Storybook Quilts Rocks!

Summer vacations are quickly coming to an end! Experts say that it’s wise to get your child back on schedule in advance of the actual start of the school year. As most of us know, two of the most important physical determinants of success in school are enough sleep and a good breakfast.

SLEEP. Children ages 5 – 10 years do best on 10 – 11 hours of sleep. So, getting up at, say, 6:30 AM for a 7:30 AM bus pickup means going to bed by 8:30 PM at the latest. Starting back on that schedule early makes it easier; your children won’t be trying to adjust to a new schedule at the same time they face the challenges of all the new things at school. For more on this, here’s a great blog post from the University of North Carolina’s Health Care News.

BREAKFAST. How important is breakfast? Children who eat a good breakfast are likely to learn more — and are less likely to be overweight. Even for adults, skipping breakfast is likely to lead to eating more calories for the rest of the day than after a good breakfast.

Toaster pastries and sweet cereals are fine once in a while, but they are poor at carrying anyone through to lunch. So, what’s best? Here’s a list adapted from the Nemours Foundation, just down the road from Storybook Quilts.

The traditional, but not-terribly-imaginative list:
• eggs (well cooked to avoid any salmonella risks)
• French toast, waffles, or pancakes (try wheat or whole-grain varieties); real maple syrup adds nutrients that other syrups don’t
• cold cereal and milk
• hot cereal, such as oatmeal or, my childhood favorite, Maypo (try some dried fruit or nuts on top)
• whole-grain toast, bagel, or English muffin with cheese or a nut butter
• yogurt with fruit or nuts
• fruit smoothie, such as a strawberry smoothie or a banana smoothie; sprinkle on some bran or other high-fiber cereal to add crunch

The more imaginative list:
• banana dog (peanut butter, a banana, and raisins in a long whole-grain bun)
• breakfast taco – corn tortillas have much more nutrition than flour tortillas (shredded cheese on a tortilla, folded in half and microwaved; top with salsa)
• country cottage cheese (apple butter mixed with cottage cheese)
• fruit and cream cheese sandwich (use strawberries or other fresh fruit)
• sandwich — grilled cheese, peanut butter and jelly, peanut butter and banana, or another favorite

Many of these also make great whoops-we-overslept breakfasts, so there’s really no excuse . . .

Disney has a great selection of recipes here.

Involving children in planning breakfast for the week can pique their interest in eating well. If you have a budding chef in the family, he or she might like being in charge of breakfast once a week.

If you’ve got suggestions for fun breakfasts, add them in below in a comment!

Do you remember your first bike? Was it a trike or a bike with training wheels? What color was it? Who taught you to ride on just two wheels? Did you teach your own children the same way? Where did you ride? Do you still ride?

Learning to ride a bike has to be one of the most thrilling experiences of childhood – well, after the falls are over. I remember my father holding the back of the seat to steady my blue two-wheeler as I wobbled down a dirt driveway. (I trusted him to keep me from falling – perhaps that trust is the serious lesson from learning to ride.) Then, suddenly, I could DO IT! And a whole new world opened up.

This is one experience that hasn’t changed much. Now we make sure our children are wearing helmets (a very good idea), but biking is pretty much the same. It still takes balance and two in-line wheels.

These websites include some great tips on teaching a child — or an adult! — to ride.
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/teachride.html
http://www.ibike.org/education/teaching-kids.htm#Mistakes
http://www.biketas.org.au/bikeed.php

Family biking can be a great way to share fun time together and to stay fit. Get really good at it and compete in mountain biking competitions, like my nephew and his family!

Tell us your experiences. It’s American Bike Month!