Happy New Year!
It's the start of a new year! We have so much to be thankful for. As our friend BOZ, The Green Bear Next Door™ says, we should always stop and count our blessings.
What’s New Online?
A Video Scrapbook
and More!
BOZ has added a new high-tech element to his website:
a video scrapbook!
Take a tour of the neighborhood and find out all kinds of neat things about BOZ, Drew, Gracie, and all their friends and family members. The video scrapbook is fun for kids and a great way to introduce your friends to BOZ.
While the video scrapbook is sure to appeal to your preschooler, you will be interested in a new online video interview with BOZ creators Jon Green and Dennis DeShazer. Dennis and Jon share their hopes and dreams for Exclaim Entertainment and BOZ, The Green Bear Next Door.™
While you're at BozTheBear.com, be sure to check out all of the other fun elements for kids in the World of BOZ, including listening to BOZ songs and watching segments from BOZ DVDs. And don't forget the Parents' section for lots of great information just for you!
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BOZ and his preschool friends across the nation have discovered that we can thank God for many things, including:
- God's green earth
- All of the colors God has created
- The many different shapes we can find every day
- Being able to share what we have with people in need
- Learning new things
- Healthy, active bodies
- Friends we can play with
- Yummy fruits and vegetables to eat
- Being able to get squeaky clean
- Active imaginations
- Books in the library
- Helping others
- And so much more!
As the New Year begins, BOZ is going to continue to discover ways to count his blessings … and write about them! With the first BOZ DVD of 2007, preschoolers will have the opportunity to join BOZ in saying Thank You God For…B-O-Zs and 1-2-3s!
This new adventure, which will be available at your favorite Christian store beginning on January 30, not only helps your preschooler see all of the fun BOZ, Drew, and Gracie have with letters and numbers, it also helps them discover that there are creative ways to solve our differences with others! You can even preorder the DVD now!
So Happy New Year to you and your family. And may this be a year that we all actively seek to count our blessings … and thank God for each and every one of them!
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Growing Closer to Everyone in Your Family
The beginning of a new year is a great time to consider how your family can grow closer together. In other words, how can you become a family of purpose?
When the kids are napping, go ahead and prop up your feet, sip a cup coffee or hot chocolate … and relax. Dream of fun things that you can do with each individual child. Remember, when you carve out time to give undivided attention, you're saying, "I care about you! You're so important to me that I'll do whatever it takes to spend time with just you."
Undivided attention can be as simple as taking one particular child to the grocery store. Or, you might decide to do something special — like eating lunch at McDonald's with your three-year-old and then going to a neighborhood park together.
Whatever you do, have fun and talk with each other — one-on-one. Ask your child questions. Try to understand what he is thinking. Allow her to ask you questions. You could do this while riding in the car, baking cookies together, or when you're making a meal for a sick friend from church.
What simple things can you purposely do this year that will help you build a relationship with each of your children? The time that you spend with each of your children today will help you know and understand them tomorrow.
For more great ideas from FamilyLife, be sure to visit their website.
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Creatively Beating
The Blues
It's January and perhaps the "after-the-holidays blues" have set in for you and your child. But you can beat the boredom with these fun indoor activities:
- Create a bowling alley in the hall. Collect empty plastic soda-pop bottles or milk cartons and set them up at the end of a hallway. Use soft, bouncy balls for some fun indoor bowling.
- Make your own picture storybooks. Gather catalogs and magazines from around the house (that you are finished with!) and have older preschoolers cut out pictures and glue them on to blank sheets of paper (any color). Children can also decorate their books with crayons, markers, and stickers. When the pages are complete, hole-punch along the top and thread yarn through the holes, tying the ends together and making a loop so it can be carried or hung by the yarn. When the book is complete, sit down with you preschooler and have her tell you the story of her book.
- Produce a fashion show. Allow your children to choose what they would like to dress-up as (cowboy, astronaut, cook, teacher, etc.) and find things around the house to transform your youngster into this new character. Once the costumes are on, have each child walk through the house displaying their finery. And be sure to take lots of pictures for Grandma and Grandpa!
For more great activities and other practical mothering resources, visit the MOPS International website. |
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