Posts Tagged “Parenting Articles”

by Christo Fouche

Do you know what?: Not many people find travel books as fascinating reading. People indeed do find other places interesting, there’s just not much that can be said for books which contain a just hundreds obscure facts about different countries crammed into a book. As a fact this might sound like fun for a trivia geek, it just sounds boring to other people. The book Club Expat: a Teen Guide to Moving Abroad, however, shows that there still is hope for the travel book industry.

This book, authored by the brothers Aniket and Akash Shah, certainly has caught people by surprise. It is part biography, part travel guide and a whole great guide to life. What separates it from other books, however, is the prose. The authors wrote the book in a unique style that just promises to grab the readers and suck them into the world within the book. They let the readers experience a ride full of wonder, loops and leaps and dives.

Moving overseas will always be hard on a teenager. It would be like saying goodbye to a world which they have only begun to explore. It is often the case that a teenager will feel cheated as though you gave him or her some hope and then dashed it against the rocks of reality. In times like this, a teenager needs reassurance that everything will be okay. They need to know that their lives will not end simply because they are moving overseas. The book Club Expat: a Teenager’s Guide to Moving Overseas definitely does the job!

Club Expat: a Teenager’s Guide to Moving Overseas teaches teenagers how to embrace what life throws at them. It teaches them how to look at the move from another perspective. It teaches them to find the core of stability within the whirlwind caused by the decision to move.

The book Club Expat: a Teenager’s Guide to Moving Overseas is a must-read for any teenager moving overseas. The book will help them see the move as a new adventure. It will help them see the move as a fresh start in life. It will help them realize that it isn’t really as earth-shattering as they fear.

A lot of people found the books very helpful because of the informational tips and bits of advice that can be found inside. This is information that can help teenagers survive the little challenges of life as an expatriate.

When reading the book at first, it seems to be a simple guide for teens on how to survive moving. However, reading it further, people will realize that the ultimate lesson found in this gem is the lesson of life itself. There are certain events which happens that people cannot do anything about. We cannot always change what happens in our lives. What we can change is the way we react.

The whole book Club Expat: a Teenager’s Guide to Moving Overseas is a heartwarming book filled with useful lessons regarding life and living. It tells us how you should recognize and embrace every opportunity life can give you. It shows how you should take a look at what life throws at you and recognize how you can use those projectiles for your growth.

Club Expat: a Teenager’s Guide to Moving Overseas is a great read, filled with lessons that can help you face life with confidence.

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by Victor Raff

The exact causes of ADHD are not know yet. It is known that ADHD is connected to the brain’s neurotransmitters. Chemicals that the brain uses are called neurotransmitters. Two of these chemicals are called dopamine and norepinephrine.

When a child’s dopamine and norepinephrine levels are abnormal, they have ADHD. These abnormal levels can be caused by both environmental and biological factors.

ADHD is linked with causes like: Prenatal exposure to cigarette smoke, even smoke in a child’s nearby environment, Premature birth, Lead poisoning, Usage of substance during pregnancy (Drinking alcohol, cocaine, other drug), In the early stage of development having low iron, high blood lead, significant under-nutrition. And rarely: after a serious brain infection / trauma to the brain.

How to treat ADHD: The treatment plan includes medication to control their symptoms Most common medicines used are methylphenidate (some brand names: Ritalin, Concerta), dextroamphetamine (brand name: Dexedrine), pemoline (brand name: Cylert), atomoxetine (Strattera), and a combination drug called Adderall. These medicines improve attention and concentration, and decrease impulsive and overactive behaviors. Never use these or other medicines without or against your doctor’s advice!

Parent naturally want to know how to help their child. Children with ADHD need a structured routine and to know what is expected of them. Parents, teachers and doctors should team together to create open communication. Speaking with an ADHD specialist or getting the child counseling along with medication would benefit the child, as well. Speak with your doctor and come up with a plan together.

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by Christy Cuellar-Wentz

1. Donating sperm may have been easy, but learning to be a great lover takes time and patience. Becoming a great father is no different. Learning the ropes may take some time, but I guarantee the life-long rewards will be more than worth the effort!

2. Hands-on fathering is good for you, your partner and your baby. It’s not just about changing diapers. Feeding, bathing, holding and talking to your little one helps you bond together and gain essential on-the-job training.

3. You have undoubtedly discovered that your wife isn’t much fun right now. She may be weepy, stressed, and a bit less groomed than she used to be. This is normal. The good news is that she will return to something like her old self again once your little family has navigated the gauntlet of new parenthood.

4. It may look like all your wife cares about is the baby, but she actually needs you. A lot. The amazing person you coupled with nine or ten months ago is right there inside the stressed-out new mom. Stay close and keep the faith.

5. Your sex life may have taken a nose dive, but you will be able to engage in some adult fun, with your wife, soon.

6. Postpartum disorders are no one’s fault. It is normal for new moms to experience some sort of postpartum mood disorder. It’s not your fault, or hers either. Some symptoms are temporary. All are treatable.

7. Sleep heals. Mothers typically take the brunt of sleepless nights, but you’re probably not getting as much as you need either. Whoever came up with the phrase “sleeping like a baby” didn’t know babies wake up a lot! One proven way to help both of you feel better is to support each other in getting sleep whenever possible.

8. Trust your gut. Everybody, from the guy at the gym to your baby’s pediatrician, will give you different advice. Even if you’re new at this, your instincts are good. Your wife, your baby and your instincts will let you know what you need to know if you pay attention.

9. Your baby needs to play with you. Here is a case where having fun is the right thing. Playing stimulates your baby’s mind and body to develop in healthy ways. You may feel more playful right now than your wife, so go for it.

10. The advent of a new baby is stressful. Even miracles create challenges. Things should get smoother with a little time. If your lives don’t get better, or if you or your wife feels worse, ask for help!

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by Teresa Brown

It’s no surprise that there is no silver bullet in losing pregnancy weight simply because we are all wired differently. But before you can begin to lose the pregnancy weight, you have to be ready mentally to be your own pep squad and coach. Thankfully, you can give your body a helping hand.

The joy of having a baby and being a new mom can be quickly overshadowed by, amongst other things, losing the pregnancy weight. And it doesn’t help your self-esteem either to compare yourself to the Celebrity mom, sister or B.F.F. who quickly returned into their pre-baby body within a few months.

What are you going to do about your situation? You can choose to start living for today by getting on with losing the pregnancy weight or you can remain stagnant and always living for tomorrow . Begin your fitness journey by choosing and doing the exercises that work for you.

1. Workout Throughout and Following Your Pregnancy

As long as you have be given clearance from you doctor, you can start having fun and getting fit by signing up for a yoga or relaxation class for pregnant women. Low impact exercises like swimming or walking prepares your body to quickly lose the baby fat after giving birth. Frequent workouts will help you in losing the majority of your pregnancy weight within 2 months or longer depending on your body.

2. Breastfeeding

For many mothers, losing pregnancy weight can be fast and easy with just breastfeeding. But not all women have such luck. A nursing mom can burn approximately 500 calories every time they breastfeed. Breastfeeding also keeps a mom conscious about eating a nutrient rich diet and staying hydrated. However you choose to feed your baby, the message is simple: maintain good eating habits for better health for you and your baby.

3. Be Vigilant about Your Pregnancy Weight

As tempting as it may seem, pregnancy is not an excuse to eat anything and everything you desire. Even though some women only gain “baby weight” and others despite eating healthy gain weight, eating healthy is the right thing to do. The goal is to stay within your targeted pregnancy weight as dictated by your doctor. Watching what you eat during your pregnancy will keep the excess pounds from sabotaging your ability to losing pregnancy weight after giving birth.

4. Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle

Respect yourself by eating healthy and working out on a regular basis. There is no better way to losing pregnancy weight than giving your body the healthy advantage. It’s never too late to start living a healthy lifestyle and putting your weight issue on the back burner. The great thing about living a healthy lifestyle is that it can be passed on to your baby and family and improve your quality of life.

Being pregnant is a blessing in so many ways. Why let the opportunity to start living a healthy lifestyle pass you by? Making nutritious food choices and engaging in some form of physical activity will make your body’s efforts to losing pregnancy weight happen as fast as a Hollywood mom.

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by http://www.mychildcanbehave.com

Honesty is one family value that I strongly encourage in my household. How do I do that, you say? The consequence is always much less severe when a child confesses and is honest.

Yesterday one of my sons decided to test me out on this. He told me that he had missed the bus to a sports event because of his teacher keeping him in at lunch break, but it didn’t sound right to me so I thought I would inquire a bit further.

When I phoned his teacher I found out the truth. Yes, he had been kept in for a few minutes at lunch time but he did still have plenty of time to catch the bus to sports. But on the way to the bus he had been given a better offer from a friend of his so Sam simply decided to go to another sport instead, without telling anyone.

I felt disappointed that after all my good teaching and promoting of honesty as a core family value, Sam would tell a blatant lie in order to get out of trouble. why had he tried to point the finger at someone else and not done the right thing?

As parents there is something important we must remember: we cannot control our kids. The only thing we can control is our reaction to what they do.

After school I shall sit down with Sam and talk about why he did what he did. I want to help him to make a better choice next time around. Hopefully he can learn to do things differently next time.

Unfortunately for Sam, he will be getting a consequence as he not only lied, but he tried to cover up his lie, which is against our family value system. I must give Sam a consequence so that he learns from this episode.

Honesty is the most important family value in our household. And as a parent, you have the right to choose your families’ core family values too. What values will you choose to embrace?

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by Teresa Brown

Pregnancy varies from one woman to the next. However, most pregnant women tend to let down their guard regarding watching what they eat. This is especially so when they have cravings for foods that are not too healthy. The secret to lose the pregnancy weight like the Celebrity Mom is by not gaining more pounds than you should during your pregnancy.

A positive or negative pregnancy experience can either be considered the luck of the draw or our genetic makeup. But excessive weight gain during pregnancy can be prevented depending on how active you are and what, when and how much you eat.

Eating right is crucial during pregnancy. But, always being famished can be the Achilles’ heel that can cause you to speed up your weight gain. Always feeling hungry can make you vulnerable to give in to every craving and eating foods high in fat. Being overweight during pregnancy can boost the likelihood of complications during your pregnancy and delivery and increase your time and efforts to lose the pregnancy weight.

Okay so you’re pregnant and you’re eating for two but not for two adults. Your baby requires you to eat only an extra three hundred calories for it’s proper growth and development. Sorry Moms, pregnancy is not an excuse to over eat because excessive weight gain can make losing the pregnancy weight an unnecessary burden on your time, self-esteem and overall health.

We are told to listen to our bodies. So if your pregnant body is telling you to eat, then you should eat. But you should feed your hunger with healthy food choices instead of just grabbing a bag of Doritos. When you maintain a healthy pregnancy weight now you will lose the pregnancy weight more rapidly later and be healthier for it.

Mom, you don’t have to starve yourself to avoid a huge weight gain. But you can manage your hunger pangs and maintain a healthy pregnancy weight together by policing what and how much you eat. Remember being healthy now will make you lose the pregnancy weight more quickly and to get back into your pre-baby shape.

Health professionals recommend that expectant mothers should eat more frequent smaller portioned meals. When you extend your caloric intake throughout the day, instead of consuming them all in one or three large meals, you will remain satiated. This will cut down on eating unhealthy high calorie snack foods when the hunger urges kick in and it also prevents low blood sugar that is often seen in pregnancy.

Another powerful way to lose pregnancy weight fast is to exercise throughout your pregnancy. Not all women can do this but for those who can, it gives you an advantage to losing the pregnancy weight more quickly after giving birth. With the approval from your doctor, aim to do between 20 to 30 minutes of fat burning exercise four times a week. From swimming to yoga, there is an exercise for you. All you have to do is to treat your body to a regular dose of exercise.

Why make your ability to lose the pregnancy weight more difficult when you can make it easier by living a healthy lifestyle? All you need to do is to eat less more often and to exercise daily. Your baby is worth it and so are you.

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by Teresa Brown

In the realm of weight loss, fat has been given a bad rap with regards to its value as an essential nutrient for the body. Alongside the infamous carbohydrate, fat is the other infamous nutrient that has been targeted as something to eliminate or avoid by the weight loss industry. The irony is that both are fundamental nutrients for sustaining a healthy body. We have to re-educate ourselves on what type of fats to eat in a balanced diet to burn the baby fat.

It’s time to wake up and cut back on your fat. The operative word being “cut back” and not “eliminate”. We need to “cut back” the fat because a diet high in fat is connected to a host of health problems, namely, cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

To be able to burn the baby fat more effectively, you have to significantly decrease your fat intake to a normal range. This can be done by making a couple of adjustments in regards to your relationship with food such as how you shop, cook and make the foods you eat. Changing your old food habits to healthier ones will help you lose the pregnancy weight faster.

Keeping track of fat content in foods is much easier today because most food products come with nutrition labels and ingredients. Because people are becoming more health conscious consumers, some food companies and fast food restaurant chains have nutrition brochures.

Fat is an essential nutrient but it should be no more than 35 percent of your entire diet and of that only 300 mg should be cholesterol. The monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats such as any vegetable, nut, olive or fish oils are the good fats and therefore should be the fats that take up 25 percent of your dietary fats. On the other hand, the bad fats such and the trans (hydrogenated fats) and saturated fats (bacon and whole milk) are to be eaten less and should only take no more than 10 percent of your dietary fats.

Remembering to eat fat in moderation will keep your fat consumption in the healthy range. Naturally, some days you will eat more fat than others but being aware of what you are eating will balance out your fat intake. Because of this, a healthy diet focuses on the average fat consumption over a period of months or weeks instead of daily fat consumption.

Be a smart consumer on nutrition. Try to buy foods with natural ingredients and lower in fat and calories by reading and comparing product labels and brands. Simply eating a balanced low calorie diet that includes the healthy fats will help you to burn the baby fat and stay healthy.

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by Michael

Everything about your child is important. Be it the clothes that he wears or the toy that he plays with, it is very important that your child receives the best.

With so many toys available in the market, choosing the right toy for your child becomes very difficult. Teethers, rolling ball, small trucks and tricycle are some of the toys available for your toddler. Your kids could play with games like puzzles, educational games, board games, etc.

When choosing a toy for your toddler or kid, inspect them carefully because certain parts could cause injury to the child. The toy must be sturdy and be appropriate for your kid’s age. The toy must be well made; else the toys may fall apart and harm your child. Read all the information about the toy that you buy for your child. Some of the toys available in the market may be toxic which is very harmful for your child. The toys that you buy must be washable, this will help you maintain hygiene and prevent your child from getting sick. When buying toys for kids DON’T buy toys smaller than 1 inches in diameter or 2 inches in length, because these toys could choke your child.

Jogger stroller makes it convenient for mothers to take their babies along when they go out. Jogger strollers have large wheels which can handle uneven surface with ease. The front wheel provides unsurpassed maneuverability which helps in moving your baby in malls, car parks and other rough terrain areas. Strollers have suspensions which make your babies ride smooth and are ideal when you go out for jogging.

There are certain factors you must consider before buying a Stroller. The Jogger strollers must be made of aluminum which makes it light and rust resistant. The wheels of the stroller must be as large as possible. The 20 inch wheel will suit any terrain, where as 12 inch wheel is suited only for smooth surface. The seats must be well padded to make babies ride as comfortable as possible. It is very important that it can be folded with one hand, if it does not then don’t buy it.

Car seats for infants ensure your child’s safety while traveling. There are two varieties of car seats available one is the infant car seat which is suitable for babies less than a year old and weigh less than 20 lbs. The other is the Infant toddler seat which you can use till your child weight reaches 40 lbs.

Infant car seat must be easy to install because if it is not installed correctly it may not be able to restrain your child properly, thereby endangering the life of your child. The five point safety harness i.e. one for each shoulder, one for each thigh and one between the legs of your child is always preferred. You must be able to make adjustments from the front as it makes the job of buckling the child very easy.

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by Terry Stanfield

For most of us we are so busy that we may even forget Christmas. We regularly forget getting gifts for mom, just because we forget their birthday. Last minute buying means that we purchase something that is useless and is eventually left gathering dust in the attic.

There are however many last minute gifts that you can get your mom, without having to break your bank. There are many mother’s gift that you can buy, just as you know how to go about it. In this article we will discuss six last minute gift ideas.

Gift Idea 1: The fastest gift you can get your mom is a set of jewelry that is casual enough for your mom to wear around the house. This should be something that is memorable.

Gift Idea 2: don’t forget to get your mom a bouquet of flowers; this would probably something for which she may over look the fact that you didn’t actually get her a real gift. Flowers are an all time last minute special gift for mom favorite.

Gift Idea 3: Get her a gold ring with her name engraved on it. Now this is not exactly a last minute gift as you would need to give the jeweler at least 2 days to work on it. However considering the other gifts this is considerably fast and makes for a really precious gift that your mom will cherish forever.

Gift Idea 4: A pair of gold earrings would be great. These are something that you can just pickup from your local jeweler or order within 24 hours from an online jewelry store which are perfect if you are in need of a last minute gift.

Gift Idea 5: A locket with a picture of mom and dad makes for great gifts for mom. This is a great gift, and it has a lot of sentimental value as well which your mom will adore.

Gift Idea 6: The greatest of all gifts is a hug during your mom’s birthday along with a birthday cake. After all, our moms don’t really need expensive gifts, for them it’s really the thought that counts.

There are many last minute gifts for mom available. You just need to know a little about your mom’s desire to pickup the right gift.

Don’t forget to sprinkle a lot of loving and care on the gift that you buy for your mom since your love will make a lovely gift even more beautiful.

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by Zacharias Allred

Teaching children to write poetry is simple whether you are a teacher or a parent when approached step by step. The important thing is to show children how to rhyme words and put them together. Here are 6 tips.

1. Write a list of words. On the board or at home on a piece of paper write a list of words that rhyme. An example would be: try, high, fly, kite, night, fun, run, roam, home, etc. Next, have the children arrange some of the words in a sentence.

2. Recitation. While the students are writing their sentences you can write some of your own and then read them out loud. Hearing words rhyme is different than saying them in your head. Have each of the children do this. There may be giggles which is normal.

3. The Bible. The Bible is the most widely read book in the world. It is written in prose and parts of it are quite beautiful. You can read parts of the Bible a loud and discuss why it is considered poetry. As an exercise you can have the children try to imitate some of the verses.

4. Poems about familiar things. Poetry is an expression of feelings and emotions. Help the kids by getting them to express thoughts and ideas about people and things they are very familiar with. Encourage them to be expressive.

5. Games to teach rhyming. Rhyming games can be used to teach children how to write poetry. You can read nursery rhymes to the kids and have them stomp and or clap their hands along with the rhythmic pattern. This will be loud but it is very effective.

6. Music. Listen to music and show how lyrics are similar to poetry set to music. This is particularly effective with older kids. Music is a huge part of our lives and many children and teenagers are aspiring musicians and already have favorite music groups.

Teaching children to write poetry is simple when approached in steps. First, you need to start with simple poetry that only focuses on rhyming words in simple sentences. After children have the basics down you can show how poetry is used in the Bible and music. Give kids ideas for poems by giving them ideas to write on like pets.

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