Give Your Child the Gift of Self-Esteem

By Cassie Simons

 Much has been said about the "gifted child" but in truth every child is born with unlimited potential. As expressed so well by Orison Marden:

"Deep within man dwell those slumbering powers; powers that would astonish him, that he never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize his life if aroused and put into action."

This statement can be true for your child. Not just if he's a "gifted child" but any child. Indeed, perhaps we should consider a "gifted child" to be a child whose parents have gifted him with a high self-esteem.

Children with high self-esteem are happier and more successful. Low self-esteem is common in children who are performing badly at school, have behavioral problems and suffer from depression.

The Newborn

The "helpless" newborn baby actually comes into the world well equipped with the power to get what she wants. Not only do her cries bring her parents running to tend to her; she also uses her body and facial language to get what she wants. It's no coincidence that babies learn to smile while they are still very small - it is an essential tool in their armory of communication. A baby with a disarming smile can frequently wrap mommy or daddy round her little finger!

Brain Building through Smart Play - Techniques and Tips

By Andrew Loh

All parents simply love to have children, who are extremely smart and intelligent with an ability to perform better in their personal and professional life. Till recently, we believed that there is not much that we can do to help our children develop their brains. Most of us were under a wrong impression that intelligence and smartness are inherited and it is almost impossible to enhance our children intelligence after the birth. However, recent monumental research studies on brain-based development in children suggest us that parents can do and perform a lot to help their children develop their brain based activities. The basic brain cells are very rudimentary and basic in a just born baby. However, most of the important brain connections and bridging between neurons occur during the first 10 years of your child's life.

Smart play is a new and modern term that helps your child develop basic brain based skills and talent that goes far behind the conventional type of intelligence that is restricted mainly to academic performance. Academic performance is an essential part of your child's life, but there are certain things that cannot be expressed through mundane scholastic abilities. There are the skills and intelligence that cannot be quantified or measured, just as we do in the case of classroom performance. These skills are absolutely essential for your child's success in life and they are almost invisible to your eyes. These smart play skills can just be felt and perceived.

How Parents Could Influence The EQ and IQ of Their Children

Harvard's visiting faculty member, Daniel Goleman, the author of the highly renowned EQ book, has pointed out that the best place for children to learn EQ is at home. The direction and values of life are formed at home. The way they speak and act are very much influenced by their parents. Even though gene plays the nature part; it is the parental teaching that determines their future.

We all know that parents bear a great responsibility in upbringing of their children. Experiences gained from educationalist again and again proved that parents are the one who would decide how successful are their children when they reach their adulthood. How a parent behaves in his/her daily live subconsciously play a vital role in molding the behavior of the children. In addition, the home education system adopted by the parents and the level of support given to their children will directly affect their children's behavior development and problem-solving ability. A self-confident child usually comes from the family filled with encouragement and praising rather than scolding and punishment. Likewise, helpful children mostly learn to behave the similar way from their parents.

The research from F.E. Williams, a well-known American educationalist, shows that whether the creativity of the children will continue to develop depends upon the attitude of their parents. His research divided the children into 3 groups namely: lucky group, failure group and conforming group.

Music Develops The Child Brain

By Alvin Poh

Music has the ability to train our brain for higher level of thinking - the kind of thinking for problem solving, comparing and contrasting the similarities and difference between objects, analyzing, reaching conclusion, synthesizing, and evaluating information.

In recent research, it was found that music can help in developing human's spatial-temporal reasoning skill. Spatial-temporal reasoning is the ability to perceive the visual world accurately and form mental images of objects. It is the mind ability to see in very detailed images and to recognize, compare and find relationships among the patterns and details on an object. The temporal element involves a child's ability to think ahead.

Guidelines for Raising a Well-Behaved Child

• Whenever possible, teach rather than punish. The goal of discipline is to teach children acceptable behavior. Hitting children does not teach acceptable behavior. It teaches children that "might makes right" and hitting is a way to solve problems.

• View children’s misbehavior as a mistake in judgment. It will be easier to think of ways to teach more acceptable behavior.

How do children learn what is right and wrong?

    Children do what they see, more than what you say. It is important for you to provide a good model for your child to follow.

    Children pass through different stages of moral development beginning in early childhood and advancing through adulthood.

    Very young children do not really understand the concept of right and wrong. For them, what is "good" is what they like and what is "bad" is what they don't like. Therefore, it is important for adults to provide controls and limits for them. This is especially true for children who have no words to tell themselves, "No, don't pick the flowers."

10 Tips for talking with kids about tough issues

Introduction

   Raising a child is probably the most gratifying job any of us will ever have -- and one of the toughest. In large part, that's because times have changed. We live in an increasingly complex world that challenges us everyday with a wide range of disturbing issues that are difficult for children to understand and for adults to explain.

   Some parents and caregivers may question the appropriateness of talking about such sensitive topics with young children. Maybe you're one of them. But consider this: our kids are already hearing about these issues from TV, movies, magazines and school friends. If we don't talk with them early and often -- and answer their questions -- they'll get their facts from someone else. And we'll have missed an important opportunity to offer our children information that's not only accurate, but also in sync with our own personal values and moral principles.

How to Keep You Kid Entertained With Toys

It's not very hard to keep a kid entertained with something to play with. In this electronic age every toy seems to require batteries or software in order to work.

However, kid's toys don't have to be sophisticated in order to be fun. Toys that require thinking and the imagination are the best toys that help aide the child in mental development.

Sudoku for kids and connect four both require critical thinking in order to win. This is precisely what parents should be looking for. Games that rely on chance won't do much to benefit a child. A game of chess or checkers on the other hand can be very beneficial. I will be discussing a few kinds of toys and games that aide in stimulating children to learn more.

How to Help Your Child Learn To Read

Words are the tools of thinking and expression. Perhaps one of the greatest home-aids to a child's reading is helping the child develop the art of marking and underlining in order to identify easily the significant material to be remembered. This practice is called "reading with a pencil in hand." It is a practice so valuable as to be worth buying books to be marked.

There are three important underlinings which should be used. The child should be taught to underline fundamental vocabulary words, and this can be started with the very first book that deals with subject matter. The method suggested for fundamental vocabulary words is a line above a shorter line (number, add, count, subtract, multiply, fraction, arithmetic, problem, divide).

The longer line stands for definition, and the shorter line stands for spelling. The second grader who underlines number in his book Fun With Numbers will not be spelling it (nomber) when he is a junior in secondary school, and the fourth grader who learns the definition of the word fraction will not be having trouble with fractions as an eighth grader, because he only learned about fractions, but really never knew what the word meant in terms of whole experience.

How to Help Children Like School

It is an awful feeling for a parent to have to force a child who doesn't like school to go anyway. But of course, you have to make your kids attend school (because education is compulsory for one thing but also because it's important).

So the key is to work on getting your children to like school from a young age on. There are a myriad of reasons that your child might not like school; identifying the reasons and then using some tricks to help overcome them can help your children like school from elementary age on.

HELP YOUR CHILD LEARN THAT CHOICES HAVE CONSEQUENCES

   Experiencing the consequences of their choices is one of the most effective ways children can learn self-discipline. These lessons really last because they come from real life. Most success in life depends on making wise choices. Being able to think ahead about the positive or negative consequences of an action and choose accordingly is a skill we want our children to learn.

Praise and your kids

   Praise is a valuable shaper; children want to please you and keep your approval. Yet, you can easily overdo it. Praise the behavior, not the person. Praises like "good girl" or "good boy" risk misinterpretation and are best reserved for training pets. These labels are too heavy for some children. ("If I don't do well, does that mean I'm bad?") Better is: "You did a good job cleaning your room." "That's a good decision." "I like the way you used lots of color in this picture." The child will see that the praise is sincere since you made the effort to be specific; it shows that you're paying attention. For quickies try "Great job!" or "Way to go!" or even "Yesss!" To avoid the "I'm valued by my performance" trap, acknowledge the act and let the child conclude the act is praiseworthy. If you praise every other move the child makes he will either get addicted to praise, or wonders why you are so desperate to make him feel good about himself. Be realistic. You don't have to praise, or even acknowledge, things he just does for the joy of it, for his own reasons.

Elementary School Curriculum Design

  It is believed that 2/3rds of a human being’s intellect is formed in the initial years of life. The years of elementary education are truly the magical years of a child’s life that can either make or mar the child’s personality. The foundation of 
The school authorities and the facilitators who have taken upon the responsibility of nurturing children through these formative years should definitely be clear with their objectives. The curriculum at the elementary level should be designed in such a way that all realms of child learning are tapped to the best potential.

Teaching Your Children Independence Thinking Skills - How Parents can be Proactive in Training their children

   Tying shoelaces, buttoning the shirt, cleaning the study table, doing laundry and doing homework on own without parents' help - these are some of the most common, yet important responsibilities for a child. These simple activities may look and feel very simple to many of us. However, they can pose a big challenge for most of the children, who are under the age of 10 years. To an adult, these simple jobs may look monotonous and regular. However, these perceived simple tasks may look humungous to all children. Children must learn and master many skills and techniques, before they leave home for their higher studies. Acquiring independence thinking skills at an early age will help your children build confidence and self-esteem.

   Young children and toddlers often like to do and perform very meaningful and understandable “adult-type” tasks. Many times, they are too enthusiastic about doing things on their own. What they lack are the techniques or methods to perform these tasks. To help your children succeed in learning independence skills, you may need to set up a congenial physical environment to assist them become more independent.

Developing Child Independence Thinking Skills

   

   Critical independent thinking skills are very important for your children. These important skills can enhance self-esteem and promote an ability to meet any challenging situation with ease and optimism. However, as parents we can hinder our children's ability to develop independence thinking skills, by helping or doing more than they actually need. Sometimes, we may even never realize that we are actually doing all the work for them. In life, parents just love their children and they want to take care of their children in every possible way. However, parents may also forget that going all the way to help their children, may actually hinder their children's ability to develop independence thinking skills.

   One of the primary goals of parents is to help children develop the intense desire and ability to think on their own and without other's help. Independent thinking is the desire or wish of a person to convince him or her that the information and detail being presented is true, worthy or reasonable.

Teaching your children to pick up their toys

   When children are taught from an early age to pick up their toys after playing, the process becomes routine. Not requiring immediate cleanup when kids are little leads to difficulty later on. Solutions can be achieved, however, at any age. The goal of this article is to both offer advice on how to make very young kids learn to pick up after themselves so the process becomes second nature and how to teach older children the same responsibility even if they have not been required to do so in the past.

Communicating With Kids

   It is vital to be responsible, consistent and loving with your kid. This holds true for the relationship you have with your spouse, your parents, and other family members and friends that are part of your child's life too. Own up to| mistakes as soon as you make them, and communicate open and truly with all family members.

   Many of us believe that someone's behavior and the way they perceive themselves are identical. However, these are completely different things.

   If you start to attack a child's manners as though it were the same as his value, then he will become defensive, and naturally will protect his behavior, even when he knows he is mistaken.

Factors That Influence Child Development

   A variety of factors influence the overall growth and development of the child -- structure of the family, home environment, sibling rivalry, marital relationship of the parents, social circle comprising of relatives, friends and peers.

   A child may be brought up in different family structures -- nuclear family, joint family, extended family circle, single parent family or even reconstituted family.

Types of Child's Play

 
   You often hear the phrase “child’s play” bandied about when something is deemed easy or unimportant. In reality true child’s play is anything but. Play is the means by which children explore their worlds and make sense of their surroundings, which is what ultimately informs their worldviews and opinions. What may look like frivolous activity to some adults is actually very important research on the child’s behalf.

Ideas for Teaching Manners to Children

  Teaching your child manners can be challenging. She might not understand fully, become defiant or resist your teachings. However, manners are a necessity in polite society, and a providing a proper learning environment can help your child grasp these ideas and become fully prepared for social situations at an early age.