Develop Your Childs Genius - Developing Leadership Qualities
November 25, 2006
Often I have heard that leaders are born, not made. Do you think this is true? How many times did you read a biography of a great leader, and discovered that as a child, he has been quiet, reserved and rather shy? Are those natural qualities of a leader? Of course not! These people have developed their leadership qualities later in life.
Would you like your child to be a leader?
What are the qualities of a leader?
Here are some of the qualities required to be a leader, and how you can encourage the development of these qualities in your child.
* Integrity - remember to be a good example, a role model for your child. Parents teach by example, and integrity is a quality kids learn from their parents. Talk with your child about integrity. One tool that is very helpful is story telling. Look for books that tell about the value of integrity. To find more resources for stories that promote values in kids, look at http://www.all-gifted-children.com, under “Resources”. You can find it at Inspirational Kids Stories on the web. You can also make up your own stories, that tell about the value of integrity.
Top Ten Reasons to Hold Family Meetings
November 25, 2006
1. Make stronger connections among individuals and, therefore, creates a closer family.
In this very busy world, designating this time every week is one way to ensure that family members stay connected with one another. Relationships are living things, and must be nurtured. Family meetings are about nourishing our relationships with the most important people in our lives. Form the habit of connecting regularly.
2. Create family value statements and operating principles.
Family meetings give you a chance to discuss what’s important to you as a family and to create family value statements, which reflect your collective thoughts. Similarly, they give you a chance to talk about how you want to operate together as a family and treat one another, by developing family operating principles.
3. Share appreciations and give thanks for our many blessings.
This is a way to give children and adults permission to let one another know how much they are appreciated, and to share the many things they have to be thankful for. It is far too easy to take the blessings in our lives, and our loved ones, for granted if we do not form the habit of appreciating on a regular basis.
Children, Entitlement and God
November 25, 2006
"Setting the alarm on Sunday mornings is inhuman?..God should know that!" Those were my adolescent thoughts every weekend when my parents forced me to church. "I can get more out of my headphones and the Beatles." It was this way as far back as I can remember. Early Sunday school, then later Bible studies, liturgies in another language, all culminating in a weekly teen rebellion against God and my parents. I really hated my parents (especially my Mother) for forcing religion on me. "Besides, I don’t think the Smothers Brothers forced their kids, and they are political giants!" I would brood the entire hour’s drive to church just to make my parents as miserable as I felt. It never changed in all those years.
I look back thirty-five years to those times now and bless my parents in every prayer I pray for the gift they gave me. I no longer practice their religion, but I live with every pore in my body believing in something greater than myself. My faith is as easy as a breath in, and during times of great challenge, I don’t have to search for God or strength. Everything I need is already there and will always be.
The Courage to Be a Loving Parent
November 25, 2006
Most of us really don’t like it when someone is angry at us. We don’t like it when people go into resistance to helping us when we need help, instead of caring about us. We don’t like it when people withdraw from us, disconnecting from us and shutting us out. We don’t like it when people make demands on us and do not respect our right or need to say no. Many of us will do almost anything to avoid the soul loneliness and pain we feel when people treat us in angry, resistant, demanding and uncaring ways.
It takes great courage to stay loving to ourselves and others when faced with others’ angry and closed behavior. It especially take courage when the people we are dealing with are our own children. Yet unless we have the courage to come up against our children’s anger, resistance, and withdrawal, we will give ourselves up and not take care of ourselves to avoid their uncaring reactions. The more we deny our own truth and our own needs and feelings, the more our children will disrespect and discount us. Our children become a mirror of our own behavior, discounting us when we discount ourselves, disrespecting us when we disrespect ourselves. The more we give ourselves up to avoid our children’s unloving behavior toward us, the more we become objectified as the all-giving and loving parent who doesn’t need anything for ourselves. When we do this, we are role-modeling being a caretaker.
Keeping Baby Safe: Your Most Important Role As A Parent
November 24, 2006
Saying Thanks, But No Thanks to Used Safety Equipment
Once your beautiful bundle of joy arrives, the work of raising your child really begins. The biggest job you have as a parent is keeping your baby safe. Yet, it is impossible to watch over your children twenty-four hours a day.
Thankfully, there are many safety products available to keep them from getting hurt. These products include safety gates, outlet covers, oven and table bumpers, doorknob covers, bed rails, locks and guards, and many more. As a parent, you need to use products that are one step ahead of their children’s abilities, and can do so by getting down on their level and looking around. This gives you a child’s eye perspective of child safety issues in your home.
But with so many products to buy and so many different brand names, how do you decide what products you need most? The best thing to do when it comes to safety is buy new products rather than used ones. An older, used product may have been recalled due to dangerous safety issues, or it may be damaged from previous use. Although hand-me-downs are great for clothes and toys, your child’s safety is just too important to leave to chance. Babies R Us is a great place to find all the safety products you need.
The Most Powerful Question a Parent Can Ask?
November 24, 2006
The question I have for you drives right to the heart of the matter. It could alter that tired, haggard feeling you have at the end of a day or weekend. It could alter the life of your children for the better and the life of their future partner. More than that, it could even alter your community, because once I’ve told you the question and you’ve seen how powerful it is you’ll want to share it with your brother, sister, neighbours and friends.
Before I ask you my question I want to set the scene. You’re a loving parent striving to give your children the best life you can offer. You race around the household picking up their dirty underwear from under the bed, collecting the towels from the bathroom floor and spend whatever time it takes to knock up their favourite food while one of your children spends fifty percent of their free time surfing the net and talking in chat rooms and the other catches up on thirty hours of TV a week. Meantime, you?
Well, sometimes you might feel tired. Sometimes deflated. Sometimes unappreciated and perhaps just a tad grumpy! If you relate to any of what I describe then my question will change it all for you and I recommend you read on.
Eco-Parenting
November 24, 2006
Arabella Greatorex, owner of The Natural Nursery, reports on the rapidly rising demand for natural, environmentally friendly and ethically sound parenting products and highlights some of the concerns that have fuelled these demands.
Organic Food
There has been much media debate around the promotion of heavily processed foods to children, part of a long standing concern about the quality of food on offer in the UK. While some say the jury is still out on issues such as pesticide residues in fruit and vegetables, it is worth noting that only 30 additives are allowed in organic food, compared to over 300 in non-organic. Specifically, organic food bans the use of tartrazine (linked to hyperactivity in children) and GM ingredients.
The Soil Association reports that sales in organic food grew by 10% last year overall and purchases from farm shops and box schemes by a whopping 16%. This means that over 75% of households bought some organic food during 2004.
Organic baby and toddler foods now account for nearly half of total baby foods in the UK, with its market share growing rapidly, highlighting the level of concern felt by parents, and is a trend that looks set to continue.
Co-sleeping, a personal story
November 24, 2006
When I was pregnant, we knew that we had some fairly fixed ideas about how we wanted to raise our child, including allowing her to share our bed for as long as she wanted to.
We have been shocked and sometimes upset at other people’s reaction to what seemed to be a very instinctive decision, to sleep with our daughter. I am often made to justify this decision and made to feel as if we are "bad" parents just because we hadn’t trained her to sleep in a cot in her own room by 8 weeks old.
As it happens, we didn’t even really talk about it, it just seemed the right and natural thing to do and offered some major advantages. Our daughter loved the constant contact and it made it so much easier to breastfeed during the night. By simply rolling over and letting her feed before either of us were fully awake, we were both able to drift back to sleep much quicker than if I had had to get up to feed, so everyone got extra sleep.
How To Find The Best College Credit Cards
November 23, 2006
How To Find The Best College Credit Cards
by: Morgan Hamilton
College freshmen are bombarded with offers for college credit cards. They get all sorts of junk mail and e-mails saying enticing things like, “pre-approved for college credit cards.” Few students can resist these college credit cards marketing gimmicks.
Not that it’s bad for students to have and use college credit cards. Parents just have to be aware that this college credit cards craze will happen at the start of each year. Rather than fighting a battle they really can’t win, mom and dad should be sitting down with their college freshman son or daughter and explaining the ins and outs of college credit cards - the jargon, the responsibilities, the ramifications to their credit if they go overboard on college credit cards purchases they fail to pay on time.
The best student choices in college credit cards are those that start the college freshman out with a modest spending limit. Parents are probably going to be the ones paying the balance, anyway, for college freshmen at least, who don’t typically have jobs while they’re in their first college year.
Coping With Colic
November 23, 2006
Quite simply, an absolute nightmare for parents and babies alike, colic is likely to be the first major test of your parenting skills. It is dreadful for all concerned but these tips should help you cope with this difficult time.
You must at all times remember that your baby is not crying to annoy you or to punish you for something you have not done. It is not your fault that she is suffering in this way, nor is it hers. All you can do is to help relieve her pain.
Is it colic?
Colic is defined as 3 or more hours of continued crying in a day. It is not an actual illness or physical ailment and doctors are still not sure what the cause is. All that is known is that a number of babies will suffer from it, starting around 6 weeks and crying inconsolably for hours each day until around 3 months or later.
If your baby cries for long periods of time and you are not able to comfort her, it may be colic but you should first rule out the normal reasons for crying:
