Teaching Your Kids the Value of Money

Schools may well teach your children how to add and subtract, but learning the value of money is one lesson that has to come from home.  Unless you teach them otherwise, they will continue to think that money grows on trees and that banks just give away cash – until they have to make their own way in the world.  While financially indulging your children might feel like kindness at the time, you could be doing them a grave disservice by not teaching them valuable lessons for life.  Here are a few ideas on how to teach youngsters the value of money.

1.      Children are not born understanding how paid employment and banks work.  Explain these things to them simply as soon as they are old enough to understand.

2.      Help your children to distinguish between needs and wants.

3.      Teach your children the principles of spending and saving money as well as those of making money grow.

4.      As soon as they are old enough, give them an allowance of their own to permit them to put principles into practice and learn from their own mistakes.

5.      Open an interest-bearing account for your children so that they can watch their money grow.

6.      Put aside an allowance for essentials such as clothes to help teach your children how to budget and save for more expensive items.

7.      Explain how credit cards and loans work; otherwise your children could grow up thinking that these are “free” money.

Kid Friendly New Year’s Goals

One annual tradition in families around the world is to set goals, or resolutions, on New Year’s Eve. If you and your family celebrate this tradition it is a great opportunity to start to talk to your children about how to set goal that are going to help them to achieve their personal objectives in life.

Goal setting is really a very complex endeavor and one that needs to be scaled down to an appropriate level for a child. Most children, even those that just starting school, can grasp the concept of having a goal and then developing a plan to achieve that goal when they focus in on one specific focus area.

Talking About Goals

A great option to help kids with goal setting is for parents, grandparents and other family members to talk about their own goals with children. This can be done in fun ways through drawing your goals or writing a story about your goals and why they are important to you.

It is critical to choose concrete, measurable goals so that children understand that these are not just wishes or dreams, they are attainable changes that they can control. Wishes and dreams are important too, but they are different than goals.

Making Family Goals Together

Moms, Dads and other family members that interact with the children can all come together and make group goals. Group goals for families are a real bonding experience and can highlight how a family works to support each other throughout the year.

Often family New Year’s goals focus on helping each other, spending more time together, or perhaps everyone agreeing to help out at a local charity or community organization.

The key is for parents to model goal setting in their own lives and talk to children about how goals help to provide measurable milestones and accomplishments in life. Kids should be encouraged to set goals that are meaningful to them and not necessarily the same goals that the parents may have for the child.

A great exercise is to then have the family share their goals and everyone else gives one way that they will help their family member achieve his or her goal. This is a positive and relationship building exercise that is a great way to start off a new year in any household.

Answering The Difficult Questions

While these questions can take parents by surprise planning in advance how and what to talk to your children about when they ask about death can help you. It is critical not to avoid or try to brush off the questions as that will only cause more confusion and perhaps even fear if children pick up your discomfort on the subject.

Stay Child Centered

It is very important to discuss death and dying at the child’s level of understanding. Taking in abstract terms or using common phrases about death to kids will only cause confusion. You certainly can talk about spiritual or religious beliefs about the death and dying with your children but keep them at an age appropriate level.

Be careful not to use terms like “sleeping” or “passed on” or “lost” but rather be compassionate and honest. Children need a clear description that makes sense to them. Even younger children can understand that a body can stop working when a person is in an accident or is elderly. Often this type of honest, clear and simple explanation is enough for a youngster.

Talk About Real World Examples

It is important, especially with younger children, to stay to simple examples and not to try to include too many concepts at one time. It is important for children to understand that death is a normal part of life without stressing the mortality of the child or of you as the parent. It is also important to remember that younger children, especially those under the age of 10, may see death as reversible.

Kids may ask about a pet, family member or loved one’s death repeatedly. Be patient and provide a consistent answer that provides the information the child is seeking. Talking to a counselor or reading a book about death that is at an age appropriate level can help a parent start the conversation and allow children to ask the questions they may be worrying about.

How to Organize Your Children’s Important Documents

We do everything we can to keep our family safe and well taken care of – from locking the doors at night to making sure our children are kept out of harm’s way. For parents – keeping our family safe is our first priority.

But with all of the things that we have to do on a daily basis – urgent things that keep our families protected, it’s no big surprise when other, less urgent things get pushed to the back burner and saved for a rainy day. One of the tasks we typically put off until the last minute is organizing our family’s important documents. We’re all guilty of it at one time or other but the good news is, even if you’ve neglected this for a long period of time, it doesn’t have to be quite as time-consuming as you think. Here are a few tips to get you on your way:

·         Collection: Go through your entire house (don’t forget the “junk” drawers!) and collect all of the papers that need to be kept in one central location: birth certificates, baptism records, social security cards, medical records, vaccination records, passports and insurance information. If you’re unsure about the importance of a document, simply ask yourself what the consequences would be if that paper was lost forever.

·         Copycat: Original documents are necessary for things like passports and registering for school, but it’s never a bad idea to make copies of everything. Copies of immunization records can be given directly to the school or to a new pediatrician. Keep your originals tucked in a safe place.

·         Store the rest: It’s unlikely you’re going to need baptism records on a regular basis or even passports or birth certificates. Lock these important papers in a safe deposit box. Keep in mind, however, that you’ll be at the mercy of “banker’s hours” when you need the documents so plan accordingly.

·         Use technology to your advantage: Scan and back up documents to be easily recovered later on. This can work for important papers and photos alike.

·         Share the secret: Be sure to let at least one other person in your family know where you keep all of these important documents should you not be available to access them.

So there you have it – it’s not really that difficult to put your documents in one place and have them easily accessible – you just have to get started!

How to Instill Friendly Competition in Children

Nobody likes to lose – winning is fun, right? Instilling friendly competition into your children is a good way to lead them down the path of being well-rounded individuals. A healthy dose of competition doesn’t only have to apply to being a better player in the sports arena; it can also apply to being a better business owner, a better employee and a better person all around.

Healthy and friendly competition can be the basis of motivating children to exceed expectations – expectations that they may not feel they can beat. Many parents feel that teaching children to be competitive because of the expectations some coaches put on their players.  Many experts disagree, citing that this friendly competition taught at a young age teach them to successfully compete in the world as teenagers and ultimately as adults.

Again, competition doesn’t just apply to sports. When children learn how to compete in a friendly manner, they are learning to try the hardest. These same values will carry over into life when they are competing for a new job or promotion. By learning to compete as children, they are given a leg up on the competition who may not have had that same experience.

Liken teaching your children to compete to the gazelle and the lion: in Africa, when a gazelle awakens each morning it is well aware that if it doesn’t wake up and run it will be eaten by the lion. The lion on the other hand, knows that it must be faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. The moral of the story? It doesn’t matter if you’re the lion or the gazelle – each morning wake up and be ready to run. 

Infant Care in a Day Care Setting

Caring for an infant can be challenging, particularly in a day care setting, however if done properly, having an infant in a day care that is properly equipped to handle them can positively impact your baby’s experience.

With the state of the economy, more and more families are forced to have homes with two working parents, which means that children are being put into day care environments at younger ages and even for longer time during the day. If you are among those families who have been forced to place your infant in a day care setting, it doesn’t have to be as scary or challenging as it seems. Things to consider when choosing a good day care environment for your infant are group size of the day care, the quality of the actual physical environment of the day care facility and how the needs are going to be met for each individual infant.

·         Group Size:  Infants thrive better in a calm environment, it’s true, but each infant reacts differently in different environments. Keeping this in mind, a large group of infants can create chaos and confusion and an unhappy baby – even if there are enough adults to adequately care for all of them. Many infants in a group creates a louder noise level which further leads to confusion and chaos. To have a pleasant experience for all involved, choose a day care facility with six infants or less.

·         Environment: As with the group size, the environment of your day care center can mean the difference between an enriching experience and a miserable one. The environment should be comfortable and encourage interaction between the adult caregivers and the infants as well as for the parents to visit with the children at the end of the day.

·         Meeting the Needs:  Meeting the needs of each infant is directly related to the size of the group of infants in the day care. Smaller groups allow for more intimate care, more flexibility for sleeping, eating and playing schedules and allows for children with special needs to receive the attention they need when they need it.

Caring for children, especially in a group setting like day care, is a profession. Choose your day care facility wisely based on the needs of your family and their ability to meet those needs.

Sunglasses and Eye Health

In the summertime, it’s second-nature to apply tons of sunscreen on our children to protect their skin from the harmful effects of the sun. But many times, as much attention as we give to their skin, we often overlook another area that can be damaged by the sun – their eyes.

 We put sunglasses on to shield our eyes and our children should have the same protection. This protects them now and also helps to prevent them from developing common eye problems later on in life. Keep in mind that UV rays are radiation and radiation is damaging to the eyes just as much as it can damage anything else. Here is just a partial list of those common eye problems that you should be aware of:

·         Over-exposure to the sun’s UV radiation can cause the cells of the eye – inside and out – to divide abnormally. This abnormal division can cause tumors – both malignant and benign.

·         “Surfer’s Eye” is common in coastal regions and is caused by sun exposure. This affects the cornea which can affect your ability to focus clearly.

·         Overexposure to the sun also effects the lens of the eye as well as the retina which can lead to macular degeneration and cataracts later on.

A good rule of thumb to help protect your children’s eyes is to put sunglasses on them if they are going to spend any extended amount of time in the sun. It’s never too early to start this practice. You’ll want to use standard tinted glasses not the colored lenses that are popular with kids.

If you have younger children who are having a hard time wearing the sunglasses, a large hat with a wide brim or visor is the next best thing. You can also try attaching an elastic band to the sunglasses to help hold them in place.

Sunglasses, sunscreen and your children should be a common routine in the summer!