Tips on Choosing a Pediatrician for Your Child

Finding the right pediatrician is not always an easy task.

Many managed-care plans limit your choices. Furthermore, many families will live in several different towns before their children are grown up, making it necessary to choose a new pediatrician more than once.

But once you locate a pediatrician that makes both you and your children feel at ease, you'll know the effort was worth it.

Start by asking friends for names, checking with local hospitals or going to the American Academy of Pediatrics Web site, www.aap.org. If you are moving, ask your current pediatrician for a referral. Look for the letters "FAAP" after the pediatrician's name. This indicates that the pediatrician has passed the American Board of Pediatrics Exam and is now a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The next step is to conduct interviews with several pediatricians. Most pediatricians do not consider it an imposition on their time and do not charge for the visit.

"Interviewing potential pediatricians is absolutely essential to making sure you choose the right one for you and your children," says Dr. Carol Berkowitz, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. "Interviewing allows parents to get a sense of a pediatrician's accessibility, personality and philosophy of practice."

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents ask the following questions.

* Is the pediatrician accepting new patients? Is he or she covered by your insurance or managed-care plan?

* What are the office hours?

* Is emergency coverage available 24 hours a day, seven days a week?

* Is the pediatrician available by phone or e-mail? If so, when?

* Does the practice have an after-hours answering service? Is that service linked to a university or children's hospital?

* Where are patients referred after hours?

* Is there access to pediatric specialists, if needed?

* What hospital does the pediatrician prefer to use?

* How does the office handle billing and insurance claims? Is payment due at the time of the visit?

* If your child has special medical needs, ask about the practice's overall orientation and philosophy about caring for special-needs children. Can it provide the support you need to coordinate medical care for your child?

A family's relationship with its pediatrician can be a lasting and rewarding one. That's why it's worth taking the extra time to find a pediatrician that is a good fit for you and your children. - NU

Tips On Talking To Kids About Not Smoking

Any time parents spend with their kids can be a good time to talk about not smoking cigarettes-and if it seems hard to find the time, maybe it's a good idea for parents to set a date.

It's important to set up special times to talk to your kids about critical issues like not smoking, says Dr. Michael Popkin, a parenting expert.

Because he knows how hard it can be to get the conversation started, Popkin supports a new initiative, Pledge to Talk, which provides parents with a ready-made opportunity. Talk Early, Talk Often, Lorillard Tobacco Company's Youth Smoking Prevention Program, offers free movie vouchers to parents who Pledge To Talk to their kids about not smoking.

"The movie vouchers aren't just a reward; they will help set the stage for an intimate conversation between a parent and a child," says Popkin. "Any chance you have to bring up the no-smoking message is a good one, even on your way to and from the theater. Parents who Pledge to Talk at KeepKidsFrom Smoking.com will get movie vouchers that can be redeemed at the box office for free admission."

Each parent will receive a voucher good for one adult and one child admission while supplies last. Those interested should log on early since quantities are limited.

Those who Pledge to Talk will receive the movie vouchers as well as a special tip sheet with helpful conversation starters.

"Parents often ask me what moment is best for talking to kids about not smoking," said Dr. Popkin. "Although there are certainly things they can do (and avoid) to make talks more effective, any time is a good time to talk. Talks can happen on the way to school or a movie. They can happen at mealtime or bedtime. The important thing is that they happen-at an early age and often enough for the message to stick."

Tips To Help Keep Children Safe From Internet Dangers

Parents don't have to be computer experts to keep their children safe online.

According to the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center, the first step is to realize that one out of every five youths who use the Internet receives an online sexual approach of solicitation during a one-year period.

Even scarier, in 15 percent of such cases, the solicitor attempts to meet the child in person. And, only 25 percent of those children who encounter a sexual solicitation tell a parent.

Worse yet, if asked, more than 29 percent of Internet-using children will freely give out their home address, e-mail address and other personal information online.

The Internet Keep Safe Coalition and the GEICO Educational Foundation have teamed up with the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center to let parents know how to help keep children safe online:

1. Keep the computer in a common room in the house and position the monitor so it's available for public viewing.

2. Establish rules for using the Internet and teach your child important safety guidelines.

3. Use blocking software or filtering programs, but don't rely on them as your only line of defense.

4. Predators often use chat rooms to contact children. Teach children that people online are not always who they say they are.

5. Frequently check your computer's Internet history to see what sites your child is visiting.

6. Monitor your child's e-mail account. Let him or her know you're checking it and why. Talk with your child about potential online dangers.

7. Spend time with your children when they're online. Have them show you their favorite sites.

8. If you see anything suspicious or think that your child may be a victim of Internet exploitation, contact your local FBI office or law enforcement agency.

9. Tell your children to protect their personal information. Children should never give their real name, address, phone number, the name of their school or a picture of themselves to anyone they meet online. Never let your child meet in person with anyone they've met on the Internet.

10. Teach children to tell a parent, teacher or trusted adult if they feel uncomfortable about anything they've seen online.

Tips to Help Kids Concentrate in Class

All of us want our children to succeed in school. But for many kids and teens, concentration in this always-pressured, starved-for-time era can be difficult. Here are some tips for helping your son or daughter improve concentration and do better in the classroom:

* Take time for breakfast. Children who have breakfast and enough to eat during the rest of the day will be better able to concentrate in school, according to Head Start, the national child development program run by the Department of Health and Human Services.

* Introduce them to music. Playing instruments has shown to increase focus and concentration in other areas.

* Provide a supplement. One product is Focus, from the "Spray" line of sublingual sprays. Developed by doctors, Focus is a combination of homeopathic remedies that can improve concentration, support memory and help overcome apathy. It acts gently, causes no side effects and meets all FDA guidelines for good manufacturing practices.

Seventeen-year-old Bianca attributes her first-ever "100" on an algebra exam to Focus. "It worked so well at improving my concentration while studying and taking tests, my algebra grade went from D to B," she says. "My mom is very excited about my improvements, and my 16-year-old sister is now using the spray, too."



* Send them to bed on time. Studies show that children and most teenagers concentrate best after about nine hours of sleep.

* Give them space. Your kids will be better able to concentrate on homework if they have a clear, uncluttered workspace. And turn off the TV; they won't learn if they're squeezing their homework in during commercials.

* Get them organized. The National PTA suggests helping older students organize their assignments by recording them on calendars or planners, along with due dates and dates turned in.

* Discourage "cramming." It increases anxiety and interferes with clear thinking, according to the Department of Education. Kids do better on tests if they spread out studying over several days or weeks and can relate the information to what they already know.

Tips to Help Your Child Cope With Stress

You think you're stressed?

Understanding newfangled math concepts and learning unfamiliar vocabulary words are just part of your child's day. With the rest of the day devoted to juggling homework, extracurricular activities, friends and chores, it's clear that you may not be the only one who is stressed in your household.

Stress is a natural part of a child's life. However, when it becomes overwhelming, it can become more than just mentally draining. It can be harmful to your child's health.

To help your child cope with stress, CyberWize.com, maker of Vital StressX, a supplement designed to help your body cope with stress, offers the following tips.

* Help a younger child understand a stressful situation by explaining what is going on in simple, reassuring language. Offer understanding, support and lots of affection.

* Don't push your child too hard. Offer praise and encouragement as often as you can.

* Help your child find healthy ways to relieve stress by taking part in physical activities or writing in a journal, for example.

* Set a good example by demonstrating self-control and coping skills. Encourage cooperation rather than competition.

* When efforts at home fail, seek outside help from a pediatrician or a child psychologist.

* Ask the doctor about supplements that might help your child cope with stress. Vital StressX, for example, contains a unique combination of seven of the most researched "adaptogens." This combination of herbs regulates cortisol, the "stress hormone," and helps the body's natural defenses fight against the results of poor diet, lack of sleep, pollutants and other elements that can contribute to stress.

"Vital StressX facilitates focus and concentration, reducing stress and promoting success," said Dr. Robert D'Amico, a specialist in osteopathic medicine in Tarpon Springs, Fla.

Tips to Help Your Child Stay Healthy and Fit

American kids are making headlines. But, the news isn't something to cheer about. Turns out they are becoming more overweight than ever before.

Today, about 16 percent of children ages 6 to 19 are overweight, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), and the number is steadily increasing.

The dangers of being overweight in childhood are the same as in adulthood: heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, the precursors to type 2 diabetes and even some forms of cancer.

Experts say children need at least one hour of physical activity each day. Is your child this active?

Parents play a big role in shaping children's eating and physical activity habits. Helping your child maintain a healthy weight requires a long-term commitment with modifications the entire family should embrace.

Here are a few suggestions from the experts at NIDDK.

* Set a good example. Plan family activities, like hiking, biking, dancing or basketball. Include children in active chores like walking the dog, washing the car or mowing the lawn.

* Don't forget the fun factor. It is likely that younger kids will respond better to exercise if it doesn't feel like exercise. Try climbing a jungle gym, throwing a Frisbee or playing chase. For older children, encourage physical education classes or urge them to do activities that they like and will do every day.

* Cut down on screen time. Television viewing and other screen usage can hold your child's interest for hours, which may discourage physical activity and increase calorie consumption. Reduce your child's screen time by encouraging other behaviors such as playing outdoors or moving around during commercials. A few minutes of physical activity at a time can certainly add up.

Taking a pledge as a family to live a fit and healthy lifestyle is one of the best gifts you can provide your child.

Tips to Help Your Kids Celebrate Reading

It's been proven that children who read achieve. They boast higher test scores and recognize letters and numbers more often than their peers who read less often. But getting children to crack open a book sometimes can be the tricky part for parents and teachers.

Nine years ago, the National Education Association launched the "Read Across America" program to encourage, excite and energize children to do just that.

Originally created as a one-day event to celebrate the joy of reading on March 2, the birthday of Dr. Seuss, NEA's Read Across America has grown into a nationwide initiative that promotes reading every day with more than 45 million participating annually.

"As teachers and parents, we know that kids who read - and are read to - do better in school and in life," said NEA President Reg Weaver.

NEA, the nation's largest professional employee organization, representing 2.7 million teachers and education support professionals, offers the following tips for parents on how they can promote reading year-round:

* Provide encouragement. Parents play a crucial role in their children's education. Children who report that their parents encourage them to read are more likely to read a higher volume of books than those who say that their parents leave it up to them.

* Have books available to your children. Access to books is fundamental to reading success. Increasing access to print material is the most successful way to improve the reading achievement of low-income children.

* Make it fun. Children who read frequently are better readers and better students. Studies and research show that students who read for fun have better reading scores.

"NEA's Read Across America provides a unique opportunity to encourage parent and child interaction to foster literacy on a large scale," Weaver said. "We remind parents, teachers, children and the community that reading is indeed fun because you're never too old, too wacky, too wild to pick up a book and read with a child."

Tips to Help Your Kids Succeed in School All Year

Research shows that parental involvement in schools improves student achievement, reduces absenteeism and restores confidence among parents in their children's education.

"Children need parents who have an interest in what's going on in the classroom," said Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association. "Parents must do everything they can to get their children fully engaged at school, reinforce their learning at home and develop a strong relationship with their teachers."

NEA, the nation's largest educators organization, offers the following tips for parents on how they can ensure a successful educational experience for their children:

* Go to parent-teacher conferences. If the school doesn't have them, set aside a time to meet with your children's teachers. Ask how your children are doing and review their work. Let the teachers know how and when it is best to reach you. Finally, ask how you can support your children's learning at home.

* Visit the classrooms. Getting a firsthand look at what is going on in your children's classrooms will help you stay informed about what they are learning at school.

* Join the PTA or other parent group. Go to school events, such as back-to-school night. As a group, parents can help schools reach their goals.

* Pay attention to what your children are learning at school. Be aware of what they need to know to meet the standards set for their grade level.

* Contact the school if you have any concerns.

Parental involvement also means reading to your children, checking homework every night, limiting television viewing on school nights or simply asking your children about their school day.

"Whatever your level of involvement, do it consistently and regularly because it will make an important difference in your children's lives," Weaver said.

Tips To Keep Your Children Safer

Nearly 800,000 children are reported missing each year in the United States. If you're a parent or guardian, the realization that your child could go missing may be your biggest fear. With summer vacation in full swing, and thousands of children out enjoying the weather, families need to take extra precautions to keep their children safer.

Here are some quick and easy tips from Knowing the Rules... Summer Safety Tips for Parents and Guardians by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to help increase the safety of children in your community:

• Be sure to go over the rules with your children about whose homes they can visit when you're not there and discuss the boundaries of where they can and can't go in the neighborhood.

• Make sure children know their full names, address, and telephone numbers and how to use the telephone. Be sure they know what to do in case of an emergency and how to reach you using cellular or pager numbers. Children should have a neighbor or trusted adult they can call if they're scared or there's an emergency.

• Teach your children in whose car they may ride. Children should be cautioned never to approach any vehicle, occupied or not, unless accompanied by a parent, guardian or other trusted adult.

• Make sure your children know to stay away from pools, canals or other bodies of water without adult supervision.

• Since daylight lasts longer during the summer months, be sure your children know their curfew and to check in with you if they are going to be late. If you allow your children to play outside after dark, make sure they have reflective clothing on and stay close to home.

• Choose babysitters with care. Obtain references from family, friends and neighbors. Many states now have registries for public access to check criminal history or sex-offender status. Observe the babysitter's interaction with your children and ask your children how they feel about the babysitter.

• Check out camps and other summer programs before enrolling your children. See if a background screening check is completed on the individuals working with the children. Make sure there will be adult supervision of your children at all times, and make sure you are made aware of all activities and field trips offered by the camp or program.

• Always listen to your children and keep the lines of communication open. Your children are your best source for determining if everything is okay. Teach your children to get out of dangerous or uncomfortable situations right away and practice basic safety skills with them. Make sure they know they can tell you about anything that makes them feel scared, uncomfortable or confused.

Following these tips can help ensure your children enjoy a safer summer. However, the most important step you can take to help prevent abduction is to make safety a priority for the entire family. A great resource to help parents and guardians talk openly with their children about staying safer is StreetSentz.

StreetSentz (www.StreetSentz. com) is an online resource for child safety information and education. On this site you will find tips, news, articles and community resources to help keep children safer from abduction, violence and exploitation. Families can request a free Child ID Kit. In the event that your child goes missing, it is important to provide law enforcement with an up-to-date photo and other pertinent information about your child right away.

Additionally, families can sign up for Wireless AMBER Alerts on their mobile phone. The Wireless Foundation introduced this industrywide public service program in May 2005, enabling nearly all of the more than 200 million wireless phone users in the United States to opt in to receive free geographically specific AMBER Alerts as text messages on their wireless phones when an AMBER Alert has been issued for an abducted child in their area.

Tips to Relieve Your Child's ADHD Symptoms

When you think of your child having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, do you automatically think of a lifetime of your child popping pills?

Medication isn't always the answer to treating ADHD, a neurobehavioral disorder that causes problems with attention, impulsivity and overactivity, according to the National Resource Center on AD/HD. In fact, experts say that using medication to treat the chronic disorder that affects between 3 percent and 7 percent of school-age children is not necessary in all cases.

However, what is necessary - whether your child is on medication or not - is using other elements to control the effects of ADHD. The following tips can help your child become more successful in aspects of life, such as school and peer relationships, that are impaired by the condition:

* Create a daily schedule. Since organization is often a problem for children with ADHD, the National Institute of Mental Health recommends keeping your child on a routine. Post the schedule in your child's room or other area in the house and try to make schedule changes far in advance.

* Provide a supplement. Some experts recommend ADHD sufferers take a supplement specifically designed to help relieve symptoms of the disorder, such as Focus from "The Spray" line of sublingual sprays, which is made with natural ingredients.

Clinical studies show that Focus is effective in reducing lapses in attention, poor concentration and the tendency to be easily distracted. This spray was developed by doctors and meets all Food and Drug Administration guidelines for good manufacturing practices.
* Help break down large assignments. Break projects or big tasks into smaller steps. This will make the assignments more manageable for your child.

* Encourage peer activities. To help your child alleviate pent-up hyperactivity and develop social skills, get your child involved in extracurricular activities, such as sports.

Tired Of The Mess? Tips To Keep Your Child's Room Neat

Wanting your child to be organized and stay safe is an innate desire for parents. But sometimes, your kids don’t see it that way. All your kids want to do is play, play and play some more! If you’re having a hard time keeping your child’s room clean and organized, read on for some tips to help you achieve your goal.

Make the room efficient. Make use of small drawers and cabinets where you can put your child’s belongings. Utilize anything that fits the design or budget. The easier it to access, the better chance that it will be used.

For toddlers, hanging their clothes on small hangers on a low hung rod can help them choose their outfit and help them to feel like they are making their own decisions. These feelings help them to start to “like” how things work, and as they grow they will “like” having their clothes hung.

Organizing a baby’s room is mostly for the benefit of the parent. Grouping the essential things you need in one area will help you find things quicker and make the job of caring for your baby much easier and safer. For example, put all the items you need for changing your baby on or near your changing table. You never want to leave your baby on the table to move across the room to pick up something that’s out of place, and having to pick him up to do that is quite a pain as well. Likewise, arrange baby’s bath basics together including towels and washcloths. Keep them within easy reach when you are bathing your baby. After all, you cannot leave your baby in her tub while you look for the baby shampoo.

Place shelves at reaching height for your child in his or her room. Shelves can be used to put toys on and when your child wants to play, she can easily reach them without having to drag out all the other toys.

Place a limit on the toys that are used at one time. Teach your child to play with one toy at a time. Then before she can play with another toy, she must put the first one away. If it’s on a shelf that’s at a level where she can easily access it, this job should be an easy one, she just may have to be reminded that the first toy has to be put back before the second one can be taken out.

Make organizing and keeping the room clean fun. Make using special containers for toys with small pieces a fun part of playing with that toy. For example, use an old shoebox as a toy car garage. Another example of making organization fun would be to place a basketball hoop on top of your little boy’s laundry hamper. He’ll be able to practice some basketball moves every time he changes his clothes.

Teach your child how to clean his room. Ask your child to join you when you are cleaning his room. Point out that there is a place for everything and keeping the room clean is as easy as putting every item back in it’s place. As long as you don’t let the room get too out of hand, cleaning will be easy. Eventually, you can transition to sitting on the bed and telling your child what needs to be done. Then later, he will know what to do without you being there.

Keeping a child’s room clean can truly be a daunting task, but cleaning as you go and keeping organized makes it a lot easier. Follow the tips above and start to get in a habit, it takes practice and some time before you see results but it’s well worth the effort.

Toddler Skills for Personal Responsibility

There are three skills that are very important for our little ones to learn early in their lives.

1) Children need to be able to fall asleep on their own. Infants and toddlers who are always rocked to sleep, or breastfed or bottle fed to sleep, learn to depend upon others for falling asleep and do not develop their own falling asleep mechanism. This can cause much distress for parents who go through the nightly nightmare of trying to get their infant or toddler to sleep. Instead of always picking up and rocking a crying little one, which only reinforces the child’s dependency on you putting him or her to sleep, try patting the child and then leaving for a few minutes. If you keep coming in, patting your child and reassuring him or her that you are here, eventually your child will stop depending upon you to rock, hold or feed him or her to sleep.

2) Children need to learn very young to play by themselves and amuse themselves. It is not healthy for children to be constantly dependent upon others, or upon the TV, to amuse them. I work with many adults who never learned to “play by themselves.” These adults feel lost when they are alone, having no idea what to do with themselves. Instead of turning to creative or learning opportunities, they may participate in addictions such as eating, drinking, drugs, TV, work, spending, and so on. When children learn to play by themselves at a young age, they tend to be more self-sufficient and creative as adult.

3) Children need to learn how to self-nurture. This means that they need to learn how to take some responsibility for their own feelings. Infants often self-soothe with their blanket, thumb, or pacifier. But as they grow older, they need to learn other ways of self-nurturing because they will not be taking their blanket or pacifier to school.

Even children as young as 2 1/2 years old can learn to attend to their own feelings. You can help your young children start to take responsibility for their feelings by giving them a doll or stuffed animal that represents their emotions. You can tell them that the doll or stuffed animal is the baby inside them that has a lot of different emotions. When they are feeling sad or angry, they can learn to talk to the baby inside and find out what that baby needs from them or from you. As they get older, they can learn to connect their thoughts with their feelings. They can learn that if they judge themselves by telling themselves that they are bad or stupid or ugly, they will feel very badly.

It is vitally important for all of us to connect our thoughts with our feelings. Most of us grew up believing that others caused all our good and painful feelings. If someone yelled at us or told us we were bad or stupid or ugly, we certainly felt badly, and if someone approved of us, we felt good. So we learned to believe that all our feelings are being caused by others. It is important for children to learn that their feelings are also affected by what they tell themselves and how they treat themselves. For example, if an older brother tells his younger brother that he is stupid, the younger child might start to tell himself he is stupid, without realizing that he is causing himself to feel very badly. By talking with his “baby”, he might realize he is treating himself in a way that is hurting him.
He also might also be able to understand that his brother is not telling him the truth. The way he can learn to realize this is by learning to access his “Source of Love and Truth.”

Small children can easily learn to open to a powerful Source of Love and Truth. You can ask them to imagine a wonderful friend, a guardian angel, or a fairy godmother. It is very easy for most children to imagine a wonderful being who is here to love them and guide them. They can be encouraged to ask questions of this loving being, such as “Is it true that I am stupid?” They can learn to bring through true and loving statements to themselves when they open to learning with their spiritual Guidance.

These skills, learned early in life, will do much to foster personal responsibility in our children.

Toddlers Who Stutter

Some parents have the shock of hearing their young child start to stutter as a toddler. I am somebody who runs a speech centre in Birmingham, England, I now help people to achieve fluency.

I met a lady who was thirty and her little boy aged four had been stuttering for quite a while. She had taken him to speech therapy and was extremely anxious as to why he was stuttering. It had possibly started because the toddlers father had quite a severe stutter, the boy may of picked up the bad habits this way.

Many other people contact me asking why their toddler has developed a stutter and asking what forms of stuttering treatments are available.

I always suggest that they keep as patient as they can and try to play games, speech games with their child. They can challenge the child to say the word fluently, they show their child how it should be said and then bet them that they can't do it themselves. When they do manage to say that particular word fluently they then heap lots of praise onto the child, telling them how clever they are and how proud mommy and daddy are of them. I even advise giving them an award like a small chocolate bar.

If instead of being patient parents or relatives are aggressive, saying things like: "Get your words boy" "Spit it out!" These types of comments can have a very negative effect and make that child withdraw into their shell. This may to some people seem very obvious to say, however you would not believe the amount of people who have told me this is what they were told as an infant.

I hope you found this article interesting and beneficial, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me at info@stammering-stuttering.co.uk

Stephen Hi

Top 10 Ways To Prevent Obesity In Kids

I’m sure you’ve seen the dire reports about childhood obesity becoming rampant in America. It’s a scary thing and not an experience any of us wish upon our children. Preventing obesity can be easy and empowering for children. Give them control over their bodies. Teach them to tune in to their real needs and to treat themselves with love and respect.

1) Allow children to be in charge of which foods they eat.

2) Make all foods equal and teach kids to check in with their bodies and choose foods based on what their bodies are asking for.

3) Encourage them to know when they are full and to stop eating at that point.

4) Let them eat according to their own hunger patterns rather than according to external schedules.

5) De-emphasize body shape and weight. Encourage kids to love and accept their bodies unconditionally.

6) Help them find fun ways to move and play so they get plenty of enjoyable exercise every day.

7) Love them unconditionally and don’t make derogatory comments about their looks or weight.

8) Be sure they never get started on the damaging cycle of dieting and bingeing.

9) Let food just be fuel for the body. Don’t turn it into a reward or save certain things to be special treats.

10) Teach them to honor other people and not tease or make fun of others who are fat.

Adults who want to lose weight through intuitive eating are encouraged to eat like a two year-old child. The most effective thing we can do to prevent childhood obesity is help children stay in touch with their bodies and honor its needs.

Tracking Children

With today technology, it is enable parents to know exactly where their children are. GPS technology offers an exciting new means by which parents can ascertain their children's whereabouts at all times.

A deep seated concern for children is instinctive. It's the reason so many parents have spent late evenings pacing the floor waiting for a teenager to return home. And the cause of lingering concerns when a child is away.

The concerns also make a great deal of practical sense. Children are too often victimized in today's society, so the ability to check on a child's whereabouts at all times can be a great asset. And children, knowing that their whereabouts are being tracked, encourages them to behave properly.

GPS technologies offer a great means by which parents can determine where their children are at any given moment. Tracking via GPS makes the old question "Do you know where your children are?" easily answerable, rather then just being rhetorical. GPS systems were developed by the government for intelligence and surveillance purposes. An array of satellites allows one to determine with amazing specificity the exact location of any person carrying a tracking device.

This seemingly futuristic gadgetry is readily available today, with new products featuring GPS tracking technology being developed regularly. Tracking devices can be as simple as wristwatches or cellular phones equipped with an appropriate chip. Other manufacturers are experimenting with plastic phone sleeves, necklaces, backpack tags and other possible chip carrying accessories.

These devices can be given to a child, making information regarding their whereabouts immediately available to their parents. Generally, parents are able to log in to a provider maintained website and can get the location information with only a few keystrokes.

These devices can be programmed to operate in any number of ways. Some will simply track locations of children. Others can be programmed to alert parents in cases when a child leaves established "safe zones". The different ways of using the tracking process can be customized to how much information you want, general vicinity vs. an almost exact location. Or anything in between.

Tracking children with GPS technology is an inviting proposition. Any parent who has experienced the fear of "losing" a child in a crowd, or who simply finds themselves worrying about a child's well-being during travel, will find relief in the ability of knowing their child's whereabouts at any time.

The tracking with GPS also allows parents to encourage positive behaviors. Children who know they can be tracked are far less likely to engage in irresponsible or forbidden acts. There's no guarantee that GPS tracking will stop a teen from involving themselves in an ill advised "road trip", but it does give kids a potent reason to think twice before acting.

As new products become available and competition continues to force the price of GPS child tracking systems down, there is no doubt that use of GPS will skyrocket. This satellite technology offers parents a very effective means of enhancing child safety.

Traveling For Thanksgiving - Keeping Kids Busy

Thanksgiving is a time for gathering the family, but how do you keep kids interested while in the car or sitting in airports? Have them keep journals.

Thanksgiving Travel

Nothing beats getting your extended family together for Thanksgiving. It is a great time to catch up and laugh about old times. The only aggravating thing, of course, is actually traveling to meet up. There are already stories of travel nightmares in the news two days before Thanksgiving. This can be particularly troubling if you have kids who become easily bored.

In these days of the Internet and video games, the average child seems to have an attention span of about 30 seconds. If a glassy-eyed child killing things on a screen is not your idea of good thing, what alternatives do you have? Giving your child a writing journal is a great way to keep them busy without resorting to violent video games.

For many kids, the only way to truly get their attention on a thanksgiving trip is to get them involved. The best method for doing this is to give them a journal and ask them to keep notes on everything they seem. At the end of the day, they should be encouraged to write a journal entry about what happened during the day. It will give them an outlet for their thoughts, promote good writing skills and preserve family experiences they would otherwise forget with time.

A good journal for kids will combine a number of characteristics. First, it should be compact. Second, it should have a case to protect it from rain, spills and just because kids will be kids. Third, the journal should contain blank areas for notes, doodles and so on. Finally, the journal should contain cue spaces to remind children to pay attention to certain things and write them down. Cues should include:

1. Who went on the family vacation,

2. Places visited and why they are important,

3. The most memorable experience each day,

4. New friends made and contact information for them,

5. Which family members were present, and

6. Impressions.

As time passes, the family vacations journals will remind your kids of past trips. Memories fade with time, even for kids. By keeping a journal, kids will open their eyes to things around them, enhancing your Thanksgiving family gathering. Hopefully, it will also keep them busy and away from video games.

Treasuring Time With Your Kids

When school is out, kids look to relax, play and spend more time outdoors.

For many parents, this presents a new set of challenges, including how to keep their kids engaged and busy, particularly on rainy days, without parking them in front of a TV or video game.

The New York Times best-selling author Michael Stadther has one solution: fun activities that reward kids for using their imaginations.

These stimulating activities can be found at www.atreasurestrove. com, the site that is the home to Stadther's book "A Treasure's Trove"--a beautifully illustrated, fantasy adventure story that captured the hearts and imaginations of millions of children and adults and, through clues hidden in its pages, inspired a nationwide treasure hunt.

The author has created brainteasers related to events and characters in The Great Forest, where the action takes place in "A Treasure's Trove."

Stadther's next book, "Secrets of the Alchemist Dar," is a sequel to "A Treasure's Trove." "Secrets of the Alchemist Dar," which can now be ordered through online booksellers or in bookstores nationwide for delivery at the end of September, will include good and bad fairies and feature new clues to a whole new worldwide treasure hunt for 100 jewelled fairy rings.

In anticipation of the book's arrival, Michael Stadther plans to unveil a creative contest that invites Web visitors to use their imaginations about fairy ring

Turn Viewing into a Teachable Moment by Watching Together

A new national study shows how television has become a central focus of many very young children's lives. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? That depends on how parents approach it. The following questions and answers may help you decide:

Q: How much television do children watch?

A: According to the study released by the Kaiser Family Foundation, in a typical day more than eight in 10 children under the age of 6 use screen media, with those children averaging about two hours a day.

Q: How is TV used in most homes?

A: In many homes, electronic media are used to help manage busy schedules, keep the peace and facilitate family routines such as eating, relaxing and falling asleep. TV can also be used to educate. Thirty-seven years ago, Sesame Workshop changed the history of television with "Sesame Street," proving educational television can be a positive learning tool for preschoolers.

Now, the nonprofit educational organization behind the show has developed a new line of DVDs called Sesame Beginnings. It's designed to encourage interaction between caregivers and children, as well as to provide ideas, songs and activities that caregivers can use to promote "teachable moments."

Q. Why focus on infants and their caregivers?

A. As the recent study found, millions of children under the age of 2 are watching TV and videos. Sesame Workshop's own research has found that "Sesame Street" videos were among those frequently viewed by children under 2. However, the content and curriculum of "Sesame Street" is designed for ages 2-5. Therefore, the DVDs were created to provide video content for families with younger children-with the goal to model and foster parent-child interaction during viewing and, most importantly, when the video is over.

Q. Are the DVDs designed to promote infant TV/video viewing?

A. No. The purpose of developing these DVDs is to offer parents-who do choose to allow their children to watch TV/video-content that is developmentally appropriate for children under 2 and that reinforces important research-based principles that young children learn best through adult-child interaction. Dr. Truglio is Vice President of Education & Research at Sesame Workshop.



DVDs for the under 2 set-In a typical day, studies show that more than eight in 10 children under the age of 6 watch television.

TV Is A Drug - Are Your Kids Addicted?

For most of us, hearing about different types of addiction is a common occurrence. Even more difficult to bear is that most of us are close to someone affected by an addiction. When addictions are related to the abuse of a substance such as alcohol, our understanding that there is a problem may be rooted in clear and serious signs of a life out of control. But what about an addiction related to something more subtle? Could a behavior as seemingly normal as watching television become an addiction? You bet it can!

I believe television can be a "drug" because it is literally a mind-altering experience. Like any drug, it has the potential to be used responsibly or abused. Did you know that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no television for children under two years of age, and no more than two hours of television per day for older children? Here's why. It is not only because of the potential for inappropriate content. In fact, for young children especially, it is the incredible stimulation that TV provides that makes it so potentially damaging. All of the flashing bright colors, loud sounds, and frequent fragmentation of reality that television encompasses is far too much stimulation for most young minds to manage. At the same time, children are like a magnet for this type of gratification, and as most parents know, can become addicted to the neurological stimulation of television very quickly. Although some people have tried to justify overexposure to electronic media by claiming it makes children smarter, those theories are little more than rationalizations for indulging in what science indicates is bad for us.

What's the effect of repeated exposure to television stimulation? Just like what happens when a person is exposed to any drug, repeated exposure to television has the effect of dulling a person's senses. This is precisely what we as parents experience when we ask our kids to tear themselves away from the television and in return get a blank stare or grunt and shrug! With younger children, requiring them to make a transition away from a stimulation source to which they are "hooked" often results in an instant melt-down. Noticing your child's ability to transition between watching television and attending to the environment around him or her is a good way to determine if she or he is over-stimulated, or even possibly addicted. Kids who are addicted to television care increasingly less about the content of what they are watching, and more about getting another "hit" of electronic stimulation. The brain is an organ that is unique in that it develops in response to its environment - and if you're continually "blasting" a young, developing mind with rapid-fire images, you may be creating a mind that craves high level stimulation but lacks the ability to focus its attention - sound familiar?

Here's What You Can Do:

1) Make television a family activity. Discuss what you and your child are watching together. Turn down or mute the volume during commercials to ensure you are sustaining social contact. And relate events on television shows to real events in the life of your family.

2) Limit television watching to a specific period of time and to specific times of the day. Kids do better when they are required to do things before they watch TV, such as getting dressed, teeth brushed, breakfast eaten, etc., before the television set goes on. Don't let television become the constant background to family life. Turn the TV on to watch specific shows, and then turn it off when the show is over.

Discuss alternatives to television with your children. Kids do much better accepting that they can only watch a limited amount of TV when they know you are prepared to spend time playing a game, going to the park, or helping with homework instead. When we use TV to occupy our kids so we can get other things done, we are inadvertently becoming enablers of their addiction.

3) Not all television is created equal. Look for shows that are paced appropriately for children. There are great programs for kids that don't rely on seizure-inducing graphics to keep their attention. Don't be afraid to censor shows; if you start when children are young by simply saying, "this show isn't good for your brain, and I'm proud of what a smart girl (or boy) you are," you'll get them on the right track.