Sun Safety: Information for Parents About Sunburn & Sunscreen
Warm, sunny days are wonderful. It's good for children to spend time playing and exercising outdoors, and it's important they enjoy it safely. Here are some tips on how to help keep your family safe from too much exposure to the sun's harmful rays.
12 Common Summertime Skin Rashes in Children
Sunny days and starlit evenings spent playing, splashing and exploring can leave kids with more than warm summertime memories. Balmy weather also can lead to itchy, irritated skin.
Check out the list from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to see how you can help prevent, identify and soothe these common summertime skin rashes.
How to Choose an Insect Repellent for Your Child
Warmer weather means more chances for kids to go outside to play, hike and enjoy the fresh air with family and friends. Warmer weather also means preventing insect bites.
Biting insects such as mosquitoes and biting flies can make children miserable. More worrisome is that bites from some insects can cause serious illnesses. Read more here.
How to Keep Kids Reading This Summer
Tips for avoiding the 'summer slide'
Summer reading doesn’t just keep kids from losing the skills they learned at school. It also helps them build confidence and a love of reading. Click here to learn more.
Summer Success Kit for Kids With ADHD
Summer Activities for Kids With Learning Disorders
Summer and Sensory Processing Issues
7 Tips to Mentally Prepare Your Child for the School Year
Kids will be heading back to school before we know it! Whether your child is excited about the new year or dreading it, this period of time is always an adjustment.
So how can parents help their children get mentally prepared for the new school year? Click here for tips!
How to Get Involved With Your Child’s School
Fortunately, the relationship between parents and the school staff is usually quite good. In most instances teachers and principals welcome your input and your hands-on involvement in the school. Read more here.
Managing Food Allergies
There are currently no cures for a food allergy. Management is based on avoiding the food and being prepared to treat an allergic reaction should the food be eaten accidentally. Anti-histamines can help mild symptoms such as itching and hives, but an epinephrine injection is necessary for severe symptoms or breathing difficulties (eg, throat swelling, wheezing). If epinephrine needs to be given, the child should be immediately taken for emergency medical care, or if necessary, 911 called.
Click here to read more.
Feeding Your Family Right on a Budget: How to Plan & Shop Smart
You can feed your family healthy meals on a budget, but it helps to have a plan. Here are tips from MyPlate.gov on how to plan and shop on a budget. Try all the tips or start with a few tips. Every effort counts towards feeding your family right!
Cooking With Kids
Cooking together can be a delicious learning experience for children and their parents. Kids can explore new foods, learn about nutrition, and develop math and reading skills as they measure and read directions. These simple guidelines are designed to help you make cooking safe and fun, and to entice your children into trying something new!
Dance While You Make Carrot Cake With “Lyla in the Loop!”
When Lyla has trouble keeping up with her family while they do the Carrot Cake Dance, her dad gives her a few ideas on how to remember the steps. He shows her a recipe book with pictures — and she decides to make a recipe book — for the dance moves!
Creating memory cards or a picture book is a fun way to remember a dance — and a recipe. Invite your child to bake a carrot cake with you by following the steps of this recipe together. After the cake is served, try out the steps of the Carrot Cake Dance! Click here for more!
Cognitive Development: Thinking and Learning
Cognitive development begins at birth when infants start to make sense of the world. Everything is new to them. They’re smelling aromas, tasting foods, hearing sounds, and feeling textures for the first time. With each new experience, the brain makes neural connections. High-quality learning environments provide a variety of ongoing experiences that strengthen these connections in infants. As they are reinforced, the brain is strengthened, and cognitive skills increase. You can offer children from birth to age three experiences that help them develop their cognitive skills. By the time they reach their third birthdays, their ability to think, reason, and solve problems will have grown remarkably, thanks to the exposure to new things you’ve given them. Read more here.
Help Your Child Build Fine Motor Skills
Many of your child’s daily activities—like getting dressed, eating, and writing—require control of small muscles in the hands. We call these skills fine motor skills. Your child can do more things for himself when he has opportunities to practice these skills. There are lots of activities that can increase muscle strength and coordination, preparing children for more advanced skills, from writing with a pencil, using a computer mouse, or playing a musical instrument. Help your child build fine motor skills at home by providing opportunities, such as those found here.
