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The children are excited. It’s summer time. They will be on the go, in and out of the home, gone to the park or to a friend’s place to play. With the hustle and bustle of summer comes eating and what to feed these fast-paced children who are always on the go. It’s easier to have several small nutritious snacks for the children to eat during the day and then have a family sit down meal at supper than to try and have three sit down meals during sunny days filled with excitement. Here are a few suggestions for snacks on the go:

• With all of the following suggestions, children can help and be your assistants. One child can prepare and take out the plates, while another prepares the glasses and napkins. Creating fun platters is the key. Getting the children to decorate the platter with fresh wild flowers is one idea. When serving platters, you can create shapes and faces.
• A favorite, easy to serve and clean up is a combination of breads (buns or pitas) or crackers with hummus. Today you can find several types of hummus with various flavours. This is a very nutritious and tasty snack and children love it.
• Always have fruits ready washed, cut up and ready to serve. Apples, oranges, watermelon (a favorite), kiwis, mango, bananas, grapefruits, peaches, pears, strawberries or any berries and grapes. These are easy to handle, eat and clean up.
• Vegetables are also an easy to serve and clean up food. Celery, carrots, peppers: green, red, yellow and orange add color to a platter for children to enjoy. Broccoli and cauliflower can also be fun foods to eat with a dip such as hummus or a vegetable dip.
• Cut up cheese cubs are very tasty. Cut the cheese in various cube sizes or shapes is BIG entertainment for children. You can add some parsley on the side of the platter as decoration. You can also take softer cheeses such as camembert and cut a cube and melt it on a cracker.
• Sandwiches are easy and can be creative. Tomatoes and cucumbers can be great sandwiches and can be seasoned with various salad dressings for tastes.
• Mini sandwiches can be playful and nutritious. The sandwiches can be with hummus, various cold cuts (meats without nitrates are now available in grocery stores everywhere), add some lettuce, peppers and create a great colorful mini submarine.
• Children also like trail mix and have fun making and mixing their own. Depending on whether or not the children have allergies, you can buy cranberries, nuts, dried fruit, etc and get the children to mix to their own to carry with them while they play outside or go to the park.
• For fish lovers, cutting crab into small cubes on a cracker or pita with some garnishes is very nutritious and easy to eat.
• Salads can be another easy snack or meal to offer children on the go. Tuna, egg, vegetable and fruit salads are all easy to prepare and children really enjoy. 
• Platter of cold cuts, cheese and crackers are easy to pick and eat.

There are endless ideas to facilitate your summer menu for children. To make summer fun, try to enlist the children in creating their own designs, and add a little something special like wild flowers. With the heat, we have included snacks that do not require cooking and that do not require much clean up. Be mindful of any allergies. Being flexible is just as important as simplicity. Adding atmosphere with special theme music or creating a theme meal can also be fun. The children can dress up for the occasion or another idea is have a tea party.

 Enjoy the children and the summer from Wildberry Productions Inc.

Summer is finally here and for some parents, summer means fun in the sun with the children. For other parents, summer can be challenging. To help families ease into “summer mode” Wildberry Productions Inc. has chosen to dedicate this article to ideas for a fun summer with the children.

1. Crafts are always a great idea. The best aspect of doing crafts is that creative ideas can stretch for several days. For example, one day can be dedicated to picking different kinds of leaves from trees and plants. The next day, the children can take time to place the leaves in between book pages. A few days later, the children can head to their local library to identify the leaves or if you have a botanical garden you can take your leaves and show them to your local botanist. The children can keep their book of leaves and later during the summer, collect different ones to compare them to fall leaves.
2. Every summer has a number of hot days. A great idea for heat relief is water. Children love to play with water. Filling balloons with water and trying to juggle them or throw them to each other without breaking them is a lot of fun. The activity can end with the children trying to break the balloons themselves.
3. Make a kite. A home-made kite is a good self-esteem booster and is easy to make, can be individually decorated with relatively low cost.
4. Creating your own garden is another idea that children enjoy immensely. The easiest seeds to plant are sunflowers. Sunflower seeds are available everywhere and weather the various conditions very well. Their bloom is amazing. The plants often grow taller than the children, which can also be an interesting aspect for the children to compare their growth to the plants.
5. Children love to be photographed. Buying an inexpensive camera creates a simple project for the children. Choose a theme such as flowers, trees, people, animals, etc. The best photo album is one in which children can show off their different grimaces. It’s hilarious and makes a great keepsake.
6. A project to follow would be to create a photo album and frames for those special pictures. These projects can take a few days to create.
7. Getting everyone to wear their clothes inside out for the day is another fun idea. This works well when the parents also participate. This can be extended to other themes such as a “PJ” day or a “bad hair” day, “red” day where everyone wears something red. A variance can be a “hat” day, where the children take one day to make their own special hat to wear on another day. They can decorate it and make it even more special.
8. Simple bird houses can be made easily with everyday items that we recycle such as juice and milk containers. These can be placed in trees or on rocks, etc.
9. Taking the lids from frozen concentrate juices and tying them together and at different lengths can make beautiful wind chimes.
10. Children have always been attracted to stones. Take the children on a rock venture, where the children get to collect stones which they find attractive. Create a stone garden at home where the children can show off their collection.
11. Another pet project is to collect stones with the intention of painting them. Painted stones can be very decorative placed outside the home. Painted stones can also be used in the home with a theme such as blue stones in the washroom or orange stones in the kitchen on a window ledge. This is also another self-esteem booster for the children.
12. Creating your own story book is a project that children can enjoy and can take several days to make. The book does not need to be made all in one day.  Children can create a series with a theme for their books. Children can use all kind of things to create their stories such as leaves, flowers, feathers, etc. They can colour their story or draw their stories. These make great keepsakes for their own children later on.
13. Board game day is always interesting for children. Board games can be borrowed from your local library or children’s agencies in many communities. Choosing the board game can be challenging. Make sure the games you choose reflect the age of the children and are not competitive. Providing a platter of fruit and vegetables with humus is a nice partner.
14. Taking a walk outside can be challenging for children and parents. But if the walk has a theme to it, the walk is transformed into something fun and exciting. Walking with the intention of looking for red flowers or brown homes keeps the children stimulated and interested in walking. Looking for blue cars can also be a theme for younger children learning their colors. Attaching themes is a great way to stimulate interest in any activity.
15. Exchanging play days with others parents can provide an adventure for your children and provide you with a break. Keep in touch with other parents and book a few days during the summer to exchange one day a week or one day every two weeks for play days.
16. Have a camp-out day inside your home. Gather old bed sheets and chairs and create a great tent in one of the rooms in your home. Plan a snack for the children to eat in their tent. Allow the children to bring their pillows and blankets into their tent along with their toys. Perhaps consider letting the children even sleep in their tent.
17. Children love to create things. Allow their creativity to spread to the kitchen. Give the children one day a week to make a meal, any meal. Provide boundaries and limits and give them ideas. But remember the children may want to be creative with their meals and add smarties to their meal or decorate it with raisins. This project requires parents to step out of the box and allow their children to venture in the kitchen with enthusiasm.
18. Have a dress-up day, where the children choose their special attire and have a formal dinner with relaxed protocol.
19. Paint a face day. Face painting is a child’s favorite activity, especially if the children have activities later in the day so they can show off their faces. Children can paint each other’s faces or can have an adult pain their faces. Your local library may have face painting books to provide you with ideas and outlines to guide your creativity.
20. Spending a day at the library can provide children with a day filled with reading.
21. Here are a few day themes:

Botanical gardens

Movie day

Library day (usually libraries have summer activities planned for children)

Cookie day: baking different kinds of cookies

A day at the market

A picnic (can also be done in the house on a rainy day)

A day at the museum

A day at the park

A day at the pool or the sprinkler

A day to stay in PJ and lounge

A tea party day

A Kennex or Lego day

Whatever the activity you choose for your children, try to remember that the summer is your child’s idea of a break from programmed activities and restraints. Cultivating a sense of humor is essential for a fun summer. The concept of time in the summer is an urban myth! Be flexible and laugh a lot.                                                       

Your child comes home with his recess snack uneaten. This is the third time this week his snack remains untouched. You ask your child why he hasn’t eaten his snack and he answers he was not given a recess. He was obliged to stay in the class and finish his work given to him that day. You ask your child to explain in detail what happened so you may be better prepared when you speak with his teacher about this particular situation. Your child denies causing trouble but admitted to needing more time to finish his work than the other students. Consequently, the teacher kept him in at recess to finish his work. You are well aware that recess is considered a health break by most governmental and educational institutions and you believe your child is entitled to a recess no matter what. A child has a right to his recess/health break. Many health and educational governments consider it unhealthy for children to go from breakfast to lunch without a recess or snack. In fact, work is regulated to include regular breaks for health and safety reasons. However, in some cases, teachers will require children to stay in class and miss recess to finish their work as opposed to allowing the child to bring and finish their work at home. If you as a parent feel strongly about your child not missing recess, you can write a note to the administrator/principle stating your position. As a parent, you have the right to request that your child not be kept from recess, lunch or kept after school. You then decide to call the teacher and request an appointment to meet with her. At the meeting, the teacher explains what went on at school. Your child was taking much longer than the other children to finish his work. It was not a question of being disruptive or disrespectful. In fact, the teacher finds your child quite pleasant. Together, you and the teacher look at the workload and try to determine if there is just too much work or if the teacher’s instructions were too complicated for your child. You both agree the instructions were clear and appropriate.If this has ever happened to you or you know of someone who experienced such a situation, the very first action on your part to take is to get your child’s vision tested. All too often such a simple assessment can resolve the entire issue. Regular medical, dental and optometrist check-ups are highly advised. If the physiological aspects can be ruled out, then it is easier to narrow the field of issues dealing with learning difficulties. It is highly recommended that children have annual medical, dental and eye check-ups because they develop at such a rapid pace and their physiology can change quickly within a one-year span.Many children go several years without an eye exam. It’s quite possible your child may suffer from two-plane vision, which means he does not have a three-dimensional view but rather sees just two planes and directly in front of him – just like horses. If undetected, this visual problem can lead parents and educators to think there is more than there really is.  A visit to the optometrist is really quite essential for children during their development years and may quickly solve the issue. If your child’s eye vision has been verified and everything is fine, the next step you can take is to look for children’s treatment centres located near you or ask for a referral from your family doctor. Children’s treatment centres are composed of highly trained professionals who assess various aspects of children’s development and growth; from speech pathology to how well a child’s brain processes information.  Once a child has been assessed, they can provide you with the expertise on how to deal with the situation at home and at school. Professionals from children’s treatment centres also work with schools making your child’s life and your own that much easier. Sometimes simple solutions are all that are required.