Fun stuff to do on a cold winter day!

When blocks, blanket tents and playdough have lost their appeal... I always turn to the world wide web for some ideas! There are unlimited resources at your finger tips. Here are some links to ideas for winter crafts and activities on some of my favorite websites:

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/winter/index.html

http://holidays.kaboose.com/winter/index.html

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/winter/

http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/season/specialfeature/craftgroups-winter-crafts/

http://www.freekidcrafts.com/winter.html

BPA in the news again!

Thought this was interesting enough to share! This article basically answers a question that has been nagging me "Why is this issue not being taken more seriously by the powers that be?" It is summed up in this paragraph:

Many of the nearly 200 studies finding severe health effects from bisphenol A exposure have been done by injecting young or pregnant rodents with the chemical.
The American Chemistry Council, an Arlington, Va., trade group for major BPA manufacturers, has argued that injection study results aren't applicable to humans because people are thought to have most of their exposures from oral sources, such as food, subject to rapid metabolizing by liver enzymes. Delivering BPA by injection bypasses this detoxification process and may cause health effects that wouldn't occur by ingesting the chemical, according to the industry's view.

In short. The tests results were obtained through injection of rodents with BPA... and since babies are being fed formula from bottle... not being given shots... it is being suggested that the study is not applicable. I think "not applicable" might be a bit strong. But certainly there are bound to be discrepancies and possibly an exaggeration of symptoms without the inclusion of the effects of breakdown in the liver.

All in all just one more reason to add to the "Why breast is best?" list!

Awesome Site for Kids Movie Ratings

http://www.kidsinmind.com/ This site reconizes the flaws in the MPAA system... and provides concise information about films in an effort to allow parents to take their own value system into account and decide for themselves if a particular movies is suitable for their child.

They state there mission as this: Our Mission The purpose of kids-in-mind.com is to provide parents and other adults with objective and complete information about a film's content so that they can decide, based on their own value system, whether they should watch a movie with or without their kids. It's like a food labeling system which tells you what a food item contains. That's it. We make no judgments about what is good or bad or anything else. Indeed, we do not "condemn," "critique" or "criticize" movies. And we don't "praise" or "recommend" movies either. We advance no "beliefs" and we do not "preach" anything. We are not affiliated with any political party, any cultural or religious group, or any ideology. The only thing we advocate is responsible, engaged parenting.If one reads our reviews one will often find many instances where our descriptions are so detailed they seem absurd. But we'd rather err on the side of comprehensiveness. It's up to parents to decide which details are useful to them and their family, and which ones they consider fatuous. Read the rest of the mission and get more information here : http://www.kids-in-mind.com/help/about.htm