The Delightful Hidden Meanings of 7 Everyday Objects
The little pocket on your jeans. The little hole in your pen cap. They're not just there for show.
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The little pocket on your jeans. The little hole in your pen cap. They're not just there for show.
We see "kid friendly" on a snack food and we think it hits all the nutritional sweet spots: not too much sugar or trans fats or garbage-y preservatives. Alas, we cannot believe everything we read. Although God knows, we keep trying!
For a decade and a half, the big chocolate makers have promised to end child labor in their industry—and have spent tens of millions of dollars in the effort. But as of the latest estimate, 2.1 million West African children still do the dangerous and physically taxing work of harvesting cocoa. What will it take to fix the problem?
It’s so exciting when your chubby little baby begins to walk, or ‘toddle’ their way into a toddler. But with that comes the challenges of feeding and introducing all sorts of wonderful foods to this little person. A lot of times, it seems they are barely eating enough to sustain a bird, let alone a body who is constantly on the move! How do you know how much to feed them?
You’ve probably heard the arguments in favor of early toilet training. They train early in Europe! Toddlers are more compliant than three-year-olds! Diapers are bad for the environment! Perhaps you’ve even read scientific studies concluding that children who train later are more likely to end up having accidents.
The type of discipline you use can have a dramatic effect on your child’s development. Your discipline strategies can have a big impact on the type of relationship you have with your child. The various approaches to discipline can even influence a child’s mood and temperament into adulthood.
Researchers have discovered four types of parenting styles. These different styles are dependent on what the parent feels the child needs from them.
As a result, each parenting style uses a different approach to discipline.
Parenting is a learning journey and although we try our best, we are always going to make mistakes. The important thing, is that we learn from them, and from those of others. From speaking to many parents who are raising bilingual or multilingual children, we have compiled a list of the most common mistakes:
If you want to give your child more exposure to reading but are struggling where to start, this article is what you need to check out!
The kids who tend to do well often exhibit some important skills before entering college. Perhaps surprisingly, these skills aren't incredibly sophisticated. In fact, they are skills we expect preschoolers to master.
One particularly strange feature of middle-class family life is the way we train our children to sleep. “Go to your room,” we tell even very young children, “and stay there all night.” We have invented elaborate techniques to support this supposedly essential aspect of child development, implementing them at great emotional cost to all parties involved. For the parents: agonizing decisions about when and whether to comfort a crying child, bleary-eyed squabbles about which parent takes a turn in the middle of the night.
When our kids get fussy with food, our go-to is a PB & J. And if desperate times call for desperate measures, maybe we’ll cut them into star shapes to spare us all the headache of a mealtime tantrum. But one mom who is putting our sandies to shame is Laleh Mohmedi.
Why make your own baby food when there are so many good commercial brands available? Homemade baby food produces less waste (by the time a baby is 12 months old, he’s emptied 600 jars of baby food on average), costs less, contains no chemicals or additives and is fresher. Besides, it’s simple! Here’s how to make your own baby food purees, plus some easy recipe ideas to get your started.
Parents, please take note: it's available on Android through their Telegram channel.
Dr. Phil explains why he believes it’s so important for children to have relationships with extended family, such as grandparents.
Between school drop-offs and pickups, dance classes and hockey practices, it’s hard to imagine any parent has enough time to fit in an effective workout. But guess what? You can do it if you break up the exercises throughout the day...
Tips for Parent-Educators: These are the top things I wish someone had said to me as I offered my first born to his first school.
1. Be a parent, first and foremost. That's what your kid needs most from you.
2. Proactively build a relationship with your child's teacher at the beginning of the year. Don't wait until there's a problem to sit down with them.
3. If a teacher doesn't ask about your child's strengths and interests, share those.
4. Also share anything you think the teacher should know about your kid that would help them be effective, such as that your kid is an introvert and won't often participate in whole-class discussions. (Again, hopefully they ask this question, but if not, share it.)
5. If your child complains about being bored, class being too hard, not being treated well by peers or adults, listen to your child. Don't hope it'll get better. Go to school and talk to people. Observe classes.
6. Don't be afraid of talking to the principal. Don't be afraid of making requests. You can do this kindly and thoughtfully, but your job, again, is to advocate for your kid.
Logan Laplante is a 13 year-old boy who was taken out of the education system to be home schooled instead. As a result, he was given the opportunity to receive an education tailored to his interests and his unique style of learning – something traditional education is not always able to offer. In a pretty remarkable show of wisdom, particularly for someone so young, Logan has said that when he grows up he wants to be happy and healthy. At a TEDx talk in 2013, he discussed how hacking his education is helping him achieve that goal.
October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month and an opportunity to spread awareness and advocacy throughout the community.
If you’re a parent, your days can be challenging enough. That’s why separating the truths from the myths of Down Syndrome can be helpful.
Support and encourage their efforts, and love them unconditionally
1. If you’ve ever wondered why their bread tastes so perfect, there’s your answer. It’s chemically engineered to taste a certain way, unlike healthy breads that contain far less science-produced ingredients.
2. Subway is just as unhealthy as McDonald’s.
3. People stop paying attention to what they’re eating when they assume they’re making a healthy choice. This leads to “treating” oneself by picking up higher calorie drinks and desserts.
It’s a common scenario – your toddler is asking you to read him the same book for the nth time. You would probably think that reading the same bedtime story to him over and over sort of limits his learning potential, but studies show that repetition is actually good for your little one.
"RSV is no joke," the dad explained in his post. "I didn't know much about it until a week ago when it almost took my daughter from me. Please make sure to wash your hands before handling little ones."
RSV is a respiratory virus that infects the lungs and breathing passages. And while most healthy adults usually experience mild, cold-like symptoms and recover in a week or two, RSV can be serious, especially for infants. In fact, according to the CDC, RSV is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children younger than 1 in the United States.
It starts from carpet: 200,000 bacteria...PER SQUARE INCH.
Parents now need to bribe children in a bid to make them read at bedtime rather than use iphones and other gadgets, a new survey has revealed.
Learning and reciting nursery rhymes in early childhood is important for language development and early literacy skills. These free printable sequencing activities will increase comprehension of the stories and will also build critical thinking skills.
Today’s young children are working more, but they’re learning less.
At some point of time in our lives, we have to deal with changes. While some of us deal with changes more readily, there are also those who are resistant to them. As adults, we find ways and strategies to help ourselves cope with such transitions. It is pretty much the same with toddlers, but these small ones would need us to help them find a coping mechanism.
The web has kicked up a storm after a child was marked as incorrect for saying "5+5+5=15"on a grade school math test. The question simply asked to use repeated addition to solve 5x3. The math question is a typical question set by the Common Core for third graders. However, under the guidelines for the Common Core, you supposed to understand 5x3 as “five groups of three” not “three groups of five.”
So many children are dealing with major struggles in their everyday lives, and giving up or avoiding the issues altogether is not an option. Our students need to understand that struggling and failing are natural, and that the most important part of defeat is the determination to get back up, try again, and move forward.
Yup, I make my almost 2-year-old and 5-year-old go to bed at 7 and 7:30 p.m., respectively. I know—you think I’m rigid, no fun, that I’m denying my kids a joyful childhood because they rarely get to frolic outside at dusk. I get a lot of crap for it. “Can’t you just … ?” My friends ask. No. I’m sorry, no, I can’t.
As a former after-school teacher, I’ve spent three years working with kids in a more relaxed environment than the classroom. And, in those hours with kids as their less-guarded selves, I’ve seen the bullying, teasing, whispers and shoves that scarcely get reported home to parents.
So junior is starting infantcare as you bounce back from your maternity leave. Or perhaps, you have just enrolled your 2-year old in childcare, so she can socialise with other children. Here’s what you should know.
I’ve been catching my two five-year-olds lying more than normal lately. They’re pretty innocent lies but I still feel a little hurt that my kid finds the need to lie to me. Sometimes the lies are a knee-jerk reaction to get out of being in trouble for pushing his younger sister...
A watermelon can only be as good as the one you choose from the market. You may think that choosing a great watermelon is up to chance, but there are actually several ways to spot the perfect watermelon.
Head people placed a greater importance on autonomy, and heart people valued belonging to social groups. Not to over-simplify, but apparently the world is made up of two types of people, and you’re only going to want to hang out with one of them.
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of taking two or more young children to a store, you know it can either be: A) Challenging, or B) A complete nightmare.
Single mom of two, Aly Bothers, recently experienced the latter. Her raw, now-viral Facebook post will leave you nodding your head, crying alongside her and wanting to give her a big hug. Because we’ve all been there.
Back to school is the time of year when kids realize summer is over, shorts weather is coming to a close and homework is on the horizon. It can be a tough transition for little kids who are experiencing being away from home for a full day for the first time and big kids whose days become less about play and more about learning.
Does your child suck her thumb or bite her nails? A long-term study suggests these “bad” habits might actually have a plus side: lasting protection from common allergies. Researchers followed a group of more than 1,000 children in New Zealand from birth through age 32. They asked the parents to report their children’s thumb-sucking and nail-biting habits at ages 5, 7, 9 and 11. Then they tested the children for allergic reactions using a skin-prick test at age 13, and again in adulthood at age 32.
Your kid is part of a whole generation that can swipe right before they can write. And because of that fact, you’ve become a little paranoid with how they interact with technology. It’s one thing to curb screentime, cut off the Wi-Fi, or investigate the feasibility of becoming Amish. But instead of taking their tech away (or just running away), why not just teach them how to use all of it responsibly and for their benefit?
If your child doesn’t follow your instructions the first time you speak, examine the way you’re giving directions. These are the common mistakes can decrease the chances that your child will listen.
We’ve put together 35 of the BEST Jack o Lantern Patterns for Halloween. These free pumpkin carving templates are sure to get you in a spooky mood for Halloween. You and your kids will have fun browsing through all of these pumpkin templates and choosing your very own to trace and carve this season.
This little machine is loaded with lessons about engineering and mobility. The gearbox teaches kids how gear ratios affect speed. And when it walks, the robot's feet can slip unless you add a dab of glue to them. That's a great introduction to problem solving: increasing friction to create traction and enable faster movement.
1. Check to see if it’s time to wake up. If not, wake up anyway and immediately tell parents.
In an effort to help combat this problem, educator Scott Ertl launched a program in 2010 that has since branched out into dozens of classrooms across the United States. Scott’s program, entitled Read and Ride, combines physical activity with reading by introducing stationary bikes into the classroom setting. Students are expected to read a favourite book, educational magazine, or some other piece of literature from the curriculum while using the piece of exercise equipment.