After almost 10 years as a stay-at-home mom, Tenna Perry found herself in the unexpected position of returning to work. Needing to find reliable and safe, yet inexpensive child care for her two younger children, Perry, like countless parents today, needed to rely on her oldest child.
Good old peer pressure. We hear that term thrown around a lot. It’s the cause of bad behavior and impolite language in our little ones. Later on, it’s blamed for everything from bad grades and ugly gossip, to loss of motivation and angry disrespect. Still older, we can pull out peer pressure and use it as the reason for alcohol and drug use, promiscuous sex, even depression and law-breaking.
It seems like everyone has an opinion about music and its benefits for children. Some say listening to classical music will make your child smarter while others speak about its ability to soothe even the fussiest of infants. All of this could be well and true, but at the very least, an early exposure to great music can create a life-time love affair and appreciation for it.
The Mozart Effect, a 1997 theory by Don Campbell, states that listening to classical music, more specifically, music by Mozart, increases intelligence. Though results are often debated, research continues to support the idea. In 2005, students taking the SAT with prior coursework in music appreciation scored 60 points higher on the verbal and 39 points higher on the math portion of the test.*
A computer in every crib! For a while that seemed to be the motto for those who thought it could never be too early to learn about technology. Fortunately, common sense seems to have prevailed. Although technology can be part of a healthy childhood, it should get at most a sliver of a young child’s attention.
"My son writes with his left hand, please fix that," says a left-handed parent to the child’s kindergarten teacher on the first day of school. Surprising? Perhaps.
At Halloween, no one is surprised to find miniature zombies at the door. Give them treats and they go away. A zombie computer is not at all cute and much harder to dismiss. Yet, according to the FBI, over one billion American computers have been converted into zombies, robots that follow the commands of remote and invisible masters.
I did not know what to say when my teenage son, Robin, told me one winter afternoon that he was going to be a father.
Your picky eater might have a normal appetite, after all.
Many times we judge a child’s intelligence on his reading and math ability. Those are the things deemed most important in the early school years. However, based on research begun by Howard Gardner and continued by other educators, there are eight intelligences — or eight different areas in which your child might excel.
As families hurtle toward the holidays, many busy parents will shop online. But what about kids? Should they be using the Internet to buy gifts for family members or even things they want for themselves?
plz hlp b4 i 4get how 2 rite english If you have a child who loves Instant Messaging, you can probably decipher that sentence: Please help before I forget how to write English. IMspeak, the cryptic language used in Instant Messaging, is phenomenally popular, not only with teens and pre-teens, but also with the millions of adults who now use it to communicate with friends, family and even co-workers.
Children learn by touching, exploring and talking about new and interesting things. Enhance your child’s learning by reinforcing basic skills early at home. Shapes are everywhere. Take advantage of every teachable moment by talking about and pointing out shapes when you see them.
Boys and girls have always been attracted to one another. But when attraction begins varies tremendously from one person to another. For some, those feelings of attraction start in late elementary school. For others, it’s not until high school. Although the age gap varies, experts agree when a child of 9 or 10 years old begins showing interest in the opposite gender, parents need to sit up and take notice.
Parents have a tendency to dismiss early relationships as trivial, but they should be treated seriously. Here are some tips for parenting through this stage.
Is your child’s lackadaisical attitude toward spending the night at her grandparent’s house bewildering? At 8 years old she longed to seek refuge from her siblings at Grandma’s house. Now, as a teen, you can hardly pry her away from her friends and the phone to spend an afternoon — let alone a good portion of the holidays — visiting her grandparents.
If dramatic scenes rivaling those of an Academy Award-winning performance routinely play out in your house, chances are you have a teen or tween-aged child. Sometime around age 11, children begin to realize the power that emotions play. From realizing the attention that a slammed door grabs to experiencing sympathetic pangs of angst for a forlorn friend, many children are drawn to drama.
In a recent New York Times article titled "What Shamu Taught Me About A Happy Marriage," Amy Sutherland shares what she has learned from animal trainers in California while researching a book she is writing. "The central lesson I learned from exotic animal trainers is that I should reward behavior I like and ignore behavior I don’t. After all, you don’t get a sea lion to balance a ball on the end of its nose by nagging."
Everyone knows teens are preoccupied with Web sites like MySpace and Facebook, but now children as young as 5 have social networking Web sites just for them.
For single teens, the prospect of a Valentine’s Day without someone special may seem a bit unpleasant, but as child psychologist Christie Rizzo, will testify, it’s better to be safe and single, than dating and in danger.
So your daughter went to see "Charlotte’s Web" and decided she wants to be the next Dakota Fanning, or you’ve always thought your son is a natural performer and have wondered if enrolling him in an acting class would be a good idea.
The image of a happy family sitting down to a relaxed, healthy meal is iconic and idyllic. Some families observe this ritual regularly, while others think of it as a relic from a past time when lives were less hectic.
There’s a room in school that teaches many lessons. Not language arts or social studies, but other lessons, some almost as important. Students learn about relationships, friends, manners, social behavior and status.
In 2006, 33.3 percent of children in North Carolina (ages 2-20) were overweight or at-risk of becoming overweight. Sue Dissinger, director of wellness for the YMCA of Greater Charlotte calls it an epidemic of inactivity and unhealthy eating.
