health

I recently read an interesting Time magazine article entitled "How America's Children Packed On the Pounds" It was disturbing to read the statistics. Jeffrey Kluger writes that an estimated 32% of America's children are overweight or obese. Along with the extra pounds, young children are being faced with diabetes, high cholesterol, heart problems, liver disease, and gallstones. Kluger states that "health experts warn that the current generation of children may be the first in American history to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents'".

After reading this article, I evaluated my children's health as well as my own. Understanding the importance of eating and living healthy is the most important step in fighting obesity.  

Being willing to take an honest look at our eating and exercise habits is crucial.

I've come up with a game plan I believe will help my family and especially my children fight off obesity and live healthy well rounded lives. Over the course of the next few months, I'd like to share this game plan with you. In the meantime, I'd love to hear what you are doing to keep your children healthy.

Read the Time magazine article here: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1813700-2,00.html#ixzz1Hs0VrG1H

sleep

When my first child was 6 weeks she would not sleep. Not during the day and never at night. I cried a lot those first 6 weeks. Then a friend suggested "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Weissbluth. It changed my life.

A few things I learned and love about this book:

*Every child is different so it is imperative that I understand my baby's sleep needs. I have to watch for cues she gives as she is getting tired. When my 3 year old has a meltdown, I obviously missed her sleep cues she gave an hour previous.

*Sleep begets sleep. This was eye opening for me. When my baby (newborn to 12 months) would take a longer afternoon nap, I still put her to bed between 6-630. She would go back to sleep easier and would sleep all night. On the flip side, Dr. Weissbluth writes, "Fatigue causes increased arousal. Therefore, the more tired your child, the harder it is for him to fall asleep, stay asleep, or both."

* If it is 5:30 pm and my 3 month old is cranky and crying, 9 times out of 10, she is tired. Putting her to bed as early as 5:30pm usually doesn't invoke an earlier wake up time (it never did with my babies).

*Allowing my baby to learn self soothing skills was harder on me than it was on her. And it proved to be invaluable.

Check out his blog: weissbluthmethod.wordpress.com

Babble also posted a wonderful interview with Dr. Weissbluth. You can read it here.

letting children choose

I want my girls to be happy. I don't want them to experience some of the heartaches and disappointments I have seen in my life. I definitely don't want them making the same mistakes I did.

If I could just say to my girls "Jane, you will want to do A, B, and C. Never go near D and don't even think about E." Wouldn't it be wonderful if they would listen and follow my instructions exactly? Fortunately, they are individuals who want to explore and discover things on their own. Most likely they will forget about A and B, maybe do C, try out D and go straight for E. And that's OK. Throughout that process they will grow from their mistakes, just as I have grown from mine.

I've decided the best thing I can do for them is to fervently teach them right from wrong and then allow them to make their own decisions. They will love me for it, and I won't give myself an ulcer trying to control something I have no business controlling. So when my 2 year old is adamant about wearing bright orange and black cat printed pants with a blue and yellow flower shirt, I'll let her. Then I'll take a picture and post it on her Facebook page when she is 16.

seven minutes

"You need to spend 7 minutes with each child every day." When I first heard this, I thought, That's a silly thing to say. I am a stay at home mom. I spend all day with my kids. Every day. But then I sat down and thought about how I spent that time with them. It was always in-between things. In-between washing dishes, cleaning the house, changing diapers, doing laundry, cleaning up messes, making beds, paying bills and working my at home business. I was saddened to realize the time my children received was sometimes leftover and in-between.

So we began 7 minutes with mom. I ask my 3 year old what she wants to do with mommy. And I do whatever she wants. I turn off the phone and computer. I give 100% of my attention and time to my girls- one at a time. We've read a lot, colored, built towers, and played horsey. It has been amazing to see her light up when I tell her it's time for 7 minutes. It has become the most precious time of the day.

The key is to give 100% attention and to do whatever your child wants to do. Try it for a week and see what it does for your relationships.

learning

We each have a dominate learning style, do you know yours? What about your child? As a parent and teacher of my kids, knowing how they learn best can be of great value. The three basic learning styles are audio, visual and hands on. 

Here is a little trick to discover your child's dominate learning style.

Ask her to describe something from memory. Maybe how her bedroom looks or what she wore yesterday. Then observe her eyes. If she looks straight at you or side to side while describing her memory, then she is an audio learner. If she looks up at the ceiling, she is a visual learner. If she looks at her hands or talk with her hands, then she learns best by being hands on.

When your child has a difficult concept to learn or is struggling with a subject, try reviewing the material in the manner that suits her dominate learning style.

Keep in mind that even though we have a dominate leaning style, we learn best when we combine all three styles together.

independence thanks

Throughout the United States today there will be parades, bbqs, camping, parties, and fireworks celebrating 235 year of independence. The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays-- and not just because I absolutely love all types of summer activities. I love celebrating our country's freedom. I appreciate the holiday to reflect on the sacrifices of so many. My deepest gratitude goes out to the men and women of the military. You, who leave your families; your parents, your friends, your babies. You, who leave the comforts of home to selflessly serve and put yourselves in harm's way. To the moms and dads who send their children away, constantly praying for their safety. Awe and Adoration for the wives and husbands who stay home and survive single parenthood. To the little boys and girls who say goodbye to mommy and daddy for months at a time, I admire you. Thank you for your sacrifice.

So today while I am enjoying corn on the cob, watermelon and bbq chicken, I will take a few minutes and talk to my little girls about why we are able to have a big party with fireworks in the middle of the summer.

*photo taken by Emily Aldrich, http://relivingthemoments.blogspot.com/

reading and television

Here is something interesting that has changed the way I view television:

Did you know that children in Finland don't start formal education until they are seven years old? In addition, they spend more time watching television than they do reading. Yet, they achieve the highest reading scores in the world.* Doesn't make much sense does it? Makes me wonder what kinds of shows those kids are watching!

Well, most of them are watching old American sitcoms. In English. In fact about 50% of the shows broadcasted on Finnish television are in English with Finnish subtitles. So the only way a child in Finland can understand what is happening on her favorite TV show is to read the subtitles.* Fascinating indeed!

Now I do try to limit the amount of television my daughter watches. But there are days when I need the break her cartoon shows will give me. So whenever she is watching television, I'll turn on the closed caption. Even though she isn't able to read, seeing the words on TV will help familiarize her with print, sounds and meaning. And when she is older and able to read, the closed caption will give her practice with reading.

Go turn on your closed caption-- you will be giving your child access to reading every time he watches television.

*Information about Finnish reading scores and television came from The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease.