Send Factor

The kids are home from school.  They haven’t had anything to eat since lunch time three hours ago.  They are starving.  Will they reach for the bag of potato chips, or find some fruit wedges and dip?  Helping our kids eat nutrition snacks is easy if they are the only choice.  Don’t buy the junk foods at the store and your children won’t have to resist eating them.  Here are some fun ideas for snack time at home.
Kids love to dip.  Make foods that they can dip with.  Vegetables are a given, but fruits are also good with a fruit dip.  You can make one using some whipping cream and jello mix.  This sounds really sweet and sugary, but you are getting them to eat fruit as well.  Limit their dip to a spoonful so they don’t put too much on each piece.
Adding creativity to the display or cut of the food makes it fun to eat.  You can slice apples and cut them into bites and serve them with toothpicks or skewers.  Add bites of bananas or other fruits between the apple bites.
Fast snacks are another choice.  Bagels with peanut butter, rice cakes, fruit,  nutrition bars, granola bars, and fruit rollups are some quick ideas.  Add a glass of fruit juice and your kids will be set.
There are lots of recipes that you can find for your kid’s after school snack.  If you don’t have time to bake during the day, make a batch of cookies or other snack on the weekend and freeze the dough or the cooked food.  Then before the kids get home from school, pull it out of the freezer and let it thaw, or cook it.  Providing nutritious snacks gives your kids the energy they need to make it to dinner time.

Baseball practice, piano practice, dance class, after school activities, homework, family night, church activities – are our kids doing too much?  It’s an epidemic that is sweeping through our homes.  It’s about giving our kids what we never had growing up, but too much can be a bad thing.
While children are in school, it should be their primary focus.  When we add too many activities during the evening, we are limiting the time they can spend doing homework or reading.  Plus, you are talking away what little family time is available when kids are in school.
If you want your child to participate in other activities, try limiting the number of extracurricular classes they take.  You can try different classes in different years, allowing your child to find the activities that they enjoy best and are good at.  Let them take dance or soccer one year, and piano or softball the following year.
Limiting our evening activities will also help our children.  If they come home and you are stressed out, trying to get too many things done in the evening, that is going to roll down to your children and cause them more stress.  Make your evenings a quiet and peaceful time, where you can help your children with their homework and spend some time together.
Every parent wants the best for their child, but realizing now that giving them everything may not be best will help your child do better in school and have a stress free childhood.  Giving them limitations will help them learn self-control and they will be more balanced as adults.  In our fast paced society, it’s a good idea to teach your child about what is most important – family and learning.

School can be impossible to deal with when your child hates to be there.  It can be a struggle every day to get your child off to school.  How do you deal with a problem like that?
You first need to find out the reason why your child is dreading school so much.  The problem might be something that is easily solved.  If there is another child at school who is causing problems for your son or daughter, you can talk to the teacher or principle to try to resolve it.  Moving your child’s desk away from the other child might alleviate the problem, or even switching teachers.  You, as a parent, have to decide if a change in your child’s attitude could help or if something else is needed.
If your child doesn’t have any friends at school it can be really difficult to go to school every day.  When your children are in elementary school you can be an influence on your children and arrange a play time for your children – inviting other kids over.      Becoming involved in their school day allows you to help volunteer and also see what is happening in the classroom.  This perspective could help you find the problem that your child is having and suggest some solutions to try.  If possible, volunteer your time to help the teacher.
If your child is struggling with a particular subject you can give them the help they need.  Whatever the cause is for their problem in school, find a way to help them to resolve it.  Turn school time into a positive experience so that they will enjoy going to school.  Children learn so much better when they enjoy what they are doing.