KIDS & FAMILY

Donna’s Day: Creative Family Fun Welcome a new baby with personalized wearable art

By Donna Erickson

Signal Contributing Editor

Is there soon to be a new baby in the house? As the new member joins the family, the household may feel as if it’s been turned upside down. But if you keep older children involved, they’ll be part of the transition right along with you.

Here’s an activity for including older siblings in welcoming that newborn. Just sit down together and decorate baby’s first one-piece cotton outfits. You’ll be dressing the baby with creative pizzazz, and the siblings will be proud of being part of it all.

Here’s the basic inexpensive stuff you’ll need for one outfit:

• Prewashed, solid-color or white 100% cotton baby one-piece style outfit with snaps, or you may use a newborn-size cotton T-shirt • Wax paper or cardboard • Cookie cutters • Fabric paints in squeeze bottles • Paper plate • Small foam paintbrushes or sponges clipped to clothespins • Pencil with eraser

Here’s the fun:

1. Lay the one-piece outfit or T-shirt on a work surface. Place a piece of cardboard or wax paper between the two layers of fabric to protect the reverse side from any paint that may soak through. Choose a cookie cutter for a stencil. A star, moon, heart, duckling! Anything goes.

Place it anywhere on the fabric. 2. Pour a little permanent fabric paint onto a paper plate. Dip in the small foam paintbrush. Holding the cookie cutter firmly, start dab, dab-dabbing inside it, making sure to reach all the edges. You don’t have to put equal density of paint all over the shape. A little variation actually adds interest. When you’re through, lift the cookie cutter up to see the beautiful design. Now it’s time for a few details. 3. Dunk the eraser end of the pencil in a little paint. It can be the same color you used for the cookie-cutter shape or a completely different one. Then stamp it along the neck or sleeves for a fun, whimsical border. 4. Add a few final details with the fabric squeeze bottles. You might want to write “Wee One” on the heart. Or, write the baby’s name and date of birth. When baby wears it, take a photo to use for clever birth announcements. 5. Once the paint is dry, remove the cardboard or wax paper, and if the paint bottles say to do so, now is the time to iron on the reverse side to set the color.

You’re done! Dress the baby in the wearable art, and notice the joy of an older sibling who is feeling just grand.

Donna Erickson’s award-winning series “Donna’s Day” is airing on

public television nationwide. To find more of her creative family recipes and activities, visit www.donnasday.com and link to the NEW Donna’s Day Facebook fan page. Her latest book is “Donna Erickson’s Fabulous Funstuff for Families.” \ © 2020 Donna Erickson

Distributed by King Features Synd.

KIDS &FAMILY

Enjoy a virtual ‘visit’ of a museum this summer

If you are looking for new things foundation in the collection largely to this summer do while staying assembled by George Gustav Heye, home or social distancing, the beginning in 1897. The collection Smithsonian’s National Musecurrently contains more than 800,000 um of the American Indian has you items from across the entire Western covered. Hemisphere. And for more from the The museum has lots of free content available for both adults and kids, including digital learning tools for students of all ages and online versions of many of its most popular exhibitions. Access to this content is through the museum’s website: AmericanIndian.si.edu. For students Native Knowledge 360° (NK360°) is the museum’s national education initiative to inspire and promote improvement of teaching and learning about American Indians. NK360° provides educational materials and teacher training that incorporate Native narratives, more comprehensive histories and accurate information to videos and websites. Several lessons are also available in Spanish. Online exhibitions Many of the museum’s most popular exhibitions are available to explore online. “Americans“ shows how American Indians have been part of the nation’s identity since before the country began. Visitors can click on some familiar images and learn why images of American Indians are everywhere in our country. The bilingual exhibition “The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire” examines why the Inka Road was built more than 500 years ago, and how its construction—without the use of metal or iron, the wheel or Art and History in the Collections of the National Museum of the American Indian,” which features some 700 works of Native art from throughout North, Central and South America, demonstrates the breadth of the museum’s collection and highlights the historic importance of many of these iconic objects. “Developing Stories: Native Photographers in the Field“ is the museum’s newest exhibition. It features the work of two Native photojournalists who are using photography to break down stereotypes and portray stories that show the diversity and complexity of their contemporary lives. Explore the collections collections, visit the museum’s new Google Arts & Culture website. Blog For in-depth stories about objects in the museum’s collection, insights into new exhibitions, or news from Indian Country, visit the museum’s page on the Smithsonian Voices blog. Shop The museum’s online store offers an array of books for adults and kids, cards, CDs and DVDs. The best part? Your purchase helps to continue the museum’s important work. You can also get more content from the museum by following it on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Thanks to great online exhibitions, enlighten and inform teaching and stock animals to pull heavy loads— Through its online search, visitors educational materials, and yes, even learning about Native America. The stands as one of the greatest engineerto the museum’s website can learn shopping, you can spend this summer initiative’s website has digital lessons ing feats. more about the history of the mu“visiting” an amazing museum from for K-12 students, teacher guides, The exhibition “Infinity of Nations: seum’s holdings, which have their wherever you are. (Statepoint) \

It’s time to get more kids biking, helping others

For kids, biking is one of the Together We Rise, a national nongateways to growing up. profit dedicated to helping improve Popular films and TV hits the lives of youth in foster care. The such as “E.T. the Extra-Terdonation will provide 600 bicycles to restrial” and “Stranger Things” hightweens and teens in foster care nalight the joy a bike can bring as a fun tionwide, helping them to build their way to explore or spend time kicking confidence and experience the many around the neighborhood. Yet, acphysical and emotional benefits that cording to a study from the Outdoor having a bike brings. Industry Association, bike riding Bikes have been part of Honeyamong kids declined 19% between comb’s history since the 1970s, fea2007 and 2019. tured in its advertising and promo

With the weather getting warmer, tions. Kids growing up in the ‘70s there are plenty of good reasons for and ‘80s fondly remember collecting anyone to get outside and ride a bike. Honeycomb bike-sized state license Especially during this time of social plates, which were given away free distancing, bike riding offers the perfect opportunity to shake off cabin fever and safely enjoy the fresh air. Benefits of bike riding For tweens and teens in particular, there are many benefits of owning and riding a bike, including: • It gets kids outside away from screens to enjoy fresh air and vitamin • It builds muscles, while improving balance and coordination. • It improves mental health by helping to reduce anxiety or stress. • It is good for the environment, offering an emissions-free mode of transportation. • It helps build self-confidence and Help for foster kids Unfortunately, not every kid has the opportunity to enjoy the many positive aspects of bike riding. Children in foster care, tweens and teens in particular, don’t always have access to a bike, so they aren’t able to experience this important milestone of growing up. inside cereal boxes each year. Honeycomb’s latest “Always Be Big” spot features a bicycle with a nostalgic nod to the past. Now is the perfect time to get your kids biking and consider helping foster kids do the same. For more information about the Together We Rise Bikes for Foster Children program or how to sponsor a bike for kids who D-giving sunshine. relationships with others who like To help address this issue, Honeyneed one, visit TogetherWeRise.org. • It promotes cardiovascular health. cycling too. comb cereal is donating $50,000 to (BPT) \