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Now that kids are back in school and the weather is getting colder, that usually a good indication that flu season is just around the corner. By getting a flu vaccine now for yourself and your entire family, you can help prevent flu-related illness, missed school, and missed work.

The best way to protect against influenza is to get a flu vaccine every flu season. Influenza (flu) is a contagious respiratory disease that can lead to serious complications, hospitalization, or even death. Anyone can get the flu, and getting a flu vaccine is the single best way to protect yourself and your family. Even healthy people can get very sick from the flu and spread it to friends and loved ones.

Everyone Needs a Flu Vaccine

While flu activity usually peaks in January or February, the flu itself is unpredictable. And although there are many different flu viruses, the yearly flu vaccine protects against the three viruses that research suggests will be most common that flu season.

Everyone 6 months of age and older should get a flu vaccine each flu season,  and it’s especially important that the following groups get vaccinated either because they are at high risk of having serious flu-related complications or because they live with or care for people at high risk for developing flu-related complications:

• Pregnant women
• Children younger than 5, but especially children younger than 2 years old
• People 50 years of age and older
• People of any age with certain chronic medical conditions
• People who live in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities
• People who live with or care for those at high risk for complications from flu, including:
  • Health care workers
  • Household contacts of persons at high risk for complications from the flu
  • Household contacts and out of home caregivers of children less than 6 months of age (these children are too young to be vaccinated)

For a complete list of all people recommended for flu vaccination, as well as those who are not recommended for flu vaccination, visit Who Should Get Vaccinated.

Get a Flu Vaccine Every Flu Season

People should get vaccinated every year for two reasons. The first reason is that because flu viruses are constantly changing, flu vaccines may be updated from one season to the next to protect against the most recent and most commonly circulating viruses.

The second reason that yearly vaccination is recommended is that a person’s immune protection from vaccination declines over time so annual vaccination is needed for optimal protection. So, yearly vaccination is recommended even for those who received the vaccine during the previous season.

A Reminder for Parents

Many children need two doses of flu vaccine this season to be fully protected. Children 6 months to 9 years of age who did not receive at least one dose of the 2010-11 flu vaccine should receive two doses this season.

Vaccine Options

So what are your vaccine options? There are two types of vaccines- the flu shot and the nasal spray.

• The “flu shot” — an inactivated vaccine (containing killed virus) that is given with a needle, usually in the arm. The flu shot is (sometimes called TIV for “Trivalent Inactivated Vaccine”) approved for use in people older than 6 months, including healthy people and people with chronic medical conditions.There are three different flu shots available:
  • a regular flu shot approved for people ages 6 months and older
  • a high-dose flu shot approved for people 65 and older, and
  • an intradermal flu shot approved for people 18 to 64 years of age.
• The nasal-spray flu vaccine — a vaccine made with live, weakened flu viruses that is given as a nasal spray (sometimes called LAIV for “Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine”). The viruses in the nasal spray vaccine do not cause the flu. LAIV is approved for use in healthy* people 2 through 49 years of age who are not pregnant.

Read More from the Center for Disease Control here

With a new school year coming up, your children (and you!) have a clean slate. As parents it is important to remind children of the importance of goal setting and how together you can make it a great, productive year for everyone. Remeber to focus on learning objectives as well as continuing a healthy lifestyle. Set goals for after school and homework that involve physical activity and healthy, fun family time!

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During these hot summer months it is important to remember that children do not adapt to the heat as well as teens or adults. Outdoor activities are popular and great during the summer, however with excessive heat, children can suffer from heat stress and dehydration. Follow these helpful tips and have a fun and safe summer outdoors with your children!

Avoid Heat Stress with Active Children

Gardening is an excellent summer activity for all ages. With school out of session, gardening with your children is a great way to spend quality time with them in the warm summer weather! Vegetable gardening is safe, fun and helpful in learning about the environment, healthy eating habits, and responsibilities.

The best vegetable gardens for kids provide healthy snacks while kids are on the go, as well as opportunities to learn about how food grows. Think of it as a healthy and ever-fresh lunchbox planted within the kids’ play space.

The kids vegetable garden is all theirs to experiment with and develop gardening skills that will be useful for life. While they care for their plants they learn about the food cycle, the workings of nature and how to care for the Earth.

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Why Kids Need Nature

Whether you grew up in a suburb, on a farm, or in a big city, you probably spent a lot of time playing outside, getting dirty, and coming home happy. Maybe you watched ants making anthills in your backyard, climbed trees in the park, or simply lay in the grass contemplating the drifting clouds. Unfortunately, young children today do not have as many direct experiences with nature, and it’s taking a toll.

Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, maintains that this disconnect from the natural world is producing ill effects in both mind and body. But, he’s optimistic that well-meaning, forward-thinking parents and educators can close the kid-nature gap. “We should not think of a child’s experience in nature as an extracurricular activity,” says Louv. “It should be thought of as vital to children’s health and development.” The editors of Scholastic’s Parent & Child talked with Louv about his book.

Parent & Child: Why do children need a meaningful relationship with nature?
Richard Louv: Research suggests that a connection to nature is biologically innate; as humans, we have an affinity for the natural world. When children spend most of their time indoors, they miss out. Problems associated with alienation from nature include familiar maladies: depression, obesity, and attention deficit disorder. Kids who have direct access to nature are better learners. Exposure to nature has been shown to reduce stress and increase attention spans.
 
When a child is out in nature, all the senses get activated. He or she is immersed in something bigger than himself, rather than focusing narrowly on one thing, such as a computer screen. He or she is seeing, hearing, touching, even tasting. Out in nature, a child’s brain has the chance to rejuvenate, so the next time he has to focus and pay attention, perhaps in school, he’ll do better.
 
Parent & Child: What can parents do to help their children get the safe outdoor experiences they need?
Louv: You would think it would be ideal to let kids run loose and come back dirty and happy at end of the day, but in reality this is not likely to happen anymore. We have to come up with new ways for kids to have direct contact with nature. This probably means parents have to get out there with their kids, and explore with them. Schools, too, including preschools, can incorporate natural surroundings.

 A lot of parents are already doing the right thing, almost instinctively. Perhaps they remember how they used to play, and strive to provide the same thing for their kids. While they may not let their kids roam free in the neighborhood, they do take their children hiking or let them run around in the local park.
 
P&C: What are some easy ways to experience nature with preschool-age children?
Louv: The best thing you can do is to be enthusiastic about nature yourself. Go out in your backyard. Instead of a manicured lawn or garden, leave some spots untamed so kids can dig in the dirt and find rocks or interesting weeds. If you have a vegetable garden, have your child help you plant seeds or pick tomatoes. Even walking to your local park can be a nature walk to a preschooler — he or she can collect leaves, you can point out trees and bushes and show him the bugs crawling along the curb. Let your kids get down in the dirt so they can see at eye level the whole universe there. Nature is good for everyone’s mental health. Nature isn’t the problem; it’s the solution.

Read more about the benefits of nature here.

10 Ways to Exercise as a Family

Babies and toddlers spend an awful lot of time strapped into car seats or plopped in front of the TV. Not only does this prevent them from practicing their emerging motor skills and strengthening their heart, lungs, and muscles, but it can also set them up for a sedentary lifestyle, and even obesity, as adults. A good habit of physical activity, on the other hand, will last a lifetime, says Adelphi University professor Stephen Virgilio, author of Active Start for Healthy Kids (Human Kinetics Publishers). “And it’s never too early to start,” he says.

How, you may wonder, can you help your child get the recommended one-plus hours of daily physical activity when you can’t even make it to the gym? The answer, says Virgilio, is to rethink your idea of exercise. “A workout doesn’t have to mean running laps or lifting weights, which requires you to set aside blocks of time,” he says. “Think of exercise as leading an active lifestyle, which you can do with your kids, and you’ll be able to fit in more than you think.”

As a bonus, exercise with family does double duty as quality time — no small consideration given our jam-packed schedules. Let these creative ideas help you turn every day into an opportunity to get fit — and have fun — together.

1. Go for pre- or post-dinner walks

Whether you head into town or just cruise the neighborhood, building a walk into your daily schedule ensures that it won’t get put off. Brookline, Massachusetts, master Pilates instructor Lisa Johnson and her husband take evening walks with 3-year-old Alex, who alternates time in and out of the stroller. To make walking more enticing, Johnson makes a sport of it. “At one house we look for a cat sitting in the window, at another we run up and down a short flight of stairs,” she says.

2. Crank up the music and boogie down.

Betsy Murphy of Coral Gables, Florida, holds disco nights with her four kids and several neighbors. She moves the furniture aside, fills the CD player with dance tunes, and lets the kids take turns using a flashlight as a strobe light. “They dance for three hours straight,” Murphy says. “The older ones know all the words to the songs and really dance; it’s hilarious to see the younger ones try to mimic them. Their favorite song is ‘Brick House!’”

3. Make a game out of household chores.

Pretend that dust creatures are invading earth and it’s up to Captain [insert child's name] to save the day by capturing them with his broom, suggests registered dietitian Juliet Zuercher of Wickenburg, Arizona. “Make believe he’s one of the Rescue Heroes, and have him save his teddy bears from the slimy pit of the floor by putting them safely in his toy chest,” she says. Jodi Arlen of Bethesda, Maryland, turns folding laundry into a guessing game. “It started when my daughter would ask, ‘Is that mine?’ and it grew into ‘Guess whose this is!’” she says. After her daughters, 3 years old and 20 months old, correctly identify the clothing, they help fold them.

4. Sneak workouts into other activities.

Have your toddler walk instead of riding in the cart at the supermarket, and take the stairs or walk up the escalator whenever possible. Nancy Twigg of Knoxville, Tennessee, drives partway to her daughter Lydia’s preschool, parks the car, and walks the rest of the way.

5. Turn TV commercials into fitness breaks.

Invent silly names for simple exercises like squats, push-ups, and sit-ups, and then do them together till the show comes back on. “Call them princess sit-ups or Bob the Builder muscle builders,” says physical therapist Peter Kofitsas, of New York City, who does the moves with his 4-year-old and 20-month-old daughters. You can also play “coach,” in which you take turns “ordering” each other to “drop and give me five,” or “follow the leader,” in which one person leads the others in fun, simple moves like clapping, wiggling, and marching.

6. Have a weekly sports night.

Every Wednesday, for example, get everyone up and moving. One game to play is the fit-deck shuffle. Create a series of playing cards featuring family-friendly exercises, such as bear-crawling or ape-walking. Each family member picks a card and performs the exercise pictured until all the cards have been dealt. You can also buy a ready-made set of exercise cards from FitDeck (fitdeck.com).

7. Walk or run for charity.

Model the value of exercise — and of giving back to society — by teaming up with your children for a fund-raising race. When her husband and father-in-law participated in the Father’s Day Race for Prostate Cancer, Jodi Zielinski, of Upper Montclair, New Jersey, took her 3-year-old daughter, Noa, to watch them run. When the race was over, she entered Noa in the kids’ race that followed. “She didn’t win but she had a great time,” says Zielinski, who hopes to make it an annual family tradition.

8. Put kids to work in the yard.

If autumn brings down leaves in your area, make a game out of catching them on a windy day — see who can catch the most yellow, orange, or red ones, suggests Zuercher. Then rake them into piles — give the kids child-sized rakes so they can help — and have fun jumping in them, or take turns completely covering one another in leaves. After a snowfall, let kids help clear the porch or walkway, then see who can make the most snow angels. Older kids can help build a snowman — and even toss a few snowballs.

9. Team up for gardening.

Kids are great at digging up dirt, so let them turn over the soil and help you plant new bulbs. Research shows that gardening is as good as weight training when it comes to preventing osteoporosis, and if you’re planting vegetables, it can make them more appetizing to kids. Dawn Schwartz, of Livingston, New Jersey, has her 3-year-old daughter, Samantha, help water the plants. “She loves to mush her hands in the soil,” she says. In the summer, set up a sprinkler to water the lawn and challenge kids to duck the droplets.

10. Walk the dog.

New research from North American Association on the Study of Obesity shows that dog-owners had more fun losing weight and were able to keep it off longer than non-pup-owners. Don’t have a pooch? Go look for some. Somers, New York, mom Mary Rose Almasi gets her two kids, ages 5 and 3, to go for a walk after dinner by suggesting they go “looking for dogs.” “Luckily, there are a few at the end of my long street. That’s the carrot I dangle,” she says. “It works like a charm.”

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10 Ways to Build Your Child’s Confidence

A confident child is sure of his/her abilities, recognizing and accepting both his/her strengths and weaknesses. We all want our children to be confident. But for many children confidence does not come naturally. Confidence must be nurtured even for the child who seems confident already. Read on for 10 ways to build your child’s confidence.

1. Say you are proud Tell your child when they have accomplished something and you are proud of them. Tell others about your child’s accomplishments and positive qualities. Let your child overhear you praising them to others. I often tell others, in front of my son, what a great reader he is and how well he does at math. He thinks he’s the best at math in his first grade class. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t. The point is that he thinks he is good and that gives him the confidence he needs to keep trying and learn new things.

2. Give responsibility Giving your child jobs to do around the house helps them feel valuable. It also teaches them adult skills. Assign your child chores that they must accomplish everyday. As they complete their chores they will acquire a feeling of self-worth and confidence in their abilities. Have your child help you with the dishes. Even my two-year-old puts her plate in the sink after she is finished eating. My four-year-old loves to help me fold laundry. My six-year-old has to make his bed and keep his room clean. All of my children help me clean up toys. My children also love to help dad wash the cars.

3. Don’t label One of the worst things a parent can do is to label their child. Yet it is so easy to do. I found myself often saying in a teasing tone that my youngest child was a “stinker” or “little monster.” I realized my labeling was impacting not my daughter but my son when I heard him telling his sister that she was a “monster.” As parents we need to be careful that we give our child positive labels that reflect inner personality traits.

Sometimes parents focus on the physical traits of a child. Either saying that they are beautiful or a certain trait is ugly, like having big feet or a nose that is too large. Focusing on our child’s physical characteristics whether good or bad teaches them that looks are what matter.

4. Encourage talents Write down all of the things that your child is good at. Then choose one thing that your child wants to pursue. It could be as simple as taking your child to the library each week because they like to and are good at reading. Or you could enroll your child in sports, child dance class, drama, art, or music class. The goal is to provide a positive experience for your child and allow them to excel at something.

5. Listen Let your child know they are important by really listening to them. Get down on eye level and give them your complete attention. If your child feels that you are not listening they will stop talking. They will feel that their opinions and feelings are not valued. And if a child feels that their own parent won’t listen to them then they will believe that no one else will want to listen either.

6. Establish routines When you have set routines and a home that is predictable your child will feel more secure. Your child will be less likely to be afraid to venture out into the world when they know they can come home to a secure and loving environment. Having established routines helps your child understand what is expected of them and reach those expectations thus increasing their confidence.

7. Address your child by name Calling your child by name shows that you value them and that you feel that they are important enough to address by name. Using your child’s name gives them a label that they can wear proudly. When my son was younger he would go up to people and proudly say, “I’m Tyler.” He knew who he was. Children who are confident will address others by their name more frequently. They are unafraid to address others by name and will be better able to ask for help.

8. Play with your child Parents playing with children helps build their self-confidence because it shows them their parents enjoy being with them. Children learn through play and one of the many things they can learn is confidence. Play is a great time to role-play and praise your child. Playing with your child and allowing them to dictate the play gives them a feeling of importance and accomplishment. My girls love to play dolls or have a tea party with mommy and my son likes to pretend to go camping and play board games.

9. Set rules and consequences Children need to have set rules and consequences. This helps them feel valued and secure. A child who is required to follow rules will realize that their parents love them enough to set and enforce rules. Interestingly enough one study found that few teenagers wished their parents had established fewer rules, but many teenagers wished there parents had given more rules.

10. Be a positive mirror How your child perceives herself is based largely upon how you perceive your child. Do you reflect negative or positive images? Does you child know that her opinions matter to you? Does he think that you enjoy being with him? Providing positive reflections of your child helps him feel good about himself. It is also important to help your child realize that you value them because of who they are not just how they perform.

For more information visit:  The Cute Kid

Many children have dreams of being a famous actor on stage, a rock star, athlete, or doctor. But along the way many times those dreams are squelched by the realities of life. Yet if we didn’t have children who dream we would never have anyone who achieved. As parents it is important that we help our children achieve their dreams to the best of our ability.

Recognize and encourage individual talents and interests
As our children grow they will start expressing interest or talent in certain areas. It is our job as parents to recognize and encourage our children to develop their interest and talents. A child who is interested in bugs should be allowed to collect and examine bugs. She may grow up to be an entomologist (bug scientist) doing what she loves. The child who is always taking on roles and making people laugh should be encouraged and told that he has talent.

Realize that your child will not always have an interest in what you want them to. My sister and her husband wanted their son to play sports. Their son doesn’t mind playing sports but would much rather be drawing, something he is really good at. Let your child chose the activity that they participate in. Don’t ignore their opinions and desires, just because you think as a parent you know best. Chances are that they will be much better at something that they chose themselves. By succeeding at the activity their self-confidence will increase. And who knows they may end up using the activity in a future career.

Expose your child to a variety of hobbies and vocations. There are many different hobbies that children can have. Most people think of hobbies like athletics, dance, or collecting rocks. But hobbies can be so much more. Maybe your child enjoys climbing so try mountain climbing. Or languages fascinate your child. Encourage her to learn as many as she can. You might have a budding gardener who loves to see how things grow. The more opportunities your child has to talk to other people about their hobbies or be exposed to new things the more likely it is that your child will find a hobby or two that they love. Encourage your child to talk to others about the jobs that they do and the things that interest them.
Many children do not realize the variety of vocations that are available to them. Their minds are limited to the standard doctor, teacher, grocery store clerk that they meet in their everyday lives. The more you expose your child to different options the more likely they are to find a career that is in align with their dreams. Every time you take your child somewhere talk about the jobs that different people do. At the museum there are museum curators or the people who have collected the objects from archeologists to paleontologists, forest rangers in the mountains, artists at art exhibits, and a variety of jobs from scenery to costumes and actors at the theatre.

Create an environment of success, Try not to push your child instead nurture them. Allow them to choose their life’s path. When you push a child eventually they will push back. But if you help your child to achieve their own goals they will only reach higher. Create an atmosphere that will allow your child to aim high. Let him know that you are confident he will succeed. Attend the events she is in and brag often about her success to others.

Don’t scoff at your child’s dreams or remind them how few people succeed. Instead help provide needed training. Encourage them to reach for the stars. If at some point the success they dreamed of in not achieved then at least your child will know that they tried. If your daughter wants to become a singer encourage her to try. Even if she doesn’t become a famous singer she could still use her voice by singing commercial jingles or doing radio ads.

Children may need help to balance their hobbies, studies, and friends. Being involved in extra-curricular activities means giving up something else. Just remind your child that their studies are not something that can be given up. If they want to pursue other areas then they must maintain their grades as well.

For more information visit:  The Cute Kid

Let it snow! Bundle up and head outside to play with the children in your life.

Ice cube scavenger hunt
Using food coloring, freeze ice cubes of one color or of several different colors. Hide cubes in the snow in a designated area and let the children try to find them.

Footprint tag
Play tag, stepping only in others’ footprints.

Light a fire in the snow
Using dry firewood and perhaps some barbeque starter, start a fire in an open area. If done in deep snow, children will be fascinated to see how the fire gradually sinks deeper and deeper.

Lighted snow angel
Materials needed:

• heavy-duty flashlight with 12-volt batteries, preferably waterproof
• 10 thin wooden stakes/sticks about two feet long
• aluminum or steel window screen about two feet square
• spray bottle filled with water

Dig a hole one foot wide and one foot deep in the snow. Place lighted flashlight, face up, in hole. Lay stakes across hole and place screen on top of this. Secure screen by packing snow around edges. Roll snowballs five inches in diameter and tightly pack in ring around edge of hole. Spray with water to freeze and solidify. Repeat process using less snowballs in each round until the tower is cone-shaped. Roll larger snowball for the head. Very spectacular when dark outside.

Catching snowflakes
Place a black sheet of paper into a freezer until cold. Take outdoors and use a magnifying glass to view snowflakes that land on the paper.

Saving snowflakes
Materials:

• clean microscope slide or small piece of thin Plexiglas
• clean, empty plastic container
• spray can of clear lacquer
• magnifying glass or microscope

Allow slide, container and lacquer to cool outside so snowflakes won’t melt when landing on the slide. Spray thin coat of lacquer on slide and tilt so any extra spray runs off. Allow lacquer to set for a few minutes. Catch several snowflakes on slide and then set back into container and cover with lid. Leave slide outside to harden for three to four hours. View with magnifying glass or microscope.

Snow insulation
Make some Jell-O following the directions on the box. Divide evenly into two plastic containers with lids. Place one on top of the snow and bury the other under the snow. Which one freezes first? Try activity again, wrapping containers with insulating materials like a scarf. Does it take longer for the Jell-O to freeze now?

Snowball thermometer
On a mild day, make snowballs of the same size and place them on different surfaces outside, e.g. rock, patch of grass, sidewalk, parked car. Check to see which one melts first.

Snow melting rate
On a mild day, place sheets of different colored paper (including a sheet of black and one of white) on the snow in full sunlight for two-three hours. Use stones to hold them down. Then observe which one sank the deepest into the snow.

Winter wildlife detectives
After a fresh snowfall, look for animal tracks and try to figure out which animal made the tracks.

Read More: Fun Things to Do in the Snow

Winter isn’t a time to just stay indoors and wait for spring. There’s a whole wonderland of sports out there for the entire family — sledding, snowmobiling, and snowboarding, to mention a few. Plus, someone has to shovel the snow, right?

Once outdoors, however, take precautions to keep your family safe. In ice and snow, accidents can occur easily, and before you know it you might be on your way to the emergency room.

It’s easy to keep safe — and stay fit — during the cold months. By following a few tips, you can have a great time, no matter how much white stuff piles up outside.

• After you shovel your walkway make sure you spread some salt down the path to prevent ice from forming.
• Always go outside to check the temperature before letting your child leave for school, under dressing when its cold out can lead to sickness.
• Make sure your kids have a light snack before going out in the cold. The calories will give their bodies energy in the cold weather.
• Consider dressing your kids in wool and fabrics other than cotton in cold weather.
• If your kids forget to wear gloves, have them place their hands under the faucet when they come home (lukewarm water) to prevent aches or frostbite.
• Check for icicles hanging near the threshold and on the gutters. Make sure you break them off if they appear to be dangerous.

For more information, go to Kids Health  http://kidshealth.org/parent/firstaid_safe/outdoor/winter_safety.html#