Shopping with the most patient of children can quickly spiral into a nightmare. Whether you’re shepherding shoppers-in-training or dragging squalling protesters through the mall, getting in and out as quickly as possibly can save you cranky mood on the drive home and preserve a pleasant shopping experience. With the chaos of Christmas shopping that begins on Black Friday, this is especially true during the holiday season. Learn how to survive shopping with young kids with the Guide to Kid’s Fashion, Michelle Kouzmine.

To keep holiday shopping fun and fancy free, check out these great resources:

• From Special Children, Before You Go to the Mall with Your Child
• From Family Internet, 7 Tips for Holiday Shopping Online
• From Frugal Living, Make the Most of After-Christmas Sales

What do you look forward to the most when Thanksgiving rolls around? The parades? The football? The food? What about the family? Thanksgiving offers the perfect setting and days of free time to nurture your child’s relationship with her family members and her community. As the holidays draw near, take heed of this list of 10 ideas for outings with grandchildren and pass it on to your parents and in-laws. Allowing children to bond one-on-one with their grandparents is essential to forming close familial relationships that they’ll treasure later in life. If your parents are traveling, Nancy Parode, Senior Travel Guide, has some holiday travel tips that are great no matter the season. Keeping your child involved and engaged in the world around her is just as important. Jennifer Wolf, Guide to Single Parents, offers a few suggestions on ways to volunteer with kids that are perfect for this time of year. Not quite what you're looking for? The Guide to Kids’ Clubs, Heidi Coghlan, has several more ideas for you to consider, like pampering pets at a local shelter, sponsoring a family in need, and decorating your town for the season…with permission, of course!

As the weather turns colder, it’s time to turn up the heat in the kitchen. Why not bring the kids with you? Baking with children, whether they’re barely old enough to stir cookie dough or busy making cupcakes with only your supervision, is a surefire way to get them involved with family traditions. As you mix, measure, and stir, you can share memories of your own childhood and build treasure troves of good times for your kids to store away themselves. The kitchen is also a natural learning environment. Not only will you be teaching your kids a valuable skill, but you can also transform basic baking actions, like recipe reading, into educational activities. Cooking is a life skill they’ll need in the future; starting early will make them safe and comfortable in the kitchen as they grow older and begin to take care of themselves. As Beverly Hernandez, About.com’s Guide to Homeschooling, tells us, you can also use baking to teach kids mathematics principles. When you need to select a certain sized dish for baking a cake, teach your children about diameter and circumference. If you’re packing up treats for a holiday delivering, let them figure out how big the container needs to be. As you go through the baking process, you can also teach your kids about the science of baking. Let About.com’s Guide to Busy Cooks help you along with the hows and whys of baking. Plus: Read the Top 10 Reasons to Get Kids Cooking from Stephanie Gallagher, Guide to Cooking for Kids.

In the weeks before Halloween, it’s often the pumpkins that garner attention instead of the costumes. Before the kids pull out the newspaper, spoons, and knives, take a few minutes to brush up on the process of crafting a perfectly affordable and delightfully spooktacular jack-o-lantern. Watch a video that shows you how to carve a pumpkin from beginning to end. Then, instead of investing in a costly pumpkin-carving kit, check out the free patterns provided by About.com’s Guide to Crafts. Choose one or let your kids’ imaginations run wild as they design their own. You can even throw a pumpkin decorating party!