big & huggable » tips,tips,tips

Training Kids Daily Body Care

admin_bighuggable — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 01:38:02 +0000

Simple body-care tasks such as brushing teeth, combing hair, eating healthy food and bathing are important skills for children to learn. Many are resistant to caring for their own bodies, however, because it takes away from playtime and other fun activities. To encourage your child to take care of her body, it’s important to make body care fun and easy, in addition to explaining its importance, according to pediatrician Dr. William Sears.

Basic body care doesn’t have to be a boring, monotonous task that takes children away from fun activities. Parents should make body care fun and interesting. Provide your child with a brightly colored toothbrush and try putting food coloring in water to encourage her to drink it. Children often master a task most quickly when they’re rewarded for trying, the authors of the book “Child Psychology” write. Try instituting a star chart system. For every day that your child completes basic tasks such as brushing her teeth, drinking water and choosing healthy snacks, give her a gold star to place on her chart. When the chart is full, reward her with a special toy or outing.

Toddlers should begin learning about the importance of washing their hands and brushing their teeth as soon as they can talk. Children at this age love doing things for themselves, so encourage your child to brush his own teeth and wash his own hands with supervision. Preschoolers can help you pick snacks and foods. Give them choices of two or three healthy items. School-aged children can begin choosing their own foods. Reward them for healthy choices. Encourage children to move, run and play and help them understand the important role exercise plays in health.

Parents often struggle with getting their children to perform basic hygiene tasks such as showering and brushing their hair. A hallmark trait of childhood is the desire to be independent and to have control over one’s own life, according to “Child Psychology.” Harness this desire to encourage your child to complete basic hygiene tasks. Instead of pleading with her to wash her hair, offer her a choice: Either she can wash your hair or you will do it for her. Ask your child if there are particular supplies she would like to have around, such as a special soap, a brightly colored brush or a tear-free shampoo. This gives your child control over her own hygiene — and child-friendly supplies make it easier for children to complete basic grooming tasks.

How to Settle Jealousy on the Family

admin_bighuggable — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 02:43:11 +0000

Although you do not have suffered from a jealous sibling or have acted like a jealous vindictive spoiled kid against your sister or brother when you were young and immature, you have probably heard that jealousy between siblings can be a very powerful emotion leading children and parents to deal with all sorts of unexpected “thrills.” Neglected older children or “babies” that cannot get over the fact that they are not alone in world compete against each other in order to gain their parents’ attention. This annoying situation can become an endless source of competition and rivalry between siblings. Thus, the following five tips were collected to assist parents in managing jealousy and bringing harmony back into their homes.

Treat children as unique individuals - siblings do not to be treated exactly the same. When it comes to family, democratic guidance is usually advisable, but it should not be considered a “golden rule.” Giving exactly the same amount of love and attention is not always feasible and in many cases it is not even wise. This is supported by the fact that children become suspicious instead of being satisfied with what parents are able to offer. Treating kids as individuals instead of equals can reduce them from counting every single act and making comparisons.
Avoid comparisons at all costs - never compare the acts of one child with that of the other! Instead of telling them what they should be doing through using an example like that of their “good” sister or brother, it is preferable if you just state your reasoning and provide sound arguments for your position, as speaking to an adult. Creating guilt to your child will never bring the desired results and you will be facing in the future lifelong resentments and grudges that will follow them forever.
Cultivate the unique skills of your children - in order to build your child’s self-esteem, foster his or her skills in a different way from that of his/her brother or sister. Children that enjoy the outcomes of their special efforts together or through the exact same way are prone to feel less loved or neglected. Set your children’s successes apart and keep the necessary balance.
Spend time alone with each kid - before regretting not spending more time with your kids, make this precious time your priority and focus on finding the time and the energy to explore the vast possibilities of spending some quality time together.
Decide and draw the necessary boundaries - respect each other’s stuff and premises is of extreme importance. Teaching your kids what it means to show respect to the personal space, like bedrooms, or needs, like time alone to relax, is of extreme importance in wisely parenting your children and helping them build character.

Best Guides to Great Parenting

admin_bighuggable — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 09:46:07 +0000

Though it is impossible to draw up a list of list of hard and fast rules and methods for parenting, simply because not all family situations are alike, and not all children respond to parenting methods in the same way. If this is so, does that make any talk of ‘learning’ about parenting useless? Absolutely not! While methods may have differing effects, and every situation calls for a different set of rules, the things that should remain constant are the basic concepts each parent must learn. These concepts will help guide parents in their constant effort to be better parents.

Unconditional Love – Unconditional love is one of the concepts that should permeate every action and every interaction between parent and child. It is also one of the most misunderstood concepts. How a parent expresses this to the child may very well determine how the child views himself, and his/her worth.

Many children grow up with a low sense of self-esteem as a result of many different factors. They may feel that the love they are shown depends on their accomplishments. Or, they may feel unwanted, or unloved. All parents should, early on, be certain to show their children how important they are, no matter what, so that they can grow-up loving in the same way. This concept is very important in building self-worth.

Responsibility – Children should grow up with a sense of responsibility for their actions, and the things around them. Far too many children grow up to be irresponsible parents, friends, and family, not caring or not knowing how to care, and to accept their own responsibilities.

Children who grow without a sense of responsibility too often find themselves blaming other people for things they should be dealing with themselves. Alternately, lack of responsibility training could cause children to blame themselves for things that they have no control over. This is an opposite, but equally undesirable problem. Responsible children learn to care for and properly manage their time and resources – and ultimately your time and resources as a parent as well!

Respect – Children should be taught to respect at an early age. They learn that there are people that they should answer to, and that there is organization within every social unit. They learn that no matter whom the person they are talking to, that person has worth and should be respected.

This will help make relationships grow smoothly; as respect is one of the foundations of any good relationship. Children who learn to give and expect respect in return, adjust better to other people than those who don’t.

Therefore as a parent one helpful illustration might be to think of raising children as being like flying a kite – you let the kite fly into to the wind, giving slack as the kite flies higher, and reining it in if overwhelmed by the wind. But, like the kite, if properly flown your children could accomplish greater heights of personal development with the help of your support and parenting.

decreasing the amount of laundry

admin_bighuggable — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 11:39:10 +0000

Decrease the amount of laundry you do by creating new standards of “dirty”. If you wear a pair of jeans for two hours then put on your shorts, are the jeans dirty? Not in my house. Pajamas put on a clean body at night after a bath and worn once aren’t dirty either. Ditto for a towel that blots a freshly scrubbed body. Teach your kids that dirty mean it has food or obvious dirt marks on it. The exception? Underwear of course!

Minimize sorting by putting a hamper in each bedroom that has 3 slots. One for whites, one for darks, and one for mixed colors. For kids that are very young, try cutting out a large circle from construction paper for each category. Tape these on the wall above the hamper to show where to put each color. Alternately, you could buy inexpensive colored bins that match laundry colors.

Train your kids to bring you their dirty laundry at the beginning of each day or at some other time you choose. Don’t turn socks right side out for laundering. Show your family members how to take off their socks without bunching them into an inside out ball. If they don’t choose to listen to your sock lessons, let them turn their own socks right side out.

You may be able to minimize sorting even more by washing more clothes together. Many times light colors can go into the wash with mixed colors if you use cold water and the items aren’t brand new. Typically only cheap clothing fades anyway so buy your kid’s clothing from the nicer stores. It will last longer and wash well.

Some important questions to ponder: Do underwear need to be “folded” or can they be neatly placed flat in drawers? What about small T shirts and shorts? Do socks need to be matched up or can they be thrown into plastic boxes in a drawer and matched up by the wearer? Important questions, these!

Safety Tips for Baby Crib

admin_bighuggable — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 06:38:10 +0000

If using a blanket, it is best to place your infant with his or her feet nearly touching one end of the crib, and then tuck the blanket in at the foot and the sides allowing it to cover no farther than your baby’s chest. Using a sleeper instead of a blanket may further reduce any risk of danger. Your child should sleep on his or her back in a crib with a firm, tightly fitting mattress. This is to prevent your child from becoming trapped between the sides of the crib and the mattress. Do not put pillows, comforters, quilts, bumper pads or stuffed toys in the crib with your child. Only use fitted sheets that are made for cribs and fit the mattress properly.

Be sure there are no loose or poorly installed brackets, screws or other hardware on the crib or mattress support. The corner posts should not be taller than 1/16th of an inch high to prevent the infant’s clothing from getting caught and there should not be any cutouts on the headboard or footboard where your child’s head might become trapped. The slats of the crib should be no more than 2 1/4 inches apart so that the baby cannot squeeze through. Never use a crib with missing or damaged slats.

If you plan to use a crib with mesh sides, don’t use anything with mesh larger than 1/4 inch because the buttons from your infant’s clothing could get caught. If the crib or playpen was manufactured using staples, just be sure none of them are missing, loose or sticking out. Check the tops and bottoms on all sides to be certain the mesh is securely attached and make sure there are no rips or holes in the rail cover along the top especially. Always check for damaged mesh and do not use the crib or playpen if there are holes or loose threads.

By taking the above precautions you can reduce the chance of your child having an accident, and that will help just about any parent sleep a little better at night.

Evaluating your Budget to Suit Retirement

admin_bighuggable — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 11:10:49 +0000

Life is all about balance and making hard choices, and there are often no harder choices to be made than those involving our finances. While it can become tempting to live above our means in the hopes that our financial situation will one day improve to the point where we can make up the debt we’ve incurred over the past years, this is neither an intelligent nor moral way to live.

Likewise though, cutting back too much in an attempt to save away for something such as our child’s education or our retirement fund may make it difficult to stay motivated. We all to help our children get ahead, and feel secure in our future retirement, but is it worth sacrificing the present for and making life more difficult now, for a future that is uncertain at any rate? These are the difficult choices that must be considered when planning out your finances current and future.

One of the common problems with purchases or expenses is that their future costs aren’t taken into consideration. You may budget for the price of a new car, but are you also budgeting for the increased insurance prices that will come with it, the other little upgrades that you may want to have done to it, the increased fuel cost that may be associated with the car, etc.? These scenarios are where people often get blindsided with costs they weren’t expecting and get in over their head. Many purchases are not just simple one-off payments or monthly charges, many will require additional expenses or payments you need to take into consideration.

Another risk you run by having your income constantly tapped to the limit is that when an emergency comes up you’re often forced to turn to the credit cards or some other line of credit to get through it, and from then on run the risk of that slippery credit slope.

It’s important to separate necessary from unnecessary expenses. We live in a true golden age of luxuries, and this is great and all, but too often these things come to be viewed as necessities when they are anything but. Thing about how people lived as little as 50 years ago and re-evaluate what’s really a necessity and what isn’t.

As much as you may not like, cell phones, T.V service, internet, video games, none of these things are necessities. Your cell phone and internet may be relevant to your work, making them more necessary, but for most these are nothing but luxuries that are anything but necessary. But if you’d rather eat less or rack up debt so you can send superfluous text messages or watch videos on YouTube, you might need to re-examine what’s important in your life and where your life is headed.

These are questions you need to answer for yourself. Remember that options always exist, though they may not be ideal. While you may be used to high-speed DSL or cable internet, you could save as much as $100 a month by switching to a simple dial-up plan. Especially for people who rarely use the internet this make a lot of sense as inconvenient as it may be. Think about the inconvenience of bankruptcy and then re-evaluate how inconvenient dial-up internet service is.

You have two choices when facing balancing life and debt and a tight budget, either cut back on your expenses or increase your revenue. Are those little luxuries worth having to get a second job and out in an extra 20 hours of work a week for, time that will effectively take you away from those luxuries anyways? There are many decisions to be considered, and only you have the answers to those questions.

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The Drive for Leadership in Children

admin_bighuggable — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 07:04:08 +0000

For many the drive for leadership is intuitive, something they are simply born with. They know how to inspire trust from those around them. Others may try to learn the characteristics of leadership by issuing orders and striving to be the best at what they do. But this does not necessarily imply effective leadership.

Leadership requires an understanding of the greater goals or purpose, as well as trust and example setting. As children, then natural leaders will be those who assume initiative whenever the opportunity arises. They will involve themselves in organizing local events for example, come up with ideas for fund raising, and are generally and helpfully creative.

Natural born leaders know how to make the best of what is around them, recognizing the skills of their peers and applying them in an effective and productive way. Such leaders will not necessarily have the best skill set of those around them, but will enable others to realize their potential and contribute more meaningfully to the whole.

Bonaventure Senior Living

admin_bighuggable — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 04:51:01 +0000

Bonaventure Senior Living. On long summer evenings, sit on the patio or go for a walk. During the holidays, cozy up to the fireplace or meet up with your friends without having to brave the winter weather. In every season, enjoy one of the many activities and events. You’ll always be minutes from excellent shopping, banking, restaurants, healthcare and more. This really is the best of everything.

How to Develop Compassion in Children

admin_bighuggable — Fri, 27 May 2011 09:06:44 +0000

Essentially, character is a set of qualities, or values, that shape our thoughts, actions, reactions and feelings. People with strong character show compassion are honest and fair display self-discipline in setting and meeting goals make good judgments, show respect to others show courage in standing up for beliefs have a strong sense of responsibility are good citizens who are concerned for their community maintain self-respect.

Compassion, or empathy, means identifying with and being concerned about other people’s feelings and needs. It provides the emotional root for caring about other people. It allows us to be understanding and tolerant of different points of views and beliefs, it makes us aware of the suffering of others, and it allows us to empathize with them or to feel their suffering as our own. This will also allows us to feel joy and excitement – rather than anger and despair – at other people’s successes and achievements.

We can promote compassion by helping our children to think about how others feel. For example, if your child says or does something hurtful to another child, help him* to focus his attention on the feelings of his victim by saying, for example, “How do you think Zack feels? Would you like to feel like that?” Children develop compassion by practicing acts of caring and kindness towards others. As adults, we need to emphasize the importance of helping others, giving others the benefit of the doubt and being open to differences.

What you can do is to talk about the point of view of others as you watch TV, read books or discuss other people with your child. For example, ask, “What do you think that character is feeling and thinking?” Show care toward others, such as doing errands for sick neighbors or opening doors for others. Give others the benefit of the doubt. If your child complains that a classmate deliberately pushed her down on the way to lunch, explain that sometimes when people are in a hurry, they don’t watch where they’re going – they don’t mean to push or hurt anyone.

Best Way to Say You Really Care

admin_bighuggable — Fri, 27 May 2011 07:44:05 +0000

It is a fact that birthday is a big date, bringing joy and smiles in a person’s life, once in a year. So, on this date everyone likes to share their joys and merriment with friends and relatives. A special gift to the birthday boy/girl makes occasions special. Well, you might be planning to purchase a personalized gift but little bit confused and clueless what to get. In the market, miscellaneous gift items are available for both men and women. But, while purchasing gift for such occasions considering certain things might really be helpful. The first is his age and secondly is his/her choice.

It is the original idea of presenting chocolates, candies and sugar free sweets to kids and grandpa/ma’s. You can visit any local store and grab them. To surprise your friends and teenagers electronic accessories and costumes is a rocking idea. The i-pods, play-station, x-box, camera, cell phone or DVD’s, watches, volley-ball, foot balls, t-shirts, jeweleries are hundreds of gift items that you can personalize. The best way to pick is know his choices, and the best place is internet for shopping.

Clicking the websites, flashes numerous online marketing sites within seconds and miscellaneous options comes before you for birthday gifts. As numbers of options are available so you can choose that is best for the unusual occasion. Online gives you the advantage to browse comprehensively and suiting your budget. Online shopping is the hub and also comfortable for shopping. You can continue your shopping spree from home or office. It also comes with varied range of products and prices. Another advantage provided is that you can get the gift delivered to home or office by mentioning the correspondence address.

Birthday Gifts cherish your friends and also a unique way to express that you care. It is unlike usual gives that are likely to be treasured for a long period.