Stopping Tantrum

This time of year brings out the best in our children, their schedules are off because of all the fun and exciting activities associated with the holidays. Parents often try to squeeze in a few more errands before nap time and this can lead to the dreaded public tantrum. Anyone who has ever been a parent or guardian has most likely had to endure the public tantrum. Instead of losing your cool, and your mind, try taking a deep breath, smile at an understanding adult nearby, and then see if one of these tips will work:

1. Distract.

Distract your child with something. This a great way to help children calm down. Put a video on, listen to music, read a story, watch television, go outside, or watch animals outside your window. This is often not easy to do, but if you find a distraction that works it might be enough to settle them down.

2. Provide Incentive

A goal for good behavior can do wonders. Something along the lines of, if you stop fussing until we get to the car, I'll let you watch your favorite video tonight”. The child's favorite things are truly wonderful motivators to use. However, be sure to use this tactic sparingly so they don't expect a treat every time they show good or bad behavior.

3. Pick Your Battles

Sometimes you need to step in and stop the tantrum, other times if they are not hurting themselves or anyone or anything around them, let your toddler express their feelings. Let them get their anger out and then explain the consequences of their actions.

4. Keeping Your Cool

Do not overwhelm a child that really just needs some peace and calm to settle down. Your child mirrors your response to their tantrum. If you respond by yelling at your child this might just increase the tension and raise the level of your child’s tantrum or make it last longer. Try a calming hug and some kind words instead. Your child may just want to know that you understand their feelings or frustration.

 s

Facts About Learning Disabilities

When your child is diagnosed with a learning disability it can be scary. Here are some facts about the causes and diagnosis of learning disabilities.

• Although learning disabilities can be caused by variations in a child's central nervous system, most learning disabilities are not a result of brain damage or mentally retardation. 
• Children are often born with the tendency for learning problems and learning disabilities seem to run in families. 
• Since most children play and act like other children it is often difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of a learning disability. 
• The diagnosis of learning disabilities has improved substantially along with advances in healthcare. In the past, learning disabilities were often misdiagnosed and treated incorrectly. 
• There is a wide range of learning disabilities (mild to severe).It can be very difficult for parents to recognize a mild learning disability in their children. Most mild learning disabilities are diagnosed in  kindergarten and first grade as children have difficulty keeping up with the class.

 Learning disabilities generally affect the following three skill areas:

•  academic skills (reading, writing, spelling, math)
•  language skills (speech) 
•  motor-sensory skills (coordination, balance, writing) 

 The good news is that treatments for learning disabilities have advanced in the last ten years. Public schools have also put a lot of emphasis on the early detection, diagnoses and treatment of learning disabilities. More resources than ever are available to help children with learning disabilities. If you think your child has a learning disability consult with your family doctor.

Hands-and-Feet Turkey

Since we are talking about the meaning of Thanksgiving this week, why not make a turkey with your child and talk about all the things you are Thankful for.


Materials

• Construction paper in brown, tan, orange, red, yellow and white 
• Scissors 
• Glue 

Instructions

• Trace 1 foot (with shoes on) on brown construction paper. 
• Trace two hands on tan construction paper. 
• Trace two hands on red construction paper. Trace two hands on orange construction paper. 
• Trace one hand on yellow construction paper. 
• Cut out all the pieces 
• Make the turkey body and head, placing the heel at the top (the heel will become the face) 
• Glue the red, orange, and yellow construction paper hands behind the brown body to make the tail.

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to teach your children about the importance of giving thanks. Thank you is becoming an endangered word, because of its infrequent use.  Volunteerism and charity is being reinforced more in schools but many charities remain in need of more help. Here are some simple ways to teach your children the importance of giving thanks and helping others.

Send a thank you Text or Tweet

Children learn by seeing. Watching you write a thank you text or Tweet or, hearing you make a call on your cell phone to someone to thank them will allow your children to learn by example.

Show children the meaning of the word thank you

Here are some ways to help your children gain a knowledge and appreciation for giving thanks to others through volunteerism and charity.

• Arrange for your children to gather used toys, clothes, video games or other items to donate to a charity.
• Volunteer at a charity. If your children see you devoting your time to a charity they will be much more likely to do so when they grow up. If it’s appropriate take your children with you.
• Take a warm meal to an elderly relative or neighbor. Let the children help you prepare the meal. 
• Visit elderly relatives during the holidays. This is a win-win because wise older relatives often have a lot of wisdom to pass along to younger generations.

The simplest way to remind children to give thanks and be thankful is to remind them how much they have to be thankful for and to remind them that there are others in the world that need our help. 

Learning to Write

How will you know when your child is ready to write? The ideal time to start helping your child with writing is between ages 4 and 5. One signal to look for is that your child will begin forming figures that look like letters. Your child may also begin to string multiple pictures together to create a story. This means that your child’s motor and cognitive skills are becoming more refined and developed.

Here's a few ideas to move your child’s writing skills along:

·         Make sure you have a lot of markers, crayons, pencils, and paper in places around your home so your child can scribble anytime they want.

·         Offer your child a choice of colors in paper, pencils, markers and crayons, the more colorful the better.

·         Encourage them to do projects that reflect everyday life. Here are a few fun projects that reinforce early writing skills:

o   Create a menu and play restaurant

o   Have them write out checks to play store

o   Have them create a program for their big play or dance recital

o   Have them create tickets to a show

o   Have them write a note to you every night before they go to bed

o   Make scribbling/writing a lot of fun by using pudding, ketchup, yogurt or other edible items.

Above all, make writing fun for your child and hopefully they will begin to practice their skills on their own. 

Table Manners

Every family has a different outlook on manners. How a child should act at the dinner table depends on what you as a parent think is appropriate. It is hard enough just getting kids to sit down for more than five minutes to eat dinner. But, if you want to reinforce good table manners with your children, here are a few tips.

Eating with a fork - around the age of 3, you can begin explaining the difference between finger foods, like hot dogs or a soft pretzel, and foods you eat with a fork, like steak or spaghetti.

Switching from the shirt to the napkin – also around age 3, you can start to remind your children to use their napkin instead of their shirt sleeve. This not only reinforces good table manners, it will also save you money on stain remover and new clothes.

Please and thank you – if you are trying to reinforce the use of please and thank you with your children, the table is a good place to start. Have your kids practice these skills when asking for or receiving food. When eating at a restaurant, you can also reinforce the importance of thanking others outside of the family when they do something nice for us.

Eating slowly – it’s not only good manners, it is good for your health. Eating more slowly and chewing thoroughly is helpful for overall digestive health, it reinforces good manners and it will give you more time to talk and get to know what’s going on in your child’s life. 

Dealing With Bullies

Schools, the press and society are starting to improve our countries response to bulling. But, bullying still occurs every day.  As parents and guardians, we want to protect our little ones but we cannot be there all the time. What steps can you take to help prepare your child to deal with bullies? Here are a few tips:

·         Tell your child to avoid the bully as much as possible. Stay away from him/her on the playground.

·         Have your child practice standing and walking with confidence. Bullies usually pick on people who are smaller and physically weaker than they are, or who they feel will not retaliate

·         Don't let a bully make your child feel bad. Teach your child that when someone says something bad about them to think about something positive about yourself.

·         Don't reward the bully with tears. The bully wants to hurt your feelings, so act like his name-calling and taunts don't hurt.

·         Teach your child to use humor when dealing with a bully. Throwing a joke back at a bullies taunting, can often diffuse the situation.

·         Most importantly make sure your child is comfortable keeping the lines of communication open with you.

If you think the bullying has gotten out of control, contact your child’s school for help. 

Kids & Stress

As adults, we deal with stress every day and we learn coping skills that allow us to deal with stress effectively. Even though you may think kids have nothing to be stressed about, they do. Your child’s personality often has a lot to do with how well they deal with their stress. Here are some different situations that can cause stress for your child and some tactics to help them cope.

Babies

What can cause your baby stress? An overload of sensory information or a lack of down time (naps and quite time with mommy or daddy) can lead to stress in your baby. To help your baby cope, make sure that they are getting enough sleep. If your baby isn’t a great at taking naps, take some quite time to cuddle during the day. Find a quite place and put on some soothing music or maybe read a book to your baby. This will help them reset their senses and reduce their stress levels.

Kids

What can cause stress in school-aged kids? School work and exams, activities such as sports, and problems with friends such as cliques, can all cause your child stress. In addition, children often pick up on major stresses their parents are going through, no matter how good we think we are at hiding problems from our children.

One way to help your school-aged child to deal with their stress is by talking to them. Let them know that stress is a normal part of everyday life. Ask them about their problems. Tell them that you are always available to help them with their problems. Real issues can arise when your child feels alone and unable to seek help for their problems. 

Tweens/Teens

This is a time of life when major stress often hits children. Stresses can be caused by relationships, school work, and overall pressure to succeed academically, socially and in activities. Throw hormones in with stress and you get rapidly changing moods and emotional outbursts or, what’s also known as the typical teenager.

Talk is also a good way to help your teen cope with stress. However, it might be more difficult to get them to talk. Again, let them know that they are not alone and you are always available to help them solve even the toughest problems.

Begin to teach your teen coping mechanisms that work for you. For example, limiting distractions so you can focus, or taking a big problem and breaking it down into smaller more easily solved issues.

Remember, if you think your child’s moods, emotions and ability to cope with stress are a bigger problem than they can handle, seek the help of you family doctor. 

Halloween Candy

Now that Halloween is over, you may be wondering what to do with the candy your kids received during all the Halloween festivities.  We’ve searched the web and found the following creative uses for leftover Halloween candy.

Baking

Many candies melt in the heat of the over, leaving you with a yummy treat. Here are some possible recipes:

• Add candy to homemade ice cream
• Bake cookies with peanut butter cups
• Bake Peppermint Patty brownies
• For more ideas check out Thekitchn.com

Use Your Candy for Play

Try using candy for play and learn activities:

• Use candy as building blocks.
• Teach your toddler to sort the candy into sizes, colors and shapes.
• Teach them matching by matching up like candies.
• Count the candy by fives or tens. 

Use Your Candy for Crafts

Store the candy away for a few weeks and then use it to decorate a gingerbread house or save it for advent calendars.

Teach Your Child About Charity

There are many charities that will accept candy donations