Tuesday

Choose Your Newborn Baby Toy With Care

One endearing trait that all newborn babies are born with is that they have an innate curiosity regarding their immediate surrounding. It is a lot of fun for parents to notice how their newborn baby study faces of all those who come within their viewing range. In addition, babies are also very intrigued by sights, sounds and the lights around them. To help a newborn baby develop properly, you as a parent must be able to provide your newborn baby with some useful newborn baby toys.

Stimulate The Mind

A well chosen newborn baby toy plays an important role in stimulating the baby’s mind, lays a strong foundation and promotes healthier growth as well as leads to the better all round development of the baby. No doubt, newborn babies spend a lot of time in sleeping and eating and it is also not unusual for them to sleep for between fourteen and sixteen hours in a day.

You can however make their waking hours more enjoyable by placing properly chosen newborn baby toys around their crib as these will help provide the baby with a good source of distraction and allow him or her to enjoy their waking moments a lot more.

As far as newborn baby toys go, it has been found that you need to place the toys at a distance that ideally is anything between eight and fourteen inches in front of the baby. If the toys are also made from bright as well as bold colours (primary) and have some patterns that contrast vividly, it would make a strong impression on the baby as well as help to stimulate the baby’s imagination.

You should also choose newborn baby toys that can move and which also emit sounds as these features help to fuel the baby’s curiosity and also helps keep them entertained. Though the newborn baby may not be old enough to hold a rattle and play with it by themselves; they will enjoy being entertained by the movement and sound of the toys.

There are also certain newborn baby toys such as a Baby Shakespeare Peek-A-Boo Mirror which help enhance the baby’s natural enchantment with faces, and such toys are almost always instant hits with most babies.

Ensuring a baby’s health places a huge responsibility on the shoulders of every parent. Toys play a vital role in the development of every newborn baby who, even at a very young age can learn things very easily. By selecting an appropriate newborn baby toy, parents can ensure that their baby gets to develop along the right lines and it can perhaps even help the baby use their logic as well as improve their skills at solving problems.

Families Should Consider The Baby Jogger City Elite Models

One of the most basic necessities that a new parent must shop for is a baby stroller for their new little one. Baby strollers give parents the ability to easily take their baby along whenever they need to be out and about, whether they need to be getting things done like shopping or various errands or they want to get out for a walk, run or hike. Baby Jogger City Elite strollers are considered by many to be one of the best all-around strollers for those with an active urban lifestyle.
Designed to appeal to the more upscale urban parent, the City Elite model of jogging stroller is wrapped with fabrics that are nothing less than "fashion-forward" and it has all of the best features that active and attentive parents are looking for in their baby stroller. Some of the wonderful extra touches that are found on the City Elite model are a handlebar storage console, a total of six different storage compartments strategically located, and tires with a nice wide tread.
All in all, these great features make the Baby Jogger City Elite stroller the perfect choice for urban parents who enjoy an active lifestyle or who constantly find themselves on the run and want to make sure baby is comfortable and safe for the ride. Many people consider these smooth rolling, convenience-packed, and terrific-looking jogger strollers to be one of the best buys, and smartest purchases one can make when they want great baby jogger performance.

baby jogger


In addition to the unparalleled style that the City Elite jogger is graced with, this magnificent machine empowers parents with a high degree of manoeuvrability, utility, and practicality that very few other baby stroller models can compare to. The City Elite is a lightweight stroller, it is also narrow, and it is one of the easiest baby strollers to push, making it perfect for those times when an older sibling or a grandparent is helping out and they need to be able to easily manoeuvre the stroller. One of the features that is most noteworthy, and highly favoured among parents who own a City Elite stroller, is the mechanism for folding that is utilizes. It is considered to be the fastest and easiest to use of any of the baby stroller folding mechanisms found on the market today. This makes it ultra convenient and easy to quickly open or fold the City Elite even if you need to operate it with just one hand.

Similar to other models available in the City Series product line made by baby jogger, the City Elite model can utilize any of the many accessories available, which are designed to enhance the functionality and the appearance of this urban jogging stroller. There is a mounting bracket included on the City Elite that makes it very simple, and also quick, to switch out different accessories, allowing the parent to be attentive to their baby rather than fussing with stroller accessories.

Day Care Centres: What to Look For

Before you search a day care centre for your child, check out several facilities and do some extensive research and check their references. Day-care facilities range from wonderful to awful. You want to choose a centre where you child can have fun, is safe and can develop as a person and develop a variety of skills.

Look for a daycare facility that provides activities such as dancing, storytelling and group singing sessions as well as providing creative projects. Daycare centres also provide an opportunity for children to socialize with other children.

Daycare Centre Concerns

Typically at a daycare facility there is not enough staff for your child to receive the substantial amount of personal attention they would receive if they stayed at home with a babysitter. The risk of your child acquiring a cold or the flu or other communicable illnesses really increases. Some daycare facilities will not allow your child to stay at the facility if they notice your child is sick and you might have a difficult time finding a competent babysitter on short notice.

How to Select a Top Notch Daycare Centre

For convenience it is recommended that you try to find a quality centre that is near your home or work. You have to decide if you want to place your child in a daycare facility that offers a small group environment or a centre that had a large group of children.

Finding a Daycare Center

It is very important to check with friends, your paediatrician and people you work with in order to get referrals for quality centres. Ask the managers of the centres that you are considering if they are accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children or if they are accredited by the National Association of Family Childcare.

Ask the facility manager for information pertaining to the experience of the teachers, the food items they serve for lunch, the ratio of children to teacher. Find out if they offer a variety of activities and if they are flexible enough to meet your needs such as being a little late once in a while to pick up your child.

When you visit the day-care centre which you are considering for your child make sure it is clean. See if the children enjoy interacting with the staff, find out if it will be warm during the cold months and check to see if the kids at the facility are having a good time.

Check to see if they have furniture designed for safety for children and if the furniture is in good condition. It is advisable to visit the daycare centres when the parents will be there since this will provide you an opportunity to talk to them and find out if they are pleased with the centre or are their kids primarily there due to the convenience of the location of the facility.

Take your child to the daycare centre and see if he enjoys being with the staff as well as the children. Make sure the centre has a license for operating a daycare facility from the city services department. Doing extensive research will improve the chances that you select a quality day care centre for your child.

Monday

The 3 Pillars of Home Schooling Your Children

Home schooling your children can be as easy or as hard as you want to make it. Depending on the time and effort you choose to put into home schooling, you and your children’s experience could be an excellent one. A few steps can put you on the right path to a great home schooling experience, the first of these steps is to take into account all of the aspects that go along with home schooling and then to make sure they are all applied correctly.

A Real Learning Environment

Of all the aspects that go along with home schooling, providing your children with a relaxed but professional learning environment is crucial and most important. The learning environment you choose should be a room free of distractions such as televisions, phones, computers and food.
The room should offer a whiteboard attached to the wall that will outline what the day’s schedule is, and a wall shelf for children to keep school work and other school related materials is also necessary. Finally, a sturdy study table and comfortable chair should be provided, making it enjoyable, relaxing but realistic for your children to learn!

School Materials and Lesson Plans

Home schooling requires someone to act as a teacher that can be relied upon to prepare lesson plans and make sure children are learning what they should for their age and grade group. This can be done a number of different ways:

1. Hire a tutor to bring learning materials and lesson plans with them, and to teach your children for a few hours per day. This is helpful to those who work or have active schedules, and want to provide a routine for their children.

2. Do it yourself with purchased learning material. Whether it be online or through a support group, there are resources available to provide learning material for home schooling. Whether it be a homeschooling book or workbook material among other things, this option works well for those that do have the time to teach their children but don’t have the expertise to create their own lesson plans.

3. Do it yourself, from scratch. You can type and print up your own lesson plans if you know what your children should be learning. In most cases, home schooling parents find that self discipline and good management skills is all it takes to take this route.

Finally, there are other home schooling options available such as Internet home school programs which are becoming quite popular and are continuing to become more and more available. Finding a local or internet home schooling support group can help to put you in touch with many resources that are valuable.

Friday

Be Cautious with Medications for Your Baby

happy kids healthy kids Cautious with Medications for Baby

If you baby is sick and needs medication, it's critical that you only administer the exact dosage prescribed by the physician. Even though a grownup or an older child might do ok with a slight variation, you don't want to take this chance with a baby.

With a small baby, it's essential that you pay attention to the dosage, since even a minor variation in the dosage can have a considerable impact on the outcome. Even little changes in your baby's weight will have a big affect on the amount of medication your medical professional will prescribe.

Be certain to administer the medication using the measuring cup or spoon that usually accompanies it. If one isn't supplied make sure that you buy an accurate dosage measure that you can rely on.

Don't measure out the medication in a kitchen teaspoon; these are not an accurate measurement and can range considerably in size. This can greatly increase the risk of administering more medication than is necessary or safe for your baby. In the worst case scenario, an imprecise dosage of medication could negatively impact your baby's health instead of helping him.

It's important that you don't try to decide by yourself how much medication to give your little one. You could be unwittingly causing harm to your baby by doing this. Check with your baby's physician if you're uncertain.

Many parents are turning to natural remedies for their children, but it's important to keep in mind that these can affect a baby quite differently. Just because they are natural doesn't mean you can safely administer them to your baby. Many natural remedies could be extremely harmful to your little baby and affect him quite differently than an adult.

Sadly, those who sell these natural remedies aren't always knowledgeable enough about the effects of the products and their advice could be unreliable. All too often, they are unknowingly risking the health of the individual who uses the product. So once again always seek professional advice before using natural products for your baby.

In the early stages of your baby's development it is best to rely on trusted medical practitioners. A baby can get to a critical stage of sickness very rapidly. It isn't worth the risk of using medication that could have a negative effect on your little one's health.

Hope for Overwhelmed Families

happy kids healthy kids temper tantrum

Do you know anyone with a child who is constantly challenging and frustrating? The child may be non-compliant and have intense temper tantrums. Sometime the moods swing from one extreme to another or there is verbal or physical aggression. These children may have been given many different descriptions – strong-willed, difficult contrary. They may have received mental health diagnoses and been prescribed various medications. But, the bottom line is; they may life miserable for everyone around them. They are very unhappy children. And, the parents have tried “everything.” It is a very complex, frustrating problem.

Dr. Ross Greene has written such an extraordinary book for parents of inflexible, easily frustrated, explosive children. Many families could be reassured and helped by the ideas and strategies he has developed. As a counsellor for many years with children and adolescents, and having raised four boys of my own, I see Dr. Greene’s book as an excellent source of help for overwhelmed parents. My purpose in writing this article is to recommend the book but also to outline some of his techniques. My hope is that this article will make a start toward making family life better for both parents and children.

Dr. Greene tells a story about Jennifer who has a major blow-up over three frozen waffles. Sounds pretty trivial doesn’t it? But, her family is pretty accustomed to Jennifer’s frequent out-of-proportion outbursts, the upheaval and turmoil she causes in the family. Her siblings are scared of her, she has no friends, and her parents are at the end of their rope. All the mental health professionals have advised, all the medications they’ve tried, have made little difference. Other people, who might be looking on with disapproval, don’t have a clue what life is like for this family. Humiliating for the parents when Jennifer “performs” in public; along with guilt, confusion, anger, bitterness, frustration and hopelessness.

Children like Jennifer are different from other kids. They have a very low tolerance for frustration and a lack of any flexibility. They cannot think clearly during times of frustration. Dr. Greene calls them “inflexible-explosive.” Such children are often very bright and have some great qualities and potential. There may be various reasons why they have such a difficult temperament. The first step in helping them is to understand some important things about why they adapt so poorly. Flexibility and frustration tolerance are skills that children usually develop as they grow out of the “terrible twos.” They normally increase their ability to express their feelings in words; they are able to delay gratification, “shift gears” and think through solutions and consequences. Parents help them in this process and typical children become increasingly able to solve problems and control emotions.

Everything is no longer simply black or white. The neurobiology of some children predisposes them to these problems. They are not able to accomplish the necessary developmental skills. It is really vital for parents and other workers to realize that the child is not unwilling to adapt, but unable. The child doesn’t choose to be unreasonable any more than a child chooses to have a reading disability. So the failures to be flexible and make cause-and-effect connections are not planned, purposeful or intentional. They aren’t trying to drive mom and dad crazy! Programs designed to motivate or provide consequences for behaviour, do not work for them. These children may have a “melt-down” or fall apart over seemingly small things or without obvious causes. They don’t understand their own behaviour and are angry, frustrated and unhappy children. Dr. Greene likens the child’s response to “vapour lock.” A car with vapour lock will not start until it cools down. Similarly, the child who becomes so frustrated experiences a kind of brain-lock where he is unable to think rationally. If parents and workers can understand the sequence involved in this melt-down, they may be able to short-circuit the total melt-down phase. However, trying to punish or teach the child something during the acute phase is pure futility. They are in an irrational state and totally unable to think clearly.

Step Parents Often Find That It Is Hard To Share Authority

Step parenting usually brings its own special problems as the new step parent finds himself or herself caught in the middle between the children and the biological parent. precisely how much difficulty you will meet depends upon a whole variety of factors, the most important of which will be the level of co-operation you receive from the biological parent and the ages of the children involved.
The best parenting advice and the secret to successful step parenting will be found first in clearly establishing your role in the eyes of the biological parent because you are certainly going to have an uphill battle if the two of you are not totally in agreement from the beginning. With any changes in a relationship however you must also realize that adjustment takes time and you will have to adopt a 'step by step' approach. An attempt to hasten things, or to force the situation, will almost certainly lead to frustration and possibly confrontation. The biological parent might feel threatened by the requirement to share parenting responsibilities and will have to have time to adjust and to acquire trust and confidence in you as a parent to his or her children.

Your next step will be to establish your position with the children who, unless they are quite young, will generally resent being guided by an 'outsider'. You will have to take things very slowly and understand that the children will need time to adjust to the situation before they will accept you in the role of a parent. Once more, you will need the help of the biological parent in building your relationship with the children.
Any successful transition into step parenting has to begin with a clear and frank conversation with the biological parent, during which both parties have to talk honestly and freely about how they view their role, as well as the role of the other party, and you both need to reach a clear agreement on just how you should share parenting responsibilities. This discussion also needs to set clear boundaries but should be flexible enough to allow for adjustment, especially in the all important first few weeks and months following the establishment of your new relationship.

This initial discussion will not of course be the end of the matter and several such discussions will have to take place before any really meaningful and lasting shift in parenting responsibilities can take place. Once you are in agreement the next step is to bring the children on board and this must at first be led by the biological parent. At a suitable time everyone should sit down together and the biological parent has to lead off a discussion during which the plan that you have agreed can be revealed to the children and then discussed with them.

At this point it is important to emphasize that this had to be a true discussion and not merely a matter of the parents 'laying down the law' to the children. It is vitally important that the children add to the conversation and that their views and thoughts on what has been agreed are listened to. Just like adults, children need to be permitted to have a feeling of control over their own lives and need to feel comfortable with the situation they find themselves in. This is not to say that the children must be given control of the situation, which must remain firmly in the parents' hands as the ultimate decision makers within the household, but, every effort should be made to make sure that they understand the situation and are as happy with it as is they can be.

The simple fact that the children can see that their parents have clearly considered the position carefully, and agree about it, will do a great deal to prevent the children from playing one parent off against the other and the fact that they are included in the process will also assist a great deal in bringing them on board.

Arriving on the scene as a new step parent can be very difficult for not only the step parent but for the biological parent and the children and all parties will need to work together carefully and take their time to establish an environment in which everyone is able to live together happily. Handled carefully raising step kids is not as difficult as many people think.

Choosing A Suitable Summer Camp for Your Teens and Kids

A summer camp can rightly be described as a set of curriculum or programs designed for kids or teens conducted during their vacation time. The parents often get confused for how the spare time their kids get during vacation has be utilized properly. This reason makes them think of summer camps to be the best alternative for their children to send for. And probably this is the time when they are away from their home and parents. So they may feel to be home-sick. But it provides great opportunity to mingle with other kids too and learn something new.

The summer camp industry has been expanding gradually. It requires some efforts to select a right camp for your teens. An array of camps are available such as computer camp, art camp, travel camp, sports camp, diet camp, magic camp, rock star camp, Spanish camp and even Gandhi Camp in West Marin County. Which type of camp will be beneficial for your kid is a question you should ponder over .

A teen summer camp make youngsters experience the new things that they might not have thought before. More interestingly, they meet with new campers at a new place. The new sorts of situation they face at the camp make them learn how to adjust with the circumstances which are not familiar for them.

With the purpose of bringing the kids together under one roof, teen summer camp gets children participating in different kinds of activities. The situation created at the camp helps them develop winning attitude by contributing in various games that will result in developing leadership qualities in them. This allows them to learn social skills as well.

Some of the most popular these days are the techno based kids summer camps. These are often called computer summer camps. They provide the children with the ideas regarding this new digital age. Such summer camps take the children away beyond anything they can learn in the classroom. The camps, more importantly, have professional teachers at hand who have worked within the computer industry .

Tackling Your Toddlers Biting Habit

happy kids healthy kids toddler biting

Somewhere between one and three years old, toddlers tend to start a biting habit. The most common reason for this concern is that this is one of the few ways that toddlers can effectively communicate with others. However, not all children bite. Some grab, shove, pinch or punch. This might be just as bad!

Also, toddlers sometimes start biting because their motor skills and ability to communicate are so restricted, that they have to express themselves somehow.

It can seem funny for a young toddler to see his mommy suddenly bolt upright or for one of her playmates to begin crying. Another reason for biting is that the toddler is teething or because they just think everything should go in their mouth so why not someone’s arm? The cause might even be as basic as being hungry.

How do you teach your child not to bite? It has to be completely understood that biting is bad behaviour and can hurt others. Point out how much pain it causes other children when your toddler bites them. Be sure to let your toddler know that biting is not allowed, that it's wrong, and that it makes you unhappy.

If you find that your child is biting due to frustration, give your toddler an alternative way to express to people they are having a difficult time. Even though teaching English seems to be a monumental task at this time, most toddlers can be taught words that are right for certain situations.

As an example, "When you need to tell mommy that you need some help, you can't bite." Or “Show mommy what you need, but don’t bite. Mommy will get hurt if you bite her, and I know that you don't want to make mommy sad." This might induce a sense of shame for their actions, and they may think twice the next time before biting someone.

As parents, you shouldn't let biting become a big issue. This is the case for any behaviour that you don't want to become a habit. Gently but firmly tell the toddler that there is no biting allowed, that it is wrong and that it hurts all sorts of people – both big and small.