Children Archives - Page 2 of 38

Three Children’s Health Conditions That Catch Parents By Surprise

October 17, 2020 by Mandy

People have been raising children since the first humans walked the earth. There is nothing new under the sun. Your precious little bundle of joy is not the first one to do that special thing or reach that particular milestone. That doesn’t stop you from spamming all your friends with the latest baby videos and pictures of that thing they have seen a million times before.

We have also seen other things happen a million times before. But those things aren’t the stuff of baby pictures and videos. I am referring to the things that don’t go according to plan. All parents are terrified of the things that could go wrong. But they are always caught off guard when they happen. Here are a few of those things that catch parents off guard, and what you can do about them:

Substance Abuse Disorder

No one looks at a small child and sees a future sufferer of substance abuse disorder. There are no visible signs when a person is 6, that they will need professional treatment by the time they are 16. This is from a guide to teen substance abuse:

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), people are most likely to begin abusing alcohol as well as illegal and prescription drugs during adolescence. In fact, by the time they are seniors, almost 70 percent of high school students will have tried alcohol, half will have taken an illegal drug, and more than 20 percent will have used a prescription drug for non-medical purposes.

By the time parents become aware of their child’s alcohol or drug use, the problem may have already escalated to something that requires professional intervention. Don’t let your surprise push you into denial. Denial leads to delayed treatment. Early intervention is the key to successful recovery. Kids experiment with substances. Don’t let your child’s experimental stage catch you by surprise.

Obesity

The good news is there are many things parents can do to improve your kid’s health and fight child obesity. There is nothing wrong with the occasional video game. But children need to exercise more than their thumbs. Get them out and active. It is also necessary to control access to the kitchen. None of these things are meaningful if you are not a role model for the desired behavior.

The bad news is that according to the CDC, obesity is prevalent among children between 2 and 5 years old at a rate of almost 14%. The numbers get worse at higher age ranges.

Signs of child obesity are not always easy to spot. Babies always have an extra layer of fat. It would be unusual if they didn’t. young children are often considered chubby, cherubic, and pleasantly plump. We worry when they are too thin. Well-meaning relations want to thicken them up and put a little meat on their bones.

At a certain age, a little extra weight is considered healthy while too little weight is considered a problem. At some point, those few extra pounds are transformed into a life-long battle with weight and body image. Even before the pounds start accumulating, take notice if your child is eating more than he is exercising, if he prefers sedentary activities, and if his food preferences tend toward the unhealthy.

Dental Issues

It is natural for children to lose teeth. Baby teeth are replace by their permanent counterparts. But there comes a time when teeth should be healthy and strong, not weak and brittle. By 13, your child should have a full set of permanent teeth.

During these Tooth Fairy years, other problems can arise. When the mouth does not form correctly, braces might be necessary. Eight years old is probably the youngest this should happen.

This is never a fun time for kids. It is no picnic for parents either, especially when they get the bill. The average cost is between $3,000 and $7,000. It makes a root canal seem downright cheap by comparison. If you had to wear braces when you were a kid, start saving early. Not wanting it to happen is no excuse for being unprepared when it does.

That is true for all the things that come up during a child’s development. Some things are as inevitable as time itself. Teens experiment with substances, a large percentage of children will suffer from obesity. And early dental troubles are as old as the Tooth Fairy. You don’t have to live in fear of these things. But you do have to live in preparation.

5 Ways to Educate Your Child at Home

October 16, 2020 by Mandy

When we think of education, we often think of schooling, but even if your child goes to school, you can still teach him or her new and interesting things about the world, well-being, mental health, and their ancestry. As a parent, you have many options on how to increase your child’s sense of wonder and capacity to learn and understand and thrive in the world.

Here are some informal ways that you can teach your child to teach your child at home when they go to school or enhance their academic performance if they are already in school.

1. Read bedtime stories

Using children’s storybooks will quickly interest your preschool child to learn how to read. Better still, read to your child with a personalized storybook. This is a unique type of book, one where you can customize the story with your child’s name. You can buy personalized picture books from publishers like Lost My Name, a London-based startup underwritten by TCG Investments.

Reading to your child will help develop literacy. It will help him or her understand how to pronounce and use words to describe experiences and make observations. Reading also sparks the imagination, stimulates curiosity, fosters an interest in clear communication, and improves social skills.

2. Arrange music lessons

Arranging private music lessons by hiring a private tutor can provide far more benefits than merely learning about how to play a musical instrument. When choosing an instrument for your child, select one that he or she finds exciting. It should challenge but not overwhelm. You also must consider whether you have the patience to listen to that particular sound when your child practices it for hours at home.

The most fascinating thing about learning music at an early age is that a musical education appears to develop a broad spectrum of cognitive skills. For instance, many research studies suggest that there is a strong correlation between musical proficiency and mathematical aptitude. Einstein, if you remember, loved to play the violin when he wanted to take a break from trying to figure out how the Universe worked. Besides improving academic skills, research also suggests that the study of music may enhance motor learning ability, social skills, discipline, patience, and self-esteem.

3. Build Language Skills With Conversations

According to Scholastic, a website for parents who want to enhance their child’s cognitive development, you can help your child build language skills by providing consistent attention, focusing on the positive, asking open-ended questions, listening carefully, practicing patience, and being supportive.

4. Provide your child with arts and crafts supplies

You can develop your child’s creativity by providing them with plenty of arts and crafts material. As well as providing them with blocks, paper, scissors, glue, and crayons, also see if they have an interest in Legos, Playdough, and Lincoln Logs. Arts and crafts projects help your child develop fine motor skills. It also expands their vocabulary as children learn about how to name different colors and describe diverse shapes. Plus cleaning up and recycling used play materials can help teach them about responsibility for their toys and taking care of would-be waste in an eco-friendly way.

5. Go on field trips

Besides taking your child out shopping with you, you may also want to take him or her to some interesting local venues like a farmer’s market or cultural places like a children’s museum. These special excursions will stimulate your child’s curiosity by providing them with novel real-world learning experiences. As your child responds to the novel stimuli with numerous questions, patiently explain how things work. After a few such field trips, your child’s eyes will light up with pleasure when anticipating their next adventures.

Rather than simply relying on schools to help stimulate your child’s rapidly expanding intelligence, you’ll discover what a delightful experience it is to introduce them to experiences that are new and exciting for them. Perhaps one of your primary tasks as a parent is to strengthen your child’s innate sense of wonder so that their curiosity survives the increasing rigors of academia as they move through the school system.

10 Tips for Building the Perfect Baby Registry

October 15, 2020 by Mandy

Did you just find out that you and your partner are expecting a child? If so, congratulations!

There are few things more exciting in life than discovering that you’re expecting. It’s one of the greatest feelings in the world.

But finding out that you’re going to have a baby can also be stressful. There are so many things that you’ll need to buy before the baby comes.

Creating a baby registry is one way to ease the burden that you feel. There are all kinds of baby registry must-haves that you can ask your family members and friends for to make sure that you have everything you’ll need to welcome your child into the world.

Need help coming up with the ultimate baby registry checklist? Here are 10 tips that will help you put together the best baby registry possible.

1. Start Creating Your Baby Registry as Soon as You Can

You don’t necessarily need to create a baby registry the day after you find out that you’re expecting. But you should try to get it together by the time you’re entering your second trimester.

It’s not going to be too long before people begin asking you, “Where are you registered?” You should be prepared to tell them so that they can go and check it out for themselves.

2. Consider What You Want to Put on Your Registry Before You Begin Making It

While you might be tempted to dive headfirst into creating a baby registry, you should take your time with it and think about what you want to put on it before you actually start making it. It’s easy to get out of control when creating a registry when you go into doing it without any ideas as far as which items you want to include on it.

Sit down with your significant other and consider which items you want to put on your registry prior to creating it. It’ll help you see which items are the most important to you.

3. Find the Right Place to Put Your Registry Together

In this day and age, there are so many different stores that you can create a baby registry at. From brick-and-mortar operations to online retailers, you should choose the one that you like the most.

Look around at a few different places to see which one carries items that you’d like to buy for your baby. This will be the place that you should use when creating your registry.

4. Make Sure You Put Your Big-Ticket Items on Your Registry First

There are some big-ticket items that you’re 100% going to need when your baby arrives. This includes things like:

Crib
Car seat
Stroller
Changing table
Bassinet

You’ll also want to get your hands on things like an affordable baby monitor camera.

It’s very easy to lose sight of these items and focus on things like baby clothes when you’re making a registry. You should instead try to hone in on the things that you need as opposed to just the things that you want.

5. Limit the Total Number of Items That You Put on Your Registry

The average baby registry has just over 120 items on it. You should do your best to keep the number of items on your registry under that if you can.

If you put too many items on your registry, there is a decent chance that you’re not going to get all of them. And it would be a real shame if people purchased things that you don’t need in favor of those that you do.

6. Try Not to Put Anything on Your Registry That’s Too Expensive

You shouldn’t shy away from including a few expensive items on your baby registry. There is no getting around adding things like a crib or a stroller.

But if almost everything on your registry costs several hundred dollars, it’s going to make it hard for people to find something for you that fits into their budget. You should have something that will fit into almost everyone’s price range.

7. Think About Whether or Not You’re Really Going to Use the Items on Your Registry

Once you have your baby registry together for the most part, you should comb through it and see if there are any items that you might not ever get around to using. If you’re on the fence about any of them, it’s best to leave them off your list.

This is a simple way to limit what ends up on your registry. It’ll ensure that you only get things that you’re definitely going to put to good use.

8. Read Reviews for Every Item That Ends Up on Your Registry

Another way to narrow down your registry when it’s all finished is by reading through reviews for the various items that you have on it. If you see any items that have nothing but bad reviews, you should knock them off the list.

The last thing you want to do is have people purchase low-quality items for you that you don’t even want to use. You should look exclusively for items that have garnered good reviews from those who have used them.

9. Prepare to Purchase Some of the Items on Your Registry Yourself

Even if you trim down your baby registry and don’t include that many items on it, you’re probably not going to get everything that you put on it. You should be prepared to purchase at least a few items on your own.

This is another good reason why you should start making a registry on the early side. It’ll give you plenty of time later on to buy any items that people don’t buy for you off your registry.

10. Steer Clear of Letting Your Registry Stress You Out

When you’re in the process of preparing for a baby, you’re inevitably going to get stressed out. There is no avoiding it.

But you shouldn’t let something like your registry stress you out. You should have fun with it and enjoy putting it together and seeing people buy things off it.

Remind yourself every day of just how lucky you are to have so many family members and friends willing to buy things off your registry. It’ll help to keep everything in perspective for you.

Begin Building the Perfect Baby Registry Today

Now that you know how to build the perfect baby registry, get out there and do it. You’ll have a blast brainstorming items that you want to put on it.

Keep the tips found here in mind at all times to ensure that you end up with everything that you need for your baby. They should help lead the way and leave you with the best possible registry.

Read the other articles on our blog for more tips on preparing for a new baby.

Teaching Empathy by Example: How Parents Can Be There for Kids

October 14, 2020 by Mandy

If your child learns to be empathetic to the extent they’re capable of for their age, and they continue to develop this skill, then you’re setting them up with a fundamental skill necessary for success in so many aspects of life.

Many people have a life-long struggle in developing and maintaining healthy relationships with others. This is because they struggle to understand how other people feel.

Teaching empathy to a child from a young age can go a long way to equipping them with essential life skills and helping them develop rewarding and meaningful relationships with others, that includes you!

A major point here is that if you lack empathy or unaware of how to develop this quality in your child, you could unintentionally teach your child to show a lack of feeling. That is the last thing you want, so make a determined start by reading this article.

Empathy – What Is It?

Empathy is a complex set of emotional reactions in response to the emotions of another person. It involves being sensitive to the feelings of others and being affected by those feelings. It has been said that empathy is someone else’s feelings in your heart.

Empathy is more than sensing or reacting to the feelings of others. It’s a quality that enables a person to imagine a different perspective and consider what emotions might be involved with that perspective. Someone who can do this could be described as emotionally intelligent.

Be The Person You Want Your Child to Be

Your child’s mind is like a CCTV monitoring what you say and do. As your child matures, their attention focuses on how you interact and react to others. This means that if you want to help your child in learning empathy, then you will need to be their role model.

Being empathetic towards your partner, and towards other children in the family is the best foundation for helping your child to develop this quality themselves. Learning to be empathetic is not limited to children, adults continue to learn and develop this quality throughout their life.

Connecting Actions and Feelings

When children are very young they do not understand the connection between their actions and the emotional reactions of others.

Like all children, when your child does something they shouldn’t or they hurt a sibling or friend, instead of simply making them say sorry it’s good to reason with them on how that action has emotionally hurt the other person.

Using questions like ‘how would you feel if…?’ Or, ‘how would you like it if they did that to you?’ You can reason with them on when bad things happened to them, how did they feel then, to show them how others are feeling now in response to their behavior.

Teach Them to Value Others

An important aspect of empathy is learning to respect others who are different from us in some way. Not only that but to value the differences of others. This involves teaching your child to respect other nationalities, religions, and cultures.

Closer to home, it’s helpful to teach your child that everyone has different abilities and that somethings are challenging for everyone. For example, they may join some after school activity like dancing. You can prepare for dance class together and help them to see that everyone will feel nervous, to begin with.

Help them to see how those feelings can change with preparation and also how that preparation will affect the instructor.

Communicate Freely

Communication is the window to your child’s mind and heart. Keep that window open by taking the time to have quality interactions with your child. Ask them about events, conflicts, and problems they’re experiencing at school.

Challenge them through reasoning on how others may feel or think. Help to always consider the perspective of the other person and to use that insight to further affect their own feelings and emotions. This takes time and there are no shortcuts.

Create Opportunities to Display Empathy

Consider creating opportunities for your child to show empathy. If there is a big family decision to make, perhaps moving home, or some other matter that needs to be resolved in the family you could arrange for a family meeting.

This is an excellent opportunity to be an example yourself but also to see how your child is progressing in being able to relate to others and accept different viewpoints as equally valid as their own.

Positively Reinforce Empathetic Behavior

We all thrive on commendation, which is especially true of children. When you observe positive behaviors that reflect their progress in being an empathetic person, then make sure you acknowledge that with them.

You can praise them for their actions as well as reward them in other ways. Perhaps giving them a special treat or taking them somewhere they love to go. The important thing is that they know that you notice and appreciate it when they show empathy.

Ready to Start Teaching Empathy

In this article, you have read about teaching empathy to your child. They will imitate the kind of person that you are. Follow the advice in this article and you and your child will be more empathetic with each other and others.

Empathy in the family will contribute to a more peaceful and happy home life. Don’t stop reading there, you can read more excellent advice for parents that fit with your needs on the rest of our site.

Picking the Right Holiday Gifts For Your Kids

October 11, 2020 by Mandy

What a surprise. Child surprised excited holds gift box turquoise background. Kid girl surprised gift. Girl curly hairstyle adorable wondering face celebrate birthday. Kid happy loves pleasant gifts.

As soon as we hear those sleigh bells ringing, we know that the holiday season is approaching. With the holiday season also comes picking out gifts for your kids.

Seeing your child’s face light up as they unwrap an anticipated present is a joy for many parents. Yet, how are you supposed to know how to pick out the right holiday gifts for kids?

In the world of Tik Tok, YouTube, and virtual learning, there are plenty of different gifts that children are going to love in 2020.

Keep reading for our guide on how you can pick the right gift for your kids this upcoming holiday season.

Something to Wear

One thing children might not love getting as much for Christmas, Hannukah, or any other holiday coming up this season is clothing. Yet, if you find something that they like, then you might be surprised.

Giving a winter coat as a present for the holiday season is perfect. This time of the year is the peak of the cold season, which means that we have a ton more freezing days to endure.

Plus, your child more than likely spends lots of time outside, so a new winter coat is great for staying warm. There are tons of different winter coats for kids to choose from depending on what type of climate you live in.

Besides a coat, you can also get them a few new outfits for school. Whether they’ll be doing virtual learning or heading back to the classroom after winter break, everyone loves to wear a brand new outfit to show off to their friends.

Some New Technology

You can never go wrong with getting your children the latest Apple product as a present for the holiday season. Whether it is a new iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or even a Macbook, you know that they’re going to love opening it up on Christmas morning.

If you’re not looking to spend top dollar, or are afraid that your toddler might break an expensive piece of technology, then Amazon’s Fire Tablet is a great alternative.

The Fire Tablet is an awesome piece of equipment for kids of all ages. They’ll have access to over 20,000 apps where they can play games, watch movies, sing songs, read books, and even have access to educational content.

There are even parental controls available on the tablet so you can control and manage the way that your child uses it. You can set time limits on how long they use the device as well as cut it off at a certain time of day.

Something Adventurous

There might a bit of inspiration from A Christmas Story, but if your child is old enough not to shot their eye out, then they might be ready for their own BB gun.

Before letting your child use a BB gun you should talk about how they can be safe with their new Christmas present. While it may seem like a fun new toy, BB guns can still be very dangerous. They use tiny pellets instead of bullets which should only be shot at targets.

Check out the best BB gun for kids so you can ensure that you’re getting your child the correct BB gun for your child. Getting a BB gun that is too big or heavy could make it so they aren’t interested in shooting.

As a parent, you should do as much research on BB guns as possible before getting one for your child. When you finally decide to gift a BB gun to your kid, then they need to know it’s a responsibility. It will also bring plenty of fun and memories for your family.

Something Crafty

If you’re looking for gift ideas that involve staying in the warm house this holiday season, then try getting your children something to get their creative juices flowing. There are tons of different gifts that you can get for your children that will get them inspired to do crafts!

You can start with the basics and get them an art set and sketchbook. Art sets will normally include markers, colored pencils, drawing pencils, and even paints. Your child will look like a little artist carrying around their art set filled with art supplies.

Another type of craft your children might be interested in is clay. If they like playing with playdough, then they’re going to love making things out of clay. Except now they can keep their creations forever!

You also might be interested in teaching your child how to do crochet. Getting them fun yarn and a book on doing crochet can lead to endless hours of fun. It’s great for older kids who like doing repetitive tasks.

Something Exciting

One thing that you can never go wrong with is getting your child brand new board games for the holiday season. Board games are fun and they can get the whole family involved.

If you’re looking to play some of the classics, then you can get games like Monopoly, Sorry, Trouble, Clue, or Candyland.

Yet, there are also tons of new age board games that your kids are going to love playing. You will love playing with them too! Your kids might have to teach you how to play, but you’ll get the hand of it eventually.

These are games like Sloth In a Hurry, where you have to quickly act out scenes based on who, what, and how. This will have the whole family laughing and acting out different scenarios.

The Right Holiday Gifts for Kids

There are tons of different gifts that you can get for your children this upcoming season that they’re going to love. The best thing to do is a little investigation and see what’s on top of their wish lists so that you can always choose the right holiday gifts for kids.

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