Every once in a while something so cute comes along that we absolutely can't wait to share it with you.  Agoo, the children's clothing line, has just, just introduced their new Tushie Huggers.  As if the name isn't cute enough, we love these darling legwarmer/skirt and legwarmer/short all-in-ones!

And best of all ... Agoo is offering a fun Giveaway to two lucky moms for a pair of Tushie Huggers of their choice for their little ones ... boys or girls.  To enter the Giveaway:

• You must be 18 years or older.
• Visit the Agoo website and then leave a comment here on ZiggityZoom as to your favorite piece of clothing on the site.
• 2 Extra entries available - "Like" Agoo on Facebook and "Like" ZiggityZoom on Facebook.
• Giveaway ends Monday, Sept 6, 2010 at midnight.  Chosen winners must respond to winner notice within 24 hours or another winner will be selected in their place.

Agoo has taken the beautiful patterns and designer look of their leggings and attached a chic skirt for girls and striking shorts for boys, to make a perfect 2-in-1 ensemble. The fashionable leggings protect and cover the legs, while the complementing overgarment make a perfect outfit no one would assume was connected.  The Tushie Huggers are made from Cotton yarn for durability and wearability and come in three simple sizes from 0 to 36 months.  Also available are Tushie Tops to match.  You can actually order some Tushie Huggers right now and get 50% off ... using the coupon code agoo5050.

Feed your baby a 3 course meal without juggling jars or individual bowls.  baby Banquet holds up to three different jars or foods in a convenient, easy to hold tray.  The tray sits on a base which functions as a storage compartment.  It’s large enough to hold snack bars, juice boxes, or other snacks.  Keeping everything contained makes Baby Banquet great for on-the-go.  It will keep foods from getting squished so they’ll ready to eat when your child is hungry. The insert is BPA free and microwavable.  The whole unit will fit neatly into a diaper bag and is dishwasher safe.

The Baby Banquet feeding system retails for around $13.

- Holly Duce

Save on Baby Banquet Feeding System at Mom4Life from TheFind.com’s coupon site

I used this bear drawing project a few years ago with not only kinders, but older students as well. They were asked to add lots of fur to their bears, with lines that were all going in the correct direction (away from the face). Good fine motor skill practice.

1. Make sure the students start by drawing a large upside down “U” shape, it should fill most of the paper.
2. A large upside down heart is added in the top half of the face.
3. A smaller “U” is added below the heart, and then a 2nd smaller “U” to make the lip shape.
3. Four or more pointy teeth are drawn inside the mouth.
4. A circle nose sits at the center of the heart, and two circle eyes up above.
5. Two ears are added at the top of the head.
6. Trace all the lines with a dark marker, and then color as desired. Black bears, brown bears, white bears, all will look good, especially if drawn on colored paper with construction brown crayons.

By Kathy Barbro ... her Art Projects For Kids www.artprojectsforkids.org is a favored source of art lesson plans among teachers, home schoolers and parents.

A new study from the journal Pediatrics finds that girls are beginning to develop breasts at
the early age of 7 or 8. These results support the findings of a 1997 study that noted puberty
beginning in girls at the age of 7 or 8. But why are our children starting puberty so much
earlier? Evidence indicates that the increasing rates of obesity play a major role.

According to current medical understanding, puberty normally begins in girls between ages
8 and 12 and in boys between ages 9 and 14. Historically, “precocious puberty” (early-onset
puberty) has been defined as before the age of 8 for a girl and before the age of 9 for a boy. The
beginning of puberty is marked by penile enlargement or pubic hair growth for boys and breast
bud formation and pubic hair growth for girls. If a child shows such signs of puberty before this
age, she is sent to a pediatric endocrinologist for a full workup.

Why does obesity lead to early-onset puberty? Adipose (fat) tissue is metabolically active; fat
tissue produces estrogen. The more fat tissue a child has, the more estrogen she is exposed to. It
is generally accepted that overweight kids begin puberty earlier for this reason.

Start the school year off right, eliminate study-stress and bring on success!  The study experts at Thinking Caps Tutoring in New York City bring you the best advice on how to kick off the school year on the right foot.  Lousy test scores and dismal report cards?  Constant fighting to get homework done correctly? With back-to-school around the corner, what can parents do to ensure this September starts off on the right foot?   

 Alexandra Mayzler, co-author of Tutor in a Book (Adams Media, 2010) and Director of Thinking Caps Tutoring, brings parents easy-to-use strategies to start off the year with great study habits and better grades.  Based on the methodology of Thinking Caps, Alexandra can show you and your children how to get in the right study-mindset before the school year begins to prevent study-panic later. Starting the school year off right involves:

When choosing a nutritious after school snack for your child there are many things to consider. You may ask yourself “is this snack food too high in sugar?” Does this snack contain too much fat or too many calories” or even “Will this snack help keep my child satisfied until dinner?” With so many snack choices out there, it can be hard to know what will make the best choice for you child.

Here are a few tips to help you make the best choice when choosing an after school snack:

Head lice. Two words that make anyone’s head start itching almost immediately.

Head lice are incredibly common, especially among school-aged children. There aren’t any good numbers on infestations, but it’s somewhere in the millions every year (just in the U.S.)—and these tiny bugs end up costing the country millions of dollars, if you include not just treatments but lost wages. The American Academy of Pediatrics just issued a clinical report on head lice to educate parents about what should—and should not—be done while battling lice in the home.

In some parts of the world, it’s normal to always have a few lice on your head (now that makes me itch!) It’s not a hygiene thing—washing more just gives you cleaner lice. They are hardy little buggers, and in some places people just get used to them. Here in the U.S. we get freaked out. We’ll try anything to get rid of them—and we don’t want to be near anyone who has them.

The diagnosis and treatment of head lice has moved away from doctors over the years. It’s mostly school or daycare staff, parents, friends, neighbors and other assorted people who are deciding if children are infested—and what to do about it. This worries the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), who just issued a clinical report on head lice. They have three main concerns:

Children are being diagnosed with lice when they don’t have them. This happens in two ways:

Kindergarteners learn about patterning, and this is a colorful way of reinforcing the concept.

1. I recommend watercolor paper be used, if possible, as it really does make a difference in the color brightness. Prep 9" x 12" sheets by drawing marks on the top and bottom every 2 inches across. Ask the student to connect the marks with a pencil so that they have 5 panels on their page. Trade the pencil for a crayon and ask them to trace the pencil lines.
2. Show some examples of line drawing patterns that they can choose from (circles, squares, hearts, stars, etc.) The students are to choose one type of pattern for each panel, and then draw each directly with a crayon.
3. I like to dilute watercolor tablets in water and give students liquid paint to fill each panel. They students are to paint each panel a different color, or a pattern of colors.

By Kathy Barbro ... her Art Projects For Kids www.artprojectsforkids.org is a favored source of art lesson plans among teachers, home schoolers and parents.

Beans contain a wider variety of nutrients than most foods, including calcium, potassium, vitamin B6, magnesium, folate, and alpha-linolenic acid. Beans are also a great source of complete proteins which are necessary for the normal functioning of the body.
Beans are a fabulous source of fiber!  In fact, a cup of beans has twice as much fiber as a cup of most vegetables.  Beans provide a major source of soluble fiber, which, when passing through the digestive tract grabs and traps bile that contains cholesterol, removing it from the body before it’s absorbed.  Eating a cup of beans a day will lower cholesterol and decrease risk for heart disease by as much as 22%.  The high fiber also makes you feel full so you eat less throughout the day, helping with weight maintenance.  The soluble fiber in beans also helps to decrease insulin resistance, the starting point for Type 2 Diabetes.  Beans are also a great source of insoluble fiber which increases stool bulk and decreases the risk of constipation and hemorrhoids.
Beans also contain compounds called isoflavins which help prevent normal cells from turning cancerous.  Soybeans contain phytoestrogens which are thought to decrease the risk of breast and prostate cancer.

The new regulations for public schools prohibit fryolators in the preparation of competitive foods. This line, from Massachusetts’ new school nutrition bill, is enough to make nutrition activists jump with joy. Fried foods will be just one of the unhealthy items stricken from Mass. schools after Governor Deval Patrick signs the bill today (full text of the bill here).

“This bill is certainly not a panacea for the childhood obesity epidemic, but it is an important step in creating healthier environments for children,” says Lisa Mannix, manager of State Government Relations at Children’s Hospital Boston, who points out that, on average, children consume two-thirds of their total daily calories while at school. Mannix, along with a number of Children’s clinicians and child health advocates, played crucial roles in advocating for and shaping the legislation.

While this bill regulates “competitive foods”—items in vending machines and al la carte items—it does not regulate food sold as part of the School Lunch Program, which falls under federal jurisdiction.

Transitioning kids from summer fun to a school year structure does not have to be difficult!  With the anticipation of a new school year comes the rites of passage that go along with stepping up a grade, or walking into a new class or school, or perhaps even starting school for the first time ever.  So often, we focus on the ceremony of shopping for a new wardrobe, backpack, binders and markers, but we forget that we should spend some time acclimating our kids' minds for the classroom environment.

This doesn't mean we should hold mock school sessions at home for a month prior to the first day of school; we can ease their minds into 'school mode' without them even realizing it.  You simply have to prepare a little and before you know it, you'll be slipping lessons into your everyday functions and passing them off as mere fun!  Isn't it a delicious thought to be able to fool your kids into learning something?  Well, it might be way easier than you thought possible.

The three most important things to remember are:

1. Make it fun!
2. Make it Fun!!
3. Make it FUN!!!

The fourth thing … dab their baby toe in first ... ease them back in ~ and yes, MAKE IT FUN!

Below are some

quirky

yet

entertaining

brain exercises for every age group.

Young kids:

Camping with little kids is hard work but the memories you’ll create are worth all of the effort.  Make sure to pack a camera to capture those memories.  A few other items that I have found to be invaluable:

• A large tent- The family tent shown here has a room large enough to set up a pack n play for babies or toddlers to sleep in.  You can also use one of the “rooms” as a closet to keep your clothing and other gear organized and easily accessed.
• Disposable wipes- camping is d-i-r-t-y!  Bring along a large pack of wipes for quick and easy clean up of hands (ooey gooey smores + dirt), faces, toys and more.  You can dispose of them in the campfire.
• Inflatable Bed-  You’ll be more comfortable when sleeping on an inflatable bed with blankets and pillows from home.  The extra thick ones are especially nice because you’ll be up off of the ground.  Most of them come with a pump for easy set up.
• Roasting Sticks- These long handled roasting sticks are perfect for heating up hot dogs for an easy lunch or dinner and for roasting marshmallows for smores every night around the campfire.

Remember to pack lots of extra clothing.  Be prepared but be flexible.  Having a back up plan for bad weather or cranky kids is a good idea. Relax and enjoy yourselves as your outdoor adventure unfolds!