Fatherhood

Develop Sence of Humor in Your Child

Not all people have sence of humor from birth. Psychologists proved that a man who knows to laugh achieves in his life much more success than a man who does not have sence of humor. Therefore, it is important to develop in children sence of humor from early childhood. How to do it?

Children from kindergarden do tease your child which makes him cry? Learn him to smile in a response to the offender. Yeah, this is really an effective solution. He should invent something funny and try to look at the situation with humor. This will help him accept wipes and mockery without pain.

Smile more often
First smile of your child you see at first days of his life. However, real sincere smile will appear only at second month of his life. Thus baby would reply with a smile to mother's smile and her tender words. Do not lose this moment! Try to maintain such communication. This will make baby understand that with help of a smile may be prolonged contact with parents and this will make him smile more often.

See funny things
In order to make a man smile, he must know to see funny things. Optimists say that. To make child laugh he must have certain life experience.  Remember that funny thing may occur suddenly, when is broken usual traditional course of events.

If you want your child to have keen sense of humour talk with him about different things from early childhood. And most important, always gladly encounter his smile.

What provokes laughter in a child
At the beginning, various games and focuses would be enough. The talk is about swinging baby on knees, tossing, tickling. Remember that not only you may make him laugh – he may start up an amusement by himself. Many children are captured by lilts, fairy-tales, cartoons ...

Sence of comic things
This is showed when children make fun of each other, tell topsy-turvydoms, pull grimaces. They enjoy it very much! When children invent a proper joke, children feel that it is amazing and funny to turn the world in their own way. For a child invention of all those non-conformities is a kind of intelligence game. You should pay attention to child's jokes, appreciate them, even if they seem not funny to you.

The sence of comic things appears in children during proper creative activity. Invent together a new poem, fairy-tale, tickler, counting rhyme.

It is easier to make jokes for an intelligent and reading person, therefore read more to your child and then let him retell things tou read.

How To Teach Children Colors

There are games which would help your child to remember easily colors.  You may start learning colors when your baby is one year old because at this age babies do remember everything more easily.

It is difficult for the child to consider that different objects may have same colors. At average, by two years old your child should show you with certainty at least five colors.

1. Main aid in perception of the world around is parents. At home and outside do name, tell and show different colors. Name only main colors and not their undertones. Consider green, red, white, blue, yellow, black. Name colors with different intonation. For example, “white” - tenderly, “black” - gloomily, “red” - “joyful”. At the beginning child would orientate himself by intonation and with time he would remember the colors.

2. In order to ease tasks for the child, make multicolored days: yellow, red, blue, green. These days you should wear, for example, only blue cloths and play blue toys – let this day be dedicated to blue.

3. Buy in the shop educational toys, album and childish paints for finger painting. Finger painting helps child much quicker and easier to remember colors and this way of painting he would certainly enjoy.

4. You may easily replace paints with markers. Do not give child all colors at once because it would make him get into a mess. Draw one of baby's toy, name its color and tell him to bring it to you. When child will learn one color, you may begin to learn another.

5. Another fine aid to learn colors is tinted cardboard. You may cut from it different figures of different colors: red circle, yellow square, etc. This game will help to teach him not only colors but also figures.

6. You may teach colors during a walk. Name colors of trees, flowers, sky and other objects you see around.

7. Chalk also helps to remember colors. When you draw on asphalt you should necessarily name things you draw – yellow sun, green grass...  Never make child learn something new against his will because such learning performance would never be helpful. The process of learning colors must be unintrusive and interesting to the child.

Help Your Children Succeed in School. Part One.

Finally came this exciting moment – for the first time your child goes to school. This year would be not easy for you. Find out tips that would help you learn him to get used to the school.

1) Be sure to walk him in the school even if the school is found round the corner of your house. Several minutes of kind intercommunication would help your child set himself up for learning. If he is in a bad mood, be sure to encourage him.

2) Pupil must have his own area in the house. If there is no nursery in your house, you should arrange a place for learning: an appropriate desk, a comfortable chair, shelves for books and copybooks, good lighting.

3) A very important issue – right day regimen. 30 minutes of making homework should be alternated with 15 minutes of break. It is necessary to go for a walk more often because main cause of bad mood in a child in this period is increased fatigability.

4) It is necessary to care for child's possibility to play toys and intercommunicate with peers. Child's life should be joyful and different.

5) In first grade child should feel accomplishment from learning process and here parents may have a major role. Parents must find moments to commend their first-year pupil and give him an emotional support. This will help to increase his self-esteem and develop intellectual abilities.

6) Explain him why do exist rules in the school and what role they play in learning process.

7) Parental control is a necessity but it should be rather friendly than regimental.  “What is for you homework?, What is to do in this task? Do you need my help?”

8) At the beginning it would be better to stay behind him when he makes his homework. If necessary, stop him and say “Wait. Let's see it together.” Later you should move over. In a month you may move to other part of the room and go about your own business but anyway keeping control over his actions. After some time you may leave him alone. This would learn your child to be independent.

9) Child should be controled every day unless you see he treats his tasks with all responsability.

10) Written tasks should be alternated with oral ones. Start with most difficult tasks and do not forget about breaks.

To be continued.

Why Do Kids Get Bad Grades?

At the beginning child had a great desire to go to school and he wanted so much to learn. However, in two months the interest faded away and he began to get bad grades, then he said he not wants to go to school anymore. What is the reason for such behavior? Let us find out what are the causes of his poor progress.

 - First of all, child must be prepared enough for the school, thus he will progress well. In other words, he must be mature enough for the studying process. Therefore, it is not recommended to send child to school at 6 years old. Preschool experience is also important because modern program in schools is made for minimally prepared children.

 - Children who often get sick and, therefore, miss their classes can hardly manage school program. They can have high plane of intelligence, but common weakness of the body prevents them from successful learning. Such children get tired quickly.

 - Children with creative mind sent to learn in mathematical schools can hardly rejoice their parents with good grades.

 - It is necessary to mention the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which shows with concentration difficulties, locomotory disinhibition, talkativeness, restlessness.

 - Emotional causes of  poor progress may be connected with anything. This may be conflict with teacher: inability to find common language with teacher and to establish relationships with peers.

 - Excessive insistence on high standards of parents may destroy the desire to learn. Kid feels that parents have high hopes for him and fears that he won't manage to realize them.

What to do if child doesn't want to go to school?

First of all, talk to him. Let him explain what is happening to him. Do not proceed like a judge, instead be a friend, listen to him attentively and give him a support. Let child learn to express his feelings with the help of words – that would be a great and useful  skill in his future life.

If child has problems with teacher or peers, help him to make friends with them and get the conflict to the end. If child doesn't understand learning stuff, do your best to help him to study out. If child is anxious or suffers from locomotory over-excitement and inability to relax, then you should search for appropriate calmative drug. Here you need help of an specialist.

What Toys Need Babies?

For a baby of several weeks old we may make best toys by ourselves. Take a thick black marker (at this age baby not differs colors yet) and white heavy paper, paint some simple geometric pattern on it such as cycle, rhombus and so on.

Put your baby sideways and put the picture so that baby could watch it easily. You may even fix it in case you have an appropriate place for that. Psychologists say baby will attentively examine it and at this age it is enough for him.

At three months old baby starts to differ colors, he pulls his hands and catches everything he sees. It's time to give him a rattle. It should have a favorable shape to make baby easy hold it. You may choose any color, any sound. At this age it is important to experience new feelings which help baby to develop.

Psychologists say musical mobiles are not the best option. Certainly, they do spin but baby just lies in his bed and watches them. It would be much better to turn on calm classical music. Fix some toys above beddy bye to let him touch them and hold them. This would be not a passive contemplation but an active and very useful activity for the development.

By the way, do not miss the moment when your baby will show the desire to rumple, curve and twist his toys or, in other words, to change something. Usually, it occurs by 4 – 5 months old. Buy toys which allow this to do. Perfectly toys should be different to the touch – the more various those sensations are, the more better it is for baby development. And necessarily buy safe toys.

Baby very early starts to distinguish mother's face, therefore a special joy would provide a toy resembling her face. Inflatable toys with “face” would be perfect. You may bind to beddy bye a balloon with mother's photo.

What is the use of toys? Toys teach a child everything his growing body needs. Toys doesn't entertain  the baby, but help him to develop. However, in order to teach baby playing toys, parents should show him how to do it. Sometimes occurs that baby is surrounded by many rattles, dolls, cars but doesn't know what to do with them. Do not give him more than five toys at once as he will get overexcited.

Are cars made for boys, and dolls for girls? Up to three years old it is not important with what toys your child plays – with cars or dolls. Only from three years old boys and girls start to play different games, and at this moment with the help of toys it is necessary to develop manhood in boys and femininity in girls.

What Are Anabolic Steroids?

After children see photos of young Arnold Schwarzenegger with big muscles, they in their teenage want to have big muscles too and some of them get interested in anabolic steroids. However, it is too early for a teenager to think about steroids in his young age. Here we present an article about anabolic steroids.

The term “anabolic steroid” describes any substance able to maintain muscle tissue growth or accumulation of nitrogen in muscle protein. Normally, body always destroys and removes old tissue cells and replaces them with new ones. In medicine the process of destruction and withdrawal is called catabolism. 

Anabolism is the process of building of new cells and tissues to replace older ones. Normally, in a body both processes are maintained in balance. Muscle and bone tissues are regenerated and thus not occurs gain and loss of weight in the body.  Intensive physical exercises are anabolic because they do increase muscle mass.

Diet rich with proteins also is considered anabolic, though it is not proved yet.  Under particular conditions anabolic steroids evoke growth of muscle mass. Testosterone is a natural anabolic steroid. Higher testosterone rate in male body in comparison with females provides higher percent of muscle mass in a male.

It was considered before that anabolic and androgenic steroids are two different things and therefore it is possible to develop new steroids which would just increase muscle mass without side effects. However, it turned out that anabolic and androgenic effects are caused by one and the same drugs but in different tissues of the body. Thus, any steroids that increase muscle mass may cause some side effects.

If you are older enough and you have rights to take decisions independently about your health, you may buy anabolic steroids.

Parenting Your First Child. Part Two.

For the parents, first child becomes heart of the universe and everything else loses its importance. All your thoughts are busy with baby and all your actions are directed on making his life fantastic and careless.

Certainly,, it is great, but do not try to turn closes only on baby. Remember, that one day he will leave you to build his personal life and you will remain with your partner for a long time.

Do not ignore your partner, do not sacrifice romance in order to dedicate all your time only to baby. Remember about importance of your relationship. Your life will never be the same as it was before childbirth, however, it must not be a justification for ignoring your sexual relations.

With birth of long-expected first child, most parents become crazy from happiness and huge love towards baby. Father with his camera follows his child trying to shot each baby's smile and each motion, or for example, his first spoon of mash, etc. That is a perfect tradition. When baby will grow up, you will watch those photos together and recall wonderful years. Curiously, but there exists a problem here.

As a rule, with appearing of second and third children, parents lose their enthusiasm for shooting everything connected with baby. One day children will grow up, and they may take offense at you because one child has more photos than the other. Therefore, if you in future plan to have one more baby, try to give him the same attention as to the first child.

Children grow up very rapidly, they move, get dirty, break their toys and perish their cloths. Some relatives and friends suggest to give you toys, shoes and cloths from which their children have grown up. Often young parents refuse from it as they think their children should have everything new and expensive. However, do not refuse from their help because childish clothing even used one, looks like a new one.

Parenting Your First Child. Part One.

Newborn brings a lot of happiness in each family, however, with joy come troubles which lead young parents to stress and depression. It is reasonable that young parents make mistakes as they have no experience with babies yet.

When you say to your relatives and friends about coming addition to your family, they begin to give you many tips about parenting. Your sweet grandmother starts attack you with her better tips about childbirth and parenting. You get so many tips and often they are so dark-minded that you involuntary start thinking about what right they have to poke their nose into other family's business 

You are sure that you better know how to grow your child and you don't need instructions, therefore, you build an invisible wall between you and your advisers and stop listening to them.

However, there is no need to be so categoric. At the beginning you don't imagine how your life will change after childbirth, therefore it would be better to listen to tips you hear because probably you will really need  another people's experience.  In case you will not need it, no one will make you follow all the recommendations you hear.

On the one hand, trouble is a perfect drive for young parents. For example, it would give you more vigor and attention concentration, even when you slept only two hours in the night. However, between healthy lookout and obsession runs a quite fine line.

A particular degree of lookout is useful, but you should not drive it to extremes. How often young mothers get up at night to check if the baby is ok? Believe it or not, children are much less fanciful than  you think.

Offer yourself an opportunity to relax and have a rest. Your baby will let you know when he would feel himself uncomfortable. Overanxiety will bring you to breakdown.

Remember that your baby needs cheerful and rested parents and, in return, you will get more pleasure from communicating with your baby. However, if you feel some doubts, you should consult experienced parents or your paediatrician.

Late Talking Children

When parents understand that in due time their child doesn't start talking, they begin to worry. Parents start thinking that their kid develops slowly or is diseased.

Try to be calm and sort out the situation. Ask your parents in what age you and other members of your family began to talk. Probably, the cause is genetics and your kid doesn't talk because someone in your family uttered first words too late..

Alternatively, if children lack communication and no one talks with them, speech habits are not developed. Another cause may be permanent quarrels which have negative effects on children, as a result children retire into their shell and just don't want to talk.

Today there exists an opinion that modern children are overloaded with information – TV, computer, cell phone often represent a barrier. Aftermost, the cause may be a disease.

See the doctor
In any case when you worry about child's behavior and health you should go to the doctor. You may have different ideas but only doctor will answer to all your questions. Talk to your doctor.

As a rule, up to 2,5 years old it is normally not to talk, but in three years old doctor may diagnose “development delay” in a child and prescribe suitable treatment. Listen attentively to the doctor and follow all his recommendations.

Comparison
No matter how optimistic you are, certainly you want to hear long expected words from your kid as quickly as possible. Most likely, your friends would tell you about their children who recite poems and  say entire sentences while your child keeps silent. Parents love to make boast of their kids and some would tell you this to hurt you or to make you jealous. Do not give attention to that and do not compare your child with others.

Each child is unique. In fact, psychologists say that late talking children often are much clever than their peers. Child who started talking at four years may utter entire sentences at once. Remember that your child is most clever child in the world. One day he will start talking, for sure.

What should you do?
Child psychologists would answer to this question. However, you may continue to go about your child development. Talk to him, comment each your action, show him different objects, name and describe them. Do not demand from him immediate repetition of your words – all of them are kept in his subcortex and one day he will say everything you told him before.

Try to play finger puppet theater as this game helps greatly to develop speech habits. Refuse from watching TV along with your kid, replace TV with reading books. On no account cry at your kid as this never leads to something good. It would be interesting to him to copy sounds that you utter. Do not abandon him and show all your love to him, because this is the best way towards happy and adequate child's development.

Help Your Kids Develop Art Appreciation. Part Two.

Explore painting
Show picturesque sceneries, colorful still-life, noble portraits by famous painters to your baby. Watching on them baby would get right understanding of beauty, color combinations and splendor of the world. Paintings render vivid emotions and even kids feel it.

Start with postcards or cards with famous paintings which have on their back side artist's name and painting title. Choose time when kid is in high spirits and satiated, and show him cards clearly pronouncing  their titles and painters. During a week show him some same cards and step by step add other new ones. 

Stop showing when you see that kid lost his interest and looks another way. Give such lessons several times a day – at home and in park. Baby would enjoy varied vivid pictures and gradually he would memorize them.

Exploring painting would enjoy you and besides this it helps you broaden horizons. When child would grow up a little, you may go together to the museum or art gallery. Your baby lying comfortably in a walking carriage would examine with delight painting masterpieces and recognize them.

Kids over one year may start learning to draw – let him perform at home or you may send him at painting courses for kids. Probably he would never become Rafael or Monet but he would have perfect imagination and excellent perception of painting.

Read
Reading is another interesting way to develop his imagination and promote love for beauty. You may start reading to your child since three months old. He will listen attentively to you and examine books with interest. Buy several books for kids with fairy tales. Sit down with your baby comfortably on a sofa, open the book and start reading expressively, show him pictures and explain who is painted on them.

The more you read to your baby, the sooner he acquires speech habits. Positive emotions wrap your baby from the earliest age and he starts to understand what love is. Besides this, well written fairy tales with beautiful tokens do develop intellect and child would have nice taste in literature.