Communicating with our children can be a difficult task at times. We feel like they’re not listening to us; they feel like we’re not listening to them. Good listening and communications skills are essential to successful parenting. Your child’s feelings, views and opinions have worth, and you should make sure you take the time to sit down and listen openly and discuss them honestly.

It seems to be a natural tendency to react rather than to respond. We pass judgment based on our own feelings and experiences. However, responding means being receptive to our child’s feelings and emotions and allowing them to express themselves openly and honestly without fear of repercussion from us. By reacting, we send our child the message that their feelings and opinions are invalid. But by responding and asking questions about why the child feels that way, it opens a dialog that allows them to discuss their feelings further, and allows you a better understanding of where they’re coming from. Responding also gives you an opportunity to work out a solution or a plan of action with your child that perhaps they would not have come up with on their own. Your child will also appreciate the fact that maybe you do indeed understand how they feel.

It’s crucial in these situations to give your child your full and undivided attention. Put down your newspaper, stop doing dishes, or turn off the television so you can hear the full situation and make eye contact with your child. Keep calm, be inquisitive, and afterwards offer potential solutions to the problem.

Don’t discourage your child from feeling upset, angry, or frustrated. Our initial instinct may be to say or do something to steer our child away from it, but this can be a detrimental tactic. Again, listen to your child, ask questions to find out why they are feeling that way, and then offer potential solutions to alleviate the bad feeling.

Just as we do, our children have feelings and experience difficult situations. By actively listening and participating with our child as they talk about it, it demonstrates to them that we do care, we want to help and we have similar experiences of our own that they can draw from. Remember, respond – don’t react.

We parents right now are always in a rush to get their kids out of diapers. Who doesn’t want to? With such a tight schedule, our kids will always bother our way with their toilet sessions. Unfortunately it is not the parent who decides when a child is ready to potty train, it is the child himself. Rushing the process generally tends to backfire to us parents, making the situation longer to succeed.

Kids are physically and mentally ready to potty train at around 18-24 months old. You will begin to see signs that your child is ready by that time. They will get to start to be interested in the toilet and will want to know what you are doing on it.

Some kids will even sit on the seat and pretend to use the toilet just like an adult. You will begin to notice that your child will begin to tell you when his diaper is wet or dirty. Also, they might even begin to tell you while they are going or maybe even just before they go.

In most cases, your child will be irritated when his diaper is soiled and will tend to stay dry for a few hours at a time. These are all excellent signs of a child being ready to begin toilet training.

Another important, yet ignored, sign is when your child can pull his own pants up and down. You can make this easier with him if you let him with pants that are a little on the larger side. He will also start to show interest in big kid’s underwear and ask to get some.

With these signs, now is the perfect point to introduce your child to using the potty. You can take him out and select a potty seat that catches his interest. Probably start with his favorite cartoon character or his favorite color Find some related books or DVDs about potty training and share them with your child. Make the process interesting and build some excitement.

You can also try to teach him the basic steps of using the toilet including taking off his pants and underwear, sitting on the toilet, going to the bathroom, wiping, pulling up his clothes, flushing and washing his hands.

When you are ready, here’s a great tip. Start giving your child extra fluids during the day. Water is the best option. Practice taking your child to the bathroom every half hour to get him to practice using the toilet and hopefully have a successful effort.

Take your time while he is on the seat possibly singing a song or reading a short story. When he finally goes, be sure to praise him thoroughly and make a big deal about it.

By ensuring first that your child is ready to begin toilet training before doing the actual process taking your time, you will increase the chances that your efforts will be successful. Also, taking the time is the key in potty training.

Remember that your child is the one who must put the effort into the actual toileting, so make sure that he is enthusiastic about the process. Just keep things positive and in no time, no more diapers to change.

Unfortunately babies don’t come with a user manual; however, there are thousands of books on the subject of child care and parenting in the stores. Now more than ever new parents seem to need to resort to books when it comes to the subject of how best to look after their new baby.

And it’s ironic that what was considered “best practice” from one author some years ago is now completely contradicted by today’s Best Seller or Number 1 Guru. In the first part of the twentieth century, for example, a structured routine was considered essential to prepare a baby and child for the disciplines and realities of adult life. One early introduction to discipline was for parents to avoid any instinct to pick up their baby as soon as he cried because then he would learn that he could expect attention on demand.

A new theory then gained popularity and it stood a lot of existing practices on their head. Dr Benjamin Spock argued that there was no standard routine that fitted all babes because each child was different. And as part of that, a crying baby should be soothed by cuddles and kisses because it produced calm rather than any lasting harm. His views were initially controversial but were adopted by many and at regular intervals since that time new child raising theories have been published by other authors.

My own introduction to the joys and difficulties of raising a child was more than thirty years ago. At that time the use of books to become a parenting expert was thankfully still fairly rare and certainly not something I resorted to. Like most moms, I had doctors, midwives, family and friends to consult in addition to the natural instincts that I believe virtually all moms have.

So with that in mind, and despite the fact that I don’t regard myself as a child-raising expert, here are the basics that served me well:

* Talking to my babies during breast feeding and bottle feeding: that added to the closeness and increased the bond between us.

* Sleep for baby was easier and more peaceful in the open air of our back yard, secure in a baby carriage. Clearly this approach won’t work for families without a secure back yard and it’s not something for working moms. And I don’t think that it will work anything like as successfully with today’s strollers!

* Using a routine was very important to us, even though there were conflicting opinions by then. Bedtime was preceded by a bath and then a feed, plus a story reading as soon as they were old enough to understand. This routine carried on into later childhood and I believe it relaxed them and helped them to have a better night’s sleep.

* Talking to young babies helps in their language development – I used to talk to them when I was bathing them, changing them, doing chores, when we went out in the car or out for a walk.

* Organizing my day so that in the afternoon I had time to devote to my children by focusing on housework in the morning.

* Making sure that both parents adopted the same approach to discipline when dealing with the children: we didn’t allow them to “divide and conquer” us because we always handled any disagreements between Mom and Dad outside their hearing.

* Maintaining consistency: we were always prepared to explain what the “rules” were and we worked hard to keep the rules the same, wherever possible, because our children seemed to respect and respond to that.

To be absolutely clear, what I’ve laid out above is what worked well for me and it’s certainly not a total guidebook to be slavishly followed, but I hope you find some thoughts and ideas that help you to do your parenting job more easily. Please just remember that you need to take all published advice with a pinch of salt, because your child is unique and will respond differently than any writer can define.

Edu-Parent Quiz provided by DreamBox Learning a kindergarten, 1st grade and 2nd grade math game.

Teaching your children about money is more than preparing them for employment or teaching them to save some of the money they earn. Teaching money concepts is focusing children education about money on the notion of earning, spending, saving, borrowing, and sharing.
Too many parents don’t take time to teach their children about the value of money, and unfortunately, many of those children grow up to be adults who struggle with money management skills. The more children learn about money, the more they will be able to make wise financial decisions as they grow older.

Parents can begin teaching young children how to count money, before you know it, they will have mastered the art of not only counting money, but understanding its value as well.

What age should parents begin educating their children about money? Financial experts agree that it’s never too early. The more children learn about money, the more they will be able to make wise financial decisions as they grow older.

You can teach them to save part of their allowance for that bike, while still keeping some money available for ice cream, or for going to the movies with their friends. It’s never too early, also, to teach your child different ways to make money. Sit down with your child and brainstorm with them on some ways they would like to earn money.

Teach them basic money management skills and their future will be brighter. Paying an allowance provides a way to get children involved and creates “ownership” of the decisions they make when they’re using their own money. It’s also important to look at an allowance as a tool to allow children to make some money mistakes and you have to expect them to make some. In essence it is a way for them to learn big lessons with small amounts of money at an early age. My view is that it is better to make mistakes earlier with small amounts of money than make mistakes later in life when the amounts involved can be much larger.

It’s not the age but rather the aptitude that matters when your child begins to understand that money can be exchanged for things he or she wants, then you will know it’s time to start discussing the concept of an allowance. Remember that money and paying for things is an abstract concept; some children will show an interest while others will not, so be flexible.

Also, paying an allowance will give children and you more control over their money if you don’t pay an allowance, they may still get money out of you for the things they ask you to buy for them anyway. For example, if you pay your kids an allowance for doing household chores, then what happens when they later begin to earn more money from a job outside the home? Paying a regular allowance to one child and handing over money whenever asked by another will foster different money habits between children of the same family.

Flu Symptoms in Children
•    They start rapidly
•    They feel realy bad the 3 first days
•    High fever up to 104 degrees F
•    Shakes with the fever
•    Feeling tired
•    Feeling aches all over his/her body and headache
•    Dry cough and sore throat
•    Pain in his/her belly and vomiting

Ways to prevent Flu in Children
•    Annual Influenza Vaccination. Ask your doctor for more information
•    Reducing the possibilities of spreading

Complications of Flu in Children
•    Sinus infection
•    Ear infection
•    Pneumonia

Call your doctor if the symptoms last longer than three days and if the child is complaining about ear pain or has breathing problems.

Children and Online Games

Your child is growing up and the Internet is getting part of his life. Online games for children are a great way of having good time with your child and giving him new ways of discovering new learning activities.

But any online activity requires from you to follow some basic guidelines. We summarized some of the most important rules you should follow in order for your children to have a safe online activity. Click here to read more.

Click Here to see a sample Letter.

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Here are some ideas for ecological Christmas gifts that will sensibilize our children to protect nature: Ideas for Ecological Christmas Gifts.

Here are some answers that can get out of a delicate situation… Answering Children’s Embarassing Questions.