From left: Wyatt Bootes, 3, Carson Cowser, 4, and Tyler Webb, 4, play with Legos building blocks at Barb’s Care-A-Lot early childhood preschool in Harborcreek Township. JARID A. BARRINGER/

Kids have only been out of school for a few days, but if you worry that your youngsters need constant entertainment, remember — they have to learn to entertain themselves. My kids loved Legos — at every age. We had that exact same red board in the picture at left — it helped keep the Legos grounded. If you haven’t introduced your kids to Legos yet, don’t wait. There’s a package for nearly every age from under 2 to 12 and over. Even Sponge Bob is a Lego! And, yes — there are princesses and castles. The Erie Times-News featured a great article today on how to give your kids some quiet time that doesn’t include the TV.  Read it here. It includes:Books — create your own library. We had books for every age group from picture books to those spooky Goosebumps novels.Arts-and-crafts corner. My Hoosier was grand central station for construction paper, glitter, markers, crayons, glue and more.

Puzzles. Kids and adults love puzzles. We often got them from the library, and we had a United States puzzle that we all enjoyed. As your kids get older, you can put those thousand-piece puzzles together.

Do anything and everything outside. We played hoops, soccer, hockey, rollerbladed and jumped in the kiddie pool. We lived across the street from a park with playground equipment was plentiful and a baseball field and volleyball court were always in use.

Take advantage of the outdoors — in between the raindrops!

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three and stepmom to three.

Want to personalize a book for one of your kids or grandkids? You can do it at www.cosmicessentials.com. And you still have time to do it for Christmas. A local woman runs the business.

The book tells a story complete with your child’s name, age, description and can include family members by name.

It’s not just holidays or just books. You can find books on sports and other topics, personalized music and more.

Take a look at the books, and submit your name to me  by Wednesday, Nov. 28 at noon. I will draw a name and send the winner an e-mail. E-mail me at pam.parker@timesnews.com. Happy holidays!

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom to three and step-grandmom to one.

According to reports on the Today Show, Huffington Post and the New York Times, cavities are up in kids ages 2 to 5 — something we haven’t seen in 40 years. I think only one of my kids has any fillings, but we had some trouble with cavities when he was a tot.

This unsavory trend is hitting all income levels, and this is horrible news. Experts say we are avoiding tap water (which has fluoride in it) in favor of bottled water and juices. And get this — tots are drinking too much soda. Also, toddlers are not spending enough time with the toothbrush. The horror of all of this is that bad teeth gives kids painful mouths and that means a need for professional help. Kids this young have to be sedated, given anti-anxiety meds or even placed under general anesthesia for expensive dental work to take place. Anesthesia and meds result in a lot of side effects.

To flip this trend, experts recommend better dental hygiene and stop the snacks and sweet drinks. Put some teeth in your tooth-brushing battles with the kids. Sometimes kids, like my son, have trouble with cavities even if they do everything right. And that makes dental hygiene all the more important. My little ankle-biter was using an electric toothbrush and flossing before he rode a bike. Yours can too. Here’s a link to a lot of videos that teach parents and kids how to clean teeth. Here’s a link to some books — including pop-ups — to help persuade kids to brush teeth. My fave is “Clarabella’s Teeth,” but “Ginger McFlea Will Not Clean Her Teeth” puts some real bite in this topic — it’s a must read if your kids are old enough to appreciate the tooth fairy concept of high finance.  Money is a big incentive for some kids. Like Kevin O’Leary says on “Shark Tank,” — it’s all about the money.