Grandparenting

Nothing is as important to academic achievement as your grandchild’s ability to read well. However, there is more to being a good reader than just being able to read the words accurately. Just as important is being able to understand what has been read. Here is some advice on ways to help your grandchildren become more effective readers.

Special time – set aside a regular time to read to or with your grandkids whenever they come and visit. Research studies show that reading aloud regularly with litte ones will produce significant gains in reading comprehension, vocabulary and the decoding of words.

Provide what they need – surround your grandkids with reading material whether bought or borrowed from friends or the local library. Children who have access to a large array of reading material in their homes score higher on standardized tests. Tempt your grandkids to read by having a large supply of interesting books and magazines at their reading level in your home.

Establish a  reading period – when your grandkids come to visit or stay for the week-end, set aside  a 15 to 30 minute daily time-slot when everyone reads together silently. Seeing you and you read will inspire your grandkids  to read. Just fifteen minutes of daily practice is sufficient to increase their reading fluency.

Read everywhere – do what you can to make reading a fundamental part of your grandchildren’s lives. Have them help you read menus, point out road signs, read game directions, weather reports, movie and television time listings, and other practical everyday information. Also, make sure they always have something to read in their spare time when they could be waiting for appointments or riding in a car.

Join the library – entice them to read more by taking them to the library every few weeks to choose new reading material.

Gain knowledge – ask your son or daughter  about your grandchildren’s progress. Note what reading skills they are expected to have at each grade level. The school’s curriculum will give their parents this information – show interest and that you care about your grandchildren’s progress.

Be alert – look out for reading problems. Teachers (and parents) for a variety of reasons do not always detect every child’s reading problem until they have become serious. Find out if your grandchildren can sound out words, know sight words, use the right context to identify unknown words and clearly understand what they read.

Get help – if you feel your grandchild has reading problems, make sure he or she receives necessary help from his/her parents,  teachers, tutors, or learning centres as soon as you discover an issue.

Variety is the spice of life – to help your grandkids improve their reading, use textbooks, computer programs, books-on-tape and other materials available in stores. Games are especially good choices because they let little ones have fun as they work on their skills.

Reward their efforts – praise will go a long way to encouraging your grandkids to read, however there are many rewards that will motivate them even further and they need not cost very much at all. Consider maybe printing a certificate for them; a quick Google search for ‘reading award’ should result in a few options that you could print and fill in with your granchild’s name. Stickers are great motivators too and coloring pages are very well received as well. At sites like Hello Kitty Coloring Pages you’ll find the best Hello Kitty coloring sheets while little boys would perhaps enjoy the coloring sheets at Pokemon Coloring Pages.

Be interested – show enthusiasm for your grandchildren’s reading. Your feedback has a great effect on how hard they will try to become good readers. Be sure to give them genuine praise for their effort.

Reading can expand children’s thinking. Words and books can excite them. Stories can inspire them to create their own works. When you help your grandchild to become a good reader, you are enriching is creativity, his knowledge and his academic future too.

Parents and grandparents are usually trying to find the best possible city to raise their children and grandchildren. It is important for a family to live in a safe environment and for babies to grow up in a good neighborhood. Some cities are better to raise kids in than others. However, a lot of parents and grandparents do not have the option of moving to the best places they can find because of their jobs, family ties, medical conditions, and so on.

One of the ways parents and grandparents can find the best place to live in is to look at the list of the top cities to live in the United States. This list is published yearly by CNN/Money and Money magazine and the list is called 100 Best Cities to Live in the United States. CNN/Money and Money magazine considers many factors including housing, median income, number of school, crime rates, air quality and come up with the top 100 cities. When trying to find a place to bring up their children or grandchildren, parents and grandparents can use this list and decide which places are best suited for their situations.

Plymouth, Minnesota, ranks number one on the latest list of big cities to live. It has excellent schools, good jobs, affordable housing, low crime, an active outdoor culture, and plenty more to offer. The city’s main school district is ranked among the top three in the state. For culture, Plymouth’s open-air amphitheater, the Hilde Performance Center, hosts numerous summer concerts. It is also near the Mall of America, the nation’s biggest mall. But, Plymouth, MN can get quite cold in the winter with temperature dropping to about F 3.7° in January.

If you are looking for a place with a little higher temperature but not hot, then Overland Park Kansas has also consistently ranked in the top 10 of the list. Overland Park is located in the Kansas City Metropolitan area and has won many awards. Among many Overland Park City Awards is an award for being one of “The Best Places to Raise Your Kids in 2009”. There is a lot of free places to visit in Overland Park and the majority of them are very good for children. If you live in the area, you can find out from watching Overland Park news all about free, award winning, kids friendly events in the area.

There are lots of cities on the CNN/Money and Money magazine’s list that families say are pretty close to perfect. But, it is up to parents and grandparents in charge to find the best places for their families to live in.

Fine motor skills are described as the coordination of the small muscle movements which usually occur in the fingers and usually in coordination with the eyes. When in relation to the hands (and fingers) the term dexterity is most commonly used.

Manual dexterity is the ability for the hands and fingers to make coordinated movements. Strong fine motor skills, such as used with writing, knitting, sewing and other activities that involve the hands and fingers, rely on manual dexterity.

In young children, manual dexterity is developed normally through routine activities that also require hand-eye coordination. Some children’s fine motor skills develop faster and are stronger than those of others and some children with weak fine motor skills may struggle when learning to form letters and beginning to write.

Because there are many reasons why fine motor skills and manual dexterity may be affected, paediatric occupational therapists often work with children to improve their manual dexterity.

Thankfully however, there are many ways to help your grandchild improve manual dexterity through simple every day, hands-on activities. Exercising a child’s fingers and hands can dramatically improve their manual dexterity so do try some of the following activities:

Threading cereals that have an O-shape – Threading cereal onto yarn is an activity that requires fine motor skills and is repetitively exercising the same muscles, all the while practicing hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity.

Sewing with yarn and cardboard – This is another activity that can improve manual dexterity and builds on fine motor skills. Children simply feed the yarn back and forth through holes which requires concentration and can also satisfy a child creatively.

Color in pages – Coloring in – more so than ‘random’ drawing, requires children to hold crayons firmly to stay within the lines of the image they are trying to color. This too requires concentration and gives the child an end result to be proud of. At sites such as Bratz Coloring Pages you’ll find the best Bratz colouring for little girls, while little boys would perhaps enjoy the Pokemon coloring sheets at Pokemon Coloring Pages.

For particularly young grandchildren who cannot color yet or play with small objects, a classic shape sorter toy is a great place to start. For older grandkids, small, interlocking building blocks such as those by Lego or Duplo are great ways to play while improving and strengthening their manual dexterity.

Bill Cosby---Grandparents

As the parent of one daughter and two sons I have had the profound joy of becoming the grandmother to six grandchildren. Each one of my children and their spouses had a girl first and then a boy. Yet all of them chose not to have anyone else present in the delivery room.

The decision was entirely theirs. In one case I was there with them until just before the birth. My son asked me and my daughter in laws best friend to step outside because this was their moment. It seemed like just a few minutes when we heard the precious cry of my newest grandchild. Shortly thereafter my son, the proud new father, showed us a video of the baby and invited us back in.

I do feel strongly that the decision to let other family members or friends in for the delivery needs to be a private decision made by the new parents to be. When I had my children we didn’t have that choice.

A good idea is to decide what each name each grandparent is to be called. One may want to be Grandma. What if they both do? Perhaps one could be Grandma (Surname or Christian name), or one could choose to be Granny, Nanny, Nanna, or if they are from another country their language could be used, for example, Nona. Ideally, this should be decided in the presence of the new parents but if the deciding turns into an argument, it may need to be decided later.

I like the way child birth is handled now much better. It is very supportive of the mother to be and she has the freedom to decide whose presence she welcomes. Grandparents have a unique and important role to play in the lives of their grandchildren. I can understand that for the grandparent who has been invited in for the delivery this is a very special experience.

I am very cautious about supporting the parents in their roles and openly supporting their decisions to and in front of the children in order to not diminish their positions.

Each of us has the power to create and promote healthier relationships. How have you done this within your family? Remember, your actions become the memories of the generations who follow.

Resource Author Francisco Rodriguez Higueras
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Many believe that Tinkerbell – the fairy who appears in the 1953 Disney’ Peter Pan movie – is a creation of The Walt Disney Company. Not so. Tinkerbell is a character that was created almost half a century before the Peter Pan movie was released.

Tinkerbell, also known as Tink for brevity, is a fictional character that first appeared in a 1904 play by J M Barrie and later in a novel he wrote entitled Peter and Wendy that was published in 1911.

J M Barrie described Tinkerbell as a fairy who mended kettles and metal pots and pans just like an actual tinker would. Her dialogue in the play and in the later novel consists of the sounds of a tinkling bell, which is understandable only to those familiar with the language of the fairies. Though sometimes ill-tempered and vindictive (for example she coaxes the Lost Boys to shoot arrows at Wendy), at other times she is helpful and kind to Peter. The extremes in her personality are explained by J M Barrie in the story as being due to the fact that her small fairy size prevents her from holding more than one feeling at a time, so when she is angry she has no counterbalance such as compassion or kindness.

At first Tinkerbell was only a supporting character described by J M Barrie as “a common fairy”, however – following her success in Disney’s Peter Pan when children the world over fell in love with her animated incarnation, Tinkerbell has become a widely recognized as the unofficial mascot of The Walt Disney Company and recently as the centerpiece of its Disney Fairies media franchise including the direct-to-DVD film Tinker Bell.

Tinker Bell was originally part of the Disney Princess franchise but she was removed from this in 2005 to take her place as the central character of the new Disney Fairies franchise. At Disneyland, guests are able to interact with Tinkerbell at Pixie Hollow’s meet-and-greet area opened in 2008,.

Tinkerbell has fans the world over and many websites are dedicated to this delicate yet mischeivous fairy. For example at sites like Fairy Coloring Pages you’ll find the best Tinkerbell coloring book pages

Interestingly, the copyright to the Tinkerbell character is owned by the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, England. A bronze sculpture of Tinkerbell is located in the hospital’s grounds to commemorate the fact that the Scottish born J M Barrie bequeathed the copyright to the character to the children’s hospital upon his death in 1937.

Today, millions of families around the globe are separated by distances that are too vast to make a day-to-day relationship possible.Think of the all the people you know or that you work with – how many of them live in families with two or three generations living nearby? Not many hey?

Whether in search of new pastures, to heed the call of adventure or to further their careers, people have been on the move for centuries. But whatever the reasons, we know that distance adversely affects family closeness and especially the grandparent-grandchild relationship.

Many families hope that the old saying ‘out of sight, out of mind’ doesn’t hold true. Parents ask themselves, “How can I keep my children better connected with their grandparents?” and similarly, grandparents wonder how they too can keep closer ties with their grandkids.

Here are a few ways grandkids can feel a little closer to their long-distance relatives.

You’ve got mail – Everyone loves receiving hand-written letters and postcards, so encourage your children to write, even if it’s just a line or two. They can also mail art projects, copies of school report cards, class assignments or hand-written stories. Involve the child from beginning to end, from addressing the envelope to going to the post office. Alternatively, there’s always email and your trusty scanner.

Share photos – Belinda Romer keeps her parents and in-laws in the UK up to date on her 11-month-old son Jacob’s development by uploading digital pictures every week or two. “I use Flickr.com, but there are many other such photo sharing sites. I take pictures of a typical day — Jacob waking up, eating breakfast, being bathed, playing and at bedtime,” says Belinda. “The grandparents love it because they get to see Jacob grow and they feel so connected.”

Movie time – Watch a television show or a rented movie ‘together’. For instance, plan to watch ‘Ice Age’ and then share your thoughts via a phone call, letter or e-mail.

Send them a task – Email , or pop in the post, a word search for your grandchildren to complete or a sudoku puzzle to solve. Younger grandkids however might prefer a coloring page to complete for you. At sites like Fairy Coloring Pages you’ll find the best fairy to color in to send to a grand-daughter, while at Spongebob Coloring Pages you’ll find many coloring pages that feature Spongebob Squarepants who is a hit with little boys.  Email a coloring picture to your grandkids and ask them to color it in for you and scan it back – you can then send them a photo of their colored picture once it is displayed on your fridge!

Install a web cam – Set up a web cam on your computer (and your relative’s, of course) so the kids can chat with their grandparents, in real time. You could agree a web cam schedule based on everyone’s time zone (for example every Friday at 6pm) and it will give everyone something to look forward to. Tanya Cotlings’ children have fortnightly webcam meetings with their grandparents, “It’s great that my Mum is able to see the boys and can even comment on whether she likes their new haircuts!”

Story time – Younger children love to receive a recording of their grandparents reading a bedtime story for them. Maybe they could prompt this by sending a recording of themselves reading or reciting a bedtime story and singing some songs for Grandma and Grandpa to fall asleep to.

Children thrive in environments where they are nurtured and loved. They learn about the world that surrounds them when those closest to them – and those further away – join in their play, interests and share in their activities. Whether grandparents live near or far, they have a vital role to play  in child development. It’s crucial to actively promote this intergenerational bond and consider the positive impact it holds on your child’s future.

Sometime in our lives, and certainly when we have children, we want to carry out some detective searches. A large number of parents have been in a situation in which their kid is hanging around with a new buddy. It is probably just a feeling or even a parent’s ESP that indicates something to be not wholly right. It might be a new partner for your older daughter who gives you an odd feeling, or it could be something utterly different. Whatever it is, there are examples when you are not sure someone. As a parent, you feel compelled to take action and get involved, but you don’t want to be the ’snooping’ mother! What would you do in this instance?

The answer is easy. By using this link http://www.gov-criminal-records.com you can easliy and quickly retrieve a persons criminal records by just using their name. The search is free and for a low cost fee you obtain information on all the criminal records you require.

Many parents feel they want to stay out of their son’s business. However, they’d struggle with the worry that makes up being a father. It is difficult to compare the safety of your child (when you cannot be absolutely sure if they might be at risk) against an invasion of their privacy. There is no single authority when a situation like this occurs, but if the intuitions you have are so strong that you are truly anxious for your daughter, you do have decisions to make.

Just by conversing with your child might provide you with the necessary info you require to calm down or to stop worrying. Often, children will explain their feelings with their parents but often they never will. Often a parent is forced to find things out by themselves. With improved methods of online record searching, you can input the name of a gentlemen you feel unsure about to retrieve tons of information. And how you could ask? Sites like the ones above will let you enter in just a name, on its own or with other data you may have, enabling you to receive records about the history of that person. You can find out if that person has ever commmited a felony. It must be hard to consider your daughter being with a criminal, but it happens a lot. If it is true, it’s likely that your son has no idea.

Grandparents can play a key role in encouraging creativity in their grandkids by providing them with the time, resources and the space for simply making art. When the grandchildren visit you, try to set aside interruption-free time for drawing, in a mess-proof zone – so that their creativity can run wild. Make sure you cover all surfaces so that any splashes of paint or scribbles of crayon are ‘caught’ – because nothing squishes creativity more so than a Nanna or Pop  saying “Don’t make a mess” every 2 minutes!

Choose the right drawing materials too as this is very important. Many craft materials can be improvised, think of decorated kitchen roll tubes and potatoes as stamps, but when drawing tools and paper are required, opt for a small selection of good quality age-appropriate products, rather than loads of inferior products. Ensure that you check safety information and always follow instructions. During any ‘art-time’ children should always be surpervised because many necessary materials – such as crayons – pose a choking hazard.

Surroundings: As with writing or working at a computer, good posture and a comfortable position are important for drawing. A child-size table and chair is actually preferable to an easel. If the chair is a little high, provide a phone book as a footrest. A coffee table and an inexpensive plastic chair work well. A small kitchen storage trolley is a perfect solution for containing supplies, or if space does not allow, a portable fishing tackle or tool box is a good option too. Messy toddlers may need a drop-cloth and supervision to avoid ink-stained walls, as even ‘washable’ pens often don’t deliver on that promise!

Art Materials: Avoid cheap markers, too-hard pencils and thin paints – these types of materials are discouraging to the child and therefore a waste of money. Provide many sheets of blank paper to inspire their crativity and occasionally invest in a canvas so that your child can paint something and chances are you’ll want to hang it on your wall! Provide also coloring books or coloring pages which are bountiful online – coloring pages are not so great for creativity, however they do provide children with the chance to practice their fine motor skills and sometimes it’s very relaxing and just what they need to simply color in without the ‘pressure’ of thinking about WHAT to draw.

Nothing much has changed since your children (their parents) were small – little boys still  typically enjoy coloring pictures of cars and trucks while little girls usually prefer coloring images of fairies and princesses – at sites like Princess Coloring Pages you’ll find the best princess coloring page

When it comes to drawing and coloring, at each age/stage of your child’s life provide….

Toddlers

• Child-safe markers and wipe-off boards
• Chalk boards and safe chalk
• Plain paper and coloring pages

Juniors

• Sketchbook
• Student colored pencils
• Washable Markers
• Oil pastels
• Plain paper and coloring pages

Middle School

• Sketchbook or scrapbook
• Graphite Pencils
• Watercolor sketch paper
• Watercolor pencils
• Marker pens, marker paper
• Plain paper and coloring pages

High School

• Sketchbook or scrapbook
• Quality drawing papers and boards
• Graphite Pencils
• Artists’ quality colored pencils
• Illustration markers, marker paper
• Pastel paper and hard pastels if liked
• Plain paper and canvases to work on

All ages

• Safe sharpeners, erasers, dusters, stencils and rulers
• A folder for storing large pieces
• Storage boxes for smaller pieces
• Consider photographing or scanning pieces for a permanent record.

The simple acts of drawing and coloring are  literally childs’ play, however, they both play an important role in your grandchild’s physical, emotional and cognitive development. Like no other activity, drawing  and coloring allows young children to express emotions, experience autonomy and build their confidence. 

Parents and caregivers such as grandparents can promote drawing and coloring  as a way to improve physical, social, emotional and cognitive development-and to have a lot of fun along the way too. Here are some suggestions:

1.  Provide your grankids with nontoxic materials, blank sheets of white paper and coloring pages.

2.       Model drawing. Show children that you like to draw and color too -  make designs but do not show your children what they  should draw.

3.     Encourage all drawing and coloring  efforts by talking about the beautiful colors, the lines and  shapes the child has made.

4.       Rather than ask ”What is it?,”  say “Tell me about your drawing”.Asking “What is that?” suggests to the child that he may have failed to draw the image correctly.

5.       Talk about concepts like  thin, thick, wide, narrow, dark, light, edge, shape, contour, etc.

6.Display their art in a prominent place – such as the kitchen fridge, and in places where visitors to your home will see them. Point them out to visitors – the praise for the work will boost a child’s self esteeem and confidence. 

7.Give kids the freedom to choose the subjects of their drawings and the types of coloring sheets they would like. Some argue that coloring sheets do little to foster children’s creativity – however they play a pivotal role in developing a child’s fine motor skills – a pre-cursor to writing – and often encourage children who wouldn’t otherwise draw and color to pick up a crayon to color in their favourite character. For example little girls  may enjoy coloring images of  fairytale princesses while boys enjoy coloring images of favourite characters such as Pokemon or Spongebob Squarepants and at sites like Spongebob Coloring Pages you’ll find many Spongebob coloring pages Always supervise younger children while they draw and color – crayons pose a choking risk.

Before coming to the conclusion about whether or not there is a beneficial link between oral irrigation and gum health, you need to know one thing first. You see, some people are not really sure what oral irrigation is. If you do not know the term, then you would not be expected to understand what it can do for you, your teeth, and your gums.

Basically, oral irrigation is the process of cleaning away any debris on, from, and in between your teeth. There are a number of devices on the market which can help you do this. They are known as oral irrigators
. Most of the companies which make tooth brushes, toothpastes, floss, and so on, have some type of oral irrigation device on the market as well.

These devices are quite unlike dental floss or dental tape. They utilize a stream, or jet, of water to clean your teeth and gums. At a high – but safe – pressure, a strong water jet will be able to fit between the teeth better than tape or floss. Indeed, for people whose teeth are crowded in and placed close to one another, it can be quite hard to successfully use dental floss. Some people would prefer a portable oral irrigator – it is a matter of personal choice.

As well, water is generally gentler on your gums. You do not risk getting a little too enthusiastic and cutting your gums, or making the tissue irritated and sore.

Due to the growing prevalence of periodontal disease, people are looking for effective ways to keep their teeth and gums clean. Water is a safe, gentle substance no matter which way you slice it. Thus an oral irrigator is able to effectively but safely clean in between your teeth. They can eliminate the debris and bacteria which ultimately lead to gum disease.

Because gum disease is not only bad for your teeth and gums but can also ultimately lead to dangerous health problems, it pays to have good oral hygiene. Oral irrigation can help you do that.

Disclaimer: If you have or think you might have gum disease or some other type of health problem, visit your periodontist or doctor for advice, diagnosis and treatment.  The USFDA has not evaluated statements about any products in this article.