For those of you ghosts, goblins and other creatures getting ready for Halloween fun, make sure you stay safe during and after trick-or-treating by following these guidelines from The Children’s Safety Zone. Some of the suggestions are obvious, such as “Obey Traffic Signals,” but others may not cross your mind. Would you think to make sure that kids who are old enough to go out by themselves always have enough money with them to call home if necessary (assuming they don’t have a mobile phone permanently attached like the rest of us)? Also, parents should know what route their little costumed critters plan to take through the neighborhood. By following some simple guidelines, you’ll be sure to scare your neighbors and have a lot of fun doing it.
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It can be hard to dream up ways to help children integrate reading into their lives. We were surprised recently when we attended a non-reading event at a library, and our kids went nuts over all the books. It had not occurred to us that they had never visited a library before since they are preschoolers. Sometimes, finding just the right spark can be difficult, and this article by a mom is great because it offers practical suggestions beyond just reading books repetitiously to them. It matters how you read, and how you present the book choices just as much as simply spending the time. One suggestion that we might try for our kids is making up library cards, so they feel involved in the process of acquiring books. For older kids, getting them their own library card is a great idea so they feel some ownership in their book choices.
If you are the parent of a college kid, or a kid looking at college soon, this article is for you. One local paper offers a college student the opportunity to write about his experiences from the battlefields of the dorms. This isn’t about the academics, but rather the realities of being on one’s own. For parents, it can be an enlightening peek into the processes they can help their children prepare for as they move into young adulthood. A scary concept for sure, but one we all need to deal with as we prepare our offspring integrate more smoothly into the world of shared living spaces.
For new parents, there are lots of visits to the pediatrician during the first year, along with support and advice on feedings, sleep patterns and other practical matters. Then, when your child hits the 1 year mark, the visits decrease, and that’s when the behavior shaping process kicks in. For those of us who grew up in a highly disciplined household, the idea of a time-out is laughable if you don’t have a clear and detailed understanding of how it works. The North Carolina ABCD Project published just such a guide on the web, which provides a nice level of detail on how the whole process should work, including behaviors of parents and other siblings during the time-out period.
In between the spit-ups and soccer games, parenting can get mighty busy and confusing. I found this list of seven parenting rules to be obvious but also easily overlooked. Utah Health magazine published this article adapted from a book by Laurence Steinberg called ‘The 10 Basic Principles of Good Parenting’ (Simon & Schuster). I haven’t read the book, but the article offers a set of guidelines that we could post on our wall for those difficult parenting moments.
They both have experts commenting on their use in the home. Candles are a no-brainer, at least to me. I love candles, but I have not burned one in my home since my kids were born. It just isn’t worth the risk. Apparently, some folks don’t see the harm, so housefires are increasing. In case you really like candles, and want to continue using them, this article has some tips for safe burning. The other item, stickers, is a little more complicated. There are safety stickers available for the door of a child’s bedroom to alert firefighters that a child may be sleeping in the room. Now, the word is that these stickers should not be used. Read on to find out why.
Has your child ever had a teacher who just drove you nuts with all the advice and pointers they provided, while having no children of their own? We have one right now actually, and while she’s not a bad teacher (I mean, the children appear to be learning something) the woman seems like she feels she has seen it all. The thing is, I suspect she has seen it all on a full night’s sleep, and the world changes mighty quickly when you’ve been up all night managing a child for whatever reason. This article is written by one of those teachers who thought they had all the answers and then had kids. It is both funny and practical. Most of all, it will help parents who feel like they are holding on by a thread see that feeling that way is the norm in our world.
It is very frustrating as a parent to think that you try to help your kids develop good habits so they can hopefully go to college, only to find out that alcohol pretty much rules their lives once they start their freshman year. A New York Times article highlights the “new” binge drinking, aka drinking games. It seems that since many campuses and bars have outlawed binge drinking on its face, the kids are playing drinking games to get around the ban, and the marketers are playing right into it. Anheuser-Busch has a new game called Bud Pong - yes, these are these same people who remind us during each alcohol commercial to drink responsibly. Even Urban Outfitters stocks a beer pong kit. Why is an apparel retailer selling alcohol accessories?
I thought I would share this tidbit for parents of premature infants. It turns out that a soft lullaby can do more than encourage sleep. Premature babies who are exposed to lullaby music recover faster than those who are not, and they leave the hospital two weeks earlier on average. This is a pretty amazing result, thanks to the Kulas Foundation of Cleveland.
For parents out there who were told that pacifiers are the root of all evil, take heart. Now, the medical experts say that pacifiers may help reduce the risk of SIDS. This was, without a doubt, my single greatest fear during the early part of our children’s lives, and I’m glad that research on risk mitigating practices is continuing. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that pacifiers not be used during the first month to make sure the infant is encouraged to breast-feed, and breast-fed children should be placed back in their own cribs next to the parents’ bed after a night feeding session. Thanks to Yahoo! and the Associated Press for bringing us this article. It contains lots of good information for new parents, even beyond the pacifier issue.
