• Have Your Child Make Something. Nothing is more heartwarming than a child who crafts something for his dad. If he is younger art projects are great! If he is older he can make something that your husband is into: a birdhouse for nature lovers, design a tool box for a fit it man, or even a picture frame. Whatever it is, dad will love it!
• Plan an Outing! Most dads love to do something with their children! Do something fun! Plan a day at the park, a fishing trip, or a day at a baseball game. This is a great way for your child to bond! They will have a great time and father’s day will create memories!
• Food is Still the Way to Any Mans Heart. Have your child cook him a meal and go on a picnic (indoors if it’s raining). The effort will be appreciated and your child learns the importance of doing something special for daddy.
• A Picture Can Convey Your Love. Have a photo framed or placed on a mug for your happy daddy. Seeing his children on a mug or in a frame on his desk at work will make him smile every day.
• Sports Art Paintings – An unusual gift I just stumbled upon, and a great way to replace that painting of dogs playing poker thats hanging over the fireplace. I gaurentee he does not have one of these yet! Edgar Brown’s passionate paintings are magical, check out his latest on Eli Manning .
• Modern Skin-Care Products Made for Men – The "metro sexual " movement is not reaching some of our extremely masculine hold-outs. Check out BeyondBeautyBasics and Mens Health for more info.

So if you are tired of giving a tie or some cologne then try something different! Your husband or father will leave feeling love and appreciated!

5. The most important thing I can leave you with is to be your child’s advocate. No one cares about your child more than you. Do not let him slip through the cracks at school or at the doctor’s office. Talk to the teachers and the doctors. Make sure the teachers are conscious of the signals when your child is not feeling well. Make sure that they understand how imperative it is for your child to have whatever he needs (whether it be medication, water throughout the day, more hand washing than a normal child, being kept warm, etc..). Make sure doctors try to schedule tests around times that do not interfere with trips or school days when possible. Also, really keep track of what tests are absolutely necessary. Our children are our life and it is our responsibility to give them the best life they can have.

Here are some additional resources on helping your chronically ill children:
The Chronically Ill Child in School

Caring for a Seriously Ill Child

Stress patterns in parents of chronically ill children

HOW PARENTS CAN HELP THEIR CHILD COPE WITH A CHRONIC ILLNESS

Council for Children & Adolescents with Chronic Health Conditions

Here are a few tips:

1. Green or yellow mucus means infection.
2. 99 is a fever in a child over two.
3. Vomiting twice is not usually just something they ate.
4. A clearing of your throat cough is very different than a child who has a cough coming from the chest.
5. If your child is not acting normal (excessively bad behavior or slow or seems run down) it could be a sign that they could be ill.

Here are the US Surgeon General’s Tips to Keep Toddlers Safe and Healthy

Also, tips for Keeping your toddler healthy this winter from BabyCenter.com

Remember that you nursery schooler is not replaceable but every job is. Often we send our kids to child care slightly ill and they pick up something from another sick child and now we have gone from having to stay home for one day for a mild illness to having to stay home for several days if not the week to fight off a serious infection.

When in doubt stay home. Someone once said : I have heard people regret many things but have never heard someone say they regret staying home with their child.”

Likewise, the petting zoo also causes illness, especially to allergy sufferers and asthmatics. Pet dander runs rampant on those cute woolly sheep and “harmless” donkeys. Children can breathe in the germ infested fur and have allergy and asthma flare ups. Also hundreds of children could be petting these animals every day. Those germs can remain in the fur and if your child’s hands are not satisfied (because believe the the animals fur is not sanitized at any point) your child has now inherited any illness just one of those children can have!. If you are looking for fun fall activities try pumpkin or apple picking! Go looking for fall leaves on a nature walk! Stay germ free!

Try a different vegetable every day and prepare it in different ways. Remember vegetables can be served, raw, baked, steamed, grilled, in salad, in juice form, stir-fried and broiled. Try a wide variety and in different ways until you find the vegetables that your child will like and in the style they will like to eat them in.

Mix them in your child’s favorite meal. If your child likes macaroni and cheese, make it with steamed broccoli or peas mixed in. If your child likes spaghetti mix in real tomatoes, mushrooms, or peas and carrots into the sauce. Sometimes mixing right into their favorite foods makes them eat it without even noticing.

Try juicing vegetables and mixing it with fruits. Make your child part of the juicing experience and they may be more inclined to drink them. Combinations such as carrot apple and celery apple are usually sweet to the taste and a big hit.

Most children love to dip items (i.e French fries in ketchup) so provide them dipping options such as a salad dressing they might like and let them dip away. Always make vegetables ready toe at and available with lunch, dinner, and snack. By having them readily available your child will eat when they are ready.

The most important thing is to not battle your child over vegetables. By making them always available and setting an example of how much you love to eat vegetables, you are doing enough. Gone are the days when you threaten your child to eat foods or tell them they cannot get up unless they finish their plate. Remember a child will fight back and give you more Resistance if you make food an issue. Also, don’t fret if your child does eat French fries once in awhile. By not depriving your child of the junk every once in awhile they may be more healthy well rounded eaters.

1. Find out the school’s hand washing policy. How often are the children required to wash hands and do they use soap. Do they wash hands before every meal or just at certain points in the day? After they use the bathroom? Also, teach your child how to wash their hands correctly. This will save you a few sneezy days.

2. Find out how often the children’s toys are sanitized. This is imperative to germ control because little hands and mouths touching the same toys can often lead to sick city!

3. Teach your child how to cough and sneeze into their elbow and how to properly use tissues. This will help with disease prevention.

4. Find out how strict the school’s health policy is. The school may say its policy is tough but the best people to find this out from is parents who have used the school before. Ask around the neighborhood or the school for a few parents that you could speak to.

5. Keep your child home as you see fit. Sure Suzie can attend school if she just has a runny nose but Should she? Chances are if you keep your child home before any real symptoms appear it could prevent a worse illness and the need for antibiotics. Too many antibiotics at a young age can be very harmful to a child, so stop that runny nose in its tracks!

What you need to remember is that it does not make it easier on the teacher when you pack ?clean foods? that your child does not like to eat because now they have even more work trying to get a child to eat foods they don?t like. So if your child likes pasta and sauce pack it! Something else to remember is that children between the ages of 2-5 are creatures of habit. They may want the same thing for lunch every day for months on end. This is okay. One day he won?t want peanut butter sandwiches anymore, and no one is judging you for giving him the same thing everyday. Remember, at least he is eating!

Something else to remember is the importance of choices. Children like to feel in control so having them help you pack their lunch will entice them to eat it at school. Also, pack a lot of different snack options so that if they day ends up being a day they don?t want their lunch, at least they have snack to choose from. Good options for snacks include fruits, yogurt, crackers and cheese, and dried cereals. A treat food also helps such as Jello, pudding, or cookies.

Teachers can often entice a child to eat by using the treat snack as a reward for finishing meals. I would also suggest that you precut and peel foods ahead of time, and encourage your child with the self help skills of eating. Good teachers will help feed your child, but it helps when a child is able to eat most foods by themselves. The most important thing to remember is that no matter what you pack in your child?s lunch their will be days that he doesn?t eat and their will be days the lunch box will come back empty. Either way he will still grow up to be a happy healthy loving child!