Mamacita says:  The new Carnival of Education is up over at Steve Spangler’s Blog.  While you’re there, check out his post about color-changing solar beads.  If your child has a hard time remembering to reapply sunscreen, why don’t you make a bracelet, or ankle bracelet, or necklace, or thread a bead on a chain and put it around his/her neck, etc, put sunscreen on the beads, and tell your kid to come back in the house for more sunscreen when the beads change color?  This puts some responsibility on your child, and it’s cool to see the beads change color.  Just a thought.  My son is so fair-skinned, just a few minutes in the sun blisters him into agony.  Yet, when he was little, he resisted coming back inside to have his Bullfrog #50 reapplied.  If I’d had access to these solar beads back then, our summers would have been a lot more peaceful.  He would have loved “being in charge” of his own sunscreen, and he would have loved keeping an eye on the beads, waiting for them to change color, and then telling ME it was time for more sunscreen.

My son’s fair skin made summer band camp eventually impossible.  He sweated through even the heartiest sunscreen and there wasn’t always time to reapply.

He hated band camp, so I guess it all evens out.  I wasn’t a Mommy who usually let her children quit something once they’d signed up and people were counting on them, but I did let him quit band camp before he got so crispy he might as well have slathered barbecue sauce on himself instead of Bullfrog.

Except for my daughter, who always has a lovely tan in the summer, none of us has much pigment; we’re all pale and pasty, and when we go out into the sun, we turn into Grillface.  (language warning)

In case you’re wondering, this is NOT a paid post. I done it outta sheer love for all involved.

I don’t mind reading paid posts, as long as I’m told it was done for money right up front.  Otherwise, I feel deceived.

Also?  I’m counting down ’till BlogHer.  Can’t WAIT.

Note to self:  must    buy     decent      shoes