According to a new analysis of children’s well-being that was released recently, about 21 percent of children in the United States will be living under the line of poverty in 2010, which would be the highest rate in 20 years.

Kenneth Land, project coordinator and professor of sociology and demography at Duke University, said that economic well-being of families has plummeted to near 1975 levels.

From Edition.cnn.com:

The Child and Youth Well-Being Index Project at Duke University bases its predictions on 28 indicators of well-being that encompass economic well-being, safe and risky behavior, social relationships, emotional and spiritual well-being, community engagement, educational attainment and health. Researchers predict that although the index is at a low for the decade this year, it will start edging up.

“There are lots of kids out there whose quality of life has already and will decline as a result of the impact of this recession,” Land said.

About 15.6 million children are estimated to be living in poverty this year, but study authors say this number will start going down.

This year, as many as 500,000 children may be homeless in the United States, according to the report.

The report, however, revealed that health insurance coverage for children will not significantly fall. This study was funded by the private philanthropy Foundation for Child Development.

Tags: children, community engagement, health, line of poverty, social relationships, Youth

Raising your child can be the most beautiful thing for you. But if you are a first-time parent, you need to be cautious of certain things so that there are no hurdles in upbringing the child.

Before we read any further, it is important for us to know that upbringing a child starts at home as parents are the first teachers of the child and have significant influence over growth and development of children.

From Healthandsuppliments.com:

Upbringing a child starts at home and you really need to have a lot of patience and information for ensuring success of your upbringing plans. The first step in this process is to talk to your baby. Even though the child may not be able to express his thoughts or answer your questions, he or she will know that you are some one special. In addition to that, try to add words in your talks whenever your child makes sounds. You can even read and sing to your baby. It is interesting to note here that children who listen to music in their early childhood days are known to develop a love for mathematics and music.

Furthermore, never leave your child away from you for long. Try to spend as much of quality time as possible by cuddling and holding him or her. This will bring a sense of care and security, something only your young child can feel. If you want to play with your baby, make sure that he is alert and relaxed and not feeling sleepy else he or she may not be able to pay attention and you may be left disappointed thinking that the activity is not liked.

By following these tips, you can make things simple and fun for you as well as the child.

Tags: child, children, parent, Raising Your Child, upbringing plans, upbringing the child

Do you as a parent find it difficult to wake up your kids on time after their long vacation or adjusting their time schedule as you want that to be? Read this article on back to school transition that could help you to a significant extent.

Long vacations for school going kids are more like long awaited holidays when they can enjoy, play, go around with friends, and do lots of exciting activities that they always want to do but due to time shortage and heavy load of homework, they were not able to enjoy them.

Most of the kids find it difficult to return back to school after long summer vacations, they even complain that they get bored in the long vacations and had nothing special to do. So parents have to remember a few things to ease this back to school transition stage to make them aware that everyone feels a little nervous about the first day of school and that it will all become an everyday routine in a few days. Let them know the positive aspect of going back to school, such as hanging out with old friends, meeting new classmates, and lots of new learning with new teachers. Talk to your kids to know about their worries and do not hesitate to offer reassurances.

As a parent, you can adjust your own time schedule to make the transition smoother. It’s especially beneficial for parents to be home at the end of the school day for the first week. If it is not possible for you then spend quality time in the evening with them to know and care for their needs.

Hope this article on raising your child helped you to some extent for helping your children with back to school transition.

Tags: back to school transition, homework, Raising Your Child, transition, vacation

A newborn child is like clay that can be molded in any way and the clay master is no one but the parents of the child. If you are a parent and want to “feed” your child with confidence, this blog is just meant for you. Read on!

Promoting confidence in children can be a cakewalk if you are aware of some easy tips. To start with, it is important for you to praise your child when he excels and remember this excellence is not just limited to examination marks. This could be anything from participation in an extra-curricular activity to helping you in the household tasks.

In addition to that, be confident in the abilities of your child and nurture his hidden skills by giving him some responsibilities. He or she may not excel at the first stance but that should not mean that you condemn or scold him or take away the responsibilities, let him learn even if the learning comes from mistakes. Encourage him and you will be glad to see him asking for more responsibilities to reduce your burden and excel at all spheres of the life. Never compare him with any one else.

Furthermore, promote confidence in children through the following ways:

• Let him know about the latest trends, history, and anything you consider he should know as a child. But, do not force things or learnings on him.
• Talk to your child on a regular basis about his problems, share his happiness, and help him grow as a better child and an individual.
• Respect his privacy and never show disrespect to him or his feelings; understand his point of view and do not reject it straightaway.
• Never, ever scold or punish your child in public but always praise and reward your child in public but it should only be a controlled and deserved praise.
• Get him enrolled to activities like swimming, horse riding, active lifestyle, jogging, and introduce him to creative hobbies such as painting, coin collection, stamp collection, and the interesting world of collectibles besides giving enough rest to the young mind and body.

These small tips would go a long way in promoting confidence in children and should always be encouraged.

Tags: confidence, praise your child, promote confidence in children, Promoting confidence in children

Raising your child can be one of the biggest hurdles before you consciously start making efforts to be a good parent. Read on how you can and each one of us can do this otherwise “almost impossible” task in an easy manner.

Parenthood is a kind of happiness which comes to you with responsibilities to be followed. Everybody parent wants to be the best parent and hope that his or her children should be raised in the best environment. But as we all know that raising children is one of the most difficult tasks for the parents, especially the newly blessed parents. So, let us learn how to raise our children in the best manner so that they will become successful, optimistic, and good individuals.

Let us check the below guidelines that will help us to raise our children:

1. Parents are required to praise their children from the time they were toddlers. It is important for parents to show their love towards children as this feeling is not be kept hidden. Parents should let their children know that they are proud to have them as children.
2. Make your children realize that you don’t like misbehavior and you are upset by their acts, when you feel so. But don’t raise your hand or yell at them, it is best to make them sit with you and explain them what you don’t like and why.
3. Teach morals to your children but don’t forget to follow the same as children like to copy their parents and follow them. They learn more from what they see than what they are being told.
4. Let your children do small things for themselves, even if they face some challenges, as after finishing that work they’ll experience the feeling of success that will help them to develop a sense of self-esteem and optimism.
5. Let the children ask questions rather following the given orders without knowing there if’s and but’s, Take their suggestions to make rules.
6. Don’t pamper or go strict on your children. Each child has his own individual weaknesses and strengths. While one may be good in studies, another may be good in sports.

By observing these small tips, you can provide the best environment to your child so that he or she can grow to the fullest. If you can do that, raising your child would be all fun!

Tags: parent, parenthood, raise our children, raising children, Raising Your Child

Most of the parents often find it hard to reduce or eliminate sibling rivalry among their children due to their busy schedules. Let us read about some easy ways on how to prevent sibling rivalry.

In order to prevent sibling rivalry, parents should not delay action before this rivalry reach new heights. By staying calm and using common sense, parents can easily reduce frustration over quarrelsome siblings in addition to turning the fights to feelings of love and affection.

Tips to prevent sibling fights:

1. Parents should never discriminate or compare their children. It is wrong for a parent to praise one and scold the other in front of each other.
2. It does not matter what the occasion may be, each of the children should get equal attention and gifts of their choice; the choice of one child should not be imposed on the other one.
3. It is better for parents to let children work out differences as taking sides only makes things worse. But when in doubt or expecting a fight, intervene. At times, parents are best playing the role of an amateur psychologist than taking things in a police mode.
4. Always remember that the job of a responsible and caring parent is to protect his children, even from one another.

If you still experience your children getting into sibling rivalry, try giving them more of your quality time and motivate them to do things together so that a bond is sooner-or-later created between the two. Remember, parenthood brings responsibility and you just cannot shy away from it. The best way to perform this responsibility is to enjoy it with a sense of caution.

Tags: how to prevent sibling rivalry, prevent sibling rivalry, sibling rivalry, Tips to prevent sibling fights

To motivate a child, it is important for parents to first develop the feeling among the child about how important he or she is for them. Moreover, parents must make their children feel good about themselves and about what is expected from them in terms of social behavior and personal grooming.

Best Advice

It is important for parents to let their children develop and continue their interest in what they prefer doing by offering them small rewards such as some chocolates or may be a trip to a park or a mall. These small rewards should happen only when the child is able to complete the desired job. Parents can also motivate children to finish their educational tasks on time so that you all can on the weekends.

At times a child lacks motivation because he or she hasn’t yet been exposed to what might be a life passion for him. So expose him to new ideas and areas so that he or she can explore and find his or her strengths and help the child in staying focused on the same. Make the children learn to schedule their time in a better manner so that they can concentrate on everything. For example, if he or she is not able to do his studies on time due to incorrect time plans, he or she may find it difficult to devote time on recreational activities like playing or music that may further erode the interest.

Encourage your child to express his opinion, talk about his feelings and give him the opportunity to take decisions. As a parent, help them to keep the positive attitude for no matter what the result is. Talk to them about everything important to them in a friendly manner and more when things start going wrong for them. In addition to that, offer your advice on what could be the best thing to do in such situations. Last but not the least, celebrate their achievements and praise them even if they are not that big.

Tags: motivate a child, motivate children, motivation, personal grooming, positive attitude, social behavior

Raising a child in the best way is not that easy. Before deciding to become a parent, we need to realize that kids are innocent, but they are also completely dependent and emotionally needy it’s the parent’s liability to love and sacrifice for the child.

By following and remembering some few things, we can get great help to raise a high level of emotional aptitude in our children in a best way to ensure that they live a happy, successful, and responsible life as an adult.

Always keep in mind that your child studies you very closely and you should therefore prepare to be a role model for the behavior you want your child to imitate because they learn more from what they observe than what they’re told. So the best way to ensure your kids adopt good manners, habits and values is by adopting them yourself.

Know your child by spending quality time with them and show respect towards them if you constantly put your children down and compare him with other kids, they’ll develop low self-esteem and believe it’s good enough to treat others disrespectfully, including you. Love unconditionally, celebrate your children’s successes, and accept their limitations. It’s not required to always fulfill their demands saying no will give your kids an opportunity to deal with disappointment, and help them to control their desires.

Let your children speak their minds know you respect their views even if you disagree with them offer constructive advice, not harsh criticism.

We learn best while we’re happy, even though parenting is a serious job.

Tags: know your child, parenting, Raising a child

Child psychology is the way of understanding a child behavior that helps parents or teachers in handling his moods and problems in the best manner. But many parents do not accept the idea of showing their child to a child psychologist or going themselves for the consultation. According to them, people earlier never used to go to a psychologist and they still use to handle their children in very good manner their parents never did, so why should they go, there kid is not mentally unstable or is abnormal or what will the society will say if they came to know about it that something should be ‘wrong’ with our child.”.

The old myth is that you need to go to a psychologist only if there is some mental problem with the person. Childhood is the time when your child is raising his persona, and the way you bring him up plays an important part in his personality’s improvement and development. Try to understand your child know him, have regular discussions with him. So that he’ll be comfortable to discuss everything with you.

With the changing lifestyle, we don’t have much time to give to our children as now days we see both the parents are working but we can definitely spend some quality time with the child to know more about his likings and disliking and give him that unconditional love. The concept of child psychology makes it easier to understanding and handling the kids issue growing them in the better way by helping them controlling there behavior and knowing their emotions.

Tags: child psychologist, Child psychology, psychologist

Most parents, in today’s world, do not have enough quality time to spend with their children. The reason may be as genuine as busy work schedules and as stupid as social networking, but the truth is that more and more children are living in this world on their own.

Here are some do’s and some don’ts while raising your child.

Do’s:

1. Always try to be a friend of your child rather than just a parent
2. Understand the real needs of your child
3. Respect your elders and child and your children will respect you
4. Help your child learn different activities like swimming, horse riding, and games besides education
5. Encourage him to take decisions on his own
6. If he is wrong, let him know why he was wrong and how things could have been avoided
7. Talk calmly and hear his views and reasons of an act before playing the blame game
8. Always appreciate a good act
9. Do not discourage him when he is wrong
10. Do not teach short-cuts, which are unethical, to your child
11. Never abuse your child: physically, mentally, or socially
12. Do not nourish bad habits in your children assuming that to be cuteness or a matter of time
13. Do not force your decision or lifestyle
14. Never appreciate his wrong deeds
15. Do not laugh at his wrong doings, ailments, or weaknesses
16. Never compare your child with any one, each child is special

Don’ts:

These small yet meaningful tips can make all the difference when it comes to raising your child.

Tags: parents, Raising Your Child, social networking