One of the most important roles of a parent is to teach their child the correct way to conduct themselves to earn respect when they are older.  A fundamental part of that process is to teach them right from wrong and what is acceptable behaviour versus what is not.  Teaching a child self-control in order to gain respect from others is the reason for discipline, but the discipline should be done correctly and carefully otherwise the child will not learn anything at all.  The key to disciplining children in the correct way is ultimately, consistency.  This is true for any child, no matter what age.

Babies and toddlers

Babies and toddlers understand repetitive actions more than lengthy discussions.  If an inquisitive baby or toddler is about to do something that they shouldn’t, the word “No” should be introduced to them along with intervention and distraction techniques.  This teaches them what they are not allowed to do, and what an alternative activity is which is acceptable. 

Young children

As children begin to get older it is important to start to explain how they should behave, along with the consequences of misbehaving.  If a child misbehaves, they should be told why the behaviour is unacceptable and be punished accordingly.  A time-out for bad behaviour until the child calms down is an excellent method to use at this point.  It is imperative though that if the parent says the child is going to be punished in some way, then they adhere to the rules as they have explained them.  If a parent is inconsistent in this manner, the child will undoubtedly keep pushing the boundaries to see how far they can go.

Teens

For teens, it is much the same as for younger children, consistency is still key but it is also important to teach teens responsibility by letting them “earn” small steps towards independence (later curfews etc.) by displaying regular responsible behaviour.

Remember

As important as punishment is to teach the fact that every action has a consequence, it is important that good behaviour should be rewarded.

We bought this wonderful book for our son, aged eleven.  He really enjoys reading, and although he had previously read The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe, the opportunity of buying all the books was something which we couldn’t miss.

As soon as he opened the wrapping paper on his birthday, he couldn’t wait to start reading them, funnily enough in preference to another magical book about the exploits of a schoolboy wizard.  He curled up in the corner of the sofa and went extremely quiet for hours, only occasionally surfacing to ask for a drink, and commenting what page he was reading.

We had to separate him from the stories whilst he and his friends went out for a birthday treat, but returned to the book later in the evening.

He did complete reading them in just over a week, and thoroughly enjoyed them.  He lent the book to a friend who is the same age and it is lovely hearing them discuss the characters and the stories. 

Unlike some current books which go out of fashion very quickly, these are timeless stories which through fantasy and make believe add greatly to a child’s education.  In fact, once the books are returned I think that I will re-acquaint myself with the fantasy world created by    C S Lewis.

Growing up, children will inevitably come across situations that test their morals and values.  The most common place for this to happen is at school.  A child may see another child being bullied and their morals and values will come in to play.  Should they go along with the crowd and keep quiet? Or should they take the less popular route by recognizing that an injustice has been done and go to a teacher?

These morals and values will be tested in many different ways and for a child to feel compelled to do the right thing and continue on this path throughout adulthood, the parents must be able to instill the sense of morality from early childhood.

Teaching

Reading books to a child where they can see an obvious “moral of the story” is a great way to show them the difference between right and wrong as well as consequences for bad actions.  This can be emphasized by applying boundaries at home with consequences for crossing them or rewards for staying within them.

Talking

Discussing situations with children of any age is imperative.  Talking about hypothetical situations where morals come into question can teach a child how to act should something like that occur in real life although it is important to make sure the subject is spoken about in conversation with the child taking part, and not a lecture.

Trust

Showing a child trust is one of the most important steps to ensuring their moral compass stays true.  Allowing a child some leeway enables them to test their morality.  If they act appropriately they will understand that more trust will be given.  Eventually, the child will see trust and respect as higher rewards than material things and strive to gain them throughout life by sticking to their morals.

After an extremely busy week with father in law being admitted in the local hospital and discharged after a 10 days stay, I had plenty to catch up with my home improvement project.

One of the things listed in this project was to change all my shower curtains so that they match the colour of my new bathroom tiles. After searching a number of shops as well as online, I managed to find these lovely jojo designs shower curtain. Check out these checker design which is so unique and fashionable. I love the gold colour and ribbon details which adds a lovely look and certainly make my redecorating a breeze. Oh yes, before I forget, I got them through this comparison shopping site, named Become.com.

I took the opportunity to check out the site and noticed that under their bedding section, they have listed some beautiful j queen bedding and there were also great deals on Super Mario bedding. From bedding comforter sets, travel pillows to quilted throws, there are endless choices to shop for online discounts. That got me really excited.

If you couldn’t care less for j queen new york bedding, there are definitely other products to interest you. Become.com has a large selection of products coupled with a technology for you to do comparison shopping to help you find exactly what you want. What I love most about this website is it saves me time and money as I can shop for online discounts and get the lowest prices from retailers. How cool is that!

This is a super toy for very young children from six months old to three years and was a present for our little girl for her first birthday. There are lots of objects which are all housed in the brightly coloured picnic basket, which sings to the child when the lid is opened.

There are six shaped “food” items which all fit into specific places on the two plates, two cups, two forks and a blanket to set everything out. This is a great gift for little ones and kept our daughter amused for hours bringing all the pieces out of the basket, and putting the food shaped pieces on the plates and setting the plates on the blanket. One plate is for mummy and one for her. Of course at that age everything goes first into baby’s mouth, but the pieces are large enough not to be a problem, and being plastic they can be easily washed and kept hygienic.

The basket was a little heavy for her to carry but that won’t be a problem when she’s a little older. At the moment she enjoys playing with all of the pieces and we have lots of chatter. This has been a fantastic hit with her and I think she’ll enjoy it for some time.

These are wonderful, magical stories that start with the author, Laura Ingalls Wilder, when she was about four years old. The story of Laura and her life growing up in the Big Woods in Wisconsin, her love and marriage to Almanzo and on to the birth of her own daughter, Rose who later in life collaborated with her mother in her writings.

Books with this quality of descriptive writing don’t come along every day. They have certainly been around for a long time, and are loved by everyone who not only reads them, they become involved with the story and want to continue reading them. These are terrific stories which can be read aloud to a child; however my eight year old daughter and I took it in turns, each of us reading a page.
We became emotionally involved with the characters, which surely proved that the author was doing her job impeccably. If the writer can empathise with her readers in a way that they always want more, there will always be an audience waiting for her next books to be published.
Being able to buy the nine books together, and at such a reasonable price, enables the reader to follow the story through to completion. They should be essential reading for everyone.

Authored by Rickey Combs

I am learning that kids actually start acting like teenagers in fifth grade now. I thought I was good until my oldest was going to be in high school, but he is in fifth grade and already acting like a total teenager. He doesn’t want to sit at the table to eat dinner with us and he literally shudders if I try to show him affection in public. I never thought this would begin and be happening while he was still in elementary school.

I recently found something that is basically equivocal to a gold mine and that is something that he and I actually enjoy doing together. It has become a total tradition and I will keep it that way just to have something special with him. Every Sunday night we cuddle on the couch and watch America’s Funniest Home Videos on DIRECTV Chicago. I cherish these Sunday nights with him and will enjoy them while I can! I am sure in a couple of years or months or days he will be appalled at the idea of sitting on the couch with me and will probably not even want to let me see him smile.

We bought this for my niece’s fourth birthday and it’s the best present we’ve ever given to her.  In fact her mum says that it’s the best gift ever.  At her birthday party all the other kids wanted to have a go, and in fact some other mums asked me the price and where we bought it.

She takes it everywhere and loves it when they’re in the car.  She sings along to all her favorite songs – note to parents, change the tunes regularly before they drive you round the bend – there’s always one that she keeps repeating, so her mum downloads other tunes every few days.

It’s really well-made and even though it’s been dropped a few times (oops) and the microphone is often used for carrying.  The buttons are nice and large so it’s really easy for her to operate and the volume is able to be turned too high.  The battery lasts for a long time too, particularly considering how much of the day she plays with it.

She really loves this music player and her mum reckons that it’ll have to go on holiday with them.