As a parent you are the most important influence in your child’s life. A new born baby is like ‘clay’ in the hands of the parent, who is the potter. What shape the child’s life takes depends on how the ‘clay’ is shaped by the potter.
You are responsible for the habits your child forms. The foundation of your child’s future is laid by the habits that you help them develop during the formative years of childhood.
You pass your genes to your child. Children pick up your habits too — both good as well as bad. Show that you care about your child by inculcating healthy habits in yourself as well as your child.
• Children should have at least five servings of fruits and vegetables every day.
• Parents should make an effort to incorporate a range of fruits and vegetables of different hues in their child’s meals — from red, blue, orange to yellow, green and white.
• Eating colourful food is not only fun but gives a range of nutrients to your child.
• Teach your child that a healthy breakfast is the most important meal of the day as it not only kicks starts our brain and metabolism but helps in weight maintenance and keeping chronic diseases at bay.
• Hearty and healthy breakfast is possible when dinners are light and early — 6.30 to 7.00 pm the night before.
3: Eat Every 2-3 Hours• Research has shown that having small meals every two to three hours is healthier than having three big meals a day. Most day schools give food breaks to children every three hours, so pack two lunch boxes for your child instead of one. Serve him small frequent meals at fixed times.
4: Dental Hygiene• Ensure your child brushes his teeth twice a day — after breakfast and before retiring to bed for the night. Children also need to be helped with brushing and need to be taught the right up-down movement of the brush.
• Ensure that they gargle after every meal. A fun way is to ask them to gargle as per their age — if they are three years old, then three times after every meal.
• You must get regular dental checkups done for your child — once every six months.
5: Drink Water• Seventy per cent of our body is made of water, so you should ensure that your child has at least eight glasses of water per day.
• Besides removing toxins from the body and making the brain alert, drinking water has innumerable health benefits.
6: Sleep For 9 Hours• Ensure that your child has rested well so that he can function to the optimum level. Minimum nine hours every night.
• Having fixed bed time routine helps.
7: Read Books• Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body. So, have a DEAR (Drop everything and read) time with your dear child every day. During this time you should either read aloud to your child or you both should read separately and discuss what is being read.
• Even if you start with as little as 20 minutes per day, it will go a long way in helping your child develop higher order thinking skills, vocabulary and communication skills.
• As per the American Academy of Pediatrics, daily reading lays the foundation to the child’s academic success. Reading aloud age appropriate books to children should begin at six months of age.
8: Physical Exercise• Ensure that your children are first exposed to as many sports as possible — tennis, swimming, cricket, athletics, karate et cetera.Then choose one or two which they like and encourage them to play it regularly for the fun of it and not as a part of preparing for some competition. They should play the sport at least three to four times a week.
• It may take some time before the children to decide which sport they really like, so do not give up easily.
• You can just take them to the park and play with them or arrange for the neighbours’ children to play with yours.
• You will have to restrict screen time to ensure that children derive pleasure from sports as well as reading.
9: Gratitude• Train your child to be grateful. Gratitude improves your child’s health, relationships, emotions, personality and career.
• Grateful children score better in exams, are more energetic, happier, have stronger relationships, healthier, kinder, sleep better, exercise more, more spiritual, less materialistic, less envious, and have better self esteem.
10: Positive thinking• Children can get easily discouraged with the challenges they face. It is important to make them realise that they are lovable, capable and unique, no matter what situation they are in.
• Optimism or seeing the brighter side of life is a trait which is a learned one.
• No child is born optimistic. You have to train them by helping them focus on the ‘positive’ in life. They should be prepared for the worst but hope for the best.
• Ask your children to write statements about what they want to change about the way they see themselves or the world around them. Put them in places where they can see it every day, such as the bathroom mirror, closet, bedroom wall. Example of some affirmations can be ‘I can do whatever I focus my mind on’, ‘I am intelligent’, ‘Learning is fun’.
11: Spend Time With Family And Friends• Money is a very important commodity in our life as it makes our lives comfortable and gives us opportunities to grow. However, true happiness is achieved only by having warm fulfilling relationships.
• No matter what toys you get for your child, they can never substitute for the time you spend with them.
• For your children to have your ‘memories’ later, you need to spend time in their ‘now’ to create them.
• Make it a point to have at least one meal ‘family meal’ everyday where all members of the family are present. The family that eats together stays together.
• Encourage your child to develop a range of friendships during school years by encouraging play dates. School day friendships will teach them life skills such as cooperation, sharing, getting along, conflict resolution, problem solving. It will set them up with life skills they can draw from years to come.
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Post Author: Kirti Agarwal Pasboloa
Email: kirtiagarwalpasbola@yahoo.com
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