Tips to get your Child Ready for Kindergarten

The transition to kindergarten can be quite an adjustment for children and parents.  Your little angel is now going to school.  Here are some steps, taken from education.com, to consider to prepare yourself for kindergarten.

• A month before, or as soon as possible if less than, start establishing a routine to prepare for the transition.  Get up earlier, eat a packed lunch, and anything else that you feel will help prepare your child for kindergarten.
• Read some books about going to kindergarten.
• Ask if you can bring your child in to get familiar with the room.
• Meet the teacher and principal of the school.
• Make sure that your child has the appropriate immunizations.
• Teach your child to say “please” and “thank you”
• Plan now not to drag out “good bye” on the first day of classes.

These are just a couple of recommendations.  You can go to education.com for more information.  Or even implement plans, and activities that will help you and your child prepare for the transition to Kindergarten.

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What are some things you have, or will be doing to prepare your child for Kindergarten?

Moving with Toddlers

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As you and your spouse found out by having a child, life changes.  Sometimes, life will change again so that you can provide for your family.  This may require a move.  Also, you may need to move if you are finding your place too small for your growing family.

Moving can be hard on a toddler, even though they may not show it, because they are so resilient! Nonetheless, here are some suggestions for you to consider while moving.

• Involve the toddler in packing and unpacking their bedroom to help them understand where their stuff is going.
• On the big moving day (or days), have your child stay with a friend or family member so that they don’t get hurt or overwhelmed by all the changes.
• Keep enough supplies and toys unpacked so that you can still meet your child’s needs during the transition.
• Unpack enough of your child’s room so that they will feel comfortable.
• Be prepared for night terrors or nightmares.  Even though your child may show few symptoms of stress while awake, they may come out while sleeping.
• Have a clear path from your toddlers bedroom to your bedroom.  This way you can get to them in the dark without any pain, and same with your child.
• If you are making a long distance move, make a trip out of it.  Have fun on the drive, do sight seeing, if possible.
• If the move is far, consider as a father doing the driving on your own, and having your wife and child(ren) stay behind and fly out when you arrive.  This could minimize the stress on your family as a whole, but costs more.

Of course these are recommendations, and what each family does during a move can and will vary.  These are just some things to trigger thoughts of what you should consider while moving with a toddler.

What are some things you have done while moving your children?

Get Your Kids To Purchase TV Time By Reading

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You are probably noticing that your kids who were in school, are now around a lot more.  They may even be getting on your nerves.  You may even be wishing to do this:

However, there are some other things you can get your kids to do during the summer holidays, one that they may be doing very little of. Reading.

The benefits of reading are endless. Being successful at school to being independent in assignments and tasks.

Reading has been loosing ground to media.  You can watch an entire book in 90-120 minutes, instead of spending 90-120 days reading one.  Video games are much more enticing, and so is the internet.  There are a lot more distractions that are easier to chew up time.  So, as a parent you can encourage your children to read.

If your child wants to watch a two hour movie, and play video games for another two; have them read for four hours.  One hour of reading to one hour of TV time or computer time.  Or 30 minutes of reading for every hour.  Find a system that works best for you and your family.

Another way to motivate them to read so that they can watch TV, is to get them books that they like to read, or that you think they will like to read.  If they have read one part in a series of books and really liked it! Get them the other books.

Doing this may help decrease the amount of time spent in front of the TV and computer, or it may not.  But, if enforced, it will increase the amount of time your child spends reading books.

Music & Your Toddler

Music can play an important role in your toddler’s life. Music can be used as a way to sooth your child before bed. It can also be used to dance to.

However, music that we play for our child is just our music being ‘forced’ onto the child. Some children will learn how to change a song on the iPod or CD player, but it is just from a playlist or CD that we have established. Whileit may be fun to dance to a song that you liked growing up, it is much more beneficial to let the child explore sounds.

The other concern, potentially, with the music that we listen to is the lyrics. Toddlers are in sponge mode, absorbing everything. So they may take in a word or two that you may not want them to know.

But also since they are in sponge mode, you can introduce a musical instrument to them! If you have a piano, or some child’s version of it, let them play with it. Watch how they discover sounds. Even pots and pans can prove to be very interesting.

There are lots of child simplified instruments that can be used by your child if they don’t take to something like the piano.

Playing music is a type of ‘therapy’, like art therapy, that can provide stress reduction. It is also a way for your child to express themselves.

Your child may not be the next Beethoven, but they can still explore and have fun playing an instrument. Plus, who knows, maybe your child will grow up to be a musician.

Picture from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How have you used music in your parenting?

Becoming Your Child’s Emotional Coach

There is one thing that men are usually not good with, emotions. We tend to not want to show, display, or express them in public. But we still feel them.

Our children however, have no problem showing, displaying, or expressing their emotions. As a father, we need to be a part of helping our children learn to recognize, label, and control their emotions.

Julie Hanks, of the Wasatch Family Therapy Center, gives us The 5 Steps To Raising an Emotionally Healthy Child.

1. Be aware of your child’s emotions. Your child has emotions, which are inside, and they express them externally in their behaviours. You need to recognize, even though your child may be young, that they do have emotions.
2. Recognize the emotion as an opportunity for teaching. You can empathize and teach your child about the emotion they are feeling. You can acknowledge and accept the emotion, even if it is negative. We can also teach our children how to control and manage their emotions.
3. Listen, empathize, and validate your child’s emotions. Listen with your eyes, ears, mind, and heart to understand what your child is trying to say from their perspective. With your words you can reflect back what you feel your child is trying to say, and help label the emotions.
4. Help your child label their emotions in words they understand. Make sure you label what the child IS feeling not what the SHOULD or OUGHT to be feeling. You can describe their behaviour and attach it to an emotion. Something simple like “When you are crying, I can tell that you are sad”.
5. Help your child come up with ways to manage their emotions. Help your child come up with healthy solutions to help manage and control their emotions. Also to find ways to appropriately express their emotions.

As we become our child’s emotional coach, it will help our child discover and manage their emotions. It will also help us, as fathers, develop a closer relationship with our children.

How has helping your child with their emotions benefited your relationship? Did you parents coach you in your emotions?

Turn Off The TV, and Get Outside!

It is officially Summer Time! However, sometimes it is easier to be inside than outside.

There are a lot more enticements for your children to stay inside. Like the Xbox 360, 500 Channel Digital TV, computer games, Internet, and so on.

Here are some things you can do to help get your children outside.

First, be a barrier to the television. According to tvturnoff.org, we spend, on average, 1023 hours watching television in a year. Enforce a rule where you can only watch TV and play video games for two hours every day. That’s it. Notice the “and”, that’s two hours for both. Maybe then your children will only watch the shows they really want, and play their favourite video games and, therefore, spend less time in front of the TV.

Second, get them to become active. Go outside and play. Enroll your kids in a sports team. Help them get their friends together and play ball, of any kind. Go bike riding. Just do something active outside. Help them make it a weekly event.

Third, get them to read a book. They now have ample time on their hands. Help them find a book they like, and wanted to read but couldn’t during the school year, from the library. Maybe read the Twilight series and see what the hype is all about. Most of all, help keep those brain cells growing.

Fourth, make sure that you have one night a week to spend with as family. Dad, take the lead and arrange this. Your wife will be grateful. Use any night. Just do something you have never done before as a family. Go to a museum. Go bowling or mini golfing. Maybe make a cake together. Go swimming. Play that board game that you got for Christmas and haven’t played since Boxing Day. Do something weekly with your family.

Most of all, enjoy the summer weather, together. Yes, some will have to work, but it can still be done. Let us get out and be active, turn off that TV, read a book, and play a sport, and maybe, just maybe, you will have discovered something new this summer.

World Cup Soccer Family Activities

It’s World Cup Soccer! It is well under way. I received this email chain letter from my father-in-law the other day. As humorous as it is, it is also a statement of how much this tournament singles the father out from the rest of the family.

However, World Cup Soccer can be used as a family learning and bonding experience. It is a great opportunity to learn about the world we live in.

Here are some things that you can do with your children, besides just watching the game:

• Name the Country. Flag recognition is usually easy in North America; however, the rest of the world can be difficult. You can make little flag cut outs, and try to match the country name to the flag.
• Where on the Globe. Go pull out the globe or atlas that is collecting dust. When a game is being played, or about to be played, try to find where they are on the map.
• Learn to say “Hello”. There are 32 countries playing, not all of them speak English. Using the Internet, you can learn to say “Hello” in the competing countries language.
• Family History. Go through your family ancestry with your children, and find out which country, or countries are in your roots, that are playing.
• Make a Craft. Get out the scrap paper, scissors and other stationary items and make a soccer craft. Maybe it is a collage of their favorite team. Maybe they’ll construct their own flag.
• Soccer Snacks. Work together to make a soccer shaped cake, or cookies shaped as countries.
• World foods. Have a complete meal as if you were eating in Chile, or South Africa, or South Korea.

The ideas are endless. These are just some ideas to get you started. This will help make World Cup Soccer a Family event, not just a Daddy event.

What are some things you are doing together as a family?