Unique Mother’s Day Gifts
October 2, 2008
Give Mom something special to pamper and relax her this mother’s day. These unique Mother’s Day Gifts make a fun and different surprise for mom on her special day.
10 Stress Free Tips to Pamper Mom This Mothers Day
Mothers Day is the day we set aside each year to show appreciation to our own mother and to the mothers in our lives that we love. Traditionally Mothers Day is the big “Flowers and Chocolate” day. While most moms do enjoy lovely flowers and chocolate, below are some ways that we can pamper mom with gifts and activities that she will remember for years to come.
1. Give Her a Massage
Treat mom to a relaxing massage. Besides just feeling good massage offers many benefits to your body such as reducing stress and anxiety, improves circulation, relieves general body tension and muscle stiffness, improves muscle tone, removes toxins from the muscles, improves flexibility in muscles and joints, improves the immune system, promotes healthy skin and much more. (Editor’s Note: Find out more about massage)
2. Spa Gift Basket
Mom will love a gift basket filled with an assortment of stress relieving goodies to pamper herself on Mothers Day or anytime she needs to relax. Some ideas of what you can include in her Spa Basket are scented bath gel, bath salts, body lotions, candles, eye pillow, bath pillow and bath brush.
3. Journal/Scrapbook
Moms love to record special events, especially those events that include special moments with their children. A journal is a great affordable gift where she can record her special thoughts and memories. You can take it a step further by giving her a scrapbook where she can also add pictures, fun borders, scrapbook embellishments and more to her written thoughts. This gift can last forever!
4. Candles
Scented Candles are a really affordable and practical gift that any mom will love. Candles provide a relaxing mood and can help her to de-stress by providing memories of special events. A baby scented candle can remind her of when she first held you. A peppermint scented candle can bring back memories of Christmas you spent together. Candles come in many shapes, sizes and scents so you are sure to find one to remind mom of a special time you both shared together. Once you find a scent mom likes add a little note to the gift card of what special time you spent together the scent you chose represents.
5. Facial
Moms love to be pampered and a facial is a wonderful relaxing way to do it. You can treat her to a spa for a facial by a licensed practitioner or you can give her a facial gift basket filled with skin care products according to her skin type for her to do at home at her leisure. (Editor’s Note: Don’t forget to check out our homemade spa recipes)
6. Clean House
Treat mom to a “Clean House Day” where you clean her house from top to bottom while she spends her day relaxing and enjoying herself doing whatever it is she likes to do.
7. Mommy and Me Day
Mommy and Me days are not just for mom and little ones anymore. You and mom can spend the day doing whatever is relaxing and enjoyable to you both. Having lunch or dinner together, watching a movie, going to the spa for massages and facials together, whatever she would like to do. The point is to give her the gift of knowing that you love her and enjoy spending quality time with her.
8. Send Her on a Date
Sometimes mom just needs a little time to get away from the everyday chores in life like cooking and cleaning the house. Send her on a date with dad to their favorite restaurant.
9. Yoga
Give the gift of good health to your mom this Mothers Day with a membership to a Yoga class. Yoga is great for relaxation and flexibility as well as being a fun way to get fit and stay fit.
10. Give Her a Hug and Tell Her That You Love Her
This tip is sometimes the most overlooked! We all love our moms but sometimes as we get older and get busy with our own lives we take mom for granted and forget the gift that is most important to her- US! Spend quality time with mom. Give her a big hug and tell her that you love and appreciate her. It’s a free gift and one that mom will love most off all.
Erica Brooks is Owner of Stress Away Family Shop which includes Stress Away Bath Shop and Stress Away Bridal Shop. She specializes in offering products, tips and resources to help you to combat the everyday stresses of life. You can reach her at stressawayfamilyshop.com and stressawaybathshop.com or via e-mail at service@stressawaybathshop.com
Traditional Kids Summer Camps
October 2, 2008
Traditional kids summer camps are a great solution if the kids are out of school and parents are working. Take a look at some of the benefits of sending your kids to summer camps.
Summer Camp Fun
As parents we are responsible for making sure that our kids have great experiences. During the school year the school teachers enrich their lives through mental stimulation and activities. The issue for many parents is the summer time. The children are out of school and have all of heir days free. The issue is that most parents do not have the time off from work and must be out of the home for the majority of the day. The greatest way to combat your children being left alone to be babied by the television and the video games is to send them to summer camp. Summer camps are a good thing for the children and the parents alike. The parents are able to go to work without having to worry about their children being stuck at home getting dumber by the minute and children do not have to worry about being bored to tears and watching the same talk shows every day.
There are all types of children in the world. Some children enjoy sports and others enjoy crafts and others enjoy totally different things. The summer camps that are available to choose from are just as diverse as the children that attend them. For the kids that love sports there are sports specialty summer camps. When I was a child one of the camps that I went to was soccer camp. I spent the whole day everyday playing the game that I loved. My brother on the other hand loved hockey so when summer camp time rolled around he went to a hockey camp. My other brother loved music and playing instruments. Every year he attended a musical camp. We are just one example of how summer camps can bend to fit all types of children in all walks of life.
Summer camps teach children some very valuable skills in addition to the sports and the like. Children learn to adapt to an environment that is unusual for them. They are used to their teachers and the fellow students that they have grown up with and they are familiar with the rules they deal with day in and day out. Going to a summer camp with new adults and new kids allows them to see how the world changes and how they must adjust their behavior and line of thinking to fit it to their new surroundings.
Summer camp is a valuable experience on many accounts. If you are a parent and are considering letting you child stay home and do nothing over the summer consider letting them know about summer camp. You may find that your child is ready and willing to learn and experience new things at the summer camp of their choice.
For more information about Summer Camp or to check into Teen Summercamps or Traditional Summercamps.
Teaching Your Kids To Be Thankful This Thanksgiving
October 2, 2008
Thanksgiving is the perfect time to teach your kids about being thankful. Here are some ideas to teach your children how to appreciate the blessings in their lives.
Giving Thanks Placemats
The goal of this craft is to create a collage filled with drawings and pictures of all the things your children are thankful for. Cut photos from magazines, or print some photos from your computer. Older children can write captions under the photos or draw their own. Be sure to put the child’s name and the year on it.
If you make this collage from two standard letter size pieces of construction paper taped side-by-side, you can take the completed collage to a copy shop when you’re done and have it laminated. It then becomes a placemat that you can use every Thanksgiving for years to come.
Thankful Paper Chain
Another way to remind your children of their blessings is to create a paper chain. This is similar to a regular paper chain - where you cut strips of paper and connect them together as loops, but there’s one difference. You write on the strips of paper before you connect them. Write the things you are thankful for with your children. For instance, “Grandma plays games with me” or “My teacher is nice.” The fun part of this activity is to make the chain as long as possible - showing all your blessings. If you’d like to keep this up during Christmas, just use green and white paper.
Thanksgiving Tree
This is another take on the idea above and works really well if you have several kids in the family. Get each child to trace their hand on yellow, red, or brown construction paper. Cut out the hand shapes and write (or have the child write) what they are thankful for on the hand shape. Cut a tree trunk shape out of brown construction paper. Glue it on a large piece of poster board. Let the kids add their hand shapes as leaves above the tree trunk, turning it into a beautiful fall colored tree.
Thankful Book
This idea is similar to the others, except it’s more of a keepsake. Purchase a photo album or scrapbook kit and make a “blessings” theme. Add photos of loved ones, including stories about why they are special to you. Also, include pages of your favorite foods, favorite stories, favorite movies and all the other things that make you happy. Any time your kids feel down, you can open your blessing book to see all the reasons you have to be happy - and thankful for the blessings in your life.
