Kids and Pranks

Just for the laughs. Relax and enjoy it

Getting Our Kids to Do Their Homework

I seem to be focused on the art of getting our kids in that upper echelon of the academia today. I want us to look at how we can as parents, encourage our children to do their homework without effectively. Getting their homework done and on time will make them imbibe the culture of hard work and punctuality, not to mention that it adds to their overall performance at school. Being singled out for not having done one’s homework or for being tardy in submission could affect a child’s self confidence, and we don’t want that to happen. The following tips could assist us as parents.

Today’s Child and Numbers

Mathematics is a subject that many kids would want to be dispensed with in their school curriculum. Unfortunately, this cannot be as it has been proven time and time again that Mathematics is a subject that we all must grapple with in one form or the other. The farmer, trader, academic, manufacturer, inventor etc all require the understanding and the use of numbers in their daily operations. Even the child that wants mathematics dispensed with use numbers daily, at least when he wants to buy his favourite snack. The trick, therefore, in keeping kids interested in Mathematics is to get them familiar with the use of numbers at an early age, and in a fun way. These tips are designed to assist.

Raising Your Child’s Intelligence

In today’s fast paced world, the importance of bringing up intelligent kids need not be overemphasized. While some may argue that intelligence is a gift of nature it could also be enhanced by nurture. We as parents, therefore, have a role to play in stimulating our children’s intelligence. Here are some tips to consider.

Toddlers Safety While Driving

Sometimes adults often forget or do not consider the risk they expose children to while driving them around in their cars. They forget the basic rules guiding driving and driving with kids. Letting them play around in the car as well as shuttling between the front and back seat is a very “normal” occurrence we witness. There are even crazier situations where parents carry their kids on their laps while driving. Let us not play with lives and not give in to temptation by refreshing our memories with some of these basic rules.

Police Rescue Malnourished Girl From Closet In Kansas City

This is definitely not the kind of parenting we promote!

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A ten-year old girl was discovered locked in a closet Friday morning and police say it’s apparent she had been there for a while.

Police say they received a hotline call about the child and responded to the 1300 block of Highland at about 9:30 a.m. They say the girl’s condition and the condition of the closet indicate she had been there for an extended period of time. She was severely malnourished and a neighbor says she “doesn’t look like a ten-year-old should.”

“From the whole time that we’ve been down here for three to four years, I never knew she had a third child,” said Kimberly Kelly, a neighbor.

Police say when they opened the door, the girl was squashed into the closet. The girl was taken to the hospital for treatment while police obtained a search warrant and then spent Friday afternoon collecting evidence inside the home.

The girl’s mother and the mother’s boyfriend were located and taken into custody. Two other children in the home are now in protective custody.

“The lady herself is very quiet,” said Kelly. Basically she had two other children that looked fine. Very clean. Very everything. They seemed to have fun. They had music on. They were outside all day,” she said.

Kelley and her daughter saw authorities take the girl away.

“She doesn’t look like a normal ten-year-old child. Malnourished. Unclean. She just doesn’t look like a ten-year old should,” she said.

Fox News

A Definite No No for Our Kids

Parents should ensure that their kids don't behave like these kids caught on video bullying a grandmother. Watch the video and share your comments

Guides to Manners: What Children Need to Know

In these days of fast paced lifestyle and career focused parents, sometime we forget to teach our children those simple manners that should make them grow into gentlemen and ladies. The following are things are a must teach to your kids;

Tips on Handling Sibling Rivalry

Sibling rivalry is as old as the world itself. We are all too familiar with the story of Cain and Abel in the Bible. How sibling rivalry led to Cain’s killing of his brother Abel. We also remember the case of Esau and Jacob. How Jacob manipulated his way and got their father Isaac to bless him. The cause of sibling rivalry could range from age difference, difference in sex and parents attitude. While sibling rivalry is normal, parents should do all in their power to discourage and end it so it does not fester. These are some tips to consider.

Simple Guide on Parenting

co.humboldt.ca.us/hhs/administration/incredibleyears.asp

Children and Mother Tongue

Culture is the way of life of a people and language can be said to be a part of culture as it helps in identifying one better. With modernization and westernisation, most native languages are fast becoming extinct, as modern day parents prefer not to let their children speak their native language. They are quick to forget that a person’s own language is key, as a child will still learn the official language of any country that he is in at school, hence will have an added advantage of speaking two or more languages. Some parents frown at people speaking their native language to their children and even go to the extent of issuing out warnings to people who do so to their children.

Music, Phones and Internet Safety for Kids

There is an IT revolution going on these days. While it is positive in some ways, it could also negatively affect the way our children grow up. In the old days, it was easy for our parents to monitor and control the contents of what we watch on Television; that was when there were limited TV channels and localised ones at that. These days however, children no longer depend solely on the television for informative contents, they rely also, and mainly on the Internet. With the advent of i-phones, black berry phones and other smart phones, it becomes very easy for kids to hook onto the Internet. This, therefore, allows them access to materials that could not easily be controlled by parents, as they treat their phones as their second skin. They are, therefore, exposed to music, videos, and other materials that are obscene and harmful to their growth. The following tips will help in monitoring what our kids listen to and watch.

Drugs, Anger and Unacceptable Behaviour

This is a totally unacceptable behavior from a parent or anybody else. We should not let anger, whether induced by drug use or otherwise to put our kid's life in such danger

Moment Maniac Dad Dangled Toddler From Sixth-Floor Window

Horror ... the father dangles three-year-old daughter from sixth floor window

THIS is the shocking moment a father dangled his three-year-old daughter out of the sixth-floor window of their apartment block after a row with his wife.

How to Deal with Bedwetting in Children

By the age of six, it is expected that children would have started having regular dry nights; however this is not the case in a number of children as they still have frequent wet nights even past the age of six. Bed wetting or nocturnal enuresis or sleep enuresis is a common cause of worry and at times frustration for the parents and a great cause of embarrassment for the kids especially when their other siblings are not doing so. It is more common among boys than girls and is usually a normal process that children go through which, would be outgrown with time, probably when the child gains better bladder control. It is also important to note that bed wetting is genetic; hence there is a higher chance of bed wetting in children whose parents also did same as kids.

Toddlers and Biting

As parents, we are faced with different challenges in child rearing. The toddler stage appears to be the most troublesome years, as the toddlers seem to be out of control and worst of all, they cannot be held to account for their actions. One of the bothersome behavioural patterns of toddlers is that of biting. Yes, biting. Toddlers do bite not because they are inherently naughty, but mainly as a way of expressing themselves; it could be as a result of teething, experimenting with what they think is alien to them. It could also be a way of showing their frustration, anger and fear, giving the fact that they can’t express themselves very well otherwise. The following tips are targeted on limiting the behavior

ABCs of Child Safety

We cannot overemphasize the issue of child safety. Watch the following video, if possible with your kids so they could learn all the can about safety. We hope this contributes to keeping your kids safe.

Talking with Strangers: The right Approach

How often did we hear the warning from our parents “don’t talk to strangers.” This was even back in the days when the environment was still neighbourly. These days, with stories of kidnappings making the rounds in almost all the climes, those warnings seem to be apt. However, it might not be in the child’s overall interest to make such a blanket statement without explaining. This is because it could make the child become so anti-social in life. Secondly, the child is bound to meet with “strangers” once he starts interacting outside the family circle. These are some tips on how to approach the “no talking to stranger” rule.

Tips and Tricks for Handling Common Toddler Behavior

This video gives a few tips on handling some toddler behavior.

Creating Fun for an Only Child

Unlike in the days of our grandparents or parents (for some) where wealth was measured partly by the number of children you had; modern day couples tend to opt for a smaller family; this could probably be because of their ever busy schedules; they want to be more involved in raising their children and give the best to the few number of children they have rather than have many without adequate care. Most families opt for about two to four children; however some decide to have just one.

Parents with a single child sometimes feel they are being selfish by not letting their child have another sibling. As a result of this they find themselves “spoiling” the child in the bid to try and make him not to feel left out as an only child.

Instead of stressing yourself out and getting him spoilt, bossy and in turn making him lonely why not try out these few steps:

Should Becoming a Dad Really Affect Your Lifestyle?

Becoming a dad is bad for your body

New mums may experience the most dramatic body changes on becoming a parent, but new dads are also likely to see expanding waistlines and get into unhealthy habits

Britain's dads are in poor physical shape and put on an average of a stone-and-a-half in weight after becoming a father, a new study has discovered.

A lack of time to exercise, an increase in the number of takeaways and endless sleepless are to blame, with six out of ten dads admitting they're 'out of shape'.

Paul Keenan, of Benenden Healthcare, which carried out the Men's Health Forum study said: ''The modern lifestyle is a hectic one and this study clearly shows the impact this is having on fatherhood.

''As we approach Father's Day, we discover that the modern dad's health is suffering under the strain from diverging pressures such as work and family life.

How to Brush Your Child's Teeth

This is one thing that most parents fret about. Watch the following video for tips on how to brush your child's teeth. Remember that the foundation you lay for his dental health today, will see him through his lifetime.

Tips on Managing Diaper Rash

When your beautiful baby is born, her skin is often perfect in every way. It is softer and smoother than it will ever be again. You are dismayed when she wakes up and her bottom is red and irritated when you change her diaper. What happened! What did you do wrong? Absolutely nothing!

ALL BABIES HAVE DIAPER RASH!

There are many misconceptions about a baby's bottom:

• It is supposed to be perfectly smooth and rash-free
• Diaper rash is abnormal
• Diaper rash is a sign of food or formula allergies
• Diaper rash means the baby has bad diarrhea or a yeast infection

Having a diaper rash is a normal part of being a baby. There are many ways you can limit the amount of rash, but from time to time it will flare up again.

WHY BABIES GET DIAPER RASH

Start with ultra sensitive skin, add the chemicals and moisture of urine and stools, cover the area with a diaper that rubs back and forth, and you have diaper rash. This damaged skin is susceptible to the invasion of bacteria and yeast, which can make the rash worse.

Symptoms That Should Not Be Ignored During Pregnancy

Pregnancy comes with a lot of changes and feelings in the body, while most are just normal due to hormonal effects, some are not just normal. We should, therefore, pay great attention to ourselves at this period. When you do not feel well or you are not sure of what is happening to you, do not hesitate in visiting your health professional even if you just went for your routine check the day before; because it is safer than just assuming things.

Here are a few symptoms that you should not ignore:

·        Severe hand and body swelling

·        Blurring of vision

·        Severe headache

·        Vaginal bleeding

How To Start Weaning A Baby

Most Moms find this stage of parenting very frustrating; it need not be as it is a passing phase. Watch the following video on tips to start weaning your baby. Tell us if the tips work for you

Bloating in pregnancy

Most pregnant women often wonder why they feel bloated and why it gets worse as their pregnancy advances. During pregnancy, there is an increased production of progesterone; this helps in maintaining a healthy pregnancy but at the same time slows down digestive process as it causes the smooth muscles in your body including the ones in the gastro intestinal tract to relax. As a result of this, nutrients have more time to get to your baby. This slow metabolism also causes the uncomfortable feeling of bloating, belching and flatulence. Here are some few tips that could help manage this feeling:

Essentials of Baby Massage

Babies, just as adults love a good massage once in a while. It helps them to relax and aid in sleeping and blood circulation. The video here presents a guide on baby massage

On Finding a Good Nanny

Often times, parents need that extra hand to help out with some basic chores in the family and so the need to hire a nanny comes up. When thinking of this, there are certain factors we must consider to ensure we get the right person for our kids and the family. Always have it at the back of your mind that hiring or finding a nanny is not going to be an easy task so, do not because of the pressure or stress you might be experiencing at the moment, rush into hiring one without first putting some basic factors into consideration. You need to look out for honesty, reliability and other great qualities while hiring a nanny. Remember nannies play a vast role in your child’s social and emotional development as well as his safety so you do not want to compromise on this. In finding a nanny we need to put these factors into consideration:

Baby’s First Steps and Safety Precautions

“My baby just took his first steps; am so excited and I feel on top of the world…”

There is this sense of pride, fulfilment and joy when your little one takes his first steps; it gives you some form of reassurance that truly your baby is really making good developmental progress. At least you can go for walks together with him tagging along. This is not only an exciting stage, for the parents but also for the kids as they are thrilled to know they can move around more freely and so can explore their environment better. This being the case, parents should take extra care to ensure that the kid’s environment is always safe so as to prevent accidents around the kids who are obviously so energised at this stage.

Some basic tips to remember include:

Tips on Toy Safety for Toddlers

Kids love their toys and could in most cases, cry and throw tantrums when parents do not get them their desired toys. It becomes worse when you take them to toyshops; they want to get the whole lot. While toys are good for stimulating children’s mental and physical development, they could also be dangerous and in some cases, a cause of death. We should, therefore, put the safety of our kids first in selecting toys for them. These are some tips on toy safety:

Tips on Managing Separation Anxiety

As our kids grow, we dream of when they would start schooling; however when the time finally approaches our excitement often times cave in to anxiety, worry, and a bit of depression. These feelings are very normal as we definitely want the best for our kids, but fear if they would be taken care of as we usually do for them. We wonder how they would be received by the school, if they would fit into their classes, if the environment would be comfortable for them. Sometimes we think the kids would believe we no longer love them as we used to. Sometimes we even think that we are probably not doing the right thing by letting them start school as we think they are still too young and so we are exposing them inappropriately. Most often, the anxiety stems from the child’s anxiety itself. Here are some tips to help you get over the situation:

Tips on finding a school for your child

Every parent will definitely be proud to have kids that are academically sound and so they go through very difficult task in choosing schools that would help nurture and bring out the best in their kids. Laying a good educational foundation at an early age goes a long way in setting a very solid ground on which our kids achieve academic excellence and become better citizens in the society in future. With a lot of schools promising quality education, it is not easy to decipher which one of the schools would be the best for our kids.

Here are a few tips that could you out when looking for a school for your child:

Discover Your Child’s Hidden Abilities

From a very young age, children tend to start exhibiting some unique talents which might even be very surprising to parents; they might start displaying football skills, singing abilities, memorising skills or might love mimicking people (acting). Parents sometimes get carried away with work and do not even have the slightest opportunity to be with their kids even to help them discover and nurture the budding talent that they are displaying. Do not let the steam die off, encourage them a lot to build up on their passion; this way you would definitely have a very happy and confident child.

Some few tips that could help:

Negotiating With Kids

How often have we as parents seen ourselves at the negotiating end of the table with our kids? Children right from birth develop a strong sense of negotiating skills with which they navigate through their infant and toddler age especially. While it is necessary to be firm with kids, especially in setting the rules of the house, like times to watch the TV, sleep time, lunch, dinnertime etc, it is also necessary that we do not appear to be stiff in our ways. Negotiating with them will also help them build confidence and will impart the much needed negotiating and diplomatic skills that they would need to survive the tough world. It will also make them feel that you at least reason with them. Here are some tips:

Exercise and Child Development

With modernity and urbanization children rarely get the opportunity to play and exercise the way we all did when we were growing up. These days, our children occupy themselves more with watching TV than going out to get dirty in the sand. Exercise however, has been known to be very beneficial to the growing child. It is never too early or too late to start our children in exercises. These and more are some of the benefits they will get:

Dealing With A Shy Child

You might probably be worried that your very active and fun child at home becomes the opposite of himself when he meets people even his peers in school. Dealing with a shy kid has never been an easy task for any parent and some parents while trying to get their kids to become more social end up worsening the situation.

Here are some tips that could help you with handling your shy kid:

Toddlers and Discipline

Oftentimes we either assume that children that are about one year old are too young to be disciplined, or at the other extreme, we tend to punish them forgetting also that they might not really understand the concept of wrong and right. However, this does not mean that we should not make some attempts to put them in the right; because it is never too early to start as well as it is never too late to start. These are some tips to set you on the part:

Self Esteem and Confidence in Kids

One of the major sources of concern to most parents is whether their kids would be able to interact well socially. The inability to interact well could also have a negative effect on children’s psychological development. The cause of this inability most times stems from having a low self esteem of one self. Since low self-esteem is not a gene thing, it could be corrected. Certain parenting traits and character traits, such as anger and fearfulness, are learned in each generation. These are some tips on building self-esteem and confidence in children:

 Always make your kids understand that they are loved. Shower them with love – this does not however translate to excessive showering of material gifts

Importance of Hand Washing

Children are very adventurous and tend to use their hands in so many ways to explore; be it playing in the sand, on the floor, getting dirty or just playing around. Remember they rub their hands on noses and eyes and eat with these hands thereby transferring germs. This causes a lot of germs to build up or get trapped in the hands causing illness like common cold, diarrhoea etc, which could have easily been prevented by a simple routine of hand washing.

Parents should, therefore, make sure they wash their little ones hands as often as possible and also imbibe the culture of washing hands into their children by letting them know and understand its importance. Do not assume that because they are probably too young to clean themselves up after using the toilet that they might be okay if they don’t get their hands washed after using the toilet!

Mothers and Parenting

Most times women get swallowed up in child rearing that they forget all about themselves. This might probably be because they want to give the best they can to their kids or because they do not want to be seen by their kids as “bad” mothers. Also they may want to make sure their families are seen as the ideal ones by the society or possibly the work is very tasking and they do not want to be seen as failures. Parenting is a process and women should include themselves in this process in order not to run themselves down.

Typical Two-Year-Old Behavioural Pattern

Two-year-old kids could be a handful for parents, especially young and not so experienced ones. You will remember the expression ‘terrible two’ which refers to the behavioural pattern of two year olds. Watch the following video so you know you are not alone, and you will also pick up tips on how to handle the situation

Sleep and Child Development

Sleep is a very integral part of children’s development. In fact, lack of having enough sleep affects children worse than it affects adults. For newborn babies, their natural daily routine should consist of sleeping, waking, feeding, sleeping again. For growing kids, they should sleep at least eight hours a day including having their siestas. However, in these days of e-existence; internet, ipad, ipod, video games, play stations, etc most babies and growing kids hardly get the required hours of sleep. Sleep deprivation could affect a child’s mental development. This could, therefore, affect their academic development eventually. These are some tips that could help in ensuring that our children get their sleep:

Getting Your Child Ready for a New Sibling

We have all heard about sibling rivalry. While it is most noticeable when children are growing, it starts even from the entrance of a new baby into the family. The following tips are to help prepare your child for an incoming sibling. It will at least reduce the initial ‘psychological shock’ of having someone else become the focus of attention in the family

On Toddler Safety

Guys, I think this is a must watch for all parents and aspiring parents. It speaks to the issue of toddler safety.

Manners for Children

With most parents living a ‘modern’ lifestyle these days, and concentrating so much on their careers, the dangers are that those basic manners that we picked up while growing will be lost. These basic tips while not an attempt at perfection, will remind us what tools we should equip our children with so as not to be termed ‘bad mannered kids’.

Brain Development and the Child

Who wouldn’t want a smart child? While intelligence is mostly associated with the genes, there are things we could do to boost and stimulate the natural intelligence of our kids. Here are a few tips:

How to Handle Toddlers That Are Picky Eaters

Taking care of toddlers can be very tasking and challenging as it requires putting in a little extra effort. This can be because they suddenly start wanting a little bit of independence or possibly because they want things to follow their own routine.

Feeding might also become a very daunting task for their parents as the toddlers might develop dietary preferences; they have a narrow range of foods they like and would not want to try out anything new especially vegetables. As frustrating as this might be, parents should realise that this is just a passing phase and the kids would get better with time. Here are some basic tips that could help handle kids that are picky eaters: