Disneyland was designed for kids of all ages - and toddlers are no exception! There are many things that you can enjoy with your toddler - so many things in fact, that unless you will be staying for several days, you won't have time to do them all.

Start with Toon Town. Here is where you will find your toddler's favorite Disney Characters, including Mickey and Minnie Mouse. All of the Characters have homes in Toon Town, full of things that will amaze your toddler, and make them laugh.

Disneyland boasts a slew of rides and attractions that, while tame, elicit squeals of delight from toddlers. Some of the favorites are:

It's a Small World, a boat ride through a musical diorama; the Enchanted Tiki Room, a Hawaiian extravaganza complete with automated birds and flowers; and the Country Bear Playhouse, where furry life-sized robotic bears sing and dance in a jamboree.

Children three and older can visit every attraction in Mickey's Toontown, including Chip 'n Dale's Treehouse and Goofy's Bounce House. They can also tour Mickey's House, where they're guaranteed a chance to meet the Mouse himself in his dressing room. Then there's this little-known secret: Several times each afternoon, Disney princesses tell stories to young guests in the Tinker Bell Toy Shoppe.

Twice a day the 45 Years of Magic Parade marched down Main Street U.S.A. Parade schedules vary, depending on the season, but stake out a spot early to give your toddler a good view of all her favorite characters.

Every night the park stages "Fantasmic!" at Rivers of America. A laser-light water show with fireworks and a full-sized pirate ship, "Fantasmic!" will knock the cynic out of any adult. Bright lights and big noise every night at 9:30 with the 45th Anniversary Fireworks Spectacular, "Believe: There's Magic in the Stars."

Your toddler will definitely enjoy the Disneyland Railroad. This is a great way to get around the park, because there are stations in New Orleans Square, Toon Town, Tomorrowland, and on Main Street. This will amuse your toddler, and give you a chance to see some sights and rest a bit.

The Storybook Land Canal Boats is another good choice, as it will take you through the miniature villages that your child will be quite familiar with from their story books.

Rides that you and your toddler must not miss include all of the rides in Fantasyland, King Arthur's Carousel, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, the Circus Train, and the Mad Tea Party. Rides that are appropriate for youngsters, but that may cause a little fear are the rides that are dark. These include Peter Pan's Flight, Pinocchio's Daring Journey, Alice in Wonderland, and Snow White's Scary Adventure. Buzz Lightyear is a popular ride for all toddlers.

There are other areas of the park that have attractions and rides that are appropriate for toddlers. Remember that Disneyland is a place for kids of all ages. Pay attention to the height and age requirements for each attraction, and avoid taking your toddler to rides that they will not be able to enjoy. This will only cause your child disappointment.

Stick to the areas where the toddler appropriate attractions are located as much as possible. As an adult, you realize that some rides are simply not safe for small people - but your small person will not comprehend this! Your Disneyland vacation should be enjoyable for everyone, and Disneyland has made sure that there is something for everyone at the park. It is up to you to keep your child happy, and to keep them interested in the rides and attractions that they are meant to enjoy.

If you want to go on some adults-only rides without splitting up, try the "Baby Swap." As soon as you get in line, tell an attendant that you want to use this option. When it's your family's turn, one parent rides while the other stands aside holding the child. When the run is over, the parent who just rode gets off and takes the child, and the other parent hops on.

About the Author

Dan Farrell is the owner of Disneyland Vacations where you can get more information on a great Disneyland Vacation.

It almost sounds too good to be true, work-at-home while at the same time taking care of your small children? While you've daydreamed about this, you never really thought it was something you could actually do.

I started working at home for this very reason. I didn't want to have to put my baby in daycare. Fortunately, I found a business as a writer where I could do just that. However, not all home businesses are as compatible.

Here are 3 ways to make working at home with the kids around work for you.

1) Find a business you will LOVE running and will be possible with the kids around.

Sure, you might be able to get a job as a telephone order person for LL Bean from home. The only problem is your 5 month old may not agree.

Your first assignment is to figure out what exactly are your priorities. They could be anywhere from not wanting your kids in a daycare for 12 hours a day to wanting to raise your children yourself.

2) Daycare

There are days where I say to myself, "Liz, you could sure get a whole lot done if you didn't have your kids around the house all day long." However, that's why I'm here in the first place. My goal has always been to be here for my kids. So I work around their schedule.

It maybe totally different for you. A good friend of mine is a word processor. There is no way she could get the amount of work done that she does if she was having to watch her children all day long too. So she has someone come into her house to watch over her children.

You have so many options to make your home business work: full time or part-time daycare; a live-in nanny; someone that just comes into your home a few hours a day; bartering childcare with other work-at-home moms; getting your relatives to watch your kids jut a few days a week; hiring a 12 year old (they love playing with younger kids) to watch your kids just an hour or two a day. You have so many options, which one will work best for you?

3) Be creative

There are times when you have an important phone call and those charming children of yours are around -- what do you do? As that cute little show, Blue's Clues says, "It's time for the thinking chair."

A) Just don't answer the phone. Is it best that you talk to them with a screaming kid in the background or to call them back when things quiet down?

B) Get little Johnny his own little play phone/computer/desk. Kids love to pretend they are just like Mom and Dad. So play on that little factor. If you want, pull out the play phone, etc., only when you really need it.

C) Bribe them. I know, I can't believe I'm telling you this either. But I'll admit there have been times when I may have been on a phone call and raided the freezer for an ice cream bar for my girls. I may have even been known to give them a couple bars if it was a really long conversation.

D) One-on-one time. How many times have you said, "Just one more minute". I've said it way too many times. But those times that I've gone and taken a walk with my girls, had a tea party or played Playmobile... those have become wonderful memories; and when I'm done, they're more than happy to go off and play by themselves for awhile.

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About the Author

Liz Folger is the founder of http://www.bizymoms.com. Bizymoms.com is the leading online resource for work-from-home ideas. The site offers home-based business start-up kits, online classes, e-books, chats and enthusiastic support for moms who want to have it all - a family and a career. Visit http://www.bizymoms.com for more information.

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Honestly, self-esteem is not taught to little babies and toddlers. It's an innate sense that drives them to roll over, to crawl, to walk, to begin speaking, and to learn how to get their basic needs met. Children are naturally self-confident. Babies and toddlers don't say, "What if I can't accomplish this goal? Perhaps I should settle for less and just do without that toy. I don't really need to learn to walk. I can lay here forever." We don't have to coach a baby to feel good about themselves so that they'll learn how to hold their own bottle or how to manipulate a toy. The toy exists and they simply want to reach for it. The bottle is there and they simply want to hold onto it. Learning new things is just what they do without any thoughts about self-esteem and their ability to succeed. Either we reinforce their sense of self, or we systematically destroy it.

Why would anyone destroy a child's self-esteem? Rarely do parents and other adults in a child's life make a conscious decision that they want to raise a child to have low self-esteem. Typically, the parents have no idea they are even doing it and worse, if you tell them so, they become quite defensive about it. After all, they love their child so how can it be their fault that their child's self-esteem is low? The word 'parent' is meant to describe any adult in the role of guardianship. A 'parent' is a steward who must watch over the child's well-being and insure that nothing happens to mess with the child's development.

It's the parents' job to protect the child's self-esteem by setting up and monitoring their environment so that the child can grow, learn, reach, aspire, and accomplish goals. Through real accomplishments and real achievements, real self-esteem is reinforced. Children know when they are being handed a ribbon just for showing up and win they are receiving a real award that took hard work and determination to earn it. The parent doesn't give the child self-esteem, but sets up opportunities and lessons that allows the child to develop and grow into a balanced sense of self that knows their own personal limits and their own personal gifts.

It's the parents' job to make sure that siblings, family friends, teachers, and others who come into contact with the child are not allowed to verbally tear a child's sense of identity apart. Nobody, including the parents, should be allowed to belittle the child, abuse the child, or in any way make the child feel that they are an inferior human being. No name-calling should ever be allowed. The child should not be allowed to say such things, as "I'm stupid." The child needs to be taught the power of words and thoughts and if someone calls the child stupid, dumb, or in any other way ridicules the child's ability to accomplish their own dreams, the parent has an obligation to stand up to the bully and say that they are wrong. Children need to hear adults speaking up in their defense.

Through trust and honesty the adult earns the child's respect and in times of doubt, hearing a trusted adult say that they believe in the child's ability to succeed can mean the world to that child. If the adult is someone who always offers sappy unearned praise for inferior performances, then that adult is not going to be a real cheerleader in the child's eyes. They will discount that parent's statement as simply being prejudice or worse they'll think the adult is lying. It can backfire causing the child to assume that since the adult lies to them about their abilities that the adult must not really believe in them. As a parent, we have to talk straight with our children and give them real tips and pointers about how to succeed. Don't just slobber 'Yeah! Good job!' all over them when they haven't really earned it. When they fail, you have to teach them how to handle failure. That means teaching them how to analyze what went wrong and how to improve their performance for the next time. It also means teaching them how to get back up in the saddle to ride again.

Often as parents, we want to protect our children from feeling like failures. We think the experience of failing causes our children to lose heart and give up. The truth is that part of growing and reaching beyond our comfort zones involves failing once in awhile. If you protect your child from ever seeing themselves as less than a winner, then you rob them of the opportunity to learn tenacity and determination. You don't carry a toddler around on your hip and give them rewards for learning how to walk. You put them down on the ground and let them fall down and get up and fall down and get up and fall down. You can cheer them for their tenacity, but you have to let them figure out how to do it without your help. Successfully accomplishing their goals is what builds a 'can do' attitude.

It's not our job to make sure they always win and they always succeed. It's our job to make sure that nobody interferes with their ability to learn how to win and how to succeed. You protect the environment, set the atmosphere for self-growth, self-determination, self-discovery of one's own natural talents and one's natural limitations. You coach them, but you don't lie to them about their successes. You cheer them on but you don't tell them that they are a winner if their work was sloppy or less than their best. When a child really works hard and gives it their all, then yes they have a winner's drive and a winner's attitude, but don't reward them as if they've crossed the finish line. Real self-esteem is earned, it's not given to someone as a consolation prize.

Copyright 2005, Skye Thomas, Tomorrow's Edge

About the Author

Skye Thomas is the CEO of Tomorrow's Edge, an Internet leader in inspiring leaps of faith. To read more of her articles and free previews of her books, go to www.TomorrowsEdge.com. Webmasters interested in generating more repeat traffic to their websites are invited to visit www.TomorrowsEdge.net/horoscopes-generate-website-traffic.html.

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Should your toddler get on the amusement park rides that are so inviting? Many parents wonder about the best age to introduce young children to the rides at theme or amusement parks that often attract children. While it may be tempting to buckle your little one for an exhilarating ride, give some thought to criteria like those outlined below to see if your child is truly ready for a mobile ride of this type:

1. Is your child the right size for his or her age? Extra-small or short kids may need to wait until they grow a little more to get on rides designated for their age group. Many ride operators will check the height of children, using a predetermined measuring stick, but if not, don't let your little one get on a ride that is actually intended for bigger children. Injury could result, otherwise.

2. Does your child want to go on the ride? A toddler who appears frightened or uncertain should be permitted to wait until he or she is older. Forcing a child to go on a ride before he or she is ready is cruel and may delay a child's adjustment to amusement park rides for years to come. It may be a good idea to take a sibling or neighborhood friend at the same time so your son or daughter can take along someone known to ease the strain of something new.

3. Go with your little one. Parents should plan to ride with a small child for comfort and protection. Don't assume that forcing a child to go alone "will make him a man" or push him to "grow up" sooner. It may cause trauma that will last for weeks in the form of nightmares or anxiety.

4. Start with simple rides first. The merry-go-round or other age-appropriate rides can help to ease your child into the amusement park mentality. Seeing kids of the same age on certain rides will ease tension and encourage your child to join them for fun on a ride that should not be particularly fear inspiring.

5. Make sure the ride is as safe as possible. Look for the operator's license and the last inspection date for the ride. Watch it go through one or two cycles before buying a ticket for a particular attraction. If it appears to go too fast, or is especially jerky, it probably isn't a good idea for a young child to get on. Little ones can experience brain damage, or headaches at the least, when their small bodies are hurled from one side of a ride to the other, or dangled upside down. Make sure the ride will not hurt your child's physique or security.

Amusement park rides are fun for the whole family. But take special precautions to ease your little one onto his or her first ride to make it fun and memorable in a pleasant way.

About the Author

For additional information on amusement park attractions and rides, visit Fun Park Rides and More at Fun Park Rides