Surveys tell us that children today are getting less sleep than their peers of 30 years ago. Lack of quality sleep can affect your child’s mood, behaviour and well-being. In order to give your child the best chance of a good night’s sleep, try the following five tips.
Cut caffeinated and sugary drinks or snacks from your child’s diet. At the very least don’t allow these after 3pm. Caffeine stays in the system for up to 6 hours and can keep your child awake. Young children should never be given caffeinated drinks. Sugar raises blood glucose levels, which then drop during the night causing disturbed sleep.
Turn off the TV at least an hour before bedtime. Watching TV before bed is linked with poor sleep patterns. Don’t allow a TV in your child’s bedroom. This will start a lifelong habit of watching TV to fall asleep. Turning off the TV also signals that bedtime is approaching which is important for younger children who don’t have much concept of time.
Don’t allow your child to eat a heavy meal close to bedtime. This can cause indigestion and restless sleep. A light healthy snack is sufficient to keep blood sugar levels consistent throughout the night. Oats contain the sleep inducing hormone melatonin. So an ideal bedtime snack would be oatmeal or porridge.
Reading a story is an important part of any bedtime routine. Some time spent in closeness with a parent is comforting, especially when hugs and cuddles can be lost during a busy day. Sitting and reading a story with your child is a precious physical and emotional bonding moment. For a younger child, listening to your voice is also soothing and reassuring.
Older kids need reassurance too. Even if your child is able to read by himself, it is still important to spend time with him at the end of the day. Instead of reading a story, gently talk through the days activities together. While your child is asleep his brain begins making sense of the day, so talking the day through starts this process before he sleeps. It also gives your child an opportunity to voice any worries he may have.
Tips for Getting Children to Bed on Time
By Jennifer L. Tuso
For some kids, letting go of the day and going to bed can be difficult. However, not getting enough sleep will make the next day with your child even more challenging. To successfully get children to bed on time means taking the time to get your child’s mind and body to relax.
5 Compelling Reasons Why You Should Read to Your Children More Often
By Frank Hicox
Reading to your children is one of the greatest gifts you can possibly give them. Not only will reading give them untold joy, but it will also help improve their future development. Are you curious as to the benefits of reading aloud to your children? Do you not read to your children very often, if at all? The following reasons will convince you of the need to devote time to this wonderful and valuable activity:
1) Reading is a great way to spend some quality time with your children. Young infants enjoy hearing their parents’ voices and the physical and emotional closeness. Reading is a great way to develop strong bonds with your children.
2) One of the most important benefits of reading to a young child is intellectual development. Reading aloud to infants stimulates the development of the brain and promotes both cerebral and emotional intelligence. It also improves language ability and cognitive function. The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly endorses these benefits and advises reading to your children daily.
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3) Listening to stories helps your children develop larger vocabularies and be able to use longer sentences. This will also increase their attention spans and ability to focus – important traits needed for success in education and life.
4) Reading to children helps give them the ability to succeed in life. Children who get involved in reading generally have a greater desire to learn, making them more likely to succeed in school and later life. By developing an interest in reading in your children, you are actively promoting their chances of success in their future academic and personal lives.
5) Getting your children involved in reading is a gift for life. Reading provides countless hours of excitement and fun, whilst also positively helping your children in the most influential phase of their lives. It also opens up their imagination and an entire world of knowledge.
By Gail Gill
Before your child begins her formal schooling, you can help her to begin to write. Your young child may love to draw, however she may be holding the pencil incorrectly. It is important to show your child how to hold a pencil and encourage her to draw.
The more your child practices drawing and holding her pencil, the more skilled she will become. Here are a few hints to help you encourage your child to become skilful at drawing and using a pencil.
Purchase Triangular shaped Pencils
Purchase triangular shaped pencils for your young child. She will be able to develop her grip more easily if she uses triangular shaped pencils. Triangular shaped pencils are an ideal learning tool for both left-handed and right-handed children. You can purchase triangular shaped pencils from office suppliers, toyshops and art shops.
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Show your Child how to Hold a Pencil
Your child needs to rest her finger on one of the sides of the triangle and her thump on another side of the triangle. The tip of her finger and the tip of her thumb should be an equal distance apart.
Although both left-handed children and right-handed children use the same grip, a left-handed child should grip the pencil slightly higher from the tip than a right-handed child should. Holding the pencil in this position will give the left-handed child more control over her pencil.
Do not expect your young child to hold her pencil correctly every time she uses one. Your child may forget how to hold a pencil and grasp it by curling her fingers completely around it. It takes practice to control a pencil, so be patient with your child and praise her when she holds the pencil correctly. Your child will be more eager to practice holding a pencil if you give her plenty of praise.
Exercises to Help your Child Develop her Skills
Once your child uses her pencil correctly when she draws, give her exercises to help develop her skill. Write the child’s name on a piece of paper using a dotted line. Let the child trace over your writing. She will become accustomed to writing her name by tracing over your letters. Soon, your young child will be capable of writing her own name without your help.
Buy your child activity books to help improve her pencil control. Coloring books, mazes, join-the-dots books, and tracing books will all help your child improve her co-ordination while she is having fun.
Purchase triangular shaped pencils for your child, show her the correct method of holding a pencil, and give her exercises to help her develop her skills. Do not forget to give your child plenty of praise when she holds her pencil correctly. You will soon be pleasantly surprised to see how your child’s pencil control has improved.
By Debbi Miller Gutierrez
A recent study conducted by Ohio State-Temple University researchers found that 20% of America’s four-year olds are not only overweight, but obese. Though a great deal of this can be laid at the feet of poor diets, lack of exercise is also a prime culprit. Over the past few decades, more and more U.S. children and teens are drifting toward weight gain through a sedentary lifestyle. With many schools either reducing or eliminating their physical education programs due to impossibly tight budgets, parents are beginning to ask themselves: What can I do to get my child to exercise? Below are five simple suggestions:
1. Nifty Fifties’ Fad: The Hula Hoop
This inexpensive toy can get your children up and moving. Watch them wiggle and wriggle their hips trying to keep the hula hoop spinning. Set up daily or weekly goals as to the number of times they can spin the hoop without stopping or how many hula hoops they can spin at once. Reward them with gold stars, trips to the library, or one hour of TV a day. Better yet, challenge them to a contest. Children love to outdo their parents and will work hard to show you up.
2. Try a Trampoline
Investing in a child-safe trampoline can be well worth the money when you see your child rushing outside to fling themselves willy-nilly on their own trampoline. In no time at all, they’ll be bouncing back to health!
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3. Dance, Dance, Dance!
With the success of TV shows like “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing with the Stars”, children can see first-hand what fun dancing can be. You don’t need to fly your kids all over the country for auditions. Just put on a CD and have them put on a dancing show for you. Or buy an inexpensive dance exercise video, or rent one from Netflix or On Demand, and away they go!
4. The Wonderful World of Wii
If your child is a video game addict, a Wii Fit might be just the ticket. With activities from snowboarding to cheerleading, your kids can be running, jumping, swinging bats, kicking, and punching their way to fitness. Even Jillian Michaels, the exercise guru from TV’s “The Biggest Loser”, has a Wii exercise game out that the whole family can use together.
5. Good Old Walking!
Walking is one of the best ways to get your child exercising. It’s free, natural, and helps families bond. Add your dog into the mix and everybody benefits.
Getting your children to exercise can have even more health benefits than weight management, stress reduction, good muscle development, and mental stimulation; it just might get their parents off the couch too!
by Zabrina Way
As a parent, you have to juggle numerous questions about what your child should be taught, and how. Add the trend of political correctness to the mix and it’s hard to know how to react when your child asks about a person with a disability.
Some parents brush off their children’s inquiries with a short, “Don’t stare, it’s rude,” or treat a person with a disability rudely, passing along cues to the children to follow suit. Instead, use this opportunity to teach your child about treating everyone with equal respect.
When your child points out a person with a disability, briefly and quietly tell them that the person has a disability that affects their vision, hearing, movement, or mind, but that person is “just like us” in every other way. Emphasize that your child should treat him or her just the same as anyone else, as it can be embarrassing and frustrating to be treated differently because of a disability.
Often, a curious child won’t even ask you, but will ask a person with a disability, “What’s wrong with you?” or something similar. When this happens, resist the urge to apologize and drag the child off. Curiosity is a part of childhood that should be encouraged. Instead, tell the child to be respectful and see how the person reacts.
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Many people with disabilities are actually very willing to tell a child what makes them “different”, and don’t like parents interfering with a chance to educate an impressionable segment of the population on disabilities. Children will remember the experience for a long time, and it will affect how they treat people with similar disabilities in the future. For a person with a disability, this is a great chance to connect with someone who sees nothing wrong with acknowledging and asking about the disability, when others sometimes shun or ignore them because they simply don’t know how to react.
If the person seems unwilling to speak, angry, or embarrassed, then quietly apologize and wait until you’re in a more private place before taking the opportunity to capitalize upon the experience. Let your child know that some people don’t like to acknowledge that they’re different, or are embarrassed to be called out on it in public, and then teach your child about that disability yourself.
Above all, children should be taught to respect people with disabilities and treat them like anyone else.