Blog Posts by Charlene Prince Birkeland, Shine staff

photo credit: getty imagesWhether it's cleaning the windows or washing the car, you still have chores to do while the kids are on summer break. There's no reason you can't get the family involved in the your outdoor chores. We've five outdoor chores into games that are perfect for the under-8 crowd. Check 'em out!

• Silly Sweeping: Using outdoor chalk, have your kids draw a circle on the ground. The circle is their target. Each child must sweep leaves, tree droppings, whatever they find on the ground, into their circle. Whoever has the largest pile at the end of a set time limit wins!

• Plant Showers: Using scissors, poke 5-8 holes in an aluminum pie tin. Fill a container with water (clean plastic milk or juice bottles work well because of the have handles). Let your little ones hold the pie tin over plants or flowers, pour water into the tin and "shower" the plants and flowers.

• Gold Panning in the Garden: My son came up with this twist on Plant Showers. You'll still need an aluminum plant tin,

What's not to love about playing hopscotch? At home, it's the cost of outdoor chalk (less than five bucks) so your kids can draw a hopscotch pattern on the sidewalk. On a rainy day, they could use painter's tape for indoor hopscotch! If you're at the beach or on a playground, hopscotch is free. Adde

photo credit: getty imagesI love gardening but have always faced a serious challenge: I lack a green thumb. Every plant that becomes part of our backyard must be hardy. Based on my track record, delicate flowers don't last long.

When it comes to gardening with my children, plant choice is critical. Lucky for me, I know all about finding plants that are easy enough for kids to grow.

If you're looking for a gardening project with your little ones, the best plants are those your kids will look forward to seeing when they bloom. Edible flowers, fruits and vegetables are always a good choice and if you lack space, you can always plant in containers. In fact, I prefer having my kids use containers for gardening because my kids feel a sense of ownership. Also? It's easier for the kids to figure out a watering schedule; containers always have to be watered more frequently.

Five plants that are ideal for your young kid gardeners include:

• Strawberries. Instead of growing berries from seed, find a starter pack at

photo credit: getty imagesWhile Major League Baseball is just getting into a groove, millions of kids playing Little League Baseball are approaching the end of their season. (Yes, millions! According to Little League, more than 2.5 million children played ball in the 2010 season.)

As a parent, I'm always shocked at how quickly the season goes by. Just when my kid's team has started to really look like a cohesive bunch, we're already looking at playoff schedules and the boys and girls are deciding which coaches to dunk in the dunk tank at Player Appreciation Day.

If you have a little one who's eager to get on the field next spring, it's a good time to pay attention to what's been happening throughout the Little League season in your town. You'll see a range of teams, with players who have big league dreams to kids who, in the third inning, are already thinking about what candy they're going to buy at the Snack Shack.

What do kids learn from playing Little League baseball? Well, it all depends on the coaching

photo credit: getty imagesDoes the start of your child's summer vacation take you by surprise?

Sure, you know your kids are spending oh, about 12 weeks without school. And you also know it takes time to get into that summer vacation groove. (You can expect this "getting into the groove" time to occur during the wait for the start of summer camp. Naturally.)

And yet? The last day of school arrives and you're wondering how your kids will pass the time over the next few months.

Fear not, anxious parent. We have five activities you'll want to pursue during the early stages of summer vacation.

• Plan a Do Nothing Day. Maybe it's the first day of summer vacation or a few days into the break, but pick a weekday where the kids can wake up and just hang out in their PJs all day (if they so choose). You have nothing on the schedule but time to just chill out. Let the kids decide what they want to do with two rules: the activity has to be relaxing and not involve spending money!

• Make the kids take swimming

Every parent who has a child on a sports team has signed up for snack duty for after a practice or game. And that parent usually faces a small dilemma the morning or afternoon of the event. It's that mild panic of "Oh no! Today's my day for snack duty!" mixed with "Oh no! What am I going to feed the kids?" Because even though you know snack duty is coming, that day arrives at the most inopportune time. Like when you're stuck in a meeting all day and have to pick up treats on the way to the event.

It's easy to run to the store and grab a box of donuts or cookies and a pack of Gatorade, but are those snacks the best foods to be feeding the team after a workout?

"Every parent wants to be the cool parent that brings the cool snacks," said Julie Matel, clinical dietician at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. "You want to avoid snacks loaded with sugar. Don't eliminate fun foods from diets. But a sporting event should be centered on health and what is healthy for our body. And these are

Every parent has many, many "I will never forget when [insert child's name and memory]..." moments. For me, it was a few days after my second son was born. I was holding him in the living room and my older son, then 3, was singing on the patio. My husband called me out to watch because as my kid sang, he wrote each and every letter of the alphabet. He also knew the sound that each letter made. I was floored and thought, of course, that he was absolutely BRILLIANT.

I'd like to take full credit for all of this but here's the thing: My kid learned the letter sounds from a DVD called "The Letter Factory" by LeapFrog. The main character, Tad, visits a letter factory where he learns letter names and sounds, and a catchy song that helps him remember the lesson. My son had only watched the DVD a few times, but it made a huge impact. And I've recommended this DVD to every single parent trying to get a preschooler excited about letters and reading. (Watching a DVD can't substitute for parental

Sometimes new parents can't even imagine leaving the house without their adorable baby. Or they're just too tired and would rather hire a babysitter to watch the bambino so they can get an uninterrupted nap.

In the hustle and bustle of changing diapers, cleaning bottles and nursing gear and surviving the general exhaustion that newborns bring, relationships often fall to the bottom of the list.

Leaving the house without the kid (kids if you have multiples) becomes incredibly important for new parents because it gives the rookie mom and dad a chance to reconnect as a couple.

You don't have to go on a fancy date and leave the baby home until the wee hours of the night. (Although I do recommend doing that every once and a while--24 hours a away from your kid can seem like a week-long vacation.)

Here are five simple and budget-friendly date ideas for new parents:

• Visit a cafe and bookstore. Whether it's breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner or dessert, dining at small, quaint cafe