played with the cartoon dolls, made characters using the dress up games, and colored pictures online, I knew this was definitely something these kids could get into.

During the first weeks of school, I was overjoyed to see their creative little minds design dolls, which surprisingly resembled themselves.  

The coloring pages were also a huge hit with them.  It is so much fun for them to know that they can see what Piglet would look like if he was green, knowing if they didn’t like it, they could change him with the click of the mouse.  

Although I have much to learn and to teach these children about the internet and its’ many uses, I know thedollspalace.com has become a permanent fixture in our classroom.