Why do you need to talk with your children?
Talking with your child when they are young not only foster closer relationship, but help him or her to develop better language skills earlier. Children develop better understanding and judgment of the world as they have intelligent conversations with adults. However, it doesn’t have to be always serious conversation that gears toward increasing your child’s intelligence! When you talk to your child in a congenial way about everyday topics or about the encounters and happenings in the day, it indicates mutual interest and caring, and it helps to bond with your child.
Talking with your child has to be a two way process of talking and listening, not just you talk and the child listens. :-) If talking is natural and conversations are congenial, you will have an easier time later when sensitive topics as smoking, drugs or premarital sex are discussed. If you do not start now, when they are teenagers, they will just put on the headphones or MP3 pretend they are listening when you try to talk to them.
We all have the need to be heard regardless of our age, when we listen to our children, we learn about their interests and their concerns, when we listen without judgment and without the need to teach or preach, our children dare to tell us about who they are, how they feel, and what they want or need.
Filed under Parenting | Comment (0)Introduce National Geographic to your Children
We have no idea why he did that, but whenever the guy who collected old newspaper for recycling got some National Geographic magazines in the piles, he would give them to our daddy.
As children who grew up in a small village in Malaysia, where it was quite common for children during our time to drop out of school before 10 years old back then, of course none of us heard of any designer brands nor own any Guess watches. We (my siblings and I) were very privilege to have access to old National Geographic magazines. We could hardly read the articles due to our poor English, but we were always fascinated with all the colorful pictures, in awed with the wonder of natures and enjoyed flipping through the pages endlessly.
Do you know that National Geographic has a section for children on its website now?
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/
There are many pictures, maps, videos, games and activities about nature and animals on this section for children. You may find them interesting for introducing natures and animals to your children. I think children would love them to bits.
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Getting your children excited about learning
For most of us adults, nothing excites us more than seeing a child developing a burning desire to learn more about the world around him. Most children are curious and inquisitive by nature, they will start asking you all sort of questions about the world, and you need to show him that it’s indeed a good way to live - ask when in doubt. :-)
A child who questions everything shows that he or she is intelligent and will grow up to be a brilliant individual. They are many ways you can foster and encourage this kind of attitude in a child.
First, you need to introduce books into the lives of your child from a very young age. Even before your child can response to you verbally, you should read picture books and describe in details what the pictures tell. This may seem silly or even pointless, but educational studies have shown that the child is absorbing. He will be a more eloquent and verbose child once he is ready to talk.
As the child gets older, you can start reading more encyclopedic and knowledge based books. For toddlers and preschoolers, it is best to avoid fantasy books because many might not be able to tell realty from fantasy. Make the trip to book store or library a special and fun outing for you and your kids. Go often to get new books, and encourage your kids to finish the books before the next outing so that they can get more books. As your kids become more proficient readers, they would want more and higher content levels.
Everyone of us may have different experience and parenting journey, helping your children to develop a healthy relationship with books is just one important aspect that will be rewarding in itself, and this should inspire you to try your best as a parent.
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