The importance of teamwork for children

Teamwork requires people to work cooperatively with others towards a shared purpose. For a team to work together effectively, it takes all members of the team to respect each other’s abilities and opinions. Teamwork is a highly social activity and involves much interaction and exchanging of ideas and actions. 

Being part of a team enables your child to move from more intrapersonal (individual) ways of thinking to interpersonal (communicating with others). It will help a child in all areas of their learning, and help them to feel part of a community, too. Working as part of a team will strengthen your child’s social and emotional skills, help develop their communication skills, and can improve confidence.

In school your child will experience teamwork in many different forms. Children may be asked to work in pairs, small groups, or larger groups on a variety of different things. They may be asked to work in teams for physical activities such as ball games or running games or more formal activities such as projects. Children also often form their own team activities during their play time.

While your child will experience plenty of team-based activities at school, it is important to continue the ethos of good teamwork at home. It can feel great to be part of a team, but if a child is excluded from a team it can be an upsetting experience. Make sure your child understands this and does not exclude others.

Teamwork can often inspire competitiveness with other teams – especially in physical activities. Encourage your child to be a good sportsman and a team-player.
Get children to work together on a project at home – it could be anything from a collective art project to performing a play. Encourage every child to decide on a role in the team.

The importance of play for kids

Play allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength. Play is important to healthy brain development. It is through play that children at a very early age engage and interact in the world around them. Play allows children to create and explore a world they can master, conquering their fears while practicing adult roles, sometimes in conjunction with other children or adult caregivers.

As they master their world, play helps children develop new competencies that lead to enhanced confidence and the resiliency they will need to face future challenges. Undirected play allows children to learn how to work in groups, to share, to negotiate, to resolve conflicts, and to learn self-advocacy skills. When play is allowed to be child driven, children practice decision-making skills, move at their own pace, discover their own areas of interest, and ultimately engage fully in the passions they wish to pursue.

Ideally, much of play involves adults, but when play is controlled by adults, children acquiesce to adult rules and concerns and lose some of the benefits play offers them, particularly in developing creativity, leadership, and group skills. In contrast to passive entertainment, play builds active, healthy bodies. In fact, it has been suggested that encouraging unstructured play may be an exceptional way to increase physical activity levels.

Children’s developmental trajectory is critically mediated by appropriate, affective relationships with loving and consistent caregivers as they relate to children through play. When parents observe their children in play or join with them in child-driven play, they are given a unique opportunity to see the world from their child’s vantage point as the child navigates a world perfectly created just to fit his or her needs.

The importance of laughter for children

All too often the hardships of parenting consume the majority of our time with our children. We are usually overworked and trying to figure out how to make our budgets stretch to meet our children’s want and needs. We wonder if we will ever get enough of a break to enjoy our partners and friends as much as we used to.

Laughter is an invaluable weapon against the tensions that fill our lives every day. Family dynamics will become much easier if parents can try to incorporate periods of laughter with their children into every week. Here are suggestions that you might try with your family.

1. A simple thing to do for families who like movies and recordings is to select funny movies or CD’s to enjoy together. Comedy recordings that have everyone laughing hard can decrease stress more than adventure or romantic stories that can actually increase tension. Some old movies are very funny. My pre-teens really enjoyed watching Marx Brothers movies.

2. Children think that games where they get to beat their parents are very funny this is because much of our children’s lives are run according to adult schedules and ideas. It is often hard for children to feel competent or in charge when they are trying to keep up with all the things that adults are asking them to do. Children love games where they get to win and feel smart and capable.

3. If your child is easily embarrassed or ashamed, they probably would enjoy hearing embarrassing stories from your childhood. It is very reassuring to know that your parent was not always the invulnerable, capable person they often appear to be.

4. Physical play can produce lots of laughter. A five-minute pillow fight or rough and tumble can be fun and release lots of tension that has built up during the day. As with other games it is important for the child to win physical play as well. Many children ask for tickling play time from their Mom or Dad because they want attention and enjoy laughing. 

How to teach your children to love nature

There are many things that parents, guardians, and teachers can do to help children develop a love for nature.

Start Young
If you love nature yourself, it is very easy to develop this love in your children. Expose them to the natural world from the time they are young. Encourage them to play in the garden. Let them pick up and observe leaves, flowers, rocks, etc. Point out and name trees, insects, birds, and animals to them.

Involve Them in Gardening
A great way to help children connect to nature is to get them to help in gardening. This will bring them in touch with the soil and they will encounter different kinds of insects, worms, and other intriguing creatures. Caring for plants, and seeing them grow and develop, is a wonderful opportunity for them to know the cycle of creation first hand. You can also help them set up a bird or butterfly feeder in the garden.

Take Them to Wildlife Sanctuaries and National Parks
Make trips to the wildlife sanctuaries and national parks a regular part of their growing years. Plan regular picnics and outings to nature spots around your city. Introduce them to the joys of hiking. You can spend vacations visiting places like Kanha, Ranthambhore, or Corbett, where children can see wild animals in their natural environment.

Arouse their Curiosity
Encourage your children to observe things around them. Gift them with books or CDs about nature and wildlife. Take them along to museums or libraries. Better still, get them membership to a nature organisation such as the Bombay Natural History Society or the World Wildlife Fund, and encourage them to participate in the field trips and other activities organised by them.

The importance of drinking water for children

Just because they have smaller bodies does not mean they need less of it. Water is in fact one of the most important nutrients for children. Often times when we read tips for nutrition for our children, they leave out important information about the intake of healthy fluids.

According to a study published in Archives of Diseases in Childhood, more than 70% of preschool children never drink plain water! What are they drinking? Drinks made with sugar, fruit juice, acids, or sugar substitutes. Yes, these drinks all have water in them, but these drinks also dehydrate your body because your body needs water to process these sugary drinks. 

Second, another health problem these sugary drinks cause correlates with weight gain. Many experts believe that these sugar filled drinks are a major contributor to childhood obesity. According to the Mayo Clinic, over the past 30 years, the rate of obesity in the United States has more than doubled for preschoolers and adolescents and more than tripled in children ages 6 to 11. With all this said, how can water benefit our body and especially our children? 

Our body’s entire anatomy depends on water for their functioning. Water is the only way our body is able to flush out our toxins before they can become poisonous in our body. Therefore, it is important that both adults and children get the proper amount of water that they need.

Water not only keeps children healthy, but also will help them perform better in school. See, dehydration leads to a reduction in both mental and physical performance. These results can be shown in the classroom! Long-term chronic dehydration may cause health problems and illnesses.

Because many schools have inadequate water resources, parents and teachers should regularly encourage children to drink water at home, and even bring their own to school. Children should especially drink water after taking part in sports, such as in gym class. 

Passive smoking and children's health

Passive smoking causes lasting damage to children's arteries, prematurely ageing their blood vessels by more than three years, say researchers.The damage - thickening of blood vessel walls - increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes in later life, they say in the European Heart Journal.

In their study of more than 2,000 children aged three to 18, the harm occurred if both parents smoked.
Experts say there is no "safe" level of exposure to second-hand smoke.This study goes a step further and shows it [passive smoking] can cause potentially irreversible damage to children's arteries increasing their risk of heart problems in later life”Doireann MaddockBritish Heart Foundation

The research, carried out in Finland and Australia, appears to reveal the physical effects of growing up in a smoke-filled home - although it is impossible to rule out other potentially contributory factors entirely.

Hidden damage

Ultrasound scans showed how children whose parents both smoked developed changes in the wall of a main artery that runs up the neck to the head.While the differences in carotid intima-media thickness were modest, they were significant and detectable some 20 years later when children had reached adulthood, say the investigators.

Study author Dr Seana Gall, from the University of Tasmania, said: "Our study shows that exposure to passive smoke in childhood causes a direct and irreversible damage to the structure of the arteries. "Parents, or even those thinking about becoming parents, should quit smoking. This will not only restore their own health but also protect the health of their children into the future."

How to help a child with low self-esteem

When a child has low self-esteem, many parents search endlessly for ways to make them feel better about themselves. They compliment their child for minor accomplishments or lower the standards to make them feel better, and nothing changes. They want to fix the problem now, when in reality, they should be coaching their child on how they can overcome their issues on their own. In Part II of our series on Self-esteem and Kids, James Lehman, MSW explains the three key roles you can play to help your child develop genuine self-esteem.

The Teaching Role

 The Teaching Role is just what it sounds like—you actually teach your child how to solve problems. So when you see that your child isn’t feeling good about himself, one of the things you want to do immediately is help him figure out what’s causing that lack of self-worth.

The Coaching Role

 The second step is to coach your child with the skills they already have, just like the coach of a sport would do. For example, if your child is going through a difficult time or learning a new task that’s proving to be a challenge for them, try coaching them by saying things like, “You’ve solved this kind of problem before. You’ll solve it again.”

The Limit-Setting Role

The limits for your child should be very clear, even when they’re having self-esteem issues. So you can say, “I’m sorry if you’re sad or frustrated, or don’t feel good about yourself right now, but we’re not going to lose sight of the fact that you have to do your homework. That’s your job.” Or, “I’m sorry you’re feeling that way, but you can’t take out your anger and frustration on your sister.” Give your child appropriate consequences, but work with him to learn how to solve the problem that’s blocking him.

The importance of nutrition for children

• Nutrition is very important for everyone, but it is especially important for children because it is directly linked to all aspects of their growth and development; factors which will have direct ties to their level of health as adults. For example, a child with the right balance of omega fatty acids in their daily diet has a much better chance at creating a more solid foundation for their brain activity and capabilities later on.

• You will also help promote a better quality of life if you instill proper nutrition trends in your children. It will allow them to partake in more activities and with greater enjoyment. People with high levels of health also consistently report that they enjoy elevated feelings of wellness and well-being. As part of this, children are also able to fight off colds with improved efficiency with the support of proper nutrition. 

• And this brings up a vital point in communication with your children: You should always be on the lookout for different ways to make solid connections for your children. You can picture it in your mind like a web diagram, connecting major points with a line for your children to better understand issues. If you actually explain to your child that they won’t have to suffer through those nasty colds nearly as much if they maintain healthy diet.

• Another huge reason why nutrition is so important for children is because they simply don’t know enough on their own to naturally choose to eat well. Unfortunately, the foods and snacks that taste the best are usually the worst for our bodies, and a child left to their on whim will almost always choose junk food over fruits and vegetables.

How to raise a spiritual child

Introduce spirituality early on

Introducing spiritual practices to your child when she's young – such as lighting candles or singing hymns together – lets your child view them as a natural part of life, and allows you to have a spiritual influence on her before other people do. Even if you don't believe in God or see God as a single all-powerful being, it's worth talking to your child about it. 

Don't pretend to have all the answers 

When your child asks where people go when they die, answer honestly: "Nobody knows for sure, but some people think they go to heaven to be close to God. Other people think they're born again in a new body."
Inevitably, your child will ask what you think. If you have a strong belief, share it. If not, it's okay to admit that there are some questions people spend their whole lives trying to figure out – and this is one of them.

Use daily events to teach spirituality

Big ideas don't always require big actions. You can demonstrate that spirituality is a part of everyday life by incorporating it into ordinary actions and words. When you open the curtains in the morning, you can say, "Look at this glorious day Mother Nature made." At bedtime, you can sign off with, "God bless you, sweetie pie."

Instill an appreciation of nature

 Nature is a great place to find inspiration and a sense of spirituality. "Kids learn with all their senses – they love to pick up a rock or jump in a puddle or chase a butterfly," says Neifert. Help your child see nature as something precious by demonstrating your own love and respect for it. When you go for a family hike in the woods or a picnic on the beach, clean up after yourself (and even others), and be considerate of creatures in their habitat.

Tell stories

The world's spiritual traditions are full of stories designed to explain everything from how the world was created to why people sometimes do bad things. Read stories together from an illustrated Bible, a book of Hindu mythology, a collection of Jewish folk tales, amending and simplifying as you see fit.

How to raise your child's emotional intelligence

Coach him to realize when he is stressed 

The first step to reducing stress is recognizing what stress feels like. Share how your body feels when you are under stress and ask your child or teen what goes on for them. You could also share the quote by Sir William Osler: “Our bodies weep the tears our eyes refuse to shed.” Teach your child how being aware of your physical response to stress will help regulate tension when it occurs.

Help your child Identify her stress response 

Everyone reacts differently to stress. If your child tends to become angry or agitated under stress, she will respond best to stress relief activities that quiet her down. If she tends to become depressed or withdrawn, she will respond best to stress relief activities that are stimulating. If she tends to freeze she’ll need stress relief activities such as giving a pet affection and attention that provides both comfort and stimulation.

Encourage your child or teen to discover the stress-busting techniques that work for him 

 The best way to reduce stress quickly is by engaging one or more of your senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Each person responds differently to sensory input, so you need to find things that are soothing and/or energizing to you.  If he responds more to sound, you may find a wind chime, a favorite piece of music, or the sound of a water fountain helps to quickly reduce his stress levels.

How to help your children deal with stress

Notice out loud

Tell your child when you notice that something's bothering him or her. If you can, name the feeling you think your child is experiencing. ("It seems like you're still mad about what happened at the playground.") This shouldn't sound like an accusation (as in, "OK, what happened now?

Are you still mad about that?") or put a child on the spot. It's just a casual observation that you're interested in hearing more about your child's concern. Be sympathetic and show you care and want to understand.

Listen to your child

Ask your child to tell you what's wrong. Listen attentively and calmly — with interest, patience, openness, and caring. Avoid any urge to judge, blame, lecture, or say what you think your child should have done instead. The idea is to let your child's concerns (and feelings) be heard.

Try to get the whole story by asking questions like "And then what happened?" Take your time. And let your child take his or her time, too.

Comment briefly on the feelings you think your child was experiencing

For example, you might say "That must have been upsetting," "No wonder you felt mad when they wouldn't let you in the game," or "That must have seemed unfair to you." Doing this shows that you understand what your child felt, why, and that you care. Feeling understood and listened to helps your child feel supported by you, and that is especially important in times of stress.

Put a label on it

Many younger kids do not yet have words for their feelings. If your child seems angry or frustrated, use those words to help him or her learn to identify the emotions by name. Putting feelings into words helps kids communicate and develop emotional awareness — the ability to recognize their own emotional states.

Kids who can do so are less likely to reach the behavioral boiling point where strong emotions come out through behaviors rather than communicated with words.

Children and Anxiety

In most cases, fears in childhood are fairly transient and short-lived. Different anxieties develop at different stages:

• Babies and toddlers might fear loud noises, heights, strangers and separation.
• Preschoolers might start to show fears of being on their own and of the dark.
• School-age children might be afraid of supernatural things (like ghosts), social situations, failure, criticism or tests, and physical harm or threat.

Infants and young children don’t tend to worry about things. For children to be worried, they have to imagine the future and bad things that might happen in it – this is why worries become more common in children over eight years of age.

Children also worry about different things as they get older. In childhood, they might worry about getting sick or hurt. In older childhood and adolescence, the focus becomes less concrete – for example, they may think a lot about war, economic and political fears, family relationships and so on.

What causes anxiety?
Some people are more likely to be anxious because it runs in the family (just like eye colour). People can also learn to think and behave in an anxious way by watching others, or by going through scary experiences. Certain things in a child’s environment might also increase the child’s chances of becoming anxious – for example, if a parent is overprotective of a shy child it might help the child in the short term, but can increase the child’s anxiety overall.

Ways to support your child

• acknowledge your child’s fear – don’t dismiss or ignore it
• gently encourage your child to do things she’s anxious about, but don’t push her to face situations she doesn't want to face
• wait until your child actually gets anxious before you step in to help
• praise your child for doing something he’s anxious about, rather than criticizing him for being afraid
• avoid labeling your child as ‘shy’ or ‘anxious’.

How to deal with a naughty child

1. Never scream at them. 

It will instill fear in their minds, which later in life comes out in the form of no confidence, fears, phobias and mental problems.

2. Talk to them. 

Solve your problems decently by talking to them face to face. Try to make them understand the issue by trying to come down to their mental level. Give them reason and logic. Screaming, yelling and hitting them will only result in grugdes and stubbornness.

3. Talk to them by getting down on your knees, looking in their eyes and face to face.

This is because the child feels inferior to you when you are standing and you are looking down to him, as he is obviously quite smaller than you in height.

4. NEVER scare your child of anything. 

For example, many parents scare their child of ghosts, theifs etc. Like ‘if you do that certain thing will come and take you away or punish you etc. This will not help in anyway as this is not true at all. Suppose if he does that certain thing and nothing that you told him happend, he will get over it and stop believing you. This can also result in psychological problems, fears and phobias.

Why having a gifted child can cause problems

The characteristics of gifted children often lead to social and emotional problems that can affect their emotional and social development. To understand your gifted child completely, it's a good idea to see how your child's giftedness can influence his or her behavior.

Problems Resulting From Asynchronous Development

• Gifted children can intellectually understand abstract concepts but may be unable to deal with those concepts emotionally, leading to intense concerns about death, the future, sex, and other such issues. 

• Gifted children's physical development may lead to an inability to complete a task they are capable of intellectually envisioning. (Perfectionism may play a role in this frustration as well.)

• A gifted child may be able to participate in adult conversations about issues such as global warming or world hunger one minute and the next minute cry and whine because a sibling took a favorite toy.

Problems Resulting From Advanced Verbal and Reasoning Ability

• Gifted children can be argumentative and/or manipulative. (Adults often remark that theses children are little lawyers!) Parents and other adults need to remember that, although credit should be given for logical and convincing arguments, a child is still a child and requires appropriate discipline, no matter how clever or cute the behavior may look. Children who see that they can manipulate adults can feel very insecure. 

• Gifted children can be manipulative. (Parents and other adults need to take care that they don't allow this manipulation.) 

• A gifted child may try to outsmart parents and teachers. 

Children and technology

Media technology is here to stay and has become a permanent part of our lives. But there is great concern about how it may be affecting our children. I believe we can learn to embrace its advantages, reduce its adverse effects and raise children who can still relate heart to heart with people, appreciate and participate in the beauty and wonders of nature and grow up to be well rounded, healthy, caring and compassionate adults. The challenge for parents is to understand the benefits and pitfalls of children’s technology use and to help their children create balance in their lives.

Why should we be concerned?

The amount of time children spend using media technology, including computers, cell phones, video games and MP3 players among others, is setting off alarms. The fear is not only that this technology is replacing physical and imaginative play, but that it also may be diminishing development of social skills, heart connection and empathy for others.

Children and teens between ages eight and 18 spend an average of seven hours and 38 minutes daily playing video games, going online and watching TV, and most have no household rules governing how much time they’re allowed to spend doing these things, according to the 2010 study, “Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds,” conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Add to that the time spent eating, sleeping and attending school during the week, and little time is left for anything else such as playing outside or at the playground with other children, participating in athletics, socializing with friends and family or engaging in afterschool and weekend activities.

Studies over the past decade have concluded that a large number of adolescents and teens today are having difficulty identifying emotions in people, thus creating an inability to feel empathy toward others who may be feeling pain, sorrow, anger and other emotions. There is concern that excessive viewing of real or contrived violence online and/or playing video games that are violent or contain other age-inappropriate content could be numbing the sensitivities of young people, immunizing them from experiencing compassion and caring for others.

How to deal with an insecure child

Most children experience insecurity at some point or other, but a chronically insecure child is hard for parents to handle. You might feel guilty or sad that your child is suffering emotionally. Finding your child a therapist trained to deal with insecurity can really help, but there are things that you can do with your child to help stem insecure feelings and make her more comfortable.

Monitor Your Emotions
Many times, your actions and example rub off on your child, so if talking to strangers or going to the doctor makes you insecure, chances are your child will pick up on that and follow suit. Keep your own insecurity at bay when your child comes to you about a fight with a friend or a failing grade, suggests social worker Janet Lehman on the Empowering Parents website. Be available for your child, but make sure you keep your own feelings out of the equation so they don't influence how he reacts to a situation or person in his life.

Create Family Traditions
You probably can't banish insecurity from your child's life altogether, but knowing she can count on her family gives her a sense of security that can carry her through other situations she encounters. Family traditions are a valuable way to help children feel as though they belong and have a rightful place in the world, notes Glynnis Whitwer, author of "When Your Child is Hurting." Family game night, a trip to the pizza place after sports games or ice cream on report card day are all options. Everyday traditions such as naming one positive thing that happened or taking a walk after dinner are important too.

Active Listening
As a parent, it can be overwhelmingly difficult not to jump in and fix every problem your child is having. When it comes to insecurity, whether it stems from peers, performance in the classroom or making the basketball team, listening to your child talk about his feelings can help him cope. Lehman suggests asking your child what you can do to help. Listen carefully to what your child tells you without minimizing his feelings or trying to take over and solve the problem, she adds. Respond with empathy and understanding so your child knows you know what he's going through and are available when he needs you.

How to raise your child with love

1). Learn to listen to your children. Influencing their lives is one of the greatest things you can do. It is easy to tune out our children, and a missed opportunity for meaningful guidance. If you never listen to your children and spend all of your time barking orders at them, they won't feel respected or cared for.

2). Treat your child with respect. Don't ever forget that your child is a living, breathing human being who has needs and wants just like the rest of us. If your child is a picky eater, don't nag him constantly at the dinner table; if he's slow to potty train, don't embarrass him by talking about it in public; if you promised your child you'd take him to the movies if he was good, don't take back your promise because you're too tired.

3). Know that you can never love your child too much. It's a myth that loving your child "too much," praising your child "too much," or showering your child with "too much" affection can make your child spoiled rotten. Giving your child love, affection, and attention will positively encourage your child to develop as a human being. Giving your child toys instead of love, or not reprimanding your child for bad behavior is what will lead you to spoil your child.

4). Be involved in your child's daily life. It will take effort and strength to be there for your child every day, but if you want to encourage your child to develop his own interests and character, you have to create a strong support system for him. This doesn't mean you have to follow your child around every second of the day, but it does mean that you have to be there for all of the little moments, from his first soccer game to family time at the beach.

Four Steps to Disciplining Your Kids

1. Commit Yourself.
It's crucial that your child knows that you're going to do what you say you will. If you explain what a punishment will be, and then don't act on it, you will have less credibility the next time. Make a commitment to your child's discipline, and be consistent in your behavior toward them.

2. Be Realistic in Your Expectations of Your Child.
Don't ask your child to do anything he/she cannot do. Make sure that what you are asking of your child is a behavior within his or her reach — if it's not, your child will get frustrated and be less likely to listen to you in the future.

3. Define Your Child's Currency.
Find out what your child values — it could be a toy, a particular activity, or even a privilege like getting to stay awake to a particular hour. Dr Phil explains: "If you control the currency, you control the behavior that currency depends on." Once you understand what your child values, you can withdraw positive things (taking away the toy) or introduce negative things (making them take a time-out) as a form of discipline.

4. Give Your Children Predictable Consequences.
It's important for your child to understand that the same result will come from the same behavior. Make your child feel like he/she has control over their life: If your child behaves in "Way A," they need to be sure that they will always get "Consequence B." If he/she can count on the rules staying the same, they're more likely to abide by them.