The Family Zone

Families often find themselves in need of various services. Fortunately, you won’t have to drive yourself crazy trying to figure out where these services are and how to apply for them. All of the information is compiled into one book-the Consumer Action Handbook. This handbook is being offered completely for free to anyone who wants it.

All you have to do in order to get the handbook is to head to usa.gov’s website and fill out your full name and mailing address. Your telephone number is optional, and since I don’t like handing out my phone number, I’ll leave this field blank. Finally, you’ll need to indicate how many handbooks you need. For example, I own a duplex so I’ll request 2 copies. I can then give one to my tenant. If, however, you need more than 10 copies, you must give the reason why.

The free Consumer Action Handbook is available in Spanish as well. If you don’t want to wait for a copy of the handbook to be mailed to you, you can gain instant access to the information in the handbook by downloading it in PDF format. I plan on waiting for the book to arrive so as to save myself money on printer ink and paper.

Some things you can expect to find in the book include how to file a consumer complaint, tips on buying a new car, how to deal with spam, how to get student financial aid for college, travel safety advice, how to avoid foreclosure, how to prepare for an emergency, and how to make healthy food choices.
 

Family time should be something both parents and children look forward to. In my experience it is best if everyone in the family has input about the activity. There are several ways you can go about doing this.

First, you have to choose when you are going to celebrate Family Fun Day. You can pick the first Saturday of each month, or create a schedule that is more frequent if you have the time. Once you have the dates set aside on the calendar you can begin receiving Family Fun Day suggestions.

To be fair you can assign each person in the family one of the Family Fun Day dates. Then when their date comes around, you all participate in that person’s suggestion. Of course, you can set a price limit on the activity chosen if you need to.

Another way to handle the choosing of the Family Fun Day activities is to have each family member pick an activity and write it down on a piece of paper. Place the pieces of paper in a hat. Each Family Fun Day you can pull one of the suggestions out of the hat and then complete that activity. Eventually, everyone will have had their suggestion picked.

Some great Family Fun Day activities include bowling, a picnic in the park, volunteering at the nearest soup kitchen, playing board games, going to a ball game, or taking in a concert. Of course, you can also go bike riding or roller skating together. Pretty much any activity goes so long as the entire family is involved.

Tip: Consider including Grandma and Grandpa in your family activities.
 

Each summer there are a few activities that my girls and I make sure we do at least once before the summer comes to an end. You wouldn’t think it would be that hard to squeeze these activities in, but one of my kids goes to school all year long. I also work all year long, and homeschool my other daughter during the month of July.

The first activity we have on our agenda is to play miniature golf. Ideally, I’d love to go at least once per month during the summer. Financially, we can’t really go much more often than that if we want to complete the rest of our activities.

Next, we plan a trip to the boardwalk. I usually do this in August so that we can celebrate my step-daughter’s birthday at the same time. I find it best to give each of the kids $10 for the arcade. Last year two of the kids didn’t even finish using their quarters because they had earned enough tickets to get the prizes they wanted. Of course, we have to grab a funnel cake and go on a few rides.

What is summer without stopping by an ice cream stand at least once. I don’t like to go to the ice cream stand more often that once or twice because let’s face it, I could buy 3 gallons of ice cream for what they charge.

Finally, we must head to the beach to collect seashells. I’d love to layout and enjoy the sun, but my youngest daughter has Angelman Syndrome and only wants to be by the water. I have to hold on to her the entire time, so I don’t get to the beach as much as I would like. It is just a lot of work. Still, we do enjoy creating these family memories each summer.

I decided to take my family to the Medieval Times Restaurant while vacationing in Orlando. I remember what a great time I had when going there as a young teenager. In addition to my girls, I also brought my niece.

When we arrived at the restaurant, we picked up our pre-purchased tickets and received the color of the knight we were to root for. We got to the restaurant early so that we would have time to look around at the outdoor exhibits. I forgot that there were a lot torture devices from the Medieval Times, and they kind of scared the kids a little bit.

Next, we went back into the main castle. There were characters all over the place selling novelty items, but we decided to skip that and wait in line to get a seat. You have to wait until they let you in, so the kids were a bit bored and seemed to have lost their excitement for the dinner.

Once we were ushered to our seat (I have a handicap child that required we use an elevator in the castle’s kitchen), the servers began taking drink orders and bringing out the first course. The kids immediately perked up and began enjoying themselves. They thought it was so cool to eat with their hands.

The show started and we all cheered loud for the green knight. It turned out that our knight was actually bad so at the end of the day I had to remind the kids that we wouldn’t actually cheer on someone who was bad in real life. All of the staff were extremely friendly and accommodating for my disabled daughter. We certainly created some family memories that will last a lifetime!