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Getting Fit With Your Kids

November 10, 2017 by admin

Staying in shape is so important to a healthy life, and yet sometimes – more times than we’d like to admit – working out and exercising takes second priority. Everyone works so hard, hours are long, and downtime is precious. That’s why, when we want to spend time with our families, we don’t want to forsake them for the gym. What if you could do both, though? What if you could get fit and healthy and spend time with the kids? What if the kids benefitted too? Now wouldn’t that be awesome? Well, here are some ideas on how to do exactly that.

Get Outdoors

Getting fit and healthy doesn’t necessarily mean lifting weights or going for a run. You can take it pretty easy and still get some goodness into you. Going for a walk when you would have normally taken the car is a great start. Children spend a lot of time strapped into car seats, chugging along the road. Try something different and go exploring in your local neighborhood, or head out to the park and run around.

Join A Kid-Friendly Gym

If you do want to join a gym, do your research before picking the one that’s closest, or has the best deals. They might not be the best ones in the long term. There are gyms that are family friendly, and these are the ones you want to look out for. These gyms will have family days, with activities for everyone, or they might have kids’ classes which they can enjoy while you work out – afterwards, you can meet up for a healthy meal, and a debrief on how your various classes went! This is perfect for having a little bit of ‘me time’, which is something we all sometimes need. If you want complete solitude at the gym, don’t forget to find the best wireless headphones for working out so you can really enjoy it.

Another selling point can be whether the gym has a swimming pool – not only can this provide swimming lessons for younging children, but it’s also a great way to keep the whole family in check without it seeming like exercise!

Sports Night

For super busy moms and dads, organising a weekly sports night could be the answer to getting fit and spending time with your kids at the same time. It could be anything; you could even pick a new sport each week if that’s what you’re into. For the more competitive families you can tally up the scores and the monthly winner can get a prize. For those who prefer the taking part to the results, just go ahead and have fun. Swimming, tennis, soccer, baseball… there are dozens of sports to choose from, and all of them will make you feel healthier.

Around The House

You don’t even have to leave the house to get fit. Does the yard need tidying? Spend an hour out there with the kids and get it looking good. Working hard sweeping leaves or picking weeds is still exercise, even if it’s not a sport or a gym class. Washing cars, cleaning windows, walking the dog (okay, that one requires leaving the house, but you get the idea), anything and everything that means moving about is good. There will be a huge sense of achievement when the jobs are done, at which point you can reward yourself – and the kids – with a movie, a video game, or whatever else makes you all happy.

Tips For Mastering The Art Of Parenting

November 9, 2017 by admin

Most moms and dads strive to be good parents. That doesn’t mean all will succeed or that it’ll be a smooth ride. Remember the positives and focus on what keeps you going each day. What matters is that you hang in there and do your best.

The more effort and energy you put toward being a stand-up parent, the better you’ll feel about how you did, no matter the outcome. It’s not an easy job, and you’re going to face many challenges, so be careful about letting your guard down. Educate yourself and remain level-headed to give yourself a fighting chance. See tips for mastering the art of parenting.

Manage your Own Stress

It’s hard to be there for your children when you’re not taking care of yourself. Your health matters and the better you feel, the better equipped you are to attend to the needs of others. When you’re stressed out, you tend to yell more, make rash decisions and not have much energy for what truly matters in life. Exercise, eat right and get a proper amount of sleep each night. Schedule time for yourself and self-care activities that make you feel refreshed and joyful.

Teach, Demonstrate & Delegate

It’s easy to tell your kids what to do, but that doesn’t help them learn as quickly. Practice teaching, demonstrating and delegating tasks so that they can take on the responsibility themselves. For example, put your kids in charge of helping out with the family dog. Go over bathing, food and exercise requirements, so they know what to do when it’s their turn. Also, explain to them that it’s necessary to apply Advecta to prevent pests from clinging to your dog and being brought in the house. Understanding the health risks associated with fleas is very important in order to ensure that your dog or cat is safe all season long. The mission of the product is to keep your pet healthy by providing a fast-acting and long-lasting solutions to treat and protect your pet from fleas, flea eggs and larvae and chewing lice.

Take Charge

As a parent, you have to learn to say no and say it like you mean it. It’s important to tell and show your kids who is boss, so they don’t try to walk all over you. Be assertive and direct in your delivery and interactions. If you let them sweet talk you once, then you risk it becoming a habit. You’re the adult and one who should be calling the shots based on your opinion, even if your children don’t agree with you. Ultimately, you’re doing it out of love to protect them from harm and guide them to make better decisions.

Ask for Help

You aren’t expected to do it all alone. Whether you’re a single parent or have a spouse, every parent has a breaking point. Reach out and ask family members or friends if they’re available to help you out when you need it. Find a babysitter you trust and who you can call on when you’re in a tight spot. Organize a carpool in your neighborhood and switch phone numbers with other mothers in the area in case any of you needs assistance. The point is that you can’t be afraid to speak up and ask for help when you need it.

Be Patient

It’s critical you build patience as a parent. Kids are unpredictable and oftentimes a handful, so be prepared to have your tolerance tested. Remember that they’re children, and they all learn at a different pace. Your kids are going to make mistakes, and it’s your job to help them see what they did wrong and learn from it, so they don’t repeat the same mishap in the future. Have a ritual each morning that helps ground you for the day and get your mindset right to handle whatever may come your way.

Listen & Communicate Clearly

Master the art of parenting by being a good listener and not jumping to conclusions. Hear your children out and let them explain to you what they’re thinking and feeling. Practice communicating clearly back and forth when you have their attention, and you’re talking one-on-one. Repeat back to them what you hear and make sure you understand them correctly. Encourage your children to come to you with their problems and explain what’s going on, instead of bottling up their emotions. Prove to them you’re a good listener when they choose to come to you and open up.

Spend Quality Time Together

Don’t be afraid to have fun with your kids. Laugh, be silly and let loose as a family once in a while. This is a great way to destress and strengthen your group bond. Schedule family game nights, bike rides or dinners where you can all reconnect. Life gets busy, and it’s easy to let quality time slide when you don’t put it on the calendar as a regular occurrence. Use it as a time to have fun, talk about a serious issue or simply be together on the couch watching a movie. Be flexible and avoid forcing conversations that will only create conflict. Table it for a different night where you can discuss in private.

Don’t Give Up

Parenting is a full-time job that will take up a lot of your energy and always keep you on your toes. Whatever you do, don’t give up or stop trying. Keep all of the good times in the back of your mind and tackle each hurdle one at a time. Be open to hearing suggestions from other parents and trying different approaches, based on what’s working and what’s not. Walk away for a few minutes if you need to, but come back ready to face reality with a smile on your face.

Conclusion

Being a parent is rewarding, and it comes with many obstacles. Use these suggestions for helping you to keep a level-head and have a positive experience as a parent. These are tips for mastering the art of parenting.

Fun & Cool ways to teach Kids about Nature

October 16, 2017 by admin

There’s nothing better you can do for your kids than helping them understand how the world they live in works. Mother Nature is all around us, so it’s good to protect her as much as we can. And since kids love to use games to learn, here’s how playing can help them develop a better understanding of the world.

Take them outside

You can’t teach children about nature if you’re not going outside, right? So it’s good to plan different sorts of outdoor activities even from a very young age, like a few months. An infant, just like a toddler or an older child will adore playing with the grass, discovering new sounds, smells, and textures.

Hiking is a great activity and you can start doing that immediately after a child learns how to walk. Taking them in such hiking trips will help them understand rules as well as see different landscapes and ecosystems.

Now’s your chance to explain how volcanoes work, how glacial landforms appear as well as to discuss the fauna and vegetation of a certain place. You should also take the time to answer the children’s questions as they go. Don’t be afraid to explore either, particularly if you get the best survival watch. The children will love this new adventure, and you can get plenty of learning opportunities.

Play “what if” games

Allow your children to make up stories about the things they see. That enhances their imagination, helping them make better correlations between the things they see outside. Storytelling helps connects different plants, animals, and landforms, and the kids are doing all the guesswork.

For example, you can hike on a mountain with abrupt, calcareous cliffs, little vegetation, and scarce water sources. So ask the children how they think evergreen trees or mountain goats can withstand in this type of terrain. Ask them how they think these mountains got to have these steep cliffs in the first place and if they can find a link to the weather.

You can actually start by personifying a certain animal you see on your way, like Roger the Badger or Annie the Deer. What are their stories? Where do they live? What do they eat? What skills do they have? All these games will help kids remember more about the things they see.

Help them collect things

Collecting some of the most important things on a hike is like having a memento of all the great stuff they saw. Of course, you can always take lots of photos as well, so you can connect the dots and have the story of your hike.

You can gather leafs from the trees you saw on your way, and attach printed photos of those trees with a few background information for each. You can do the same with pebbles, snail shells or feathers.

After each trip in the wilderness, you’ll get an album that your kids can revisit anytime they want to. They can also add new information to this album, new photos as they visit the same reservation again, or start a new album from scratch.

You can also build toys from the things you collect. If you collect enough chestnuts, for instance, you can paint their white parts in different colors then use the chestnuts for various games that require teams or keeping a score.

Sleep under the open sky

If you want to combine the children’s sense of adventure with stories, awe, and mystery, then spending a few nights outside is the thing to do. You can teach kids how to set up their shelters for the night, how to build a campfire and how to make sure this doesn’t spread out into a wildfire.

You get an invaluable chance of looking at the night’s sky, to admire the stars and moon, but also to teach children a bit about galaxies, constellations named after the Ancient Gods or more advanced things like black matter, black holes and the origins of the Universe.

Teach them survival skills

This is another great way to teach them how they can interact with nature. It’s good that kids learn all sorts of information and trivia about animals, plants, and landscape, but it’s even better if they learn how to use all these facts.

The first thing children should know is how they can take care of their equipment. And since it’s not always wise for them or for you to pack a ginormous backpack, it’s great to find out how to choose and use versatile items.

For instance, you can teach them how to waterproof boots, so they can wear them in different weather. You can also teach them how to make knots that hold, how to set up a tent or improvise a shelter when they have no tent. Learning how to use a map and compass to find their location is another very useful skill to have outdoors.

Get them a pet

It’s great if you can take kids outdoors in Natural Reservations or in safaris so they can see the wildlife around them. But it’s also a good idea for the kids to have a pet, whether at home or a class pet.

That will teach them how to take care of another living being, what that pet eats, when it sleeps, and how it interacts with the world around it. If you decide to get an ant farm, this teaches children certain information about working together. Or you can help them make such a cool dwelling place for ants on their own, it’s likely they’ll feel more invested in the ants’ lives this way.

What will you do?

With so many wonderful activities you can do with your children, the ones we’ve discussed are just the tip of the iceberg. But at least you have an idea of how you can combine stores and games to raise the kids’ curiosity so they’ll want to find out more about Nature and what it can offer us.

Author Bio

Rebecca lives in USA, but loves hiking all over the world. Her favorite is Everest Base Camp Trek in Nepal. It usually takes 16 days, but she likes to slow down, enjoy mountains, company of other adventurers and take more pictures, so it took her 28 days last time. Another of her passion is the ocean, so all short and long hikes along the ocean shore bring a lot of joy. She also writes for HikingMastery.com.

Choose The Best Baby Food For Your Baby

October 12, 2017 by admin

When we talk about feeding baby food to babies, most mothers will desire for their babies to be fed home cooked baby food. For mothers who are not working, preparing home cooked food for their babies is of no big issue. They have the time to shop for the freshest natural food including fruits and vegetables. They can then prepare the food in batches, pack and store them in small portions in the freezer. There are some working mothers who will make extra effort to make their own home cooked baby food for their babies this way. This can be very tiring for mothers who worked long hours away from home.

For mothers who are not able to prepare home cooked baby food, they have no choice but to depend on commercial baby food. There are many brands of baby food displayed on the shelves of supermarkets or shopping malls for the mothers to choose from. Compared to home cooked baby food, buying commercial baby food is very convenient.

We all have heard or read that mass-produced baby food is not hundred percent natural. In order to produce baby food commercially, the natural food has to be processed, bottled or packed for distribution. Commercially produced baby food contains additives e.g. rice flour, water, citrus acid and etc. Salt and sugar are also added to the mass produced baby food.

With advanced technology and increase of knowledge, we know that manufacturers of commercially prepared baby food are aiming to produce baby food with quality as near as possible to the best natural baby food prepared by mothers. Amara is one of these baby food that is ranked 2^nd this year. Amara baby food is known for using fresh and nutritious ingredients. The fruits and vegetables used are organic and pesticide free. The preparation technique used retains the essential nutrients and goodness of the natural fruits and vegetables and with the minimal addition of sugar.

For mothers who are looking for safe and nutritious baby food, Amara baby food is one of the best options. The baby food come in pouches and each pouches is enough for one meal. The pouches are packed in boxes. They are packed for easy storing and handy for travelling. The shelf life is around 12 – 18 months. Preparation of the baby food is simple. Just add breast milk, baby formula or water. Then mix into a smooth paste and it is ready for your baby to eat.

Helping Your Child Get Used To Being At A Child Care Centre

September 8, 2017 by admin

If your child has just started at child care, remember that things can go wrong on the first day, and your child will likely protest when it’s time to say goodbye. Many kids experience nervousness and anxiety when starting child care for the first time, but there is quite a bit you can do to make the transition as easy as possible for both you and your little one.

Helping Your Child Adjust to Child Care

You can begin preparing your child by talking to him or her in advance, telling then where they will be going and what they will be doing during the day. You could also take your child to visit the day care centre a few times before you have to leave them for the first day. Show your child where he or she will be going and answer any questions that have as openly and honestly as you can to reassure them that everything will be okay.

On the first day, try to arrive around 15 minutes beforehand to help your child settle into some sort of activity before you have to get to work. This way, they’re less likely to protest your leaving if they’re already having fun.

If your child is bound to be anxious, send a familiar object like a favourite blanket or stuffed animal to help him or her adjust to the situation. Child care centres in Sydney or in your local area are always happy to accommodate these kinds of things.

Here are a few more tips to make your child feel at ease:

Try to make enough time so that you won’t be rushing to sing in and get your child settled with an activity.
Be sure to take note of your own body language when you say goodbye to your child. If you feel uncertain, you could be showing your own anxiety to him or her.
Try to resist the temptation to just sneak out the door when your little one is not looking – it could well create problems for you both. If your child fears that you are going to disappear each time you drop them at school, they may be unwilling to let you out of their sight.
If you think your child is going to react very strongly on day one, see if your partner or a friend could drop them off.
Ask the teacher if they can provide insight about any problems. For example, your little one may not like other children or is just having a hard time settling down for a nap.
Do your best to stick to a routine and avoid making any changes while your child gets used to the new arrangement.
Accept that it’s time for your little one to adjust to his or her new school routine and that some children may take longer than others.
Try to be alert to any underlying problems. If your little one has yet to settle into the new arrangement, it may be time to talk to the teacher. It could be something as simple as a personality clash and your child may do better in another classroom.

Remember those tips and your child will be able to adjust in the child care centre easily.