Make Your Kid’s Smarter!

In today’s time where most parents find it real difficult to spend time, it is natural for parents to look for ways that will make for joyful families. This is because as kids are left alone or at day care, their learning is quite limited.

If you are also one of the worried moms who are desperately looking out for ways to make the kids happier and smarter, then these 8 tips, backed by science will make difference in your kids’ attitude and also make them smarter.

1. Music Lessons: Research indicates that music lessons help kids become smarter. The children in music groups exhibit greater increase in the full-scale IQ in comparison to the children in control groups. Though, the effects are smaller in proportion, but it can be generalized across various index scores and IQ subtests.

2. Exercise: Research shows that kids who are in good shape learn faster. Kids after exercise pick vocabulary words almost 20% faster than they could before the exercise. This is because the learning rate is directly related to BDNF levels. This is not all, exercise increases the blood flow to the brain’s part that helps in increasing the memory.

3. Read With The Kids: Against the common practice of reading to the kids it is suggested to read with them. It is not a great practice to let the kids look at the pictures while you do the reading. Call for the kids’ attention while you are reading the words. This helps in building the reading skills. It also promotes the early literacy ability.

 4. Proper Sleep: There is no doubt that sleep deprivation makes the kid dumb. Research shows that a loss of an hour of sleep is equal to loss of two consecutive years of cognitive development. It won’t be wrong to say that if sixth grader misses an hour of sleep, their brain turns to of a fourth grader. So, as a parent, always remember that there is a correlation between the amount of sleep and grades.

5. Self-Discipline: It will not be wrong to say that the kids with high IQ but low self-discipline will not be very successful in life. Willpower is of great importance for individual success. Kids who exercise high level of willpower earn better grades and get admission in best colleges. So, make sure as a parent you focus on developing self-discipline in the kids through engaging them in sports and other activities.

6. Continuous Learning : Always remember that real learning is active and not passive. The brain of kids learns faster by doing things and not merely listening about them. Research shows that kids must spend two-third of their time testing the skill rather than putting efforts to absorb it.

7. Food We Eat: Ideally kids must eat healthy as eating makes a big difference on their grades. As a parent you must ensure that the kids take high fiber and carbohydrates diet in the breakfast. But remember the food that your kid ate in the span of one week, affects their performance. Also, remember glucose and caffeine has beneficial effect on the kid’s cognitive performance and increase the attentional system. Treat the kids with candies or sodas while studying than while relaxing.

8. Happy Kids: There is no doubt that happier kids turn into accomplished and successful adults. Happiness adds to the performance and thus happy kids are more successful than unhappy kids. To promote happiness as a parent, be a happy parent.

Last but not the least, believe in your kid’s ability. If you believe that your kid is smarter, then they tend to perform better. As this boosts their confidence and makes them feel happier and satisfied.

Top 6 Ways to Get Healthy and Fit With Your Family

Exercising can get monotonous over a period of time. If you are also among the majority who find exercising nothing less than a chore, it is high time that you look for some fun ways of exercising, so that you can not only get healthy but also get to spend time with your family.

Read on to know some of the innovative ways to get health and fit with your family:

      1. Join classes together: You can easily find some yoga or aerobics classes where you can go with your spouse or children. You can also indulge in some sports that you or your kids like to spend more time together.

      2. Move yourself: Instead of taking out your car for every small task, try to talk a small walk for smaller distances. It would not only help you to get health but will also help you contribute something to the nature. The money that you save in fuel is another bonus.

      3. Make up for your time: Imagine a scenario when you have to wait for your class or the doctor. Instead of killing that time with a magazine or listening music, get up and get a walk and burn some calories with your family member.

     4. Indulge in household chores: Plan a house cleaning with your kids. Pump up the volume and get started. This will not only help you to clean your house but will also make your children responsible.

      5. Celebrate in style: Wait for occasions like birthdays and anniversary. Go out for a city tour. Do window shopping, roam around museums and do lots of walking. Don't waste the time watching movies or television.

      6. A pet: A pet will help you to form a routine. Take turns to take the pet for a morning and evening walk.

These activities will not only help you burn calories but also bond well with your family. You will surely come closer to your family and start valuing each other.

Gift ideas for different kind of kids

Each year, the market is flooded with a huge variety of toys. This can lead to much confusion for parents who are looking for toys that will stimulate their child. Most parents are looking for toys that are intellectually stimulating and give value for their hard-earned dollars. The rule of thumb to follow when picking a toy for your child is to consider what type of kid you have. The following gift ideas are arranged according to your child’s personality.

The Bookworm

If your child loves books or is nicknamed “the bookworm”, then this is a great opportunity to introduce your child to literary series of books. The Favorite Series Starters Boxed Set: A Collection Of First Books From Five Favorite Series For Early Chapter Book Readers is the perfect gift for children between the ages of 6 to 9. This is a great way for children to follow their favorite characters and also promote literacy.

The Computer Whiz

If your child enjoys manipulating three dimensional puzzles and interactive games, then the Sifteo Cube Intelligent Game System is the right choice. These offer children an interactive and tactile gaming surface, bringing to life a passive screen. It encourages lots of finger and hand manipulation. This is an award-winning game system, great for small groups and individuals.

The Scientist

The Primary Science Set created by Learning Resources, is the ideal gift item for children who like to experiment, take things apart and put back together. This toy comes with real scientific tools, sized for tiny hands. It contains tools such as a funnel, eyedropper, flask, goggles, tweezers, and 10 activity cards. The toy enables children to carry out authentic experiments.

The Builder

Magna Tiles Clear Colors 100 Piece Set is the best gift for children between 2 and 12 years. Children will enjoy building different ideas and taking them apart. These tiles can be used in conjunction with LEGO as well. This toy is a teacher’s favorite because it is great for building fine motor control, not to mention creativity. It will keep children occupied for hours.

The Board Gamer

This type of child enjoys playing in groups or even one-on-one. Board game toys such as Qwirkle by Mindware are great for building spatial reasoning, pattern perception, as well as color and shape recognition. Board games encourage your child to think critically. Board games are great for family pastime, and even as a group activity with friends.

The Artist

This type of child enjoys dabbling with paint brushes, crayons, markers, and coloring pencils. Crayola Oil Pastels are a great gift idea for this type of child. The color shades are vivid and creamy, and are great for teaching color theory because they can be blended to create secondary colors. They are an inexpensive item and can be stored easily.

The Great Pretender

This type of child enjoys fantasy, and make believe. Apart from dressing up, children can also use puppets to express themselves. For instance, the Melissa & Doug Puppets are a great gift idea for children ages 3 and up. They can be used to tell stories, express emotions, and for general learning.

The Athlete

This type of child is very active and usually enjoys engaging in all types of sporting activities. The Kickback Soccer Goal And Pitch Back is a great gift idea for just this sort of purpose. Children can use this toy to play soccer, hockey, street hockey, and back ball.

The Homemaker

The Red Vintage Kitchen is a great toy for a child who enjoys pretend play in the kitchen. Apart from cooking, children can set up a restaurant, go shopping, unload groceries, and even have tea parties. This is a great toy for children aged 2 to 8 years.

Choosing a great gift for your child will be much easier if you can identify what “type” of child you have!

Mooting Responsibilities and Allowances for a Child

Setting a routine and following it smoothly is the major factor that contributes to efficient running of any household. But, a critical question that all the parents' face is: When is the right time to raise the stakes for my child? Be it allowance or responsibilities on day-to-day basis. Every parent has two options, as the child grows up. These are: letting them be babies or helping and guiding them to grow up. Then the concern is, whether are we pushing them to grow up too fast? Hence, it is vital to strike a perfect balance and respecting them for what they are. The first sign to re-evaluate the routine is when the child starts getting jaded and uninterested in the set daily routine of chores and bedtimes.

1. Taking more responsibilities: It is always better to be flexible and willing to appraise routines on daily basis. When your child starts outdoing his assigned chores list, that's the time you can challenge him to add on more responsibilities. Allocate a new task and see if he can do it himself. To your surprise, you might find it completed. But, if not, then you jump in for help. When you notice your child sneaking around and doing something unacceptable, then explain him that it is a privilege for which he might not be ready. At the same time, this behavior is an indication for you to provide him more responsibility and then reward him with more freedom as privilege.

2. Allowance: It is nice to reward the child with praise for completing tasks when they are young and wanting to help you around with daily chores. While most of the daily chores should be attended to without any monetary rewards attached to it, a little additional incentive and raised allowance for harder and difficult jobs will motivate them to do more. The raise can be in any form like: money, freedom or a chance to go somewhere or meet somebody. Also, prior to any raises it is important to be sure about the duration of their allowance, the frequency of raise and your own affordability in the long run. Educating the children about the direct relation between hard work and allowance is a priceless and vital goal for their adulthood.

It is wise to move ahead gently and gradually observe the child's reaction to every change that you bring up. Taking any decision or changing a routine involves a lot of parental instinct.

Top 10 Natural Sleep Remedies

Are you suffering from insomnia? Rest assured you are not alone! There are hundreds and thousands of people that are suffering from it. The reason is stress and anxiety. These factors affect the mental well-being affecting the sleep pattern adversely. More and more people are taking sleep inducing drugs and pills to sleep. However, this has been proved to have serious side effects on both your mind and body.

 Given below are some natural sleep remedies which will put to bed naturally:

1.         Sleeping Routine: Try and develop a good sleeping routine. Avoid sleeping till late or till noon on weekends also, as this may lead to disruption of your biological clock, thereby leading to unnecessary sleeping problems. This will not only help form an automatic sleep-wake clock inside the mental system, but also avoid the problem of tossing and turning while trying to asleep.

2.         Working Out: Studies have proved time and again that working out regularly not only helps you stay more active and fit but also improves your quality of sleep pattern. Working out regularly leads to less depressive symptoms and sleepiness during the daytime as well, thereby enabling you to take a good sleep during the night.

3.         Better Diet: You must adopt a diet which involves intake of lesser amount of caffeine. For instance, you must avoid too much coffee or tea or even soft drinks. Also avoid overeating and spicy food, which may lead to indigestion or acidity, thereby leading to unhealthy sleep pattern.

4.         Stop Smoking: There are several studies that show that non-smokers are bound to have a healthier sleeping pattern than people who smoke regularly. The reason is simple, nicotine as it has causes sleep withdrawal problem. It is also a well-known fact that smoking leads to respiratory problems which disrupts your restful sleeping patterns.

5.         Avoid Drinking at Night: One of the myths associated with alcohol is that it puts you to sound sleep. On the contrary, drinking alcohol at night not only harms the pattern of sleep brainwaves that make you feel fresh in the mornings, it also disrupts your long term sleeping patters.

 

 

6.         Avoid Kids and Pets: One would even come across several studies which prove that people who sleep with their pets or kids on their bed are the ones facing most trouble in having a good night’s sleep. Each creature requires its own space, whether it is your pet or your kid or you yourself. Hence, each must have a space of their own, so that you are not disrupted from your sleep.

7.         Switching off to Night Mode: Whether you are thinking of taking a nap during the day or during the night, it is important for your brain to sense darkness around. This is because psychologically, your brain considers brightness as the time to wake up and darkness as the time to go to sleep. Hence, keep your room free from any form of light when sleeping, especially when you really need a good restful sleep.

8.         Avoid Television: You must avoid watching television just before going to sleep. This is because you need to put your mind in a relaxed frame while sleeping and sitting in front of the television or computer puts your mind in an alert state, which can grasp all the information flowing from these electronic mediums. The bright light from the television or the computer or even your phone can cause trouble in going to sleep and hence, these should be avoided.

9.         Focus on Mind Relaxing: You must have noticed that it is easier to get sleep when your mind is absolutely relaxed and free from all thoughts. Therefore, lie down on your bed and shut your mind from everything. Focus on your breathing pattern and try to relax each muscle of your mind, starting with your brain muscles till your foot muscles.

10.     Comfortable Bed: You must find the right kind and form of mattress and pillow that suits your body structure, especially your neck and back. Too thin a mattress can also cause stiffness in muscles and backache. In case you are having such troubles while sleeping then try and adopt a different mattress for a while to see if it’s the mattress which is causing trouble. If yes, then it is time for you to be a new one which suits your body.

 

These ten habits will let you have a sound sleep and help you stay active and fit throughout the day.