ARE WE TEACHING OUR CHILDREN TO BE OPEN MINDED?

Let’s play fair and teach our children how to deal with different cultures and communities and give them the chance to communicate and tackle different situations in their lives in peace and harmony.

How can we as adults and parents help our children to learn and cope with different cultures and races? I feel that we need to begin by acknowledging are own attitudes values and think about how these effect us in the way we interact with children today.

It is important to note the following:

• How do we respond to our neighbors who speak with and accent or who are from a different country to us or who are a different colour etc.
• How do we feel when we need to communicate with them? Do we feel uncomfortable around them and how do we relay our feelings to our children.
• Do we communicate with them openly and honestly and accept them as individuals and look for things that we can share with them, or do we look at them at frown and say they are not like us so let’s not talk to them and back away from them.
• Do we talk to our children about how we feel? Are we able to show our children how to express discomfort when dealing with a new or unfamiliar situation in an open and honest way?

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BITING

Biting is one of the things that children do. It is very popular in child care. There are many reasons why children bite so it is impossible to give you astraight answer to each case but here are a few possibilities that I have come up with whilst working with children for many years.

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Choosing Quality Child Care

Parents often ask me how to find quality child care. I have worked in many child care centers that offered a range of care. Some centers provided excellent care but others did not. 

In this blog post, I will share ideas of what you should look for and questions you may want to ask your potential child caregivers. The bottom line though is how you feel about the center and how your child reacts to the staff. Observe the center, ask questions and trust your instincts to help you make the right choice.

When choosing child care it is important to look at how the caregivers and staff interact with you and your children and whether the atmosphere is warm, friendly and welcoming. Look at the other children at the center and observe their actions. Do they appear happy and engaged in activities? Does the center seem to be a safe place or do you see scissors left on the table or an unfenced playground area?   Here are some questions you will want to answer through your observations or by asking the center or caregiver.

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Are we encouraging small children to become adults to quickly by giving them cell phones and dressing them up to look like twenty year olds.

I see so many kids these days using their cell phones when they are walking down the street with their friends. They do not seem to be able to put them down for 1 second. I have especially noticed this with school kids in the 12+ age range.

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ARE WE SHOWING OUR CHILDREN THE RESPECT THEY DESVERE?

Children and teenagers today are facing more challenges than in 1962 when I was born.  It is not that they have more to cope with but I feel they have different opportunities and have access to multi media and social networks via the Internet.  They talk  in a lot chat rooms and correspond a lot via mobile phone.  I guess when I was kid we did not have all those things.  Is that a good thing or bad thing well that is the question.

It is important to value our children and let them grow up free of restraints and give them the respect and honesty that they deserve.  The world wide web has a far more expansive social media that we could ever imange and as adults and parents it is vital that we let our children explore that. 

It takes courage not to interfere when our children are talking to people who we have never met and we do not even know who they are.  If we educate them and  show them respect and give them the chance to talk to us when they want to, it is not as hard as all that.  If we keep interfering they will only want to do things more.  Why not let them find out things for themselves we can only encourage them to make the right choices and assist them to develop and make their own relationships. 

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I am seeing so many comments at the moment about children being bullied at day care centers, school and in pre-school. It is important to teach our children to stand up for themselves and tell someone when they are being bullied.

I teach a 3 step method to children who are being bullied:

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 I have worked in child care for many years. In recent times, I have noticed an increase in the number of children responding to a request from an adult with outright defiance. Parents and child care workers have asked me on numerous occasions how to handle this outright defiant behavior.

There are many steps you can take to manage defiance in children and get it under control.

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Is travelling with young kids by plane a daunting prospect for you?

I often hear parents reminiscing about when they took their children on holiday and had a terrible time with screaming tantrums etc. Spending hours in an airplane can be a daunting experience for children and here are some tips that will help you prepare for your journey.

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I am regularly asked by parents in the child care centres that I work about toilet training and when is a good time to commence it.

This is an excellent question and is of course an individual thing depending on your child. In my experience, doing it too early can be too much for the child and the best time to start is around 2 - 2 1/2 years of age.

It is important to make it fun and not force your child to go and here are some tips that will help from my experience.

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Do you often face a struggle getting your children to willingly go to bed?

It is obvious that they’re tired and ready for sleep but no matter what you try, they refuse to go quietly! In my experience, for many parents this becomes a daily ritual that they dread with the only solution being to carry them to bed screaming!

Let’s face it, they are not in the space to reason with or listen to you.

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