Election Day is Tuesday , November 4. RIte Care Works (who assist children in need by providing them with the best possible health care), put together this great list to help you and your children get ready to vote. Take this opportunity to make your voice heard on the issues that are most important to our families such as health care and education.

1. Find out where and when you vote!

Please go to the Rhode Island Secretary of State’s Voter Information Center to find out:
• If you are registered
• Where you vote
• What time your polling location is open

If you have any other questions, you can find answers online or call the voting hotline at (401) 222-2340.

2. Tell everyone else to vote on November 4th!
Here’s your assignment: contact family members, friends, and co-workers and remind them to go vote on November 4.

If they don’t know where to go, direct them to the Rhode Island Secretary of State’s Voter Information Center to find out.

3. Read up on the how the Presidential Candidates feel about the issues (e.g. Read HERE what the Presidential candidates are planning to do on the issue of health care.)

4. Put Voting in your Schedule for Tuesday, November 4th!
The easiest time to vote is when you are on your way to do something you would normally do on a Tuesday – like going to or from work, taking a trip to the grocery store, or dropping off the kids at soccer practice. Schedule in an extra ½ hour on one of these trips to stop by your polling station and vote.

5. Talk to your children about voting!
Talk to your children about why it is important to vote, and ask them if they’d like to come with you on Election Day and see what it’s like. If it just isn’t practical to bring your children take some time today to make arrangements for them so that you can get out and vote.
Read more about voting with kids HERE and HERE on Kidoinfo.

6. If you need a ride to the polls, pick up the phone!
You can call the headquarters of any political party to ask for a ride to the polls. Most local candidates will also give you a ride to the polls. You do not need to vote for the candidate or party that gives you a ride.

7. Any questions about voting on November 4th?
Please visit the “Find Out More” section of the Voter Information Center, or call the voting hotline at (401) 222-2340.

8. Tuesday: Vote!
This is it! Today you can make you voice heard on health care – and every other issue you care about, education, the environment, taxes, etc. So cast your vote!

Special announcement: If you are not registered to vote, you can still vote for President on November 4th. For more information, please click HERE.

Halloween can be a fun time for kids with all the creative costumes, candy treats, seasonal events, decorations, making crafts, and carving jack-o-lanterns, but it can also be overwhelming, what with all the scary costumes and decorations, candy overload, and staying up late.

Depending on the age of your child you may opt for a simple celebration, dressing up your children and meeting friends at your favorite park or trick or treating early at the Providence Children’s Museum or at local businesses on Hope Street in Providence. One year we took our boys trick-or-treating to just a handful of neighbors’ houses and then came home to watch It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. That was about all our three-year-olds needed or could handle at that age.

Whatever you choose to do, make it a safe Halloween. Read the Safety Tips below from the American Red Cross. Then read about what to do with all that candy your kids collect.

Make it a Safe Halloween

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Great Cookbooks for Families:
Reviewed by Katy Killilea

Cooking—at any age—can be just like playing, and if the results of this playing fill a belly with wholesome food, all the better. Over the past ten years, Mollie Katzen has written three books for the very youngest cooks—two of them are specifically for “preschoolers and up.”

In these books, recipes are written and illustrated with pre-readers in mind. For example, when three spoonfuls of maple syrup are to be added to the Sunrise Lemonade in Salad People, a drawing of three charming spoons beside an iconic jug of syrup clues you in (written below the drawing is “add 3 tablespoons syrup,” in case you need reassurance that you’re getting the picture). Honest Pretzels is recommended “for cooks ages 8 and up,” so the recipes are a wee bit more complex. As with Katzen’s other kids’ books, each step is illustrated.

Katzen has childhood food preferences nailed. In all of her books—for child or adult cooks—her aesthetic is for homey, simple, yummy foods, often with ethnic twists. Bagel Faces, Smart Cookies (“eat ’em on the bus!”), and Carrot Pennies all take familiar foods and add some child-enticing sparkle. For example, Spaghetti Pie requires the snipping of pasta strands with scissors. But then it also requires eating spaghetti in the format of a wedge of pie. Twists like this are just weird enough (i.e., intriguing but not revolting).

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You want to hold your baby, but you’d also like to get things done, right? Right. This is where baby-wearing comes in handy. You can take a stroll, shop, check your email, eat a sandwich, even mingle at a party…while keeping your baby close. If the slings seem too complicated, there are plenty of other baby carriers to choose from. Here is a list for those of you who feel that “the sling is not my thing.” Many are adjustable (to fit both mommy and daddy) and offer great back and shoulder support. We recommend you try them out and see what is most comfortable for you…and what works with your budget.

• Baby Bjorn – the baby is worn in the front but can snuggle with you or face outwards.
• ERGO Baby – great ergonomic design for baby and parent comfort.
• Baby Hawk – Asian-inspired carrier that can be worn on your front, hip, or back.
And once babies are a little bigger, there is a wide selection of backpack carriers. All of this may seem overwhelming, but the idea is for you to find a way to be hands-free and comfortable.

Related reviews on Kidoinfo:
Baby on Board: Baby Wearing Beyond the Bjorn
In This Ring: A Sling for Every Occasion
Kanga Knew: Fitted Pouches for a Happier Roo

Kristen Kardos, MA Ed., and Kathy McGuigan, MSW, the co-founders of RI New Moms Connection, provide affordable, accessible pregnancy and new mom groups throughout Rhode Island. In “Tips for New Moms” they share their knowledge, resources, and helpful ideas for moms just beginning their journey into motherhood or moms who may need a little refresher.

Editor’s Note: Although “Tips for New Moms” is written with the new mom in mind—to support women in their journey through motherhood—it is certainly not the authors’ intention to exclude dads. Every new parent will find their tips, resources, and insights helpful. I invite all moms and dads to share ideas on how they manage their new role as a parent with Kidoinfo in the comments below.

By Jaci Arnone

Honestly, is there anything cuter than Hello Kitty molded to perfection out of sticky rice? Or more enticing to your kids than hard-boiled eggs pressed into the shape of Mr. and Mrs. Pac Man complete with nori Power Dots?

If you think I’m kidding, try searching “Bento” on flickr.com, and you’ll find over 67,000 images of the most adorable array of edible treats one could imagine all packed into equally as irresistible lunch boxes.

Historically, “bento” or “obento” refers to a Japanese boxed lunch. Although Japanese people do not generally spend their time laboring over elaborate daily lunches, ‘cute bento’ has become a popular international past time. You will find websites and resources galore for packing, creating, and mastering the art of bento. The selection of bento boxes is equally expansive, most of which feature divided compartments to allow for small portions of a variety of foods.

But there’s more to Bento than general cuteness. First and foremost, I’m attracted to the nutritional aspects that bento style lunches offer. They allow us to present a balanced meal offering a range of food groups in small portions (un-super-sized!). And for notoriously picky eaters like my youngest son, the visual presentation is a big plus. Bento lunches traditionally include a variety of color, textures, and shapes. And let me tell you from experience, my son is much more likely to try a hard-boiled egg if it’s molded into the shape of Pikachu.

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Putamaya is well-known for bringing us music from all over the globe. Now Putamaya Kids has teamed up with the well-loved Sesame Street crew to create Sesame Street Playground. This CD/ DVD set features 13 songs and 5 music videos from Sesame Street productions around the world. The new release represents the shared mission of Putumayo Kids and Sesame Workshop: to reach children worldwide and help children learn about and respect other cultures. This is the first globally distributed Sesame Workshop release featuring these intriguing international productions, and a great way to introduce kids to other countries and cultures. A portion of the sales of Sesame Street Playground will benefit Sesame Workshop productions in more than 100 countries.

By Katy Killilea

Natural nut butters are great for families trying to avoid trans fats or for kids who attend schools that have banned peanut butter. But it’s hard to settle on a satisfactory strategy for blending the separated oil back in. Dump and scrape the separated goo into a shallow container and mash it with a fork? Mix it with whatever spreading knife is handy and splash it onto your sweater? Haul out the Cuisinart and give it a whiz? Store the jar upside down in the fridge and hope for the best? Not elegant solutions.

Here, to save the nut butter mixer’s day, is a gadget from inventor Bob Witmer of Ohio. A hook, inserted through a rubber gasket in a metal lid, gets vigorously cranked and the nut butter becomes utterly smooth. Once the job is done, you pull the hook out through the gasket, which very tidily cleans off every bit of butter from said hook. You then replace the Witmer Peanut Butter Mixer lid with the lid that came on the jar originally.
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Providence Children’s Museum reopens on Tuesday, October 28, after being closed for extensive renovations. Yesterday my boys and I got a sneak peak of Play Power, a major new exhibit celebrating the power of children’s play that will be the centerpiece at next week’s reopening at the museum. The exhibit encourages kids to experiment, explore, invent, and imagine as they investigate air, light, magnets, motion, and sound. The message? Play is powerful! Although there were many pieces still being built and installed when we visited, there were a few things ready-enough for the boys to play with and get an idea of what’s to come.

Boys explore the Light Wall which looks like a giant Lite Brite. (This one is my favorite.)

Boys build with translucent plexi blocks and shapes at the Light Table.

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By Elyse Major

Birthday party planning and party venues have become quite the booming industry. It seems like almost any business can figure out a way to handle your party needs. I can imagine a Supermarket Party, where each child gets to load a cart, guess the weight of green peppers on a scale, and have cake at the WiFi café. Favors could be packed into reusable bags! Kidding aside, many of these non-DIY or “pre-packaged” parties can be fun, active, and sometimes cost-effective.

However, it can also be very fun and rewarding to plan and host your own party. In our family, we have a Brothers’ Party each year. My boys were born two years and two weeks apart, and since they share many of the same pals, we combine their birthdays into one annual fete. Deciding on a party theme can make everything else fall into place. Here are a few ideas from past parties.

The Pirate Party
This party was planned about a year before the pirate craze started. The lack of available favors and items forced some creativity.
Location: The best idea of all for this party came from my son Jonah, who excitedly suggested that we have the party at a beach. We did. We had the party at Bristol Town Beach and took a chance that its covered picnic area would be available. It was!
Highlights: Finding buried oversized gold coins in the sand; a piñata; and temporary tattoos.
Fun Food: Pirate’s Booty and pizza strips.

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Reviewed by Katy Killilea

We can’t stop reading this book. The premise is simple: photographs of families, from all over the planet, posing with the food they eat over the course of a week. You may have seen some of these family portraits in an email that was making the rounds a few months ago. You can also see them at Time.com. I have never seen a geography/social studies book as fascinating.

As you’d imagine, there is a striking difference in the amount of food people have. Another factor that leaps out at readers is the difference in the amount of packaged foods. (Check out the wall of Coke sported by the Casaleses family of Mexico!) Fortunately, there is no maudlin Sally Struthersesque text accompanying the photos. The Natomo family in Mali—a family of fifteen—poses with a few large sacks of grain, one bottle of milk, and not much else. I was concerned about how this would make my kids feel. Not worried that they would feel sad about the Natomos so much, but that they’d be left feeling sorry for the people of Mali or even worse—smug about living in Supersize-Me-land. But the authors manage to tell it like it is without inspiring pity or fear.

Children will want to spend time studying the photos. International McDonald’s packaging offers a quick lesson in graphic design and brand recognition. Seahorses and cicadas-on-a-stick for sale in China allow you to see shrimp kebab with new eyes. Kids will want to reach right into the Egyptian cotton candy vendor’s supply. You might want to flip by the roasted whole guinea pig if you have a guinea pig as a pet—no disrespect to Ecuador intended. Kids who can read will love the narratives, how the families prepare their food, and what they do over the course of a day. That the Greenlandic father lists his favorite food as “polar bear” gives us a thrill every time we read it.

I am recommending this book to anyone who will listen. What’s on your must-read list these days?

The details;
What the World Eats
Photography by Peter Menzel
Written by Faith D’Aluisio
$22.99
Tricycle Press