Torsey's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘children’

Do community colleges offer special programs for students with children? I have 3 children (who, at the time of attending college, will all be in elementary with my youngest going into kindy), and though I’m together with their father, I’m “technically” single and have no income since I’ve only been the stay-at-home mommy. Do colleges offer special financing, daycare, or any other benefits for someone like me?

Do you find yourself doing thing in front of your children that to you seems to be normal but is not normal to other people. Quarrelling in front of your children
Are you quarrelling in front of your children in different situations such as when you are home, in the car, when you are shopping or at a restaurant?
You are teaching your children because you feel and it is alright to vent your feeling out in public no matter who it hurts. Hurtful names in front of your children
Are you calling hurtful names in front of your children hoping to hurt your mate emotional so they will know how it feel to get hurt and the children is in the room will you are doing this.
Later on your children will call you the same names because they will think that it is acceptable. Do you find yourself blaming the other
Do you find yourself blaming your mate in front of the children because of the difficulties you have with spending money.
In blaming your mate for what happening you teach your children to be a victim and to blame others for what it is happening in their life without taking their responsibility. Disappointed in your mate
Do you show that you are disappointed in your mate in front of your children and verbally or physically express this in front of your children? Talking bad in front
Do you find yourself talking bad saying hurtful thing in front of the children when your mate has left the room because you feel that it is easier than if your mate was standing in front for that would create more confrontation. Throwing things
Do you find when you get upset in front of your children you throw things at your mate even if it is a little thing. Screaming
Are you a person when you get upset even in front of your children you screaming but you do not realize that you are screaming? Being inconsistent
Do you find that you are inconsistent with things you say and do in front of your children if yes you are giving a wrong message to your children?
Your children needs guidance that will carry them in to a better relationship when they grow up and when you are saying one thing and doing another you leave the children with a feeling of insecurity. Scaring your mate
Do you find yourself scaring your mate with your outburst of anger in front of your children and is this what you want as an outcome.
This attitude changes your children history for the future and how they see or believe what a relationship is about. Verbally aggressive
Are you verbally aggressive to your mate in front of your children and they are not so sure how to behave because they do not know if they are next.
Do you find the way your mate talk to you triggers feeling in you that you find difficult to control and your behaviour is affecting your children because most of the time it is happening in front of them. Not listening
If you feel that the only way to get your point across because you do not feel that your mate is listening to what you have to say screaming in front of your children is not the way to go because you are teaching them that about how to conduct themselves in a relationship when they do not feel heard. Time out
Know that when you are emotionally charge you may not be thinking logically of what to say, how to form the right words to your mate in front of the children so it is better a time out so both of you can resume the conversation without the children around.Conclusion: How you behave in front of your children affects them in either a positive or negative way and changes how they perceive the world and how they will behave in their relationships.

Magic shows today are increasing in popularity in all party themes such as wedding parties, corporate and business functions. The magic performers are one of the perfect options available to perform close-up comedy magic which can make the guests feel amazed, amused and laugh like crazy. The best part of adding a magic show to a party is that the magician will involve the guests by borrowing their rings, money, wrist watches and cigarettes for magic performance. The items borrowed by the guests are made to reappear, disappear or multiply by the magician’s magic effect thereby adding bewilderment in the party and people clap heartily to praise the commendable effort of magician.

Besides adults, magic shows can provide unlimited entertainment for kids as well. The parents must opt to taking their children into kid’s entertainment parties having magic shows as they are fast paced shows intended to gather kid’s attention and raises their alertness level so that the kids can enthusiastically react and participate in the magic show. The most alluring feature of magic shows in kid’s entertainment parties is that even shy kids start participating in the magic show after being called on-stage by the magician.

The magic shows can make the kids feel thrilled and amused by the amazing yet funny magic tactics used by the magicians to create magic. The magicians also have children and so they have deep knowledge of magic tricks which can amuse kids. The magician achieves the target of amusing kids via using funny body language, using magical props and voice vibrancy. There are a number of magical props such as cards, silks, sponge balls and the hilarious fury raccoon which is used by magicians to entertain the guests including kids.

The prime reason for why you should opt to magic shows via renowned magician for getting children entertainment is as follows-

Ø The magicians can offer unlimited fun by inviting children’s participation in the magic show from start to finish.

Ø The kid’s entertainment providers have long experience of many years and are thoroughly recognized via child care industry of Brisbane and gold coast for providing best kids live shows.

Ø The most alluring facet of magic shows in kid’s parties is that the magicians host the children entertainment parties with amazing excellence. The magicians give full assurance against injuries, risk, liabilities and worries emerged during the magic show.

Kids are often asked by the magician to stand on-stage so as to assist in the magic game and kids feel extreme pleasure in becoming part of magical performance. The children feel elated when they see cute animals such a rabbits coming out of the magical performance and they jump onto the stage to touch the cute animal. This way the magic show makes children busy in cuddling, feeding and patting the rabbit for extra 15-20 minutes even after the magic show is over and these extra minutes are the most precious moments of the magic show when glow appears on kid’s face while playing with rabbit.

There are a number of magicians who offer interesting discounts to the party hosts and on every confirmed booking and they give away free e-book of games having 220 fantastic games which can give invigorating fun to the reader. The games given in the e-book are not like those normal dull games but they are interesting ones and children of all age groups will surely love to have them.

ABSTRACT

The importance of parental involvement as an accelerating and motivating factor in their children’s education is a worldwide-accepted fact. This research project provides an in depth explanation along with specific reasons, the importance of parents’ involvement in their children’s education. It also discusses the parenting techniques, their types and their consequences if neglected. It also describes the ways to measure the outcome of the positive parental involvement. Furthermore, it mentions the teachers involvement and the difficulties faced by the teachers in getting parents involved in their children’s (this is further supported by the examples of two teachers who with their deliberate efforts won the parents over to devote their maximum attention towards their children), single-parent involvement, children’s own efforts to improve their academic levels and joint home-school based interventions. A detailed analysis of the different main ideas is given, based on the findings from other research surveys and projects.

INTRODUCTION:

Parental involvement can be seen to fall into three types: 1) Behavioral, 2) Intellectual and 3) Personal. The research explores the effect of multi-dimensional participation of parents and the resulting progress of children in their studies when different parental resources were dedicated to them. Actively participating parents help their children in their academic development by going to schools and participating in open houses. By keenly observing the behavior of their children they can rightly judge the kind of behavior or the allocation of resources required by their children. Such caring parents can also motivate teachers to become more attentive towards a particular student, thus maintaining the cycle of parent-teacher involvement. Encourage Building up cognitive and perception abilities in a child are a major concern in the upbringing of the child. The way the parents involve their children in cognitive learning is by exposing them to different cognitively stimulating activities and materials such as books, electronic media and current events at home. This helps the child to practice all sorts of language comprehending skills at the school. The results show a remarkably positive behavior at the school and with peers.

Two parenting processes namely the Supportive Parenting (SP) and Harsh Parenting (HP) helped a lot in the research of parental involvement in their children’s education. By adjusting the levels of supportive parenting, different levels of successful outcomes were observed. Supportive parenting in even kindergarten students yielded positive results. Four measures of supportive parenting were used in the study, they were:

1. Proactive teaching.

2. Calm discussion in disciplinary encounters.

3. Warmth.

4. Interest and involvement in peer activities.

The assessments were conducted when children entered kindergarten and when they reached grade 6. There was a factor noted to hinder children’s development: family adversity. It was the result of a multipurpose negative process that included the risk of low socio-economic status, single-parenting and family stress. Child maladjustments were found to be more common in families with such adversities. No matter how much negative impacts were cast, SP was found to overcome the risks associated with family adversity. SP was strongly related to adjustment procedures in grade 6 children who had single parent family or experienced low socio-economic status (SES) in their early childhood.

In a way to socialize their children, parents adopted the techniques of calm discussion and proactive teaching. They helped lessen the behavioral problems by carrying long discussions with their children, cultivating in them a sense of respect, calmness and peace of mind. Mothers also participated actively in reducing the peer stress among their children. It is also a widely accepted fact that supportive parenting plays an important role in the children’s development of empathy, prosocial behavior and emotional competence. On the negative side, the absence of supportive parenting may be related to the development of internal problems such as anxiety and depression.

Lack of the necessary parental care and attention is the main factor for the subsequent rise in the percentage of juvenile delinquency (crime among children). The absence of parental instructions causes children to develop irreversible behavioral and emotional problems. They in order to seek attention, resort to crimes thinking that in this way they could fulfill their wishes. They may revert to uncontrolled violence if not kept an eye upon. Such criminal activities cannot be brought to a halt until their distressing symptoms of low self-esteem, depression, dysphonic mood, tension and worries, and other disturbances are relieved. And the importance of parents’ role in this regard cannot be over-emphasized.

In an effort to describe parental involvement, many researchers use a term “Transition”(Lombardi, Joan). “Transition” is used to describe the time period in which children move from home to school, from school to after school activities, from one activity to another within a pre-school, or from pre-school to kindergarten. The untiring endeavors of teachers in the phenomenon of transition cannot be ignored. They prepared the children and their parents to face the problems of adjusting to elementary school programs that had different psychology, teaching styles and structure than the programs offered at the kindergarten level. In the elementary level schools the teachers had to face serious challenges in motivating the parents to take interest in their children’s activities. The teachers adopted different methods to involve the parents in day-to-day classroom and home activities. They used to send notes, invitation of parent-teacher meetings, invitation of parental guidance sessions and training sessions, continuously directing the parent’s attention towards their children. Patricia Brown Clark suggests that it is very important to keep the line of communication between teachers and parents open, so that the parents can interact with the teachers and get up to date information of their children’s school activities. One way to involve parents is to schedule school events and arranging classroom activities such as volunteering for libraries, acting as classroom aides or efficiently organizing lunch breaks. The teachers also opt for making phone calls at the children’s houses to keep in touch with the parents and getting to know the extent to which they are contributing towards the welfare of their children. Apart from the above activities, the teachers also assign home activities for both the parents and their children so that the parents remain indulged in their children and the children get to study at home. However, it was a bad and disappointing experience for the teachers when many of the parents failed to respond as expected. Many of the parents were so overwhelmed with their official work that they could hardly take out some time for their beloved children.

Moreover, for some parents their schoolings were not positive and character-boosting experiences, therefore they preferred to keep a distance from their children’s school as well. This made it really difficult and at times impossible for teachers to bring the parental involvement to the desired level. Nevertheless, the activities of two teachers proved greatly fruitful in making parents involved in their children. They were Carlos Valdez, an art teacher and 8th grade class sponsor, and Mike Hogan, the school’s band director. They did it by involving parents in music festivals and other school ceremonies. They proved to be great examples for the future teachers to come.

If the children’s academic development programs are to prove successful they must share two characteristics:

1) Developmentally appropriate practice:

A child’s academic progress is clearly reflected by the appropriate practice he/she administers while in school life. During transitions from pre-school to kindergarten, a child if given the exact developmentally appropriate practice tends to learn a great deal of language and playing skills. He develops a keen interest in exploring his environments and interacting (without hesitation) with his adults.

2) Supportive services:

These include the assistance that the school provides to low-income family students. The services include health care, childcare and community care. This strengthens the relation between school and children and creates a sense of security and confidence among the children. They get to learn that their communities are a part of their school since the school’s supportive services strive to help community development.

It is commonly believed that children are good self-teachers. Their self-initiated strategies help improve their expression, creativity, intellectual capabilities and extra-curricular skills. This idea is proved by the documentation of young children’s work provided by Reggio Emilia :

“The Reggio Emilia educators highlight young children’s amazing capabilities and indicate that it is through the unity of thinking and feeling that young children can explore their world, represent their ideas, and communicate with others at their highest level.”(Edwards, Pope. C, Springate, Wright.K)

The climax rests in the fact that how the parents would know that their sincere involvements are really proving worthwhile for their children. The answer lies in the attitude of the children. The degree of parental involvement can be judged by a child’s attitude towards his school subjects, his academic desires and achievements. There is a direct relationship between academic achievements and the attitude towards school. Schunk in 1981 had the following idea of aspiration or academic desires:

“Level of aspiration is defined as one’s subjective probability that he or she will reach a certain level of education.”(Abu, H. & Maher, M)

As a result children who received adequate parental concern were found to be much more confident in their academic desires and achievements than those who could not get the right amount of parental concern. The individual involvement of mothers and fathers also plays a vital role in the behavioral development of a child. Students from one-parent household were observed to show less positive attitude towards schools and studies as compared to students from two-parent households. One study aimed at investigating parental concern showed that despite mothers’ sincere endeavors, the role of fathers could not be ignored and both served as an important foundation for the future progress of the child. This can be proved from the following fact:

According to a recent report from the National Center for Educational Statistics (1997), compared to their counterparts, children with involved fathers are more likely to have participated in educational activities with their parents (e.g., to have visited a museum or a historical site with their parents in the past month), and are more likely to have access to multiple types of resources at home as well (as measured by the proportion of parents who belong to community or professional organizations, or regularly volunteer in the community). (Flouri, E. And Buchanan, A, Pg.142)

Also, the parental involvement has been discussed and implemented in terms of interventions or prevention programs, which are nothing but safety measures taken to assure healthy and perfect upbringing of the child. The study uses school-based and home-only intervention programs to find out the extent of intellectual capabilities found in children from different family backgrounds. The success of one school-based interventions can be proved from the following fact, which was a part of “Education Service Improvement Plan 2001-2005” of Edinburgh:

—-The Scottish Executive Discipline Task Force, which studied the causes of poor behavior among pupils in schools produced a report of ‘Better Behavior – Better Learning’ in June 2001. The report included 36 recommendations for action, which were then turned into an Action Plan in 2002. Many of these have implications for the Education Authority. (Craig Millar Instep Project)

Copyright (c) 2007 Jerry Carpos

Reading is an excellent way to encourage kids to learn a lot of good stuff which can help them as they grow older. Improved vocabulary, language, and imagination are some benefits of reading. Parents and schools should therefore actively participate during reading sessions.

Language involves a highly specialized set of skills. It takes years to learn to speak and even longer to learn to read. Mankind spends more time on raising its young than any other species on Earth. Let us admit it, cultural achievements are so complex that it will will require a decade of intensive study on our part for us to master it or acquire even the basic notions. This knowledge is, of course, passed on to us mostly at school and almost entirely in written form.

Intellectual achievements took an upturn when the printing press was invented in 1450, although it took a few more centuries for the general public to start to read. The earlier a parent or guardian can make reading natural to the child, the better he or she will be able to assimilate school material later in life. Reading aloud to small children is directly associated with college achievement. More than half of those who read to their children are college graduates, most are women. Of mothers educated only to high school level, 44 percent read to their pre-school age children. For those who did not complete high school, the figure is lower, at 38%. Almost two thirds of white, non-hispanic children, are likely to be read to, as opposed to 41% of black, non-Hispanic children and 33% of Hispanic children.

How can you get children into reading and have fun with it at the same time? Basically, keep alert, follow your intuition and let your imagination run riot. Below you will find a number of tips, based on the experience of parents who have successfully encouraged a love of reading in their children.

The first thing to realize is that an interest in stories is completely natural to human beings. All societies started out with an oral tradition of story-telling. Tales were entertainment for dark winter nights, they were a means of passing on important cultural facts from one generation to another, and they bound the social group together in a common experience. First and foremost, they offered reassurance in an uncertain world.

Who has not experienced first hand, as a child, the deep comfort of listening to a story? I’m sure you can recall the excitement and delight of a particular tale, which you probably requested on repeated occasions. Perhaps it was a story which allowed free rein to exorcising deeply felt hopes and fears, as do the tales from Andersen and the Brothers Grimm. The child is both stimulated and soothed by the human voice. For making kids drowsy at bed-time, there is nothing better than a looong tale. The child knows from the voice that protection, i.e. an adult, is near. The tone of that voice is so familiar because the child could hear it before he or she was even born.

So, storytelling fulfills a set of primary needs of comfort for the child, who through listening becomes a member of the clan. This is the first benefit of reading aloud, and it is immediate. On top of this emotional stimulus, intellectual skills are built in a number of ways, as is described below.

When a child listens to a story, the child exercises a complex number of skils that can help develop the cognitive abilities of his/her developing brain. Firstly, what is being said is converted into images, i.e. represented in the mind. This is a powerful stimulant to the imagination and to intelligence itself: special abilities are especially spurred, so that the child who is read to can easily imagine, say, a room, a house, a forest, a park, and objects in relation to one another. High ability in diverse fields such as Mathematics and sports is directly related to a child’s special ability.

Naturally, vocabulary is greatly enriched and general expression and articulacy promoted by listening to the language of stories, which tends to be both generally comprehensible, because it is part of a story with beginning, middle and end, and at the same time far richer and more complex than conversational and peer language.

Short-term memory is stretched along with the attention span, as the child follows the plot of the story. Reasoning and moral judgments are challenged, horizons are broadened. This will help with the child’s own decision-making capacity and will encourage independent thinking.

Reading aloud is a theatrical experience, which is why it is fun. As with all performance, the pacing can make or break it. Preparation increases the pleasure and does not have to be elaborate. Selecting the text and familiarizing yourself with it, and if possible adding props, songs or rhymes, will all help to make your family reading more fun and memorable.

Your kids will thank you for it, and their school performance will improve. But remember, this is a long term thing. You’ll know you’ve really been successful when your kids start to read aloud to their own children.

 By Tom Bloch

It’s no secret that schools across the nation are in trouble. Teachers are overstressed, overwhelmed, and unable to get students to cooperate. If you’re a parent of school-aged kids, this is a distressing reality. In the whirlwind of work, household chores, social commitments, and everything else that sucks up your time, it’s incredibly hard to take an active role in their education. I’ve realized two things: 1) without parental involvement, kids are far less likely to live up to their potential, and 2) with encouragement and caring, even kids from the toughest homes can thrive. So just imagine what your own children can do.

Chances are, few readers will be able to identify with the severe challenges faced by some of the kids I’ve taught. Still, I believe all parents can benefit from what I’ve learned. My book not only showcases the grim dynamics of the inner city classroom, but it also illuminates the truth about what kids need to succeed. Having committed adults who care and push them to excel tops the list.

I ended up co-founding an inner city college preparatory charter school called University Academy, located in an area of Kansas City known for its crime and poverty. The school serves over 1,000 students in kindergarten through grade twelve. Over the last five years, all but two students who have graduated from UA went on to attend college, a remarkable accomplishment for an urban school.

Through my experiences I have learned techniques that help underserved kids from low-income, broken families discover their self-confidence, ambition, and a sense of accountability. Much of the success is due to the school itself, but in so many cases parental involvement makes the biggest difference. When parents of UA students get involved and stay involved, the kids succeed at high rates.

Keep reading for a few of my own tips on how to engage your children and prime them for optimum learning and success in school.

Brush up on your own reading, writing, and ’rithmetic. Perhaps the best way to guarantee that your kids succeed in school is to review their homework with them each evening. It is not at all uncommon for parents to have to re-learn entire subjects to help their children succeed. Help them grasp a concept they’re struggling with. Remind yourself that nothing else—no TV show, no housework, nothing—is more important than your children’s academic and character development.

Invest in more of the intangibles and less of the tangibles for your children. I have noticed that even low-income families send their children to school in the most expensive Nike shoes. What this proves to me is that materialism is rampant in society—not just in high-income families, but in all families. Kids need to learn to discover more value in enrichment activities and less value in status symbols. On holidays and birthdays, choose to give your children life experiences in addition to material objects. Take a trip to a historic site within a day’s drive. Or buy a musical instrument for your child along with the weekly lessons. One day he or she will be grateful for the memories and useful skills you will have helped create.

Don’t expect teachers to raise your child. Some parents expect schools to do all the work in educating and socializing their children. But this is both irresponsible and impossible. It must be a dual effort. When parents instill respect, responsibility, caring, and compassion in their children, teachers can enforce these values. Some parents who are disengaged from their children’s education also expect their kids to be passed along to the next grade regardless of their academic achievement. This kind of parental mindset transcends all socio-economic class boundaries. As a parent, it is your responsibility to teach your child to work hard and live according to a strong code of ethics. Otherwise, it’s like trying to build a house without first building a foundation.

Support teacher decisions. It’s perfectly natural for a parent’s pride to be wounded when his or her child fails in some way in school. And, unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for parents to react angrily towards the school when their children are punished for misbehavior. But this kind of reaction is almost always a big mistake and does children no favors. If you suspect a teacher is treating your child unfairly, then by all means sit in on a class or schedule a conference to get to the bottom of things. Children must learn to follow rules and to accept the consequences for not doing so. And by supporting a teacher’s fair decision, you create a united front that your child is far more likely to respect.

Commit to volunteer. The phrase is shop-worn by now, but it really does take a village to raise a child. Try your best to be not just a parent to your own child, but part of the “village” for all the children. Schools desperately need involved, committed, and dedicated parents. If you have a special skill that can be shared with your child and his or her school family, consider volunteering. The inner city school that I co-founded feels so strongly about parental involvement that it requires parents to volunteer a minimum of twice a year to enrich their school’s support network.

Parental apathy and even hostility are real concerns in today’s schools. The truth is, it’s very difficult for teachers to make children successful without the support of parents at home. Even in affluent households, where parents can afford private schools and tutors, kids are still kids. They need the involvement and commitment of their parents in order to develop the skills and values necessary to succeed in school and in life. It’s a principle that goes beyond socio-economics.

Still, the primary message of my book is one of hope. Because underprivileged kids are proving they can overcome terrible conditions, those of us born into more fortunate circumstances should never settle for less than our best. Many of the kids featured in Stand for the Best are rising to find their greatness. If they can do it, your kids can, too.

Its really hit and miss sometimes how smoothly bath times go with children. Kids don’t often enjoy being cleaned and unless bath time is made to be fun, they will make such a fuss you’ll regret putting them in the bath in the first place. There are some fantastic bath toys that can supplement bathing perfectly and get everyone enjoying themselves, here are the best 3.

The rubber duck. The iconic rubber duck should be a staple toy for any bath. It’s still the best selling bath toy around and it’s easy to see why. Its stand-out yellow colour and interactive qualities such as a squeaker or water spurter make them endlessly enjoyable. They have proved their popularity over the last 100 years and won’t be disappearing any time soon.

Squirters.If you don’t have a rubber duck that squirts water then you need to invest in a little water gun or similar. Most kids loving playing with water guns and squirters and if they can do it in a safe and suitable place, no one gets annoyed. Its also a great method to get your child clean and its always a bit of fun getting squirted and they won’t object anywhere near as much as they do when you try and sponge them down. Just keep filling it up and soaking them down using it.

Stick on numbers. Bath toys don’t have to simply be for fun. Kids learn best when they are relaxed and enjoying themselves so it’s good to have a number of learning toys or educational toys to use in the bath as well. There are a variety of toys on the market that can be used in water, one of which are the big inflatable letters. Foam sticky numbers though are the most popular choice. These not only help with mathematics but also teach kids about surface tension and friction when the stick the number to the side of the bath.

Kids and baths either mix very well or go very badly. Kids don’t often enjoy being cleaned and unless bath time is made to be fun, they will make such a fuss you’ll regret putting them in the bath in the first place. There are some fantastic bath toys that can supplement bathing perfectly and get everyone enjoying themselves, here are the best 3.

Rubber ducky. These toys should be given out as standard whenever people buy a bath. It’s still the best selling bath toy around and it’s easy to see why. Having a animal in the bath is always great fun for children and especially one that can squirt water and bop up to the surface time and again. They’re simple but perfect, so make sure you have a few.

Squirters.If your rubber duck comes without a water squirter then its worth getting a separate one. Kids love squirting water around and there is no better place to do it than in the bath, although you have to be careful they don’t get you. On top of this, if your struggling to get your child to wash themselves in the bath, a squirter is a fun way to get them wet and get them clean. Just fill up the squirter and give them a good wash down with it.

Stick on numbers. Bath toys don’t have to simply be for fun. Kids learn best when they are relaxed and enjoying themselves so it’s good to have some learning toys or educational toys to use in the bath as well. There has been an increase in the about of these toys made for bath time recently, including one that teaches children about object density. The best however are the sticky foam numbers.Friction, surface tension, material qualities and math are among the number of educational factors that this toy boasts.

The average child spends 900 hours in school per year and nearly 1,023 hours in front of a television. In fact, most children plug into the world of television long before they even enter school and when they do, statistics show that 70% of child-care centers use television during a typical day.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), children watch around four hours of television a day. The AAP guidelines however, state that children older than 2 should watch no more than one to two hours a day of quality programming. Further, children under age 2 should have no ‘screen time’ whatsoever (that’s no TV, DVDs, computers or video games) at all. During the first 2 years, a critical time for brain development, television can get in the way of exploring, learning and spending time interacting and playing with parents and others, which helps the young develop the skills they need to grow cognitively, physically, socially and emotionally.

While there are many entertaining and educational experiences for children to have on ‘screens’, it is important to keep in mind what children need at different ages for their healthy development. So, how much time is okay?

• Children under 2 years – very little time, preferably none.
• Preschoolers – an hour of age-appropriate programmes a day is plenty.
• Children 5 to 8 years – an hour a day maximum.
• Children over 8 years – an hour and a half to two hours a day is acceptable.

To follow these guidelines means that your children have the time and opportunity to build strong bonds with real and caring people, have time for active physical play and ‘hands-on’ activities of all kinds.

Therefore, plan what you watch and limit your child to the amount watched each day. Decide together what programs will be watched and only have ‘the box’ on then, rather than on all the time. This teaches children to think, plan, make choices and allows time for them to do other things important for their development.

Other issues to be aware of or implement include:

• Remember to lead by example – your child’s viewing habits may be copied from yours.
• Television viewing for a very young child should always take place in your company.
• Record programs so they can be played at a time that suits your family.
• Encourage children to discuss how they feel after watching a program.
• Play ‘spot the gimmicks and tricks’ when watching commercials.
• Decide on bedtime based on your child’s age, and not on the time a certain programme ends.
• Children need to relax and unwind between television and sleep, so turn the volume down or off before bedtime.
• Make television one of many activities your children do – so organise outings, play-dates and activities for them that don’t involve ‘screens’. Fun arts and crafts such as coloring and drawing are always well received – especially if you join in – and especially if you choose coloring pages of a favourite character – so for example at sites like Spongebob Coloring Pages you’ll find the best Spongebob colouring book

Television has its advantages. It can be educational and entertaining. It can open up new worlds for kids, giving them the opportunity to virtually travel the globe and learn about different cultures.However, many down-sides also exist; many children are exposed to violence, advertising and adult material that is not age appropriate.

Like maintaining a balanced diet or regular bedtime, establishing healthy television habits is one of the most important things you can do for your family.

The average child spends 900 hours in school per year and nearly 1,023 hours in front of a television. In fact, most children plug into the varied world of television way before they even enter school and when they do, statistics show that 70% of child-care centers use television during a typical day.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), children watch around four hours of television a day. The AAP guidelines however, state that children older than 2 should watch no more than one to two hours a day of quality programming. Further, children under age 2 should have no ‘screen time’ whatsoever (that’s no TV, DVDs, computers or video games) at all. During the first 2 years, a critical time for brain development, television can get in the way of exploring, learning and spending time interacting and playing with parents and others, which helps the young develop the skills they need to grow cognitively, physically, socially and emotionally.

While there are many entertaining and educational experiences for children to have on ‘screens’, it is important to keep in mind what children need at different ages for their healthy development. So, how much time is okay?

• Children under 2 years – very little time, preferably none.
• Preschoolers – an hour of age-appropriate programmes a day is plenty.
• Children 5 to 8 years – an hour a day maximum.
• Children over 8 years – an hour and a half to two hours a day is acceptable.

To follow these guidelines means that your children have the time and opportunity to build strong bonds with real and caring people, have time for active physical play and ‘hands-on’ activities of all kinds.

Therefore, plan what you watch and limit your child to the amount watched each day. Decide together what programs will be watched and only have ‘the box’ on then, rather than on all the time. This teaches children to think, plan, make choices and allows time for them to do other things important for their development.

Other issues to be aware of or implement include:

• Remember to lead by example – your child’s viewing habits may be copied from yours.
• Television viewing for a very young child should always take place in your company.
• Record programs so they can be played at a time that suits your family.
• Encourage children to talk about how they feel after watching a program.
• Play ‘spot the gimmicks and tricks’ when watching commercials.
• Decide on bedtime based on your child’s age, rather than the time a certain programme ends.
• Children need to relax and unwind between television and sleep, so turn the volume down or off before bedtime.
• Make television one of many activities your children do – so organise outings, play-dates and activities for them that don’t involve ‘screens’. Fun arts and crafts such as coloring and drawing are always well received – especially if you join in – and especially if you choose coloring pages of a favourite character – so for example at sites like Spongebob Coloring Pages you’ll find the best Spongebob to color in

Television has its advantages. It can be educational and entertaining. It can open up new worlds for kids, giving them the opportunity to virtually travel the globe and learn about different cultures. However, many pitfalls also exist; many children are exposed to violence, advertising and adult material that is not age appropriate.

Like maintaining a balanced diet or regular bedtime, establishing healthy television habits is one of the most important things you can do for your family.