How To Raise A Smart and Happy Child From Zero To Five

Parents, both newbies and experienced ones, are totally dedicated to their children. It does not matter much if they can spend hours on end with them, or if they can only share a couple of hours during the week days and then enjoy them fully on Saturdays or Sundays: the truth is that mums and dads enjoy being with their kids. This is especially true with children from zero to five.

During these years, children are eager to explore the world around them and learn new things, develop new skills and grow as more independent human beings. Experts in child development agree on the fact that from the moment the child is born until he reaches the fifth year of age, he accomplishes some of the most significant milestones of his growing up process. He learns how to speak, starts interacting with other children, learns to control when and where to toilet, learns how to walk and develop a wide variety of both motor and mental gross and fine skills that he will then have to put into practice later on in his life.

Parents are devoted to ensuring their child is both smart and happy. However, many of them don't know how or where to start in order to raise children that are both intellectually sharp but also happy and with a positive outlook towards life. Hopefully, these tips will be very useful for them.

Make your child embrace the idea of learning in a positive way even if he cannot grasp the concept at all. He does not need to understand it from an intellectual or academic point of view as he is still too young for that. Provide him with plenty of learning opportunities and learning challenges every day and repeat those experiences on a regular basis.
Remember that learning should be and needs to be fun for a child from zero to five. Children that age mostly learn through playing so it is extremely important that you provide him or her with a wide variety of games and toys that allow the child to let his imagination fly, express his creativity, solve conflicts, make decisions, discover things by himself and feel both challenged and rewarded. Educational toys are definitely the best option, but you have to make sure they are not only suitable for his or her age range but also attractive to the child.
Feed your child properly. Make sure the child enjoys a well balanced and nutritious diet that includes plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy products and diverse sources of protein. Parents should not only worry about making the dishes visually attractive but also tasteful.
A smart and happy child is also the result of the experiences he is offered to enjoy. Make sure he is actively engaged in recreational activities he or she likes, even if he is a very little baby. In fact, even a short walk round the nearby park in a trolley can be a great learning and funny experience for a baby!

The educational development of your child is an incredible journey, one that begins before birth! And it's a difficult journey, wading through the mountain of information on not only the educational, but the social / emotional development of your child.

That's where we come in. CleverStuff offers outstanding quality children's educational toys, wooden toys and sensory toys. Toys that are exploratory, educational, tactile, functional, fun and funky. And we reckon that's pretty clever!

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5 Ways to Make Children's Books More Fun

Reading books to children is not just a privilege but an opportunity as well to cultivate a wonderful bond. At times, encouraging kids to read can be difficult especially with the presence of so many distractions like television cartoons and virtual games. Still, you should not lose hope because there are a lot of means in which you can make a book exciting.

Create activity pages related to the book

A child will feel eager to finish a book if he or she knows that a thrilling activity awaits him. The key to creating activity pages is to first read the book and come up with concepts that are relevant to the tale. For example, if the book is about a new chicken in a farm, why not create an activity page wherein a child has to match which animals correspond to the words "oink", "meow" and "moo"? You may also try creating mazes, puzzle words, and coloring pages. If a child successfully finishes an activity, you can give him a small reward like an ice cream, extra TV time or even a new book of his choice.

Photocopy illustration to make character puppets

With their imaginative minds, kids can truly find joy in playing make-believe games with their toys. It is easy to transform a page character to a tangible toy by simply photocopying the picture of the character and cutting it. After finishing the book, engage your child in a conversation wherein you will talk about the story characters, plot, and moral lesson. Afterwards, let the child choose which character he or she wants to have as a puppet. Other than photocopies, used socks, tissue tubes, construction papers, and strings are useful materials for making creative puppets.

Create decorations related to the book

It is very seldom for a children's book to have merchandises but you can always come up with your own. You can create lanterns, key chains, makeshift snow globes, pinwheels, posters, and paper arts that will represent the story. Ask your child if he or she wants to join your craft session. Displaying book-related decors is an effective way for a child to remember the stories that touched him.

Re-enact the story as a play

Role playing is a tried-and-tested method of stimulating a child's creativity. Not only will you make reading more fun but your child will likewise have instant speech training. Allow your child to pick the character he wants to play and instruct him to deliver his lines clearly. For a more realistic "show", throw in some costumes that are fit for your storybook characters.

Ask questions throughout the story

Reading can be interactive if you will raise questions per page. As you go along the lines of the narrative, don't hesitate to connect with your child by saying things like, "How many ___ are in this page?", "Where do you think the character is going?", and "Do you think what she did is right?" These questions will surely stir the interest of your young reader.

By making note of these ideas, expect that the book will leave a lasting impression in your child's heart.

Miho Suzuki is a children's story book author who has worked with preschool children in Canada and Japan. She has a children's site called Animal Adventure which is filled with fun activities and coloring pages for kids.

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Reading Development: What Will a Child's Tomorrows Be Like If Reading Isn't Part of Today?

To whom it may concern...,

I on occasion read to children at the local library. It is always a small group of kids with mom and or, dad, grandma or a chaperon. There is always room for plenty more. The 80 to 90 per cent of empty chairs is an indication of that.

This in turn led me to wonder, why are there so few kids here when the readings are advertised weeks in advance and reminders are constantly posted?

Do the parents know? If they do, are they too busy to take the kids? Do the children even want to go? Perhaps being well read is not as enticing as being well viewed, meaning TV?

Out of nothing more that curiosity with no particular agenda in mind, I decided to Google reading statistics for children.

I made a startling discovery on children's reading statistics in the U.S. and around the world. What I found out saddens me.

The few of many stats I am about to share with you, I dug up from The American Literacy Council. These facts are for the United States only. If I were to share with you the statistics for the poorer countries in the world, your mind would go into a tailspin.

Did you know that 40 to 45 percent of children never learn to read?

Did you know that 90 percent of children who cannot read at the ninth grade level dropout?

Did you know that in 2003, adults in the U.S. (who were once kids and are now parents) were tested for their reading proficiency and 87 percent were recorded as feeble. How sad is that?

I could easily fill documents with a serious number of more facts and statistics. Facts like where children end up as adults due to dropping out and being illiterate. But you already know their destiny.

You know why the prisons are full, why the poverty level in the U.S., the richest country in the world is deplorable. You know because you can see it and you read about it.

You and I have the ability to improve our minds our bodies our souls and our whole lives with the written word. We can read.

What if you couldn't read? What if you were looking for a job where you can thrive and grow and become all you can be but you couldn't find one because you are illiterate! You can't get past your name and address on the application?

What kind of future would be in store for you at that rate? I shudder to think of myself in that situation.

Now think about this. What if that was your child in those shoes, your niece, nephew, grandchild, friend's child, or any child at all. What would you do? I would certainly do something about it to help them on their journey so they can march on with confident strides into the future.

Yes, there are so many terrific kids who can read up a storm and they love it. Those kids as they get older graduate to reading the local newspaper and the Huffington Post. Some of them have Blogs and websites. They surf the internet for information that will help them. They read books that broaden their minds and their horizons.

Many of those kids build an enterprise second to none because they got passed the ninth grade. They surged forward into the future with a library of books and a mindful of knowledge to increase their chances.

Do you want to know what the most powerful word in the English language is?

It's one of those small insignificant words that we all take for granted and use it on a daily basis.

It's one of those little words that magnifies itself beyond its own boundaries.

It's a little word that is most powerful when used with real meaning to make something possible through a specific action as a unity.

That little word with a big punch is "Let's".

Let's go to the library. Let's listen to a story. Let's read a book. Let's spell Mississippi. Let's sing the alphabet!

Let's go do it, means we walk beside a certain person or persons, we don't say here's what you have to do and point the way.

I leave you with a borrowed quote from one of my favorite English novelists and critics of all times, Aldous Huxely... in the hopes that one day you will take a child by the hand and say "Let's".

"Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting".

The Author understands the struggles some children have reading. Enticing and fun reading tools are necessary to encourage the act. Therefore, a complimentary Mp3 download of her first novel, Nanny Reilly, together with a beautifully illustrated 99 page e-book is available from http://www.nannyreilly.com/ for all children. Nanny Reilly is for them to enjoy without cost to anyone.

Please feel free to put this article on your website or Blog. No credit necessary.

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Childhood Social Disorders - How To Support Parents And Families In Crisis

Parents and families can often find themselves in crisis when a family member has a childhood social disorder. This article will address the following:

What are childhood social disorders?What support can be offered to families?

Firstly, childhood social disorders are mysterious brain abnormalities that impact a child's development by either preventing them or delaying their normal development through the various stages of childhood. Some examples of childhood social disorders include autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD or ADHD), Conduct disorder to name a few.

The main areas of concern about these disorders is that a child is not able to process or understand a social setting in the same way as their peers and so they may end up saying or doing the wrong thing, cause offense or upset, be disruptive, appear unfeeling or uncaring and so them may end up being isolated and excluded from social activities with other peers.

To support parents and families best, it is vital that children with childhood social disorders receive the intervention and therapies that will teach them about social inclusion, learning to see things from another person's perspective, learning empathy and learning to read verbal and non verbal signals.

These are the areas that most children learn at a normal pace throughout their childhood but for children who have a social disorder, they will learn at a slower pace and may need to be shown how to do these things we so easily take for granted and which other children instinctively pick up on.

It can be difficult for parents and other family members to do many of the things we take for granted if one of the children has a social disorder which may cause them anxiety, cause them to be disruptive or cause them to behave inappropriately in certain social settings.

If a child is difficult to manage under these circumstances, a family may simply avoid going out or limit their activities so that they won't be trying to "manage" their child while trying to control their stress levels at the same time. As a result some families spent little family time together outside an environment they cannot control and this isn't healthy for anyone.

Support services and families should work together with the child so that they can gradually get used to different social situations with the ultimate aim of having less stressful situations for the family and a greater social integration for the child with a social disorder.

For your complementary breakthrough session on overcoming the obstacles that life seems to throw at you as the parent of a special needs child, go to http://www.parenting4specialneeds.com/.

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A Million Pieces of My Heart

When I created my blog I had no idea what path would be taken. All I knew was it was time to share what I had learned on my journey of life.

Even after all the different healings of my mind and body I had experienced up to this point in my life, I knew more was to take place, as it will until I am no longer breathing on this earth.

From the age of a small child, I had experienced emotional pain off and on as we all have. My heart broke when I lost my dad at such a young age.

Little did I know at the time, my heart would break even more one day.

I loved my three children I gave birth to, more than life itself. I would spend hours holding them, playing with them, talking to them as they looked up at me with wonder.

I had so many hopes for them. It was my responsibility to provide them with the basics of life, which in my world, included a father.

I knew what it was like not to have mine, although I had the perfect step-father. So why should my adult life be any different?

I also did not realize at the time that I carried an unrealistic dream of the "normal American family". I made mistakes in some of my choices and it hurt my children, something I would never intentionally do.

I have shared what I have learned through those experiences in my articles. But, the one thing I was not aware of until recently was a pain I still carry, a pain that broke my heart into a million pieces.

Spirituality is about unconditional love, going within, silence, awareness, awakening, forgiveness, living in the moment, and just being, to name a few.

I have always considered myself a spiritual person opposed to a religious one. The rules I found in religion never really made sense to me, so I went in search of the Truth about our existence.

I found Truth and have a peace within I have never known. On a daily basis, I still learn. But now that I have opened my heart, it seems as if seeking is not so much required as I used to think.

And the faith I have used all my life, my faith in a Higher Power, is stronger than it has ever been.

Events have transpired that have uncovered the pain I thought had healed, the pain of sexual child abuse.

Even typing the word sexual seems strange, almost as if it is a bad word. Growing up here in the south, it pretty much was a word that was not supposed to be spoken aloud.

This contributes to the reason why when my family experienced this type of abuse there was not much support available to us.

I will not go into detail here in this article, but I will share with you that when it happens to one, it affects the entire family, even if not realized.

As a mother, it literally broke my heart into a million pieces.

Never in my life had I ever experienced such pain and have not since. The advice we were given by many was to forgive and forget. This pain cannot be forgotten, it is with you for life.

As far as forgiving goes, the jury is still out on that one.

The awareness of the pain still lurking inside of me was found as I wrote my previous articles, watching my adult children find their way in this life.

Every article I have written is due to an observation either in my life or my children's lives.

It has been 20 years since we as a family, stepped into hell. As I look back, I would have done a few things differently. But we only operate with level of knowledge we hold at any given time, right?

That is the very reason my articles exist... to share what I have learned.

Last night I wondered how on earth I would combine spirituality with sexual child abuse. Well, that answer did not take long in arriving.

The details in each case are all different, some worse than others, but the pain is the same. The emotions experienced are the same.

Holding onto the hurt, anger, hate, blame, guilt and all the other feelings stemming from abuse is known as living in the past and is not conducive to a healthy lifestyle.

Releasing these binding emotions by becoming an active voice will give us the freedom to live in the moment.

This will also offer an opportunity to rebuild our lives in a positive fashion. It is never too late.

Becoming a voice for the children is essential in finding solutions. I began my research and found there are much more positive avenues available now than there was 20 years ago.

Who would not want to save a child's mental and physical well- being?

My three are grown now, but I have grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends who have the same.

What better gift could we give these children than a voice speaking for something they know absolutely nothing about?

All the attributes I listed of spirituality plays a huge part in this and this is how it all comes together.

Being a voice for the children is loving

Being a voice for the children is compassion

Being a voice for the children is living in the moment

Being a voice for the children is healing

Being a voice for the children is awareness in action

Spirituality is just a label, as is other words that could be used to describe the reasons for being a voice. You don't have to be considered spiritual to become involved.

There are two organizations I found through my research I have chosen to be a part of. There are many out there for the picking. Find one that resonates with you.

If you are a survivor, which involves not only the abused person, but their family also, or know someone who was abused, your voice is needed now.

Yes, it hurts to share this experience and I don't know if total healing will ever take place... I don't allow myself to attach to that thought... I am simply following and listening to my heart.

As long as heads stay stuck in the sand regarding sexual child abuse, no solutions will manifest and nothing will change.

Reach out, share your story, rescue a child, be a part of the solution, not the problem.

Understanding this becomes... a simple truth

Hopefully, sharing my articles will assist in healing, not only for myself, but my family also.

I have chosen to share this information in hopes of a better world for our children through prevention.

Wanda Lawson, Spiritual Writer

Please follow me here:

http://www.understandingsimpletruths.org/

and you may follow/like me on my Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/understandingsimpletruths

I love to write and share my experiences in life. Our journeys, I believe, are meant for sharing. Not to dictate how one should live, just offering what has worked for me as considerations.

Simply, follow your heart.

Namaste

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