Home for the Summer: Ten Happy, Healthy Ideas for Kids

That last school bell has rung and the kids are back home, enjoying all the pleasures that summer vacation offers. But there’s got to be more to life than sleeping until noon and sipping lemonade by the pool. Here are some more ideas to make sure your kids stay happy and healthy this summer.

1. Block the sun. Sunlight is great; but too much exposure can be dangerous. Cover the kids with generous amounts of waterproof sunscreen -- SPF of 30 or greater -- 30 minutes prior to any sun exposure. Be sure to reapply it every 30 minutes for maximum protection.

2. Take a hometown vacation. With gas prices soaring, summer vacations may need to be spent a little closer to home. Check out your hometown’s restaurants, museums or parks together as a family and pretend you’re tourists for a few days.

3. Keep active. Keep the kids up and moving with some fun games such as badminton, swimming or soccer. And, of course, never underestimate the power of a good old-fashioned game of hide and seek or catching fireflies at dusk.

4. Pick some produce. Fresh fruits and vegetables are aplenty during the summer months. Gather the kids to visit a local farm or check out the local farmers market. With so many delicious choices this summer, your kids may actually eat their vegetables!

5. Stay hydrated. Enjoying the summer heat can sometimes lead to dehydration. Be sure to keep plenty of filtered water on tap and instead of letting the kids grab for sodas, enjoy some healthier treats such as juice spritzers or frozen fruit juice popsicles.

6. Start a reading club. Don’t let those brain cells get lazy during the summer. Reading is a great way to keep your kids’ minds active. Gather some of your children’s friends for meetings to discuss fun summer reads. If food is involved, turnout will be much higher -- guaranteed.

7. Record some memories. Make this a summer to remember. Arm the kids with a video camera to make family movies. Or, take still pictures and create an online scrapbook that you can share with friends and family.

8. Breathe easy. Hot, summer weather forces us to keep our doors and windows shut tight, trapping allergens and airborne molecules in our homes and in our lungs. Keep your home’s indoor air healthy by installing a whole-home air filtration system, such as AccuClean from American Standard Heating & Air Conditioning.

9. Go around the world. Take a trip around the world without leaving your own home. Pick a different country or culture each week. Read books and create maps of the area. Wrap up your week of study by creating and enjoying a traditional meal from the region.

10. Have fun. Don’t over schedule your summer. Instead, use summer vacation to lighten your family’s load, kick back, and enjoy these long, golden days. Memories are created, not scheduled, so start creating some today.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Heart

There comes a point in your life when you realize

who matters,

who never did,

who won't anymore...

and who always will.

So, don't worry about people from your past,

there's a reason why they didn't make it to your future.

'Be kinder than necessary
because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

Quote For The Day

The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance - and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.
Oprah Winfrey

Make the Most of Your Child’s Sports Experience

Make the Most of Your Child’s Sports Experience


As children venture back to school, they get many opportunities to participate in sports. No matter what the activity, you can help your child understand how to make the most of the experience.



Dr. Kevin Sverduk, chair of the graduate program Sport-Exercise Psychology at Argosy University, Orange County, shares his insights for parents. “We place emphasis on applied sports psychology in our programs. In other words, the psychology of human potential and performance,” he says. “We look for ways of helping individuals do what they do to the best of their ability. Not just in the performance, but in the whole experience. It’s important for athletes of all ages to raise enjoyment of the activity to the fullest level.”



For many children, participation in sports has become more about winning and losing rather than playing “They harbor expectations about the outcome of the game -- from themselves, or from their parents or peers. People tend to worry about things they can’t control. They worry about whether they’ll win or make the shot instead of focusing on effort, attitude, and motivation,” Sverduk says. “This is the paradox of control and paradox of success. The way to give yourself the best chance of achieving success is to stop thinking about it. If you focus instead on things you have control over, you can increase the likelihood of success.”



Sverduk recommends talking with your child to shift the focus of the sport away from the results of the game. “Parents can help kids re-focus to things like, energy, effort, and concentration,” states Sverduk. “If someone is upset over a loss, you can ask, ‘Are you upset because you did all you could and you lost, or because you didn’t do all that you could and you lost? Why be upset about losing if you didn’t work your hardest?’” This can help a child understand that the responsibility as a team member is to control only the things he or she can control to the best of their ability.



Parental involvement in sports helps to shape the child’s value system. “A parent’s primary question after a game teaches the child what is important,” says Sverduk. “It’s far better to ask, ‘Did you have fun?’ or ‘What did you learn?’ than ‘Did you win?’ When parents value improvement and fun over the score of the game, the child begins to place more emphasis on learning and enjoyment. The shift emphasizes the process of the sport rather than the results of the game. It comes back to placing value on things that the child can control,” he continues.



Sverduk suggests that parents talk with kids about competition. “The original definition of the word ‘competition’ was ‘to move forward with others.’ Our culture has reshaped the meaning, and we now think of competition as moving against others, which breeds anxiety and fear,” he says. “But if you think in terms of playing the game with the goal of elevating the skill level of all participants, it breeds involvement, empowerment, and enjoyment. Competition is all about the challenge and doing your best. Winning is important, but it’s not enough.”



Courtesy of ARAcontent

Quote For The Day

In the beginning there was nothing. God said, 'Let there be light!' And there was light. There was still nothing, but you could see it a whole lot better.

Ellen DeGeneres,

Christian Quote of the Day

Christian Quote of the Day
Topic for Today: Holiness

God saved us to make us holy, not happy. Some experiences may not contribute to our happiness, but all can be made to contribute to our holiness.

Havner, Vance

Happiness Quotes

When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.
Helen Keller

Dance While You Can

Dance While You Can

My heart aches when I read that someone” forgot to live” yet I fear they express is all too common for many people today. Caught up in the business of living, we rarely have time to take close look and consider our personal lives. The urgent needs of the moment, weather at our workplace or within our families or with our friends, surround us and scream for our constant attention. We are so caught up in the race to keep up what we tend to lose track of where we really are with our lives…. and who we are becoming. For some people, the lost is devastating.

I recently spoke with a woman who described her husband, very successful in business as a “soulless man.” Everything about his life – his time, energies, and loyalties – was focused on his work, and when he came home, he had nothing left to give her or their children or anyone else. In her own haunting words, she said that “somewhere in his chase to get to the top, he lost his soul.”

None of us want to look back on our lives and wonder where the years have gone, especially with regrets that we never discovered what it means to live. But if we never stop and question where we are in our lives, this might be our experience.

Thank goodness, we don’t have to go this way. We can learn to really live our lives to the fullest. We’ve all known people who do so, people who have discovered their own life songs and make a fulfilling dance of their lives, even if they never dance with their feet. There are steps they have learned to make their dance possible. The beauty is that they can dance anywhere and all the time.

Dance While You Can is meant to help you slow down and consider your life’s dance. You may discover that you need to redirect your focus. It may be something as simple and yet profound as telling someone you love them or as complex as reconsidering your career and how you are using the gifts and talents God has given you.

It is said that Socrates learned to dance when he was seventy because he felt that was essential part of himself had been neglected. No matter what stage you are in life, it’s never too late to examine your inner life and make certain that, as Socrates said, it’s worth dancing.

Follow Your Dreams

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
Henry David Thoreau