• Be flexible. We thought that we'd spend the evening having a funeral and sharing memories, but it was clear by our kids' reactions that our plan would need to change. Instead, we said our goodbyes and went out to our favorite restaurant, then on to swim lessons. We held our funeral the next morning, after things had sunk in a little.
• Don't expect kids to grieve the same way as adults. It took one of my kids two full days to cry for her cat, and in the time leading up to that, she was either forced-happy or whiny and clingy. Once she had her big "release," the healing finally seemed to start.
• Plan a memorial. We painted a rock for the grave site, but if your animal can't be buried, you could also put together a small scrapbook or a memory box.
• Be concrete. Even if you plan to use this time to teach your kids about the after-life, most experts recommend that you also help children understand the basic biology of death. Fido won't walk/bark/eat/feel/see anymore; his body has stopped working. This part seemed especially important to my younger child, who keeps asking, "Will she still be buried tomorrow too?"
• If possible, visit your local library ahead of time. We liked the books The Tenth Good Thing About Barney, I Will Always Love You, and Let's Talk About When Your Pet Dies for our young children.
• Everyone will need a little extra TLC during this time, even yourself. Losing a beloved pet is difficult enough, but helping your children grasp the situation can make it especially wrenching.
  

I envy those of you with a backyard. Really, I do. Some of you have cookouts, some of you have pools. Some of you engage in a random game of horse shoe or lawn bowling. For those of you with kids, though, have you thought about just how safe your backyard really is?

This list provides not only a list of things that are potential disasters waiting to happen right in the back of your house, but also quick fixes to make life easier, and safer, for everyone. Things as simple as knowing where to properly place your grill can make all the difference between safety and accident, not to mention charcoal that isn't fully extinguished.

And, did you know that more than 68,000 people are poisoned by plants every year? Some plants, if ingested, can be fatal to pets and small children. For a quick scan of the inventory in your backyard, and whether or not it poses any sort of health hazard, visit prevention.com/links. Then there is perhaps my biggest fear of all: The pool. Unfenced pools have led to so much sorrow over the years it's a wonder people still have them. According to the Home Safety Council, a quarter of the drownings in the United States each year occur near home. Pools can be a lot of fun, but only if taken care of and managed properly.

For more information on these and other helpful tips, including how to deal with pesticides, ladders and decks, check out the article. Then, check out your backyard and see if any of these tips apply to you!

It's the time of year when, walking along wooded trails in New England you can often spot the bright orange of the Red Spotted Newt or Red Eft. Kids call them salamanders (you can learn the difference between the two here) and the whimsical book The Salamander Room definitely captures the wonder and affection many kids feel towards these small creatures.

In the story a little boy named Brian carries home a small red salamander. He makes it a bed of leaves in his room with crickets and bullfrogs to sing it to sleep... and with each turn of the page his room becomes more and more magical as it is transformed into a forest habitat as the boy imagines how he will care for his small new pet.

It's the kind of story I remember imagining as a kid, lying in bed when I couldn't fall asleep: what if the ceiling were removed so that I could see the sky? What if I could sleep among the trees? Written by Anne Mazer, this gentle story is a lovely bedtime book. It's also a great story to read if your child happens to find a newt and wants to bring it home. Which my three year old son happened to do just yesterday.

Clutching it carefully in his palm, eyes wide, Bean begged to be allowed to keep the little Red Spotted newt as a pet. After some quick research, I found that these critters are actually easy pets to keep for a while. If he's going to have a pet, this one seems almost ideal. Better, at least than the earth worms he's always trying to put in his pockets. Although hand washing is a must. Here's why.

It's my opinion that three year olds aren't really able to keep any any kind of pet that requires actual, but the newt only requires a few small earth worms every so often, and a little terrarium to live in. So after a quick trip to the pet store, and a scamper through the woods to gather moss and bark for the newt's new habitat, Bean spent almost an hour tonight narrating a wonderfully elaborate story about what his new friend Leafy was doing in it's little home. (Other names he contemplated: Violet, Speckles, Louie and Spot.)

Does your child have a favorite nature book or a pet from the woods?