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You may find yourself yelling at your toddler, especially when it seems effective in getting your child not to do something? You think it is harmless since yelling is not spanking and no physical harm is done to the child?
I cherish the notes I receive from my children—whether they are scribbled with a Sharpie on a yellow sticky note or written in perfect penmanship on lined paper. But the Mother’s Day poem I received from my 9-year-old daughter was especially meaningful. In fact, the first line of the poem caused my breath to catch as warm tears slid down my face.
My husband and I thought we were done having kids after we had our first two. Then when our youngest was 3 and we had just celebrated chucking the diapers—surprise!—pregnant! We rolled with it, and now I can’t imagine life without our three kids.
Most school field trips are to places the students might never go on their own: a museum, a play, a nature preserve. The idea is to open kids wide to the wonderful world. This past spring one grammar school in Silicon Valley started sending kids to a very different, but equally mind-blowing place: their own neighborhood.
On their own. Without an adult.
Erasing the stigma, one high five at a time.
Meet 10-month-old Landon Lee, a baby Instagram star with nearly 42,000 followers.
Essential oils in natural remedies are commonly used to help manage symptoms of different health conditions. However, a poison center in Tennessee reports that the number of kids experiencing accidental poisoning from essential oils is increasing.
Delay tactics. Calling out in the middle of the night. Ending up in your bed before daybreak. If this describes your toddler’s sleep habits, and you’re not happy with your family’s quality of sleep, it might be time for some sleep training.
“He can’t stay put in one place,” sighs Maielle Paterno as she watches her four-year-old Chico run around the house. “He seems to be fueled with boundless energy,” she says. “The only thing that can quiet him down for a while are his Disney CarsTM toys, or when he’s already exhausted!” Otherwise, Chico would jump from one interest to another without really locking on to anything.
It’s hard to avoid the lure of the smartphone — so many apps! — and if you’re a parent with rambunctious kids, you may not want to. But a fascinating study of the dynamic between parents, kids and smartphones paints a sobering picture of what the devices are doing to the parent-child relationship.
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.
We've somehow decided that little kids can't understand these complex topics, or we want to delay exposing them to injustices as long as possible (even though not all children have the luxury of being shielded from injustice).
However, young children have a keen awareness of and passion for fairness. They demand right over wrong, just over unjust. And they notice differences without apology or discomfort.
Racial identity and attitudes begin to develop in children at a young age. Two- and three-year-olds become aware of the differences between boys and girls, may begin noticing obvious physical disabilities, become curious about skin color and hair color/texture, and may also be aware of ethnic identity.
5 Elementary Strategies
1. Use children's literature: There's a wealth of children's books (check out here: http://www.adl.org/education-outreach/books-matter/#.VwQW3_krLcs) that can be read aloud and independently to approach the topic of bias, diversity, and social justice.
2. Use the news media: Find topics and news stories that bring forth these themes and discuss them in the classroom -- like the nine-year-old boy who was banned from bringing his My Little Pony backpack to school because it was the source of bullying.
3. Teach anti-bias lessons: Social and emotional skill development lessons are the foundation, and then teachers can move to lessons on identity, differences, bias, and how bias and bullying can be addressed individually and institutionally.
4. Give familiar examples.
Take advantage of children's interest in books, TV shows, toys, and video games, and use them as opportunities to explore diversity, bias, and social justice.
5. Explore solutions: Re-think the concept of "helping others" to include discussions about the inequities that contribute to the problem and consider actions that can address it. For example, while it's useful to provide food to homeless people, we want to deepen the conversation to convey a social justice perspective and a wider lens with children. Therefore, discuss the stigma and stereotypes of homeless people, learn about unfair housing policies, and reflect on solutions that will reverse the problem in a lasting way and encourage students to take action.
Many children hate to eat vegetables but almost all children love superheroes. Combining the two apparently yields good results for those of you who aim best in your children's nutrition. A research has found that presenting vegetables as cartoon superheroes get children encouraged to eat vegetables.
If you're this talented 2-year-old named Emerson, you just do it with a bit more style. Turns out her dad, Andrew, a cheerleading instructor, knows a few things about perfect cheer posture. The 2014 clip gained significant attention after an Instagram post, by the man's cousin, actress Brooklyn Decker.
Baby boys don’t need to be “toughened up” by letting them cry or intentionally withholding your affection. In fact, doing so can lead to harmful consequences, says a recently published research review.
According to the research review published in Infant Mental Health Journal, baby boys are more vulnerable to stress due to “significant gender differences…between male and female social and emotional functions in the earliest stages of development.”
According to the EWG’s report, these are the 7 worst sunscreens for kids:
1. Banana Boat Kids Max Protect & Play Sunscreen Lotion, SPF 100
2. Coppertone Water Babies Sunscreen Stick, Wacky Foam and Sunscreen Lotion, SPF 55
3. CVS Baby Sunstick Sunscreen and Spray, SPF 55
4. Equate Kids Sunscreen Stick, SPF 55
5. Neutrogena Wet Skin Kids Sunscreen Spray and Stick products, SPF 70
6. Up & Up Kids Sunscreen Stick, SPF 55
7. Hampton Sun Continuous Mist Sunscreen for Kids, SPF 70
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.
These fabulous toys will keep your toddler busy for five minutes... a miracle we know!
About 100 pre-schoolers spent their Saturday afternoon at the weekend colouring at Suntec City Convention Centre in celebration of World Kids Colouring Day. The event, organised in Singapore for the ninth year by writing products manufacturer Staedtler, saw the children colouring pictures on the theme of "funny animals".
Every parent or parent to-be has heard of the 'terrible two' phase but as someone who has been there four times, I can tell you that the twos are nothing compared to the age of three! At two they can be whiny and a bit defiant, but at three they can actually talk a bit more and it seems their attitude is beginning to fully develop!It seems that experts are now agreeing that while those two year old's are getting a bad rap, it's really the 'threenager' that parents need to be wary of!
You don't really need to answer that. We can save you the trouble of trying to figure it out and just say that the answer is most likely 'no'. Your child is probably not getting enough sleep. At least that is what the experts are saying. In fact, it is said that the average person will spend about 40% of their childhood asleep, but this is still not enough according to some experts.
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.
Want to know how to make your bright little button even more brainy? These fun learning games and activities are expert-approved and a great way to develop a toddler’s memory and problem-solving skills.
No.10. Presume competence.
Have wonderful fun with these frozen dinosaur eggs for sensory play and scientific discovery! So easy to make and play with as part of imaginative, small world play scene and great for dinosaur loving kids.
Getting information about the school day from a child who's attention is most likely focused on a snack, a little homework and, if the gods and their parents are kind, an hour or so of Mario Maker, often feels like an exercise in futility and espionage.
It isn't uncommon for a baby to be born with a few wisps of hair, but that requires little maintenance. So, what do you do when your newborn enters the world with a full head of hair? Why, you embrace it, of course - like these proud parents did!
Real voices, real lanterns, and they are just mesmerising.
Those of us who grew up with siblings already know that there will inevitably come a time when we will not get along with one or more of them. (Perhaps this is why some people think being an only child has more benefits!)
However, even if conflict is part of every relationship, there are certain things we can do to make sure they are minimal at best. Here are a few ways we parents can help our children grow up as friends:
Anyone who’s ever bitten into a slice of watermelon knows it induces a state of relaxation like few other fruits. But did you know that the fruit can also be used as medicine? Humans began doing just that thousands of years ago. Renowned physicians like Hippocrates and Dioscorides actually praised the bright red melon for its healing properties.
If parents start to encourage empathetic habits early, there’s still hope of them putting human kindness ahead of #kindness.
Ask any parent about ear infections, and you will most likely hear one horror story after another. Ear infection, or Otitis Media, is the most common reason for visits to the paediatrician’s office. It is estimated that over 30 million visits are made every year in an attempt to deal with this problem.
Among the signs: feeling sad or withdrawn for two weeks or more may indicate depression, and intense fears or worries that get in the way of daily activities may indicate an anxiety disorder.
The teacher tells you that your little one is very well-behaved in school. However, it is the direct opposite when she’s at home.
One parenting milestone that we could all live without is that first time your child pukes all over the car. Every parent has a nightmare story about projectile vomit in an enclosed space, and some parents even drive another 10 hours after that happens, which proves parents truly are rock stars.
Negotiating with kids is usually a challenging process. Be it about watching TV, playing in the park, sleeping on time, studying, eating food, dressing up or spending time on the mobile/computer. Although negotiating, sounds like an ‘adult’ word, we are still doing it, whether we like it or not.
There are many reasons why a child wets the bed, and there are many myths floating around in the world about bedwetting. These myths can be very detrimental to your night-time toilet training journey, and you should avoid doing these things. Here, we debunk some of the most common of those myths so parents can get a firm, real grasp of why children wet the bed, and how to help them stop.
In 1971, professor Julian Stanley founded the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) program. SMPY is “the longest-running current longitudinal survey of intellectually talented children,” Nature reports. For the last 45 years it’s tracked the accomplishments of over 5,000 gifted children – and they’ve shaped our world.
I thought my childhood was idyllic until I had children of my own. That is when cracks began to form in the foundation; I noticed weaknesses in myself stemming back to my upbringing and resolved to do better when parenting my own kids.
A sibling relationship is one of the most vital of all relationships we will have in this life. A best friend to grow up with, fight with, and fight for. Most days it feels like the “fight with” overshadows the fight for.
I see it all too often: Mom or Dad bring in their toddler for their first visit to the dentist, and I have to break the news to them that their toddler has several cavities.
Just because baby teeth fall out doesn’t mean cavities are okay for the baby teeth. Cavities in baby teeth can absolutely affect the adult teeth, as well as the size of the oral cavity later on in development.
Although math skills are considered notoriously hard to change, Johns Hopkins University researchers improved preschoolers’ arithmetic performance simply by exercising their intuitive number sense with a quick computer game.
1. Get the timing right: Make your tot’s appointment for a time when they’re alert and rested.
2. Parent by example: Mums and dads have the greatest influence on their tyke’s dental health. Your child will pick up on your anxiety, so focus on staying cool, calm, collected and confident.
3. No surprises: Bambinos handle dental procedures best when their parents know what to expect and have prepared them for the experience.
4. Look on the bright side: Answer your tot’s questions in a positive way. For example, use words like ‘healthy’ instead of ‘hurt’ and definitely steer clear of scary dental anecdotes!
5. Come prepared: Take along some questions about your child’s oral health.
6. Over to them! When the big day arrives, give your mini-mite some control over their dental visit, such as choosing their own ‘tooth doctor outfit’. Then it’s time to climb into the exciting dentist’s chair and let the check-up begin!
This DIY Personalized Homework Station is a useful project that teens or tweens can customize to enhance their work space for back-to-school! There is plenty of room for memos and important notes.
If you think your toddler is too young to understand what you’re saying, think again. Find out what he actually picks up from your words and actions.
There are many events that can cause your child’s sleep habits to get off track. If you don’t have a plan for navigating illness, travel, developmental milestones and teething you can end up in a sleep slump. You may be seeing bedtime battles, night waking, early rising and negative associations around sleep. If you feel like your child’s sleep needs a makeover, try these tips for revamping how sleep looks in your home.