Your kids aren’t always the best behaved and there are days you don’t know how you do it. Although there are trials and tribulations, there are also days they surprise you with their impressive behavior.

It’s a good idea to pay attention to when your kids do a good job and reward them once in a while. Make it a point to draw attention to the positive behaviors and explain why you’re admiring them in the moment. Encourage your children to continue their habits by offering them an incentive to do so. See ways to reward your kids for a job well done.

Distribute Unique Coins

One way to get your kid’s attention is to provide them with a cool looking coin each time they go above and beyond. MilitaryCoinsUSA is your trustworthy source for top quality custom made coins for any occasion. Challenge coins have been part of U.S. military history for more than 100 years. Even businesses have begun to use custom challenge coins as a way to reward employees for job performance or to increase name recognition with current and prospective customers. Your children will love the coin and challenge of collecting a certain amount before they’re rewarded again.

Let them Watch their Favorite Show or Movie

Allow your child to watch their favorite show or movie when they impress you with their behavior. Do it at a time you normally wouldn’t let them be in front of the television. Make sure you know what they’re choosing to watch and even offer to watch it with them, if they want you around. Make their favorite snack and have their drink of choice ready to go in the refrigerator. This is a sure way to get them hooked on acting properly.

Exercise Together

A healthy reward is to participate in an activity that’s also a bit of a workout. Go to the park, run through the slip-n-slide or play soccer in the backyard. Let them pick from a list of activities that you know will have you both running around a bit. You’ll feel great after and can pat yourself on the back for encouraging a healthy option for their reward. Exercising with your children is also a great way to spend time together and hopefully share a few laughs.

Make their Chosen Meal

Let your son or daughter pick the meal for the family dinner. Make them whatever they want and showcase why they’re receiving this meal in front of the entire family, so the other children catch on and want to learn how to behave too. Ask your child if they want to cook with you and learn how to make the meal. Have someone else set the table and let your child who’s being recognized have the night off from their responsibilities.

Conclusion

It’s not always easy to think of how to praise your child on the spot. Have a list in your back pocket that you can choose from when the time comes. These are ways to reward your kids for a job well done.

Having a child with autism or any other developmental disorder in the family is not easy, especially for the child above everyone else. Unfortunately, in spite of our best intentions, we often fail to provide them with the help they need because we simply don’t know how to do that. If you can relate to this, then the following tips on how to help a child with developmental disorders are meant for you.

Consistency

Consistency is something that children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) particularly benefit from when it comes to learning. Their condition makes it hard for them to use the knowledge and skills they learn at special school or therapy to some other external environment. This is why you need to be aware of the curriculum that’s in place at those places and repeat them at home to build a consistent environment for the child. You should also keep in mind that your behavior with him/her must also be regular as any significant deviation from the way you usually behave might trigger panic in him/her.

Schedules

To an autistic child, the schedule is of the utmost importance so you need to be consistent with the schedule that you have built up for him/her. Meal time, therapy time, play time, school time, bedtime and just about any other daily activity should be done in the same exact time schedule every day. Now, in the real world, that’s not always a possibility, so when there’s a chance of the established schedule being broken, prepare the child by letting him/her know about it well in advance.

Education

Completing a quality online Behavioral Analysis program will not only allow you to understand your child’s condition better, it will actually enable you to treat him/her as well. Any child with developmental disorders who at least has one parent with an online Behavioral Analysis degree will progress faster and better than others in his class. The advantage is quite obvious really; while every other special child has only school and therapy to rely on, he/she will always have someone at home who fully understands the problem and how to deal with it methodically.

Rewarding

Rewarding or what is known as positive reinforcement in technical terms is a great way to encourage learning and general positive activities in children with developmental disorders. Whenever you find something positive about their actions which you want to encourage, reward it with extra play time, favorite food or anything else that they enjoy.

Communication

Even when they are capable of speaking, autistic children will sometimes choose not to. That however, doesn’t mean they are not communicating with anyone or at least trying to. This is why it is important to understand the specific non-verbal cues which a troubled child usually exhibits in absence of verbal communication. These are not particularly hard to pick up really since they exhibit similar and repetitive behavior which you can learn to interpret with time.

Patience and knowledge are the two keys to understanding and helping your child overcome his/her developmental problems and these tips should give you an idea regarding how to go about it. However, if you take the time to get an online BA degree in Behavior Analysis, things can become a lot easier and more productive for everyone.

Teaching your child to respect nature means teaching them to be global citizens. There are creatures and ecosystems around the world that are in danger, and the first step to helping these creatures is to know about them. Learning about nature, about the creatures that inhabit this planet, and most importantly, how humanity is impacting them, is crucial for a child. They don’t have to save the world, but they should know what they can do to do their part on making the earth a better place.

1. Adopt a Pet

Pets are a great way to teach a child about responsibility. Most children typically want a puppy. Instead of simply getting one for them (that you will likely have to take care of) get them a series of pets that they must take care of themselves. Start with something small, like a goldfish, and then move up to a rodent like a hamster. Don’t take care of their pet for them – they must be the one to clean out their cage or bowl, the one who must feed them, and the one who must take care of them.

2. Grow Something

Another great way to teach your child to respect nature is to grow food. Growing food lets your child see first-hand the process and effort it takes to put every item on their plate. They will also learn about how to grow their own food, about the process and the techniques they need. Gardening can also be very therapeutic and can provide them with good skills later in life.

3. Take Them to an Aquarium

Aquariums’ main goal is to teach people about the creatures of the deep. They are there to conserve the species and to inform people on the creatures and their habitats. Teaching your child to respect nature means teaching them to be mindful and aware of the creatures that they live with on this planet. It means understanding ecosystems and understanding how we as humans are impacting those ecosystems. Aquariums want you to Learn More about the fascinating creatures of the deep and their habitats.

4. Let Them Play Outdoors

One of the greatest teachers is pain. As much as you might want to protect your child from any dangers they may face outside, you need to let them go. Your child is going to get hurt out there – and that’s okay! They need to learn their limits and how to interact with the world around them. Let them play outside. Let them play in the fields, in the woods, let them explore the world around them and learn to respect it on their own terms.

Respecting nature goes together with respecting others. It’s so important to learn from each other and to understand the behaviors and opinions of those around us (especially if we disagree with them). Respecting nature is the first step, because not only will it make them better global citizens, it will also help them prepare for adulthood.

Sports are a fantastic way to get your kids in shape, but not all children enjoy playing sport. Finding suitable outdoors activities for these kinds of children can be difficult, and many parents worry about the long term health effects of their children not getting enough exercise as well as the effect that lack of participation in group activities can have on their self-esteem. There are no simple, one size fits all solutions to this problem; the most effective method of encouraging children to take up a sport, or to get sufficient outdoor exercise otherwise, will depend on the individual child in question.

One of the first mistakes many well-intentioned parents make in encouraging their child to exercise more is to select a sport or activity almost at random, assuming that ‘they will enjoy it once they get there’. This can put unnecessary pressure on the child, who might feel that they have to persevere with a sport that they don’t enjoy in order to keep their parents happy. Rather than encouraging the child to exercise more, this can have the opposite effect and put them off taking up other sports and activities in the future. It can also negatively impact their mood, which runs contrary to the intended effect of having them take up a sport to begin with.

The link between exercise and mental health has been well established; in both adults and children, it is essential that we exercise enough to maintain good physical and mental health. If your child is shy about playing sports because of self-esteem issues, then you should try to ease them into it, preferably beginning with solo activities to build their confidence and easing them towards team sports that they can play alongside friends. Below are some of the best sports for encouraging nervous or unconfident children to get some more exercise, either alone or as part of a team.

Walking and Hiking

This is one of the simplest and most accessible forms of exercise, and one whose value is sadly underappreciated. There are many advantages to taking up walking, especially in the context of encouraging your child to spend more time outdoors. One of the biggest advantages of walking is that it is easily scaled to suit all abilities; walks can be as long or as short as one desires and can be undertaken with an intensity suitable to the participants.

There is no competitive edge to walking, although there’s no reason you can’t add one if you think it will help, which makes it an ideal option for children who feel anxious or pressurized by competing with their peers. Although hiking and nature trails make for a wonderful outdoor experience, there is no reason that your walking activities should be confined to following a pre-determined route. In fact, some of the most rewarding days out will be those that are improvised, and the unpredictability of the experience can be very appealing to some children.

The boundary between hiking and walking is ill-defined, and the two activities are essentially the same. In general, however, hiking is considered a more intensive exercise and is usually associated with longer routes. You shouldn’t attempt anything too dramatic with your children until they have had some time to practice. Although walking doesn’t sound like an intense activity, after several miles inexperienced walkers will really be feeling the exertion.

Golf

Golf is another sport that is easily scaled to provide an appropriate level of challenge, depending on the player’s experience. You might even want to try miniature golf the first few times you take your child to play. Miniature golf tends to appeal more to children with courses that are designed with obstacles and shorter greens. The less formal atmosphere of miniature golf courses makes children feel less pressured and also allows them to feel like they are legitimately competing with their parents and have a chance of winning.

On a full course, they may well feel intimidated unless they have had previous experience. As you and your child progress to full courses, you might want to consider investing in game improvement irons which are more forgiving and make the game a little more accessible for more inexperienced players.

Swimming

Swimming allows participants to exercise multiple areas of the body at the same time and is a fantastic springboard from which children can gain the necessary experience to undertake other water-based activities. Swimming can be done either in a public pool or in natural bodies of water. If you opt for the latter option, be sure to check beforehand that the area you intend to swim in is safe and preferably has a lifeguard on duty. If your child is particularly shy then perhaps swimming in a public pool will be too intimidating. One possible solution is to enroll them in swimming lessons with a small group of similarly aged children.

Once a child has gained their confidence in the water, you can discuss other water sports that they may be interested in such as body boarding and surfing.

Cycling

Learning to ride a bike is a rite of passage that many of us can remember long into adulthood, and it’s a wonderful way to boost your child’s confidence while teaching them a new skill and getting them some more exercise of course!

As with walking, there are a number of pre-set routes one can opt to ride their bike through and these range from gentle, simple courses aimed at newcomers and children, all the way up to intense mountainous courses designed for those with plenty of hours of experience already under their belt. If your child can already ride a bike, then the hardest part is already over, and you can focus on finding the most suitable locations for you and your child to enjoy days out.

It can be hard to encourage children to take up sports and other activities, but the time and effort required to persuade them to give it a go is well worth it in the long run.

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Lots of parents want to help their children at school however they can. For most, that means encouraging them to do their homework and stepping in whenever they need any help with it. Keeping in contact with the child’s teacher can also help parents to keep in touch with their child’s education and iron out any issues that may arise.

But do you want to do even more to help your child at school? Well, you will be happy to hear that there is something you could do that would not only help your own child but also help the other pupils as well as some teachers! You just need to volunteer!

Not sure how you can volunteer at your local school? Here are some opens that most schools try to get parent volunteers to fill.

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Lunchtime Supervisors

Everyone needs a break, even teachers! Because of this, most schools try to get volunteers to help supervise the children at lunch times and other break times. Then the teachers can grab some lunch and relax for an hour before they have to start afternoon lessons. It is incredibly easy to be a lunchtime supervisor, all you really need to do is watch the children while they are playing in the playground. You may also be required to organize the children before they go into the canteen for their lunch. If any child has an accident, you will need to be on hand to help them however necessary. Because of this, you may be required to take CPR classes and other first-aid training. Don’t worry about the cost of this, the school should cover all expenses. Once you are trained in health and safety, you should also be able to help out in a few other different parts of the school day, such as sports lessons.

Listen To Children Read

Many schools now have time set aside in the day for children to read to themselves. For young children, who are still learning to read, this time is often spent reading out loud to a teacher or teaching assistant. However, there are currently schools that are experiencing staff shortages. As a result, these schools need to find volunteers who will sit and listen to children read during these lessons. If your school is looking for volunteers, why not think about joining? It is very easy to carry out these types of roles as you just need to listen to children and help them with any pronunciation or reading issues.  

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Sports Day Supervisors

Even though sports day occurs just once a year, it can often be a struggle for schools to find suitable volunteers to help supervise children. That’s often because most parents work full-time jobs and can’t spare the time to help out. However, if you can, you will find that it is a very rewarding experience. You might be asked to help set up events before the day itself or to help run the events and activities on the actual day. If you do help out on the day, you will be expected to organize the kids and ensure that everything runs smoothly without any accidents!

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Field Trip Supervisors

Most schools also look for volunteer supervisors when they take the kids on field trips. If you are lucky, you might be able to go on international trips with the school! While you are on a field trip, you will probably be responsible for one small group of pupils. You will need to ensure that they are safe at all times and that they carry out any tasks and small assignments that they need to do during the trip. You will also need to make sure that no one goes missing, and that everyone turns up for transport on time. As the pupils on the field trip are representing the entire school in a different community, they will need to be ambassadors for the school. And that means you should ensure that they are well-behaved and polite at all times, as any poorly behaved pupils will give off a bad impression of the school. If you travel on an international school trip, then you might have to stay in accommodation with some pupils so that they are supervised at all times.

As you can see, there are a lot of different things you can help your kid’s school out with. Not only are they very rewardable, but you might also find them enjoyable as well! There will also be other ways you can volunteer at a school – you can always get in touch and ask them what types of volunteers they are currently looking for.

Without a doubt, electronic gadgets, digital media, and technology have become an inseparable part of our lives. Be it adult, teenagers or younger kids, every other person feels tempted to be attached to screens. As a parent, one caters many challenges due to the increasing popularity of smartphones and trends like selfies. Taking a 100 selfies in a day clearly distracts your child from more important activities of the life, affecting their academic progress in the long run. An obsession with screens can result in your child’s falling grades.

Technology provides many valuable services to mankind. Most of them are positive but an overindulgence with technology, screens and smartphones can make your teenager vulnerable to a number of serious issues.

Considering the extensive use of technology among teenagers, here are a few things which parents need to keep in mind.

1.      Too Much Tech Means Strong Engagement in Social Media

When your child is allowed to use screens for an unlimited period of time, the one thing that consumes most of their time is social media. Teenagers who are frequently active on social networking sites are tend to compare themselves with others. This can introduce a sense of inferiority complex in teenagers.

2.      Too Much Tech Can Cause Obesity

Believe it or not, technology usurps physical activities and this may affect your teen’s health. Teenagers obsessed with screens and technology suffer from sleep deprivation, fatigue and an unbalanced appetite. This can also result in weak eyesight and increasing signs of depression.

3.      Too Much Tech Makes Teenagers Vulnerable to Addiction

When children use smartphones disproportionately, they become vulnerable to a number of addictions including gaming addiction, excessive texting disorder, addiction to exploring pornographic and sexual content, selfie addiction etc.

Use Cell Phone Parental Control

Consider it difficult to keep kids away from technology obsession?

Gone are the days when verbal warnings and rules were enough. Nowadays, parents need to be more vigilant to ensure digital safety of their kids. That’s why using cell phone parental control is highly recommended in this age of technology.  Apps like FamilyTime parental control which plays the role of an absolute cell phone parental control are used by many smart parents.

Using FamilyTime parents can:

• Make sure that their kids use screens only for a certain period of time by scheduling an auto lock on their device.
• Keep their digital conduct positive by letting parents monitor the web browsing history on their teen’s smartphone.
• Ensure that their kids don’t get addicted to questionable apps by enabling parents to view the list of installed apps and blocking the unwanted ones.

There is a lot more that parents can do with this app. To know exactly what you can do, give FamilyTime app a free try and explore the features yourself.

So, you have made the life-changing decision to have kids? That’s incredible news! But before you get carried away with yourself, you should make sure you are fully prepared for your decision. Having kids can be one greatest things that you will do with your life, but you have to be sure that you are in the strongest position to support your new family. The best things in life start off with a strong plan, so making sure you have one will give you that extra peace of mind. Here are a few things that can to do to prepare yourself for a child.

Make Sure You Are Financially Ready

You are probably all too aware how expensive it is to have a baby. But it can be a good exercise to write down your budget and how much you anticipate setting aside. Obviously, you can’t account for everything at this early stage, but the simple act of noting down your finances can really make you feel better. If you are mentally prepared to deal with the costs of having a baby, then you will hopefully feel less stressed when the bills start piling up!

Be Ready to Overcome Obstacles

After you have made that momentous initial decision, you may find that you start encountering some obstacles straight away. For example, if you have any difficulty conceiving then you may need to find out some details on IVF, including treatment, pricing, and locations. Ultimately, you should take practical steps to overcome your obstacles rather than letting them weigh you down.

Think About How Your Life Will Change

There is no doubt about the fact that having a baby will transform your entire life. By looking at your life as it is at the moment, you will probably realise just how focused around yourself it is. That is inevitable, but it is also inevitable that things are about to change. Though the rewards of being a parent are endless, you have to be ready to accept that you will no longer be the centre of your world anymore.

Talk With the People Closest to You

As well as talking with your partner, you should also consult with other people who are close to you. Your parents will have gone through everything before, so they might be a good starting point. If you have friends that have kids already, they will be able to give you some advice about what you are about to go through as well. Ultimately, it is a good idea to fall back on your support network rather than trying to deal with everything yourself.

Write Down How You are Feeling

The act of writing things down can really help to clarify all your thoughts and feelings. By doing this, you will be much better able to process all the complex emotions you are going through. If you have any worries or concerns, writing them in a notebook can help to take some of the weight off your mind.