With the warm weather here, you’re probably cleaning out your swimming pool and pulling out the patio chairs. As kids get out on summer break and the days get longer and hotter, it’s the perfect time to plan a summer barbecue or a party. Entertaining outdoors during the summertime is certainly a lot of fun, though it also comes with some responsibility!
Open house for burglars?
Unless you have a doorman, it’s impossible to personally greet everyone as they walk into your home. During the party, you’ll probably end up leaving both the front and back door unlocked and open so that guests can come and go. Though this is certainly convenient, it isn’t always prudent. Doing so may invite unwanted elements into your home because they can tell that you’re having a lot of people over, and with that comes the potential for them to get lost in the crowd. Consider buying a hidden camera or “nanny cam” to record what goes on when you aren’t there.
Introduce yourself
If you plan to host a summer party, don’t take this as a warning to keep your home shut off from the outside. Instead, keep in mind that you need to pay attention to the faces in the crowd. Perhaps your 
friends or coworkers have brought someone you’ve never met to your summer bash. If you haven’t been introduced to someone you see inside your home during the party, now is the time to do so. If someone has slipped in unbeknownst to the host or guests, everyone might assume that they are there with someone else, and they will be free to rob small valuables left lying around, as well as scope out your home for a future robbery.
Lock your private rooms
None of your guests will feel offended if you lock up certain rooms of the home, such as your bedroom or home office. Use locks or motion alarms to keep guests away from these areas during the party. After all, guests shouldn’t be wandering into these places anyway, when they could be outdoors enjoying the party. It also makes sense to do a quick sweep of your home before the guests arrive to remove any small and valuable objects from the areas guests are likely to be.
Remember your swimming pool
Finally, if you do have a backyard pool, it is your duty as the homeowner to keep your guests safe around it. Even if the pool is off-limits for swimmers during the summer bash, the possibility still exists for someone to fall in. A pool alarm will alert you to a child or adult in the pool, whether you have dozens of guests over for a party or are home alone with your family. This simple device is a must-have security feature for any pool owner to install. With the start of summer and the swimming season, now is the time to buy a pool alarm.
Inviting dozens of guests over to enjoy a summer evening at your home is 
certainly an enjoyable occasion, but the night could take a sudden turn if you return indoors to find that you’ve been robbed while you were on the patio entertaining your guests. Whenever you have a large number of people in your home, be mindful of the security threat that this presents, and take the necessary precautions.
Author Byline
Guest Blog by Tara Shaw, a mother of three happily living in Austin, Texas.Tara was born in England and moved to USA in 1998. Together with her husband James she started the Resist Attack website in 2009 to make available a wide variety of personal safety products and to educate families on how to stay safe. So far they have published over 250 articles on the subject.
For those of us here at Zoodles, 
Mark and his wife Tara welcomed their first bundle of joy into the family in July of 2004. Little did either of them know, but with the birth of their daughter Abigail, the wheels for what would eventually give rise to Zoodles, had been set into motion. Soon after Abbie arrived they had their second child, Samantha, and Mark and Tara settled right into parenthood. Life was hectic but full of a thousand little miracles that come from loving and raising 2 small children. The girls were growing and changing so quickly that time seemed to literally fly by. Only Mark’s career seemed to be moving faster. One business Mark sold to Amazon, another he worked for was acquired by Research in Motion, and a 3rd business, 
Fast-forward to the year that Abigail turned 4. Daddy was home watching the girls so mom could get some much needed R&R. The day started out just like most other days, his dax frustrated Abbie gave her father an idea which would ultimately lead him to build and design Zoodles. If you are not aware of our 
. If anyone has this answer please email or call me as I need to know!
The library is not what it used to be! But they’re still completely free. They have kiddie computers, child soft seating, and baskets of toys to encourage free play. Children have their own DVD section, books on tape (great for car rides), and story time is quickly being rivaled by the library’s free 
his is one of the best ways to cool off when it’s hot out! Delay the sprinklers so they come on later in the morning than usual. Kids love getting wet and will be entertained for hours (assuming your local water supply and water bill allows!). Besides watering the grass, there is really no clean up like you would have if you pulled out the kiddie pool. And I don’t know about you, but I like NO CLEAN UP!
I just love the entrepreneurship lessons involved in this one! Loan the kids some “seed money” for supplies. Take them to the store and have them pick up the necessities like cups, lemons, and sugar
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What kid doesn’t like building a fire after dark and 
The iPad has arrived, and we here at Zoodles have been happily fiddling with our “family Pad” all week. Are you as excited as we are? Touch interfaces may be sexy for adults, but they are an insane game changer in the world of kids and education. Until now, a lot of the 
Most of the first toys your child handles are bulky, colorful, and safe. As your child learns to grasp these objects, they also learn how to wrangle fun sights and sounds out of them. In this early stage of motor skill development, your child is just starting to understand that what they do physically can make something else in the world behave a certain way.
Soon after, your child will start to understand that screens – be they on the phone, TV, or computer – are places where things happen too. Not only that, but they’ll quickly realize that they can make things happen there! Depending on how developed their motor skills are, this is a great time to introduce toddlers to hand-banging keyboards like Fisher Price’s 
Touch is the third physical interaction usually mastered by tots. Their little fingers do particularly well with touch screens, so the iPhone and iPad are great (though expensive!) interfaces for them to start with. With apps like 
After touch, the next interfaces to learn are ones that involve pens. No need to run out and get a tablet – you just need something interactive that will continue to develop your child’s fine motor skills without losing the feedback and immediacy of touch interfaces. Whether your child spends time with crayons, 
The keyboard – mentioned previously in Screens – is a tool that can be mastered to varying degrees. The first thing to learn is that banging on the keyboard causes things to happen on the screen. That’s pretty much all your toddler needs to know to explore their powers on sites like 
And that’s where Zoodles comes in. With Zoodles, you can trust that your little keybanger will not only be contained, but engaged, and educated, all from within the safety of our browser. Our interface protects your computer, and our content safeguards your kids. We feature content providers who are passionate about designing games, activities, and videos specifically for young developing users. 
This year’s fair included 210 entries, pooled from the winning projects at twenty-nine schools across San Francisco. Around 30 volunteer judges with career experience in science and technical fields break into teams of three to four people to judge entries across three grade levels (6th, 7th, and 8th) as well as three categories (Biological Sciences, Behavioral and Health Sciences, and Physical Sciences). I was the team lead judging 7th grade Physical Sciences, which included 22 entries.
Every year, I’m impressed by the thought and creativity that go into the projects, and this year was no exception. Some of the more notable entries I encountered include:
Singing Wine Glasses – The student investigated how liquids alter the sound produced when you run a finger over the rim of a wine glass. The student experimented with not only the amount of liquid, but the viscosity, including such odd ingredients as almond butter!
Our team rated each project in three areas:
A science fair project is a perfect way you and your child can have a rewarding, enriching experience together, and maybe produce one of tomorrow’s generation of scientists and engineers.
