Tips to increase your child's intelligence

These tips may seem very simple but applying these useful techniques can increase your child's intelligence. You can judge the importance or effectiveness of these tips by analyzing that few years ago when family bonds were strong and we had much time to spend with our children, atmosphere was most suitable for the growth of intelligent and healthy personality.

Either you are a parents or teacher, you can help your child grow healthier, and more intelligent by applying these techniques:

* Talk a lot
* Listen more than you talk
* Hug a lot
* Take walks
* Read together
* Make just a few rules and stick to them
* Say “I love you” at least once a day
* Sing — even if it's off key
* Keep your sense of humor
* Tell stories about your childhood
* Listen to their questions and give answers
* Celebrate special times
* Use “please” and “thank you”
* Never call names or belittle
* Smile a lot
* Never, ever yell
* Remember how big you look
* Praise good efforts
* Think of guidance instead of punishment
* Ask questions instead of jumping to conclusions
* Use “do” much more often than “don't”
* Avoid criticizing or blaming
* Or scaring
* Admit your mistakes
* Play games
* Keep a schedule
* Allow lots of room for their mistakes
* Look for the funny side
* Practice patience
* Call someone if you feel you are getting out of control
* Give your full attention when they talk
* Get on their level when they talk
* Look them in the eye
* Express appreciation often
* Read, read, read
* “Hang loose”
* Learn to say “I'm sorry”
* Wonder at life
* Get to know an older person
* Rock
* Swing
* Let the kid out in you
* Keep promises
* Remember when you were a kid
* Exercise your faith and share it
* Say “no” only when you mean it and will stick by it
* Do kindnesses for others
* Experience lots of things
* Enjoy each child's uniqueness
* Tell the truth
* Take pride in your community
* Be an example of the kind of person you want them to be

Tips are courtesy of: Lane H. Powell, Ph.D., 1996 (from 'Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Hospital)

Importance Of Play - Promoting Child Development

I have noticed in nursery classes that whenever our students were not given opportunity to play or any outdoor activities, they were inattentive in class and more hyper. Play time allows our children to interact with their environment and gives us a great insight into how they view the world.

We need to make sure we give our children free time so they can direct their own play allowing their imagination and creativity to grow.

'Play is so important to optimal child development that it has been recognized by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a right of every child. Children’s time has become a lot more structured at home and in the schools. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, free play is defined as “child-directed play time with no rules” and is a very important aspect in our child’s creativity, and emotional and social development. Free play is important for promoting physical activity and decreasing the incidence of childhood obesity. When children use their creativity, they are more likely to get up and move.

The scientific evidence shows that opportunity to play is more than simply a right for our children, it is a life essential. This means that if children do not play they will suffer from a condition known as play deprivation, which in mild doses makes children irritable and unhappy but which in more concentrated forms turns children into killers and mass murderers.

Playing is an integral component of the human evolutionary process and play in one of its forms has probably been a part of human behaviour for many millions of years.

Play is essential to brain growth and to balanced neurochemical activity.

It exploits biologically ‘sensitive periods’ during which certain kinds of experiences trigger rapid brain growth. Children under ten years of age are thought to have the potential to grow brains twice the size of those of children over that age. Some scientists regard play as one the main factors that human beings have not yet become extinct because of the flexibility it gives them to adapt to changing environmental and meteorological conditions.

Although play itself is vital to human survival and development and to our identity as a species, and is important for those reasons, because increasingly children around the world are being deprived of the space, time and freedom to play our concerns are with the development of appropriate practical opportunities for children to play too. Developing, operating and maintaining these practical opportunities is known as playwork.
Source: Play education.com

* A report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says free and unstructured play is healthy and - in fact - essential for helping children reach important social, emotional, and cognitive developmental milestones as well as helping them manage stress and become resilient.

The report, "The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds," is written in defense of play and in response to forces threatening free play and unscheduled time. These forces include changes in family structure, the increasingly competitive college admissions process, and federal education policies that have led to reduced recess and physical education in many schools.

Get the pdf version: The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds,
Get the html version: The Importance of Play

- Importnace of play at 'blogher'

- Melitsa Avila from www.play-activities.com has some advice for parents on why playing with your kids is time well spent:
The Importance of Play

- Benefits of Play

Tips for parents to help their child's brain development

Parents are always eager to see their child healthy in both ways: physically or mentally. Physical development is possible by providing them nutritious food and physical movements which might be free play or participation in sports or other related activities. But do we think that our children need another thing from us?

Yes, helping them grow their mental skills which nourish their brains. This article is offering tips for parents to help their child's brain development.

Basic brain maintenance for our children, and for ourselves, means making a specific effort, every day, to help our children's brains work normally. Dr. Ingraham urges parents to teach their children every day, by example as well as by communication, so that they develop positive and healthy habits and lifestyles, now and for the future. Children learn best by example

Bed on time: Sleep is brain restoration time. The brain's systems do not function very well without sleep.

Normal nutrition: The brain requires normal nutrition to develop normally and replenish the brain's chemicals.

Regular exercise: Endorphins are the brain's built-in stabilizers. Exercise and physical work stabilize the brain's systems, especially the emotion response and mood regulation systems.

Regular outdoor time: Being outdoors is therapeutic. We humans were not meant to be indoors all the time.

Regular chores and responsibility: Teach your child how to work. Work keeps a child connected to the reality of life. Teaching a child by example how to work helps the brain develop normally. The opportunity to learn to work is crucial. Children who never work never mature.

Tie all privileges to responsibilities: This keeps the child connected to the reality of life, and what life requires for success.

No exposure to violence, in any form: Violence in the family, violence in the environment, violence in TV, videos, video games and movies. Repeated and continual exposure to violence, whether in person or in the media, reprograms the child's primitive brain systems. We want to maintain the normal ecology of our children's brains.

No exposure to greed, extravagance, explicit sex: These are major problems with the media and our value systems, both of which have disconnected our children from reality.

Simplify your life and your family's life: Make your family's life more personal and less driven.

Get in tune with your real values and priorities: Get off the rollercoaster of materialism.

Source: CHILDREN’S HEALTH CARE OF ATLANTA, Georgia Dept of American Academy of Pediatrics and Department of Human Resources.

The Importance of Teaching Children Good Social Skills

Among other skill develpment options, it is noted that social skill is the most important among all. This post would help you learn the importance of teaching good social skills to children.

Your 4-year-old may already know how to tie their own shoelaces and spell out their first and last names. But as preschool looms around the corner, are you worried how well they’ll fit in with the rest of the classroom?

According to a nationwide survey conducted of 1,000 parents by Mom Central Inc. on behalf of Hasbro Inc., the majority of parents feel the same way with 90 percent considering social skills to be vital to their children’s happiness and confidence.

Nearly eight out of 10 parents also think social skills are more important than academic skills when it comes to their child’s overall happiness. As a matter of fact, parents gave social skills a higher ranking than academic skills on the survey in nearly every area of child development.

“More than ever, our children must get along with others to function effectively,” says Stacy DeBroff, chief executive officer of Mom Central, found at www.momcentral.com. “In this age of team sports and structured play, it has never been more critical for our children to master socialization skills. From children’s play groups to collaboration in the classroom, kids today engage in significantly more structured group activities, raising the profile and the necessity for good social skills.”

According to the survey, one in five parents feel overwhelmed with teaching social skills and more than one-third say that teaching social skills leads to frustration. In response, Stacy DeBroff has developed some tips parents can use to help their child learn social skills in a positive and reinforcing way:

* Lead by example.

Children are excellent observers. If they see Mom and Dad using polite language, sharing and being respectful, they will follow their parents’ guidance.

* Play with them in an educational way.

Children love to play games with their parents because it provides them with direct attention. Noodleboro by Hasbro is a new line of board games, which includes storybooks and audio CDs that nurture preschoolers’ social skills through laughter and play.

* Take a problem-solving approach.

If a situation becomes stressful, encourage your child to talk about the issues they might have with saying “please,” and “thank you” or sharing their toys with their friends. By allowing children to talk, they often discover for themselves what’s causing the problem while also coming up with unique ways in which they will be able to handle themselves.

“It’s more than just manners… it’s sharing, it’s listening, and it’s engaging with others. The Noodleboro games offer an innovative way to use a classic board game to reward and challenge kids as they learn valuable social skills,” says DeBroff.

Source: 'ARAcontent'

More resource and articles:
* Download pdf report: 'Discipline- teaching school age children social skills'

* How to Teach Your Child Social Skills

* At 'Self Growth: "How to Teach Your Child Social Skills?"

FREE Online English Learning Course For KIds

There are millions of people around the world who learn English as a second language. Being a second language the first steps are always difficult when their children learn English at school or at home. I collected some interactive softwares for my son who was going to school, to make English learning easier and fun for him. I use the same technique for my students and use different software programs which are fun to watch and encourage them to listen, and speak the English langugage. I was really happy to find the site "Mingoville" which offers English learning course absolutely FREE.

Mingoville.com offers the world's most comprehansive English course online for kids of ages 5-12.

Features of the course:

- It is 100% web based and contains hundreds of game like activities to stimulate kids language learning abilities.

Mission (In their own words)
"Our Mission is to educate kids English language by providing high-quality, result-oriented English learning on the Internet. We believe in the power of knowledge and our valuable goal is to deliver the best practices of education, entertainment and information technologies.

Our Vision is to maintain the position of high-quality, result-oriented eLearning solutions and online content provider through continuous value creation."

It includes:

An interactive dictionary with words and images, 10 missions to solve, several different exercises in spelling, lestening and reading.

Regarding innovation in education, Mingoville’s creators understand that children learn English best when learning is fun. This "edutainment" (education + entertainment) model allows children to learn English by clicking, doing, exploring, and interacting – comprehensive virtual language immersion based on advanced technologies and the newest pedagogical knowledge. Through a variety of methods such as direct interaction with the exercises and games, visual learning, and recording and audio elements to perfect English pronunciation, kids are encouraged to explore and learn English in a fun way.
Parents of kids using Mingoville recognized a sharp learning curve after three to four months of commencement of the online courses in English for children.

- Sign up here

There are more Free courses which creator of 'Mingoville'company 'E-learning for kids' offers in subjects like Maths, language art, science, computer skill, health and life skill,

Link: E-learning for kids

"Teacher Magazine" - An online FREE publication for teachers

Online education blogs are a good way to get in touch with the fresh content relating to the education field. Online communities, forums or message board provide a platform where we can directly ask any question and get advice or tips from other members. Same way online magazines offer good stuff and "Teacher Magazine" is one of those online publications.

Teacher Magazine is from Editorial Projects in Education Inc. a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization based in Bethesda, Md.

Primary mission:
To help raise the level of awareness and understanding among professionals and the public of important issues in American education.

You can register FREE for complete access to TEACHER Magazine online.

Your FREE registration to TEACHER Magazine also gives you:

Full access to 'Teacher Magazine' online including feature stories, web watch, teacher blogs and more like,

- Community - blogs, chats and Web Watch to keep you connected to your profession.
- Insight - free e-newsletters, including "Teacher Update" and "Curriculum Matters" with the freshest approaches sent straight to your inbox.
- News - from Education Week online (limited to 2 articles per week)
- Research - Education Counts database with customizable reports right from your desktop.

Other publications from the EPE are:

- Education Week,

- Research center

- Digital Directions

After registering, you have access to even more edweek.org resources. In addition to what is listed above, you gain access to:

Daily editor-selected Education Week & Associated Press stories.
Up to nine free e-newsletters on relevant topics in K-12 education.
Ability to comment on articles and start discussion with peers.
All current and archived articles from Teacher.
Search for top school jobs and career resources at TopSchoolJobs.org.
Current Annual Reports - Quality Counts, Technology Counts, and Diplomas Count.
State data and tools from the Research Center.

See Free Content page for more detail.

"The Kid;s Garden"- Helping Kids Enjoy Creative Gardening

"The Kid's Garden" is an interesting site for parents and teachers who want to teach their kids "Gardening". The articles about gardening are written well but for small children it is better to read them the information or get idea how to talk or provide relevant information about the topic. Site provides interesting features and practical advice on this subject.

'The Kid's Garden' was formed to offer a unique reference point on creative gardening for children.

This site introduces your child to the wonders of nature through gardening. With a range of scents and colours, your kids can create a place of discovery.

Check the 'site map' page to go to the different sections of the site. Topics include, Around the Garden, Ask the expert, Garden activities, learning, safety, at school, planting. For every topic there are many useful articles.

'At school' page offers few interesting articles for the teachers. Article topics are:

- Garden Recycling, Get Your School Growing, How Does the Weather Effect the Garden?, Introducing Kids To Organic Gardening, Stimulating Kids Imagination Through Gardening, Strange and Funny Plants.

Related posts:

* Gardening for kids

* Benefits of Gardening

Tips to set limits for disciplined kids

There should be an effective strategy to apply discipline rules at home or school either you are a teacher or parent. Frustration, anger, and occasional acting-out are few behaviors, we can notice among every child. But do we set limits towards applying discipline regulations or rules for our kids?

Our approach towards facing these kind of bahaviors is normally unhealthy, so better to keep these tips in mind while teaching discipline to our kids.

Tips

1) Always consider your child's developmental level when setting limits. It is unfair to expect more than a child can do. For example, a 2 or 3 year old cannot control the impulse to touch things. Instead of instructing them not to touch, remove fragile objects from reach.

2) Set the punishment to your child's developmental level. If you send your toddler to the bedroom for more than 5 minutes, the child may totally forget the reason, due to a short attention span. See time out.

3) Be consistent. Do not change rules or punishments at random. Punishments will obviously change as the child gets older, so make sure you explain why the rules change.

4) Make sure all caregivers are consistent with the discipline strategy. If one caregiver accepts certain behaviors while another will punish for the same behavior, the child is likely to become confused. Eventually, the toddler may learn to play one adult against the other.

5) Remember that you are a key role model for your child. The more even-handed and controlled your behavior is, the more likely your children will pattern their

Tips suggested by: Health at New York Times

Useful studies:

* Training Young Brains to Behave