Very Involved Parents (VIP)

Do you limit your kids from playing ever since when they were young? Well, you should encourage them doing more instead but set a boundary for them. Why is play time so important at the early stage of your little ones’ childhood?

Playing can be of outdoors or indoors. There are plenty of games and toys for you to use to educate your child with and it’s not all bad for them. Playing is supposed to be active but sometimes, if you really have no choice to make it passive, the television could be a helper but don’t misuse it. The television is indeed a bad choice of entertainment for them but you can’t control your little ones from watching it. That’s why you should set a time limit and controls the channels they watch by sitting next to them while explaining what they watch as a form of interaction to make it active.

While being indoors, create a play room for them and it doesn’t necessary has to consist of soft toys or mechanical toys. A musical instrument or a canvas for them to draw or play dough and board games is also known as playing for them. While being in the outdoors, as parents it’s crucial for you watch them closely as there are dangers everywhere. Usually outdoors games are much more challenging and fun where they are using not only their mental strength but also most of their physical strength.

Now in both indoors and outdoors, there are always these five types of play. There would be the onlooker behavior which playing becomes passive through observing and conversing with other kids who are engaged in play activities. The solitary independent play is having them playing alone. As for parallel playing, children are still maintaining their independence but are playing each others toys. Associative playing will involved sharing materials and communicating with each other but they don’t coordinate their objectives or interests. As for cooperative play, children will organize themselves into roles with specific goals in mind!

Playing is part of their development of cognitive thinking, social-emotions as well as physical behaviors. Children learn faster and better in an environment where they are allowed to explore, discover and play. Play means light, brisk or changing movements which helps them to have fun while acting/imitating a person’s character or employing a piece of equipment or exercising with activities for amusement/recreation/action games.

During a playtime, children will enhance their language development too during interaction while boosting their confidence in social competence. Their imagination and creativity would also grow to boost their thinking skills indirectly. If a child is prevented from playing, then he will turn out to be a dull and assertive person who tends to be lonely most of the time because of very little interactions and limited confidence in them.

It is fine for your kids to play most of the time but don’t let them go overboard. That’s why parent’s role is to supervise your kids during play time and control them while having fun with them together as well!

Kids deserve a well treated break of school holidays after such a long school period and they deserve to have it in a fun way. There is no point in pestering them to do more activities related to school when they should be enjoying themselves.

Yes, that statement was only partially right. Since school holidays can take up to at least 2 months, instead of letting them playing games and seat in front of the computer daily which they would be bored of eventually, try slotting in educational entertainment. It doesn’t necessary have to be an enrollment to the holiday program if they prefer not to but instead, bring them traveling!

At least while traveling, they get to know more about other cultures and meet more people while having fun too. Let them continue doing their hobbies and interests like reading, gardening or attending art class or music lessons as this is the time for them to pick up more and faster since there’s so much of ample time for them to spend during the holidays. Art doesn’t necessary has to be drawing or coloring as you can teach them origami or even sewing!

You should also take some time off as parents to accompany them especially simple daily activities like exercising or walk their pet in the park or maybe a stroll in a cool evening to catch up with each other. A day trip to the beach or a relative’s home or the special homes is also very educational and meaningful. Or maybe let them join in hunts or trips together with their friends or relatives so that they can experience being independent!

Since they would be at home most of the time during holidays its ideal to get all of your children to help you out with house chores. You can start with job lists and delegate among them for them complete. It can be spring cleaning or re-decorating a room/space or even helping out in the kitchen for a meal/ hang out/gatherings. Baking or teaching them how to make their favorite dish will sure be an educational holiday for them after all!

Of course, if you’re facing a budget issue, seat down and discuss with your whole family on what are the activities to be done and how much is the budget for each activity before carrying any of it. Even with a tight budget, there are still plenty of activities which can be done without any cost at home using recycled items or with a trip to mall, window shopping, you could be teaching them new things on being a better consumer!

Since there’s so much to learn, don’t forget to get them back to their school books when its nearing school re-open as to ensure they don’t loose what they learn from school last year. Help them out with their weak subjects by reusing old books as revision or practice on their trouble areas but don’t emphasize so much on this activity even if your kids don’t mind as they deserve a little break after all.

Ask your kids to have a holiday diary or write stories about their holidays or about anything at all as this will help their imagination flows and their creative juices squeezing for wonderful ideas. At least your child doesn’t let their holidays to waste after all with all the educational entertaining activities and memories jotted down to be kept!

Generally, babies are confused when watching the television; thinking it’s an array of colors, images and noises which they don’t understand much of the content or neither do they have enough time to process it since the scenes only lasted a few seconds. Most toddlers on the other hand also face the same problems but this matter can be overcome if the correct channels and shows are chosen for them to watch.

Many parents has the habit of putting their children in front of the television which is highly not recommended by pediatrics because it is very passive and your children might end up being lazy. Besides, watching the television can be very addictive and would usually cause turning the television off becomes a trouble daily. Excessive watch of television would lose your kids natural creativity and eventually would have hard time keeping them busy resulting in losing valuable time of play which can help them to build their foundation of healthy childhood.

It is definitely a very easy route but you would need to face the music later. Most children who watch a lot of television in their early years would face higher risk of obesity and poor social development. They might be showing aggressive behaviors too! So, appropriate shows and guidance are essential when you choose to put them in front of the television.

Even if you have chosen the right shows but in between the commercials, you would need to distract them a little or change the channel awhile as some commercials may not be appropriate for their view. However, the ideal way is to let them watch children DVDs which has no commercials and is age appropriate! Some parents finds this very effective as their children would also join in the activities in the show like singing, dancing, hunting for clues or even listening to stories with props. Parents can leave their child in front of the television watching that DVD and still can complete many tasks like house chores before the DVD shows ended.

Appropriate channels and shows that you can educate your children to are mainly viewing things they might not see in their daily life like exotic animals, distant lands or diverse lifestyles or musical instruments. You might also want to let them view about basic social skills on how to play with other children or using good manners. There are also movies/cartoon shows that teach your kids values in life.

Whether is it right to let your babies or toddlers to watch television, would depend on the selection of programs and movies you let them view. It also depends on how you control their viewing time and encouraging them on other active activities instead. There are no rights and wrongs in this matter but there are the pros and cons to consider along side with correct guidance and materials for them during watching the television.

Your little ones usually learn during play time and there are varieties of toys to choose for them. The toys that they play are actually helping them to develop their skills, knowledge and also to educate them. That’s why educational toys are being introduced in the market to enhance this purpose.

With the correct toys, you get to develop different skills in your kids! Basically toys are divided to a few categories where some toys help developing physical and muscles such as bikes, boxes or shovels and puzzles too. This will help a child to learn their basic movements like crawl, grasp, run or climb and balancing while developing fine motor skills and dexterity!

As for sensory development with the usage of five senses, water toys or musical instruments and play dough are very useful. There are also toys which help in boosting your kids’ creativity and intellectual development like clay, crayons, arts and crafts or books which could lead to the next category which are toys for make-believe and social development. This should consist of dolls, dressing up clothes or cars and trucks! This indirectly helps in developing cognitive thinking where children learn to use their creativity and solve problems while enhancing their memory skills and attention.

When your children start to move on to higher levels of thoughts, they would develop their skill socially while playing with other kids through interactions and eventually adapt to a desirable response in every situation where they would come to know about their roles and rules in society. Language skills would also be developed along the way through teachings of rules in interaction and communication like cooperating and negotiating or wait for their turns. Your child would also be developing their emotional well being by accomplishing their wishes or getting over their fears and bad experiences by mastering the environment and gaining awareness about their surrounding.

You should bear in mind that the television is a bad option to use as an educational toy. When you choose educational toys it’s to have your kids being active instead of passive and putting them in front of the television is keeping them passive all the way. With your kids and the toys isn’t enough because as parents, you should engage your children by creating play time with them and build a close rapport with them during play. This could help you to promote their strength and understand their weaknesses better while educating them the rights and wrongs as well as values in life. This will eventually help you to worry less about having your kids loosing their values and easily get influenced by other peers as they are capable to overcome those obstacles by then.

Educational toys generally are benefiting your child’s growth while having fun together with your little ones. Always remember to choose toys that are safe for playing that wouldn’t hurt your child. Look out for the labels too so that you are aware of which group of age the toys are suitable for. Parenting doesn’t have to be that hard or costly as you can always have home made educational toys too!

Kids being kids; they are always playful and funny! This is a natural event in every family. Humor is social and it doesn’t necessary be that you’re laughing at the funny event but instead on other people who are laughing! It’s good to laugh together with your children and people around you as it’s a way to connect and make kids smarter, healthier and better at coping with challenges. This would certainly let your children show their ability in adapting to social situations.

You should take note that not every humor suits for all age of kids. A joke that’s hilarious to you doesn’t necessary is your children’s cup of tea! An infant wouldn’t understand any jokes but they would response to smiles and laugh or tickle which tells them the situation is a humor. As for toddlers, they are usually mischievous and there are a lot of humor in things they do just to attract your attention. So it’s also important to pay close attention to their humor seriously by encouraging them to attempt more and praise them for trying to be funny!

You can develop sense of humor through reading by surrounding them with funny books or comics or you may opt for funny movies or cartoons which are ideal for a family gathering. Jokes can be very complex but it doesn’t have to make sense and it’s easier to teach them how to make it funny. Well, simple funny faces or absurd words could even make everyone laugh to break the long silence sometimes!

Kids would sometimes have the idea that adults are too serious and it’s essential for you to teach them that adults are funny too. This will help your kids to be witty by having them making humor out of their day-to-day interactions with you or their friends and ask them to share their funny stories even from their reactions or observations in front of other adults! As parents, you have no exception but to lead by example to them as it’s easy to make up your own jokes or stories and laugh out loud!

A child with good sense of humor would be able to see things from many different perspectives and is spontaneous while able to see beyond the surface of things. They wouldn’t take themselves so seriously that they could still participate in playful aspects of life while is open to unconventional ideas or ways of thinking! However, don’t forget to set the limit as there are humors which are inappropriate for their age group which shouldn’t be encourage. Explain to them that it’s hurtful that they shouldn’t laugh. There are also places where humor should be discouraged especially places that are quiet or dangerous. Well, you should deal lightly with small issues like spilt milk or water and know what would likely be amusing to your kids.

As the saying goes, laughter and humor makes one unity where they are inseparable which makes oneself can use humor to laugh or laugh to develop the sense of humor. You would be surprise by your kids when they try their first attempt of being funny as it would be one of life’s great pleasures!