The Joy Of Learning

Fuel the little brains with good breakfast

A growing child needs a nutritious breakfast that provides the sugar, starch, protein, and fat - elements necessary for children to ensure a sustained release of energy and a delayed onset of hunger.  A sensible diet from practicing healthy cooking will ensure the little brain is fueled and the child is able to focus and concentrate on learning better in school, thus develop educationally.

A child who is hungry can be apathetic, disinterested, and irritable when confronted with difficult tasks. This affects the development of non verbal aspects of his growth, socially and emotionally. So, take care of your child’s physical need of hunger, then this can lead to better health, learning, and behavior - all keys to success at school - and in life.

Affordable Illinois Health care plan

Many of you know I am in the midst of packing and getting ready to move to Illinois, to be reunited with my husband. He is currently busy looking for an apartment for us to move into. Where we are going to live is a small town an hour outside Chicago. We may get to make weekend trips to Chicago once we settle in and check out more information on Chicago travel and interesting places to visit. But, first thing first, we need to find out more about the health insurance!

The big boy is also looking into at his employer-provided health insurance, to figure out whether he could get me on the same plan. If that’s not possible or not comprehensive, we would have to look for an affordable Illinois health care plan. So long one is alive and breathing, it’s so essential to have health insurance. Medical cost is expensive, indeed many bankruptcy and foreclosure cases in America are due to inability to pay the exorbitant medical bills.

Selecting toys for children

Do your children sometime get more interested in the wrapping and the box that comes with gift? So many children just have way too many toys and some just get cast aside minutes after being unwrapped.

Many of the toys available in the market are often too complicated or require assistance to learn how to play them. Some are not developmentally appropriate!

The most important part of selecting the right toy is the age of the child and what are his interests at that particular developmental stage. For instance, if your child is under six months old, things that rattle attract this curious little creature who sees everything brand new. However, you may have to create a game out of them because he doesn’t yet have the motor skills to do much with such a toy!

The second question to ask when selecting a toy is: does it designed to help in developing a certain skill? For younger children, you have to ensure there are no small parts that could become choking hazard. You may notice your child becoming interested in certain activities such as pushing, pulling or sorting items. When you notice your child start focusing on a certain activity, you may want to pull out or purchase a toy that helps develop that skill.

Rotate your toy inventory every few weeks, store up toys that he no longer seems interested in. Store toys that your child no longer seems interested in. Every few weeks, rotate some older toys back into her toy box and you will see your child have a renewed interest in a toy the previously stopped playing with. Reuse the toys for different purposes as your child gets older is a great way to recycle old toys as well.

You not only want to enjoy playtime with your child, hopefully the toys you choose will be fun and encourage proper development in your child as well.

Protect your children from harmful UV rays

My dermatologist friend said whenever he sees children playing under the hot sun, he sees future customers! :-) It is critical for children to be protected from harmful UV rays because it’s estimated that people typically receive more than half of their lifetime sun exposure before the age of 18.

While you think your child looks cute in a pair of vintage sunglasses, there is a need for more awareness of the importance of sun protection! Most people will apply sun tan lotions for a child when he is out in the hot sun, but not many will bother to put him in the UV protective swim wear. Sun burn may cause the most damage, getting a tan after all is essentially cooking one’s skin. The harmless “healthy glows”, deep tans and sunburn can leave permanent mark on the skin and can be harmful indeed. Check out the www.sunsationalstyle.com for UV protective swimwear for your children.

National Geographic Kids

If you are a fan of the colorful monthly magazine that captivated the World’s one million readers for more than 20 years, you might be interested to know they have created a children version especially for curious kids.

The National Geographic Kids contains the World’s features that encourage its readers to protect the planet’s resources. Children get to learn more about geography, adventure, wildlife, science, and youngsters of special distinction from around the world without leaving home, no traveling nor travel insurance is needed. :-) The National Geographic Kids is just like the adult version, but it also contain novelty and hands-on learning, colorful games and puzzles.

Don’t parents want the best for their children?

Most parents want the best for their children and would do anything to provide for their children. Even the most carefree singles will start to consider buying a house once they are married and ready to start a family.

They would reconsider their apartment dwelling lifestyle and how it may not be conducive for children who need a lot of space to run about. Most may start out in an apartment, but will eventually do the grown up things - take up Mortgages to buy a single family home, so that their children can grow up in a family friendly environment with lots of space.

The ironic thing is, sometime because of all the financial commitments, parents have to work harder and that takes away a big chunk of time that parents could spend together with their children. Many people are over committed with mortgage on a big house, some may even end up in need of foreclosure help. Guess there has to be a balance somewhere, a big house in the absence of parents do not constitute an ideal home to raise a happy family!

Over scheduling children

It is good to arrange some after school activities for our children . However, many parents are outsourcing their parental responsibilities and over scheduling their children. Many people around me put their children into too many after school programs or courses, from reading classes, math classes, music classes, language classes, dance classes, … and so many more.

These children are occupied with this so called enrichment classes everyday of the week, sometimes including weekends. They are so busy being chauffered around for various classes, they hardly ever have time to just relax at home. And at night, they’ll be too tired to study for school or just to play with the family. Don’t you feel sad for them? I do, even though these children may think that’s the way life is.

In our current social economic realities, after school programs are a boon to many parents who work full time outside of home. However, many after school programs are just teaching-to-the-test kind of paper mills, some pressurizing kids to do too much too soon. Parents should however restrain themselves from outsourcing all their parental responsibilities to such programs. They are there to give additional support and are complimentary in nature. Therefore, their importance should also be limited.

When a child’s afternoon is filled with classes, tuitions, and other forms of enrichment activities, children do not really get the time to be just children or even being deprived of the cherished family time. Undoubtedly, there are children who felt burdened and stressed with such a demanding schedule loading so heavily on their frail little shoulders.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Don’t we all get asked that question when we are little and then when we were ready to graduate from high school? What was your answer when you were asked that question in elementary school ?

Most children tend to choose what is familiar though some may grow up venture into careers totally different from their experiences. So my point is do you explore the different possibilities of career choices with your children?

It’s not up to us parents or teachers to tell the children that they shouldn’t do this and that. What would you say if your children say they want to be hip hop artists or they want to go to beauty schools to be nails artists? Are you going to frown or say why don’t you try ______ instead?

It’s our responsibility to help our children to figure out what is out there, so spend some good time doing some research and explore the opportunities out there together. We should be glad that they have an idea of what they want to do. Are you glad no one told Charles Shultz that he couldn’t draw dogs and spoiled brats for a living! Then what would we be without Snoopy??!