Posted in Parenting

What to Feed Your Child to Support Healthy Brain Development

Posted on by Tim Connolly

HEALTHY BRAIN development starts early and continues throughout childhood. A healthy brain influences how well kids learn, pay attention, control impulses, anticipate, plan and make decisions. It also impacts their social-emotional skills, mood and mental health.

According to a 2016 Journal of Pediatrics article on the role of nutrition in brain development, the structural and intellectual capacity of the brain is mostly established by age 3. In infancy, the brain’s framework and “information highway” is established.

While babies can’t talk or read, they learn from observation, connecting with caretakers and their environment. This process continues in the toddler years, resulting in the emergence of language, social skills and learning through play.

In childhood, formal learning, executive skills like planning ahead and decision-making abilities emerge. While brain growth and development still happen in adolescence, a shift occurs. The brain begins to prune itself, removing underutilized neurons and information pathways so more important ones can flourish.

Brain development in young children is influenced by many things, but experts focus on three key areas: exposure, experiences and nutrition.

Exposure to toxins like lead, as well as infection, stress and trauma can have long-term repercussions on brain development. Likewise, positive or negative experiences can also influence brain development. For example, neglect or abuse can have devastating, lasting effects, while playing with a child or reading stories together are beneficial for brain development. The third key to a healthy brain is nutrition.[ 

Nutrients for Healthy Brain Development

Many nutrients are needed for normal, healthy brain development, including protein and fat, and micronutrients such as the omega-3 fatty acid DHA, choline, iron and zinc.

The goal is to ensure nutritional needs are met. Young brains are more vulnerable to the impact of a nutrient deficiency than older brains. In fact, a nutrient deficiency early in life may have an impact on the developing structure of the brain, impair function and could lead to cognitive deficits later on.ADVERTISINGinRead invented by Teads

Although the brain is “plastic” and may recover from an insult like a nutrient deficiency, experts note there are critical windows of development and times when regions of the brain have higher nutrient needs. That makes a deficiency during this critical developmental period more damaging.

Protein

This macronutrient and its amino acids are building blocks of any growth process, including brain development. Protein is a component of neurons, or nerve cells, and neurotransmitters, which transmit messages between neurons, and helps build the structure and size of the brain.

Experts agree that protein (and energy) insufficiency in the first three years of life may lead to growth failure and negatively affect neurodevelopment.

DHA

More than half of the brain is made up of fat. Fat is essential in the diet of young children for neurological development and brain function. Inadequate fat in the diet can lead to poor growth and cognitive outcomes.

Docosahexaenoic acid, or what’s more commonly referred to as DHA, is a long-chain poly-unsaturated fatty acid and a prominent omega-3 fat in the brain. DHA is necessary for the creation, movement, organization and connection of the brain’s neurons. It is also involved in building the structure of the retina. As such, DHA plays a role in intelligence, vision, attention and impulse control.

Seafood, including fatty fish like salmon, is the best source for DHA.

Choline

Choline is an essential nutrient, meaning we need to get it from our diet since our body doesn’t produce it. Choline is involved in brain cell structure, neurotransmission, and memory processing and storage.

Getting enough of this nutrient, which can be found in egg yolks as well as meat and nuts like pistachios and almonds, also helps prevent neural tube defects, or birth defects of the brain and spinal cord, like spina bifida.

Iron

Iron is required for the normal anatomy of the brain. Myelination, the process of coating the neurons with a fat sheath called myelin, to accomodate the efficient transmission of information throughout the brain, requires iron. Additionally, neurotransmitters that send chemical messages across the brain to regulate physical functioning, such as heart rate and breathing, and psychological functioning, including learning and concentration, depend on getting sufficient iron in the diet.

There are many food sources of iron. The nutrient can be found in animal products, such as beef or chicken liver, beef, poultry and fish. Plant sources include beans, enriched breakfast cereal, tofu and spinach, and should be eaten with a vitamin C food like tomatoes or citrus fruits to enhance the iron’s absorption in the body.[ 

Zinc

Zinc is involved in all the main functions of the brain. A zinc deficiency in early childhood has been tied to poor learning, attention, memory and mood. Meat, shellfish, beans, nuts and whole grains are good sources of zinc.

What You Can Do

A child’s brain development starts in utero during pregnancy, but it doesn’t end there. Here are five nutrition tips for optimizing brain development across childhood:

1. In the childbearing years, eat a nutrient-rich diet.

Correct any nutritional deficits you may have, and maintain a healthy body weight. Take prenatal vitamins if you are pregnant.

Be particularly observant of your iron status as research indicates around 1 in 6 women of childbearing age are iron deficient.

2. Breastfeed your child if you are able.

Make sure you continue to eat a nutrient-rich diet, with particular emphasis on DHA, iron and zinc. To get enough DHA, eat 8 to 12 ounces, or about two or three servings, of seafood per week.

If you aren’t able to get enough DHA in your diet, supplement with 200 to 300 milligrams of DHA per day, as recommended by the Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and American Academy of Pediatrics, respectively. Plan to start your baby on an iron supplement at 4 months if breastfeeding as directed by your pediatrician. If bottle-feeding, use an iron- and DHA-fortified formula.

3. For both breastfed and formula-fed babies, start solids around 6 months.

Iron and zinc provisions from breast milk decrease while baby’s requirement for these nutrients increase at this time. Include meats and iron- and zinc-fortified cereals in the dietary pattern of breastfed infants.

4. Don’t be discouraged by picky eating.

During the toddler years, children may become picky, potentially narrowing the diet and the nutrients they receive. Adopt an “every bite counts” mindset, focusing on meals and snacks that supply a variety of foods that introduce new flavors, cuisines and textures.

It’s important to introduce sources of healthy fats, particularly fish, to help children develop a taste for them. Watch out for too many sweets and treats, as they can crowd out nutrients that are critical for brain health.

5. In childhood and adolescence, focus on the quality of the diet.

Choose wholesome, nutritious foods. Target meats, fish, beans, nutrient-rich grains, plant-based fats, eggs, nuts and nut butters and plenty of fruits and vegetables to anchor the diet.

Some companies and industries are targeting brain nutrients in their products, such as with DHA-fortified yogurt, eggs and milk. Fortified foods, used in combination with natural food sources, can help children get enough of the key nutrients for brain development.

Money Management for children is also an important factor, try to teach them about money management so they have not to face any difficulties in the future.

Posted in Parenting

Reacting Against a ‘Too Clean’ World, Some Parents Go Too Far the Other Way

Posted on by Tim Connolly

Somewhere between the Mom who obsessively wipes down every knob and toy her child might touch, and the Dad who thinks rolling in the dirt is “good” for kids, there’s a healthy medium, British experts say.

“We have to find a way to protect against infectious diseases and harmful microbes, whilst at the same time sustaining exposure to the essential beneficial microbes in our world,” explained Sally Bloomfield.

Bloomfield is a member of the International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene, and also the co-author of a new report that surveyed British adults on their attitude towards dirt and germs in the home.

The 2018 survey, from the Royal Society for Public Health, suggests people are confused about how much dirt is OK. A lot of that confusion is probably coming from the rise of the “hygiene hypothesis” — the notion that today’s homes are overly sanitized, and kids need contact with germs to build up healthy immune systems.

But this notion can be taken too far, as Bloomfield’s group found.

In fact, nearly one in four people polled agreed with the statement that “hygiene in the home is not important because children need to be exposed to harmful germs to build their immune system.”

Men were twice as likely as women to express that opinion.

On the other hand, misconceptions around the level of “danger” posed by dirt were also common.

Bloomfield’s team found that “almost two-thirds of those we surveyed (61%) said touching a child’s dirty hands after they have been playing outside was likely to spread harmful germs.”

But that’s simply not true. In fact, “there is little evidence that outdoor dirt and soil is contaminated with harmful microbes (unless there are animals nearby),” according to the report.

Different germs, different hazards

Bloomfield, a researcher at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the key thing to remember is that all germs are not created equal.

Exposure to diverse microbes from other people, domestic animals and the natural environment do help build a healthy immune system and microbiome — the varied microbes normally living in the gut and respiratory tract, experts agree. However, exposure to the wrongtypes of germs can both weaken the microbiome and cause infections.

And if those infections require antibiotics, “good” bacteria in the gut get destroyed along with the bad, they pointed out.

So, how to find a balance between being a compulsive germaphobe who’s constantly cleaning or the lax parent letting kids chow down on mud pies?

Bloomfield believes a new, more nuanced model, called “targeted hygiene,” is probably the answer.

Targeted hygiene means intervening with kids and their environment, but only when you can stop the risk of infection. This doesn’t necessarily mean avid cleaning. Cleaning does get rid of visible dirt, but it won’t necessarily reduce the risk of infection.

What does? Handwashing.

Handwashing is a simple component of targeted hygiene, and should be timed to certain activities, Bloomfield said.

“Our own bodies, our food and our domestic animals are the most likely sources of spread of infection — so the times that matter are [times such as] when we handle raw food, when we use the toilet, when we care for our pets, when we are infected or caring for someone who is infected,” she explained.

So, be sure to wash your hands well:

  • when you first come home;
  • if you’ve been caring for or playing with a pet;
  • after toileting;
  • before eating or preparing food;
  • after handling raw meat, fruits or vegetables;
  • after sneezing, coughing or blowing your nose.


‘Common sense’ clean

Most — but not all — of the British adults surveyed seem to understand the value of hand washing, since “73% of respondents said they ‘always’ washed their hands thoroughly with soap after using the toilet and after preparing raw meat,” the report found.

In addition to hand washing, Bloomfield said other important measures include cleaning surfaces that come into contact with food, cleaning surfaces regularly touched by many people, and washing dishcloths immediately after using them so they don’t spread germs.

Dr. Aaron Glatt is a spokesperson for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He reviewed the new report and said he “likes the idea of targeted hygiene.”

“Good common sense remains the best way to prevent infection,” Glatt said. “You don’t need to wash your hands 40 times a day, but appropriate hand washing needs to be stressed. If you’ve just come out of the bathroom or are going to be preparing foods, wash your hands.”

When it comes to routine cleaning, Glatt said the kitchen and bathrooms are two major areas that need attention.

He agreed that pets can potentially be a point of transmission for infection, but if they’re cared for properly, they shouldn’t be a concern.

“We even allow pets into the hospital for therapy,” Glatt said. “In general, kids and pets interact in a positive way.”

Again, common sense should be your guide: “Kids shouldn’t let a pet lick their plate and then eat from it,” Glatt said. There are variety of popular children’s books about economics available and with the help of those books you can teach your kids about economics, money management, life skills and life lessons.

Posted in Parenting

‘Mom, It Bit Me!’ Caring for Animal Bites in Children

Posted on by Tim Connolly

IN THE SUMMER, pediatricians see an uptick of animal bites as children spend more time outdoors and in new places.

As parents, we try to protect our kids from these potentially dangerous circumstances. We talk to our kids about avoiding wild and unknown animals. Plus, we are mindful of caring for the properties where children play, including preventing trash accumulation that may attract dangerous animals.

Even with careful effort, however, not all bites can be prevented.

If an animal bites your child, initially assess the wound. If the wound is severe, evaluation in the emergency room is required to determine the extent of the injury, control bleeding, and evaluate for broken bones or internal injuries. Also, bites to the face should be seen urgently to determine if stitches need to be placed.

Most bites, however, can be initially managed at home and followed up with a call or visit to the pediatrician’s office.

Dog Bites

The most common animal bites kids sustain are from canines. Dog bites account for a whopping 90% of the 5 million animal bites that children and adults sustain in the U.S. every year, and lead to about 1% of emergency room visits annually. This is because, well, there are a lot of dogs out there.

Both unknown dogs and beloved family pets will bite children. The episodes can be traumatic for the entire family, causing long-lasting fear of dogs in many children. The peak age of bites occurs during the toddler years when impulsive childhood movements and sounds frighten animals enough to attack. Young children are also at risk of bites due to their lack of experience witnessing outward signs of aggression in animals.

If your child gets bitten by a dog, you need to call the child’s doctor. Certainly, if the attack was extensive, emergency room evaluation is necessary to repair significant wounds. This would include bites in which the bleeding is hard to control, located on the head or face, or where additional injuries are a concern, pain is excessive or the child has underlying medical conditions.

For any bite injury, it’s essential to clean the area thoroughly and ensure any bleeding has stopped. Make sure to apply an antiseptic solution to cleanse the wound and keep it bandaged until it heals. In addition, ensure your child has had a tetanus shot in the last five years.

Most minor dog bites can be effectively handled at home and don’t require taking antibiotics to prevent infection. If you don’t know the dog’s vaccination status, call your local animal control agency about whether a rabies vaccination is recommended in your area, and call your child’s doctor to get advice on what to do next.

Rabies is a life-threatening infection that can be prevented by vaccine injections after the bite has occurred. Watch the area carefully for increased pain, heat or redness; and let the doctor know about any concerns.

Cat Bites

If you’ve ever spent any time around a cat, you understand how quickly a change in environment can spark aggression. It should be no surprise that felines are responsible for the most bites in kids after dogs.

Cats have long so-called eyeteeth, which can puncture skin very easily. Once the bite area is cleaned and protected using an antiseptic, a visit to the doctor is likely warranted.

Since cats harbor more bacteria in their mouths than dogs, most children need to be treated with oral antibiotics after cat bites to prevent the common complication of an infection. Cats more often carry rabies than dogs, so calling your local animal control agency is important if the cat that bit your child is unknown or unvaccinated.

Bat Bites

Bat bites are not uncommon in the Midwest where I live, and in many other areas of the country. Bat bites are tricky because it’s not unusual for a child to have to zero recollection or physical evidence of the bite. If you or someone else sees a bat in your home, it’s best to presume all family members have been potentially bit by the animal and take action to determine if your family is at risk of infection.

Many bats carry the dangerous rabies virus. As a general rule of thumb, if a bat is found in your home, especially in a sleeping area, call your doctor. Infectious disease experts can work with your pediatrician to determine if family members need the series of rabies shots based on local knowledge of the bat population.

Other Animal Bites

There are many other animal species children can encounter. Most other animal bites are treated like cat bites. Specifically, guinea pig, rodent and reptile bites can get infected and often require taking antibiotics as a preventive measure.

If a child comes in contact with an unusual animal or one that you can’t reliably identify, humanely trapping the animal to allow for professional veterinary evaluation can provide valuable information regarding the care of your child. However, this is not always possible and should never be attempted if it could lead to additional harm.

If a bite happens, attend to your child first, then get as much information about the source of the bite as you can. Your child’s doctor will be happy to help with the next steps as needed.  You can help your children to learn different things from the children’s book series and they can learn about financial freedom and life lessons.

Posted in Parenting

Parents Who Listens Can Help Kids Thrive Despite Trauma

Posted on by Tim Connolly

Heartfelt talks between parent and child are essential to help kids overcome tough times and do their best at school, a new study says.

Traumatic events in a kid’s life can cause the child to neglect school work and increase the odds that they’ll wind up repeating a grade, researchers found.

But having even one parent lend a kind and caring ear appears to help kids work past the toxic stress caused by those events, resulting in better performance at school, according to the study.

A sympathetic parent has a stronger impact on a troubled child’s educational performance than whether they eat regular family meals or live in a safe and well-kept neighborhood, said lead researcher Dr. Angelica Robles. She’s a pediatrician with Novant Health Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics in Charlotte, N.C.

“The parent really had the biggest influence,” Robles said. “Kids were six times more likely to complete homework and six times more likely to care about school” if they had a parent who could share ideas or talk about things that matter.

For their study, Robles and her colleagues analyzed data drawn from a 2011-2012 federal survey of more than 65,000 children ages 6 to 17.

They found that adverse childhood events could seriously affect a child’s interest in school — among them domestic or neighborhood violence, economic hardship, substance abuse or mental illness in the home, the death or incarceration of a caregiver, and divorce or separation of parents.

Worse, the negative effect on school performance increases with each additional adverse event. Kids with four or more adverse events in their lives were nearly three times more likely to repeat a grade, three times more likely to not care about school and four times more likely to shrug off homework.

However, researchers found that positive engagement with a caring parent could go a long way in offsetting the damage caused by life.

A caring parent increased by sixfold a child’s likelihood of completing homework and being engaged in school, and nearly doubled the odds that the kid would never have to repeat a grade.

The findings were published online July 8 in the journal Pediatrics.

“A child who had experienced trauma in their life was able to do so much better in school if they said their parent cared about them and that they could talk about things together,” said Dr. Rebecca Dudovitz, an assistant professor of pediatrics with UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. She wrote an editorial that accompanied the study.

A caring parent mattered much more than any other factor in either the home or the neighborhood, researchers found.

For example, having five or more family meals a week only made it about a third more likely that a child would do their homework and care about school, results showed.

“We thought regular family meals would be protective, and they were slightly, but what is more important is if during that meal do you have a conversation or do you have the TV on?” Robles said.

A safe neighborhood that is well-kept also had some protective effect for kids, as did supportive neighbors and nearby amenities like parks and community centers, researchers found. None came anywhere near the benefit from having a parent who listens, however.

For example, a supportive neighbor could make a kid 85% more likely to finish homework, 60% more likely to care about school and 40% more likely to never repeat a grade.

Other studies also have shown that having any caring adult in their lives will improve a child’s chances of success, even if it’s just a neighbor, Dudovitz said.

“There’s a lot of studies to suggest that even relationships with people who are not the parents make a huge difference,” Dudovitz said. “Just being able to cite that you have a caring older adult in your life is associated with a whole host of positive health outcomes for kids.”

For example, studies have shown that a positive relationship with a teacher or coach can reduce a kid’s risk of substance abuse, she said.

“Kids are constantly paying attention to adults in their lives, even teenagers who don’t seem to care at all about what we have to say,” Dudovitz said. “They really are watching us and want to be seen as whole individuals.” You can easily find out the ways to teach moral values by learning about economics for kids and can develop your child with good values in their childhood only.

Posted in Kids

Self Development For Kids

Posted on by Tim Connolly

The biggest dream I have is to be invited by the US Government to advise on teaching self development in schools.

Rather ironically, I had an actual dream recently in which that happened and I was given the keys to the school system and an unlimited budget.

I can’t actually remember much more of the dream, other than the President at the time was Charlie Sheen and Sarah Palin his Vice-President.

That seems highly plausible to me, so maybe it was a premonition and not really a dream?

Anyway, this got me thinking, if that were to happen and the phone were to ring asking me to take on the roll, what would I do?

Before I got to work I’d call Jamie Oliver and give him free access to the food services.

I’d insist that we not only started giving kids the right kind of food, but also the education so they know why we’re giving them the right kind of food.

Seriously, I don’t give a damn how much Coke or Pepsi pay me, they’re not putting their vending machines in my schools.

The same goes for any other vending machines that dispense candy, cookies and crap.

Self Development For Kids

Then I would install a subject on the curriculum called ‘Self Development’ (or some other more imaginative title) and it would be mandatory for all kids starting in primary education.

I think during those crucial years between the ages of about 6 and 10 we have a real opportunity to give kids a leg up that they don’t always get from family.

And that isn’t a knock on parents either, because they’re almost always doing their best.

But when was the last time you met a parent that had taken any training in what is possibly the hardest job in the world to get right?

Not having kids and it being a decade or four since I was at school you may be able to tell me some of this stuff has already been implemented. If so, I’d love to know.

I’d also love to know in the comments what you think I’ve missed and if you think some of my ideas are plain nuts.

Breathing

The vast majority of people (some reports say it’s over 90%), don’t breathe properly. They breathe from the upper chest and too rapidly.

This can lead to anxiety, high blood pressure, poor health and an inefficient supply of oxygen to the brain, especially in times of stress.

I know it sounds ridiculous because we are born breathing, but I’d insist kids have refreshers on this.

It would probably only be one hour per semester, but by the time they hit their teens they’d understand the importance of something most people take for granted. And more importantly, how they can control it.

Daydreaming

Do you remember at school when kids would be scolded for daydreaming? Maybe you were one of them, I know I was.

What a crock of shit!

Some of the greatest breakthroughs in the history of humankind have come directly from daydreaming.

Albert Einstein, Walt Disney,  Isaac Newton, Richard Branson, Henry David Thoreau and hundreds more of the greatest people to ever walk the earth were dreamers, and in particular, daydreamers.

I wouldn’t ridicule or punish kids who are obviously away with the fairies in class, I’d encourage them to share what they were thinking and praise them for anything creative.

Kids daydream, don’t stifle that and in turn their creativity, nurture it.

Thinking

Consider yourself lucky because you read self development blogs. As such you know you can think differently even if you don’t always implement that ability.

There are millions of kids that have no idea their reality isn’t the reality.

Nobody has ever told them their thoughts dictate their lives and they can change them.

It could be said that ‘As A Man Thinketh’ by James Allen is the only self development book you ever need to read. It’s short, simple, and awesomely powerful. As such it would be required reading on my curriculum.

I’d also teach kids about cognitive biases such as confirmation bias, the endowment effect, the halo effect etc so they can avoid making poor decisionsbased upon them without realizing why.

Asking Great Questions

From great questions come great answers and I’d encourage kids to keep asking when they don’t know the answer to something.

What makes a great question?

Simple, one you don’t know the answer to.

Too often people are afraid to ask because they think they’ll look dumb and that belief was installed at an early age.

You look dumb for not asking questions in my world.

Visualization

I’d teach all kids the power of visualization. Scientifically speaking, there is no doubt that visualization works incredibly well.

It trains the brain to do things before the body has to do them in the real world.

Kids are often naturally good at this, but if they knew how to harness it effectively they would be awesome.

Embracing Failure

Do they still use red pens in school to mark work? If so, I’d immediately ban the use of them.

Is there anything more discouraging and demoralizing for a kid than getting some work back riddled with red crosses and harsh comments such as ‘could do better’?

Well duh, we all could do better on occasions, it’s called being human.

We now know people learn quicker through personal failure and we know why at a neurological level.

We also know that the most successful people that have ever lived have often had the most failures.

Yet still we insist on stigmatizing and ridiculing failure rather than embracing it.

Young kids aren’t afraid or self conscious of failing. Which is why they don’t quit learning to walk and talk when at first they don’t succeed, and why they ultimately prevail in both activities.

Yet as a Society we knock the willingness to ‘give things a go’ out of them in countless subtle, and not so subtle ways.

I’d teach kids not to be afraid of failing and I’d encourage them for the effort they put in when things didn’t go according to plan (presuming they did put some effort in that is!).

Also, I’d instruct all teachers to never compliment a child for being talented.

We now know that one well intentioned action alone can encourage a fixed mindset and curtail mental growth.

Kids respond best by being encouraged for their effort, so encourage them.

Reframing

In my opinion reframing is the most underrated skill on the planet

They don’t always reframe the right way, especially if they see their parents reverse reframing and always extracting the bad from the good, but they can usually do it.

Kids are naturally great reframers.

I’d implement reframing competitions and have kids reframing the crap out of everything.

This goes hand in hand with failing, because when we reframe failure as a learning experience it no longer feels like failure.

The Point-system for kids provides the ways which helps kids in self development and make them ready to face all the hurdles of their lives in future.

Posted in Kids

4 ways to support your child to be physically active in kindergarten

Posted on by Tim Connolly

1. Help them to understand the effects of healthy, active living on the mind and body

This is simply done by asking your child how they feel or what they notice about their bodies after a walk or running around in the yard. My children have made observations like, “My heart is beating really fast, Mom!” or “I’m thirsty after all that running”.

2. Help them move their bodies every day

Kindergarten children will be expected to participate in daily physical activities. Have your child play hopscotch and talk about how many hops they can do. Hopscotch is such an easy game to play in the summer (and even indoors in bad weather using just a roll of masking tape). Using colourful chalk you can create the standard line of squares or be creative and make a centipede with 28 circles. One circle can be the head, the other a tail, and the remaining 26 can be the letters of the alphabet. Encouraging your child to try new physical activities may also help them become less apprehensive about trying new things at school.

3. Help them use their large muscles

Children will be developing the use and control of large and small muscle groups during the 20-month Kindergarten program. Large muscle activities like climbing, running, throwing a variety of balls, and balancing are all fun and easy to do with your kids. During my time in Kindergarten, one of my favourite large muscle activities was the beach ball toss. This is also a very enjoyable activity that my children and I do at the park with both large groups of friends or just the four of us. Using one beach ball to start, we hit the ball with any part of our bodies to keep it off the ground. Depending on how many people are playing we add a beach ball to make the game more challenging and add to the fun factor. This type of activity also helps build hand-eye coordination skills and flexibility in movement, all while having a blast with friends.

4. Help them use their small muscles

Small muscle group activities tend to be quieter and need less room to be completed. Building lego, tying shoes, and buttoning buttons are all small muscle group activities and are perfect rainy day or travel activities. When my three kids were little (I had three under 4 years of age), we would bead Cheerio’s onto yarn and hang them in our yard for the squirrels and birds to enjoy. Now, my three are a little older and we have moved onto beading necklaces, bracelets, and knitting to continue building our fine motor skills.

With just a little time devoted to practicing movement skills at home, your child will be able to have more fun with their friends at school and create a foundation for a lifetime of physical activity.

You can easily get the ways and ideas from popular children book series about how to make your child more physically active and able to perform his daily activities more energetically.

Posted in Kids

Ways to Prepare Your Kids to Lead Happy and Successful Lives

Posted on by Tim Connolly

1. Move to the best neighborhood you can afford.

The best move parents can make for their children is to a neighborhood with excellent schools, more career opportunities and the opportunity to grow up with peers who value education, hard work and achievement. Note: you don’t even have to be wealthy to make this happen.

Although controversial, research has found moving to a better neighborhood is a better investment than tutoring and extracurricular activities like piano lessons.

2. Become a happier and less stressed person yourself.

Research has proven adults thrive in business when they are happy and less stressed. The same is true for parenting. Carolyn and Philip Cowan, psychologists at the University of California, have found happy parents are more likely to have happy children. According to the husband-and-wife psychologists, “The children do not fare well if the adults aren’t taking care of themselves and their relationships.”

Research from Bowling Green State University sociologist Kei Nomaguchi found that “Mothers’ stress, especially when mothers are stressed because of the juggling with work and trying to find time with kids, that may actually be affecting their kids poorly.”

3. Make them do chores.

Whether it was mowing the grass, taking out the trash, washing dishes, walking the dog or folding laundry, when I was growing up my parents were always assigning me chores. I hated it but thankfully, they didn’t ease up. It taught me the value of hard work and collaborating to get things done  — one of us kids washed the dishes, another dried. Most importantly, it taught me responsibility.

4. Make your kids read daily and learn math at early age.

During his five years studying the behaviors and habits of self-made millionaires, best-selling author Thomas Curley found that, “Sixty three percent of those self-made millionaires were required by their parents to read two or more books a month.”

The parents insisted their kid read biographies, history, nonfiction, literary classics or hobby books, and they quizzed them about what they had read. Curley believes not encouraging your children to read daily is “failing your kids.”

5. Set high expectations and Explaining government to kids .

Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics discovered that parent’s expectations predict their child’s success in school.

“The big surprise was what a strong role parents’ long-term goals for their children played in predicting their math and reading abilities,” said Neal Halfon, M.D., M.P.H., the study’s senior author and director of the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families, and Communities.

6. Praise them correctly.

If you haven’t explored the exciting work regarding mindset from Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, then I suggest that you immediately do so. It’s greatly influenced me as an entrepreneur.

According to Dweck, a fixed mindset believes that talent and skill are innate and can not be changed — you’re only as good at something as you were born to be. A growth mindset, however, believes that talents can be developed over time and skills learned with sufficient effort.

7. Create family rituals.

Research has found that children with strong social skills in kindergarten will thrive as adults. One of the best and most enjoyable ways to encourage these social skills is with family rituals. According to researchers Dr. Dawn Eaker and Dr. Lynda Walters, these family rituals are as simple as cooking meals together, family game night, evening walks and annual vacations. Consider weekly family meetings to review what you did and didn’t do well in the past week and what you’ll work on in the coming week.

8. Teach them to be “gritty” and Follow Rules.

Angela Duckworth, the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and Founder and CEO of Character Lab, defines grit “as passion and perseverance for especially long-term goals.”

Throughout her research, Duckworth found a correlation between grit and rank in the US National Spelling Bee, educational attainment, grade-point average in Ivy League undergrads and retention of West Point cadets.

9. Help them build meaningful relationships.

Jack Shonkoff and Deborah Phillips discovered that having strong relationships is essential for children’s growth and psychological well-being. Children who do not have meaningful relationships tend to perform poorly in school, are more likely to get in trouble with the law and often develop psychiatric problems.

10. Teach them to be all-around healthy.

Healthy habits are vital for success as adults and kids both. Set boundaries that encourage your kids to get plenty of sleep, eat healthily and be active. For example, don’t let them sit inside and play videos all day. Send them outside to play. Teach them the health benefits of taking care of themselves instead of focusing on their appearance or complaining how guilty you feel after buying them fast food. Teach good habits by making healthy dinners together, family bike rides or setting aside time for writing in your gratitude journals.

Posted in Parenting

10 Tips to Teach Your Child to Save Money

Posted on by Tim Connolly

1. Discuss Wants vs. Needs

The first step in teaching kids the value of saving is to help them distinguish between wants and needs. Explain that needs include the basics, such as food, shelter, and clothing, and wants are all the extras. You can use your own budget as an example to illustrate how wants should take a back seat to needs in terms of spending. 

2. Let Them Earn Their Own Money

Sixty-eight percent of parents said they paid their children an allowance in 2018, with kids earning $26.58 per week on average, based on six hours of chores. If you want your children to become savers, giving them their own money provides them with the opportunity to learn how to use it. When you offer allowances in exchange for chores, they’re also learning the value of their hard work.

3. Set Savings Goals

To a kid, being told to save without explaining why may seem pointless. Helping children define a savings goal can be a better way to get them motivated. If they know what it is they want to save for, help them break down their goals into manageable bites. For example, if they want to buy a $50 video game and they get a $10 allowance each week, help them figure out how long it will take to reach that goal, based on their savings rate. 

4. Provide a Place to Save

Once your children have a savings goal in mind, they’ll need a place to stash their cash. For younger kids, this may be a piggy bank, but if they’re a little older, you may want to set them up with their own savings account at a bank. That way they can see how their savings are adding up and how much progress they’re making toward their goal.

5. Learn Money Management For Children and Let Them Track Their Spending

Part of being a better saver means knowing where your money is going. If your children get an allowance, having them write down their purchases each day and add them up at the end of the week can be an eye-opening experience. Encourage them to think about how they’re spending and how much faster they could reach their savings goal if they were to change their spending patterns.

6. Offer Savings Incentives

One of the reasons people save in their employer’s retirement plan is the company matching contribution. After all, who doesn’t like free money? If you’re having trouble motivating your kids to save, you can use that same principle to ramp up their efforts. For example, if your child has set a big savings goal, say a $400 tablet, you could offer to match a percentage of what he or she saves dollar-for-dollar. Alternately, you could offer a reward when your kid reaches a savings milestone, such as a $50 bonus for hitting the halfway mark.

7. Leave Room for Mistakes

Part of putting kids in control of their own money is letting them learn from their errors. It’s tempting to step in and steer kids away from a potentially costly mistake, but it may be better to use that mistake as a teachable moment. That way they’ll know in the future what not to do with their cash.

8. Act as Their Creditor

One of the basic tenets of saving is to not live beyond your means. If your child has something he or she wants to buy and is being impatient about saving for it, becoming your kid’s creditor can help to teach the value of saving. For instance, if your child wants to purchase something that costs $100, you could “lend” the money and require payment from the allowance you provide, with interest. The lesson you want to teach is that saving may mean delaying gratification longer, but the thing you want to buy won’t end up costing more you if you wait.

9. Talk About Money

In a 2018 T. Rowe Price survey, 44% of parents said they’d never talked to their children about the value of long-term investing, discussed market volatility or showed them financial statements. If you want kids to learn about saving, it must be an ongoing discussion. Whether you schedule a regular weekly check-in to talk about money or make money chats part of your daily round, the key is to keep the conversation going. 

10. Set a Good Example

In the same T. Rowe Price survey mentioned above, 17% of parents said they had zero savings for retirement, emergencies, college or other financial goals. If you want your children to become savers, being one yourself can help. Getting your emergency fund in shape, opening a 529 savings account or simply increasing your 401(k) plan contributions are all steps you can take to encourage saving as a family activity.

Posted in Kids

Importance of Physical Activity for Children

Posted on by Tim Connolly

Physical activity can help kids cope with stress. It also promotes: 

  • Healthy growth and development 
  • Better self-esteem 
  • Stronger bones, muscles and joints 
  • Better posture and balance 
  • A stronger heart 
  • A healthier weight range 
  • Social interaction with friends 
  • Learning new skills while having fun 
  • Better focus and concentration during school

Ask if they want to be a part of a team or do an individual activity, enroll in a skill based or recreational class or do their activity with a friend or family member. 

Parents can take help from Point-system for kids to provide support and guidance about how to start and how much activity a child needs each day. They need to feel motivated and enjoy their activities. Keeping an activity log can help them chart their progress, while praise and rewards for each small step achieved can help to keep them motivated. 

Children should: 

  • Include a warm up and cool down as part of each activity session
  • Drink water before, and after activities – and have water breaks during their activities
  • Wear sunblock, a hat and sunglasses when outside in warmer weather
  • Use the right size of protective equipment
  • Start at a level that matches their current fitness level. Too much too soon can result in injury. Always play it safe

Canada ‘s Physical Activity Guide to Healthy Active Living for Children tells us that three different types of activities promote healthy growth and development: 

1. Endurance

Endurance or aerobic activities – activities that involve continuous movement of large muscle groups – increase heart rate, cause breathing to quicken, and make you work up a sweat. They are important for development of a healthy heart and lungs. 

Endurance activities can be lots of fun – and they don’t have to be competitive. Help your children choose the right activities for them. Here are a few examples: 

  • Scootering, in-line skating, skateboarding
  • Swimming, skating, dancing, tennis, martial arts  
  • Hiking, jogging, skipping, playing tag, cycling, dodgeball  
  • Hockey, football, soccer, basketball  
  • Skiing, lacrosse, wall climbing  

2. Flexibility

Activities that encourage children to bend, stretch and reach promote flexibility. Having adequate flexibility allows children to participate in daily activities without pain or restriction from their muscles or joints. 

Being flexible promotes good posture, reduces muscle stiffness and soreness, increases relaxation and minimizes risk of injury 

Flexibility Activities 

  • Active play on a playground 
  • Digging in the garden or at the beach, raking leaves
  • Gymnastics, dancing, wall climbing 
  • Yoga, skipping, stretching routines 

3. Strength

Working against a resistance helps children build stronger muscles. Adequate muscular strength allows kids to deal with the demands of daily life without excessive stress on their joints and muscles. 

Activities that build strength promote strong bones, muscles and good posture, improve the ability to lift and manoeuvre objects and obstacles and enhance healthy growth and development. 

Strength activities to promote strong bones and muscles include: 

  • Lifting and carrying things like groceries, garbage and garden waste 
  • Raking leaves, climbing stairs 
  • Gymnastics, doing sit-ups and push-ups 
  • Playground activities: monkey bars, climbing ladders, scaling poles 
  • Calisthenics using their own body weight as resistance or supervised weight training exercises using tubing, bands and hand weights. 
Posted in Parenting

Why are Bedtime Stories Important for Children?

Posted on by Tim Connolly

Bedtime Stories play a vital role in the growth and development of children. The books they read and the characters they get to know can become like friends. It’s also good for children to understand that books are a useful source of information and that good reading skills are important for success in their future lives. Reading also helps children with their confidence levels, coping with feelings and language and learning.

Confidence Levels

Children who can read well are more likely to have higher confidence levels. This will benefit them in school as they’ll feel able to participate fully in activities. Another part of building confidence and self-esteem is knowing where you fit into the world. Bedtime Stories can help with this process by showing children what people’s lives are like where they live and in other parts of the world.

Language and Learning

Bedtime Stories are a great way to introduce new words and ideas into a child’s language – starting with picture books for the very young, working up to more complex novels for teenagers. Stories can help children learn about concepts such as shape, size, space and colour, up and down, inside and outside, numbers and the names of objects. They can also teach children about everyday tasks, such as how to brush their teeth, taking care of animals, cleaning and tidying and preparing food.

Bedtime Stories are also useful for teaching more complex ideas, such as the importance of sharing, the passage of time, compassion for others. They can be useful when trying to explain traumatic events, such as family break-ups and bereavement.

Fiction based on real-life can also help children with their own life experience – it shows them how diverse the world is and that some people’s lives are vastly different to theirs.

And what’s so great about learning through Bedtime stories is that the process is done in a natural way. There’s no actual teaching involved at all, they learn from simply reading the story.

Relaxation 

Reading Bedtime stories can be helpful for relaxation, before bedtime for example. They allow children to forget the stresses and strains of the day and indulge in fantasy for a while. The soothing familiarity of a much-loved story, the rhyming and repetition in a picture book, plus the sense of security that time spent reading together can foster, all help the child to relax.

Development of Imagination

Bedtime Stories help to develop a child’s imagination by introducing new ideas into their world – ideas about fantastical worlds, other planets, different points in time and invented characters. It’ll encourage the children to realise that they can, and should, imagine anything they want. The beauty of bedtime stories to read is that they can be super realistic or incredibly fantastical. They can be reading about children growing up in exactly the same situation as them one minute and about another species, Martians holidaying on Jupiter for example, the next.

Coping With Feelings

When children read Bedtime stories that contain feelings it can help them understand and accept their own feelings. It helps them understand that there are other children who feel the same way and they are not alone. This helps the child understand that feelings are normal and should be expressed. Watching their responses to the feelings of the characters in the Bedtime stories will give you some idea of how a child feels about certain situations and emotions. For example, how the child responds to the character in the story feeling sad or scared will give you some idea of how the child thinks.

As you can see, children’s Bedtime stories are important for a number of reasons and form a vital part of the growing process. Being part of that process can bring writers a sense of satisfaction as well as being great fun.