Archive for June, 2010
The size of baby walkers has come under scrutiny by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. They alert us to the hazard of babies in baby walkers that will fit through door frames. The baby could accidentally encounter a flight of stairs as well as other hazards.
The Safety Commission warns that the walkers should measure in width a size sufficient to stop the child from traveling through a door into possible hazards that you did not anticipate. Child Safety would be much easier to maintain if the child was confined to one room as he begins to travel around under his own power.
Children from the ages 2-5 are the most receptive to learning good manners. Good social skills will improve your child’s life enormously. Respect and kindness for family members at home will help to prepare the child for the outside social world. Kindness to one another and respect for parents, brothers and sisters will help to make a firm, close family relationship.
Teaching manners to your children will necessitate using good manners at home. They will be able to more readily behave according to the rules of etiquette if they have made a habit at home of being gracious, respectful and courteous.
Almost everywhere you read about activating your child’s imagination begins with reading to the child. Being an active reader myself, it is easy to resort to reading stories to children. I enjoy them and appreciate the active imaginations of the authors. You can take your children off on sideroads during the reading of the book to try to imagine things hinted at by the author.
Great flights of fancy can be encouraged with statements such as, “If I had a horse, what would I do?” Open ended questions can bring new thoughts to mind in yourself and in the child. When I sometimes need to wait for a doctor appointment, for the show to start, for a ride to come, I find it makes the time much more interesting if I can think of a wonderful story I have read, or a beautiful place I have been. Picturing these images in my mind can make a rather dreary time or place turn into something beautiful, or exciting, or educational. Children’s books are a great tool for the imagination.