(YouTube link)

Lori Koch and her husband went to see their 5-year-old daughter Claire perform in the kindergarten Christmas program. She had no idea that Claire was going to sign all the songs, so that her deaf parents could follow along! They recorded her animated performance on video. The internet noticed.

Koch told Yahoo News in an email that she wasn't expecting her daughter to sign during the performance. "The regular kids used generic hand motions while my daughter chose to use sign language, to our surprise," she said.

Koch told Yahoo News that she can read lips, speak and sign, while her husband, who is also deaf, uses only sign language. "ASL is the first language in our home, so our daughter has been exposed to it since birth," she said.

Apparently the school did not know what Claire was planning, either, or they would have put her in the front row. She did a wonderful job! -via Daily Picks and Flicks

The number of newborns given the name “Cheese” increased 450% during 2013. Now admittedly, there were not many Cheeses to begin with. There were only 9 Cheeses reported from a survey of 500,000 parents. For that, we should be grateful. But, as Dan Amira of New York magazine asserts, “the correct number of babies who should be named Cheese is zero.”

-via Incredible Things

The endless cycle of this animated .gif by Maximumble perfectly describes the Sisyphean task of getting a stubborn young child to go to sleep. Yes, eldest daughter of mine: I'm talking about you.

But if you're lucky, as Lunarbaboon was on this night, then it may not be an issue for you. We love our children. But we also love sitting down. There's nothing like a good sit.*

*Except a good lie-down. Those rock.

(Photo: Paul Kuehnel/Daily Record/Sunday News)

If you’re feeling left out, how do you get connected? How do you even tell others that you feel isolated? It’s hard enough to deal with this as an adult. But if you’re just a kid, what do you do?

At Roundtown Elementary School in Manchester Township, Pennsylvania, you go sit on the buddy bench.

It’s a bench set aside on the playground for kids who want to play, but need a buddy to play with. Second grade student Christian Bucks learned about this invention at a school in Germany and decided that his school should have one, too. The York Daily Record reports:

Christian hopes that students who are playing at recess will go to the buddy bench and include the children who are sitting there to play or talk with them.

"We show we care about others when we ask others to play," he said. "I also hope that new friendships will be made because of the buddy bench."

-via Dear Wendy

(Photo: Sam Battles)

Promoter Tommy Giodone calls it “the toughest sport on wool.” For the past 18 years, he’s rented ewes from ranchers and offered kids between the ages of 4 and 7 the chance to live the life of a rodeo bull rider.

The kids wear protective gear, but otherwise it’s a lot like the adult sport. The sheep are released from pens into an arena. They’ve got to hold on for 6 seconds. The first place winner at every fair gets to compete in a national championship.

You can’t just walk in and expect to win. These mutton busting competitions can be popular. At the recent Washington State Fair, there were 5 shows a day with 40-50 kids competing at each show.

Do you have what it takes?

-via American Digest

The works of Maurice Sendak have delighted young and old alike for generations, and his artwork looks as fresh and timely today as it did when it came out decades ago. Sendak created artwork for all sorts of reasons, like these little known promotional posters for causes ranging from Jewish Book Month to International Children’s Book Day (I’m sensing a theme here).

They feature characters from fables and fairy tales, a few wild things and some kids who are hungry for adventure- and a bowl of chicken soup with rice. Sendak’s art is always a pleasure to behold, and his whimsical character designs are such an iconic part of childhood that they still bring a smile to my face.

Via Juxtapoz

It's never easy to get a little guy to go take a nap, but it's a lot easier when he has a best friend that will go lay down with him.

That's certainly the case when it comes to Theo and Beau. This puppy and babe are best friends and every day the two go lay down to take a nap together. 

And nap time together isn't just a phase, or at least not one they've grown out of yet. A month after the pictures of these two originally popped up, the two are still napping together every day.

Lets hope we continue to see these two in the future because we just can't get enough of them now.

Via Cute Overload

Everyone loves an advent calendar, but if you're looking for something a little less Christmas-y and a little more science-y, this crystal advent calendar is a great option. They even fit together to look like a real crystal grouping.

Mr. Printables is has the instructions to make your own, and the downloadable copy to print them out. The only downside is that they are a little small, so it's kind of hard to fit some larger presents into the boxes -but they're still big enough for small candies, which is all that's in many commercial advent calendars anyway.

I said these things over and over to myself when I was going through those difficult times as a kid. I say them to my teenagers now. Maybe it helps, but it doesn't make the the pain of the present go away. From Lunar Baboon.  

I love these child-adult collaborations. We’ve previously seen Mica Angela Hendricks’s work with her 4-year old. Now we can see more from redditor Tatsputin.

For 10 days out of a typical month, Tatsputin flies away from home on business trips. His kids make drawings and Tatsputin colors them in and adds a few accents while riding on the plane. You can see more samples of their work here.

-via Visual News

You know what I've always wanted -a training toilet that lets my baby use his iPad while he learns to go potty. Oh wait, that's an insane and idiotic idea... but it has still been made. And that's not the only utterly bizarre and terrible toy that was released this year. Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood rounded up the top 5 worst offenders, but I have to disagree about the Imaginext Mega Apatosaurus after all, battle dinosaurs are always awesome for kids of all ages no matter what the CCFC says.

Via Consumerist

(Photo: Jim Holden)

And it’s about time, right? We’re living in the Twenty-First Century now, so such products should be readily available.

Amanda Cotton is an artist in UK. She does a lot of fairly conventional work, such as jewelry made from earwax and paintings made by maggots on decomposing meat (what she calls a “performance sculpture.”)

Most recently, she’s made headlines by assembling picture frames made of human placentas. She does it by boiling a whole placenta, grinding it into pieces, mixing it with resin, then shaping the mixture into a frame.

It’s a keepsake for new parents, like a baby’s first blanket. Ms. Cotton explains:

It is my belief that human by-products have just as valid an aesthetic value as their virginal material resource. From this starting point, I chose to create souvenirs which pinpoint key times in one's life, using materials of personal significance.

-via Ace of Spades HQ

(YouTube link)

Ask young children about Thanksgiving, and they will tell you what they know -which isn't much. And what they know can be hilariously fused with non-Thanksgiving stuff. It's just not a traditional Thanksgiving without pickles and salami! These kids are good at bluffing their way through, which will serve them well in the higher grades -and in their careers. -via Uproxx

We've seen the real Mother of Dragons, but here's one little dragon that needs a mother to step in. He's in fantastic health. In fact, he's already breathing fire, putting him far ahead of the other dragons of his age. 

The best thing about this hilarious baby cosplay is his fantastic facial expression that seems to say "What? I'm a dragon? When did this happen?" Let's just hope he doesn't let his fire go out of control while he tries to get a hold on his surprise.

Via Fashionably Geek

Image: WCVB TV

Danny Keefe, a 6-year-old boy at the Mitchell Elementary School in Bridgewater, Massachussetts, is disabled because of a brain hemorrhage at birth and has a speech impediment problem.

Regardless, Danny is a cheerful - and dapper - water boy for his Bridgewater Badgers peewee football team. We say "dapper" because Danny always wear a suit and tie, as well as a fedora, to school.

The football team's coach always remind the team that they're a "Band of Brothers," and that despite his disability, Danny is one of them and that they should treat him as an equal.

So, when the football team quarterback Tommy Cooney heard that Danny was getting bullied because of the way he speaks, he rallied the troop to do something: they arranged a "Danny Appreciation Day," where every boy in the team came to school dressed up like Danny.

Children can be mean, but these kids are awesome! Watch the video clip below by WCVB Channel 5 Boston that will reaffirm your faith in humanity:

YouTube Clip