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5 Ways to Get Your Child Excited About Learning

January 26, 2022 by admin

Your child’s education is one of the most important aspects of their upbringing. Naturally, learning doesn’t just happen in the classroom. You have to teach your child at home as well. But just as importantly, you have to make sure that your child actually wants to learn. If learning is not enjoyable for young children, they will want to spend their formative years doing other things that do not always help open and expand their minds. So, in today’s post, we are going to look at 5 ways to get your child excited about learning!

Talk With Your Child’s Teachers

It goes without saying that a lot of learning will happen at school. To a large degree, this part of your child’s education is outside of your control. For this reason, it is important to speak with your child’s teacher on a regular basis. This way, you can exchange information, learning about potential problem areas that your child faces in the classroom while also providing their teacher with useful tips about how your child learns at home. If you’re looking for a Pre-K program that actively engages with kids and creates excitement for learning, be sure to check out the programs available through Frog Street!

Read With Your Child

Reading is one of the best ways to help your child learn. While some children do not enjoy reading as much as others, most children love stories. So, you can read to your child or with your child. Either way, having your child engage with books on a regular basis (ideally every day) will help them grow and learn through fun stories.

Limit Non-Educational Screen Time

Smartphones and tablets can be great tools to help your child have fun while learning. Though many experts recommend keeping your child away from screens during their first few years, they will almost certainly encounter them at one point or another. For this reason, you should ideally limit their ability to access smart devices at home without your supervision. When they are using smartphones or tablets, they should be engaging in learning activities or playing educational games.

Incorporate Lessons Into Daily Activities

Everything you do with your child is an opportunity to learn. Whether you’re going for a walk in the park or making dinner at home, use these opportunities to teach your child about the world around them. Your child likely has tons of questions about things they see and observe, so do your best to answer their questions and even create engaging activities or games around different subjects.

Show Your Own Enthusiasm For Learning

Ultimately, children learn the most from observing others. Moreover, children tend to copy the behavior of their parent, parents, or caregivers. If you seem bored by learning activities, how can you expect your child to get excited? So, even if you had a long day at work and are feeling tired, do your best to show excitement about learning with your child. They will likely mimic your positive attitude in no time!

Did you enjoy our guide on 5 ways to get your child excited about learning? If so, be sure to check out some of our other posts on 3 Kids And Us today!

How to Help Your Child Avoid Bad Health Habits

April 22, 2021 by admin

Bad habits don’t form overnight. Rather, they develop slowly over long periods of time. As such, it can be difficult to notice if you –– or someone in your family –– starts to fall into a bad health habit. Parents in particular are right to be concerned about their kids forming poor dietary and exercise patterns early in life. To prevent that from occurring, today we’ll explore how moms and dads can spot, stop, and reverse bad habits that could affect the health of their little ones. Check it out here:

Communicate

Communication is vital to every relationship. It should come as no surprise that one of the best ways to monitor the health and happiness of a child is to simply talk to them! While they may not be able to articulate everything that they notice or feel, they can certainly let you know if they think something’s wrong. Similarly, parents should have regular dialogue with teachers, babysitters, and other parents to make sure that their children aren’t building bad habits outside of the house.

Set a Good Example

Kids can tell when their parents aren’t being genuine with them. If you say to your child that a good night of sleep is very important, but you yourself often stay up late and fail to get quality rest, that message will be unlikely to carry much weight. This is why setting a good example for your kids is fundamental. Going on walks, eating healthy meals, visiting healthcare clinics like Northwest Surgery Center if you have a problem, and generally following wellness best practices on your own will help your child develop good habits as well. Children take cues from their parents constantly, so be sure to exemplify the habits you want them to follow.

Consult with a Professional

It’s impossible for even the most vigilant parents to identify every problem that could affect their child right away. Sometimes bad habits can form as a result of physical ailments or emotional distress. As a general rule, parents should schedule regular health checkups for their kids as often as needed. However, if you’re concerned about your child’s behavior for a specific reason, then it’s a good idea to consult with a medical expert.

Be Patient

Breaking a bad habit is tough. Getting a child to curtail a bad habit can be even more challenging. Parents must be patient and persistent though, to ensure the long-term health and happiness of their children. Your patience now will be hugely important for the development of your child –– remember that when things get tough!

How to Keep Your House Organized as a Working Mom

April 27, 2018 by admin

Organization is likely a word you hear often, and you probably hear it more frequently when you become a parent. It seems to be one of the ways that you can keep your head above the water and survive the many challenges that accompany each day. When you’re a working mom, however, it is likely that your workload as well as responsibilities increase. To avoid becoming overwhelmed, you’ll need to ensure there’s a level of organization in your home. Everyone has a different method and approach when it comes to organizing, so it’s important that you find what works for you. On those premises, this article should help you find a few ways that you can make this happen if you’ve been struggling.

Get Cabinets

Cabinets can be a saving grace when you’re a parent as they help you put things neatly. This is often necessary when your kids have a million and one items and always seem to have one missing sock as well as other lost items. You can never really have enough cabinets so if you have the space for it, you should put extra ones in the house. You could also consider plastic drawers or containers as they’ll be useful for storing items as well. You should have a drawer for different items so that things don’t get mixed and lost. This might mean having a drawer dedicated to arts and crafts items, having one for learning items, while another can be allocated to small toys that have many parts and can easily get lost such as legos, for instance. Whatever the case, look for ways to use storage boxes or cabinets to keep things in order.

Encourage Tidy up Time

Getting kids to tidy up at several periods during the day can be helpful to you as well as them. It is also a great way to spend quality time together and teach them core skills as well as values. If your child is relatively young, trying to keep the house tidy can seem near impossible when trying to get work done, preparing meals and doing the laundry. For this reason, it is imperative that you encourage them to help tidy up any time they make a mess to save yourself zooming around the house endlessly to pick things up. Some secrets to cleaning with kids include starting them young and encouraging tidying as early as possible. This helps build their confidence and makes them feel like they’re an important part of the household as they’re contributing to helping it run smoothly and neatly. It is best to stick with age-appropriate tasks, but for a two or three-year-old, you could perhaps consider getting them to put their toys away, put their dirty clothes in the laundry basket, or put their food mat back once they’re done eating.

Get a Work Desk

As a working mom; it is essential that you have a desk that you can work on. It could help you sit down and focus when it’s work time so that you can get some work done. Transitioning from mommy mode to worker mode can be a difficult transition to make, so creating a serene work-life environment may help. One of the items you may need is a work desk that you can place your laptop and documents on that you need for work. A sit stand keyboard tray may also be ideal so that you can alternate between standing and sitting when you’re working as well as move your desk around if need be. This should also help working more comfortable which hopefully will enhance your productivity so you can get enough work done in between mommy duties.

Clean Twice a Day

It can be tempting to want to clean up several times a day especially if you’re a bit of a neat freak, however, if you’re a work-from-home mom, spending all of your time cleaning won’t leave you with much time to get your work done. At the same time, the last thing you want is a big pile of mess at the end of the day, so it is advisable that you consider doing 5-10 minute cleans twice a day. When trying to keep a house clean with kids, you could opt to clean before nap time and then do a family clean before dinner time. As mentioned earlier, letting the kids help is often a good idea as it takes a little load off your back and teaches them how to keep the house tidy. However, you should try and leave serious spring cleaning to the weekend or your day off whenever you have one. Some things to stick to on a daily basis include arranging the living room, washing the dishes, organizing the kid’s toys, and putting dirty clothes away.

Organize Your Time

The importance of time-management can’t be stressed enough whether you’re a working mom or stay-at-home mom. You should begin by tracking your time to see how it’s being spent and then making a note regarding how you can make adjustments. Some key things you should consider in time-management is keeping up with the kids’ needs, how much time you need to work on a daily basis, and how long it will take you to keep your house organized. Once you’ve figured this out, you can then go on to create a schedule that works for you and enables you to get everything done. It will most likely take time for you to get the hang of it and things won’t always go according to schedule but keep working at it.

Keeping your house organized with busy and active kids can seem like an uphill battle. However, to ensure you live in a thriving environment and one that you can work from, making sure things are in order, and there’s little to do at the end of the day is crucial. The hope is that by applying a few of the tips mentioned above, you’ll be a pro at organizing with little ones in no time.

Practical Ways to Make More Time for Your Family as a Working Parent

April 13, 2018 by admin

Family time is something that’s vital to your happiness and bond of relationships. However, it can be hard to find the time to spend with the ones you love. Whether you like it or not, you’ve got to work, manage the home, and take care of other responsibilities that you may have on your plate. Unfortunately, this means that with the little time you have left, you often want to rest or catch up on work or other things. Instead of trying to carve significant chunks of time out to spend with your family, why not find ways to incorporate it into your daily schedule instead? It could mean learning to do more of your daily activities together as a family as opposed to alone so that you get to bond on a daily basis. In this light, this article is going to explore five practical ways that you can make more time for your family as a working parent.

Help the Kids With Their Homework

After a long day at work, one of your first thoughts may be to simply crash on the sofa. However, if you do this five days out of the week, then you may have little time to spend with your kids on weekdays. Why not consider taking turns with your partner and doing their homework with them as a way to get a little bit of quality time? As they say, it is the little things that count, so showing your kids that you care about them as well as their education is a way to make them feel both supported and loved. Just in case you need some tips on doing homework with your kids, some include knowing the teachers and what they’re looking for, and setting up a homework-friendly area. You should aim to schedule regular study time which should ideally be after work once you’ve settled in, motivate and monitor your child’s work, as well as praising their help and efforts. You may find that by spending a few hours with them a week on homework, their confidence increases and they excel in school as well.

Plan Romantic Nights in

Sometimes, you can get so wrapped up in looking after the kids and working that you neglect your partner. It is important that you keep that spark alive and create a loving and caring environment where your kids can grow up. For this reason, you should always look for ways to spend time with your partner on a daily basis. It could mean watching your favorite program together before bed, talking about your day while brushing your teeth, washing the dishes together, or simply having a romantic night in once the kids are asleep. Quality time with your partner also doesn’t have to last for hours on end. It could mean having a few hours of intimacy and making them count by trying sex toys, role play, and other things that could liven up your sex life. If you click here, you’ll find a number of toys that could help put you both in the mood after a long day or week of work. A romantic night in as opposed to trying to go out and find a babysitter for the kids is sometimes all that you need.

Have a Family Fun Day Once a Month

Another way to create time for your family in the midst of a busy schedule is to plan a family fun day once a month. Instead of trying to do something on a weekly basis, you can all commit to doing something fun together once a month unfailingly. Doing so also gives you enough time to plan something meaningful that everyone will enjoy as well as remember. If you’re looking for unique ideas of things to do as a family, some include going on a treasure hunt, going on a ride in a hot air balloon, having a picnic in a park or beach or touring your hometown. You can sit down and plan what you’re going to do each month or take turns letting someone organize the monthly activities. It should help you bond as a family as well as give you something to look forward to on a monthly basis.

Cook Dinner Together Some Nights

Some nights, instead of one person cooking dinner alone, why not consider making it a family affair? By doing so, it is a chance for everyone to be in one place at the same time and spend time together after a busy day. This time is also a chance to teach your children good habits such as healthy eating, helping out with household responsibilities, and cleaning up. You could allocate different chores such as getting someone to cut the vegetables, another to set the table and somebody else to wash the dishes. It is also a chance for you to talk, laugh, and enjoy one another’s company while learning new things about each other in the process.

Exercise Together

Developing positive habits as a family is also a way to spend quality time together. For instance, you could begin working out early in the morning before work and the school run to get you energized and set off on a good day. Family workouts can strengthen both bodies and bonds in a number of ways with keeping your bodies healthy and working together to ensure being at the top of the list. When exercising you should try and focus on pushing movement, squatting movement, hinging movement, and then cool down by stretching. These workouts don’t have to be longer than thirty minutes, and you could stick to doing it once or twice a week.

Making time for your family often requires you to sacrifice, which could mean leaving work a little early, not having that extra hour to yourself some days, or learning to share your time with your family by doing things together. You should remember, however, that family bonds aren’t built overnight, and you have to put in work in order to get the results that you want. Hopefully, next time you’re struggling to make time for your loved ones, you can refer to this article and remember that there are enough hours in a day to spend with family no matter how busy you are.

Handy hints for if your little one is sick

March 8, 2018 by admin

If you are a new parent, or perhaps you are mom or dad to an ever-growing family, then you will know that there is nothing worse than if your little one gets sick. If your child is still under the age of three, then you can expect a lot of tears and screams, as they may struggle to tell you what is wrong. It can be incredibly distressing for any parent, and you may even begin to feel upset and useless. Help is at hand, so you need not struggle along on your own. It is vital that if your little one is unwell, you seek medical advice and visit your local health practitioner or doctor to get them fully checked over.

Vomiting and Diarrhea

If your little ones attend daycare or spend time with a sitter, around other infants, then sadly there will be a time when they suffer from either vomiting or diarrhea bug. Changes in food, water, and the environment can affect sensitive tums, causing a change in digestion or even irritation if they are beginning to eat solid foods. It could also be worth getting your little one tested for food intolerances, in particular, if you notice that they are in pain or suffer a lot of wind after eating particular foods, such as dairy products. If your baby is a fussy eater and you find them spitting up a lot after eating, then baby acid reflux medicines can help to aid digestion. Remember that diarrhea and vomiting are common in extremely young babies and infants, but if you notice any blood in their stool or green discharge, then it is advisable to seek medical advice.

Flu

During the colder winter months, your little one is even more susceptible to coming down with the flu. If your little cherubs have the flu, then you can expect a grumpy, cranky and irritable infant that is restless and hard to settle down for a nap. If you think your child is at risk, then consult your local health practitioner about getting them vaccinated against the flu as this is highly contagious, especially amongst younger children. If they are already ill, you can expect the virus to last between three and seven days. However, if it is any longer than this, then you should book an appointment with your doctor.

Ear Infection

If you notice that your child is finding it hard to hear, and either rubbing or scratching their ear even more than usual, then they may be suffering from an ear infection. Although most infections will clear on their own during the course of a few days, it is worth seeing your medical practitioner if you notice any unpleasant smells, or colored discharge oozing from the ear. Ear infections are easy to treat with antibiotics but can be unpleasant for both infant and parents to deal with.

Remember to seek medical help if your little one is sick or unwell. It is important that you don’t feel isolated, and consult expert advice if you are unsure.