The North Carolina Scholastic Chess Championship will be held this weekend in Greensboro. Kids from all over the state, as young as kindergarten, will be descending on our area to match skills and compete to see who's the best in the state. While most of us probably don't have kids competing, the event serves as a great inspiration. Chess is a game that's been researched for many years, and has proven benefits for kids, including improving math and reading skills, self esteem and imagination and accelerating the increase of IQ. It has a reputation of being complicated, but it turns out it's pretty easy to learn, and kids as young as 4 can play. If you're interested in getting your kids started playing chess, check out ChessDryad.com for great instructions for parents and kids.

Chess not your thing? Don't worry, just playing games with your children can do a lot of the same things playing a game of chess does.

Kids as young as 3 can start playing board games. Those old classics like Chutes and Ladders and Candyland teach so much, from counting and colors to learning how to take turns.

Older kids will enjoy games like Sorry and Uno. Based mostly on colors and counting, these games also start to teach strategy, which means kids are having to think ahead and do some planning in order to win.

And of course, the list continues. We have a lot of fun playing Monopoly, Scrabble and trivia games with our teenager and his friends. And you know what I think is the greatest benefit of all? Even more than the math skills, counting money, learning to take turns, figuring out strategy, is that playing a board game is one of the best ways to spend quality family time together. Forget about renting a bunch of dvds to get your family through the weekend. Try something different and pull out some old board games. You'll have a blast!

I have to admit, I'm a little behind the game on this Google Fiber thing. I didn't pay much attention at first when news broke that Greensboro is applying to be a test community. Did it really matter? But after a weekend where the 15 year old was gaming online on the PS3, I was trying to download tax updates on the laptop and the 5 year old was playing graphics-intensive games on the desktop, the thought of super high speed Internet became more appealing.

Do you have teenagers? New statistics show that 93 percent are online, 63 percent get online every day. And if you have kids not quite teens yet, you know they're online pretty often too. Internet, movies on demand and online gaming are becoming more of the norm in most families rather than the luxuries they used to be.

So maybe it would be in the best interests of our families if all of us parents got behind Greensboro's plea to be a test community. You can make your voice heard by taking part in this survey, and joining the Bring Google to Greensboro Facebook group.

The hope is that it will not only please our inpatient kids when it comes to online gaming and movies on demand, but that it will also help make Greensboro a more attractive place to live and for companies to come start business. Are you dreading the time when your child says, "I can't wait to get out of this boring town"? If Greensboro becomes a test market for Google fiber, maybe that sentence will never be uttered!

Today the president of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, will take the stand in congressional hearings surrounding the company's recall. It's been a very dramatic news story, with the company coming out with a huge marketing program to reassure customers that the majority of their cars are still very safe and dealers being vocal about the fact they're getting the fixes made as fast as possible. But there's no denying the heartrending story of the family that died on the way to a soccer game.

Do you drive a Toyota? And do you now worry every time you get into the car with your kids? There are recalls all the time, for all sorts of different reasons, many of them not life or death. I drive a 2003 Jeep Liberty, which was recalled for a ball joint problem that turned out to be just a short visit to the dealer. I took it in an never thought about it again. Is this different, or is it just a witch hunt? It's hard to tell, but when it comes to the safety of our children, the questions take on even more meaning. My parents both drive Toyota Corollas, neither are the year that's been recalled, but I still cringe every time the kids get in the car with them. But are they any less safe than any time we buckle our kids into their car seats? Car accidents are the leading cause of unintentional death to kids and teens in the U.S. So even though we tend to take our cars for granted, we need to remember to be respectful of this transportation, stay alert and drive  with caution every single time we get behind the wheel.

The news broke yesterday that the American Academy of Pediatricians is calling for warning labels on foods that can be considered a choking hazard for small children, especially the hot dog. It wasn't long before the story was picked up by the blogging world, and now opinions are flying on both sides. The popular Free Range Kids mom chimed in to say it's common sense just to cut up the foods. And I love the quote at the end of this USA Today article that says, do we really need to redesign junk food to make it easier for kids to eat? But for the 100 or so families who have experienced the tragedy of watching a child choke to death, it's not a laughing matter. Maybe better education is needed on the part of parents, knowing what foods you should cut up, and what ages you should be wary. But even that's hard. So much of it depends on the kid, and your own instincts are often the best way to go.

We all fall into the trap of thinking things will be okay, we'll just watch them every second. But I can tell you that's not easy to do, the green crayon makrings all up and down my stairwell from last night are proof of that. But what we can do is be prepared. Learn how to help your child if he's choking with these step by step instructions. Keep the number for poison control on your refrigerator: 1-800-222-1222. Put all your strings from your blinds up high where the kids can't reach. And try to have fun being a parent!

Do you have a kid with a peanut allergy? If you do, you're not alone. Food allergies are on the rise, with numbers increasing by 20% in the past 10 years. Today, news of a new research program provides some hope for parents of kids with peanut allergies. Doctors in Cambridge, England have launched the largest trial ever in a search for a cure, using small oral doses of peanuts to build up a tolerance. This type of desensitazation isn't new. It was tried in the 90s for peanut allergies, but it didn't work, doctors think because shots were used instead of oral doses. And recently research from Duke University found some success with a similar trial on egg allergies. Even if people allergic to peanuts build up a tolerance, it might never be safe for them to eat an entire jar of peanut butter. That's where research at NC A&T comes in, where they've created an allergen-free peanut.

A cure would be nice, but in the meantime, many parents are living with the constant dread and worry that comes with peanut allergies. Luckily there are a lot of great resources, including this web log, Parenting a Child with Food Allergies. Something I thought was even better was this Web site for kids with food allergies, FAANKids.org. It's got great activities, stories and information to help kids deal with their allergies.