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A card game where you build different salads? I can personally vouch that getting your veggies has never been so fun!
I tried this card game over the holidays with my family and I’m hooked. Players take turns building salads from different veggie combinations to score the most points, and the game moves quickly, so you can play multiple rounds. While it says for ages 14 and up, my then 8-year-old could play it when teamed with another adult.
Point Salad is available at Amazon for under $20.
Sales of note for 9.10.24
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Ann Taylor – 30% off your purchase
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- J.Crew Factory – 40-60% off everything; extra 60% off clearance
- Lands’ End – 30% off full-price styles
- Loft – Extra 40% off sale styles
- Talbots – BOGO 50% everything, includes markdowns
- Zappos – 26,000+ women’s sale items! (check out these reader-favorite workwear brands on sale, and some of our favorite kids’ shoe brands on sale)
Kid/Family Sales
- Carter’s – Birthday sale, 40-50% off & extra 20% off select styles
- Hanna Andersson – Up to 50% off all baby; up to 40% off all Halloween
- J.Crew Crewcuts – Extra 30% off sale styles
- Old Navy – 40% off everything
- Target – BOGO 25% off select haircare, up to 25% off floor care items; up to 30% off indoor furniture up to 20% off TVs
Car seat help says
How do I know when to switch my kid from a 5 point harness to a high back booster (and then a low back booster, if that’s a progression that we’re supposed to be doing?)? Infant bucket to rear facing seat to front facing seat all seemed like straightforward choices to me; somehow everything I’ve read about the next one makes me feel mystified and really dumb. Happy to be pointed to a good resource ( I’ve already looked at the NHTSA, and that was the impetus for this comment, for whatever that’s worth)
Anon says
There are height limits for a lot of forward facing car seats. Ours is 49”. We switched at that point.
TheElms says
The best practice is to max out the height or weight limits (whichever is reached first) on your FF seat. Also the harness needs to come from above shoulders when FF. But the other consideration is readiness based. When a kid is in a FF harness the harness holds them in place in the event of a crash. When the kid is in a seat belt in a booster seat the kid has to ensure their body is in the correct place for the seat belt to do its job. So your kid has to be mature to sit up and not slide down in the booster seat. I think the general consensus is that typically happens between 5 and 6. Also kids under 40lbs don’t do as well in crash testing in a booster as kids over 40lbs. So a good rule of thumb is at least 5 years old and 40lbs.
More info here: https://csftl.org/harness-or-booster/
Anon says
+1 All of this. We switched my kids when they were 6+. High back helps hold them in place better than no/low back, so they really have to be able to keep position (including when sleeping) in a low back. My oldest moved to a no-back at age 8.
anon says
Keeping children in a forward facing carseat for as long as possible has a simplicity benefit, in addition to the safety benefit. My carseat has one of tallest FF limits, good for average size 9 year old. Therefore, we went right from FF carseat to backless booster.
My kid finds carseat harnesses easier to buckle than a seatbelt and didn’t object to continued carseat use.
Carseats for tall kids says
What carseat is that, if you don’t mind sharing? I have a very tall just-turned-3 year old and our current FF carseat maxs at 49 inches.
anon says
Chicco MyFit
Anon says
Chicco MyFit is the only (one of the only?) one that maxes above 49”. It harnesses to 54”. (Kids with long torsos may max it sooner, though, since the straps still have to come from above the shoulders)
Anon says
49″ should be fine even for tall kids. My very tall (~98th percentile) kid didn’t get there until 5.5. I think it’s only a concern if your kid outgrows the careseat well before turning 5, which would be very unusual.
Carseats for tall kids says
Yeah – mine is 100th percentile for height, so a lot of the typical “good for tall kids” stuff still doesn’t work for us, unfortunately (she’s 3 inches taller than 98th percentile for her age). She just turned 3 and she is 43 inches. I fully expect her to outgrow her carseat before she is 5.
Seafinch says
Two of my kids blew the harness heights before the height limits. It’s infuriating because I spent a fortune and have tried just about everything but my daughter who turned 5 yesterday is 48.25 inches tall and has exceeded all harness heights on the market for six months. Her brother was the same. Torso length can be a major factor.
TheElms says
Just to here to commiserate with the tall parents my 4.5 year old is 46, maybe 47 inches tall with a very long torso. We’ll get to 5 years old but not much beyond that in our harnessed seats.
Anonymous says
Oh man. This thread made me look up ours. We have two harness-to-booster seats that both max out at 49″, apparently. My daughter turns 5 in April and was just measured at the doctor at 48″. Whomp whomp. She is NOT ready to be in a regular seatbelt.
TheElms says
My comment seems stuck in mod. Rule of thumb is at least 5 and at least 40 lbs
Anon says
Our ped said at 4 years and 40 lbs a booster seat was ok, and we started using one for travel then, although we continued using a carseat at home for another couple of years.
Anon says
Yes, those are typically the manufacturer limits. But since kids have to sit straight and still 100% of the time, most kids aren’t mature enough for that until at least age five. So it depends on your kid. And the 40lbs is empty stomach, no shoes, etc, since they need to stay above that weight at all times.
Anonymous says
We just switched our 4.5yo to the high back booster/seatbelt. He’s 45lbs and we explained very clearly he had to sit back and not move the seatbelt and he’s been really great about it. We had to switch out of our car seat so we got the Chicco 2 in 1.
Anonymous says
Yup. It did not take many times of mommy pulling over and yelling to get me to sit normal as a kid. And it’s working with my kids too.
Anonymous says
I was surprised because he’s not my most compliant kid but he requested a seatbelt instead of harness and we explained he HAD to sit properly and he has! Thankfully haven’t had to raise my voice but yeh you can’t screw around in a car.
CCLA says
If (big if) they can sit properly, an appropriately sized HBB is no less safe than a harnessed FF car seat (from CSFTL: “Once the child is old enough, weighs enough, is tall enough to fit properly in a booster seat, and mature enough to sit properly, there’s no advantage in using a harness over a booster seat.”). That surprised me but was helpful for framing the issues. Fwiw, we moved our oldest at 6.5 and youngest at 5.5 (initially just in the occasional use car, and just recently in all the cars).
Also pay attention to retraction of the seatbelt (ie if the kid leans forward, then back, the seatbelt should retract back with them and not remain slack). I was surprised when we had to try multiple seats to get a proper angle on the belt path for that. We have gone through an embarrassing number of boosters and by far my favorite one, which has worked well in three different cars, is the Chicco Kifdfit Cleartex Plus. It doesn’t seem like a “narrow” seat because of the cupholders up front so we hadn’t initially considered it, but it is super narrow at the back which is great for allowing room to buckle.
Cb says
We’ve been obsessed with Uno lately. My parents had an old (and unopened) set and they must have played 50 rounds the week that my son was there. It’s easy and even game haters like my dad and I got into it.
The new head of school at my son’s school HATES dress up days (to the consternation of a subset of parents and the relief of others) but we’ve arranged to do a PTA book swap, so every child should be able to bring home a new-to-them book on World Book Day. I’ve been clearing off the shelves of things we’ve outgrown and things I hate (Bad Kitty) and should be able to contribute a big bag for the children. Hoping everyone else takes the opportunity to do the same.
NYCer says
My kids (and I) love Uno too!
Anonymous says
book swap! I love that idea. Cb your post last year about a uniform swap inspired me to organize one at my school, and it was a big hit!
Cb says
Oh fantastic! My friend and I did a big sort of the cupboard and have joked that we can outfit half the school from donations. We’ve set up a google form so people can ask privately, and office staff can access the stock in case a kid shares a need for new jumpers or a winter jacket, etc.
It seems silly that everyone is going out to buy cheap polo shirts every August.
Mary Moo Cow says
Uno is making a resurgence in my life, too! 8 year old got into big time in the fall; I gave the 6 year old the Trolls Band Together version for Christmas, and this weekend, my sister pulled a deck out to entertain the kid cousins at a restaurant.
I also do not enjoy Bad Kitty and have also been clearing out bookshelves! My 6 year old/1st grader has made huge leaps in reading so we’re going through picture books and reluctantly parting with some to make room for new chapter books. I’m been happily, generously contributing to Goodwill and our neighborhood Little Free Library, and it feels so good!
Cb says
It’s weird how it clicks all of a sudden Mary Moo Cow! My son went from working through the reading scheme level to seemingly able to read everything? To cement his little professor reputation, he decided to read us a Federico Lorca poem, complete with the introduction about his assassination in the Spanish Civil War?
We still mix in the favourite picture books at bedtime though. I will never donate There Are No Bears in this Bakery.
anon says
I am not a game person at all, but I love a good round of Uno!
Anonymous says
We love UNO! My kids also love sleeping queens.
TheElms says
Playing off Cb’s mention of never donating her favorite picture book, does anyone have recommendations for picture books for older kids (4-6 years old) with longer attention spans? We are mostly reading chapter books at bedtime but they can get repetitive so am looking for some good quality picture books with more detailed stories and beautiful illustrations.
DLC says
Kenneth Kragel wrote a beautiful book called Wild Honey from the Moon that I love. It’s about a mother shrew with a sick little shrew and she goes off to find a cure. It’s fully illustrated, but also written in very short chapters, so I found it was a nice bridge. (I like all his picture books, actually. King Arthur’s Very Great Grandson is a delight.)
Anything by the Fan Brothers – beautiful illustrations with great stories. The Barnabus Project in particular.
I also like Bill Peet for more wordy picture books, though the pictures aren’t as stunning.
Finding Winnie (about the bear that inspired Winnie the Pooh) was also a recent favorite.
We’ve been also working our way through the collected volume of Beatrix Potter.
I do find picture books with some kind of narrative adventure element harder to find. Most books seem to be about every day life, or animals. I would also welcome suggestions for picture books with more of a quest/adventure element!
Anonymous says
Saint George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodge!! Gorgeous illustrations too.
Redux says
Help Find Frank by Anne Bollman was fun and might fit the bill for a picture book adventure. Cute detailed illustrations in which you pick up the clues to find a lost/runaway dog. Defintely get it from the library as once you find Frank the book loses its charm for later reads.
Spirograph says
illuminated classic fairy tales or world folk tales are great for this!
Cb says
All the brownstone family adventure ones. So good and absolutely gorgeous illustrations. Flying Eye books in general are great for this.
anon says
Not specifically for this age, but my 4 yo has really been enjoying the volumes of the Tea Dragon Society series that my wife has. Sweet, lovely to look at, and a bit longer.
Anonymous says
Gina Farina and the Prince of Mintz by Nancy Patz
Sailing With the Wind or The Young Artist , both by Thomas Locker
Island Boy and Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
Immigrant Girl : Becky of Eldridge Street by Brett Harvey
The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot by Alice and Martin Provenson
We love reading picture books and these are some of my faves- third grader will still listen to these too.
Anonymous says
Editing to add – I selected the ones with the best illustrations!
A says
Second the Barbara Cooney books – they’re often requested by my kids.
Anon says
It depends a lot on what your child’s interests are, but some that we’ve liked are Moonshot by Brian Floca (he has other long picture books as well, but Moonshot is my favorite), Brothers at Bat by Audrey Vernick, Finding Winnie (mentioned by another poster), the Magic Schoolbus series, anything by Chris Van Dusen (though they’re fairly short), the Eleventh Hour by Graeme Base (a mystery with tons of hidden clues in the pictures). My kiddo is into sports and space, so we also read a lot of non-fiction picture books on those interests, such as biographies of famous players, so I recommend leaning into your child’s interests and asking a librarian for recommendations.
Mary Moo Cow says
+1 to the original Magic School Bus and Graeme Base! Similar to The Eleventh Hour, but without the mystery, is his Sign of the Seahorse. My daughter also likes The Watering Hole.
A says
These are older, but Bill Peet and Robert Munsch books have been captivating my 5 y/o son lately. Long enough to feel like a real story, but not so long that he loses interest (or I lose reading aloud steam).
DLC says
LOVE Robert Munsch!!!
Anon says
Little Witch Hazel is amazing
Anonymous says
Yes!!!
A says
If you’re into social justice content, Catching the Moon (black girl playing baseball in the 1930s), Joelito’s Big Decision (fight for $15/hr pay for food service workers), and Let the Children March (intense about the bus boycott).
Mary Moo Cow says
The Tome de Paola Strega Nona series and cultural/folk tales probably fit the bill: Jamie O’Rourke and the Pooka, Jamie O’Rourke and the Great Potato, the Legend of the Poinsettia, etc. We started reading this when my kids were 5 and 6.5, she can read them by herself but still likes to have them read to her.
Redux says
Love Tomie DePaola. We especially enjoy busting our our bad Irish accents for our favorite: Fin M’Coul and the Giant of Knockmanny Hill.
Anonymous says
Anything by William Steig. Did you do all the Beatrix potter books yet? Or Brambly Hedge. The Raft and The Pond by Jim Lamarche are beautiful. I rely on booklists by Read Aloud Revival and brighter day press.
Anonymous says
Oh how did I forget these?????
TheElms says
We love Barbara Cooney and William Steig and have read Brambly hedge and Beatrix Potter and thank you for all the other suggestions.
EP-er says
A little late — but check out the books by Arthur Giesert. They are fantastically detailed picture books — we can spend so much time looking at all of the details. The stories are usually humorous tales of inventive pigs. There is a great one called Roman Numerals from I to MM…. and he draws 2 thousand pigs!
Anonymous says
Someone had been sick in my family every single day of February so far. I suspect someone at day care is an asymptomatic carrier of the flu. My kids have all had the flu, gotten better for a week and then gotten it again (same strain). I’m tired.
Anonymous says
We were invited to a birthday party at a SkyZone (trampoline park). I’ve never been to one before — any thoughts from y’all about whether they’re safe for a 4 year old? Advice/things to bring/watch out for? Thanks!
Anonymous says
I’m not very risk averse, but I know SO many kids who have broken bones at trampoline parks. The kids are usually older, in the 7-10 year old range, but I probably would not let my 4 year old attend this party.
Anon says
I’m pretty cautious when it comes to piles of kids jumping on the same trampolines, so we decline these types of parties. I may say yes for my 8.5 yo if he’s invited in the future, but I haven’t yet.
Anon says
Pre-kid I would have said hard no to trampolines but they were huge for bday parties in our preschool so we ended up attending dozens and actually hosted a 5th birthday there. Kids often spend as much or more time in the ball pit and on the climbing structures than on the actual trampolines, and they aren’t doing crazy stunts at that age. I actually think it’s riskier with older kids who might try to do flips (broken arms heal, broken necks don’t).
Anonymous says
A big risk of trampolines is a small kid’s getting bounced very high when a larger kid jumps.
Anon says
They separate big and little kids at the trampoline parks in our area.
Spirograph says
this is how the sky zone is in my area, too. There’s also usually a foam pit if you want to avoid the trampolines entirely
anon says
It depends on how adventurous your kid is. We took our 3ish year old to one and he kinda just gently bounced around for an hour and was ready to go. He was scared of the foam pit, rope swing and slides.
We went off peak time so it wasn’t busy.
Our place required you buy their socks
Anonymous says
We are a no trampoline family. Little kids bones are not made to absorb that impact. We’ve known a kid who broke an FEMUR and another with a nasty ankle break. My ER doctor friend also has an hard no for trampolines. And we are NOT risk adverse parents for outdoor play. Like our kids can climb high trees and basically do whatever they want in the woods and ride bikes really early (with helmets).
anon says
Thanks for this post. I’m similar both being wary of trampolines and teaching on-street bike riding early and was wavering a bit on the trampolines due to a birthday party invitation. Reading your post reminded me that I am wary of trampolines for my elementary-age kids for good reason.
Anonymous says
Yeh I’d say my kids “move in a way that make adults gasp” at playgrounds and on hikes. But we’ve only had one laceration with skin glue and no bone breaks (yet). Mine are 7 and 4.5. We’re only hardcore on helmets and car seats. I always tell my kids “I let you do a lot of risky stuff if I say no then it really is too dangerous”.
Anon says
Same. I’m a poster above who said we opt out of trampoline parks, but I’m a big fan of dangerous play in nature. The grandmas cower in fear. I have a policy to never help my kids to climb any equipment/structures (if they can’t navigate it themselves, it’s not safe for them) and it has made them all the more determined, courageous and capable. My youngest has been doing playground ladders and slides by himself since he was 15 months old.
AwayEmily says
We took our kids to SkyZone a fair bit around that age, especially in the winter — ours has a “Little Leapers” time on Sunday mornings where nobody over the age of 5 is allowed in. They would run around and bounce and have an amazing time and take the best naps ever.
I was willing to accept the risk since (1) there were no big kids around to bounce them high and (2) they were physically incapable of doing flips or really even bouncing particularly high. Of course, the risk was not zero (just as it isn’t for playgrounds or water parks) but I was comfortable with it. YMMV!
My daughter went to one party there, when she was four. It was nice because the party guests had their own section where they bounced (that had an employee running point at the door) so that no other SkyZone patrons could come in.
In sum: totally reasonable to opt out, but there are also also strategies for reducing the risk.
AwayEmily says
I will say that now that they have aged out of Little Leapers (they are 6 and 8) we don’t do trampolines any more.
Mary Moo Cow says
Our Sky Zone doesn’t separate the party from the general mayhem. It became popular as a venue for birthdays around age 5, and I vividly remember one party where parents chased the 3 year old sibling around, shielding him from the preteen kids and pulling him off the stairs from the stunt man jump section. So…people do it and are fine, but I, too, would have serious reservations about a party for a 4 year old there, if it is in mixed company.
FVNC says
I agree that 4 seems young. I don’t love these places (and an orthopedist friend has confirmed their practice sees a lot of trampoline park injuries), but they’re popular for birthdays and we let our kids go. My kids do very little actual jumping — mostly, they play dodge ball, climb on the ninja-type courses, and dive into the foam pits. If we said no, our kids would probably miss out on half their friends’ parties.
Anon says
We’d like to do movie night with our 3 year old. What do you do with movies where there are potentially scary scenes? FF? Cover his eyes?
FWIW he was scared of the horse mounted police officers in the final scenes of the Elf.
Anon says
I wouldn’t show your 3 year old movies with scary scenes. That may sound flippant, but there are plenty of movies that don’t have anything scary. Off the top of my head Cars, Luca, Sing, Trolls would be good.
Anonymous says
Sing is great!!!! It was the only movie my kid would watch for a while- Cars was too scary!
NYCer says
+1. Definitely no scary movies! And have low expectations, neither of my kids would come remotely close to sitting through a movie at age 3. We just watched a few episodes of a favorite show at that point.
Anaon says
FF. We start Finding Nemo 10 minutes in. Toy Story and Sing aren’t too scary – they have some suspense, but no death. Disney has so much death!
Mary Moo Cow says
YMMV, but at 3, we did “show nights” with my kids: they weren’t mature enough to make it through even a 1.5 hour long Disney movie, so we did a few episodes of their favorite shows with pizza or popcorn and a fun desert. It still felt special and fun (and I wasn’t losing it because they were talking over the best part, or getting bored and running around, etc.) Would you consider that?
My 8 year old is a sensitive soul, so we either quietly prepare her for a scary scene and let her choose whether to watch; sometimes, on rewatch, she has the remote and just skips it.
Anon says
Yeah, I know some kids do movies young, but mine didn’t really have the attention span for a movie at that age.
We also had good success with “movies” (often only ~60 minutes) of kid TV shows like Daniel Tiger or Paw Patrol although they’re less entertaining for adults than the hit Pixar/Disney movies.
Anon says
I wish my 3-year-old would sit for a movie. Instead, we can do episodes of stuff (Daniel or Peppa, and he can run around even while watching Daniel), or watch Cookie Monster’s Foodie Truck on the Sesame Street YT.
Sigh…
Anonymous says
We found the ‘super buddies’ movies on Disney Plus to be great for our scared of everything kid. It’s a series of movies with 5 puppies as the lead characters. Except the Halloween one. The Cars series is also good.
For Disney fairy tale type ones we found it helped to read the stories in advance so they know what to expect with the ‘scary’ parts. You can also watch the singalong versions which emphasize the music.
Weirdly the kid who is most adventurous about sports and outdoor play is the most scared of shows.
We never made the kids watch anything they were scared of.
DLC says
We let the kids lead- if they get scared they come over, sit in our lap and cuddle. Ince in a while we’ll turn it off or choose something else. But we also have kids 8 years apart and I feel like it’s not fair to the 12 year old to only watch movies that the 4 year old finds not scary. (Though to be fair, it’s the 7 year old that gets scared the easiest.) I mean we’re not watching super intense things, and every kid is different in terms of what upsets them. We tried watching Anne of Green Gables with my oldest when she was five and she bawled so hard when Marilla sent Anne back that we had to turn it off.