Great Parenting Skills Mean Safer Kids
A simple but effective way to begin teaching your child safety starts with a positive, fun and exciting approach to the subject. Even a serious subject like safety and protection from sexual predators, can be taught to kids in a fun, exciting way with lots of positive reinforcement.
Keep your learning sessions with your child fun. Keep them exciting. Keep what you work on with your child in short segments packed full of good feelings and laughter. Positive emotions are very powerful when linked to teaching and learning. When you develop parenting skills that can do this, your child’s learning will be accelerated.
Your skills should guide your child through a path of learning personal safety techniques rather than boring them with repetitive practice sessions and memorization. Good parenting skills for real child safety relate to guiding, mentoring, and teaching your child.
Classroom learnng of safety is very powerful. However, it is still in a classroom. Classroom learning is effective, but it is still are an isolated occurrence once a week in the busy life of a child. Techniques must be reinforced at home by parents for true, lifelong learning.
Good parenting skills play naturally into reinforcing behaviors you want in your child, easily and effortlessly. Rote repetition should not have to happen, at least with our techniques. Hone your skills and make your child’s path to safety easy, fun and effective.
The Key To Parenting Success
“I will always do my best,” becomes a lightning rod for growth only if it is incorporated into everyday life. This happens when it is part of family life. It happens when parents and entire families use and embrace the principles of safe kids.
Growth and learning also happen at great rates in your child when you let your child express what they naturally possess. This is the key to your success with your parenting skills. Understand your child’s innate personality. The more you understand the core nature of your child, their basic personality, the more you can adjust your skills to play into their natural nature. You allow them to learn in an easier manner for them. You also reduce conflict that arises through misunderstanding your child. Just knowing the basics of your child’s personality can help you teach them safety in a more effective manner.
You can begin to do this with a simple understanding of the psychological make up of your child.
First, kids are generally:
1. Introverted
2. Extroverted
Most kids are a mix of these two traits and somewhere in between being introverted or extroverted.
Understanding which of these personalities your child is naturally allows you to guide them through life better. For example, if you deal with your introverted daughter like she was an extrovert you will make your interactions with her more difficult than they need to be. You’ll be using skills that she either cannot respond to or responds to badly, perhaps increasing your frustration level. It can quickly spiral out of control.
An introvert is basically a shy person. It is usually a person characterized by concern primarily with his or her own thoughts and feelings.
An extrovert is an outgoing, gregarious person. It is usually a person characterized by extroversion; a person concerned primarily with the physical and social environment.
It is crucial for you to understand that neither one of these personality traits is good or bad. They also do not mean that a child who is an introvert cannot learn to develop skills in the extrovert arena or the other way around.
Most studies show introverts are a minority at around 30% of the population. If your child tends to be introverted, they like quiet activities, especially ones they can do quietly alone. Introverted kids are not antisocial as much as they are exhausted by activities that most kids do like pep clubs, sports teams and church activities.
Highlight and value the introverted qualities of concentration, focus, self discipline, depth, integrity and self knowledge. Getting your introverted child’s attention is pretty easy. Getting them to focus and increase their mental focus abilities is relatively easy. Teach them with an accent on their ability to work quietly and intensely alone, help them allocate reading time and time to reflect on what you show them. At the same time, making them go out and play with all the other kids can be counter to their natural tendencies.
If your child tends to be extroverted, they are just the opposite of introversion. They are the majority of kids that run around, play games, sports and seem to run on boundless noise. Our society values extroverted children highly. These are the kids that need high energy, excitement and fun built into their learning process consistently. Play into their energy and excitement.
When you grasp the personality type of your child you begin to increase you ability to guide them through life better. You can tool and tune your parenting skills and focus based upon them being extroverted or introverted. You can get results with your child in a manner that is easier for yourself as well as being more effective and easier for your child.
For example, you can guide them in positive directions more easily. When you start to get results, you can increase your effectiveness and adjust your approach as required. More importantly, when you do not get results you can adjust your approach until you get results.
Joyce Jackson is a child safety expert in northern California. For her extensive website and information see http://www.KeepingKidsSafeToday.com and a free special report at http://www.StopPredatorsCold.com
The Mom’s Guide to Living Frugally
Not only am I an entrepreneur but I’m also a stay at home mom. For some reason you just can take the mom out of mompreneur. I love working at home for a lot of reasons, but it has not been all gravy.
My daughters who are now 9 still don’t understand the concept of leaving me alone when I’m on the phone or computer. And always, summer is approaching and we are wondering what they should do to keep their days busy.
A lot of my frugal mom’s ideas about living have been passed down from my mom and dad, who were the extreme parody of living without. My parents were not business owners and basically were unemployed most of the time. So they became very talented at living on pennies from social assistance. Something I do not agree with.
My husband Robert is another master at frugality. He is an accountant and financial representative and see’s peoples finances on a daily occurrence. One thing he has learned is that many people over extend themselves and get themselves into financial hot water.
Frugal Mom’s guide to the world is a mired of suggestions, but you must decide what you wish to put up with. We all have our ideas as to what we need and what we what.
Frugal Mom’s Idea #1
Buy only what you need and not what you want. Pretty simple, but a lot of us are enticed. Advertising companies know how to manipulate us with behavior, emotion, colors, and the list goes on. They seem to know what we want better than we do.
Frugal Mom’s Idea #2
Pay off your credit card every month. If you feel that you are capable of doing this, than have a credit card that gets you miles for airline tickets. The interest rate is higher on these cards, so it behooves you to pay them off on time. Our family charges all items to the credit card so that we receive the points for airline tickets. Each year we claim several free tickets for our purchases (that we would have made anyways.)
Frugal Mom’s Idea#3
Live below your means. My husband and I live in an old home, drive a basic car, and don’t live extravagant lives. My jeans have rips in them (it’s really in fashion) and my husband owns one pair of pants (besides his suits). Can we afford more? We sure can. But other things are important to us, saving money, private school, family vacations. We just don’t see the need to go out and buy more stuff. We are happy, and don’t need other people to tell us so.
Frugal Mom’s Idea #4
Watch out for nickel and diming. What does this mean? Going to Starbucks for coffee. This concept totally amazes me. This business is so successful on a premise of coffee which has been around for centuries. Everyone can make coffee in their kitchen, and even BUY Starbucks at the grocery store. But people wish to spend more and go the store with the friendly person waiting to collect their money. Think about how much money you would save if you didn’t buy that latte every morning.
These items are just a few to mention, the list could go on, and on. We all have way’s to save money and become more financially free. We are being manipulated by the media and corporations each day, they want us to buy their stuff. Really.
The Daycare Diva, Christine G. Groth, is the creator of The Guide to Instant Daycare Profits. To learn more about this step-by-step program and to sign-up for her FREE How to Start a Daycare tips and articles, visit http://www.ExpertsAtDaycare.com
Eliminate Worry - Easy Guide To Overnight Summer Camps
There are overnight summer camps that are co-ed camps, boy’s camps, girl’s camps or brother-sister camps where boys and girls may have separate venues and activities. Basically, if you can think of any subject of interest, there’s probably a camp that specializes in it. The more artistically minded might consider arts and crafts, clowning, drama, photography, or dance to be important elements of having a well-rounded camp experience.
Planning early is important; you should be diligent in your efforts to visit camps during the peak season to make plans in advance of the next camping year. An overnight summer camp is a supervised program for children and teens conducted during the summer months in most countries; children and teens, called campers, who attend camp, participate in a variety of activities, many of which are special interest. Camps often focus on specialties that include: adventure, art, computer, dance, music, religion, horse riding, sports, theatre, and many others.
There are overnight summer camps with a focus on self-improvement, weight loss and grief counseling. Many kid campers are enrolled in summer camp by their parents early in the year, thus camps fill up quickly. The variety of camps available today is almost innumerable, meaning there will be some specialized camps that may have availability left even into the summer.
Children will get more individual attention and supervision with a lower number of campers per counselor. Is there a special topic (e.g. religion, sports, educational, performing arts, arts and crafts) that you hope your child will gain ability and experience in? Camps should have at least a 40% to 60% return staff ratio, which shows that the camp is seen as a good place to spend a summer.
Some camps are often called adventure camps - having a very specific theme or interest; many of these programs emphasize skill development and personal growth through the adventures the offer. The best overnight summer sports camps do much more than just improve a camper’s soccer, tennis, lacrosse, or wrestling skills - they help each child become a more skillful athlete, a more gracious competitor, a more committed team player, and a more confident person. Non-profit camps often range from $1200 to $3000 for four weeks and $2500 to $5000 for eight weeks.
There are many types of overnight summer camps with a focus on education that cater to students with differing ages and academic interests. Do you think, if you have more than one child, they would they benefit from attending the same summer camp together? Get to know the camp director from an in-person visit to your home if possible, phone conversations, email or other correspondence.
Check the camper-counselor ratio to determine the number of campers for each counselor. Try to determine whether the director incorporates a similar philosophy to running the camp as you do in parenting your child or children. Children or teens could typically explore subjects new to them like marine science, photography, creative writing, community service, drama, magic, scuba diving, video production, comic book design, crime scene forensics, cooking, yoga, rappelling, etc.
If you find a traditional overnight summer camp or sleepaway camp that’s not the right fit, or an expense that isn’t possible at this place in time, rest assured that there are other options that can keep your child occupied throughout the summer. Homesickness is a frequent problem, but with a caring camp counselor most campers adjust easily. The summer is a key time to visit overnight summer camps or sleepaway camps because you can ascertain whether they’ll be the right fit for your child, children or family while the camp is in full operation. Choosing a camp close to home will save a lot of money on airfare and possible hotel or motel overnight stays for a parent, or other transportation costs; this is especially true if your child might get a case of homesickness and want to come home early from the overnight summer camp.
For more information on choosing the best overnight summer camp and finding the best sleepaway or overnight summer camp go to http://www.OvernightSummerCamp.biz a nurse’s website specializing in overnight summer camp tips, help, free tuition resources and information on overnight summer camp reviews
Helpful Tips For Sleepaway Or Overnight Summer Camps
An overnight summer camp is a supervised program for children and teens conducted during the summer months in most countries; children and teens, called campers, who attend camp, participate in a variety of activities, many of which are special interest. Choosing an overnight summer camp for your child, teen or other children deserves a great deal of consideration and attention to even the smallest details. The variety of camps available today is almost innumerable, meaning there will be some specialized camps that may have availability left even into the summer.
The more artistically minded might consider arts and crafts, clowning, drama, photography, or dance to be important elements of having a well-rounded camp experience. Each summer, more than 10 million children and counselors attend day camps and overnight summer camps across the country. Beyond the traditional sports - baseball, softball, basketball, soccer, tennis, football, and more - there are camps for outdoor enthusiasts that can offer horseback riding, hiking, camping, fishing, and even rappelling.
Some camps have a targeted focus like religious study, academics, and competitive sports. Basically, if you can think of any subject of interest, there’s probably a camp that specializes in it. There are overnight summer camps that are co-ed camps, boy’s camps, girl’s camps or brother-sister camps where boys and girls may have separate venues and activities.
Consider these industry-recommended guidelines - for smaller children ages 7 and 8, there should be one counselor for every six campers; by age 15, there should be one counselor for every 10 campers. Get to know the camp director from an in-person visit to your home if possible, phone conversations, email or other correspondence. College credit courses are very popular at overnight summer camps that typically offer students the opportunity to explore a pre-college experience; usually, students entering grades 10 through 12 stay in college dormitories and attend summer classes run by the college faculty.
Camp tuition can be expensive; similar to travel insurance, there are now insurance policies for families sending their children to overnight summer camp to cover last minute cancellations, homesickness, medical emergencies and emergency evacuations. Visit the camp; you can view campers and counselors in their element, witness activities as they occur, and just obtain an overall feel of the camp, something that cannot be accurately experienced when the camp is closed. Children or teens could typically explore subjects new to them like marine science, photography, creative writing, community service, drama, magic, scuba diving, video production, comic book design, crime scene forensics, cooking, yoga, rappelling, etc.
Camps should have at least a 40% to 60% return staff ratio, which shows that the camp is seen as a good place to spend a summer. Although camp counselor jobs don’t usually pay very well, usually minimum wage or less, counselors receive free room and board; many take the job primarily for the camping experience. Check the camper-counselor ratio to determine the number of campers for each counselor.
Non-profit camps often range from $1200 to $3000 for four weeks and $2500 to $5000 for eight weeks. Specialty overnight camps can range from $500 to $1000 per week depending on the program. Try to determine whether the director incorporates a similar philosophy to running the camp as you do in parenting your child or children.
Look over and evaluate the brochures and promotional materials; read the fine print. Care packages sent with children or teens, by their families, can help any homesickness subside. Typically an overnight summer camp experience will leave a lot of wonderful memories for the child or teen camper. If you think there’s a possibility you might have to cancel an overnight summer camp reservation, camper’s insurance would be a good idea.
For more information on choosing the best overnight summer camp and finding the best sleepaway or overnight summer camp go to http://www.OvernightSummerCamp.biz a nurse’s website specializing in overnight summer camp tips, help, free tuition resources and information on overnight summer camp reviews
Overnight Summer Camp - Great Tips For A Great Experience For Your Child Or Teen
The camp you choose for your child will provide a lifetime of good memories and will be truly rewarding. The more artistically minded might consider arts and crafts, clowning, drama, photography, or dance to be important elements of having a well-rounded camp experience. Beyond the traditional sports - baseball, softball, basketball, soccer, tennis, football, and more - there are camps for outdoor enthusiasts that can offer horseback riding, hiking, camping, fishing, and even rappelling.
Camps are divided by gender - girls only, boys only, or co-ed and again by age group. Each summer, more than 10 million children and counselors attend day camps and overnight summer camps across the country. Basically, if you can think of any subject of interest, there’s probably a camp that specializes in it.
Special needs camps meet the needs of a wide range of children with disabilities; these camps provide an outdoor summer camp experience along with a therapeutic environment. Camps often focus on specialties that include: adventure, art, computer, dance, music, religion, horse riding, sports, theatre, and many others. An overnight summer camp is a supervised program for children and teens conducted during the summer months in most countries; children and teens, called campers, who attend camp, participate in a variety of activities, many of which are special interest.
Specialty overnight camps can range from $500 to $1000 per week depending on the program. Get to know the camp director from an in-person visit to your home if possible, phone conversations, email or other correspondence. Camp tuition can be expensive; similar to travel insurance, there are now insurance policies for families sending their children to overnight summer camp to cover last minute cancellations, homesickness, medical emergencies and emergency evacuations.
Visit the camp; you can view campers and counselors in their element, witness activities as they occur, and just obtain an overall feel of the camp, something that cannot be accurately experienced when the camp is closed. At camp would it benefit your child more if he or she interacted more with the opposite gender? There are many types of overnight summer camps with a focus on education that cater to students with differing ages and academic interests.
Camps should have at least a 40% to 60% return staff ratio, which shows that the camp is seen as a good place to spend a summer. Some camps are often called adventure camps - having a very specific theme or interest; many of these programs emphasize skill development and personal growth through the adventures the offer. Four weeks at a good private overnight summer camp or sleepaway camp will cost anywhere from $3500 to $6500, and eight weeks will range from $4000 to $7000.
Check the camper-counselor ratio to determine the number of campers for each counselor. Consider these industry-recommended guidelines - for smaller children ages 7 and 8, there should be one counselor for every six campers; by age 15, there should be one counselor for every 10 campers. The best overnight summer sports camps do much more than just improve a camper’s soccer, tennis, lacrosse, or wrestling skills - they help each child become a more skillful athlete, a more gracious competitor, a more committed team player, and a more confident person.
Choosing a camp close to home will save a lot of money on airfare and possible hotel or motel overnight stays for a parent, or other transportation costs; this is especially true if your child might get a case of homesickness and want to come home early from the overnight summer camp. Typically an overnight summer camp experience will leave a lot of wonderful memories for the child or teen camper. If you think your child may not be ready for a sleepaway or overnight summer camp, choose a local camp in case you end up having to make a late night pickup in the event he or she gets homesick. Homesickness is a frequent problem, but with a caring camp counselor most campers adjust easily.
For more information on choosing the best overnight summer camp and finding the best sleepaway or overnight summer camp go to http://www.OvernightSummerCamp.biz a nurse’s website specializing in overnight summer camp tips, help, free tuition resources and information on overnight summer camp reviews
Policies for Daycare Centers- What’s Right or Wrong?
This article is mainly suited for parents who are looking for childcare and daycare owners who are constructing policies on what their daycare center rules should be.
The main objective of a parent handbook in the daycare setting is to establish rules and boundaries for the parent and daycare provider. Without boundaries and rules many issues erupt which could have been avoided in the first place. It is extremely important for you the parent to understand what your provider expects. As well as the provider, it is important for you to lay down the ground work so that no confusion lies between you and the parent.
Below will be a guideline that you may wish to follow regarding rules and standards established for your daycare center.
A parent handbook about daycare centers should have the following information:
1. Sick policy: What are the guidelines that the center will use when a child becomes ill? When will the parent be called, how high does the temperature need to be for a parent to be asked to come pick-up the child? What if the child has an unexplained rash? Loose bowel movements? Falls and hits his/her head? What is the policy for re-entering childcare after being home with illness? What contagious diseases are not allowed in your center? Will you allow sick children to be in your center? These are all very important questions that need to be addressed by the parent and the daycare provider as well.
2. Pick-Up Child Policy: Issues should be addressed on who is picking up the child, and what if someone else shows up to pick up that child and you don’t know about it. Are both parents together or divorced and what is the arrangement with custody. If there is a situation that a parent is not allowed to pick up a child it would be wise to have legal documents on file stating the arrangement by court. If a child is walking from school or being picked up by your center there should be paper work on file stating these arrangements.
3. Tuition: A contract stating price and payment should be filled out by both the parent and the daycare center. There should be a clear understanding of how many days the child will attend and what the charge will be. There should also be an understanding of what charges there will be when a child is not attending childcare.
4. Vacations and Time Off: Will the daycare provider be taking off for a vacation and will the parents still need to pay for childcare? What about emergency closings, what are the policies regarding this. What holiday’s will the center be closed and are they paid holiday’s or not.
5. Punishment and disorderly behavior: What are the rules of the daycare center regarding punishment? What ages and what ways does the center try to correct behavior? What are the daycare centers grounds for termination? What are the guidelines established when talking to parents about problems.
These are the fundamentals of a day care parent handbook. Remember that all concerns should be addressed in this handbook; it is there to help the parent and the daycare center and especially to protect the safety of the child.
The Daycare Diva, Christine G. Groth, is the creator of The Guide to Instant Daycare Profits. To learn more about this step-by-step program and to sign-up for her FREE Start a Daycare tips and articles, visit http://www.ExpertsAtDaycare.com
How To Teach Your Older Child To Be Safe
Keeping our kids safe is always a big job for parents. Luckily, there is a lot of information out today about child safety in today’s dangerous world. Most of this information is for parents with elementary school age kids. For parents with kids of ages 12 to 18, there is also some great information for you, too, to keep you older child safe. Safe kids are all ages!
What do parents of older children, like Middle School age and High School age kids, need do, to keep these kids safe?
First, the true secret to safer kids, no matter what their age, is confidence. Confident kids are less of a target for sexual predators. Build confidence in your child and you can increase a substantial measure of safety for them, especially when you are not around.
It is true. Self confidence means greater safety for any child at any age. The difference however, is in how you build and reinforce it in older children. Building confidence is an age-appropriate task that requires different things for different ages of children. Build confidence with those age appropriate areas of focus and you truly can build safety for a lifetime.
So let’s start with elementary age children. Younger kids, elementary school age kids between 5 and 11 years of age, need to be praised and reassured that they are accepted and noticed by you, the parent. This means paying attention to them when they speak to you.
Acknowledging them when they call you name, sitting down with them and playing with them on the floor, and engaging them in direct conversation with eye contact. You are basically letting you child know they are important as a human being and you accept them and are there for them as they naturally are. These small things, in minutes a day, can build the foundation of solid self confidence in kids.
What about Middle School age kids, those around 11-14 years of age? How do you reinforce confidence in this age group? You do it by demonstrating your trust your child. Kids at this age want to be trusted. They crave the ability to know you trust them. Building trust in your child at this age is the key to bolstering their confidence. Trust means allowing your child the freedom to make good decisions for themselves independent of you, the parent. Is it easy? Heck no! Will they always make good decisions? Heck, no again! However, it is about your child, not you. You must make the effort to demonstrate your trust in your child at this age.
As for High School age teenagers, they require respect to bolster their confidence. Kids in the 15-18 years old range need to know that as young adults, they have your respect for them as the parent. Respect for them means for everything, too: their hair, clothing, friends and activity choices. Teenagers crave your parental respect for them.
Again, is it easy? No. But, it is the proper parental choice to make. It is about building safety for a lifetime. Safety for college campuses and independent young adults stepping out into the world on their own stems from being taught to be self confident from the youngest of ages. It is true safety for a lifetime.
Joyce Jackson is a child safety expert in northern California. For her extensive website and information see http://www.KeepingKidsSafeToday.com and a free special report at http://www.StopPredatorsCold.com
Sexual Predators That Prowl Our Neighborhoods
Predators are difficult for most of us to recognize. Any parent will gladly stand guard in their yard or take their turn patrolling the street in front of the house watching out for predators. However, watching out for sexual predators searching for your child is just not that simple.
First of all, the media does all of us a disservice. Yes, it is trendy to blame the media for all kinds of ills. When it comes to predators, we are not blaming the media for a problem, as much as alerting you to the shortcomings of movies, television shows and yes, even newscasts.
Movies and television shoes depict predators as if they came from Mars. We see dirty, leering, filthy adults that would make sewer rats cringe, as they slink and lurk behind garbage cans.
Newscasts have become focused more on ratings and selling advertising than hard real news. There are just too many confusing pieces of information and messages out there for most parents to filter through. Unfortunately, a lot of the information on child safety, although well intended, is old, outdated, useless or just plain wrong. Many ideas and notions about sexual predators are just plain wrong, too.
Who are these predators and how can you recognize them? You really can’t. If there is one message for you to understand, it is this one. Sexual predators look like everyone. They look like your neighbors. They look like the people at the grocery store. They look like everyday, normal individuals.
What to do about stopping sexual predators comes from knowledge and education. It’s all about having a trusted source that can filter through the maze of information and disinformation for you. We’re that filter for you.
First, sexual predators are difficult to spot. Not only do they look like us but they drive vehicles just like we do, too. They drive family vehicles that are like every other car on the road.
What we are saying is this: there is no real way to go about your daily life and be able to spot sexual predators. This is why we teach kids the added advantage of keeping themselves safe. This is why we arm kids with all kinds of tool and techniques so they can deal with people, people in general, so that if in the end they shed their disguise as normal people and reveal the hidden sexual predator, your child can be safe.
The Jeffrey Dahmer’s, John Wayne Gasey’s and Ted Bundy’s of this world were described as “the nice guys next door.” All of them were prowling predators no one spotted.
We know that sexual predators search for the child that they see as weak, sad and unhappy. It’s the kid with the shuffling feet, head drooping and eyes fixed to the ground. It’s the child that appears they are in need of a friend. The predator wants an easy target when the time is “right.”
For the most part, predators are not interested in any kind of visible, noisy or public struggle that brings attention to their nefarious deeds.
In fact, many predators choose to befriend a child first. They choose to develop a dependent relationship with a child that appears to be in need of a close friend. It could be a sad, unhappy child. The predator then offers them gifts, ideas, or simple emotional comfort that makes the child feel better. The process slowly introduces sexual context and content into their interactions and conversations.
Some predators immediately engage in sexually explicit conversation with children right from the start. Online or Internet sexual predators may collect and trade child-pornographic images.
Others online may seek real face to face meetings with the kids they emailed or connected with in chat rooms or social blogs. There is no one profile. Predators cunningly exploit weakness and naivete. They will work very hard at driving a wedge between a child and their family. Predators will even accentuate any minor problems at home that your child might have, again befriending them and driving that wedge into the family structure.
A confident child represents more of a challenge, a problem, someone who will be hard to manipulate, for the sexual predator.
Confident kids will also be uncooperative. They understand better, even if they cannot articulate their feelings, that something or someone is “just not right” and will avoid them or stay away.
Today’s world is a dangerous place. Today’s dangerous world is very different than anything seen before. It’s dangerous for adults.
It is very dangerous for our precious children. This sad truth is a reality however, one that you must accept and deal with in order to keep your child safe from sexual predators.
Many parents today just don’t know how to keep their kids safe in a modern world. There is nothing wrong with that. They grew up themselves with their parents warning of “Don’t talk to strangers!” when they were a child heading out the door to play. It was truly useless information to the child back then as it is today, but somehow made the parents feel their children were safe.
Many parents, although they are adults now, still think like this. Today, however, this kind of thinking can not only keep your child unsafe, it may put them at risk as a target for sexual predators. This kind of thinking can really endanger your child.
“This guy has to be a bad stranger,” or “Stay away from weirdoes!” seems like it has to help. The sad news, however, is it is useless. The fact is, many parents today have no idea how to keep themselves safe let alone teach their children safety from sexual predators.
Telling your child not to talk to strangers or telling your child any neighbor can be trusted is a recipe for danger. If you go around like this you are playing with odds that you child will not be the one ever approached by a sexual predator. That is roulette with your child’s life. Teach you child to be safe from all strangers and how to engage a Cirlce Of Safety to do it.
Joyce Jackson is a child safety expert in northern California. For her extensive website and information see http://www.KeepingKidsSafeToday.com and a free special report at http://www.StopPredatorsCold.com
Best Tips For Helping You Choose The Best Overnight Summer Camp For Your Child Or Teen
Some camps have a targeted focus like religious study, academics, and competitive sports. Special needs camps meet the needs of a wide range of children with disabilities; these camps provide an outdoor summer camp experience along with a therapeutic environment. Choosing the right camp for your child, teen or other children deserves a great deal of consideration and attention to even the smallest details.
There are camps with activities as traditional as model rocketry and riflery, to those nontraditional as aviation, computers, language studies, golf, martial arts or community service. There are four basic types of camps to choose from for your child: day programs, sleepaway or overnight summer camp, day programs with trips, and special needs camps. Selecting the right camp that fits into your child or teen’s interests, special interests, needs, special needs and abilities will be one of the first steps
Camps often focus on specialties that include: adventure, art, computer, dance, music, religion, horse riding, sports, theatre, and many others. There are overnight summer camps that are co-ed camps, boy’s camps, girl’s camps or brother-sister camps where boys and girls may have separate venues and activities. Basically, if you can think of any subject of interest, there’s probably a camp that specializes in it.
College credit courses are very popular at overnight summer camps that typically offer students the opportunity to explore a pre-college experience; usually, students entering grades 10 through 12 stay in college dormitories and attend summer classes run by the college faculty. Try to determine whether the director incorporates a similar philosophy to running the camp as you do in parenting your child or children. Although camp counselor jobs don’t usually pay very well, usually minimum wage or less, counselors receive free room and board; many take the job primarily for the camping experience.
Camp tuition can be expensive; similar to travel insurance, there are now insurance policies for families sending their children to overnight summer camp to cover last minute cancellations, homesickness, medical emergencies and emergency evacuations. Check the camper-counselor ratio to determine the number of campers for each counselor. Most camp counselors are in their late teens or early twenties and are high school and college students on their summer break.
Some camps are often called adventure camps - having a very specific theme or interest; many of these programs emphasize skill development and personal growth through the adventures the offer. Is there a special topic (e.g. religion, sports, educational, performing arts, and arts and crafts) that you hope your child will gain ability and experience in? Weight loss camps are for children and teens in order to help them learn about how to lose weight and how to keep it off while having a great camp experience.
The reputation of an overnight summer camp can also be determined by asking what percentage of counselors returned from the previous year. Children will get more individual attention and supervision with a lower number of campers per counselor. Visit the camp; you can view campers and counselors in their element, witness activities as they occur, and just obtain an overall feel of the camp, something that cannot be accurately experienced when the camp is closed.
Typically an overnight summer camp experience will leave a lot of wonderful memories for the child or teen camper. If you think there’s a possibility you might have to cancel an overnight summer camp reservation, camper’s insurance would be a good idea. Choosing a camp close to home will save a lot of money on airfare and possible hotel or motel overnight stays for a parent, or other transportation costs; this is especially true if your child might get a case of homesickness and want to come home early. Think about what you and your child hope they’ll get from going to camp.
For more information on choosing the best overnight summer camp and finding the best sleepaway or overnight summer camp go to http://www.OvernightSummerCamp.biz a nurse’s website specializing in overnight summer camp tips, help, free tuition resources and information on overnight summer camp reviews
In The Last Couple Of Years Child Care Has Become Very Popular
Having a baby at home is a wonderful experience. Looking after the baby and caring for it is an even more fulfilling experience. When calculating how much to feed a baby, on average a baby needs two and a half ounces of formula for each pound of his weight. A baby does not distinguish night from day. If it’s your first, your baby is going to make a big difference in your life. Of course babies cannot understand what you are saying because they don’t have a grasp of the English language but they do understand sounds and tones, and if you talk quietly and make happy noises the baby know this.
If both parents are working and you need to balance the care of your child between day care centers there are many things you can do to accomplish this, even if you are single parent many day care centers will work with you to help out. If both parents work a day job maybe you can arrange to have one of the parents working either at night or a staggered shift, say starting at noon and working to 8 or 9. And usually the best time to do this is in the summer when both parents might be off work.
As you look at the child care alternatives of day care center, day care at someone else’s home, or a dedicated child care worker in your home, there are two other factors you should take into consideration: it may be best to consider only state licensed day care providers; and your friend or co-worker’s considered choice might not be the best one for your family.
In a childcare center you will need at least one certified trained person that should oversee everything, this is very important if something should happen during operational hours. How can a parent be sure they have made the right decision? A parent wants the best possible care for their child. Today child care centers are very expensive, sometimes parents wonder if it is cost effective for both parents to work, because it is so expensive many think that the day care centers are money magnets.
The most important parts of providing daycare for your child and that’s your child’s nutritional needs. Certainly the daycare center is not going to let the child starve and the food the child is given to eat will certainly be good food. Trying to find good quality daycare is very hard.
When the child care deductions came about many parents were very happy about this because it put more money in their pockets. Many laws have changed since 2001, this was around when all the tax cuts were happening and in fact increased the tax deductions for the number for children. Children who are under the age 12 the parents are eligible to receive a tax break for them and this is a life saver for many. If you didn’t know about this tax advantage there are many accountants or professional tax planners that can help with this, and show you how you can claim this deduction on your taxes.
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