How To Deal With A Moody Child
Right now I have one very moody child. It is school holidays and the kids are nagging me to go on the computer. That is fine, only there are four of them and only one computer. Not only that, but I need my computer for my work each day. Nevertheless the children are bombarding me for a turn on the computer.
I wish I had more than one computer in the house but I don’t. Actually, I am in the process of buying one right now but the kids will just have to wait for a few more weeks. Not happy!
I had left the three boys to sort themselves out today and organise who would go on when. I gave them plenty of time, but when I finally gave them the five minute warning it was, “oh, he got more time than me. I didn’t get a proper turn. It’s not fair. I’m going on and you can’t stop me”.
It kind of made me wish that I hadn’t bothered giving them a turn as they seemed to turn it all around and throw it back on me. Everyone seemed to end up angry with me. Now go figure! I let them use my computer, even though I really needed it for myself and to show their appreciation the kids all end up angry with me.
Actually, right now I only have one son angry with me. He has been in his bedroom sulking for twenty minutes or so. He came out once, stormed over to his brother, picked up a washing basket full of clothes that his brother had just bought in off the line, and threw the washing all over the floor before storming back into his bedroom. Hmmm… what to do about that??
I gave him a few minutes then went into his bedroom to see if he wanted to talk. Again I was met with arguing and non-compliance so I retreated knowing that he wasn’t prepared to talk about anything. I went back to my room and logged onto the computer to write my daily article and realised that I had a great case study right infront of me. So I started writing about Kieren and his little fiasco.
A few minutes past and Kieren came into the bedroom and said to me, “Mum, tell me when you get off the computer because I want to go on”. Then he walked away again. This is highly unusual for Kieren to act in this way, nevertheless he needn’t think that he can get away with this kind of behavior.
I am not going to go chasing him again to tell him that he has a consequence. But when he comes to me again tonight (and believe me, he will), I shall say to him, “you will not be going on the computer tonight because of your inappropriate behavior”.
I cannot force him to be happy about not getting a longer go (yes, he did get a go, he just wasn’t happy with the length of the go). All I can do as the parent is enforce the right consequence for the behavior. And that is the key to managing a child’s behvaior. Be consistent with your consequences.
If a child is naughty they require a consequence in order to learn from it. You are actually doing them a favour when you discipline them. I know they don’t always appreciate it at the time. But later on in life they will thank you for it, you can be sure of that.
So, unfortunately Kieren has cooked his goose tonight. The silly thing is, if he had handled things differently the outcome would have been different. Now he must suffer in order to realise that his behavior was not acceptable in my household. And hopefully that will never happen again. If it was to happen again, the consequence would have to be bigger to show him that I mean business.
Parents, be inspired in your parenting and know that when you give your child a consequece you are doing them a huge favour.
Kim Patrick is a single mum with four children who lives on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. She is author of the book, “Get Your Child To Behave In 30 Days Or Less”. For more information on how to get your child to behave, you can go to http://www.mychildcanbehave.com/main.html
Educational Toys to Improve Attention Deficit Disorder
Children with attention deficit disorder often struggle in school because of their short attention spans. Many quickly decide that they are “dumb” or “stupid” when the simple truth is that their condition is causing them to fail in the traditional school setting, which requires children to focus on one activity for an extended period of time. If you are a parent of a child with ADD or ADHD, you can actually use toys to help improve your child’s attention span and, in turn, performance in school. Here are some ways to use educational toys to improve attention deficit disorder.
What Your Child Needs from You
As you consider toys to use to help improve your child’s attention span, keep in mind that your child needs to be able to focus on one activity or task for about 25 minutes in order to survive the first year of school. This number increases as the child advances through the educational system. If your child is a preschooler, take the time now to help her increase her attention span so that she can succeed in kindergarten. If she is an older student, talk to her teacher to learn what her attention span should be, and work slowly towards that goal.
Remember, your child needs to feel as though play time is play time. While you can, and should, reward good attention, you need to avoid making play time into school time. Keep it fun, even as you focus on improving the signs of attention deficit disorder.
Use Books to Help with ADD
One of the best educational toys to use with children with ADD is a book. Choose books that are interesting to your child. Even if you do not like a particular book, use it if it appeals to the child with ADD. Even if your child is old enough to read, read aloud to him. Read as long as his attention allows, and then let him move to another activity. Gradually try to increase the amount of time spent reading.
Play a Game with Your Child
Another way to improve ADD with educational toys is to play games with your child. Any game that your child can understand is a great way to improve attention span. Your child will love the play time, as she likely relishes special time with mom and dad. Be sure the games require some thinking or concentration, rather than just allowing the child to move a piece after spinning a wheel or rolling a pair of dice.
Pretend with Your Child
Because pretend play allows them to get up and move while focusing on one thing, it is perfect for children with ADD. Buy educational toys that will encourage your child to pretend. Fake food, doctor’s kits, and dress up clothes are great additions to the ADD child’s toy box. These do not have to be complicated. Simply choose toys that will get his imagination flowing.
Puppets are more great toys to use with these kids. Because they allow the child to use his imagination and create crazy scenarios, puppets are very appealing to an ADD child. Also, you can stretch your child’s attention span with puppets, as it takes time and effort to put on a puppet show. Be a good audience and reward and praise the effort!
Parenting a child with attention deficit disorder is frustrating at times. The energy level of these children is simply exhausting for most adults. By finding ways to play with your child that require him to focus for longer and longer periods of time, you can help curb the energy a little while still enjoying one on one time with your child. In this way, both of you win, and your child will also benefit from increased performance in school!
Educational toys from A-brand provider Mastermind Toys amount to an investment in your child’s future.
Three Ways to Use an Identification Card
Identification cards are prevalent and useful in many different types of situations. Whether you have or are considering obtaining an identification card for personal or professional reasons, it can come in handy in various ways.
1-Child Identification Cards
A child identification card is very helpful to have in case of emergency. Ideally, the child would carry his or her ID card; also, any parents, guardians, schools, daycares, or caretakers of the child should keep at least one copy of the child’s identification card.
Child identification cards typically include information such as medical emergency information, a photo of the child, his or her date of birth, height, weight, hair color, and any other special identifying information.
Child ID cards would be especially helpful during a medical emergency, or if the child is suddenly missing. For example, if your child collapses in a public place, whoever he or she is with would be able to look at the identification card to identify any medical conditions.
If, God forbid, the child goes missing, the identification cards will give parents a quick and easy way to give all essential information to the local authorities.
To be safe, make sure that you laminate all copies of your children’s identification card to prevent smudging and ensure that the card will last for a long time.
2-Employee Identification Cards
Some companies may benefit from the extra security that employee identification cards offer, especially those businesses that protect sensitive information or a large amount of wealth, in one form or another.
Enhanced security features such as holograms go the extra mile to ensure that intruders will not be able to access certain areas of the company.
Employee ID cards also help to give a sense to the community of your workplace. Instead of referring to co-workers as the position that they hold, workers will be able to call their co-workers by name, thus building companionship throughout the office.
3-School Identification Cards
Instead of just being used for identification purposes, school ID badges are starting to be used for many other, helpful purposes ranging from attendance tracking to meal plans to library use and computer use.
Some schools are requesting identification cards that will allow their students to use their ID cards to access the Internet through the school’s computers. This would help school administration to filter various websites, making sure that the students are using the Internet for primarily educational purposes.
Wendy Moyer is an independent journalist. Alpha Card is an excellent resource for identification cards-further information can be found on the Alpha Card website.
Ideas for Picky Eater Kids
Do you have picky eater kids? Nothing is more frustrating for a parent than a child that just won’t eat. If you have a picky eater, no matter what their age, you probably already know how hard it can be to make dinner for the family or even to eat over at friends’ houses or just to get your child to eat, period. But it doesn’t have to be so tough. If you have picky eater kids, you can learn how to please them and your own peace of mind with these healthy eating ideas for the picky child.
First it is a good idea to try to determine why your child is a picky eater. This will require you to get inside the head of your child a bit. While some of their reasoning may not seem logical to you as an adult, it can help you prepare meals when you know the mindset of picky eater kids. When you know why your kid is doing something, it can help you find a solution that works for you and your family.
It also helps most parents to know that this type of behavior is considered normal. Most younger children are picky eaters. This is sometimes because they are still learning about what foods they like and dislike and experimenting with their foods. Sometimes they don’t like the way the food looks or they may not like something new. Other times they may be testing their limits to see what you will let them get away with and if you will feed them something else later. When feeding picky eater kids, here are some ideas that may make it go a bit smoother for you. First, give them only small portions on their plates so it does not look so overwhelming. Offer small amounts of new foods each day and encourage your child to try them, even if he is hesitant to do so. Don’t offer sugary foods or sweets before meals if your child has trouble eating. Try to offer your picky eater a wide variety of foods so they can experiment with different tastes, looks and feels.
Don’t get angry over food, use food as a punishment or a reward and do not bribe your child to eat food. If your child refuses to eat a meal, don’t allow them to have more of something they like later. This will teach your child that they can skip every meal and you will just give them more later. Be consistent and firm in your teaching and dinner time will be a more pleasant experience.
Discover how to turn your picky eater kid into a healthy eater kid at http://www.mypickyeater.com
Fun Summer Science Activities
While being on summer vacation can be a fun time for kids when they get out of school, it is also important to encourage the learning process even outside of the classroom. Planning cool science experiments is a great way for parents and children to spend time together, while making it interesting and productive.
Taking field trips to local science museums can turn learning into an exciting field trip, and also a way to get out of the house! Girls and boys can be exposed to many different learning subjects, but often, girls lose interest in science while boys find it much more interesting. The key to involving girls is to make it fun for them, using the things they like or subjects they may be interested in.
Science can affect or explain many things that are used day-to-day, so showing how it works can be relevant and exciting for any child in school, especially those in the younger elementary levels. Encouraging your child’s interest in science, even if you, the parent, aren’t “good” in the subject, is important.
Planning trips to the park to do explorations or scavenger hunts can help girls and boys identify items in nature, or even serve as a potential source for many fun summer projects or science experiments. A great activity that can be done outside is creating a unique leaf collection. Even parents who are not “experts” can help with this one.
Together, parents and children can learn to identify each of them, using reference sources. Girls and boys can go exploring, finding leaves that interest them and then laying them between wax paper. They can then add heavy books on top of the paper, pressing them for about a week. Once the leaves have dried, they can glue them into a fun scrapbook with their common and scientific names.
Another great outdoors activity that many kids (and adults) would like would be creating their own fossils. Most kids are really interested in dinosaurs, so showing them how fossils are formed is not only interesting, but also informative. Make a fossil by shaping a sheet of aluminum foil into a bowl, and then fill it with plaster of Paris. Take rocks, shells or other hard objects and press them into the plaster, wait about 30 minutes to remove the item from the plaster and kids then have their very own fossil!
Taking a field trip to the local science center can also be a fun trip that incorporates learning with each exhibit. Many of these exhibits are hands-on, which can help a child put an idea into perspective. Activities about weather, astronomy, botany, and chemistry are all covered, with not only informational pictures and writing, but also their application in real life.
It is really important to keep children learning, even when they are out of school. It is up to the parents to keep children busy with educational activities, especially those ideas that may have not been covered in the classroom. Involving both girls and boys can make any subject fun, especially science. Encourage children to try their own experiments, which can teach valuable information as well as increase creativity in younger kids. Parents don’t have to be experts in science but like children, they should always be open and willing to learn.
Sara Jones was a fine student but science was a source of frustration she didn’t want her kids to suffer. She met Rick and Amanda Birmingham and realized their grasp of everyday science was the secret to making science fun. To learn more about the solution to science visit http://SupeFunScience.com
Nonviolent Communication With Your Children
After attending a workshop last month in Los Angeles at the Center for Nonviolent Education and Parenting given by the founder and director Ruth Beaglehole, it became quite apparent to me that most childcare providers along with most parents are completely unaware of this amazing method and positive approach to child rearing. I, myself, was embarrassed to see that so many of the old and unfavorable practices that I acquired from my own parents have been used by me on my own children.
When I was first introduced to the idea of visiting the center, my thoughts instantly reverted that this would be a place where one goes to stop physical violence; yet, I quickly learned that there are many ways where violence is communicated not just through physical means but through a vocabulary of feelings and needs, between observation and evaluation and between requests and demands, and the role of power and punishment.
So why is this notion of nonviolent communication so important as it relates to child development? According to Dr. Marshall B. Rosenberg author of “Nonviolent Communication - A Language of Life” (a book I highly recommend for everyone to read), “NVC helps us connect with each other and ourselves in a way that allows our natural compassion to flourish. NVC fosters deep listening, respect and empathy and engenders a mutual desire to give from the heart.”
There are many ways we communicate to children that can be damaging to their self-esteem and development. If we begin with the concept of “observation vs. evaluation” consider the way we constantly observe people and their actions with the use of moralistic judgments that imply wrongdoing and badness because these are not in harmony with our values. We often attempt to motivate our children through insults and criticism and by guilt and shame.
For example: What if your child is having difficulty with mathematics and he answers a problem with the wrong answer. The first reaction would be to say something critical as in “how could you possible make such a silly mistake.” Instead, the better response would be “I’m confused at how you came up with that answer. Could you show me how you got that?” You have now made an evaluation that will help this child get to the right answer instead of instantly providing him with an observation that only made him feel bad.
Punishment is another form of violence that never works. People are often led to something with the use or threat of punishment. The reason we know this doesn’t work is because of two questions: what do you want the outcome to be and what do you want the person’s reasons to be for doing as we request? If a person is doing something you want out of fear or as a result of punishment then you have not achieved anything because the desire to do what you wanted has not come naturally from within. Instead, the action comes about through force and fear.
Guilt is another form of violence, but in order to be successful at it, you need to convince people into believing that they can create your feelings. For example: “It really hurts me when you don’t get your work done.” The guilt trip you have just laid on this person is played when they believe they are the cause of your suffering.
Shame is another form of violence: any attempt to use labels to make one feel bad about their actions. For example: You call a child “lazy” in an attempt to make them feel bad about not completing their chores. This doesn’t accomplish anything other than perhaps having the child grow up thinking that he/she must be lazy since doing the housework is something they struggle to do.
The basic vocabulary of nonviolent communication is feelings and needs. The idea that both Dr. Rosenberg and Ms. Beaglehole want to instill is that if you can speak to feelings and needs, then it’s easier for other people to see our humanness. When we are living the nonviolent communication, all we can see is the feelings and needs of others. The trick is to put our own needs and feelings aside so that we can have a better understanding, communication and overall relationship with others and particularly with our children while teaching them how to communicate in nonviolent ways.
Marta Perrone, author of How to Find, Hire, Train and Maintain Household Help. Free report: Top 10 Mistakes Household Employers Make When Recruiting Help.
http://www.domesticpublications.com, http://domestic-connections.com, http://martaperrone.com
Testing a Prospective Nanny or Housekeeper for Tuberculosis
In 1989, Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced the goal of eliminating Tuberculosis (TB) from the United States by year 2010.
However, today TB and drug-resistant TB cases are continuously reported in every state. An estimated 10 to 15 million persons in the United States are infected. More than 14,000 cases were reported in 2003 in the U.S. TB killed 1.7 million people in 2003. It remains the leading killer of adults in the world.
The increase in TB worldwide is due, in part, to the expansion of the HIV/AIDS pandemic (at least one-third of the people with HIV die of TB. Social forces such as racism, sexism, other social inequalities and political violence and poverty contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS and TB.
Drugs that could stop or slow down these epidemics, such as first hand anti-tuberculosis medications and anti-retrovirals are not available in impoverished countries where they are needed most.
In the United States, and especially in California, Tuberculosis is largely an immigrants’ affliction. In a recent report by the state’s Department of Health Services, California led the nation in the number of new TB cases reported last year - 2,989. Three-quarters of those were among people born outside of the United States and nearly a fifth were younger than 16.
Experts say that many immigrants bring the bacterium from countries, including Mexico (24%), the Philippines (14%), Viet Nam (9%) and other foreign born (29%) where TB is endemic and health systems are relatively weak.
Many immigrants come infected but undetected due to inadequate screening of new immigrants who are foreign students, workers and visitors. Only refugees are screened, and that system is not flawless. The concern is how entrenched TB remains in some immigrant enclaves and how 1% to 2% (8 to 10 cases) in California is resistant to standard antibiotics. This, of course, has given fuel to the fire over illegal immigration.
Many people from immigrant families live in the poorest and most crowded neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area. With its large immigrant population and dense neighborhoods, Los Angeles County is a TB stronghold. It had 930 tuberculosis cases in 2004, more than most states, according to Health Department figures. They live in the most likely places to find tuberculosis.
Due to financial constraints, they may think it is merely a cold and not seek medical help until they are really sick. Understanding TB and how it is carried and contracted should be of interest to you if you have an immigrant working on a daily basis with you and your family members.
Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by bacteria that usually attacks the lungs. It travels through the blood and can also attack other parts of the body such as the kidney, spine and brain. If not treated properly, it can be fatal. TB is spread through the air from one person to another when a person with the active TB disease of the lungs or throat coughs or sneezes.
People may breathe in these bacteria and become infected. However, not everyone infected with TB bacteria actually becomes sick. In most cases, the people who breathe in the bacteria can fight it so that it does not grow. The bacteria become inactive, but remain alive in the body and can become active later. This is what is called “latent TB infection.” People who have latent TB infection have a positive skin test reaction but do not feel sick, have any symptoms nor can they spread TB and they have a normal chest x-ray and sputum (phlegm) test; however, some who have weak immune systems do go on to develop TB disease.
Babies and young children have weak immune systems. People with active TB can get treated with medicine and get cured and those with latent TB can take medicine so that they will not develop the active TB disease. The TB disease attacks the tissue and can actually create a hole in the lung.
The following are symptoms of active TB disease:
A bad cough that lasts longer than 2 weeks;
Pain in the chest;
Coughing up blood r phlegm from deep inside the lungs
Weakness or fatigue
Weight loss
No appetite
Chills and fever
An important question when hiring a nanny or housekeeper would be how do you confront your prospective employee with the concept of getting TB tested prior to coming to your home to work with your newborn child. If you are working with an agency, you should ask them to have their applicant tested for TB. Your decision to hire this employee would be subject to the test results.
This can get sticky, if you are dealing with a prospective nanny or housekeeper directly. You may not want to inform this applicant that you will only hire her/him based on the test results. This could get messy. The way to approach the offer would be to say that you would like to have the following medical tests performed and that you will be concurrently checking references along with criminal and DMV records to determine a job offer. If the TB skin reaction test comes back positive, you would need a chest x-ray to see if the TB is in effect latent and inactive. As mentioned earlier, with medication, this condition can be controlled and never develop into active TB.
You may or may not feel comfortable about not knowing whether or not the employee would take the necessary medication. What is most important, however, is that you know the test results so that you can incorporate this information into your decision making when hiring household help, housekeeper or nanny.
Marta Perrone, author of How to Find, Hire, Train and Maintain Household Help. Free report: Top 10 Mistakes Household Employers Make When Recruiting Help.
http://www.domesticpublications.com, http://domestic-connections.com, http://martaperrone.com
How To Promote Core Family Values
My family knows that I hold honesty as one of our core family values. I often talk to my kids about family values and why we believe in them. I have always had a rule that if a child confesses to something the consequence will be much less than if they tell a lie to cover it.
But yesterday Sam decided to put me to the test by telling a lie. Now I’m sure it wasn’t a lie in his mind. Nevertheless he told me an untruth. He said that he had missed the bus to school sports because his teacher had kept him in at lunch time.
On phoning his teacher I found out the whole story. Yes, he had been kept in at lunch time for a few minutes but he still had plenty of time to catch his bus. He had walked up to the bus stop with a friend and then decided that he would rather go to Basketball than Soccer. So he had taken off without even telling a teacher where he was going.
I felt disappointed that Sam had told me a lie. He had actually come home from school grumping about this poor teacher when in reality it was nothing to do with her. Sam had made bad choices that day and thought it would be easier to blame someone else for his choices rather than accept responsibility for his own actions.
Now, here’s the thing: we cannot control what our kids say or do. But And this is where the kids learn to do things differently next time.
When Sam gets home from school today I am going to tell him a story about a child who tried to blame everyone else for his own actions. I want Sam to think about what he would do if he was the parent. Sam is thinking right now that he has done nothing wrong because he is tyring to justify his actions. So I want him to think about how he can change things.
It is often a good idea to create a story out of it and bring the child in as a third party. This way the child doesn’t feel like you are attacking them personally. I hope I am explaining this properly for you. When a child doesn’t feel threatened they are more likely to hear what you are saying and take notice.
Anyhow, we will talk this afternoon. My objective is to help Sam realise that he must take responsibility for his own actions without trying to blame anyone else for his poor choices and if I can get him to see that, then I have done my job in this matter.
The end result is that Sam will get a consequence this afternoon. I want to show him that he made a bad choice by telling me a lie. I might ban him from the computer for a day or two, just long enough for him to feel annoyed and perhaps think about why he lost a privilege. I want him to feel motivated to change his actions the next time and learn from this incident.
Parents, you have a chance to choose what your family’s core values will be. You should talk to your kids about them, encourage them and uphold them at all times. Your kids will thank you later on in life, you can be sure of that. So take time out today to think about your core family values.
Kim Patrick is a single mum with four children who lives on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. She is author of the book, “Get Your Child To Behave In 30 Days Or Less”. For more information on how to get your child to behave, you can go to http://www.mychildcanbehave.com/main.html
Always Reinforce Good Behavior In Children
My children were angels this morning. Horray! It so makes the morning go easier when things run smoothly of a morning. Two of my kids were up and dressed before 7am and all ready for school - lunches packed, hair combed, teeth brushed, beds made. What a breath of fresh air to get up to that.
Then came the question, “Mum, since I am ready for school, can I please go on the computer?” Now, generally I have a rule and that rule is that nobody gets to go on the computer before school. Usually if I let one child go on it will distract the others and everyone ends up being late for school. But today my kids had done so much so quickly and excelled themselves so I wanted to let them know that good behvaior is always noticed and will be acknowledged in some small way every time.
I said to my two boys, “OK, what is your plan? I need to be on the computer by 8am so between the two of you there is only one hour. How are you going to plan your time wisely? I put the onus on them to sort out who would go first, how long their turns would be, as the last thing I wanted on a Monday morning was an argument before school.
The boys put their heads together and chatted and came up with their plan. They came back to me and Sam said, “Kieren’s going on now until 7.30am and then I am going on until 8am”. I listened to their suggestion and reminded then that I would need the computer promptly at 8am and that I didn’t mean 10 past 8am.
The boys agreed that they could stick to those rules so off they went happily. They had worked really hard to get ready for school so early and deserved to be rewarded. Now here’s the thing: my kids did deserve recognition for their outstanding efforts this morning in preparing for school. I decided that I was prepared to bend the rules and allow them to go on the computer. That was my choice and I made it. If parents make the rules they have the right to bend them also.
I’m not saying that it is always OK to bend the rules but sometimes it is OK. When kids see that you are kind and compassionate and not just some big authority figure they will respond to you much better. My kids have left for school now and they were off the computer before 8am for me.
So they have proven trustworthy in this one area. So, next time they come to me of a morning and ask the same question, what do you think my answer might be? I think I am very likely to say “yes” again. why? Kieren and Sam have proven that they can be trusted with the computer in the morning.
We need to remember to give our children plenty of opportunity to earn our trust and my kids earned my trust this morning. I was really proud of them and I hope they felt proud of themselves as well - there was no fighting over the computer; they played nicely and the morning went very smoothly.
I am glad I chose to give my kids a liberty today. It was a liberty well deserved. and I wouldn’t mind betting my kids will come home from school and thank me for letting them on the computer this morning.
The main thing that my kids can learn from this experience is that there are good consequences from good behavior. My kids were well behaved and received an unexpected reward for their efforts. And that is how the real world operates.
Kim Patrick is a single mum with four children who lives on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. She is author of the book, “Get Your Child To Behave In 30 Days Or Less”. For more information on how to get your child to behave, you can go to http://www.mychildcanbehave.com/main.html
Ways To Help Children Sleep Better At Night
Sometimes children can have a hard time sleeping at night. Some children have no problem falling asleep when it is time to go to bed at night. However, some children have issues with this. At times, it may be frustrating for a parent because they may feel like the young child is playing games, so to speak, or being disobedient. While this may be true in some cases, in many cases it is not.
So, what are some ways to help your child to fall asleep at night? Well, let us discuss a few tips and tricks we as parents and guardians can do to help our children get to bed and fall asleep at the proper time at night.
Children Are Energetic
Children have a lot of energy to be burned, so it may be a good idea to make sure that they burn that energy throughout the day. If they do not exert themselves enough, they may have pent up energy when it is time to go to bed and this may be a reason why they have a hard time falling asleep. Make sure that your children have a little time to play and run around so that they have no trouble getting to bed. Not only is this good for helping them to sleep better at night, but this also gets them used to to exercise. Exercising and physical exertion is an important area to instill in your child while he or she is young.
Take Naps at the Proper Time
If your child takes naps during the day, be sure that he or she does not sleep too late in the evening. If this happens, your child may not feel the need to go to bed at the proper time because their bodies may feel well rested. Getting your child up from his or her nap before it is evening should help.
Feeling Secure With a Toy
If your child slept in your room when he or she was a baby and has just moved into a room of their own, sometimes sleeping alone in a room may feel lonely. Children who are not used to this concept need time to adjust. During the adjustment period, you child may feel insecure at night and have trouble sleeping. While a stuffed animal or teddy will not be an instant cure or remedy for the situation, having one to sleep with may help your child a little during the adjustment period. Having a stuffed animal handy may very well do a great deal of good for your child.
So here are just a few tips to get you started in the right direction. A good nights sleep is important for your child to have and no doubt you as a parent would like to ensure this for your child.
Jay authors a site devoted to cute teddy bears and other plush toys stuffed animals. If your child needs a little help feeling secure at night, you can find cute teddy bears and Webkinz stuffed animals at Jays site entitled Funkee Monkee dot net.
