Photo by ButterflySha
Candy is fine in moderation, but you have to resist temptation around holidays, especially Easter. Of course, like most kids, whatever I say goes in one ear and out of the other, so I learned that distracting him from the candy using Easter activities was the best bet to avoid a sugar frenzy.
Easter Egg Animals
I’ve personally done chicks and dinosaurs, but you can make nearly any animal out of dyed eggs. Simply dye the eggs according to the color of the animals your kids want to make. Get some modeling clay that dries in the air and non-toxic glue and paint.
Use the modeling clay to make the animal’s feet and other features, such as beaks and ears and attach the pieces to the egg with the glue. Once the glue dries, have your kids paint other parts on the eggs to complete the look, such as eyes or color patterns.
Basket Decorating
Baskets can be decorated using whatever theme your kids chose. My son loves cars, so we went out and bought foam shapes. We painted the shapes and made cars by cutting pieces to sizes we needed and gluing the pieces together. Once the glue dried, we painted each one. After the paint set, we glued the cars all over his basket.
Foam shapes will work for most projects. You can make a princess theme and flowers for girls and dinosaurs and cars for boys using foam shapes. Talk to your kids to get other ideas for basket additions, such as stickers and glitter.
The baskets can be used around the house for holding different things; we keep an especially good one by the front door as a key dump, and there’s another in the bathroom which holds fruity soaps.
Easter Savings
A lot of family members give my son money at Easter. Putting change in a plastic Easter egg or at the bottom of the basket in the grass is considered good luck. However, I prefer to use these Easter windfalls to teach my son about saving money.
Get a plain, unfinished piggy bank or other coin bank from a crafts store. Use stickers or glue on foam shapes representing items he wants to buy onto the bank and have your child put all his Easter money into that bank. Talk to him about saving for items he wants instead of spending his money all at once.
Since Easter happens right around the ISA season, it’s a good time to think about opening a junior ISA for your kid and it fits with the saving theme. Even though your child may not understand the reason behind a tax-free savings account, they will understand you’re using a junior ISA to save money for them for the future.
A junior ISA allows you to save money tax-free and invest the money in the stock market if you want to do so, so you can help your child pay for their education and other life necessities later.
In the beginning, I thought people who placed a whole lot of emphasis on sleep were a tad bit lazy. Today, it appears that sleep is very important and that those folks were on the right track after all. And sleep is important from the moment your child is born until he or she grows to adulthood. The growth hormone is naturally secreted when you sleep. For kids, this is important for the right development. So it is recommended that they get the prescribed number of hours a day. For children less than a year it is about 14 hours, for kids ages 1-3 about 12-14, for those aged 3-6 about 10-12, those 7-12 years, 10-11 hours, and those 12-18 years, 8-9 hours a day.
I used to fret that my kids would not take afternoon naps. My son especially was immune to the thought. He has always been the kind of kid that is brimming with energy. He loves play and socializing and really squeezing every moment out of every day. My daughter is a little less energetic. She used to take naps on a regular basis but she has since discovered the joys of packing it in throughout the day. So, gone are her naps. It is a good thing that my doctor reassured me that as long as they get at least 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep at night, they are fine, they will develop well and healthily, and the growth hormone and all the rejuvenation that happens when you sleep will happen in the right amounts for them. Whew!
I do have some friends though who are currently having problems calming their kids or getting their kids to sleep enough. These friends have kids that differ in age. Some have kids that have just turned one, others in their toddler years, and one who has a preschooler. I have often gotten complements on how disciplined my kids are about how much and when they sleep and I have been told that their growth and general sunny disposition can be attributed to this. So I am often asked how I do/did it. And I am always surprised because I didn’t really do anything extraordinarily different. I do always stress though that structure and routine were key components in forming my kids into the way they are today. So, here is what I did for both kids consistently.
- Stress on Consistency. I did the same thing every day. I had bath time at a certain time (for example, after 9 am feeding). I had a specific routine for the day bath, I used different soaps and materials, and a specific routine for the night bath. I didn’t force any schedule on my kids. They told me when they were hungry or needed changing. But a routing does come out and I followed that and adjusted when I needed to.
- Use Cues. Like I said earlier, I had specific routines and materials for specific activities. These are known as cures. So when my kids would smell the lavender soap I used for night time, they knew that sleepy time was coming. When I would play the classical music, they knew it was afternoon nap time. When the lights went out and curtains were drawn, they usually fell asleep fairly quickly. And as they grew and required less waking moments to drink milk, they slept longer and longer intervals until they slept right through the night. Today, they sleep from 7-8 on weekdays, 9-10 on Fridays and Saturdays, and wake up 10-11 hours later.
- Follow through. I kept both things- consistent routines and cues- going. I use them today. They know that when they get up, after maybe half an hour, they should be getting breakfast. They know that after school, they have lunch and then their bath, and then their homework and then they play. They know that they can play and play to their hearts content but when the sky goes dark and the clock strikes 6, they need to calm down and have dinner. And they know that after resting, they have to take their bath, and then go to sleep. Usually, they like a good bed time story or telling me something especially interesting about their day. But when the lights go out, they know it is sleep time and they consistently fall asleep a maximum of 30 minutes after this.
I am no expert and I didn’t know what the effect of what I was doing would be until after the fact. My main concern there was getting them used to a schedule so that they would be disciplined and independent at the right time. I guess it worked for the sleep as well.
I hope this was helpful. What are some things you guys did when your kids were young to get them to sleep well and enough?
Happy Reading!
VICKI
For some people it’s the fresh start of a new year. For others it’s springtime renewal. For me, fall is the time of year when I feel like cleaning, organizing, and making big changes in my life. I got engaged in the fall, married in the fall, officially started my professional writing career in the fall – anyway, the point I am trying to make is that fall is my favorite time of year!!! Maybe it’s the sound of leaves crunching beneath my feet, the crisp, cool smell in the air that perks me up every morning, maybe it’s the delicious taste of soup that’s been cooking all day in the crock-pot, or the firey colors of the changing leaves – everything about autumn is beautiful, comforting, warm and inviting to me. So even though it sounds like I just want to wrap up in a big fuzzy blanket, sit by the fire, watch football, and eat a big bowl of chili with cheese and onions on top - which I so totally do – it has also prompted me to start thinking about exercise. Odd you say? Probably, but everyone has their own sense of timing and we are each motivated by different things.
I know that the cooler months are when most people increase the amount of comfort (often fattening) food they eat. These are heavier, heavenly meals that warm our tummies and leave us feeling like we want to hibernate. Right now, I’m thinking about that too! However, even though I eat healthy most of the time, I will admit that I do not get the excersise I need. I know I really need to change that — I just have to find the time and motivation to get moving. When I first start out with a new excerise goal I do pretty well for a few weeks but for some reason I cannot stay on track. Soon I start feeling too busy with work, household chores and the other daily tasks I face as a work-at-home mom — BUT the reality is everyone is busy and anyone can find excuses to hold themselves back from attaining goals, which BTW I’m excellent at doing!
I would really like to take up running but there is a big problem — I despise it. I don’t like being out of breath, sweating, or getting side aches. I don’t want to run in the morning because according to the news it always seems like dead bodies are always “…discovered by an early morning jogger.” – well, joggers and fishermen actually. I also don’t want to run at night because I don’t want to be found by another jogger in the morning. Yeah, I should probably lay off the Dateline and 48 Hours Mysteries for awhile. See what I mean though — I’ve got all kinds of silly excuses so why bother right?
According to MayoClinic.org regular excercise helps relieve stress, improves your mood, boosts energy, controls weight and a bunch of other great things. It’s also important to get at least 30 minutes of rigorous exercise a day to stay healthy and to prevent certain diseases. If living longer isn’t a good enough reason, I don’t know what is.
But when there are so many other exercise alternatives, why do I want to take up running — something I have already stated I do not like doing? Well the answer is simple, I really want to like it! I really do. I am in love with the idea of being a runner. I’m not talking about running in a gym on a treadmill (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Instead, I envision myself running outside and feeling very free and incredibly alive!
Another reason is that my dog would LOVE it! There is a saying; “If your dog is overweight, you aren’t getting enough exercise.” This is true in our case. While my dog isn’t obese or anything – she (and I) could stand to lose a few pounds and also tone up our girlish figures. She’s 6 years old and I want her to be around for a long time because I simply adore her!
So what I am planning to do is to come up with a game plan. By October 1stI want to be running/jogging/speed-walking/or regular walking a couple of times a week. The other days I’ll do yoga, my Wii Fit or some other type of exercise. I’m going to devise a time table to fit this into my daily routine and make it work.
I really hope there are folks out there who might be able to give me some tips. I know that my role here is to provide tips to you but I am always open to suggestions from people in the know. So let’s hear it – how do you stay motivated? How do you juggle, work, kids, household chores, volunteer work, and still have time to exercise? Do you love to exercise or do you just get in, do it and get it over with?
I’ll be updating you on my progress in a few weeks.
Thanks for Reading!
Christie
If you have had kids, and you are not part of that blessed percentage that just watches as fat melts away naturally after giving birth, then chances are you will still be saddles by some form of baby weight. At least I am, after two kids delivered by caesarian section, still struggling with extra weight. And so are a number of my mommy friends.
This is a really frustrating thing for me because I was quite fit all throughout my twenties, after shedding the baby fat of those teen years. I also come from a family that has a tendency to expand after having children so I always told myself that I would be careful and be diligent about my weight and the way that I look after having kids.
But because of a number of reasons- separation, two kids in close succession, full time work and now with added short time jobs on the side- the weight and waistline just expanded beyond my control. Add to that that I quit smoking (yahoo!) at the beginning of this year. During the last quarter of last year I made a commitment to get back to being fit. I signed up at a gym and researched on many different diets. It is a struggle I am still wrestling with today.
Here are some things I have come to realize on the weight loss quest:
1. It is all about commitment first. You have to really want to lose weight because it is this desire that will keep you focused on the goal and will keep your resistance to those ‘bad things’ strong.
2. Diet and exercise are necessary. Since I do not have the money or stomach to undergo any kind of cosmetic surgery, I am resorting to the tried and tested diet and exercise formula. Doing research also has shown that there is no magic product to help with weight loss. You really just have to sweat it out. I figured, hey, it took some effort to pack on the pounds. I need to now exert the required effort to take these off.
3. You cannot crash diet or force exercise. It really hast to be about finding that diet that works for your body, is still healthy and will not have you depriving yourself of the vitamins and minerals you need on a daily basis, and it has to be something you are willing to stick to for life. If you look at some people who went on certain diets then lose weight, then went off the diets and ballooned, you will realize that it is about changing eating habits as a whole. Look at Jennifer Aniston for example. She is looking great and she has been on her diet for a looong time. I really believe it is about changing for good. With exercise, it is about finding the kind of physical activity that appeals to you. My close friend swears by the meditative and weight loss effect of yoga, another says Pilates is the way to go, another boxes it out three to four time a week. I have found that, as long as you are not doing steroids or taking drugs, physical activity of any kind that gets you moving daily will do.
So, I am now in the process of revamping my diet and exercise plan. I will post again about my new approach as I have had more than 6 months now to try different things out.
What are some of your suggestions for a good, healthy, sustainable diet and exercise program?
VICKI
Rarely do my New Years Resolutions make it past the end of January but I am proud to say I have stuck with this one and made quite a bit of progress. You can read my original post here: My New Years Resolution.
I started out the year at 220 and wanted to start eating better and exercising. In the two months I have been doing this, I have only had 2 or 3 days where I have “cheated” and gone over my daily calorie goal. I haven’t missed a day of exercise and the results are starting to show. I am now down to 208! I have lost 12 pounds so far and am approaching the half way mark of my goal (190 pounds). Big pat on the back to me, Yay!
So, it has been very stressful lately. My son has been sick and this has gotten me worried. The weather changes around the globe have made the climate very unpredictable, even in a tropical country. Some days we start with overcast skies, and then we have alternate short drizzles and hot bursts of sunlight, that culminates in cool and windy evenings. It is no surprise that people are getting the cough and cold more and more. My son got a cough early this month which I found out is now a mild form of pneumonia, not contagious, and very common especially with the weather.
Here is what was advised for my son, with this cough, in the capital city, of my humid, tropical country.
1. Refrain from going outside too much, even for short bursts of play. The changes in weather is not good for a weakened immune system. The fact that the cold virus survives longer in cooler weather makes it more dangerous for him to be out especially considering his illness now. Also, pollution and dust, even pollen from plants can further exacerbate a respiratory situation, even for non-asthmatic children.
2. Make sure his back and the back of his shirt is always dry. Changing clothing when sweaty is recommended.
3. Try to keep the body temperature and the temperature of the surrounding area cool and balanced. Use air-conditioning at very hot times of the day if this is a bit on the hotter side. This is better at this time of illness and can be changed again once the immune system is back up.
4. Eat lots of fruit and vegetables for the vitamin content and keep hydrated as much as possible.
My son is on antibiotics now and is not viral so at least he can still play with his sister but, for any parent who has had a sick child, I am sure you know how stressed out I am over this situation.
Any tips on how to deal with respiratory illnesses in cool/humid weather?
