Top 5 Values to Teach Your Children

As a parent, you are faced with what lessons you need to teach your children. There are hundreds of lessons that your child will learn and its up to you to deliver these lessons throughout their lives, into maturity. But what are the top 5 most important lessons that very child should be taught first? This question may have a variety of answers, but after many studies, it is believed to be lessons regarding nutrition, money, education, sharing, and responsibility.

1 - Teach Nutrition Benefits Early - From your child’s first sips of milk, they rely on you to fuel their body with energy. It is very important that once their able to make choices on their own, that you have taught them how to make smart choices from their early years that they can take with them throughout their life. Currently, by the time kids reach 12th grade, only 23% feel that they take care of their bodies by eating well and exercising regularly. This can lead to a lifetime of health problems like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

2 - The Value of a Dollar - Many kids have absolutely no concept of what one dollar actually means. If they are not taught this early on, their spending habits may spiral way out of control as they get older. It is important to give your children lessons on managing a bank account, what credit is, and most importantly how to save money. This will infuse valuable values in them that they will benefit from throughout their whole lives.

3 - School Rocks - By teaching your child the importance of education, you are not only ensuring they learn the basics in their classes, but you are also giving them the opportunity to love to learn. Learning, if encouraged, will continue far after graduation occurs if they are ignited with the passion to find answers. In life, people never stop learning so its important to raise your children to have a thirst for knowledge that they can take with them throughout their lives.

4 - Sharing - Sharing is one of the oldest traits parents try to teach their kids. Sharing goes far beyond the legos that a brother and sister may be fighting over. By learning early on to share, your child will have be much easier to get along with and be endowed with wonderful social skills. Kids with siblings tend to catch on to this concept a bit easier, but it can certainly be taught to single-child families as well.

5 - Chores and Responsibilities - By giving your child chores and responsibilities, you are giving them a bit of independence. If they are responsible for keeping their room clean, its going to be an issue for them if it is not. Kids also feel good when given responsibility because for the first time in their lives, they are able to consciously make their parents proud. This will give them a sense of responsibility as their responsibilities accumulate throughout their lives.

By enforcing these values into your children, you will raise good-hearted, motivated members of society.

Help For A Picky Eater

Everyone knows no two children can be the same. They will not learn the same speed, not look the same and certainly not be as agreeable on everything. For many Mom's out there getting help for their picky eater at home is never enough. You may try and try each day at dinnertime with very little success.

Transforming a picky eater is lot of hard work from the whole family. It can cause arguments between spouses and even the other siblings. It can make going out to dinner totally impossible without a fight. The truth of the matter is he or she may not just be acting difficult over food, they may actually have some form of sensory ailment. Review the symptoms your child has when they need to sit down and eat and discuss them further with the pediatrician.

Some tricks to look into with your picky eater are to talk to your child about the situation, find garnishes they enjoy eating and even preplan what meals they may desire to eat ahead of time. By talking openly with your child regarding the eating issue, they can disclose to you what the problem seems to be. They may be having an issue with their foods that is easily fixable, one that can be talked over and repaired for good.

Next, look into having your little one create a list of which items they really like to eat. Everything from candy to vegetables, even drinks. Use this list to begin developing snacks and meals combining any of the item choices they displayed in their food list. Go online and search for additional recipes if you are running out of ideas, thankfully there are endless articles and tips on the web from other mothers that have already lived through this type of syndrome.

Another option is to get a nutritionist involved. You may need to pay for this service, but a mere one visit with a nutrition specialist can better define the underlying issues and provide you with several other ideas for meals and snacks. Think outside of the box, mix foods that you ordinarily wouldn't piece together just to get the child's attention. Some parents on the blogs have also suggested to have the child eat in a different situation. Let them eat outside if the weather permits, decorate the table in a fun manner. It is also recommended that you allow the child to become involved in the food preparation process. Kids are very prideful little people, if they have the opportunity to help in creating the meals, they are more opt to eat what they have proudly created.

Healthy Eating Guide For Children

Getting your children to eat healthy only requires a good example and some creativity. For your guide to healthy eating for children you simply need to choose foods that they like and that are good for them. Do not just go with the obvious choices that you already know most children are not fond of such as brussell sprouts or spinach as most adults do not even entertain those options either.

A good method could be to sit down with your child and begin to write some suggestions down of any foods that they are willing to eat that are healthy and nutritious. Allow them to shoot out any ideas and go from there. Many children have great ideas and are willing to eat many more selections than what you initially thought of. Next put those choices into meals and allow them to have some control over what things they will like to eat for meals, which foods they want put together. As long it does not make them sick they are fully capable of coming up with meal ideas and then they are twice as likely to eat them after they have created the meals themselves as well. Do not forget to think of healthy alternatives and elect the children to create any dipping sauces or dressings they may want to use on their salads, vegetables or meats during their meals. Many times it is all about what you do to make a meal more flavorful to make it enjoyable. For children this is even more of a necessity and they will need some brainstorming to create these additional aspects of eating healthy. It will take some time getting used to before your child will be totally comfortable with their new eating habits and that is to be expected. They can get in a lot more nutritional foods and snacks in the day than they might be getting currently.

Some parents begin to write a food journal that shows how often their children are eating and what they are eating each week to get the preparations for the weeks to come to change their diets around. For school lunches, your children can always elect to eat the cafeteria options or you can pack their lunches and ensure they are getting enough nutrition each day. Pack foods that are not perishable and give them options. Fruits and vegetables should be included in every meal and their snacks as well. For older children, you will need to leave plenty of healthy choices in the house for them to snack on when you are not home to prepare them something fresh. Always encourage them to drink water, milk and juices versus drink boxes and sodas. They will be more prone to eating better if you also eat healthier selections as well. Children are always modeling what they see and when the parents take the initiative to eat better the children will as well without putting up a struggle.