Find info on your childrens health

The Childrens Health Blog

Subscribe to Find info on your childrens health
Nov
05

Sharing Books with Children

Posted by admin

One of my first memories of childhood is that of my mother reading Dr. Seuss books to me in a big brown recliner in our living room. That memory brings with it sounds and smells and a general feeling of safety and comfort that never fades, even after all these years. Naturally, one of the first memories I have of my own first born child is sitting in a big chair and reading Little Golden Books to him.

Sharing books and reading with my children is as natural as giving them baths and making their breakfast. Its just something I do everyday, and its one of the most pleasurable moments of my day. I love to hold my two year old in my lap while we snuggle up and look through his ever growing library of books. His favorite books change weekly as his interests broaden. Books open up the world to him and his imagination is bubbling over with new ideas every day.

More than just telling a story, books help children better understand their own ideas and feelings and often calm an upset toddler when nothing else will work. They see and hear about other kids like them and others from around the world who are different. Weve all seen little kids acting out the stories they hear. As a child I spent many afternoons pretending to be the characters from my favorite books. Just recently my son was playing Dr.Dan. The Bandage Man, a current favorite Little Golden Book.

Although reading with children is so very rewarding for both adult and child, little kids need time to look at books alone. This allows them the opportunity to look at the pictures and develop the habit of reading even though they cant yet read. In my Family Child Care, I have different libraries available in different rooms in my home. The kids have labeled these areas libraries themselves, and will often rotate the books from room to room and act out going to the library daily. Imagine my surprise when I first witnessed a three year old taking the younger kids to the library.

Because books are a very user-friendly activity and require no prep or cleanup other than returning them to the library, parents can and should use any opportunity to share books with their young children. Long car or plane trips, waiting rooms, in shopping carts, you name it, you can hand a child a book and make just about any transition or otherwise boring activity exciting. Books and reading can be both a group or individual activity, and many children who are normally shy in a group setting will sit in the reading circle and share story-time while making new friends.

By sharing books with your young child, you are planting a precious memory that will last a lifetime for both parent and child. They in turn will continue the tradition with their own children and remember those special times. A world of experiences and ideas are waiting for you to introduce to them.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Oct
29

Reading To Your Children

Posted by admin

It’s one of the hardest things to do in this day and age of hyper-active kids and super busy, multi-tasking parents… but spending good quality time with your children doesn’t have to be a painful torture tactic.

One of the best, most enjoyable things you can do with your kids, is to read to them. This is a great way to connect with them and to share different parts of your life story in a natural, easy, and relaxed setting.

One of the best books, or sets of books, to start reading your kids, is the “Little House on the Prairie” series. Beginning in the late 1800’s, it tells the story of a distant, almost forgotten, time in American history. A time that many of us might not believe ever existed, if Laura Ingalls hadn’t shared her life with us.

Can you imagine living without cars, without light switches, without TVs? Well, once you start reading “Little House”, you will be transported, in your imagination, back to moments that seem almost surreal. A time where kids actually played outside, and got dirt between their toes and beneath their fingernails. Where children were thrilled to get 1 or 2 holiday gifts, and enjoyed playing with them for months afterwards. A place where adults planted and grew, hunted and prepared their own foods, right from the land they were living on.

The Little House “picture” can’t be painted completely rosy, either. There are some statements and beliefs, throughout the series, that can make you cringe. You may even want to reconstruct how they are read to your kids. For example, almost all of the comments about Native Americans are derogatory. But you can not just sweep American history under a rug, or hide it, in the hopes that all the painful parts will just disappear or go away. Remembering the struggles and accomplishments is a large part of sharing and passing on your heritage to your children.

Your kids will probably be excited to share such relaxing, enjoyable quality time with you. Plus the thrill of each chapter, will provide a rich and pleasant adventure for you and them.

Whether fighting a bear in hand-to-hand combat, or travelling all night across a frozen lake, or enjoying the beauty of Jack Frost’s artwork on a window pane, you are sure to find something that you and your children will love in the “Little House” series. So make plans to start reading to your kids, and open up a whole new world of imaginative possibilities.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Oct
23

Quench the thirst for knowledge

Posted by admin

Education according to the gurus, prepares a child to live in society and the world, as we know it today. It inculcates values and introduces skills the child can hone as he or she grows up to earn a living. While education is a system, learning is a thirst quencher it satisfies a curiosity and gives wing to imagination. As a parent or caregiver, you need to encourage this thirst for knowledge and nurture the imagination.

Education does not begin or end with school and university. One can be educated constantly every moment of life. And, as you know experiences are lifes greatest teachers.

Learning has many aspects. The basic aspect is to provide a vitally conducive environment and the appropriate tools to learn. Another is that you as a parent must be prepared to listen and to answer to the best of your ability even awkward questions like where do babies come from, or the meaning of sexy. A child who is healthy, happy, physically active, and loved learns easily and adjusts to any situation.

Every parent wants his or her child to excel and be successful. And, to achieve this you must implementquick thinking, a sharp brain, a balanced lifestyle, and keep abreast with innovations and advancements in education and educational tools.

Tips on How to Stimulate the Brain
As you know, it is the brain that helps us think, learn, and retain memories. The cells in the brain are what control most of our sensory functions and an infants brain has over 100 billion nerve cells that grow and can be stimulated to function optimally.

Imagine recent brain research shows that what parents have been doing for ages singing, playing, reading, and interacting with their babies and children is what helps the brain to develop well and healthily. So, when you cuddle your child and sing to it you are in fact, stimulating brain cells. To optimize intelligence, experts recommend that you spend time with your child and be warm and responsive.

Take One Step at a Time
As a modern day parent, you need to gauge the situation and take steps accordingly. Education is important but does it fulfill its function – this is an important question too. The worlds boundaries are in constant motion and work situations, skills, educational curriculum, and educational goals are constantly changing. The needs are greater and career development has become a lifelong process for children as well as adults.
You can stay one-step ahead by comprehending what your role is, for each stage in growth, development traits, career needs. For instance, children who are at pre-kindergarten to the third grade level constantly seek attention and praise. They are known to have boundless energy and tend to consider fantasy as real. At this stage it is important to create a distinction between work and play.

At this stage toys and learning material such as those marketed by Smart Neurons will prove beneficial and improve role-playing. Most important never make decisions for your childmake decisions with your child.

Prepare for the 21st century

It is advancements in technology that is taking learning forward by leaps and bounds. Computers, CDs, DVDs, and audio-visual aids enhance learning, create a curiosity, give flight to creativity, and increase communications ten-fold. Innovative learning tools designed by firms like Smart Neurons expose the minds of children to a great variety of situations and use role playing and other developmental tools to develop informal reasoning in children and help children use their intelligence to arrive at logical and practical conclusions. Learning through technology can help children develop eye-hand coordination and great strategy skills. It also improves thinking ability, encourages children to seek and find answers or solutions to problems and helps enhance people skills. Parents can take the initiative to integrate technology in learning and discover along with their children the magical world of computers and interactive learning systems.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Sep
03

Toy Planes Still Make the Grade

Posted by admin

Do you remember playing with toy planes as a child? How if you used your imagination, rather than running, you were flying right alongside your toy airplane. This is a great way to share a piece of your childhood with your children. If you enjoyed this activity as a child, why wouldnt you want to share this with your children?

Often as parents, we are afraid our children wont like the same things we did, because there are more technologically advanced things on the market today, and yet our children will get all kinds of toys with bells and whistles at Christmas time and still have more fun playing with the wrapping paper and boxes than the gifts filling them. Think about this when you wonder about your cherished memories being too lame or old fashioned. After all, how long have cardboard boxes been around?

I always make a point of showing my children the things that had a large impact on my childhood. Whether they enjoy them or not is entirely up to your child, but you can build memories simply through the act of sharing those things. We live in a world where time is such a precious commodity, how could you possibly better spend your time, than sharing fond memories of your childhood with your children, especially the memories of good clean fun.

Toy planes today are far more sophisticated than they were when we were children and yet the old-fashioned wood and rubber band airplanes still exist. And the most amazing thing is that both of them are good sellers even after all these years the traditional toy plane is popular among children and parents as a bonding experience. Toy planes represent freedom, wings, what more beautiful thing can you give a child to play with?

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Need to buy or create the picture of a baby footprint?

To be blessed with a little baby boy or baby girl is a miracle. It doesnt matter whether it is your first child or number five, it is still a fantastic feeling to hold that little human in your arm.

Some point in time you might want to share this special feeling with family and friends and you are therefore thinking of having a party to celebrate. It doesnt have to be a special occasion for inviting family over to show them their new family member.

When inviting you can naturally get on the phone and call them. It is fast but not very creative and surely it is not a thing theyll remember for the time to come.

Another route that you could take was to create an invitation for this party or get-together. To decorate this invitation what would be better than to actually make them unique and personalized by your baby. That would surely be a memory to keep for the grandparents.

A picture of a baby footprint would be a unique and personal way to decorate the invitation. But why stop there? You could easily apply that to lots of other things. Put a footprint on a cup, the plate, the candles etc. Only the imagination sets the limits.

Now you might think that it is easier said than done and that is true. But that doesnt mean that it is hard to create a picture of a baby footprint. It is actually quite easy to do when you know what to keep in mind before you start the process.

If youre not a creative person or you done feel that you have the time to do the unique pictures or baby prints youre in luck. More and more sites around the internet and in local stores sells pre-made decorations and invitations.

While they still look great and cute and are still affordable they are not unique and your friends and relative will surely not keep them as a memory of the party you held for your newly born child.

So whether you go one route or the other is up to you but if you choose to create your own unique invitations and/or decorations then make sure that you think the whole process through. Even though it is a simple process there are still a lot of things to consider when creating a picture of a baby footprint.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Feb
17

Art-based activities

Posted by admin

A recent report by several independent researchers concludes that
participating in the arts nurtures the development of social, personal and
cognitive skills. Programs based on Arts can improve academic achievement
and decrease the tendency towards delinquency. It helps youth form
positive attitudes about themselves and build self-esteem.

Arts programs involve communication, interpretation and understanding of
complex symbols, much like mathematics and languages. Thus it fosters
higher-order analytical skills and skills of evaluation and synthesis.
Many of the programs make the child regularly use multiple skills thus
making him dynamic and versatile.

Development of imagination, judgment and philosophy are fringe benefits of
an arts-based activity. As opposed to the short 45-minute duration of the
art classes at school, the extra time allowed in after school activities
allows the child to get more involved. This results in more satisfactory
opportunities for development of latent capabilities in the child. In
turn, the child learns to set high standards of achievement. He
understands what sustained focus is and learns that regular practice is
the way to excellence.

In the shy or the withdrawn child, theatre, speech or drama lessons may be
an outlet for pent up emotions. As drama entails getting into the ’skin’
of another person, the child learns to verbalize emotions and express
thoughts. These reasons account for the popularity of arts-based
activities.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Feb
12

How To Get A Toddler To Eat Fish

Posted by admin

Getting a toddler to eat something that is good for them, or that you think they should eat, should not become a battle of wills, but it often does. Sometimes with children, the presentation is everything, and they forget what is underneath the fanciful decorations or shapes. Fish is one of the few foods that doesn’t lend itself well to disguises that are cute. But you can make it an undercover favorite with a little creative cooking that the kids and even Mom and Dad will enjoy.

First, you will need to ask yourself how important it is that your child has fish. If you really want them to eat it, you may have to be willing to give way on other issues such as how it is prepared. There are a variety of frozen food companies that present fish in stick, and even fish shapes. But these are wrapped in crumbs, and sometimes partly deep friend before you cook them in the oven. This might not be ideal, but if they will eat it, and get the taste of fish, it may open the door to other, and better choices.

The other options are mostly those that appeal to taste. An excellent way of serving fish is in a sauce. A fillet of haddock can be baked quite nicely with just mushroom or another creamed soup poured over it. If you cut off a child size portion, you can even decorate it with some curls of celery for hair, and sliced pickles for eyes before serving. Use your imagination here.

A lot of children love cheese. Bake your fish until its half done and then cover it in shredded cheddar cheese. Not only do they absolutely get the taste they like, but the extra protein that cheese offers them.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Baby Shower Theme – How to Find the Most Creative Baby Shower Themes that Please the Mom-to-be

So, you need a special unique baby shower theme to make your party different, huh?

A baby shower isn’t just about helping parents-to-be get ready for their little arrival, but about fun, encourage and memories for years to come. Why not use an unique baby shower theme to piece together a perfect party time for every invited person?

You can type “baby shower theme ideas”(”baby shower themes” or “theme party idea” and “party theme”) into internet search engines, such as Google, MSN Search and Yahoo! Search. The smart spider will lead you to the most relevant web sites for those coolest theme ideas.

Also, there are tons of ideas from party handbooks and experiences you already learned from other theme based parties, such as kids’ birthday parties and bridal showers.

Somehow, you can’t jump out from the endless mind bogging for the best baby shower theme ideas. I guess you just get into the wrong direction.

However creative you could be, don’t forget your best friend is about to be a Mommy, and this is the solely reason you want to throw her a baby shower! So chose the baby shower theme more personal to the mom-to-be, than yourself!

Before you run for the best theme idea, ask a few questions about the expecting Mommy:

* What does she like and dislike?
* Does she business like, shy, formal, friendly?
* Is the she expecting a girl, boy? Twins or More?
* How many people she’d like to invite?
* Does she plan to invite kids?
* Will she like to have her husband and other guys show up?
* Do you have a co-host? Does she have any idea?

More questions you ask the mom-to-be, more theme ideas come out with the answers themselves, automatically! And you may not be aware of this: The best baby shower theme lies somewhere in the depths of your imagination.

You can setup a ladies-only tea party in your house at a Sunday afternoon if the mom-to-be only feel comfortable when she stay with a small group of people. You can also throw a Hollywood glamour baby shower for parents-to-be who are super movie fans (so are their closest friends including you).

Or what if she is a second-time mom and her elder kids are Pooh lover? Phew, it couldn’t be more exciting than having a Winnie the pooh baby shower and arranging everything in the ways that Pooh-like.

And if you’re inviting the new daddy and his buddies to your party, the male guests would love to enjoy a western style BBQ in your backyard with beers and country music.

No matter how you plan the shower party, a good theme always serves as your inspiration when you’re picking the location and time for your baby shower.

You can use theme based baby shower ideas run through the invitations, decorations, games and food, especially in preparing a baby shower cake to fit the party setting. When you’re preparing the baby shower supplies, gifts and favors, the shower theme will practically tell you the best ideas to pick up.

In fact, baby shower theme can really make planning baby showers a snap.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Choosing the right baby shower decorations are an important part of the shower planning process. Depending on the time and budget of the baby shower party, there are numerous ideas for baby shower decorations available. The host of the baby shower party can get dozens of ideas for baby shower decorations that will certainly liven up the gathering.

Baby shower decorations can be as simple or as elaborate as the host wishes. Baby shower decorations help make every baby shower party extra special for the mom-to-be. There are a number of ways to decorate a baby shower party. The possibilities for baby shower decorations are endless.

Setting up baby shower decorations

When setting up baby shower decorations, the first thing to consider is the theme of the baby shower party. The theme of the baby shower party will have a bearing on the type of baby shower decorations needed to liven up the party area. The baby shower party may have a traditional theme wherein baby shower decorations would include silver and china.

However more and more baby shower parties are adopting modern themes that make use of popular cartoon characters. The baby shower decorations for this type of baby shower party are centered on the specific character used as theme. Many stores that specialize in baby shower decorations have a wide assortment of designs for baby shower decorations.

Ideas for baby shower decorations

Baby shower decorations need not be big and expensive. Imagination and creativity play a big part in the selection and arrangement of baby shower decorations. With a little ingenuity, putting together a baby shower party need not break the bank.

When setting up the area of the baby shower party, it is often best to stick to simple baby shower decorations that will not make the place look too gaudy. Seasonal flowers and a number of party toys for baby shower decorations make for a simple yet cozy gathering for a baby shower party among family and friends.

For a more elaborate baby shower party, baby shower decorations will include a lot more than flowers and a few toys. But fortunately most of these items can be re-used for other occasions like a child’s birthday party. Or the host may give the baby shower decorations to the couple after the party as souvenirs or toys for the new baby.

Inexpensive baby shower decorations

Balloons are a great way to perk up the scene of any party. Colorful balloons can be arranged together to create a focal point at the tables of the baby shower party. In addition, to prevent the balloons from flying off, small baby items like baby bottles or soft plush toys can be tied at the end of the string.

Everyday, ordinary baby items also make great baby shower decorations. A baby bath tub can be used as a punch bowl during the baby shower party. The tub may also be used as a receptacle to hold the different gifts given by guests for the mom-to-be. The tub may be decorated with ribbons and balloons to coincide with the theme of the party.

Umbrellas also make for interesting baby shower decorations. These may be hung upside down from the ceiling with colorful streamers tied to the ends of the umbrellas.

Baby shower decorations can be created from simple items. Resourcefulness is the key to creating wonderful baby shower decorations that don’t cost much.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Baby furniture will bring a quality to the home that reminds everyone who enters just how precious life can be. Seeing the joy on the faces of the parents is almost as beautiful.

Parents and family spend so much money and time organizing children’s bedrooms, infant nurseries and playrooms. Parents should get started on designing and organizing the nursery well before their baby is born. Baby furniture is important to help make both the parent and child feel comfortable in their living environment.

The opportunity to design a nursery is very special, and parents should not take it for granted. The nursery is much more than just a room for the baby. It is an extension of the love and support that the parents plan to provide for the child.

Baby furniture can be found in most large-scale retail stores or in specialty baby stores across the country. Bright colors like yellow and red can be used to make the room more inviting. Pastels are wonderful shades to use in a child’s room. Let your imagination run wild when you wander through the aisles of your local retail store.

Parents will be happy with whatever they get because the simple fact that they are now parents. The most important thing to remember when looking for furniture or toys for your baby is safety. A knowledgeable parent is a better parent.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts