We’re excited to share some great KidKupz news with all of you. As of September, you will be able to find KidKupz medicine dispensing cups at over 5,000 Walgreens stores nationwide!

Our ever popular Sour Cherry and Blue Raspberry flavors will be available on Walgreens’ shelves in an even more convenient box size – still six dosage cups, same great taste. As always, all four flavors will still be available at our web store but now you also have the comfort of knowing that come back to school time and cold and allergy season, KidKupz are as convenient as a trip to your local Walgreens.

Pick up a box for your family and let us know what you think!

If your family is anything like mine, then summer throws your normal school year routine right out the window.  Of course, our kids aren’t heading out to class but that’s not the only thing that changes at my house. Sleep schedules, bedtime routines, meal times, reading time, eating habits and some semblance of a dress code…all of these things seem to take on a life of their own at my house come Summer vacation.

My kids still need to get wake up early so that I can drive them to day camp, but let’s face it, it’s camp and wandering in late in your flip flops is just fine. Meal times and schedules slide around and I even find myself allowing ice cream to sneak in more frequently during the week.  It is Summer, after all, and the ice cream and the fresh corn and the cookouts with smores, well aren’t they just a necessary part of childhood?

So, with summer slowly winding down, what is the best way to gradually start transitioning our children, and ourselves, back into more of a routine that will prepare us for back to school? Take a look at WebMD’s Ask the School Nurse for some practical advice that may not have crossed your mind while you were relaxing on the beach.

If your children are old enough to begin taking on some basic household chores then you may want to take a look at this article from WebMD for some great perspective on why assigning chores is so important for raising independent and confident children.

Somehow it seems that many parents of today have things a bit backwards. We all love our children so much and want them to be joyful and free of stress 24-7. After all, kids have so much going on in their lives today with schoolwork and after school activities, how can we expect them to be pitching in with the laundry or the gardening on top of their own “stuff?” The truth is, kids need to feel that they are an integral part of their household and that in turn will provide them with the crucial self-esteem that so many kids lack. Read on for some super suggestions!

If your child is in elementary school then chances are they were given suggestions for Summer reading from their school.  My son and daughter were each provided with a long list of age appropriate book titles broken down by category, i.e. Adventure, Science Fiction, Biographies etc.. My kids are not the world’s most enthusiastic readers so I found it really helpful that they could take some control and read through the brief descriptions to decide for themselves what 5 or 6 books to read.

Sit down with your kids, or better yet, let them sit down at the computer, and take a look at these age appropriate book titles complete with brief summaries from www.FamilyEducation.com.  Allowing your child to map out her own reading plan might just make all the difference this Summer!

If your children are approaching their “tweens” then for certain they have already been asking you some pretty sticky questions over the last few years. Regardless of the topic, our kids want to know about what we were doing at their age and the more juicy details the better. My kids get such a thrill out of hearing stories from my childhood and my husband’s childhood that involve us doing something naughty or getting in trouble at school or with our parents. Not only do they find it highly entertaining, but it’s also great ammunition to use against us at a later date when they are being scolded for the identical behaviors.

Let’s face it, we all have some stories about our adolescence that we would prefer to keep to ourselves…especially when it comes to sharing with our children.  When our kids do come to us with questions about pre-marital sexual activity or about experimenting with drugs and alcohol, how honest should we be? How can we preach to our children about never taking a sip of alcohol until the age of 21, and yet be truthful about our own experimentation as teens? Is rewriting our own history in the best interest of our children or is there a way to be honest with them and still get a message across?

See what pediatrician, Dr. Perri Klass has to say on the subject and avoid feeling like a deer in the headlights the next time your child hits you up with a tough question.

When it comes to children who exhibit extreme behavioral and social problems, with no diagnosis of mental illness, it is most often perceived to be the fault of bad parenting. Afterall, we have all been taught to believe that every child comes into this world a pure and innocent angel and that only external factors can change that. In other words, it’s usually mom and dad’s fault. In our rational moments, we know that we can’t take the blame for everything that goes wrong with our kids , but we have all observed a child having a horrible tantrum at the mall and there’s always that same immediate reaction…”Obviously that mother or father has no control over their own child. ” Well it turns out that there may be some truth to that theory, but not in the way you think.

According to Psychiatrists at New York’s Weill Cornell Medical College, “The era of ‘there are no bad children, only bad parents’ is gone.” Read on…

With Summer in full swing and the heat and humidity in overdrive, we are all bound to be visited by our fair share of mosquitoes in the weeks ahead. As a child, I went to a very rustic sleep away camp in Maine and I must have been a juicy morsel because none of the other campers could compete with me when it came to mosquito bites…did I mention that I was also the Jacks Champion 3 Summers running? Anyway, I can still remember the horrible smell of  the many aerosol cans of bug spray that filled my bunk and still those annoying pests were my constant companions.

I am just now realizing that my own bug spray experience is the very reason that I have been resistant to use it with my children despite the instructions that their various camps have sent home to me year after year. So imagine my delight when I came across this little article in the New York Times Science Times suggesting that there is compelling evidence that using a good old fashioned fan, indoors or out, can actually do the trick. Read on and tell your local mosquitoes to to bug off!

Now that school is out, our children should ideally be spending more time outdoors and involved in some sort of physical activity. Whether your kids are at camp or just hanging out at the beach or in the backyard, chances are they are spending less time in front of the TV.

As incoming 5th and 6th graders, my son and daughter were assigned a summer reading list from which they are required to read at least 5 books. They were also given some math review websites on which to spend some time doing summer review. The good news is that, after a long day at camp and some reading time, showering and dinner, there just aren’t that many hours left in the day for TV or video games or even computer time. I find my kids are so much less interested in begging to play on my computer or in emailing  with their friends. Still, it is called summer vacation for a reason and we have to cut them some slack and just let them chill out a bit. More than likely, that chill time will be spent playing video games of one kind or another. While I’m okay with being a bit more lax during the Summer, it is still important to maintain some type of rules and guidelines as far as the videogames go. If the time spent playing gets too out of hand during the summer months, it will be near impossible to reign it in come September.

Parenting.org has come up with some common sense guidelines for parents to follow that will help keep our kids on track while still allowing them some time to enjoy their favorite pastime.

If you are planning a road trip this summer with the family you are bound to find the back seat of your mini van covered with greasy potato chip bags and empty soda bottles by the time you reach your destination. Let’s face it, chips, soda and snack bars are among the tried and true go-to snacks on the road. They’re easy to grab off the shelf and there’s no thinking involved. The problem is that both you and your kids will arrive at your vacation destination feeling sluggish and bloated. Of course, your best bet is to pack snacks from home including the obvious choices like carrots, pretzels, sugarless gum and bottled water. But think back, way back, to your own childhood road trips and remember that the last thing you wanted to snack on was something that mom had packed in her old cooler. Half the fun of the trip is begging for some money to spend at the 7-Eleven on a Slurpee and a Twinkie.

With that in mind, Health.com has put together some great suggestions that will help make this Summer’s road trip healthful while still allowing your family the fun of snacking along the way.  Whether it’s a gas station, a rest stop or a fast food chain, these tips for what to grab on the go will even keep your kids snack-happy!

So, my son and daughter started day camp on Monday out on the eastern end of Long Island…home to some of the East coast’s most beautiful beaches. Months ago when I registered them for camp, they were asked to select a “major” which meant they could choose from among an amazing list of activities that would be the focus of their camp day for 4 weeks at a time. Their mornings are spent in their major and their afternoons are spent doing varied activities which change daily.

I was certain that my son would go for baseball or basketball or maybe even soccer…definitely something that involved a ball on a field. I was equally sure that my daughter would choose ceramics, photography or Rock Band…definitely something sedentary and air conditioned.  Much to my surprise, both kids chose surfing, and when I say surprise, I actually mean shock. My children have always enjoyed a dip in the ocean and they have done some boogie boarding now and then but the truth is, they are city kids at heart. My son is always awaiting a shark attack and my daughter can’t stand stepping on anything scratchy or sharp in the water. Ever since they were babies, we would make the traditional family trek down to the beach planning to spend the whole day and within 2 hours the whining would begin. “I have sand in my suit.” “I need to use the bathroom.” “The sand is too hot to walk on. Can you carry me?”

We talked about their choice of surfing and despite their enthusiasm, I was 100% certain that they would ask to switch their major after the first day of camp. After all, I am their mother. I know these things. Therein lay the dilemma. My son is 11 and my daughter is 10. At this stage, they should know what they want and they should be able to make their own choices with confidence. What were they thinking? Not only would they hate the hot beach all day and the feeling of being covered in sand, but they would be terrified of going far out in the ocean and even worse, they will stink at surfing. I mean, they just aren’t cut out for it. Other than obsessively torturing my husband with my concerns, I kept all of these thoughts to myself.

For the first time in my role as a mother, I realized that I was going to have to keep my mouth shut and let my children fail miserably and realize the error of their ways on their own. I went ahead and took them to buy their wet suits, all the while worrying that when they went to camp on day 2, would their still be openings in baseball and fashion design? And through it all, I kept feeling such shame and guilt for having so little faith in my awesome, urban-dwelling kids.

Well, today is day 3 of camp and I’m thrilled to announce that I was WRONG!  My kids are having the time of their lives and are beaming with a sense of accomplishment that only a parent could wish for them. I am a person that has never been too great at stepping out of my comfort zone, much less surfing in it and to see my children challenge themselves and not hang back out of fear is better than a straight ‘A’ report card.