My husband and I both work full time. We want to teach our children, that when you work hard, one can achieve a lot. We don’t have the opportunity to go on family vacations each year, but when we do go on a vacation, we try and teach our children that from working hard, we were able to go on a great vacation and have an amazing time. My children receive a very small allowance each month, but in order for them to get it; they have to do their responsibilities each day. Their responsibilities are things like: keeping their  bed rooms tidy each day. Putting their clothes in the laundry each day and taking their plates and cups to the kitchen after meal time. We don’t eat out at restaurants often as it can get very pricey. When they come home with their report cards each term, regardless of their grades, provided we know that they worked hard to achieve the grade what ever it is, that night we will take them out for dinner to celebrate. We are not trying to be cruel parents, but rather teach our children that luxuries are not things that are just given on a daily basis, but should also be earned. We don’t expect things to ever be perfect. We encourage hard work to get far in life. We never compare them to each other or to other children, but encourage them to do the best that they can do for themselves. We teach our kids to appreciate life and we celebrate passionately.

 My 6 year old daughter has  adjusted well to grade one and going to school five full days a week, plus a little bit of daily homework. However that seems to be enough for her. On Saturdays we do swimming in the mornings, as swimming is a “have to do”. For safety reasons, all kids have no choice but to learn how to swim properly on their own. She is really enjoying the swimming a lot, and at the moment it does not feel like it is a chore. She has no interest to do dance, gymnastics, skating, karate or any other extra curriculum. She loves to play with her princesses and Barbie’s and creates wonderful imaginative games. She loves play dates and socializing with all her new friends that she has from grade one.

Personally I am not worried and feel it’s wonderful that my daughter actually wants to be a kid. She swims on a Saturday which is something, and better than doing no physical fitness programs. I feel that a lot of children are ‘pushed’ into doing so many extra curricular activities both after school and on weekends, that they have no time to be a kid. I will always encourage the other programs, but not force them, as I want them to come from my daughter as her choice and enjoyment, and not for it to be a chore. In the meantime she will enjoy doing a little bit of a fitness program, and use her creative imagination and while loving the joys of childhood.

Call us cruel parents, but our children who are now 6yrs old and 9 yrds old, have never ever been allowed to sleep in our bed. Were they perfect sleepers as infants, not at all. They were actually terrible sleepers as new borns and babies. But each time they woke up no matter how exhausted I was, they were put back into their own beds. Even if they had a bad dream or still do, and come to tell us in the middle of the night. We walk them back to their own beds. I am very close to both my children and now that they are a bit older they enjoy their sleep in the comfort of their own beds.

It’s amazing the moment we change our clocks back in November, both adults and the kids feel so much more tired as the sun sets earlier and earlier each day. The sun now sets by 5.30pm and in another month it will be 4.30pm and by the end of December it will be 4.00pm. It’s amazing how the dark days put an instant tired feeling inside our bodies. My children have been asking to eat dinner so much earlier too. The good part is that they do go to sleep a little earlier. I try my best to keep some sort of routine in the dark days so that they don’t get too tired too early. During the months of December I guess the Hannukah/ Christmas hype keep our minds off the dark days. At least by January I know that the days will stay lighter a little bit longer at the end of each day, and then it’s only about two more months of extreme cold and snow before we change our clocks forward again. I always like to watch how my children’s energy level jumps up as soon as we change the clocks forward again.

Childhood can be both very exciting, and very challenging. It is very important to have a positive approach to our child’s world.

Our children never stop learning. Each stage of their life brings new learning and growing opportunities.When our children are babies, they discover new sounds, sights and movements. Babies absorb so many new things each day. They become excited, when learning something new; it takes them to each new stage of development. Babies learn to roll over and start to reach toys by themselves. They learn to sit upright, they learn to crawl, stand and walk by themselves. As they enter these new stages of development, they learn a sense of self confidence and independence. They also learn to wave and clap their hands. Babies make different sounds and noises; they smile, gurgle and laugh. It is the most precious moment for a parent, when a baby smiles and laughs for the first time.

Being a toddler and entering preschool age is certainly a very exciting time along with different challenges. It is a time when children explore new avenues. They learn to communicate and express themselves; they begin this by pointing to what they want and also using a certain amount of sign language. They develop sounds, words, and slowly start putting words together to form sentences, until they are able to communicate properly with an adult. They discover how to play with different toys. They learn to use their imagination, and also learn how to interact and socialize with other children..

School age is a new chapter in our children’s lives. This stage of a child’s life is challenging. Exciting and rewarding. Parents and care givers should encourage school and learning to be a positive experience. Each challenge should be approached calmly and one should always encourage the “doors of communication” to be open. .

We need to be excited with our children, about each stage of their lives. As our children develop in life, and approach each new challenge that they are faced with, we need to instil a strong sense of self confidence and self respect as well as respect for others, within our children.

Each child is unique, and each child has their own ‘special’ quality in themselves, that he/her will excel in, in life. As parents, care givers, teachers and child care workers, it is important to bring out the best in each child, so that each child can “blossom’ in life.

The stores are packed with Halloween costumes and decorations.

The kids are beside themselves with excitement, as trick or treat night approaches us.Who can go to the most houses and who can get the most candy?Halloween is totally commercialized and totally fun.

So why not moms and dads dress up with your kids and dress up the dogs and cats too, we can all get into the spirit.All of our kids love Halloween. After a fun night and even some good exercise of lots of walking from house to house, the candy is then brought home.We check the candy to make sure everything is safe to eat. We allow them one small candy to eat as a Halloween night treat before bed. After that the candy bags get put away, the fun is over and the candy is lasts until next May, at that point there’s not much left but what ever is left gets trashed away, until the next Halloween. We won’t forget to share some candy and give some away  to those who did not have the privilege of celebrating Halloween night.  

On Saturday mornings I take my children to swimming lessons. Fortunately in Canada, there are lots of indoor swimming pools at the community centres and fitness clubs and one can have the opportunity to take their children swimming no matter what season it is.

Over here they teach children to swim in different Red Cross levels. Each level requires the children to learn different swimming techniques and to complete the level by the end of the 8-10 week session. If they do complete the level they are then able to move to the next Red cross Swim level and also receive a Red Cross badge. Unfortunately they have changed the requirements in the swimming levels and made it a little more difficult to complete each level.

Personally I think there are more disadvantages then advantages for a child to learn how to swim this way. Firstly, instead of encouraging children to want to learn to swim and have great confidence when swimming, it can really do the opposite. Secondly they do not actually learn how to be safe in the water by themselves or even learn to swim properly until they’ve completed the first 4 - 5 levels. This may actually take quite a few years.

When I was young the first thing they taught us to do was tread water and “doggy paddle”. At least if you fell in the water you knew how to do something. After that, we were taught the techniques of swimming.

A lot of young children have trouble putting their faces in the water. So each time they do not do this, they fail completing the level. Of course this does not help their desire to swim or their confidence.

If you do have a child that is afraid to put their face in the water, don’t make an issue of it. Give swimming a break for awhile, and I promise as they mature they will do it on their own.

Try not to make swimming lessons such a chore, rather let your children have fun and enjoy the water.  I hope that all your children learn how to swim like a fish.

We all want to do what’s best for our children. Sometimes parents don’t realize that what they are doing can be detrimental to their children.

You hear of Sam, the little boy that was never allowed even the slightest bit of sugar in his diet. His parents only wanted him to eat healthy food. That sounds alright, nothing wrong with that. However when Sam turned 3 years old, he was invited to a friend’s birthday party, and while all the other children ran around and played and had fun, Sam sat at the snack table guzzling down the candy that he had never tasted before. Of course giving candy to your children daily is unhealthy, however anything in moderation is okay, and a very small treat once a week is acceptable to give.

It’s the same with discipline. The child that is screamed at daily for every tiny thing that the parents feel they do wrong, will cause them to turn into an anxious child. The child who never hears the word no, will be the type of child that people dread having over to their house, as they become destructive and unpleasant to be around. The best thing to do is to choose your battles, but to teach your children to be respectful and to teach them the difference between right and wrong. Give them lots of praise and self confidence, but don’t let them be your boss, show them that you are in charge.

It also applies to things like too much programming or too little programming of your school age child. Children already spend a full week at school and are basically there for a whole day. Some children go to school a full day and their parents put them into a different extra curriculum activity each night and all weekend.  Those children are sometimes so over programmed, not only do they not have time to relax and be kids for awhile, but they also burn our before they are even teenagers. Other children do not activities after school and nothing on the weekend either. You know your child best. If you think that too many activities in the week as well as full days of school each day is too much for your child, then at least do one activity or two activities on the weekend. Try and pick an activity that your child wants to do, and will have fun and that they don’t feel like it’s a chore. If you feel your child is the type that needs to be busy constantly, then instead of always putting them into programs make time for play dates as socialization is also very important. kids.

You know your child the best and what would work for your child’s needs. Although it is not always easy, try and create a balanced situation for your child. Anything in extreme is not healthy and can do a lot of harm to our children without us realizing it.

Nothing like the weekend where one can relax with their family and friends.

This weekend was busy with birthday parties for my daughter. She was very excited to go to her new best friend’s party on Saturday at Reptilia in Vaughan Ontario. She was very excited that she had the opportunity to touch a slimy snake. Actually my son had been there too. It sounds like a fun place for kids from about age 5 and up.

Sunday she had another party at Sportsball in Thornhill Ontario. They had a lot of fun there too. They played fun games and had a great time. It was a place that both boys and girls could have fun at.

 We also bought pumpkins for Halloween this weekend and my kids are thinking of creative ways to carve designs in them.

 I hope you all enjoy your week ahead.

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