Ten Great Ways To Praise Your Child
Children flourish when they are praised sincerely. Have you ever wondered how many negative messages a child receives during the course of a day. A harsh word from a teacher, an impatient reminder by a parent or a cruel remark by a playground bully could all contribute to a feeling of failure or low self-esteem in children. Unfortunately it takes many more positive remarks to cancel out the effect of one negative remark. All the more reason to praise your child sincerely and often. As Alvin Price said: “Parents need to fill a child’s bucket of self-esteem so high that the rest of...
Read MoreFive Food Slogans Every Child Should Know
Conflicting food messages are a symptom of our information-overloaded times. Milk is good for you. Milk is not good for you. Avoid all sugars at all cost. Natural sugars are good for you. Supplement with vitamins. Don’t supplement with vitamins as it all ends up in the drain. Don’t eat store bought bread. Home-baked bread may smell good, but leads to overeating. Parents have a maze of contradictory messages to navigate in raising happy, healthy children. In addition to health information overload, alarming recent research indicates that children are developing...
Read MoreFive Simple Ways to Encourage Early Reading Skills
Learning to read is a magical journey. A journey that opens new worlds as reading skills increase. Around the age of three or four some children are naturally interested in the printed world, while others seem to be oblivious to the fact that the signs, letters and words in their environment symbolically represents a whole different world. There are various ways in which you can encourage early reading skills in a child who is naturally curious about the printed world around her and through which you can make a reluctant learner more aware of print. What is Early Reading Skills? Early...
Read MoreMagical Stories of the Past
I have yet to meet the person who doesn’t like ‘once upon a time’ and who doesn’t feel a twinge of regret when they hear ‘And then they lived happily ever after… The end.’ Stories transcend age, gender, cultural constraints and can provide a powerful way for families to bond more intimately. Parents don’t need the library or an extensive bookshelf to find stories to tell to their children, their own lives can provide wonderful tales of adventure and lessons learned. Why Tell Stories About Your Past To Your Children? A well-known...
Read MoreFour Reasons Why Your Toddler Won’t Eat
I think it has happened to me at least a hundred times. I plan, I shop, I rinse, I chop, I cook. Feeling like the best mother in the world – I place a made-from-scratch-homemade-meal bursting with nutrients in front of my offspring. They don’t know how lucky they are – apart from the children starving in poverty stricken countries, there are thousands of well-to-do children that has to be satisfied with a processed quick-meal every night. I rub my hands together in anticipation of the accolades, the lip-smacks and the yum-yums from the youngest....
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