“A vonderful goot game!” from the Dutch Blitz web site

It’s that time of year…that time when we start looking for great stocking stuffers, gift exchange gifts; and games for our kids for Christmas AND that time when we start gathering around the table in the dark evenings and weekends rather than playing outdoors. We are a huge game family! Love, love, love playing table games. We suffered through (okay, now I don’t think it is suffering as I miss my kids’ little days so much—but at the time, it got long!) many, many games of Chutes and Ladders, Clue Junior, and Go Fish. But it was worth it all as we now have seven kids (and some kids-in-love) to gather around the game table for fun “big kids” games, like the ones I am reviewing below!

These three card games are great for Christmas:

1. Small amount gift exchanges
2. 40 presentation ideas for cash or gift cards
3. Pass around/steal gifts
4. Plastic wrap gifts
5. Kid exchanges
6. More!

(Please note that I am an affiliate for Amazon. I receive a small commission when you click on my links below. Thanks so much for your support of this blog!)

Dutch Blitz

The Dutch Blitz website describes this game as “It’s kind of like solitaire. But with multiple players. And a lot more speed. And color. And fun.”

That sums it up. It is one of my personal favorite card games for two to four players, ages eight and up or so. (However, you can get a second deck and mark the four “suits” with a check on each and instead of being “buckets,” the player who is that suit would be “buckets with a check.” Large families are extremely creative and resourceful, you know!)

Dutch Blitz was created by Werner Ernst George Muller, a German immigrant and optometrist who thought the game might help his small children learn about colors and numbers more easily. (That really isn’t true since it is so fast moving, small children can hardly play it much less learn from the flying cards!) At any rate, Muller’s game caught the attention of gamers in Eastern and Central Pennsylvania and has since spread throughout the world and is available via two hundred different vendors.

This card game can be purchased for around ten bucks, is portable, and can be learned in a few minutes. Players each take a “suit,” and make stacks in front of them from which they play on the board simultaneously, trying to be the first one to put their Red 1, Red 2, Red 3, etc. in the red stack; Blue 1, Blue 2, Blue 3, etc. in the blue stack; and so on.

It is a game of high speed (my kids’ grandpa does not like it at all!), laughter, and fun. We love it so much that I just got each of my “grown” children a deck for Christmas to be sure that they have it to play with friends and not just when they are home visiting. I don’t think your family would be disappointed with Dutch Blitz!

Btw, for you current Dutch Blitz players, the website touts a “card replacement” policy for lost cards—and it looks to be free. Imagine that!

Oh—if you have an old deck without the rules, you can re-learn the game by getting the free download of the rules here.

Get Dutch Blitz on Amazon!

Pit

Pit is another favorite card game of my crew for ages eight and up, from three to eight players. It is a loud, rowdy game that boys, especially, love! Do not play this if you have a headache or do not like a lot of noise!

The website describes this game as “Pit Deluxe is the ‘Corner on the Market’ card game! Shout your deal and trade your cards to ‘corner’ the market. Be the first to get all the cards of one commodity, ring the bell and you’ll win the hand.”

In a nutshell, each player is dealt a certain number of cards and then everybody begins shouting out “two, two, two” or “one, one, one” (or three or four) to trade a pair, trio, etc. of the same card to try to accumulate all one commodity (rice, corn, wheat, etc.). You alone can see the cards that you are trading, and when somebody else also has the same number of cards to trade, you swap those cards. The game continues in this loud, crazy manner until someone shouts “Corner on the Market” or rings the bell, signifying that he has all of the same commodities in his hand.

If you’ve got boys who like card games, your family will enjoy Pit. If you have a shortage of nerves, you will not! Takes a couple of minutes to learn. Check out the link below.

Get the game of Pit here!

Uno

The Uno website heralds Uno as one of the world’s most popular family card games, with rules easy enough for kids, but challenging and exciting enough for all ages.

This colorful card game is similar to “Crazy Eight” in that you go around the table playing a card if you have the same number (or color)—or you play a WILD card (in place of the crazy eight) that causes your opponents to have to draw four cards, skip their play, etc. The object of the game is to get rid of all of your cards.

This game, for ages seven and up, also takes a few minutes to learn—and has the added advantage of being for up to ten players. Great for large family play! This game is the most widely available of the three reviewed today and can usually be purchased at Walmart and other local retailers. Good for new readers or even smart non-readers, it is one of the most “family friendly” games as it is appropriate for fairly young children and even grandparents.

You can get Uno here!

If you are looking for ideas for Christmas with young adults/college kids, check out my series about this topic. I think you’ll find lots of fun ideas! You don’t have to quit having Christmas fun just because the kids are grown! ?

P.S. What are your favorite stocking stuffer games?

Love and hope,

Pin this post for later!

The post 3 Fun Family Card Games appeared first on Character Ink.

I already mentioned in an earlier homeschool benefit post about being able
to be with our children all the time. I will always cherish the eighteen
years that I have had with each of my children all day long… well sixteen
years until they started working day jobs and going to college, etc. I will
never regret that I spent those years with my children.

Likewise, I will be eternally grateful for the time that my children had
together. It isn’t always easy to have your kids together twenty-four hours
a day, seven days a week. Trust me, I know–for twenty-nine years. However,
my children as adults between the ages of nearly seventeen and thirty-two
now have strong bonds with each other –in large part due to the fact that
they were together all the time.

One of the things that we tried hard not to do in terms of our children’s
relationships with each was to continually rescue them from each other. That
is, always attempting to separate them and always intervening and working
things out for them. They will come out much stronger in relationships with
other people as well as in relationships with each other if we don’t try to
thwart the very nature of homeschooling–that our kids are together. When we
do this, we are not taking advantage of the full benefit of this benefit!

This is not to say that we did not intervene in disputes and problems; we
did. However, we didn’t constantly try to send them apart from each other,
so we would not have the headache of them being together. Instead, we kept
them together in school; we took them to activities together; we grouped
them together in subjects whenever possible; we spent a lot of time
together; and we taught them how to work through difficulties with each
other and with other people.

The siblings-in-homeschooling relationship is one that you can get nowhere
else. Home is where a person is usually himself or herself. While the child
would not treat a friend in a certain way, he or she might be tempted to
treat a sibling in that way. Our children having been together all these
years has given them the opportunity to learn to compromise. They learned
how to put others first. They learned early on that they are going to be
together every day for many years – as my now- thirty-two year old son once
said about this subject, “I figured I better work it out and get along with
them and like them because I was pretty much stuck with them all the time. ”
He says that he decided at a young age that he would rather have fun all the
time then to always be at war with his siblings. And so he learned to work
things out.

Siblings are our children’s first friends and hopefully siblings are their
last friends. That is, hopefully, they will be friends for a lifetime.
Homeschooling affords them the opportunity to share life with these
“friends” every day all day long. I am so grateful that my kids have been
together every day for many years.

The post Homeschool Benefit #4: Siblings Get to Be Together Every Day appeared first on Character Ink.

Kara (4.5) and Jonathan (almost 3) doing their sibling Bible verse for a special at church: “How happy it is when brothers dwell together in unity!”

The next tip after trying to set your toddler’s taste for kindness is the following: Decide ahead of time what your “behavior absolutes” are going to be. 


1. These are the behaviors or negative character that you absolutely will not allow in your home. What you allow now will become the “acceptable behaviors” to your child. These seemingly innocent actions include “fibbing,” hitting, being mean to others, running the other way when called, etc.


2.  For us, these “behavior absolutes” included the following:

a. Talking back (no toddler saying “no” without being punished)
b. Lying or deceit
c. Temper tantrums
d. Striking (hitting, pulling hair, throwing things at someone, etc.). 
e. Being mean

Obviously, we wanted our kids to learn to obey and submit to us and to learn the many character qualities that are crucial to living a Christian life, but these five things were things we never wavered on—and things that we made huge deals out of when they were not adhered to by the toddler/preschooler.

Kara (now 23) and Jonathan (now 21) have been best friends since they were very young.–honest! 😉

One question we frequently get when discussing the idea of behavior absolutes is “How do we make a certain behavior an absolute?”

Before I delve into a couple specific tips for this, I do want to say that keeping sibling fighting to a minimum, helping brothers and sisters love each other, and instituting and enforcing a no striking policy is more a way of life than it is a list of do’s and don’t’s. 

Obviously, we believe that there are some key things that accounted for our children’s very limited fighting and not harming each other, but more than that list of things we did is the idea of being “that family.” Not weird or trying to outdo others with our “uniqueness”–but rather our children knew that though others might fight all the time, we were”that family”–the family that doesn’t allow that. Though other children may raise their hands to harm their sibling, we are “that family”–and we do not permit hurting each other.

A way of life–one that begins with “setting tastes” for kindness and good character and one that has certain expectations always in place. Not expectations that “do this or you’re toast” but expectations that Mom and Dad taught us this way, and this is how we live. 

But on to that list–a few things that we think can help a family develop certain behavior absolutes (including loving and being kind to siblings):


1. Behavior absolutes begin with a mindset. 

This mindset is one with faith in what you are doing. Faith that making behavior absolutes that our children will learn to follow is what is truly best. Faith that these things that we are saying are not allowed in our home are things that God would have us do. Faith that God will bless our family’s consistency, efforts, and desire to please Him. Faith that consistency and godliness in our home really will work.

It is also a mindset that says, “What I am trying to do here is so important that I am going to put the time and energy into it that it takes to accomplish it. I am not going to let things slide that I know will cause us not to meet our goals for our children’s behaviors. I am not going to look the other way when I know something is not right. I am not going to downplay something that we have deemed as important from the beginning.”

That is a tall order. But it is one that can truly be carried out. When we go into this parenting endeavor with an idea of what we truly want our homes to look like–and the determination to follow through on it–it is very possible.




2. Your reaction to behavior absolutes being broken is crucial. 

My husband has an annoying saying (it used to be; now that our kids are mostly grown, I agree with him!): “We are getting the behavior that we want. if we wanted something different, we would do something different.”

While that isn’t one hundred percent accurate, the concept is true. If we want our children to be kind to each other and not strike each other, then those behaviors have to be treated as terrible behaviors. We can’t just say, “Be nice” and hope that their behavior changes. 

We liken behavior absolutes to sitting in a car seat. We can say over and over, “I just can’t get him to quit hitting his sister.” 

However, we somehow (eventually) get our child to quit screaming in the car seat and sit in there until he is five or six! How is that? It is because sitting in the car seat is a behavior absolute.  We would ever consider letting a child have his own way and sit up front between Mom and Dad. It is the law. It is the way it is–and it can’t be changed.

So it is with behavior absolutes. We have to feel so strongly about those behaviors that we will not budge on them. When one of our kids is mean to another one, we will not just say “Be nice” and send him to his room. We will instead respond as though he just did something very, very bad. Because if meanness is one of our behavior absolutes, it is a very, very bad thing.

I have to inject a note here about spanking–because many “modern moms” are either against it or believe that it doesn’t work. Or buy into the philosophy that spanking a child will make him mean or will make him strike others. 

I know that a family of seven children is not a full-blown case study. However, I don’t see how the whole “spanking causes children to be violent” could possibly be true when all of our seven children were spanked (not carelessly; not in anger; not for frivolities or childishness) for the Four D’s –and yet they are seven of the most peaceable adults you will ever meet. As children, they didn’t often fight with each other–and seldom (if ever) struck another child (or bit, pulled hair, pushed, hit, etc.) after age two or so. (I’m sure they probably did as toddlers–but we treated it very seriously and nipped it in the bud.)

So yes, we spanked our children if they were mean or if they hurt others (as well as for other defiant behaviors). But we didn’t have to do it often. Peace with each other and not harming others was a way of life, so it didn’t take a lot of discipline for it. 

Thus, the way we respond to our behavior absolutes will have a huge bearing on how “absolute” these behaviors become. Don’t take them lightly. Don’t put kids in their rooms with video games or televisions because they were unkind. Don’t tell children who hit that they shouldn’t do that–and they should be nice. Respond with the level of unacceptability that you would for something really bad–if you think it is really bad.




3. Don’t make too big of deal out of things that aren’t important.

If we truly want to develop behavior absolutes in our homes, then things that are not that big of deals can’t be made into big deals.

We see this all the time. A parent responds to a child leaving his socks on the living room floor in the same way that she responds to his backtalking or being unkind to his sister. While we recommend that the things you feel are behavior absolutes be given a high priority and level of response, we also believe that in general parents need to “lighten up” when it comes to childish behaviors (being too loud, making a mess, forgetting to pick up his socks, etc.) and focus on behaviors that are truly important (and from the heart)–such as direct disobedience, meanness, disrespect to parents and other authorities, etc. 

When everything our kids do is the same level of “wrongness,” they will not learn the difference between sins and mistakes. When everything our kids do is punished in the same way, they will feel that they can never please us–that no matter what they do, we will find fault in them.

I won’t spend a great deal of time on this as we have several posts about this under the character training label and we teach about it extensively in our parenting seminar, but just examine your parenting and see if you are placing too much emphasis on the wrongness of a behavior that is just a kid being a kid and not enough on something that is coming from a child’s heart.

I will move on to older kids–including punishments that are appropriate for fighting, helping kids learn how their behaviors affect others, and teaching our kids to love and respect each other–very soon. Thanks for joining us!

And here is the sweet sibling pair when they were teens–Jonathan (17) and Kara (19). The cute thing about this pic is that it was taken when they were traveling on a summer drama team together–and they both kept it as their profile pictures on Facebook for several months. Sweet!

The post Q is for QUIT FIGHTING–Start Out Right With Siblings/Littles With Behavior Absolutes appeared first on Character Ink.

The post Your Kids Will Do To and For Others What You Have Done To and For Them…. appeared first on Character Ink.

This truth, and I do have to admit that it is a truth, of parenting, is a little twist on the “if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” And just like that saying, it is too accurate.


Now, Ray is an incredible husband and father, so, thankfully, he doesn’t just spout off his catch phrase and leave me hanging. This twenty-seven year old saying has almost always led to resolution. You see, if it is true—and we admit to each other that we are not really doing anything to stop the behavior in question—then it follows that if we want to stop it, we need to come up with a plan of action to change the behavior.


This blog is a positive blog! And I want to stay positive. However, the teacher in me feels compelled to “teach” what we have found to help us “get the behavior we want.” If you have small children—toddlers and preschoolers, especially—you may want to join us over the next few days.


Our children were never (and still are not) perfect. However, we were blessed with outstanding teaching early in our parenting to help us train our toddlers and preschoolers to have good behavior—to not scream or throw fits, to obey when a command is given, to come when they are called, to be content and not surly, to be kind to others (even siblings!), to follow routines they are taught (going to bed, sitting at the table, being quiet in church etc), and much more.


Your little ones can be joys to you. You can get up in the morning knowing that you can have a good day and enjoy your kids—because they want to obey you. I promise that this can happen! Not perfection—just daily contentment and obedience more often than not. After all, we get whatever behavior we want.

The post day 255: we are getting the behavior that we want appeared first on Character Ink.

1. Make a big deal of the birthday the day before it. We did little things like the following:


a. When he wakes up in the morning, say, “This is the last morning you’ll get up as an eleven year old!”


b. When you do things with him, say fun things like, “Come and read a story with Mom….it’s our last story with you as an eleven year old” or “Come shoot hoops eleven year old—this is the last day I can say that!”


c. Before he goes to bed, make a big deal of it being his last night as an eleven year old, how he’ll wake up old the next day, etc.


d. Tell him what you loved about him as an eleven year old—“I loved it that you such a compassionate eleven year old…”






2. On the morning of his birthday, say fun things like, “Time to wake up twelve year old” or “This is the first morning I am getting you up as a twelve year old,” and “Do you feel a year older this morning?”


3. Encourage him on the day of his birthday with character qualities that you have seen in him—“Sure hope you are as kind of a twelve year old as you were eleven year old!” and “I know your compassion will even increase when you are twelve—if that’s possible!”


4. Charge him on the day of his birthday with character qualities that you would like for him to work on in the coming year (without making him feeling put down, of course)—“Now that you’re twelve, I know you can become even more diligent with your work” or “You have been getting better and better at responsibility this past year—now that you’re twelve, you are going to become Mr. Responsible!”


5. On the night of his birthday, tell him that you are looking forward to spending “age twelve” with him—that your family is so blessed to have him in it and that you don’t want the next birthday to come too soon!


6. Involve others in the blessing/affirmation. We often have times of affirmation on birthdays in which people take turns saying affirmations to or about the birthday person. It isn’t uncommon to have siblings, siblings-in-law, Mom, Dad, etc., say any of the following:






a. “I like how you always let others go first in pot lucks.”


b. “I appreciate how you help at One Heart.”


c. “I love to watch you read. You have become such a great reader.”


d. “I love how you help the clients at One Heart so tenderly. They feel your love—you are such a great volunteer.”


e. “I like how you use your free time to help others.”


f. “I can’t believe how much you have improved in basketball the past year. Your outside shot is amazing.”


g. “You are such a diligent worker. Our family couldn’t make it without your daily work and contribution.”


h. “I love how you do your devotional every day. You are building good self disciplines that will help you your whole life.”






Use birthdays, special occasions, successes, achievements, down days, up days—any days to affirm your children. Build them up in their character and their faith. They might not say so, but they will come to love it.


Tomorrow—back to more help with academics this summer. The summer is officially half way over for most of us. There is still time to help your kids get ready for school in the fall.

The post day 185: birthday affirmations part ii of ii appeared first on Character Ink.

The post day 185: birthday affirmations part i of ii appeared first on Character Ink.

We always encouraged our older kids to play a big role in the lives of the littles. Some day I will post Jonathan’s salvation testimony he wrote in seventh grade—and how his big brother read Scriptures to him at night and ultimately led him to the Lord. It is priceless. In the passage today, Joshua was helping Jonathan set up his army men. Playing with Jonathan, despite the ten year age difference, was one way that Joshua built an enduring relationship with Jonathan that is still strong today at their ages (twenty-seven and seventeen—at ten o’clock on a Friday night here, Jonathan is in town playing basketball with Joshua and some other guys—still playing, just different games now!).


Lastly, I want to point out the importance of not exasperating our children. The Bible says that fathers, specifically, should not provoke their children to wrath. One way that we provoke or exasperate our children is by rushing them all the time. In the excerpt above, Jonathan was happy because he was permitted to leave his army men set up for Dad to see and to play with later. To have him take it all down immediately, when he and Joshua had just set it up, would have definitely exasperated him.

The post day 151: exasperating our preschoolers appeared first on Character Ink.

Yesterday I described the benefits of room time and/or play pen time for toddlers and preschoolers (for children AND mom!). Today I will explain how we went about having a daily play pen time for toddlers. (And tomorrow, we will give tips on having the daily room time for preschoolers.)

When our babies started playing more and doing more “toddler” types of activities, we provided many enrichment toys and opportunities for them. I mentioned in earlier posts** about you, the parent, deciding when the baby goes to bed and gets up, when he takes naps, etc. I also described how we helped our little ones love learning and books early on. One way that we did this was to sneak into his room in the morning before he awoke and put a toddler-safe basket of “baby books” in his bed for him to look at when he first awoke (until we were ready to get him up). Another thing we did was teach our toddlers to play quietly and contentedly in their play pen or crib—thus, “play pen time” (or “crib time” if you prefer not to use a play pen).

Tips for Play Pen Time:

1. Create a “busy basket” of items that the toddler only uses during his play pen time. (I will be reviewing some products for this busy basket this weekend, so stay tuned!) You might want to alternate the items in this tub or just get out one or two per day, however your space and budget limits dictate. (I was an avid garage saler—and I also spent more money on books, toys, and educational pursuits for my children than I did clothing, home décor, and personal items (like jewelry, make up, etc.) combined! I can buy those things later; my kids were only little for a short time.)

2. When you need the second-most-uninterrupted time of the day (I used naptimes for the most interrupted-free times), place the toddler in the play pen or crib with the busy basket or one or two activities from the busy basket. (We personally used play pen time for toddlers and room time for preschoolers during our morning read aloud time since that was the time that nobody was available to run and get the little one out of whatever he or she might get into—and the time that we wanted to be the most free of distractions.)

3. Set the timer for ten minutes (or fewer if he or she is not used to playing alone). I recommend that if this is all new, you help your toddler start playing with the activity, getting him or her interested in it, etc. Then tell him to play for a few minutes until you get back.

4. At the end of the time, go in and help your toddler learn to put the activity back in the basket/tub, working with him as needed and take him out of the bed/playpen. Praise him if he played well, etc.

5. Note: If he cries, you might want to go in and check on him and tell him to play with the blocks for a few minutes, then go back out.

6. Increase the time by a few minutes each day until your toddler can play well all by himself for thirty to sixty minutes.

7. Note about using the bed for play time: We never had a problem using the crib for the toddler’s playpen time since it was a completely different atmosphere than bedtime. He knew when we got the busy basket out that it was play time—and when he laid him down with blankets; no toys; and his lullaby tape, praise music, or story audio, it was sleep time. It probably depends on when you begin it.

The older kids and I have fond memories of Josiah and Jonathan’s room time and play pen times especially—mostly because they were so incredibly cooperative! We used to have Jonathan have his room time in the same room we were reading in—but on a blanket in the corner. He had to keep all of his activities on that blanket and play quietly, then he could remain in and listen to our morning reading. At the same time, Josiah was a toddler and had his room time in a porta-crib (pack and play?) in the room we read in. It was actually quite comical, but if he screamed or fussed, we would pull his porta crib into the other room and shut the door. When he got quiet again, someone would pull him back in with us. And this continued—he eventually quieted down and played nicely because he didn’t want to be in the other room all alone.

I’m smiling as I type this as I have this picture of one of the girls zooming Josiah’s play pen through the doorway, telling him that “when you’re ready to be quiet, you can come back in with us.” Wowsie…those were sweet, wonderful days.

*For the complete story of “Jonathan’s Journal, follow this link: https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/03/day-seventy-eight-introducing-jonathans.html

**Links to only baby and toddler posts: https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/search/label/babies%20and%20toddlers

The post day ninety-eight: the how to’s of playpen time for toddlers appeared first on Character Ink.

Today’s excerpts from “Jonathan’s Journal” show Jonathan enjoying interaction with older siblings and younger siblings. Preschoolers love to be a part of what is going on! As homeschoolers, we found that each of our preschoolers, from number five through number seven, wanted to “do cool” like their older brothers and sisters. They wanted to do what everybody else was doing. Thus, we have found that including them in what is going on in the family is a healthy thing for them (that sense of belonging) but also helpful for Mom when the preschooler is taught to interact appropriately with babies and toddlers.

Whether you are a homeschooler or not, there are many things that you do all the time with older kids—take them to the library for a school project, help with homework, do an art or craft for expo at school, etc. Consider including your preschoolers whenever possible. While, as homeschoolers, there are many times in which the preschooler simply has to entertain himself (and sometimes little brother!), there are many other times in which we can include the preschooler in what we do. These obviously include reading aloud, art, music, crafts, etc. As indicated in the lengthy read-aloud posts, preschoolers love to listen to us read to older ones (while they learn to “make the pictures in their heads”).**

Preschoolers can be outstanding “babysitters” for toddlers, as Jonathan was in today’s passage. We helped strengthen the bonds between our older children and younger ones by providing opportunities in which the older was “responsible” for the little for a short time. Depending on the age of the older and the little, this could be a time in which the older read to the little or played a game or built Legoes, etc. or it could have just been a time in which the older got out the little’s “busy basket” and played with him or her (or fed Cheerios to the toddler!).

While I can’t say that this daily time together was THE main component of strengthening the relationships between the olders and youngers in our home, I will say that something did it—and this had to at least contribute to it. Even to this day, our nineteen, twenty-two, twenty-four, and twenty-seven year olds think that their “little brothers” (ages eleven, fifteen, and seventeen) are the most incredible teens and preteens. It seems like there isn’t an instance that goes by in which I am talking to one of the older kids and he or she doesn’t mention something about how awesome one of the “little guys” is. I feel certain that the daily interaction and part in their care that the older ones had (and the fact that the little had to obey their older siblings, which caused the olders to love caring for and being around them) has been a contributing factor in their love and respect for their younger siblings.

Include your preschoolers with the older kids—and the younger kids! Challenge them in things that are in their control. And enjoy them.

We have a full week lined up for you—room time/play pen time for preschoolers and toddlers. Applying the “expectations and reality discipline” to your day.” And…ending with chores, chores, chores, including a lengthy list of ages and appropriate chores. Thanks for joining us!

*For the complete story of “Jonathan’s Journal, follow this link: https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/03/day-seventy-eight-introducing-jonathans.html

**Read aloud posts start here: https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/02/day-fifty-eight-create-read-aloud-times.html

The post day ninety-six: involving preschoolers with older kids and younger kids appeared first on Character Ink.