Kids and dogs meeting on the street can be adorable when all goes well. Here are some tips on making that experience as pleasant as possible.
Asking someone if their dog is friendly is a polite way of letting them know you’d like to pet their dog. It’s an especially good way to teach children that all dogs aren’t interested in being touched by a stranger… so be careful.
No matter the weather, we all want to venture outside for a walk in the neighborhood including our four legged friends. While most dogs are friendly, wonderful, and playful, every dog has the capacity to feel threatened and may react in an unexpected way.
Since you can’t judge a dog’s demeanor based on its cuteness, here are some tips so everyone gets along. Tips for a child to approach a dog and its owner:
1. Ask the owner if their dog is friendly and if they can pet their dog
2. Offer a back hand fist or hand out with fingers down
3. Let the dog approach the child to sniff
4. Pet a dog gently reaching from the side, not over its head
5. Ask to offer their dog a treat as dogs remember those who reward them
Since some dogs may not be familiar with children’s sounds and actions, it’s a good idea for children to refrain from screaming, squealing, and running. Even puppies who may seem harmless love to nip, chew, and chase small children which could be fun or frightening for both parties.
Some dogs perceive direct eye contact as threatening. That might present a problem when your child is standing face to face with them. You’ll want to be close enough to all of them to intervene if there’s a problem.
Americans love dogs – we own more than 65 million of them. Unfortunately, there are about 5 million dog bites a year according the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC says nearly 1 million of those bites required medical attention with half of those involving children.
The interaction between a child and a strange dog can be a sweet moment and an endearing one that hopefully inspires them to make a dog a part of their family someday. By taking simple precautions, it can be a pleasant experience that leaves everyone with a smile on their face.
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As the Dogsexpert, and Founder of http://www.LeashesandLovers.com , Sheryl Matthys talks with dog lovers on how their dogs impact their personal relationships. Leashes and Lovers offers online connections http://www.FetchaFriend.com where dog lovers can search and connect around the world for friendship, doggie playdates, same breed of dog, and possibly love! Sheryl has two children, two greyhounds and is a certified dog trainer.
Some homeowners become stuck in a rut when it comes to designing and run out of ideas for decorating before they can put the final touches on their homes. Others just don't know where to gain inspiration for their creativity and end up with the same design ideas over and over again. This is especially true of the kids' rooms, where space doesn't provide for lavish décor and ideas about what kids like and want can become a bit monotonous in the minds of an adult. However, if you start with the right children's bedroom furniture, you can make great things happen in a stylish and imaginative fashion, even with affordable kids' beds rather than designer furnishings.
Start with something simple, like the different options for kids' beds. You don't have to include a plain standard twin bed or even a full size bed in your child's room to make magic happen. Instead, get a little creative with your design. For example, whether you have a boy or a girl, daybeds can be an option you shouldn't discount. While this design aspect has been traditionally touted as a girl's bed, it can also work in a young man's room, decorated with deeper, masculine colors and a less feminine design and material (perhaps silver, wood, or wrought iron). This will work for him as it would for a female child, providing him with sleeping quarters at night and seating during the day.
Kids' bunk beds will always function for you in a room where two children must share the space. You have the opportunity to sleep two children in the space of a single twin bed, leaving more floor space for desks to complete school work and dressers where clothing can be stored. For the latest designs for boys and girls in this and other styles of bedding you can find excellent products online that are widely varied, high quality, and easy on the pocketbook.
Kids' storage beds can be a real blessing as well, eliminating the need for additional furniture like a dresser and/or a toy box or other storage device due to the inclusion of drawers in the headboard and footboard areas and sometimes a large storage bin beneath the mattress.
Even children not sharing a room can get creative and have the benefits of a bunk with loft beds, which are elevated beds that resemble the top half of a bunk bed. This provides living space beneath the fun, elevated bed so that a work desk or storage space (like a dresser or toy box) can be kept under the bed, therefore eliminating the need for extra floor space for these items. As a bonus, these beds are just as much fun for your child as a bunk bed would be, with the coveted "top bunk" being the automatic default for the inhabitant with no additional bunk or roommate over which to fight! These are also available through a number of quality manufacturers, including South Shore Furniture, with promises of sturdy construction and always the best materials possible in use.
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Benjamin Weissman writes articles about using Discount Bedroom Furniture, Kids Beds and Kids Bedroom Sets to decorate their bedrooms beautifully and inexpensively. Make your Bedroom a Personal Retreat. You can find more information at http://www.home-and-bedroom.com .
Simply we love it, we like to wear and feel good about it. Somehow it seems to enhance our appearance and appeal a great deal. Our eyes are so conditioned that the people in designer clothing seem to look smarter and more energetic than those in modern regular outfits.
It is a straight forward decision in case of parents and elders; they go in for custom outfits even if they are a bit more expensive. But it is essential expense in the context of social living. But when it comes to making decision with regard to buying custom clothes for children we are confused and the decision swings between yes and no indecisively. Parents do want their children well dressed and presentable. Their smart looks among the kids of friends is a pleasure to watch. When appreciated by high-end society friends it is almost an achievement leading to the ascending steps of social recognition. But the utter uselessness of buying designer clothes for children too cross the mind because soon the children will grow and leave behind the costly designer clothes smaller in size as unusable. So it becomes a hard decision to make.
Some reasons to buy designer clothes
If the values of social standards weigh more than the value of money in your life, you should go for designer clothes for children.
If the parents have friends in the circle who notice what their children wear and evaluate, then it is imperative that they buy specially made clothes for their children even though they might feel the pinch of the expense a bit.
Above all there is one reason which makes most of the parents go in for designer clothes for their children. That is the magic of love, they want to see their children in the best set of clothes and they wish to provide their children with the best.
Some reasons for not buying high end clothing
One major reason for not buying designer clothes for children is the cost of them. They are surely very expensive when compared to non-designer fashion wear. In recent times as the cost of living has risen to touch the sky, for many parents it is not an appealing idea to go in for designer clothes for their children.
And the second deterrent faction is simply a biological reason. The way children grow in fast pace these days buying expensive high end materials is a risky affair. You wont know for how long the clothe would remain fit in size. When children out grow the size of their dress they abandon it as though they are something that the cat has brought in.
The reason parents easily could attribute to decide against kids suits is that the children are not aware whether they wear custom patterns or other fashion wear. And the children actually do not care what brand of wear they adorn themselves with.
The basis for a decision
In the ultimate analysis the decision to buy or not to buy personally designed clothes for children depends on the parents. If you wish to see them in designer clothes, go for it but be sure that to your children those are just clothing and they are going to use them as they use the clothes they wear at home because it does not matter much whether they are in modern outfits or some other.
But it is also an irrefutable fact that the present world is highly fashion conscious and fashion, social standards and social prestige go hand in hand and all complement and enhance each other supportability. And what you or your kids wear is actually the life-style statement you make, a statement that expresses your attitude about life. To be in the lime light of fashion is imperative in the present world.
Designer clothes are affordable
All the discussion about buying or not buying personalized clothing for children is because of its exhaustive price. Walking into any designer showroom makes you a bit jittery even if you have a million dollars in your pocket when you see the price tag. But this is no more the case with on line shopping.
You can now buy online the best of designer wear at cost that you can afford. The online shopping turns out to be less expensive because there are no overhead expenditure, no showroom cost and so on and all these benefits are shared with the consumer and so online shopping is less expensive.
Kate Rees Children offer high quality Christmas kids clothing, Thanksgiving childrens clothes, and more.
In my years working closely with kids and their struggles at school, I have found one big common denominator: Kids, especially teenagers, are always the victim of some kind of metaphysical injustice that gets them constantly in trouble... At least if you listen to them! Have you noticed that, whenever you ask what happened in a situation, it always starts with: "So-and-so did this and someone else did that and I..." I never even let the conversation get there. I want to know what YOU did. Circumstantial evidence is irrelevant at this point. If there was a sanction applied to YOU, it means that YOU did something. That's what I want to know and the rest will be discussed later.
Children, by nature, will do anything they can find to get away with stuff. In any situation, there will be at least two sides of the story and the truth will be somewhere in the middle. But it is important that kids realize their part of responsibility. Why is that important? If your kids don't understand what is wrong with their actions, how will they correct them? Teenagers like to be in denial, it is part of being a teenager. They excel at finding excuses! It doesn't matter if, in an extreme and fictitious example, half of the class was throwing objects at the teacher. They will tell you that it is justified by the number of kids doing it. If your kid was one of them, he/she needs to understand that following a crowd is not necessarily the right thing to do.
With any issue you encounter with your kids, after the storm has passed, take the time to sit quietly for a few minutes with them and go over the situation calmly. Lead them to understand that, if they are feeling bad, it's because they put themselves in this situation, but it's not too late to correct it. Taking responsibility is a very important step towards maturity. Recognizing their part in a situation will enable your kids to face situation in a mature way, on their own, little by little.
If they don't learn to take responsibility, they will always stay with a victim mentality and not be able to cope in challenging situations. Taking responsibility teaches you to focus on the solution, as opposed to the problem. It will start with accepting that a bad grade is not because the teacher gave a very hard test but because they could have studied more. It will move on to recognizing that some of their relationships are dragging them down and that they need to focus on the ones that help them rise above.
It will finally turn them into blooming young adults who can take charge of themselves.
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Florence Bernard, Parental Consultant - Educational liaison - +1-954-903-0655 -fbernard@betteratschool.com
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United States of America (Press Release) October 14, 2008 -- The emotional approach associated while buying clothes for kids by mothers at most occasions overlook high cost factor. Buying clothes for kids is a matter which should be given its share of careful consideration. Is it worth spending more than necessary on kids wear? Our love for kids and our wish that they should have the finest outfits tend to overstep in the matter of expense. Is it possible to save money while buying clothes for kids?
Some conventional tips
Branded clothes are costlier than the non branded clothes. In most cases the banded and non branded are of the same quality and finish but the brand label stitched on to the clothes make the price difference. To save money non branded clothes should be the choice.
Anyway kids are not bothered whether it is branded or otherwise. Only youth have a psychological fixation about brands and kids have no conditional factor of that kind.
Plan your purchase well ahead like buy winter clothing in summer and summer clothing in winter.
Use the factory outlets, consignment stores or goodwill shops to make purchases of kids’ clothes. Get in touch with them and find out about their special sales session.
Second hand kid’s clothe shop is also a best place to buy good gently used clothes at prices staggeringly low. Well in time visit such places to make good bargain purchases.
Yard sale and garage sale which are popular in most of the posh sub urban community is also a good place to buy kid’s wear at reasonable cost.
And you can also make it a habit to sell your kid’s clothes at the end of every season.
At popular shops specializing in kids wear search out the discount racks and get discount on quality products
Shopping online for kids clothes
Online buying is the most suitable way to buy kids wear. There are many e-shops like the e-bay and they are better places to get best quality kids wear in less expense. It is essential to understand how e-shops offer the same wear for lesser price than the shop counter. The e-shops do not have the expenditure of overheads like the showroom and the maintenance of it including the power bill and pay to employees and so on. Such savings are passed on to the customer and so e-buying becomes less expensive.
Apart from that, buying online means you need not drive to the shop burning fuel and polluting the air. Actually online buying can be termed as ‘green buying’! And more importantly and interestingly there is no fixed time for shopping, you can buy anytime you prefer. It is most convenient to those who have heavy schedule.
Apart from specialized e-shops almost all the big stores have their web sites and you can buy though their sites online. Websites contain more information than you can get at the shop counter. At the site all the contents of the shop are listed and all the available styles are displayed for selection.
Some more tips for online purchase
Buying at online stores need some practice and training.
First of all be sure of the size of your kids wear to check with the size chart of the store and order correctly. This will avoid the hassles of returning it etc. While ordering be sure about color, style etc and check with the store site.
It is better to go to the section of instructions and conditions on return of goods and be clear about it. Most of the stores have their own methods of return of goods; some free of cost, some with deduction from you and so on. So it is essential to understand their policies.
If you have any doubt about any aspect of your purchase it is better you contact their customer care division and ask your questions before making the purchase.
If you are a planner then you will see the price of essential items like jeans, t-shirts, sweaters etc and wait for the end of the season clearance sale of such items to make a good bargain purchase.
One another important thing you have to do is to register yourself with all your favorite sites so that you can get mails about special offers, clearance sale etc. This will save a lot of money.
And finally be sure that the site you are shopping at is a secure and reliable one before you give the details of your credit card number etc.
So buying online is a sure way to save money on purchases of your children’s clothes and it is also environmental protection process as millions who buy online are avoiding burning car fuel.
Since it is so crucial that kids grow up believing in themselves, I have more tips for you.
1) Do not criticize. Criticism can greatly diminish confidence. It is easy for parents to say "See, I told you not to do that and now you are dirty all over." We need to remind ourselves constantly that everytime we diminish their self-esteem, it will take us a lot more effort to restore it. Or even worse, we leave it as it is and the child will hesitate to do new things in future. If you have nothing good to say, it is better not to say anything. Talk to children about their mistake in a positive way.
2) What is your first reaction when you see your child in your room full of lipstick on his lips and all your lipsticks are spoilt? Will you start screaming at him? Most of us would. Then you would have fallen into their trap. What should you do then? Make them clean up the mess, even if it takes half the day. The child have to pay for the lipsticks by either not having a new toy or no Macdonalds for the next two months. Screaming at them does not really help as they already feel frightened when they know you have found out the truth. Let them learn that they have to be responsible for what they do. If they can come up with their own punishment (which you are agreeable to), that would be better.
3) One of the easiest way is to hang up their pictures on the wall so that visitors can take a look at them too. Encourage them to take about the story or idea behind the picture. If your kids are older, you could embark on a project to write a storybook. The child could write on a short chapter a week. They can also hang up short articles or jokes on the wall.
4) Communicate with your child as much as possible. You will need to know what they are feeling and thinking before you can decide on the next course of action. Most parents spend time and money attending courses to find out about how to deal with their children when the most important thing they need to do is to spend more time with them.
5) Help children to find their own interest and build on it. Try not to emphasize on perfection and competition. Instead focus on doing their best and enjoying the process. The process is just as important ,if not more important than the result. Children will realize that there are so many things to learn on the way which are so valuable to them.
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Cheng Cheng is a parenting expert with two boys age 5 and 6. She has learnt a lot from books and other mothers. She hopes to share her experiences and knowledge which will definitely be useful to you. For more articles, please go to http://www.raisingconfidentkids.com
Labels: building, children, communicate, confidence, criticism, encourage, help, kids, perfection
Copyright © 2008 Karin Vibe Rheymer Stewart
When my husband was in college, a number of his fellow students were bringing their dirty laundry home, and Mom was coming once a month to clean their room. This wasn't because they were lazy, but they simply didn't know how to do the laundry or house cleaning!
Don't let your children become like those students... Apart from the fact that teaching your children house and other chores prepare them for life on their own, they're also chores that you don't need to do! I know, I know, it takes time to teach them how to do it, and there will be quite a few times when you will need to finish the job behind them, but once they know, you will never need to do it again until they leave... And, at least until they reach eight or so, they will be proud to be entrusted with "big people" tasks.
So, what tasks can be safely delegated to your children? It depends on their age, but there are things they can do as early as 2 years old. Below is a list of tasks by age group:
Toddlers: Can dust with an electromagnetic cloth or baby wipe; Spray and scrub the sink and bathtub with water and a sponge; pick up toys or other floor clutter and put them in baskets or bins - if the baskets are labeled with pictures, they can even put the right toys in the right container! At this point, anything you give them to do except putting the toys away will be more to give them something to do while you are cleaning, but they will try to do their best if you take the time to teach them, and it will seem natural to them when they graduate to more complex tasks.
Preschoolers: Sweep with kid-size broom; spray and squeegee windows using lemon- or vinegar-water (inside windows only, please!); use a handheld vacuum; wipe sinks using baby wipes; empty a small trash basket into a bigger bag; scrub corners of kitchen chairs or other small spaces using a clean toothbrush or nail brush and a cup of water; make beds (preferably with a comforter, it's easier for them); fold towels; put clothes in drawers; hang clothes on hooks; put dirty clothes in hamper; help feed animals; wipe off baseboards, windowsills with small cloth or wearing old socks on their hands; help wipe up spills; dry unbreakable dishes; pick up litter in the yard.
Kindergartners: sweep small areas with a dustpan and broom; clean bathroom sinks; hang up the towel after a bath; store bath toys; help in the kitchen (stirring, tearing lettuce, etc. - no knife yet!); set the napkins and silverware on the table; clear dishes from the table (depends on your child, you know if they risk breaking them or not); help load the dishwasher; straighten plastic dishes in a cabinet; help straighten pots and pans; sort family members' clean laundry; dust furniture; strip linens from beds; straighten books on a bookshelf; put game and puzzle pieces in correct storage containers; use a lint remover to pick up pet hair on furniture; tidy up their room.
Younger Elementary School Kids: Make beds (any of them); take out garbage; sweep stairs and walks; clean the car and help wash it; vacuum their own room; sort and straighten toys; fold and put away laundry; empty the dishwasher; feed and care for pets; set and clean the table (but only with unbreakable dishes and cups at this point); sort clothes for washing.
Older Elementary School Kids: Clean bathroom mirrors; vacuum; clean toilets; clean countertops and the kitchen sink; mop small-area floors; use the washer and dryer; wash, dry and put away dishes; clean pet areas; clean cobwebs and dust in high places with a pole; sweep the garage; set and clean the table (by the end of elementary school, they usually are able to do it with regular dishes and glasses).
Teenagers: Can do everything you do, except for the most intensive jobs, or the ones using noxious products, such as deep-cleaning of the oven, or removing mold from the bathroom tiles.
So, when will you sit down and create a chore chart for your children? What chores will you assign to each, depending on their ages? What will you do with the time you are saving this way?
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Karin Vibe-Rheymer-Stewart, Ph.D., helps busy women reclaim time and achieve work/life balance through whole-life time management, in other words everything that affects your use of time. She works through one-on-one coaching, group coaching, seminars and talks. For free resources and to contact her, go to http://www.superwomanrelief.com .
Education and parenting experts agree that reading to and with young children helps them better understand their world and develop important language and learning skills. Most importantly, when parents and children read together, children develop a love of reading that can last a lifetime.
But how can busy parents and caregivers maximize the value of reading time with their children, and make the experience more fun, productive and rewarding for themselves as well as for their children?
1. Start reading together as early as possible. Even tiny babies love to hear the rhythms and intonations of a loved one's voice (poetry and rhyming text is great!) and to look at colorful, eye-catching artwork. Get kids used to the idea of looking at and listening to books as early as possible.
2. Cuddle while reading together. This is a powerful kinesthetic way to help children subconsciously associate reading with warmth, joy and love, and helps seed the ground for passionate readers later in life. Plus, it makes for great parent/child bonding time.
3. Trace the lines with a finger while reading aloud. With young children who are just learning to read, this helps them to follow along and associate the letters and words with the sounds they are hearing and images they are seeing, encouraging them to learn to read themselves.
4. Use character voices or accents. Children love to hear the voices of individual characters come to life, and this can really help activate the story and characters for them and engage their imaginations.
5. Read with vocal "color." This is probably the most important tip of all. Keeping the voice alive and interesting can make all the difference in terms of a child's ability to listen and follow a story. Use emphasis here, enthusiasm there, tenderness another place. Find the cadences and rhythms of the author's language, and try to convey the mood or the characters' intentions. There's no need to be a ham, or yuck it up so much that the listener pays more attention to the vocal acrobatics than the story itself, but it's important to avoid monotonous reading. Keep it fresh!
6. Stop from time to time to ask questions. Check in with young listeners about their thoughts and reactions to the story or pictures - "Why do you think he or she did that?" "What would you do in that situation?" "What do you think is going to happen?" "Do you see what I see?"
7. Personalize the story. Look for ways to insert the child's name into the text, especially if it's a book that speaks directly to a child and only uses pronouns, or to substitute the name of a character or place with a familiar one. Draw parallels between the events and characters in the story and those of your child's life.
8. Role-play with dialogue. If a child is old enough to read, divide the character roles and alternate reading the dialogue together. This is a great way to draw a child into the story, and to help them learn to read aloud with animation.
9. Fuel a child's individual passions and interests - Does he or she love animals? Sports? Cooking? Dressing up? Find books that speak to their unique interests, and be willing to read the same books a hundred times in a row. In this way we can affirm for our children the value of having one's own passions and perspective.
10. It doesn't have to be books! If there's nothing else at hand, a magazine can make for fun reading as well. See what child-friendly "stories" can be found inside or even made up from the pictures. The important thing is to spend time sitting with kids, turning pages and exploring and discovering together.
BONUS TIP:
Create home-made "AudioBooks." Read and record a favorite stories on tape or CD that a child can play back and follow along with in the book. These can be wonderful gifts - and can be especially helpful as a transition to sleep, or when a loved one has to be away for any period of time.
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Emma Walton Hamilton is a best-selling children's book author, editor and arts educator. Her latest book is "Raising Bookworms: Getting Kids Reading for Pleasure and Empowerment." http://www.raisingbookworms.com