Tag Archives: encourage

Feb15

How To Prepare Your Child For A New Dog

Posted on by
Standard
How To Prepare Your Child For A New Dog

A new pet can be a wonderful experience, but it’s important to make sure your children are prepared for the responsibility that comes with it. Try these tips out to get everyone in your family fully prepared for the arrival of your four legged:

Teach them How to Look After It:

Before you get a dog, make sure your kids understand the basics of dog care, such as feeding, grooming, and exercise. For instance, explain to your kids what type of food the dog (such as using the best supplements for poodles) will need and how often they should be fed. You can also show them where the food and water bowls will be kept and how to measure out the appropriate amount of food. Take a trip to the pet store together and select some toys to keep your dog entertained and active. Your child will love picking out toys just for them to play with together!

Involve Them in Choosing It:

It always helps to take your kids along when you go to choose a dog. Let them help pick out the breed, color, and size of the dog they want. This will make them feel invested in the process and more connected to the dog. You can also research together. Before you go to choose a dog, look at different breeds and talk about which qualities would be a good fit for your family. This can help narrow down the options and give your kids an idea of what to expect from their pets.

Start with a Smaller Pet:

There are around 76 million domestic dogs in the USA alone. But if your kids have never had a pet before, consider starting with a smaller animal, such as a hamster or fish. This will help them learn the basics of pet care and they will feel more confident when it comes time to take care of a larger animal like a dog. This is because even with a small pet, it’s important to teach your child about the importance of caring for it by encouraging them to take an active role.

Teach the Kids Responsible Ownership:

It also goes a long way if you make sure your kids understand what is expected of them when it comes to caring for the dog. Together as a family, create a schedule for feeding, walking, and grooming and make sure your kids understand their responsibilities in pet care. However, this can be hard for younger kids to grasp. So, if your child is struggling to meet their responsibilities or if issues arise, take the time to address them in a calm and supportive manner as a caregiver.

Make Caring for the Dog Fun:

Getting a dog should be a fun and exciting experience for kids so encourage them to play with the dog. This can be as simple as walks or teaching them new tricks such as sitting, staying, and shaking paws. This will help them bond with the dog and create a lifelong friendship. Going for walks with the dog is not only good exercise, but it’s also a great way to bond with the dog. Encourage your child to come along on walks and get their exercise too.

Start your new adventure as a pet owner on the right foot with the tips above and encourage your kids to take an active role in the dog’s care. They will be inseparable soon enough!

Featured Image By: Pexels

Advertisement
Feb13

How To Encourage Your Child’s Creative Side

Posted on by
Standard
How To Encourage Your Child’s Creative Side

Children’s overall development depends on fostering creativity because it allows them to think critically, express themselves, and learn problem-solving techniques. A child’s imagination can be given a fun and interesting outlet through creativity, which enables them to enjoyably explore new ideas and concepts. Today, we’re going to take a look at some of the ways you can encourage your child’s creative side:

Provide Art Supplies:

Giving kids access to a variety of art supplies is among the simplest ways to encourage their creativity. Items like paints, markers, crayons, paper, and clay can be categorized under this. Children can explore their creativity and think outside of the box by being encouraged to experiment with various materials and methods.

Imaginative Play:

Being able to create their own characters, worlds, and stories allows children to engage in imaginative play, which is a crucial aspect of childhood. You can provide props like dress-up clothes, toy animals, and a designated play area in your home to encourage this kind of play.

Read Books and Tell Stories:

Children’s imaginations can be greatly sparked by reading books and sharing stories with them. While storytelling enables children to develop their own interpretations of the stories they hear, books can introduce them to new concepts and worlds. Books are a great way to stimulate imagination and grow vocabulary. As an added bonus, you can organize crafts and activities based around your child’s favorite book.

Create a Craft Corner:

Give your kids a dedicated area for creative endeavors by designating a space in your home for craft activities. An inviting craft space that kids will enjoy using can be easily made with the help of a small table and chairs and supply storage.

Encourage Exploration and Experimentation:

In order to foster creativity, it’s crucial to let kids experiment and explore with a variety of tools and methods. This can entail experimenting with new art materials, trying out various techniques, or discovering fresh approaches to creating.

Attend Art Classes or Workshops:

Children can benefit from structured opportunities to explore their creativity in a safe environment through art classes or workshops. Their confidence can be boosted and their artistic abilities can be encouraged by working with other kids and learning from qualified teachers. These kinds of activities might take place at daycares near you too.

Take Nature Walks:

Children who spend time in nature can be more creative because they can experience the sights, sounds, and textures of the natural world. Go on a nature walk or scavenger hunt together and encourage them to observe their surroundings, which can help them come up with new ideas and engage their imagination.

Foster creativity in your children with the tips above and watch their imagination soar to new heights!

Featured Image By: PXHere

Oct25

What To Prioritize For Child Development

Posted on by
Standard
What To Prioritize For Child Development

If you are a first-time parent, you’ll find a lot of responsibilities to juggle. Along with the apparent need to provide food, clothing, and shelter, you’ll also be in charge of your child’s safety, health, and well-being. You will also want to lay a foundation that sets your child up for success in school and life. So, what should you prioritize? Below is a list of five areas experts say are essential for child development:

Safe Home Environment:

The first and most important priority for parents is to provide a safe and secure home environment for their children. This includes ensuring there are no home hazards that could injure your children, such as sharp edges on furniture, poisonous chemicals within reach, or unlocked cabinets. Childproofing your home is essential to keeping your kids safe.

In addition to physical safety, you’ll also want to create an emotionally safe environment for your children. This means being supportive and responsive to their needs, providing love and affection, and setting consistent limits. Creating a safe and secure attachment with your child is critical for their development.

You should also create a routine for your family that includes regular bedtimes and mealtimes. This will help your child feel secure and reduce stress. Lastly, you’ll want to have a support system in place during an emergency. This might include having a relative or friend you can call if you need help or know where to find resources in your community.

Health and Nutrition:

Being healthy doesn’t just mean feeding your child a nutritious diet that meets their growing bodies’ needs. It also includes regular medical checkups, immunizations, and dental care. Avoid using food as a reward or punishment to help your child develop healthy eating habits. Instead, focus on making meals together a positive experience. Serve various foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins and limit sugary drinks and snacks.

It’s also important to encourage your child to be active. According to the CDC, children should get at least an hour of physical activity daily. This can include playing outside, going for walks or bike rides, or participating in organized sports.

Emotional Development:

As your child grows, you’ll want to help them develop emotionally by teaching them how to express their feelings in appropriate ways. It also means helping them develop empathy for others and teaching them how to resolve conflicts peacefully. You can encourage emotional development by reading stories together and discussing the characters’ emotions. You can also model emotional regulation yourself by talking about your feelings.

Education:

Developing your child’s education includes reading to them regularly, teaching them numbers and letters, and taking them to the library or museum. You can also enroll them in a high-quality preschool program. Research has shown that preschool children are likelier to do better in school and are less likely to need special education or be held back a grade. As a result, it will be necessary to look into high-quality British international school admissions. Those universities can be ideal for your child’s development, making it a top priority. They’re also more likely to graduate from high school and attend college.

fam5

Financial Stability:

Last but not least, you’ll want to prioritize financial stability. This means having a budget and saving for your child’s future. It also means teaching your children about money to make smart financial decisions when they’re older. You can start by setting up a savings account for your child. For example, you can give them an allowance and have them save a portion of it in their account. It’s never too early to start teaching your children about money. Doing so will help them develop good financial habits that will last a lifetime.

While it’s essential to focus on all development areas, some may be more critical than others, depending on your child’s individual needs. Remember to always keep your child’s best interests at heart as you make decisions about their care and development.

Nov22

3 Ideas To Get Your Kids Interested In Nature

Posted on by
Standard
3 Ideas To Get Your Kids Interested In Nature

By now, you have no doubt heard of the great mental health benefits of getting outside. But, while you might love the outdoors, your kids may still be on the fence. After all, it’s always more comfortable to sit inside, especially when the temperatures plummet. This won’t do them any favors, though, so it is important to try and get them more interested in nature. If you’re not sure where to begin, here are three ideas to help:

Show Them How Fun It Can Be:

Many kids will associate being outdoors with walking and walking far. There’s some truth to this, but it’s not the walk that makes nature fun, it’s seeing everything along the way. However, when they’re young, kids may not notice or care about this. All they see is a lot of green and brown.

You can change this attitude by considering the different ways to make nature walks enjoyable for kids, such as scavenger hunts, identifying different plants, animals, or bugs, or playing I Spy along the way. If possible, look for a trail that has a play area at the end, as this will give them something to look forward to, as long as they aren’t too tired by the time you arrive.

Bring Nature Indoors:

If your kids don’t appreciate nature as much as you’d like them to, how about bringing nature indoors? This is especially useful if you live somewhere cold and wet, making it difficult to get outside too often.

The benefits of houseplants can make them more appreciative of nature, and as you add more to your collection, they might become even more interested. You might get to the point where they want to help water them, care for them, and give them enough sunlight so they can thrive. It can be tricky to see plants grow outside, but having them inside allows your kids to see the entire lifespan.

Encourage Their Education:

While there might not be much in the school curriculum, you can still speak with their teacher and ask what they are doing to encourage a love of the outdoors in their students.

Depending on what they say, there is a range of resources they can use, including succulent classroom decor by Miss Jacobs that could be a small but inspiring module for your kids and their classmates. As it covers science, it can easily apply to a lesson, even if it’s something done to make up some time once all other lessons are finished.

As much as some people do not enjoy being outside, it’s fair to say that the majority of people can always find something to love about it. Whether it’s the positivity they feel after a long hike or the stunning views that they wouldn’t get from sitting on the sofa, your kids could experience the same shift, and soon, you won’t be able to keep them indoors at all

Featured Image By: Unsplash

Aug26

How To Support Musical Children

Posted on by
Standard
How To Support Musical Children

Music can be beneficial to children in many different ways. Playing or listening to music can be an enjoyable thing to do together, a way for children to learn new skills, develop their creativity, and explore their emotions. If your child has shown an interest in becoming a musician, how can you best support them?

Encourage Listening Skills:

Getting children to begin to enjoy exploring music can be a fun thing for the two of you to do together. As you listen to music, ask your child to describe to you what they can hear so they can start to work on their listening skills. Choose a piece of music you think they will like and ask them questions as you listen. Ask them questions like:

  • What sounds can you hear?
  • How would you describe this piece of music?
  • How does this piece of music make you feel?

Having these conversations can also help your child to begin to build their communication skills as they find the right words to describe things to you.

Play Along To Music:

Children love making noise, and a musical instrument along with something like Moon River sheet music can be a good way to channel that interest in noise into something more creative. Encourage them to play along with a song they enjoy so they can think about the different parts of the music. Suggest they try to play as loudly and then as quietly as they can with different ways of making sound such as clapping or tapping a pan with a spoon.

Another fun game to help them to build an understanding of beat and volume is to ‘wake’ a sleeping toy. Using one of their stuffed animals, ask the child to wake it up by playing loudly and make the toy go to sleep by playing softly. You could also move the toy around in time with the beat.

Move To Music:

Children often really love to dance, and you can support this with an enjoyment of music. Tempo is the speed in music, and children can get a good grasp of what this means by exploring it with their movements. Put on music and encourage your child to move as they listen. Watch to see what they do, then join in with them by copying their ideas. By mimicking their ideas, they will see that you value and are interested in what they think.

For some children, physically responding to the music might feel more natural than playing instruments or talking about music. Offer them lots of different genres of music to listen to and see how they respond and move to different kinds of music. You might be surprised by what they actually enjoy the most. Music that has a range of tempos in it can be great fun.

Try listening to music from around the world too, from a range of cultures. This is a good way to explore music and encourage them to have a conversation with you about different cultures too.

Whether your child wants to be a rock star, a drummer like Joey Armstrong, a dancer, or just loves to listen to music, supporting this will be amazing fun for the both of you!

Featured Image By: Unsplash

Apr24

No New Nails

Posted on by
Standard
No New Nails

Hello! If you recall, I recently bought a DIY acrylic kit to attempt to fill my talons from home. I’d love to tell you that it worked and my nails look fabulous. But, sadly, it ended up being a crap lousy attempt during a crap lousy day. Mannnn, I don’t know what it was. I guess it was a combination of a bunch of stuff, so let’s discuss:

Despite all of the ideas that I have been posting to keep all of you entertained in self-isolation, no one is saying that it still doesn’t suck. Lol, I guess the day I tried to do my nails, I was really feeling down – blame it on my impending period or all of the coronavirus panic but, damn. Once the acrylic on my nails just refused to dry, the waterworks started flowing.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t just the nails but a build up of a difficult few weeks. Work has been long and boring, tax season and car repairs bled my bank account, and the weather has been crap so leaving the house just for a walk with my boyfriend has been impossible. Call it cabin fever or the pre-period crazies but your girl just cracked.

I cried, and I cried, and I cried some more. Thankfully, my boyfriend was nothing short of supportive and always talks me through my moments when my struggle with depression just gets the best of me. Eventually, once I calmed down, I removed my fake nails and after another cry sesh, Johnny put America’s Next Top Model on for me like the angel he is.

Like I said, no one is saying that this isn’t a hard time and it manifests itself in different ways. Have you felt over emotional lately? Has your normal sleep pattern been disrupted? Are you exhausted all the time? Cause same. And my best advice? Seek the comfort of those you love.

It’s easy when you’re feeling upset to not want to be around someone but, seriously, talk to someone. In my case, I ended up having to cry into the arms of my boyfriend after avoiding talking about how I was feeling once the metaphorical straw broke the camel’s back. Don’t let yourself get to this point because, chances are, everyone is feeling the same way and maybe they need to talk, too.

Contact your friends, do something that makes you smile, or watch a funny movie and get yourself back on track. We can all do this!

How have you been dealing emotionally with the coronavirus? What do you do to make yourself feel better? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah