Managing Morning Madness

Are your mornings rushed, chaotic and disorganized? Then it's time to get control and make morning a good start to a wonderful day! When your morning activities run smoothly, and you're out the door on time it can make your whole day feel better. To create a peaceful morning routine, follow these steps --->>> Managing Morning Madness

Reading To Our Children

As parents, we are bombarded with advice on educating our children; homeschool, public school, private school, or tutoring. It's an endless debate that we all participate in at some point. However, I think we can all agree on one thing: we want our children to have an appreciation for reading and literature. This can prepare them for college, working and life in general. So, how do we accomplish this?
 
Start Early

You are pregnant, and friends and relatives start planning the showers or asking about gifts. Of course, start out with the things you need the most. But, then ask for a good lullaby book, a book of rhymes and a few of those indestructible cloth and plastic books for babies. As you go through those months of waiting to have that precious baby, practice those lullabies and recite those rhymes. Story telling is an art every parent can learn. If you read in monotone, too fast or too slow, kids lose interest. Read like you would want to be read to! That little one in your womb will love the vibration of your voice and you will get some needed practice.

Books, and more books...

Children need to be around books. They need to learn that books are special. You can do this by teaching your children to take care of their stories. If you see them writing in one gently but firmly tell them "no". When they are older talk with them about putting them on a special shelf or drawer in their room. Make the books accessible, and trust them to take care of them.

You will find that you can quickly gather a collection of good kid's books by looking at garage sales, finding deals on the internet and asking Grandma and Grandpa to buy books instead of toys! Always be on the look out for books. The library is a great free resource for books, and you can take advantage of story telling time too.

By Our Example

The best thing we can do as parents is set examples for our children. If they see us reading, and enjoying books they will want that too. My parents were avid readers during my childhood. We went to the small library in our town often, and we had encyclopedias that were always fascinating to us. We loved reading! When I went away to college I found out my roommate had one book with her. One. She didn't leave them at home. She simply didn't own any. She looked at reading as a "chore". Her parents did not set an example, and she had no interest in reading.

Story Time

Set up story times for your children. We always read one or two books and sing songs before bedtime. Every night, no exceptions. If time is tight for some reason, pick a small book. You can read at other times, and when your children start school they will read in class. Your story time needs to be a special time that is never pushed aside. When they are older they can take turns reading too. I believe this is a tradition that will make an impression on your children. It is a special time they will never forget. We have all heard the expression "comfort food". Wouldn't it be nice if your children grew up and had "comfort books" that they could share with their own children?

Your child's perception of reading is based on the example you set.  Make it a good one...for their sake.

About the Author:
Brenda Hyde is a freelance writer and mom to three kids living in the Midwest. For more gardening fun visit her at Old Fashioned Living

Bullying - Both Sides of The Fence

Whether your child is being bullied or is the bully, our parenting expert has some solid advice for you.

When Your Child is Acting Like a Bully

Situation
It has been brought to my attention that my child has been bullying other kids at school. How can I help him improve his behavior?

Think about it
At first you may want to blame the other kids, or the adult who brought the information to your attention. You need to be honest with yourself to determine the truth in the situation. If your child has been acting in aggressive ways, you'll want to help your child have more positive interactions with other children. Your child needs you on his side right now to help him learn how to control his own behavior.

Solution #1: Instead talk about specific incidents. Ask helpful questions to determine the reasons for your child's behavior. Brainstorm with him a variety of options he would have as an alternative to being rough. Help him learn new ways to handle the conflicts that arise with other children. Use role-play to help your child practice new ways of responding to other children.

Solution #2: If possible, arrange to have your child spend some time with an older, responsible child. If you don't have any close family members or friends that fit the bill, look into a Big Brother or Big Sister program. It may help to find a mentor for your child who can teach good social skills by example.

Solution #3: If you must discipline a child for a specific act, such as punching another child at school, use discretion when deciding on a consequence. Yelling, hitting or harsh punishment will only encourage your child to continue his own aggressive behavior. Instead, look for constructive consequences, such as assigning chores at home, or writing a note of apology to the child who was hurt.

Solution #4: Discourage your child from spending time with friends who behave in aggressive ways. (See: Friends, inappropriate choice of.) Encourage your child to become involved in an organized youth activity. Participation in a team or group often gives a child the social experience he may be lacking. Another option is to enroll him in one of the social skills classes that are now appearing in schools, churches and hospitals.

Solution #5: Enroll your child in a quality martial arts school. Visit the school first and watch a few classes in action before you mention the idea to your child. Choose a program with smaller class sizes. An authentic program will teach restraint, respect, and self-control. A good martial arts teacher will convey a quiet, reserved confidence. Talk with the teacher in advance of classes to let him know your concerns about your child's behavior, and what you are looking to achieve with the class. An experienced teacher should make you feel confident that you are making the right choice for your child. This may be just what your child needs to learn to control his physical power, and to develop self-discipline. (And it's heartwarming to see your child bow to the master and hear him end every sentence with a hearty "Sir" or "Ma'am"!)

Special Note: If your child displays a continuing pattern of aggression he may display other negative behaviors as well. He may display signs of low self-esteem, have problems in school, spend excessive time alone, and have a hard time controlling his anger. If this were the case, it would be wise to seek professional counseling for your child, so that the reason for the behavior can be discovered, and the child can learn to control his emotions and learn to succeed socially.

When Your Child is the Victim of a Bully

Situation
A bully is picking on my child. What can I do to stop this?

Think about it
As much as you'd like to step in and solve this problem yourself, it's probably in your child's best interest to teach him how to solve the problem. Once he's learned the skills to stand up for himself he can use them in other life situations.

Solution #1: Teach your child how to respond to a bully in a bold assertive way. Practice with him at home in a role-play situation. Demonstrate the difference between cowering and whispering, "Oh, go away, please leave me alone." versus standing tall, using a deep, loud, voice and saying with authority, "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Solution #2: Suggest that your child stick with two or more other children when at the playground, the bus stop or wherever he comes face to face with the bully.

Solution #3: If the bully problem is at school, tell your child that if he's not successful in fending the bully off on his own it's okay to ask for help from a teacher or playground attendant. Rehearse with him what to say when he approaches an adult for help so he doesn't sound like he's whining or tattling. "Excuse me, Mr. Watanabe, but Jason keeps chasing me and throwing stones at me. I've asked him to stop but he won't." If your child practices saying this at home he will come across sounding confidant and will more likely get assistance from the teacher.

Solution #4: Teach your child to turn and walk away from a child who is being a verbal bully, without so much as a word. Being ignored may cause the bully to give up.

Solution #5: Determine if your child has healthy friendships with other children. If your child is a regular victim and doesn't have many friends, she can benefit by developing better social skills. Encourage your child to invite friends over to your home or to invite them to accompany you on an outing.

Special Note: If your child tries many different approaches but is continually harassed by a bully, or if the bully is physically aggressive, you may need to step in. It is rarely, if ever, effective to approach the bully or his parent's directly. Instead, approach the school principal or other person in a position of authority. If you lose your temper and yell, it will be unlikely you'll get the help you need. Instead, take the time to think about what you will cover in the meeting, and call ahead for an appointment. Outline the specific behaviors that you are concerned with, review the tactics you have used to try to stop the behavior, and have several suggested solutions in mind. Approach the principal with a calm, matter-of-fact attitude and you should be able to put together a plan to control the situation.

 More You Might Like:
I'm Sitting Up Front
Back to School Gear For Less
Back to School Wardrobes for Less
Managing Morning Madness
Kids Home Alone: When and How?
Preventing School Bullying and Protecting Your Child


About the Author:
Elizabeth Pantley is author of Perfect Parenting, Hidden Messages, & Kid Cooperation, and president of Better Beginnings, Inc. She is a popular speaker on family issues. Elizabeth's newsletter, Parent Tips is seen in schools nationwide. She appears as a regular radio show guest and has been quoted in Parents, Parenting, Redbook, Good Housekeeping, American Baby, Twins, Working Mother, and Woman's Day magazines.

Balancing Youth Sports and Family Life: How to Find Balance & Reclaim Family Time

Raising sports active kids is difficult, perhaps more today than ever before. Parents feel pressure to help their kids succeed. They want to keep up with other parents in an increasingly winner-take-all society. Too often, parents just like you feel that if they don't do everything for their child, they are bad parents.

In fact, surveys show that today's sport active kids and their parents get too caught up in the crazy sports vortex. Today's parents spend eleven hours less a week with their teenagers than they did two decades ago. The average mother spends less than a half hour per day talking with her teens. Only six out of ten 15 and 16 year olds regularly eat dinner with their parents. Family vacations are down by 28 percent. Sports have replaced church on Sunday for many families. Children are being benched for missing practice to be with their families on religious holidays.

Surveys also show that your children most likely lament the lack of parental attention. They want to spend more time with you, not less. They want more free time, not less.

I sincerely believe it's time to reclaim our family time. Here's how you can find a balance between your children's youth sport activities and your family life:

Schedule family time. Set aside one night a week or month as Family Game Night. Choose a board game, play card games, make tacos, and just be together. Make it sacred time.

Consider your travel time. Before you allow your children to play a particular sport, or on a particular team, consider your travel time to practices and games. Other things to consider include: your work schedule as well as your spouses, your children's school schedule and homework demands, carpool availability, and the needs of other family members.

 

Look for balanced sports programs. Look for leagues and clubs that balance sports, family and school life. Make sure the program emphasizes having fun more than winning. Children shouldn't be penalized for missing practice on Christmas Eve to be with their family.

Find a balance between sports. Introduce your children to sports such as golf, tennis, squash, racquetball, cycling, sailing, windsurfing, rock climbing, jogging, kayaking, rowing, or canoeing that they can enjoy after their competitive careers are over. Encourage your children to engage in sports and activities with you as long as they enjoys them, like bike riding, hiking, skating, sailing, and running. Encourage them to play different sports and avoid early specialization. It will them develop a variety of transferable motor skills such as jumping, running, twisting and simultaneously reduce the risk of overuse injuries that too often result from early specialization.

Allow for a social life outside of sports. Being on a travel or select team often requires a year-round or near year-round commitment and extensive travel. If you allow your children to participate, they can end up socially isolated from the family, their peers and the larger community. The athletic role can become so consuming and controlling that their childhood essentially disappears. Early specialization can thus interfere with normal identity development, increasing the risk that a child will develop what psychologists call a one-dimensional self-concept in which they see themselves solely as an athlete instead of just a part of who they are.

Coach your child's team on "kid time". Too many parents fall victim to the idea that practices have to happen after an adult's workday is over. This falls during the dinner hour, when children should be spending time with their family. With the new statistics of parents (primarily mothers) working from home, why not get your coaching license and run the practice in the afternoon right after school is over? This will give you time to be with your children and their friends and still be home in time for dinner with the rest of the family.

It is possible to create balance within your family's everyday life, even with children who participate in sports. But it is up to you as the parents to make certain that your kids don't over schedule and that they establish the right priorities.

What's Related
Achieving Balance in Your Family
Surviving Little League
The Cost of Competition on Kids
The Simpler Family

 

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About the Author
Brooke de Lench, Youth Sports Parenting Expert and author of Home Team Advantage: The Critical Role of Mothers in Youth Sports has helped over 42 million moms and dads worldwide get the tools and information they need to make their child's youth sports experience safer, less stressful and more inclusive. For more information on balancing your child's sports life with your family life, go to www.momsteam.com and sign up for Brooke's free newsletter.

Zazoo Photo Clock

The Zazoo Photo Clock is the contemporary multi-functional answer for your early riser.  For young children who wake too early or do not stay in bed all night, this is the solution for you. Parents get more sleep!  Kids get more sleep!

The Zazoo photo clock is easy to read. When the photo alarm "goes off" the image changes. The digital time is also displayed on the face of the photo clock. Your child will quickly be able to associate the image changing to the time displayed. The clock comes with two pre-programmed image sets of "awake" and "asleep" photo options that help your child know when it is the appropriate time to stay in bed or get up and start the day. The photo alarm has two settings so the photo alarms can be easily set for a nap-time setting and a night-time setting.

You can easily personalize the awake and asleep images so your own child is the star. Just upload your personal pictures and then select.  It is simple. Kids will love to see themselves in pictures on their photo clock.

The clock grows with your child providing a cool, modern accessory for older kids too!  They love the rotating photo frame and music player.

Do you kids love to see pictures of friends and family?  Just upload photos and set to rotate. The Zazoo photo clock frame is a kid-friendly design with an easy to view screen.  Kids will love to see themselves in pictures.  Upload and view your favorite photographs of family and friends. A supplied remote control lets you navigate the photos from the comfort of your chair or bed.

Listen to music and audio books on your Zazoo photo clock. Using the included mini USB you can download your favorite songs to the memory of the photo clock or use the SD/MMC/MS or xD card slots to listen to your favorite tunes, listen to an audio book or watch a video.  Download your selected file to a memory source and play on the photo clock.  The card slots are located on the side of the frame.

The colorful, fun frames look great in children's bedrooms. There are 5 styles available - white, pink stars, numbers, pink peace, blue peace.

For more information and to watch a video of how the clock works, visit Zazoo Kids.com

~*~* Tami says: We have used this clock for a couple of weeks now and I'm still amazed at what this little machine can do. It's so much more than just an alarm clock! My daughter loves the "cool" factor of this clock. She  can easily upload pictures onto her clock using the USB cable that is supplied with it. Playing music on it is simple, too. You can plug a thumb drive right into the side of the clock or you can upload music from your computer. The remote is laid out in an easy pattern so that children won't have a problem using it. We love this clock because it's a "grow-with-me" product that can be used for years.

Charlie & Lola: Slightly Invisible + A Complete Set of Seasons 1 & 2 and a Charlie & Lola Play Set

We have found new friends in Charlie and Lola.

Lola is 4 going on 5. She has an imaginary friend named Soren Lorensen and also a real friend named Lotta. Charlie is 7 and has a real best friend named Marv. The story shows the relationship between a brother and sister and how they handle different situations that arise.

In their latest book, Slightly Invisible, Charlie and his friend Marv have invented an invisibility potion to help them find strange and tricky creatures. They would prefer to go on their hunt without Lola pestering them. But that doesn't sit well with Lola so she asks for help from her imaginary friend, Soren Lorensen. Together they set off to hunt for strange and tricky creatures, too. Looks like the creatures met their match when dealing with Charlie's little sister!

Ages: 3-6
Suggested Retail: US 16.99, CAN $19.00
On Sale: 05/2011

Charlie & Lola: The Absolutely Completely Complete Seasons One and Two 

Now together in one super amazingly terrific box set, the absolutely completely completest collection of Charlie and Lola ever - the complete seasons one and two, fifty-two episodes plus the double-length Christmas special, on eight discs!

Lola is four and she will not ever NEVER eat a tomato! Sometimes she is not sleepy and she will not go to bed, and how will she cope when she is really ever so ill and may never smile again? It falls to big brother Charlie to win her around, and he uses every trick in the book - logic, humor, but mostly, the power of the imagination.

Using 2D cel animation, paper cutout, fabric design, photomontage and archive footage, all the distinctive style and exuberance of Lauren Child's award-winning picture books come to life in this enchanting children's series. Glorious music and sound effects help to conjure up fantastical worlds that only children could invent, while realistic dialogue, voiced by children, ensures these magical adventures really resonate with kids.

Talking Poseable Charlie & Lola Set

These dolls are adorable and have become my daughter's favorites to play with. She has also adopted Lola's favorite response of "I'm not small, I am BIG!" (in her best Lola voice) when her older brother won't allow her to hang out with him.  

The Talking Poseable Charlie & Lola Play Set is packaged in a reusable play scene and includes Charlie, standing 12 inches tall, and Lola, measuring 9.5 inches. Kids can bend the arms and legs into any pose for hours of fun. Each character speaks their signature opening line from the book, video and TV episode: "I have this little sister, Lola. She is small and very funny," says Charlie. Responds Lola, "I'm not small. I am BIG!".

Suggested Retail: 25.00

Is it Really Possible to Balance Work and Family?

Many times women feel overwhelmed and stressed by trying to balance family and career. Just last year, many people discussed whether Sarah Palin would be able to keep a sense of balance between being the vice presidential candidate and having five children. Have you ever heard someone say that about a man? Here are a few ideas to help you keep it all in check:

Routines are extremely important: when you do the same thing over and over again, not only do you get really good at it, it becomes second nature. You can have several sets of routines for your entire day. It is helpful to write down everything you do, or need to do, to get to bed at a decent hour, to get out of the house in the morning without rushing, to get dinner on the table quickly and easily. I suggest writing out lists of what needs to be done at each section of your day. As we get older and more forgetful, it is helpful to have a reminder of what needs to be done. When you are rushing around, it is easy to forget something important.

It's okay to say "NO": we hear this all the time, but do we practice it? As women, we are people pleasers and we don't like to upset others or feel like we have let someone down. Instead, we need to feel that way about ourselves. Think about how upset you would be if you add one more thing to your "to do" list. Say no for your children as well, don't let them be involved in too many activities.

To read the rest of this article about balancing work and family click here