Have Fun This Spring Break Without Breaking the Bank

Can you believe it's spring already? This means spring break for the kids is just around the corner!

Sipping margaritas and reading a book on the beaches of Turks and Caicos may not be in your budget this spring (don't we all wish!), but there are still lots of creative activities you can plan for spring break this year that are fun for the kids- and free for you!  

1. Set up a lemonade stand

-Set up a table and some chairs, paint a sign, and mix together some lemonade and you've got yourself a fully functioning lemonade stand! Priced at 10 or 25 cents per cup, selling lemonade is not only a great money-saving activity, the kids can even make a little pocket change. It's a fun way to keep the kids entertained and also helps you interact and socialize with the neighbors. 

2. Create your own outdoor water park

-Instead of spending all that money to make a day trip with the whole family to a water park (which can sound more like a nightmare than a vacation to those of us who have ever been parents to younger children), set one up in your own backyard! If the weather is nice enough, break out the slip and slide, beach chairs, sprinkler, umbrella, and snacks to create your family's own personal "water park". To make it extra fun, thrown in some water balloons and have a water balloon fight- or just watch while the kids have one! 

Has your family received a Nook, Kindle or iPad this year?  Find Fujimini Adventure Series award-winning books here.  Great family-friendly gifts.

3. Turn the water park into a campsite 

-Once the water park day has been concluded, and hopefully the grass has dried, turn the water park into a campsite! Gather some sleeping bags, pitch a tent, and set up a camp fire to make it feel like real camping- even if it's just in your backyard. Don't forget the sticks and marshmallows to roast some s'mores! 

4. Visit Your Town's Hot Spots 

-Plan a less stressful but equally eventful day out by staying local. Scout out your town's local hot spots and pay them a visit. Spring break is the perfect time for the family to eat at that restaurant you've always been meaning to go to, spend the day at a local park, or explore a museum nearby that would be interesting for the whole family. 

There are plenty of activities that the whole family can enjoy without breaking the bank, so don't be too stressed or disappointed about not planning a tropical vacation- alas, maybe next year! 

To learn more about Modern Moms and The Mom Code, please visit ONCEKids Publishing website, Facebook and Twitter 

Keep a look out for the next part in our "Here Comes Spring!" series featuring spring cleaning!

ONCEKids Publishing features family-friendly Tablums in Worldwide contest

On February 12, 2013, we at ONCEKids Publishing were set to hold our next Twitter party, organized for thousands of Moms to celebrate Chinese New Year with the launch of our newest book Rainbow Panda and the Firecracker Fiasco.  However our biggest challenge was finding the right Grand Prize.  We knew it had to be family-friendly, hi-tech, and something we felt truly could make a Mom's life better. After several weeks and nearly hundreds of suggestions we arrived on Tablums.

Tablums is a great choice for us because it's a modern keepsake.  It's something special without being so extravagant that it becomes too luxurious.  It's perfect for Weddings, Bar/Bat Mitzvah's, Sweet 16's, Graduations, Proms, or even to remember a Family Vacation.

What we at ONCEKids love most about the product is its versatility.  It comes in different sizes and shapes; and works with different devices. You can use the iPad 2, iPad Mini or Blackberry Playbook version.

But that doesn't even begin to talk about the company. One of the reasons we like Tablums is owner Ed Sikorski.  Ed bubbles with energy and information.  Continuing to run a printing and graphics company Rista Print for decades, he understands digital printing and is willing to walk you through each step of his process.  He wants the Tablum to be cherished in your family and realizes the better put-together it is, the more you'll enjoy it.

On the day of the party, hundreds of mothers cheered out as the Tablum grand prize was announced and the ladies begin to google and research the luxury gift.  Over the next few days, the overwhelming response that ONCEKids Publishing received is that it's cool, modern, and not just family-friendly but event friendly.  Mothers suggested schools, photographers and event planners who should be recommended to it.

At the end of the party, a young Texas mother won the prize and has since begun compiling the photos and videos for her Tablum. As a mother to several children, she has a lot of pictures.  Luckily she now has a stylish and safe place to hold them all.  

For more information on Tablums, please visit their website here.  Also like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.  Call Ed Sikorski at 516-307-9494 to see how easy it is to become a re-seller of this amazing product Tablums or to purchase one for yourself.

March 3 Brings Japanese Girls' Day of Happiness, Health through Hina

Each year on March 3 is Japanese Girls' Day celebrated in Asian communities around the world.  Families celebrate their girls by displaying Hina dolls and props throughout the house, in a tradition that wishes girls healthy growth and happiness.  Home festivities begin during the last week of February, when girls invite their friends over for special celebration, Hina Matsuri, however must be taken down by March 3, otherwise bad luck for the girls who as the legend goes will not find suitable husbands in the future.

Thought of as a proud family heritage, these dolls are often inherited from generation to generation.   However, at times proud parents and grandparents will purchase a new set of the gorgeous Hina dolls to celebrate the birth of their newborn daughter.

Has your family received a Nook, Kindle or iPad this year?  Find Fujimini Adventure Series award-winning books here.  Great family-friendly gifts.

The Hina dolls are beautifully-detailed, dressed in ancient Japanese costumes, with brocaded silk kimonos, fans, and musical instruments. Each are displayed prominently, along with appropriate flower blossoms and rice cakes, on red carpet-covered shelving in the family's house. The setup portrays the Japanese Royal Court in seven tiers, with the Emperor and Empress sitting at the top surrounded by guardians, musicians and servants.  

Celebration Hina Matsuri evolved from ancient Shinto purification ceremonies. Originally by using origami dolls, it was believed that girls could rid themselves of impurities by breathing upon the paper dolls, rubbing the dolls against them, then casting away the dolls, and thus their sins, into a river.

To learn more about Modern Moms and The Mom Code, please visit ONCEKids Publishing website, Facebook and Twitter 

Hina Matsuri is also called Momo No Sekku, which means a festival of peach blossoms. Peach blossoms, accompanied with shiro-zake (white rice wine) and hishi-mochi (diamond shaped rice cakes) are placed on the Hina doll stand along with Japanese Royal Court set. Hishi-mochi are colored in pink (implies peach flowers), white (implies snow), and green (implies new growth).

ONCEKids Publishing congratulates the girls and their families  during this proud celebration.

Korean Women Delay Mommyhood for Corporate 'Hood

ONCEKids Publishing is a mom-friendly zone.  We're led by Mompreneur Eileen Wacker and work with several Moms throughout the world.  We feel comfortable knowing that being mothers only makes us better at each job and task we take on; and offers us fuller lifestyles that we choose to live.  It's humbling to hear about other cultures and societies that view life so differently.  But as a multi-cultural company we love to shine light on different values and appreciate them all.  In modern-day Korea, after several years of the government setting mandatory lowering of pregnancy rates, their ruling now has the opposite problem.  Women are choosing to not have children. 

To learn more about Modern Moms and The Mom Code, please visit ONCEKids Publishing website, Facebook and Twitter

The first major progression is that Korean women are now choosing to delay from their 20s to their 30s to even consider parenthood.  Many become career women and their ambitions lead them to longer hours at work and more responsibilities.  Their feedback is, frankly, they love it and aren't ready to change.

In addition is the financial burden of children.  Most young couples have lifestyles, college debts, as well as helping to take financial care of their retired parents. Even well-heeled couples find the extra expenses more than they can handle, or more than they want to handle.  Child schooling, hospitals and daytime care are all bills that add up.  Each make a fiducially-responsible couple take pause.



In most cases the husbands agree, but in some cases it becomes a point of contention.  A young husband relayed his envy when attending a friend's son's birthday party.  But in today's Asia, women speak for themselves and they speak loudly.

Has your family received a Nook, Kindle or iPad this year?  Find Fujimini Adventure Series award-winning books here.  Great family-friendly gifts.

As part of The Moms Code we support these women and hope you do too.  At some point in the future they can decide to change their mind.  At that point motherhood can be a strong option and these women can exercise another of the their great opportunities to bring even more definition to their lives. Ya'know, just like men.  

Do you agree?  Disagree?  We'd love to hear your thoughts!

National Cherry Blossom Fest brings Multi-Cultural to Nation's Capital

As March slowly approaches from around the corner, each day we're closer to spring.  With that, comes the National Cherry Blossom Festival which throws their annual celebration in Washington, DC centered around the gift of the cherry blossom trees, a show of enduring friendship between the people of the United States and Japan. 

Has your family received a Nook, Kindle or iPad this year?  Find Fujimini Adventure Series award-winning books here.  Great family-friendly gifts.

As a company that celebrates multi-cultural views, this is perfect for ONCEKids Publishing.  So how can your family join in the celebrations?  The Festival produces and coordinates daily events featuring diverse and creative programming promoting traditional and contemporary arts and culture, natural beauty, and community spirit.

Events start off March 20 including paddle boats, cherry blossoms at sunrise, boat tours along the blossoms and the Pink Tie Party to kick off the “Season of the Blossoms” in style at the Festival’s Pink Tie Party fundraiser and auction!  For those who are tech-savvy, join SCVNGR for Spy Cherry Blossom.  The International Spy Museum has created a SCVNGR challenge combining cherry blossom and the intriguing world of espionage! The game is downloadable, free-of-charge, and available to all.

To learn more about Modern Moms and The Mom Code, please visit ONCEKids Publishing website, Facebook and Twitter

Stay tuned for more Nat'l Cherry Blossom Festival information from us throughout the month of March!

Wrestler Steven Giampapa's Small Act of Kindness That Makes a Big Difference

With all the cruelness seen recently with events such as the Sandy Hook shooting, it is easy to forget that there is any kindness left in the world. But it's people like Burlington wrestler, Steven Giampapa, who remind us of the infinite kindness that lies within the human spirit. 

Danny Gill, a Wakefield High sophomore diagnosed with Down syndrome, has fought hard to be on his high school wrestling team. Finally he was given the opportunity, but his coach, Ross Ickes, has been struggling all season long to find him a match. He was trying to find him a match that would be able to be patient and "roll with him", as Coach Ickes says. 

To learn more about Modern Moms and The Mom Code, please visit ONCEKids Publishing website, Facebook and Twitter

This match turned out to be state champion, Steven Giampapa. After Giampapa agreed to wrestle him, not only did Danny experience his first wrestling match- he also experienced his first victory. His parents, the crowd, and even the referee cheered along while Giampapa gave Danny the opportunity to experience what it was like to win a wrestling match, something he and his parents never thought possible before. 

When asked about the match, Giampapa says "beating another man on the mat like that, there is no better feeling than that and he got to feel that. That's what made me happy."

Danny would certainly agree with Giampapa that winning is an amazing feeling, even just being able to wrestle was enough for him. Halfway through the match he turns to give his mother, Lauren, a thumbs up and big smile. 

Watching their son wrestle and be so overjoyed doing it left Danny's parents in tears by the end of the match. "I was just so excited for Dan," says his mother, "I was very proud of him, he was very proud of himself." His father, Kevin, was equally thrilled about the wrestling match and about Giampapa. He comments on the experience saying, "This kid from Burlington, Steven, made him feel on the top of the world at that moment that night."

Learn more about educator, acclaimed author and Mompreneur Eileen Wacker, click here 

Events like these are often underreported, but never under appreciated. It is the small, unknown acts of compassion and selflessness that give people happiness and fill them with a renewed sense of hope, that is often left broken after tragedy. 

The Four Practices of A Cyber Savvy Parent

With the use of cellphones, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and countless other forms of technology rapidly increasing-and the ages they are being used at rapidly decreasing- many parents are beginning to worry about being left in the dust of this social networking storm. 

Various parental controls have proven themselves to be relatively effective, but it's not the entire solution to keeping your kids safe online. The variety of software devices parents can use to limit their children's access when surfing the Internet or turning on the TV are definitely helpful, but kids' seemingly infinite knowledge has allowed many of them to figure out ways to get around these boundaries, far exceeding our own knowledge of such technology. Luckily for parents, there are certain practices to try and limit sneaky online behavior and emphasize safe Internet use-five of which we've laid out for you!


To learn more about Modern Moms and The Mom Code, please visit ONCEKids Publishing website, Facebook and Twitter

1. Communicate

Opening up a dialogue between you and your children is key when it comes to appropriate use of the Internet, cell phone, television, and other various forms of technology. Make sure to be clear with your children what sites and shows you consider acceptable and appropriate and which you do not. 

2. Familiarize 

There are so many sites that are popular for kids and teens, with new ones popping up every day, that it can seem overwhelming. Ask your kids to take you online and show you what sites they are surfing and how they work. Becoming more familiar with what they're up to can minimize confusion and maximize supervision. 

3. Centralize

Put the computer so it is in a central, open space in your house. For example, in the kitchen or living room. This way it is easier to view and monitor what it is they are getting up to and limits the amount of unsupervised Internet use. 

4. Create Awareness

Along with the increasing use of technology comes increased exposure to potential predators or cyber bullying. Be sure to stress the importance of never ever giving out personal information online about themselves or family and friends. Explain to them the dangers of talking to strangers online and why it is crucial they don't engage in such risky behavior. Also talk to your children about cyber bullying. It is important they understand that whether they are being bullied or if they are the bullies themselves, that such behavior is not acceptable in any way and they need to tell an adult they trust if such behavior is occurring.