One thing that will embarrass us most as parents is to be out in public and hear our little angel cursing. The first thought that comes to mind is ‘where on earth did he/she learn that’? Parents often let a curse word slip when angry, the television offers a plethora of curse words and people outside the home often use foul language in public because they simple do not care about who hears them or what impact it has on ‘little ears’.

If a child uses a curse word, the parent has to remain calm and not allow the child to know they can elicit a response from people, mostly their parents, if they blurt one out. Remaining calm and exhibiting no response will show the child it really is not a big deal so why bother with it. The biggest reward a child can get when they curse is to have someone laugh at them or give them the attention they are seeking.

Do not expect any behavior from your child that you are not willing to enforce on yourself. Do not use the words in your home and your child will most likely follow your behavior. Children do not make these words up on their own accord. Someone somewhere had to model the words for them.

Some parents will use a positive reinforcement plan which will result in a positive consequence when cursing is not used. Perhaps there is something the child would like to do and if no cursing has been used, they will be rewarded with this activity. Some parents will use negative consequences only and let the child know under no circumstances will this behavior be allowed at anytime and if they do it there will be immediate punishment.

Will The Courageous: A Story About Sexual Abuse by Amy Barth talks about 6 year old Will who was sexually abused by his babysitter, Nana’s nephew but was terrified to tell anyone. What follows is a series of odd behaviour  from Will, such as having stomach aches,  nightmares, fear of going to his babysitter’s house and also wetting his bed.

The number of sexual abuse cases among children are on the rise but yet, this is a subject that many parents find difficult to broach. With books like Will The Courageous, it helps ease the communication of such issue between parents and young children. It enables us to teach our young children and make them  aware of the difference between the touch of someone who is showing them affection and the touch or approaches of someone who is trying to take sexual advantage of them.

Most important of all, Will The Courageous encourages young children not to hide such sexual abuse incident BUT to always tell their parents or those whom they trust about it.

Disclosure : The above titled eBook is courtesy of Loving Healing Press but all opinions expressed are solely my own.

What Do You Use to Help Your Body?  Maggie  Explores the World of Disabilities by Jewel Kats is a book about how Maggie discovers  people’s disabilities while going out on a walk around the neighbourhood with her Momma. She also learns how these people uses special aids to help them overcome their disabilities. The book is written in a simple and easy to understand story which is ideal for children aged 6 years and above. I thought the illustration were also a big help as they clearly show the disability aids, which many children may not have seen before OR have seen before, but are not aware of what they really are.

If you are more observant, you may also notice that the characters in the book consisted of people from many different cultural background. Thumbs up to the author and illustrator for including that. Another great lesson from the book was to send the message across to all child readers that people with disabilities may not be comfortable with questions and that they should always respect people’s disabilities.

Disclosure : eBook for the above review was provided by Loving Healing Press but all opinions expressed are solely my own.

• ISBN-10: 1455808385
• ISBN-13: 978-1455808380

My nephew is what you would call a book worm. Every time I see him, he has his head in a book. His biggest love is fantasy books and he loved the Harry Potter series as well as the Percy Jackson books. I think he just loves getting lost in a world that is so different from ours.

He will spend hours reading and even takes his book with him on the school bus every morning. Whenever he comes to stay at my house, he will make sure he has his favourite book with him so he can fit in a couple of hours reading before he goes to sleep.

While some people might think this is unhealthy, I feel that reading will give him a great head start in life. His vocabulary is amazing and he has a wonderful imagination. Since my daughter enjoyed the Kane Chronicles series, I thought he might like them too and I was not wrong. He  absolutely loves the Kane Chronicles and I have just bought him part two, The Throne of Fire. He read the first book in a matter of days and he seems to be ploughing through this one just as quickly, if not faster. I would definitely recommend this series for anyone who loves their fantasy novels.

When one child is an underachiever, it seems that the child has absolutely no motivation whatsoever to do anything. The truth is they are truly motivated to do absolutely nothing. It is a hidden expectation and no matter what happens, no matter how hard this child tries, they will never achieve what is expected of them. So, it sets them up to follow the prescribed path of being an underachiever.

In a way, these kids are highly motivated to resist whatever is expected of them and therefore fail. Somewhere, somehow they have received the message that they are not worthy of achieving and when they don’t, they can then say, you are right, I am not any good.

So what can be done to change your child from putting all their energy into absolutely nothing and shifting it into something that accentuates their abilities? Does your child use the phrase ‘I don’t care’ on a regular basis? This is an excellent tool for them to fool themselves into believing that nothing really matters anyway. It has a way of taking any pressure off of them to take action in a positive and productive manner.

Do not allow your child to have a plethora of things in their room where they can ‘hang out’ by themselves. Begin to make this child accountable for his/her actions or lack of action. Make them earn their ‘toys’ by being productive and then follow the productivity with rewards and positive reinforcement. Continue to shift the ‘it does not matter’ feeling to ‘everything you do matters’. It will never happen overnight, but it will allow the child to test the waters and try to achieve without fear of failure. Coach your child and allow them to feel what achieving feels like and that even the fear of accomplishment can be overcome. Listen to the child as he states his fears by what he says and how he acts.

• ISBN-10: 0766608271
• ISBN-13: 978-0766608276

I wanted my son to read some of the classic science fiction novels from authors such as H.G. Wells.  He loves science fiction and I thought it might be a good idea for him to read some of the books that I had read as a young child.  I had a look online and found an illustrated copy of The Time Machine.  This book was certainly an eye opener for my son and he thoroughly enjoyed it.

He loved the way the author predicted what the future would be like and he loved the actual story.  It is a book that he had his nose in for about a week.  He was eager to find out what happened so much so that he forfeited his favourite television programmes a few nights.  This is not something that he has ever done with other books that he has read before.

Usually he will keep his book and read a few pages every night before lights out but with this book he wanted to read it whenever he had a spare minute.  I was really surprised about how such a classic book would have such a pull on him but he is now looking for more books like this.

• ISBN-10: 1423113381
• ISBN-13: 978-1423113386

I was recently looking for books to buy for my eleven year old daughter as part of her birthday present. She loves books and anything to do with magic and as you can imagine is a huge Harry Potter fan. She has read all the Harry Potter books more than once and was looking for something else to get her teeth into.

The Kane Chronicles were recommended to me by a teacher friend of mine who told me that the children at the school where she teaches were developing a love for these books. I decided to buy the first book The Red Pyramid to see what she would think of it.

I have to say that I am glad I bought this book for her. I had thought that she would find it hard to move on to new characters because of her love for Harry Potter but this book was something that she loved straight away. Before she was even half way through, she was on at me to get the second part. She has now started the second book eagerly and I think she will be soon looking for more books from this gifted author.

As a baby grows into new stages, he or she begins to test the waters on individuality and power.  The need to make certain the world continues to revolve solely around their wants becomes overwhelmingly important and if those wants are not recognized they will use their temper to make certain they will be. Often times the child does not have the capacity to verbalize what is wanted and the frustration that is created causes them to use what they do know and that would be to use their motor skills to ‘throw a tantrum’. If the tantrum is not born from frustration, believe it is purely born from manipulation. ‘I want it and I want it NOW’. Sounds familiar?

Once a child is born to you, things look a little bit differently in many ways.  This child, the one you brought into the world knows it is incumbent on him to push as many of your buttons as humanly possible.   So, it is going to depend solely on your reaction to his button pushing. Unfortunately, this will tap into how you were raised, how your parents were raised and so on.  We all have the capacity to cope with stress and ‘button pushing’ but when it gets too arduous for us, we regrettably fall back into learned behaviors ourselves. If our Mother was a screamer and quite volatile then when we react to our own child’s tantrum’s we might possible react in the same manner.  The child will be ecstatic to generate an explosion from you and get you into a screaming match with him. 

Ultimately, the parent will have to take control by shutting down the tantrum ‘tool’ and showing the child verbally and by using body language to make the statement ‘manipulation tantrums will not be allowed’.   It is important for the parent to teach the child what is acceptable and what is not.  It is all part of many, many years of discipline training.