You’ll want to catch all the local fireworks and Fourth of July parades of course, but also…
1. A Double Dutch jumpathon? It all goes down this Saturday from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Grab your ropes and head for Golden Gate Park to join SFC Double Dutch and their friends. (Free.)

2. South American music highlights this Saturday’s Yerba Buena Gardens’ summer concerts for kids series. The Venezuelan Music Project takes the stage at 11 a.m. (Free.)
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Alicea makes me want to reach through the TV screen and shake her silly. Episode 2 of “Baby Borrowers” was a major redemption for Kelly but a continued backsliding for Alicea. Morgan wasn’t exactly a peach either, not because she showed poor mothering skills but because of her poor daughter skills.

I’m skipping ahead. Let’s stick with Alicea for a moment, because boy does she need an attitude adjustment. Alicea was still smarting from the talk-down she got from Karson’s real mom in the last episode (remember — she told a fussy Karson that he could starve when he wouldn’t eat right away). Alicea had written off the child because she couldn’t stand Karson’s mom, essentially leaving her boyfriend, Cody to take care of EVERYTHING. Wanting nothing to do with the baby, she went off to work and promptly moaned about getting blisters at the lumber yard. Clearly, this girl can’t take criticism. Back at home, she refused to help with the baby, so Cody spent a hard, sleepless night going solo. He certainly hit the nail on the head when he said, “I have two babies now, one big one, one little one.”

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Criticism and praise for NBC’s “Baby Borrowers” is pretty evenly split in the week since the reality TV show’s debut. The show takes would-be teen parents and pairs them with babies, toddlers, pre-teens, teenagers and elderly “parents” for three days each to give them a firsthand education in parenting. Here’s a statement from one of the show’s critics, J. Ronald Lally, a founder and current member of the Board of Directors of “ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants Toddlers and their Families.”

I would like to share our organizations thoughts on a recent addition to the NBC lineup of shows “Baby Borrowers.” This ill conceived idea will not only do harm to the babies used as guinea pigs in the show but model just the opposite of how babies should be treated. “Hello NBC!! There is a human being exposed to emotional damage here!!

Lally is co-director of the Center for Child & Family Studies West Ed in San Francisco. He’s one of many experts in the field of child development. On the flip side, I don’t have any degrees or experience in any studies on child development. My opinion comes more from everyday life experience — and four years of working at daycare centers while studying in college. Yet, even with limited experience, I have to wonder if the uproar is justified.

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(”Waiting for Baby” is a closer look at adoption and my family’s personal experience as we go through the process. It will appear every Wednesday in the aPARENTly Speaking blog.)

She’s ready. Watching my step-daughter, Dana, with her baby cousin, I was immediately certain Dana would make a fabulous big sister. About a decade in age separates Dana and my niece Emily, but together they have this unspoken language that we adults simply don’t get. They look at each other as if the world around them ceases to exist. Their smiles reach right up to there eyes. Seeing that almost broke my heart.

That’s because we had come up short in three years of trying to have a baby. Adoption was the next step, but hardly one completed overnight. For that matter, it often takes a lot longer than nine months, too. And so the real question for us: when do we tell Dana?

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Nintendo librarians? A video game pavilion at the American Library Association conference? A million-dollar grant to “develop a national model for library gaming”?? Quick, someone check for locusts and plagues! Who’d have thought the ALA, that bastion of literacy, would ever promote video games?

“Libraries are adapting to new technology,” ALA President Loriene Roy told the Chicago Tribune in a story that ran yesterday. “It’s in the nature of the library to offer a wide range of material. It’s not the end of change for libraries.”

Nintendo’s just as surprised as we are. And that video game booth at the ALA convention wasn’t some fluke either. A Syracuse University survey of public libraries last year found that 80 percent had video games on their library computers. Some 40 percent held actual video game events and 13 percent had Nintendo and Xbox. The surprising news? Nearly 75 percent of the video game devotees came back to check out a book.

So what do you think? Death of literacy? Publicity stunt? Cool way to bring new audiences into book-lined libraries? Click “comments” and weigh in.

We always go whole hog for Fourth of July. We make flag cakes topped with rows of raspberries, blueberries and piped vanilla icing - Martha would be so proud! We decorate plain white T-shirts with red and blue stars, stamped with ye olde potato half, for the big parade. And we load up the thermos of hot chocolate and a box of stars-and-striped cookies (instructions after the jump) for firework-watching.

But this year, we may need some of these star-spangled hats too. The Family Fun Magazine editors just sent over this fetching photo and directions for making a patriotic chapeau … and we are helpless to resist. So now we’re rounding up the duct tape and bendy straws. And you can too…
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We’ve got a Backyardigans DVD to give away. In this one, the popular Nickelodeon characters transform their backyard into Mt. Olympus, Atlantis, an alien planet and the land of dinosaurs and cavemen. (OK, so they didn’t co-exist. It’s fiction!)

We love the idea of a show that celebrates imaginary backyard adventures. As children, we went on many a long sea voyage, traversing the Sea of Gravel and the Ocean of Lawn, sustained only by the yellowfish (leaves) we caught along the way — and the booty we looted from pirates. You too? Click “comments” (congrats, by the way to Holly, who won last week’s American Girl giveaway!) and regale us with one of your childhood backyard adventures, and that Backyardigans DVD could be yours!

“Childhood Matters”
July 6 at 9 a.m. on 98.1 KISS-FM and 105.1 KOCN-FM
Childhood Matters’ Rona Renner and panelists talk about parenting issues.

“Power Parenting: Cyberbullying”
July 9 at 7 p.m. at Loma Vista Adult Center, Room B-1, 1266 San Carlos Ave., Concord. Speaker: Karen Lingenfelter. The first in a three-part Mt. Diablo Adult Ed series on parenting issues, this workshop focuses on technology, cyberbullies and how to protect your child. ($10 per session or $25 for all three;call 925-685-7340 ext. 2771 for details.)

“10 Great Dates”
July 11-Aug. 29 from 7 to 9:15 p.m.at Danville’s Community Presbyterian Church
A 10-week series designed to energize marriages and strengthen families. Couples meet every Friday night for light hor d’ oeuvres and a 20-minute video on parenting, communication, love, etc. Childcare for kids in 1st through 5th grades (babysitting vouchers for younger kids). (One time charge of $15 per couple plus $10 for the book.)
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This question came in over the transom this morning, inspired, we think, by today’s Childhood Matters radio show on body image and preteens. And we’re interested to hear your take. So read the question, then click “comments” and share your thoughts.

“How — and when — do I even begin to broach the topic of body image with my kids? Between that JC Penney ad last week and the pop culture all around us, my kids are bombarded by images of impossibly thin models, actresses and athletes. How do I help them feel OK about their bodies when they look nothing like the images out there?”

(To see previous Q&As, check our advice archives.)

Looking for cool, family-centric travel web sites? We recently ran across TravelSavvyMom, which has recommendations for great family-friendly hotels, from Egypt to Belize. At the moment, Jamie Pearson, the TSM herself, and her family are climbing lion statues in Trafalgar Square, riding original red double-decker buses and, er, glossing over the grisly parts of Tower of London history. We’re looking forward to reading her write-up soon.
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