Grandpa Richard's Kids

I watched as my son-in-law and grand daughter opened Christmas gifts that involved electronics. Could not believe that my daughter bought her husband a PSP for Christmas. “Won’t he just sit there deep in action, and not hear you talking?” was my question to her.

Then a friend emailed me and shared how her and her children were playing some game on the Wii. She explained to them about a time long ago without electronic games. (horror!!) Instead, she related to them, we played games like kick the can.

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Regular visitors will have noted that I mention toy recalls. I have now added a special food recall section. Just click on the “Food Recalls” link in the title bar of this page.

I purchased a Flip Camcorder the weekend of my grand daughter’s party and “shot” about 45 minutes of video. I finally got to doing the edit portion of the job, and ended up with a 17 minute video. Probably a bit long for a simple home movie, but Jasmine will probably watch it a number of times, despite its length. I could always make a more popular 5 minute version later.

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You know that exercise is good for you, but what about your child? If she is not getting enough exercise, you should take steps to change that today. Exercise is essential to your child’s health. Let’s look at 4 benefits that your child will get from regular exercise:

1. Exercise reduces the risk of obesity. If your child takes part in a regular exercise program, her chances of becoming obese are dramatically reduced. An active child means a healthier child.

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I tend to be a big fan of those small containers of yogurt. When I am done with them, I rinse them out, let them dry, and then put them away. The next time my granddaughter comes over, one activity that we sometimes enjoy together is yogurt container stacking. When she was younger, she had to learn how to stack them properly in order to get them as high as possible. One mistake that she often made is to try and stack the next layer without centering the cups properly. Eventually her wall of yogurt containers would fall over on their own. Once I helped her to understand the proper stacking technique, we would be able to get them as high as possible using all the containers I had. Then what?

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The Great One (hockey’s Wayne Gretzky) has been asked many times, “Do you think my son can make pro?”

Wayne’s answer is always the same, “He’s 15, just enjoy it. Just let him have fun.”

Grandpa Richard heartily agrees. There is too much pressure on young athletes. They need to enjoy their childhood.

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Here is a common piece of logic. God gave us two ears and only one mouth, therefore we should listen more than we talk. Try getting your young son or daughter to agree to that logic. Let’s face it, children are great noise factories.

It may be possible, however, to get them to be quiet on a warm summer’s night. Take them outside and explain how listening to crickets can tell them the temperature. This works great in much of the United States where common crickets live. If you have common crickets in your home area, you can also try this there.

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Wooden blocks have always been one of my favourite toys. I even have a spare set in case a grandchild comes for a visit.

Unfortunately, one type of wooden block is being recalled, and not for the obvious reason of having too much lead in the paint on the surface. This one had too much barium in the paint.

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A relative’s son received a wireless helicopter last Christmas. The little boy in me was very impressed by this flying gadget. Unfortunately, some of them are not safe.

Product Name: “Sky Scrambler” Wireless Indoor Helicopter

Full Product Description: The “Sky Scrambler” toy helicopters have yellow, red or blue decals; product # 1610865; UPC # 694202303351; BH26047 is printed on the helicopter tail.

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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) staff today released its evaluation of various synthetic athletic fields. The evaluation concludes that young children are not at risk from exposure to lead in these fields.

CPSC staff evaluation showed that newer fields had no lead or generally had the lowest lead levels. Although small amounts of lead were detected on the surface of some older fields, none of these tested fields released amounts of lead that would be harmful to children.

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