Tag Archives: parenting

July 12, 2021 · 1:33 pm

Productive Personality Development Activities You Can Do With Your Child This Summer.

By Samidha Raj

Summer is a great time to plan new activities with your children. With schools off, children have plenty of time for fun and learning activities that you can do together. You can choose from a plethora of activities that are fun for the whole family. Summer can also be a great time to engage in productive activities for a child’s personality development. Such activities are crucial to develop your child’s confidence, communication skills, and most importantly, to help parents understand their child’s dominant personality traits.

Personality development activities are great for parents and children to know each other better and bond with one another. This bonding can be essential for raising your child better while engaging your child in productive activities that don’t rely on technology. So go ahead and try the activities listed below to develop your child’s social and personality skills over the summer break –

Get Artsy

Art is a beautiful form of expression that brings out the creativity in children. Asking your child to draw something that gives them joy or something they fear can give you insights into their creativity. Art is also an excellent way to stimulate your child’s imagination. Children who speak less find it easier to express their thoughts through art, and in turn, it can help you understand your child better. Art is a crucial part of personality development for children.

Reading Books

It may sound simple, but reading with your child from a young age can contribute significantly to your child’s personality development. Reading at bedtime can be a routine activity, but you can find more time to read with children in the summers. Experiment with new kinds of books that your child has never read before. New books can give your child food for thought and enhance their thinking. Introduce new concepts through storybooks and discuss them with your child. Reading for kids helps them develop a reading habit for life, builds vocabulary, and improves communication skills.

Prepare Your Child For the Stage

Play pretend with your child as they are the star of the show on a stage, while you and the other family members are the audiences. Give your child a mic to play with or to sing into. A lot of children get stage fright just because they have never seen a mic before. Such activities will help your children overcome stage fright and encourage them to participate in school-stage activities.

Educational Games

Find new games that are not only fun but also help your child learn in the process. There are many games such as puzzles, quiz games, and word games like scrabble that the whole family can play together. Such games help in stimulating your child’s thinking and enhance their problem-solving abilities. If your child needs more practice in a particular subject, pick games that allow children to practice skills in that area, such as math games or science experiments.

Journaling

Maintaining a journal is an excellent habit for everyone to sort their thoughts and introspect. Start this habit early by encouraging your child to write a journal describing their day. Encourage them to write about anything new that they did or anything memorable. Journaling can help your child express thoughts that they are unable to say aloud and develop their writing skills. Writing a diary can also be an excellent way for children to unwind at the end of the day.

Personality development for children is not a goal that can be attained overnight. Parents need to make continuous efforts throughout the child’s schooling years to help them attain the skills they need to become responsible adults. Summer is a great time to focus on other aspects of your child’s learning that are not taught in a classroom. Whatever activity you choose, think about how it can be productive and fun for your children.

Every child is different, and you may need to come up with new ideas that suit your child’s interests. Make sure to try some of the activities listed above and see the results.

Social Media and your children’s photos

Do you put photos of your child on social media?

Photo by **Tracy Le Blanc** from **Pexels**

Someone close to me said they were not going to put photos of their newborn child on social media, for safety. But this isn’t what happened. Photos of child are on social media all the time, as are photos of mine.

There are disturbing stories about children’s photos being shared without permission, sold or used for profit, and being collected by those who would do them harm. Yet more and more parents are sharing photos of their children on their personal and public social media.

There are concerns for the child’s privacy and right to consent. Concerns about the focus on image for children’s self esteem, and for the way these photos can be shared, and who owns them.

But there is a desire to connect with other parents, with friends and family who may not see the children any other way. And there is a normalising of the personal being made public. This normalisation may not be a problem for those raised and becoming adults in that climate as much as it seem to those from a more private period in history. But we also cannot know what the children growing up on camera now will think when they are the grown ups.

Photo by **samer daboul** from **Pexels**

So what can we do?

How do we balance sharing photos and maintaining privacy? How to we make use of social media to connect with others through our children’s stories while still protecting our loved ones from being exposed in dangerous ways?

Personally I have a few ways I try to contain my children’s images on the internet.

No nude photos. Ever. Same goes for anything I’d consider “private.” That means no sharing photos on the toilet, even though I have some really funny ones with a toddler and their gumboots. If my children choose to share naked photos of themselves that should be their business.

The vast majority of photos of my children are shared in private invite only groups, open only to my family and real life friends. Some photos are shared to my wider online friend community and a minimal amount are shared to my public social media. Sharing photos is mostly, for me, a modern way of sharing a slide show with friends or passing around snaps at a family gathering.

Photo by **Jessica Lewis** from **Pexels**

This mentality keeps my children’s images on the free internet to a minimum. And the photos that are there show them always fully clothed and are not embarrassing or private.

Do you put photos of your child on social media?

If you do, have you have any rules for yourself?

If you don’t, how do you share photos with those who wish to see them?

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Filed under Babycare Advice, General, Thoughtful

Tagged as children, Facebook, instagram, internet, online, parenting, photography, photos, safety, social media, twitter

October 31, 2019 · 3:13 pm

#8. Top 10 things you don’t need for your baby.

No sooner have you brought your bundle home than the months start flying by and before you know it, it’s time to start solid food. You inevitably begin to think about where your tot will sit and turn your eye towards the multitude of high chair options. But 9 out of 10 are complete overkill and some could even be dangerous. Keep it simple.

#8 Thing you’d be wasting your money on: A huge fancy padded high chair.

Like so much baby gear, the highchair is a good idea gone rogue. Yes, your baby needs to sit up to eat. In fact if they can’t sit up well they are not ready for solids yet. And yes it’s convenient they sit up at table height. And, of course, they need some straps and such to keep them safe. But what they do not need, and what you will regret having to clean, is a highchair built roughly the size and shape of a spaceship, with all the complications and a price tag to match.

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Filed under Baby Product Advice, Babycare Advice, General, Tips and tricks

Tagged as baby essentials, Baby-led weaning, child safety, cleaning, highchair, Home, parenting, weaning

May 6, 2014 · 10:30 am

Guest Post: 6 Tips for Choosing Childcare

This week’s guest post is from Nelli Hooper, founder of York Enrichment Childcare Centre in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada.

If you would like to contribute a guest post please send me a message!

One of the biggest decisions parents face is in choosing the right group childcare facility for their children. It’s hard to send your young kids to another place every day, but it is easier if it’s a place that feels like home. Here are some things you can do to make sure you make the right choice.

photo credit: massdistraction / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Don’t Wait

When looking at childcare, it’s never too early to begin. If you have a specific place or are looking at a reputable, exclusive facility, you may have to sign up months in advance. You want to know at what age they begin accepting children so you can plan your time off. The best childcare centres are usually full with only occasional openings when children graduate.

Consider Accreditation

Not all childcare centres are accredited, but many seek that status to add to their reputation with parents. A centre that is accredited has met the requirements and follows the standards and guidelines that have been put in place. In addition, it shows you that they take their centre seriously. You can contact a state agency to find out which ones are licensed and accredited.

Schedule a Tour

You will want to see the centre before you make your decision to give you an idea about where your child will be staying. You should get to see the first room they will be in and meet the caregivers. They should show you around the room and even give you an idea of the schedule your child will have. This can help you feel more comfortable leaving your child in a strange place when the time comes.

This is also your time to inspect the place. Look for cleanliness and organisation. While any place with young kids is bound to have some chaos, it should be kept to a minimum. Are kids taught to line up and take turns? You can often see this even on a walk-thru of the facility as the kids are engaged in their normal activities. Caregivers and teachers should always be actively involved with the kids.

Ask Questions

Before you take a tour, you should prepare a list of questions that you want to ask. Some of them may be for the director while others will be for the teacher.

What is the ratio of teachers to children?
How many children will be in your child’s class?
What training and certification have the teachers had?
Is there a lot of turnover?
Do the children have a schedule?
How is discipline handled?
Are there opportunities for parents to talk to teachers?
How do you handle special situations such as food allergies and special requirements?

Ask About Parent Visits

Find out if the childcare facility allows parents to visit their children. They may require pre-planned visits while some may be more laid back and allow you to drop in. However, all centres should encourage parents to stop by at appropriate times. Some examples include on holidays, for classroom parties, or even for breakfast or at snack time. These visits allow you to see how your child handles the childcare setting on a daily basis.

Ask Around

Find out from friends and other parents what they think of certain childcare centres. They will tell you the good and bad about where they send their kids. You can also ask other people that work with kids. Library personnel, paediatricians, church teachers, and others can provide valuable insight on the best places to send your child.

Take the time to learn about the childcare centre where you plan to send your child. Since they spend the majority of their days in this place, it should provide them the stability and love that they need to grow and develop into happy, healthy kids.

Nelli Hooper is the proud owner of York Enrichment Childcare Centre located in Richmond Hill, Ontario. Her program has an excellent facility and is setting the standard for childcare within York Region. Please visit her website at http//www.yeccdaycare.ca to learn more about childcare and how it can benefit your child.

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Filed under General, Guest Post, Thoughtful, Tips and tricks

Tagged as baby, childcare, family, Home, motherhood, parenting

July 19, 2013 · 10:25 am

Potty mouth!

You dropped a glass. It shattered as it hit the ground, sending glass splinters skating across the floor and a pool of shard filled juice creeping under the fridge.

“F**k.”

A fairly common response. Except you didn’t say it. Your 18 month old toddler watching you from the doorway did.

My baby has a potty mouth before she’s even potty trained!

She’s so cute at this age. Now she understands around 200 words and can probably say about 60. You can share jokes together, she is beginning to follow your simple rules and instructions, and is able to tell you what she wants to eat and how she likes to play. I bet you love to show off to others how she can repeat a word for you – “Can you say, ‘shark’ ?? … Tell Grandma what this is! …”

What an excellent mimic! And isn’t is she adorable when she tries to use the broom or the phone or the remote just like you do? And now she’s swearing, just like you do. It’s enough to make you want to say, “F**k!” 🙂

How did this happen?!

Your toddler thinks you are the bees knees. You are the bestest, smartest, most wonderfullest person and he wants nothing more than to be like you and to have your approval.

If he’s heard you repeat a word or a phrase often enough, and to be honest it doesn’t have to be that often, he’ll want to try and say it too – to be like you. And if you react when he says it with amusement or attention, even negative attention, he’ll want to keep eliciting that response from you.

As far as your toddler is concerned, he’s ticking all the boxes every time he says ‘the F word’. He does it just like you do, and he gets plenty of attention for it as well.

What should I do to clean up his act?

Remove both the reasons he’s doing it in the first place. Don’t give him something to mimic and don’t give him attention for saying the word.

Believe me, I love a good curse word, when used in the company of adults who appreciate it! But those blissful days of babyhood when you could talk about whatever you wanted, using whatever language you liked and know your child had no clue what was going on are O-V-E-R. And if you can’t spell you’re in trouble, too, because you’re going to spell rather say say things like, ‘ice cream’, or ‘park’, or ‘bedtime’, for many years to come.

Be more mindful of what words you say, and the content of your conversations, from now on. Encourage your child to say a phrase like, “Oh Oh!” when there’s an accident and be sure to do the same yourself.

If he keeps using unwanted words, tell him not to say it, but don’t make a fuss. Do not laugh, no matter how inappropriately hilarious it is to hear your munchkin unknowingly swearing like the proverbial sailor. Keep a blank expression on your face, not one of disapproval either. After briefly telling him not to say the word, go about your business, preferable something unrelated to your child. Now he is no longer getting any worthwhile response from saying this word.

Soon enough he will forget about it and choose to use language that he mimics from your own and that is reinforced by your interactions with him. That is, until he goes to school and learns them all over again from the other kids!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When has your child said something inappropriate?

Yes, I’m a Mom and Yes, I Swear Sometimes — Big Fucking Deal, Right? (jezebel.com)
Cussing With Kids (4mothers1blog.com)
Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing by Melissa Mohr – review (guardian.co.uk)