empoweringchildren.org

When we were children we all loved to play. We loved to ride our bicycles and were constantly playing with toy cars or dolls. Most children enjoy active pastimes and sports of all sorts such as soccer, softball and basketball. If, however, a child suffers from one of the many eye conditions they cannot always fully enjoy these types of activities. It is therefore vitally important that we, as parents, monitor our children’s vision from an early age so that we can detect any eye condition that may affect them in the long term.

Eye Examinations Before Learning Begins

The American Optometric Association suggests that young children have a comprehensive vision examination when they are six-months-old, this should be followed up when they reach three-years-of age and again when they are five-years old. In particular, children should receive a thorough eye examination during the summer before starting kindergarten. After testing is completed, an expert will review the data and then write a comprehensive report. Children’s vision care examinations can reveal that children suffer from one of several types of eye conditions.

These common eye conditions include conjunctivitis or “pink eye” which is an infection that involves the eye’s outermost layer. It includes three types of condition (namely allergic, bacterial and viral), each of which require unique types of treatment. With the exception of the allergic variety, this disease is generally extremely contagious. Read the rest of this entry »

Entire growth of children whether physical as well as mental depends completely on their eating habits. Everybody knows well that children are supposed to eat healthy and nutritional foods. We always try to ensure healthy eating for children. However, you it is sometime difficult to screen your children with lots of enticing, unhealthy and tastier options in the market. Hence for this it is important to provide them with nutritional food which can nourish them even if they take something unhealthy in your absence. If they have healthy options at home they are likely to become healthy eater in future also, as they grow up to become adults.

For making your children habitual of healthy eating it is important to inculcate these habits right from their birth. Once it becomes habit then it becomes easy to follow it. Read the rest of this entry »

When you have something as serious as child internet safety, parents want nothing but the best internet protection software. However, it may not be an easy task to manage. There are many software programs that claim to be the best one for internet protection.

In order to determine the best one, parents may have to try out several different software programs to see which one suits them. They should go through each one carefully, then make a decision which one best suited their needs.

Some software programs offer a trial version from a few weeks to a month. This way, it helps parents to make a decision without having to buy right away. Even if parents are using a trial, it’s good to have some type of internet protection software program installed.

There are some computers and some internet service providers that have internet protection software programs preinstalled. It’s a matter of the parents activating it when they turn on the computer. These programs are automated to send updates when needed. It’s important that the parents download the updates when they’re announced.

Even when parents decide on a program, it’s imperative that they keep the program updated. Parents can check for updates on their own, but it’s usually not necessary as the updates automatically appear.

Regardless of what internet protection program parents use, it should be operating in the computer at all times.

Parents can use filtering software that protects their child from accessing websites that are not age appropriate. When choosing filtering software, parents should choose one that is easy to install and navigate. Read the rest of this entry »

Children are particularly susceptible to infection, and therefore are most at risk from catching it if it’s spreading through your area and from dying of it once they do catch it.

It’s significant that the first known victim of the current A/H5N1 strain of bird flu, back in May 1997 in Hong Kong was a three year old boy.

Despite receiving great medical treatment from Queen Elizabeth Hospital, he died of multiple organ failure in 12 days, because they could not keep him breathing.

Children have immune systems that are relatively undeveloped, just as their hearts, brains and other parts of their bodies are not fully developed. Because they’re children, not adults. In technical terms, they have “naive” immune systems.

Also, children tend to spread the infections in their bodies to each other simply through playing. Younger children especially have little sense of social distance and propriety. They hit, wrestle, hug, crawl over and drool on each other. Read the rest of this entry »

Growing up, my parents read a story to me every night. I always assumed it was the standard in every child’s bedtime routine across the country. As a teacher with my degree in Early Childhood Education, I know the importance of reading to children. The benefits associated with a simple daily bedtime story seem endless. Imagine my amazement when I read the statistic stating that only 39% of parents read to their children on a daily basis (Young, Davis, and Schoen, 1996). In a word, I was flabbergasted. I’ve witnessed the struggling readers and the impact that has on their daily lives. When a child has difficulties reading, everything in school suffers as a result. Would something as simple as a daily ten minute bedtime story interaction between a parent and child prevent these kids from struggling throughout their school years? Could it really be that simple? I want parents to know how vital it is to read to their children everyday. Read the rest of this entry »

Bringing up your children has to be the hardest, most demanding job in the world. It is a wonderful and challenging life experience. But it is so much harder than it looks, as I found out through experience, but with lots of patience and a fair degree of hope, children can grow into very emotionally-secure adults. Bringing children up is obviously one of the more difficult things in life to do,but raising children is one of the most rewarding and challenging undertakings anyone can take on. As a parent myself I can honestly say that parenting is certainly in no way easy. I believe that parents are best placed to decide what is right for their children and family, based on their own values, circumstances and lifestyle.

Parents need to build a bond between themselves and their children. They are the single most important influence in their children’s lives, and need to recognize and deal with their children’s most challenging traits in a positive manner. On average parents and care givers are spending between 20 and 30 percent of their salaries on raising their children. Both parents are working nowadays, while 40 years ago, mother’s were usually home. Lone parent often find they need to work multiple jobs, which in turn means the children have to be taken care of by other people. Which means that they are absent from the home which in turn leaves children exposed to increasingly more stress-filled situations which compromise their capacity to develop a resilient mindset and the skills necessary to function effectively in every day life. Read the rest of this entry »

Aggression in young children is a common problem that is quite natural and normal, but most parents feel alone and embarrassed when dealing with it. There are lots of ideas and options for taking positive constructive action to improve the situation, but the results are not quickly obvious, since it involves young children who lack maturity and self-control skills.

WHAT TYPE OF PROBLEM IS IT?  Part of the problem belongs to the Child, because the child is angry, and part of the problem belongs to the Parent, because the child is expressing the anger aggressively, which is a safety issue. While the problem is mostly a Parent problem, the parent’s goal is for the child to eventually become mature enough to resolve similar emotions appropriately in the future.

WHY? Prior to the end of the transitional phase, around age four and five, children are still in the process learning to manage their bodily functions and impulses. Children who have high levels of testosterone (primarily but not exclusively boys and “tomboy” girls) often have difficulty managing their anger energy. Since they experience a strong chemical change when they are angry, they experience their anger not only as an emotion but as a source of energy they can’t bottle. The energy must come out somehow, so our job as parents is to help it come out in constructive ways, rather than destructive ways.

Ideally, we want children to learn how to manage their own anger and do so in a mature, responsible way. When children are young and inexperienced, it can be difficult to teach them how to manage their anger constructively. Read the rest of this entry »

Nowadays obesity and weight loss for children are the biggest problems before parents. The immune system and metabolism of children is different from adults hence it is a little bit difficult to plan weight loss for children. There are some tips given below which can assist in weight loss for children-Encourage children for nutritional diet-Make an analysis of diet taken by children and then accordingly encourage children for nutritional diet. Although you are not supposed to count daily the number of calorie taken by your children, you just need to understand diet of weight loss for children. You should know the sources of extra fat in your child so that you can control them.

Do not let them eat sweets very frequently-In early age children are fond of eating sweeter recipes and it leads to extra pounds of weight. Instead of giving junk food and sweets, it is better to instigate them to include healthy food in their diet leading to weight loss for children. Read the rest of this entry »

Children who do good in studies enjoy more advantages than others. Hence its very important to help your children maintain good academic record. Here are 10 ways to help your children excel in studies:

1. Give Them A Good Start

Young children are learning machines. They learn faster than adults. You can give your children, especially if they are below five years of age, a good start in education by using these simple techniques…

a) Read aloud stories from books. This helps to develop reading and imagination skill in children.

b) Talk a lot with your children. This helps to develop language skill.

c) Put on music for young children. Teach them to sing simple songs. Research is showing that music is not only good for overall health, but it is good for brainpower too! Read the rest of this entry »

The importance of parental involvement as an accelerating and motivating factor in their children’s education is a worldwide-accepted fact. This research project provides an in depth explanation along with specific reasons, the importance of parents’ involvement in their children’s education. It also discusses the parenting techniques, their types and their consequences if neglected. It also describes the ways to measure the outcome of the positive parental involvement. Furthermore, it mentions the teachers involvement and the difficulties faced by the teachers in getting parents involved in their children’s (this is further supported by the examples of two teachers who with their deliberate efforts won the parents over to devote their maximum attention towards their children), single-parent involvement, children’s own efforts to improve their academic levels and joint home-school based interventions. A detailed analysis of the different main ideas is given, based on the findings from other research surveys and projects. Read the rest of this entry »