3 Kids and Us

5 Best Snack Foods to Keep Your Family Healthy

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Keeping your family fit and healthy is a challenge. It’s not that easy maintaining a healthy lifestyle all year round because people, especially kids, are drawn to processed and sugary foods.  Anything that’s green and fresh is often considered unpalatable because of the influence of tempting food commercials.

As a responsible family member, your job is to make sure that everyone at home gets the essential nutrients he or she needs to ward off sickness and diseases like flu, obesity, and diabetes. Providing healthy and nutritious snacks is an excellent strategy to promote health in your family.

In this article, we’ve prepared a list of the best snack foods that are sure to delight everyone. These snacks guarantee that your family eats right without the dangers of processed carbs and sugar. Read on.


  1. Banana Nut Oatmeal

Nothing is healthier in the morning than a bowl of oatmeal. Oatmeal is a wholegrain which is a healthy source of fiber that lowers bad cholesterol (LDL). If you find oatmeal a bland choice for snacks, mix it with sliced bananas, chopped walnuts, and a teaspoon of ground cinnamon.

Bananas help lower your risk for developing asthma and are a good source of vitamin C. Walnuts support brain health by improving cognitive function. Lastly, ground cinnamon contains anti-inflammatory properties that relieve allergies.


  1. Apple Slices with Organic Peanut Butter

Do your kids hate apples? Apples are extremely beneficial since they’re rich in polyphenols, plant chemicals that work as antioxidants to fight off free radicals in the body. Polyphenols offer protection from heart disease  and certain cancers.

To make apples super tasty, the trick is to add a spread of organic peanut butter on each slice. This isn’t only a yummy snack treat, but also provides added protein and potassium.


  1. Strawberry Almond Smoothie

Here’s an easy to make, delicious snack that’ll satisfy your family’s mid-morning or afternoon cravings: Strawberry almond smoothie. Consuming smoothies is a creative way to incorporate fruits into your daily diet. Adults and kids love smoothies since they’re cold and creamy.

To prepare strawberry almond smoothie, simply blend strawberries, almond milk, sugar, and tofu. You can use Splenda as a sugar substitute. Adjust your sweetness preference. Strawberries and almond milk promote a healthier brain and nervous system while tofu provides all eight essential amino acids.


  1. Frozen Yogurt Blueberry Bites

If anyone in your family is a sweet tooth, he or she will absolutely love frozen yogurt blueberry bites. These deliciously sweet and sour treats can be the best substitute for any unhealthy dessert. Loaded with calcium, antioxidants, and fiber, you can pop as many as you want in your mouth without the guilt of gaining weight.

You only need 10 minutes to prepare these frozen yogurt blueberry bites. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Prepare a bowl of blueberries and a bowl of Greek yogurt. Poke each blueberry with a toothpick and dip it into the Greek yogurt. Place each dipped blueberry on the sheet. Once you’re done, freeze the dipped blueberries for about an hour.


  1. Celery with Peanut Butter and Raisins

Kids love calling this snack treat Ants on a Log. Adding a spread of peanut butter and raisin on a celery stick is a great way to have fun with this versatile vegetable. Because celery contains vitamins such as A, C, E, and B6, it lowers cholesterol levels, promotes healthy joints, and calms the nerves.

The addition of peanut butter and raisins add taste to the celery and provides your family with protein, potassium, and iron.

Conclusion

An effective way to help family members gain healthy eating practices is to provide them with nutritious and delicious snack foods. Snacking for children and adults is an important element of a healthy lifestyle. You can be as creative as you want when preparing snack treats. Don’t be afraid to mix and match fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

School Daze: Smartphone Apps to Keep Your Kids on Track

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21st-century kids are busy, busy, busy. A combination of homework, after school activities, at-home chores and social obligations can be hard to manage. Good thing there are some great smartphone apps that parents and kids can use to stay on track. In the interest of happy futures for everyone, we’re pleased to present some of the top Android apps for parents and kids.

Study smarter, not harder

An innovative app called StudyBlue facilitates the crowdsource creation of study guides for high school students and college scholars. Classmates and teachers can use StudyBlue to build flashcards and shared notes. Available for iOS and Android, this handy homework app is completely compatible with Evernote. The free version is very effective. Upgraded versions cost less than ten bucks a month and are worth the cost, advises Raising Arizona Kids magazine.

Speaking of Evernote… Photos, web pages, written content, and memoranda may be easily organized with Evernote. Students use Evernote to put together customized notebooks that may be shared or exported. Synchronizing editable notes projects is simple and quick with this excellent app for Android, Windows and iOS devices. The bare-bones version is free. For additional storage and more uploads, go for a paid plan.

Students can share audio notes via phone call and save them for future reference with Call Recorder for Me from Apalon. This cool Android app is legal to use, as long as both parties to the call know that it’s being recorded. For after-school homework groups, Skype is fun and easy to use. Parents might wish to monitor their students’ video chat time, however, because it’s easy for kids to use Skype for goofing off, too.

MyHomework for Apple and Android helps kids track homework assignments and upcoming examinations. Teachers who use the app can upload study files and test scores and remind students to study for tests. Parents may monitor the app to provide additional incentives that keep kids focused.

Reading and rewards

Kids who log into Biblionasium may find it easier to stay up to date with classroom reading assignments. The free dot com site facilitates communication between parents and teachers and offers incentives for completed reading assignment logs. Biblionasium also offers a search feature to help parents and kids find age appropriate reading material for after school fun.

Organize family meetings and events

Virtually every family member can use Google Calendar to manage their time. With a short learning curve, this free app lets parents and kids maintain individual calendars with color coding to emphasize super important upcoming events. The app can be synchronized across all platforms and devices and is one of the best methods of staying on track, says Learning Liftoff magazine.

Being a kid can be even more fun when time and efforts are organized. Parents who help their kids stay on track reap the rewards of happy, well-adjusted students. Try a few of these apps to see which ones work best for you and your kids.

Twelve Tips for Taking Your Kids to Visit Loved Ones in Assisted Living

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We are taught to value people of all ages in our society, from the young to the old. However, the most elderly, living in nursing homes or assisted living, often feel disconnected from family, becoming isolated and excluded. This is particularly the case, when family members have moved out of the home town, or have relocated overseas.

One way to develop stronger connections between our older relatives and the very youngest is to plan a visit to their home or facility when in the neighbourhood. This can have tremendous benefits for both young and old.

Here are the top twelve tips to plan a fun visit for the entire family.

  • Plan your visit a minimum of one week in advance. Be sure to let the activities director know you are bringing the kids and their ages.
  • The best time to visit a nursing home, unless you are planning a meal together, is mid-morning from 10:00-11:30 am, in the afternoon from 2:00-4:30 pm, and sometimes in the evening from 6:00-7:30 pm. Otherwise, check with staff to learn when meals are served or if you can bring food into the facility.
  • You can make the visit informal, just talking one-on-one, or you can plan to have your kids do a presentation like singing songs or planning an activity together like colouring.
  • Children may also bring presents for their grandparents, such as drawings and colourful, handmade cards. Other appropriate gifts for special occasions include bright lap blankets, pillows, and warm, non-slip slippers.
  • If you plan to bring food, live flowers, balloons, or potted plants, be sure to clear it with the administration as some facilities have restrictions and your loved one is likely on a special diet.
  • Before visiting an assisted care setting, spend some time telling your kids about the loved one you will be visiting. Talk about anything they might have in common including, their interests and background.
  • Take some time to reminisce with your senior loved one and acknowledge their lifetime of experience. This will allow senior adults the ability to maintain their dignity and to feel respected and valued
  • With all of your children, discuss your loved one’s limitations and needs.
  • Remind your kids that the facility is your loved one’s home, so privacy and space should be respected as much as possible.
  • Children may need some encouragement to move past their shyness. Prompt them to talk about their interests, school, hobbies and sports.
  • Plan to stay for at least an hour or two. Most residents have plenty of time on their hands. Your visit will probably seem very short to them.
  • This is an excellent opportunity to help your kids learn promise keeping. If you promise to return, begin making plans immediately.

After the first time taking your kids to visit your loved one in a nursing home or assisted living, talk to them afterwards about the experience and ask how they felt. Talk about how their visit made a difference in the life of their loved one.

Teaching Styles at Sunday School

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If you are considering high school ministry, or other forms of Sunday school, you will must first learn to understand the different teaching styles. There are two types of styles to choose from generally, being small group or master teacher format. It is important that you learn the difference between these two options, so that you choose the one that is right for you.

Master Teacher Format

You may feel that something called “master teacher” is quite intimidating. After all, becoming a master takes a whole lot of pressure, work, and focus. In reality, however, being a master teacher means that you will work with the whole student ministry, being a large format. This could be high school ministry, for instance, whereby you could potentially work with every child within that high school. During your cases, however, you will be the sole teacher and spend the first quarter of your lesson introducing the subject, after which the children will be divided into groups, usually by gender and age, and they will then work independently on the subject, facilitated by yourself.

Small Group Format

With small group format schooling, you are likely to work specifically in a Sunday school. All your students will be in smaller groups, and you get to decide how to divide them. You will not just teach them, but encourage discussion and debate. This is the format seen in almost every church across the country.

Which One Is Better?

You will be happy to know that there are no rights and wrongs when it comes to teaching styles. It all depends on where you teach, and what your church expects the children to learn. It also depends on what you are most comfortable with yourself. If you have been used to delivering education using a small group style, and you are suddenly expected to become a master teacher, you may struggle with that to a degree. Similarly, if the church you work for has always offered master teacher styles, you shouldn’t suddenly decide to switch to small group teaching. Unfortunately, you are unlikely to have the flexibility to go from one style to the other while remaining within the same church, in other words. However, you do have the opportunity to switch your style if you were to teach at different high school ministries or different Sunday schools.

At the end of the day, deciding between the two formats is something you need to do based on your personal preferences, and based on the preferences of your church, or the school itself. Remember that you are doing the work of the Lord, and you will not be doing anything wrong by choosing one style or another. The difference is in method of delivery, not in the opportunity to give children the ability to get closer to God, or to increase their understanding of His teachings. That is what truly matters, after all, and not the method in which you are able to achieve this.

All You Need to Know about Making Your Child Look Cool and Funky

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It seems like only yesterday where, if you wanted your child to look a bit different, you had to make the clothes yourself. And even then, you were probably quite limited to funky shirt for boys, or a frilly dress with a belt and bow for girls. Today, however, there are so many kids clothing brands available, and at such friendly prices, that you can literally allow your child to dress however they please.

Some say this is a negative development. One where people lose the skill of being able to make things themselves. But on the other hand, being able to pick from such an array of choices, and making your child look cool and funky, yet different from everybody else, could be considered a skill in its own right. Best of all, thanks to the popularity of kids designer clothes, they are now functional and comfortable as well.

How to Buy Clothes for Your Child

You have the option of going all out and buying something from the Ralph Lauren kids line of clothing. Doing so, however, will leave a burning hole in your pocket. It will generally also mean that your child will only be able to wear those clothes on very special occasions, and they will be able to sit still whenever they do. Realistically, this means your child will be able to wear their outfit no more than twice, before they will have outgrown them.

Instead, try to look for some of the more popular, and affordable, kids clothing brands. Those clothes are designed to be practical and functional, as well as being made of high quality, durable materials. In other words, your child will be able to look amazing and unique, while still being able to just be a child, play around, and have fun. Plus, because these items are so much more affordable, you will be able to buy multiple outfits that you can mix and match, so your child can look good every day.

When you do start shopping for your child’s new clothes, make sure that they are involved in the process as much as possible. You have to allow your child to develop their own individual personality, with a little bit of guidance from yourself. Because cool kids t-shirts and clothing are now available largely online, you don’t even have to drag your children out for the dreaded shopping trip anymore either. Instead of having to worry all the time about your child’s sticky fingers getting on the clothing racks, losing them in the mall, and worrying about your husband eating too much fast food and drinking too much beer as they wait for you, you can make a fun activity at home from it. Simply sit behind the computer together and decide on what types of things they would like. Once they arrive, you can try them on together and send back anything that isn’t as nice as you both would have hoped.

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We left our home in Sydney, Australia many moons ago in May 2012 and, other than a brief stint back in Perth for Christmas and a wedding in early 2014, we have been travelling the world nomadically ever since, running a business from our laptops and we’re here to show you how to do it!