what our kid watch at home

Dewey, my five-year-old grandchild, has her favorite TV shows. She has the TV to herself while we busy ourselves with our online tasks. Of course, I see to it that she watches wholesome cartoons or shows. Her favorites are "Spongebob Squarepants", "Totally Spies", "Wonder Pets", "Dora", "HI-5" and "Lazytown".

Barbie doll

For her approaching 5th birthday my granddaughter was asked by my sister what she wants for her birthday and she blurted "Barbie doll". Oh, this granddaughter of mine have had real Barbie dolls as well imitation Barbies but where are they now? They are either lost or mangled. The real ones given to her on her previous birthdays just disappeared while the fake Barbies already have broken extremeties and are no longer playable. I remember her having Brats and mermaid dolls. She brought all of them to school last year and came home without them. They got stolen by other kids. So.

July is Nutrition Month

Kids need to get the three food groups everyday. Are you getting them? Samples of the

Go, Grow, and Glow food groups are as follows:

Go --- spaghetti, bread, rice, cakes

Grow -- eggs, chicken joy, steak, fish, hotdog, milk, cheese, french fries

Glow -- mangoes, vegetables, apples, grapes, oranges, carrots

Kids should be sure of getting a little of everything every meal to make them strong, healthy, alert and happy.

trick or treat?

In some countries, October 31 is considered an important event because the evening of that day is Halloween. Kids wear spooky costumes and go from house to house for a "trick or treat" which of course ends in the giving away of sweets, fruits, cakes, cookies and others.

I read somewhere that parents actually start making or looking for halloween costumes for their kids as early as July or August. Will the kids wear costumes of witches, vampires, the devil, goblins, ghosts, vultures and other scary get-ups? Will they get to go ghost- hunting or will they go to haunted houses for the thrill of it? Will they attend a costume party in the neighborhood? Or will they just go with friends going from house to house to ask for treats? The answers to these questions have caused some excitement in the parents who are now considering halloween costumes.

In our country we do not observe this practice of wearing costumes and asking for treats. But families troop to the cemetery to visit the departed loved ones. Some families sleep there during halloween to keep company to the departed.

on renting clowns

Based on observation, there are different types of clowns that you can hire to liven up your kid's birthday party. However, some fastfoods that cater to such needs will provide mascots for free provided you choose a certain range or offer. Anyway, should you choose to prepare the food, you can always hire the services of clowns. In our locality I have noticed two groups of clowns which give different types of services. The first group have clowns who do everything---hosting and entertaining the kids with magic and games. There are two clowns in this first group, one of the clowns does the hosting and leads in the overall flow of events while the second one acts as assistant. Both are females. The second team also has two male clowns whose task is only to entertain the kids with dancing, magic, and games. Another person, who acts as the overall leader, does the hosting. In other words, the clowns are only there to clown around. No one hears a single word from them but they dance, bounce, do tricks and the like.

We compared the two groups and personally preferred the latter. Clowns are more credible when they stick to clowning but if they also function as host, it sort of diminishes their credibility and takes out much of the fun.