You don’t need to go to a science center to teach your toddler science and nature. You can do it at home, through games and activities, with everyday items.

Why games? Because you can help your toddler to turn an otherwise boring subject into something to look forward to.

What can I say; you and your toddler can learn, bond, play, and have fun at the same time. To top it up, these games are free as you only make use of what you already have at home.

Activities and games listed below are best for children between 2-5 years old. Let’s get started.

We are extremely glad to have him on this interview. He’s none other than Mac Bledsoe. Mac is the President, Founder and author of the parenting curriculum Parenting with Dignity. The Parenting with Dignity curriculum presents effective techniques for raising responsible, independent children. It’s available in the forms of DVDs and books.

Mac and the Parenting with Dignity curriculum has been featured on NBC’s Today Show, ABC's 20/20 television show, and on numerous national and local radio and television programs.

In this interview, Mac is going to cover a wide spectrum of topics concerning today’s parents.

Enjoy!

Anyone who knows the fundamentals of conception will know that it is more likely to occur during the ovulation part of a woman’s cycle when the egg is released from the ovaries.  In fact, just before and just after are the optimum times.  But how do you work out when you’re ovulating?

Some women can actually tell they’re ovulating by the cramps they feel – slightly different sensations to period pain cramps – and also by food cravings, slight flushes in temperature, lower back pain and a range of other symptoms, some common, and some peculiar to a handful of women.

I can see the enormous improvement in my daughter, J, during our monthly hiking trip last weekend.

J is shy and introvert by nature. But in this trip, she opened up like I never see before.

A Great Weekend Getaway - Christmas Run

Since this was a Christmas run, the hiking club invited a clown to entertain the kids. They danced, they played and they watched magic show.

The highlight was Santa Claus presenting gifts to all the kids there. In actual fact, this was pre-arranged. Parents had bought gifts before coming to the trip. The gifts were given to Santa and he distributed the gifts as though the presents were from him.

U.S. health officials alerted the public on Tuesday about the deaths of two patients who were treated with a prescription drug to control bed-wetting.

The Food and Drug Administration said it was unclear whether the drug, desmopressin, had contributed to the deaths. But the agency said nasal versions were no longer approved for treating bed-wetting and doctors should consider other options.

Desmopressin is sold under the names DDAVP Nasal Spray, DDAVP Rhinal Tube, DDVP, Minirin and Stimate Nasal Spray. Makers include Sanofi-Aventis and several generic companies.

Other forms of the drug "should be used cautiously" in patients at risk of sodium imbalances that can be caused by over-hydration, the FDA said.

The agency reviewed 61 reports of patients treated with desmopressin who developed seizures related to hyponatremia, when sodium is too low. Two of the patients died.

Full report: US warns about bed-wetting drug after two deaths

A teaspoon of honey before bed seems to calm children's coughs and help them sleep better, according to a new study that relied on parents' reports of their children's symptoms.

The folk remedy did better than cough medicine or no treatment in a three-way comparison. Honey may work by coating and soothing an irritated throat, the study authors said.

"Many families are going to relate to these findings and say that grandma was right," said lead author Dr. Ian Paul of Pennsylvania State University's College of Medicine.

The research appears in December's Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine

Federal health advisers have recently warned that over-the-counter cough and cold medicines shouldn't be used in children younger than 6, and manufacturers are taking some products for babies off the market.

Three pediatricians who read the study said they would tell parents seeking alternative remedies to try honey. They noted that honey should not be given to children under age 1 because of a rare but serious risk of botulism.

Full report: Try Honey for Children's Coughs

These are not your conventional men’s Christmas gifts. No, we are not talking about iPods, golf equipment and not even about wine club memberships.

It’s something your man or husband will love to receive. And yet it’s so unique that he never thinks of it.

Be different this year. Give something unusual and unique for this year’s Christmas to your husband or boyfriend and this will surely leave a lasting impression on him.

Hateful text messages, abusive e-mails and cyber-gossip are giving bullies new power over their victims -- even in the supposed safety of their own homes, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

And most of the victims are themselves new, with two-thirds of children who report such harassment saying they had not been bullied before in other ways.

Schools and parents must work together to find ways to stop such behavior, without robbing children and teens of valuable Internet access, the resaarchers agreed.

"Internet bullying has emerged as a new and growing form of social cruelty," Kirk Williams and Nancy Guerra of the University of California at Riverside wrote in one of a series of reports published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

The reports, from researchers organized by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, show a 50 percent increase in the number of kids aged 10 to 17 who said they were harassed online -- from 6 percent in 2000 to 9 percent in 2005.

Full report: Teens take bullying to the Internet

Prices of existing U.S. single-family homes in the third quarter slumped 4.5 percent from a year earlier, matching a record decline from the previous period as the housing downturn deepened, according to a national home price index on Tuesday.

The S&P/Case-Shiller National Home Price Index fell 1.7 percent from June, marking the largest quarterly decline in the index's 21-year history, S&P said in a statement.

Robert Shiller, a Yale University economist and co-developer of Standard and Poor's S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, on a Standard & Poor's teleconference following the release, said that at this point there is substantial concern and uncertainty about the outlook for the U.S. housing market.

Full report: Home price drop largest on record

Here’s a list of 12 kids recipes you can try for yourself: two from each of these categories: desserts, fruit and veggie concoctions, snacks, drinks, bakery, and dinner.

Cooking is an excellent way to bond with your kids. You may want to involve your kids in the preparation.

Hope you and your kids will enjoy the dishes.

Maybe getting schoolchildren to eat healthy foods isn't a hopeless struggle. Bucking some common notions, a University of Minnesota study has found that school lunch sales don't decline when healthier meals are served, and that more nutritious lunches don't necessarily cost schools more to produce.

"The conventional wisdom that you can't serve healthier meals because kids won't eat them is false," said Benjamin Senauer, one of three economists who wrote the study.

Previous studies have concluded that students prefer fatty foods and that healthier meals cost more to make, the authors noted.

The study, which appears in the December issue of the Review of Agricultural Economics, analyzed five years of data for 330 Minnesota public school districts. It looked at compliance with federal standards for calories, nutrients and fats.

When the researchers crunched all the numbers they found that schools serving the healthiest lunches did not see a falloff in demand.

While serving better meals does entail higher labor costs, the study found, that's offset by lower costs for more nutritious foods such as fruits and vegetables compared with processed foods. However, many districts need to upgrade their kitchens and train their staff to prepare these foods, the researchers said.

The study's conclusions rang true for Jean Ronnei, director of nutrition services for St. Paul Public Schools, which serves more than 46,000 meals daily. The district was held up by the authors as a model for others.

Full report: Study: Kids Will Eat Healthy School Food

Are you listening to your child when he’s talking to you? I mean LISTEN ATTENTIVELY. Or are you jumping the gun and trying to give answers in the fastest time possible and get over with?

To best illustrate the point, I’ll give you some examples. The examples show, in the same situation, how you respond and listen when your kid talks can make a big difference in your kid’s growth and self-esteem.

Take a look at the conversations below and identify which style you are.

Don’t be surprised that you might do it incorrectly.

To be honest, I am not a big fan of baby photo contests or any other contests for that matter.

But a recent event changed my perception. Thank to my dearest wife. This is what happened.

When my wife asked me whether “we” should enter a cutest baby contest organized by her employer, without a doubt, I only gave her a lukewarm response.

Why? For some reason, I stay away from any contests. I hardly participate in any except once the Reader’s Digest’s “Win-a-Car” contest many years back. Remember the paper car key that really looked like the real one? Even that I stopped half way as it required too much effort on my part. I just don’t get the kick out of contests.

Jeff and Diana Kerr fell in love with the Guatemalan baby girl the moment they saw her photograph. The Minnesota couple decorated her pink and white nursery with pictures of flowers and butterflies, but now they don't know if the 8-month-old will ever become their daughter.

The Kerrs are among thousands of Americans trying to adopt 3,700 babies who are caught in limbo as Guatemala's lawmakers debate new rules that could all but shut down a largely unregulated system that has become the speediest place in the world to finalize an adoption.

"It's an emotionally taxing process," said Jeff Kerr, a 44-year-old financial adviser from Lino Lakes, Minn. "Every day you look at her picture and wonder if you're going to bring her home."

As early as this week, the legislature is expected to debate new rules to eliminate potential fraud in Guatemala's adoption process, which until now has been run from beginning to end by notaries who work with birth mothers, determine if babies were surrendered willingly, hire foster mothers and handle all the paperwork.

These notaries charge an average of $30,000 for children delivered in about nine months — record time for international adoptions. The process is so quick that one in every 100 Guatemalan children now grow up as an adopted American.

The small Central American country sent 4,135 children to the U.S. last year, making it the largest source of babies for American families after much-bigger China.

The adoptions are a $100 million a year industry for notaries.

Full report: Adoption Changes Wrench American Parents