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Tips and News for Parents and Caregivers

True or False? If your kids won’t brush, eating cheese will clean their teeth.

Answer: False
Cheese can’t take the place of brushing but it can tell your mouth male more saliva – this prevents acids from attacking their teeth, which cuts back on cavities and gum disease. It also has calcium which helps replace the enamel or hard outer covering of your teeth.

Clever Swimmers

On average, according to Australian researchers who studied the impact of swimming lessons, children who took them were ahead schedule in the following areas:

Understanding Directions – 20 months ahead
Story Recall – 17 months ahead
Oral Expression – 11 months ahead
Mathematics Reasoning – 6 months ahead.

Remember breakfast

Children who eat breakfast every day score significantly higher on IQ tests, according to one study of more than 1,200 six-year-olds. An additional review of more than 30 research papers on the link between school performance and habitual breakfasts confirmed that eating first thing in the morning increases test scores.

The “right” environment

Parents and caregivers who are knowledgeable about the ways that social and physical environments affect a child’s behaviour and plan their settings accordingly.

•It is important that enough space is available for children to play and learn in a relaxed setting. Minimize conflict by providing areas that are designated for adults or children, and/or individuals or groups. Space that is pleasant to the eye, well-planned, organized and safe decreases the potential for problems.

•Toys and materials that are in good supply should be age– and developmentally-appropriate, encourage children to focus and become involved in productive learning.

Children learn to interact with each other by seeing what adults around them do. Adults need to create an environment that promotes trust, security, and comfort for the child. An adult’s verbal and physical communication skills are critical in modelling the positive behaviour they wish children to learn.

•Schedules and routines are important for children and help children gain trust, security, and order. While these can be flexible, caregivers need to provide children with information about what is expected. Children need a balanced day of active and rest periods, individual and group activities, as well as adult initiated play.

Parenting and the workplace

Take a break after your body goes on high alert to defend unreasonable demands at work. “When we don’t give our nervous system an opportunity to relax and reset, it starts to cause long-term damage. Companionship outside of the workplace, meditation and exercise can help to offset the stress.

Reframing your negative thinking is one of the principles of cognitive behavioural therapy “it’s not possible for everyone to switch jobs, but we can focus on the situation that we can control.”
Use mindfulness to manage unhelpful rumination about how colleagues are thinking about us.

Leave. See this as the warning that you need to get a new job or else. Long hours, absence of autonomy, uncertain scheduling and economic insecurity at jobs are all factors that contributes
to a toxic workplace environment that employees need to leave behind.

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