KidFit Online

This fall, make sure that your kids stay active and engaged by using these fun and easy Autumn themed games and activities that can be played outside or in!

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The weather is getting cooler, indicating the arrival of the much awaited fall. The leaves are slowly changing color, becoming brighter, and offering a rare beauty that is not seen or experienced at any other time of the year. Why then, must your little ones sit indoors, when there are such great outdoor activities that can have them enjoy the best of nature combined with a whole lot of fun? Accompany them in these different outdoor fall activities for kids, and have them perceive the beauty of the outdoors during fall in a completely unique manner.

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Whenever you’re on the road, make sure your child passengers are buckled into appropriate safety seats. The safest place for children of any age to ride is properly restrained in the back seat.

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Sibling rivalry is one of humanity’s oldest problems. Sibling rivalry is competition between siblings for the love, affection, and attention of one or both parents or for other recognition or gain. Sibling rivalry is universal, but more importantly sibling rivalry is normal. In fact, some experts even suggest that to some degree or another, sibling rivalry is a necessary and sometimes beneficial part of a family’s growing experience. It is part of a complex process of learning. Sibling rivalry is a routine part of growing up, but when that fighting turns into constant arguments, fights, and the creation of some potentially dangerous situations, it should be dealt with.

Sibling rivalry seems to depend in part upon how parents balance the sometimes-competitive needs of their children. Sibling rivalry is also affected by the presence in the family of a special needs child, divorce or other family trauma. According to child psychologist Sylvia Rimm, sibling rivalry is particularly intense when children are very close in age and of the same gender, or where one child is intellectually gifted. Perhaps sibling rivalry is sometimes more intense between a girl and boy because it seems they have less in common with each other.

Parents should remember to treat each of your children as individuals. One way to prevent sibling rivalry is to spend quality time with each individual child. Parents should spend time with each child individually doing an activity that each child likes, in order to make each child feel secure of their place within the family. While family time is important, resentment and hostility can be increased when parents insist that all children in the family do the same activities all the time, always include each other in their play and friendships, and put older children in charge of younger ones for long periods on a regular basis.

Parents can reduce the opportunity for rivalry by refusing to compare or typecast their children, teaching their children positive ways to get attention from each other and from their parents, planning fun family activities together, and making sure each child has enough time and space of their own.

Try to make each child feel special by stressing each child’s unique traits and individuality and acknowledging their individual accomplishments. As exciting as a soccer match may be for one child, try to make as much of a fuss over a dance performance or the completion of a school project. Be careful not to use praise as a way of comparing children.

Show children acceptable alternatives to fighting, such as walking away, compromising, and negotiating. Encourage the expression of feelings in positive ways. Make sure your children know that they can come to you if and when they decide to talk.

Punishing the older sibling whenever their is a squabble between children simply makes him or her develop ways to hurt, bother, and irritate the younger sibling that the parents won’t be able to detect. Punishing might make the situation worse.

Remember that you, as parents, are your kids’ role models and guides, and the way you treat each other or other people will have an impact on how they behave towards others. Bottom line: Most siblings experience some degree of jealousy or competition, but it’s the parents who play a major role in making children feel secure.

Contributed by Master Solomon Brenner head instructor of Action Karate. Author Black belt Parenting “the art of raising your child for success” Any comments or questions Please call 215.355.5003

For a lot of families, Sunday afternoons are a time to be together at the movies or the mall. As enjoyable as those outings may be, start thinking about spending some of that family time doing physical activities that all of you like.

Some children are so averse to exercising that the first step in the right direction needs to be taken with their families. They may feel much more comfortable being active with their parents and siblings than with their peers, at least to start with. So why not play catch in the backyard, or dust off the tennis rackets in the closet and spend an hour hitting a tennis ball at the neighborhood courts?

Rather than going to the movies, take a family hike in the hills near your home. When the whole family is involved, your child is more likely to join in. Once he gets more accustomed to moving his body, he may be more willing to step out and join a swimming program at the YMCA or take karate lessons at the local martial arts studio.

Spend a few moments thinking of other activities that your entire family can do together. Remember, the activity should be fun. If you need some suggestions, why not consider the following?

• Go to the park and throw the football back and forth.
• Play tag in the front yard.
• Go to the community pool for a family swim.
• Buy a kite, put it together as a family activity, and fly it in the park. While you hold onto the kite string, let your child run with the kite until the wind catches it and sends it aloft.
• Take a family bike ride.
• Go horseback riding.
• Wax the car as a family activity.
•  Go to the mall—not only to shop, and certainly not to spend time at the food court, but to walk from one end of the mall to the other.

When you join in, your child will see that you believe physical activity is important, and you’ll become his most important role model.

Read more at HealthyChildren.org

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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It’s hard to find a child who enjoys doing homework, so how do you help them stick with it when your children find homework too tedious or too difficult? If parents take interest in the homework assignments of their children, their children show interest in completing their assignments. Parents should show that they value education as well as homework. There are many ways through which parents can help their children with homework.

Parents should set aside time  daily to help their children with their home assignments. This can be done by analyzing their daily work schedule. The number of hours you wish to give to your child depends on his learning needs, his age, type of assignments, level of difficulty and of course, your working hours. Some children might be more productive in the evenings, while others might show more efficiency after an hour of sports. Extracurricular activities such as music classes, dance classes, and tennis lessons also take a lot of time. Though all these are crucial for the all-round development of your child, these should not interfere with his homework time.

It is important that you choose the right place for your child’s study. Many parents spend more time and money on making the study area fancy. This, however, is not at all important. A study room should be well lit, clean, airy and most important, quiet.

Distracting elements like loud music, television, and computer games should not be close to the study area. Telephone calls should be avoided by all means during your child’s study time, unless urgent. Some children work efficiently with some kind of background music. The important thing is to analyze different aspects that can make your child more productive.

Parents should ensure that study materials such as pens, pencils, writing paper, a dictionary, erasers, calculator, paper clips, and acworld map are available in your child’s study area. Children sometimes complain about not having enough resources to complete their homework and use this as an excuse not to do their assignments. Providing your child with an Internet connection using a laptop or a desktop is a good idea only if it is not misused. Sometimes, the Internet can provide a lot of information for the completion of a homework assignment. It is important, however, that your child does not start surfing websites that are irrelevant in context to his assignment.

Often, children imitate their parents and elders. Therefore, parents should cultivate good habits like reading and writing. Educational games, for instance, can be used from time to time. Visiting places like the public library, museums, and botanical gardens with your child can have a positive effect on him.

Parents should show interest in school activities like parent-teacher meetings or spelling bees. Parents should interact with teachers to understand their child’s needs. Parents who participate in their child’s school activities can contribute more to their child’s growth in and out of school. If you have hired an online tutor for homework help, you should also talk to the online tutoring organization to learn about your child’s progress. K-12 tutoring can be of great help as far as homework is concerned. With the recent popularity of homeschooling, online tutoring has become an important part of education. Parents should join hands with educators and online tutors to work out new ways to make homework more engaging for children.

This Article contributed by Solomon Brenner author of best selling Black Belt Parenting and Master Instructor of Action Karate. This week action karate is hosting a focus seminar . Please call to check availablity.215.355.5003

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