Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
14 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/4 cup of your favorite jam

Directions
Heat the oven to 425 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Use a pastry cutter or two knives to cut in the butter until the dough
resembles coarse cornmeal. Avoid overhandling the dough.

Add the buttermilk and combine with a fork, then use your hands to gather the dough into a ball.

Pat out the dough on a lightly floured surface and form it with your hands into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Spread
jam on half the rectangle. Fold the other half onto the jammed half and roll out into a long rectangular shape about
3/4 inch thick.

Cut the dough into 12 squares. Place the scones 1/2 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for
14 to 15 minutes.

Makes 12.

KID'S STEP: Kids can spred the jam, help fold over the dough, and cut out the scones (any shape or size tastes good).

Ingredients

Glaze:

1/2 cup cold butter (1/4 cup for the orange glaze and 1/4 cup for the biscuits)
1/2 cup orange juice (preferably fresh)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. grated orange zest

Biscuits:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup milk
1 to 2 tbsp. soft margarine or butter for brushing on the uncooked biscuit dough
1/4 cup cinnamon sugar (mix 1/4 cup sugar with about 2 tsp. cinnamon)

Directions
Heat the oven to 425 degrees.

Grease a 12-muffin tin. (Note: this recipe does not work with muffin liners.)

To make the glaze, combine 1/4 cup of the butter with the orange juice, sugar, and orange zest in a saucepan. Stir over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and then cook for 2 minutes.

Divide among the muffin cups (the hot syrup should not be handled by a child).

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium-size bowl. Cut in the remaining 1/4 cup of butter until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.

Add the milk, stirring with a fork until the dough forms a ball. Turn it onto a counter, knead it briefly (4 turns or so),
and roll it out into a 1/4-inch-thick rectangle, roughly 12 by 8 inches.

Brush with the softened margarine or butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Flour your hands and roll up the dough, jelly-roll style, then cut it into twelve 1-inch slices. Place a slice in each
glaze-filled muffin tin.

Bake for approximately 18 minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown. Run a knife around each biscuit, then turn them out, glazed side up, onto a cooling rack with a baking sheet or waxed paper below.

Makes 12 biscuits.

KID'S STEPS: Kids can juice an orange with a reamer, brush the soft margarine or butter on the biscuit dough, and mix the cinnamon sugar on a pice of waxed paper and then sprinkle it on the dough.

Avoid In-Home Traffic Jams

Many families swore by staggering wake-up and bathroom times to prevent at-home traffic jams. Tina Murphy of Pace, Florida, went so far as to assign each of her kids--ten-year-old twins Courtney and Natalie and nine-year-old Robert--a 20-minute breakfast slot during which they have her undivided attention.

"There's a lot less 'Mom! Mom! Help me!' coming from three mouths at the same time, as well as fewer fights," says Tina.
The time is a chance to go over test questions, tie shoes, pack lunches and give hugs. "I realize it takes a little longer
to get ready this way," she says, "but the morning peace is worth it."

QUICK TIPS: Prepare for those inevitable last-minute requests by keeping a box of emergency items in the kitchen or car. Possible contents? Pencils, paper, snacks, change, a hairbrush, ponytail holders and socks.

Bypass the Breakfast Crunch

Before leaving early for work, parents can set the table for breakfast, put a vitamin at each child's place and leaves out a selection of cereal, muffins, fruit and other goodies. When the children come down to eat, they serve themselves from this buffet using small pitchers of milk and juice you have filled and refrigerated the night before.

This will save so much time!!

Getting Them Dressed

"I used to fight with my daughter every morning over her outfit," says Debbie Emmerich of Lynbrook, New York. The breaking point came when Debbie packed Mary Kate, now seven, off to kindergarten in a sailor shirt.

"When Mary Kate arrived at school, she wouldn't get off the bus because she hated her shirt," recalls Debbie. The driver had to carry her in. "I was mortified," says Debbie, who instituted a new, more successful dressing system for Mary Kate and
her brother, Johnny, now five.

Each child decorated five blank labels with the days of the week and stuck them on a set of hangers. Every Sunday, the
kids (with final sign-off from Debbie) set up their outfits for the week with the understanding that what they pick, they have to wear. Nowadays, clothing squabbles (as well as sailor shirts) are a thing of the past.

CREATE A "CLOTHES KID"
To make choosing clothes more fun, Hannah and Mackenzy Derrick of Rock Springs, Wyoming, made a pact with their
mom, Kandi: Each night the girls would lay out the next day's clothes on the floor in the shape of a person (including everything from socks to hair accessories). Whatever their "Clothes Kid" wore to sleep, they wore to school the next day.
The result? A big reduction in the number of fits thrown, says a very satisfied Kandi.

A few years ago, when Chelsey Hagan of Madison, Connecticut, then seven, was having trouble getting organized,
mom Lynn helped plan her morning by drawing a pie chart on a paper plate. She and Chelsey assigned an activity to
each 5- to 15-minute segment, from "wake up" to "brush teeth" to "out the door."

Over the ensuing weeks, they adjusted the times and tasks until the routine was so smooth Chelsey no longer needed the chart. "It was easy and self-motivating because she could see what amount of time she needed," says Lynn.

YOU'RE ON THE AIR
When Katrina Elliott of Pocatello, Idaho, was a child, her mom had a neat trick for getting all nine kids out of the house on time. Every few months, says Katrina, the kids worked together to create a "radio show." Using a tape recorder, they alternated favorite songs with time and task reminders ("There are twenty minutes left: Brush your teeth!").

"It was fun because Mom was not telling us what to do. We were telling ourselves." Katrina's daughter, Abigail, is just six months old, but when she reaches school age, Katrina plans to introduce her to the fun of hosting her own morning show, too.