Numbers Help Healthy Children

Grand-parent By the Numbers: 65210

There are many numbers to remember while grand-parenting. Thankfully parents leave good notes, the schedule they want their children to follow, and recommended food. The Healthy Children’s Organization and Harvard researchers have a few numbers to help every day. They are 65210.
Positive Six to One
  The SIX in the number stands for six compliments to every correction.  Studies show that complimenting children for doing good deeds and something well is very powerful. ”You really made a tall tower. Good job setting the table! You picked up those Cheerios so well! Thank you for helping your brother!”
  Over correction is very easy for adults to do. It’s quick, it’s easy, but it is not as effective as catching children being good or doing a good job. Compliments let children know they are being capable and kind. They will be better models for others,

5 Veggies & 6 Compliments Each Day

be more successful making friends, and feel better about themselves. Families are sometimes astounded how using this one technique changes the atmosphere in their homes.
  The number FIVE stands for five fruits and vegetables per day. Some children may love fruits and vegetable from the very beginning. Usually though, families need to be stealthy and very creative. Fruits and vegetables can be freshly cut up and eaten raw with a dip, placed in smoothies, mixed in cereal, in pancakes, or served as snacks with some of their favorite food, The five fruits and vegetable number is important because fruits and vegetables are full of vitamins and mineral, filling, and help avoid obesity in our carbohydrate rich culture.
 TWO is for the maximum hours of screen time every day. No matter what kind of screen—TV/DVD, computer type, or phone, children are sitting rather than moving around. Encourage playing outside, playing a game inside the house, creating something, or reading.
  Number ONE in 65210 is for one-hour minimum of physical activity per day. Playing outside is best.

2 hrs Viewing, 1 hr Moving, 0 Sugar Drinks

If that is not possible,play a sport inside with wads of paper. Bowling, playing basket ball in a box, volleyball, tossing a ball, and having snowball fights are all possible with a wad of paper reinforced with tape.
  ZERO is for zero sugary beverages. 

Replace with water and milk. Check labels for sugar, artificial sweeteners, and carbohydrates. Energy drinks, sports drinks, and flavored water sweetened fruit juices sound so good, but check the labels. Sugar is added as fructose, corn syrup and many chemicals.
 Diet drinks have higher amounts of acid that can harm teeth and often replace of water, milk, and other healthy options. Sugary drinks do not have nutritional value, are expensive, and don’t make us feel full. 
Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos
More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio, 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

Playing with Snow Indoors

Cold Snowy Days Can be Stressful

For the almost 40 % of grandparents and other relatives providing child care, cold snowy days can be stressful. To relieve that stress young children may enjoy creating snowmen inside with cheap materials found in the kitchen. Quiet conversations while doing activities with adults also help nurture resilient children.
  To make homemade poster paint for making winter scenes, mix ½ cup flour and 1-tablespoon salt. Add them very slowly into a saucepan filled with 2 cups water.  Whisk while mixing.  Cook and whisk on medium heat to avoid lumps.  Remove when this mixture looks like smooth white paint. Add 1-tablespoon clear liquid dish detergent for a smoother glossy paint.
Then use brushes or Q-tips to paint thin- coat snowmen on colored paper, a cookie pan, mirror, or window.
Share Painting Pictures
  Children may take want to take a picture and send a winter message of love to cousins or other grandparents far away.
  Cut out white paper circles or use coffee filters and color a few a few Frosties. Cover them with white glue or a thin mixture of flour and water glue and sprinkle with salt for glitter. Margarita salt, cookie decorations, and sugar also work.

Take Pictures & Capture the Moment

Color a scene on computer paper, and glue on the snowmen.
  You can also glue on pillow stuffing, cotton balls, or make -up cotton wipe snow men on a calendar winter scene and start crossing off the days until Valentine’s Day
  Gather a cookie pan full of snow, and make a winter scene with small toys. Try making little snowmen before the snow gets too slushy.
  Shaving cream also makes winter snow scenes. Children can write messages in the snow with their fingers. Warn children not to eat or place near their eyes.  All this will make a mess and children will love it but it’s an easy clean up while you gather at the sink to sing Frosty the Snowman.
  If you are hungry, make snowmen out of bread or English muffins, cover with nut butter and decorate with Cheerios and chocolate chips.
Indoor Snowball Fights

View the Scene to Imagine Indoor Snowballs

When children need to be active again about every 30 or 60 minutes, roll up some newspaper half sheets reinforced with a little duct or cellophane tape and have an indoor snowball fight. Couches, chairs, laundry baskets, or cardboard boxes can be turned into fortresses. 
   If the snowball fight gets out of hand, switch to snowball basketball. Place a laundry basket a reasonable distance so all young ages can make baskets and practice adding up the points. Then there is snowball bowling, snowball baseball, tennis, volleyball, football, toss, hide and seek the snowballs, and find the snowballs with flashlights in the dark.
 Photos: Fran Darling: fdarling fotos
More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio, 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

Adults and Kids Inspire Each Other

Maya Angelou: "You Can't Use Up Creativity"

  “Imagination is everything.  It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” Albert Einstein
  “You can’t use up creativity.  The more you use, the more you have.” Maya Angelou
  Creativity or divergent thinking is thinking about something in a new way. Children do this when they receive a little Lego kit and change the directions slightly or dig into their bins of Legos and engage their brains to create something new and marvelous. Many libraries have free Lego days families can attend.
  When children have the opportunity to do divergent thinking, they break down problems into parts, think in a new way, and develop their brains. Researchers have found these children also have a more positive mood and higher proficiency in language and math.
Let’s Imagine
   Play a few free creativity games. During quiet times help children retrieve information from memory, compare and contrast, and make connections between bits of information.
   If they were going on a trip to a real or imaginary place what would they take? How is playing in the summer different than during the winter, spring, or fall? How is life different for animals?
  Help kids imagine they are little mice exploring your home. Where would they go first?

How Is Life Different for Animals?

What toys might they like to explore? What if the kids were flies on the ceiling for a day? What would they see from that perspective?
  Give children three objects from the kitchen. If they had to give one back, why would they keep the other two? How many things can children do with three old ties or other objects? Can ties become seat belts for an imaginary plane trip? Can they be snakes? What can you make with three paper towel rolls or three boxes?
Creative Building
 Children may create an indoor fort

Use Brightly Colored Materials and Create

with cushions and blankets. Have a picnic with food, flashlights, stuffed animals, and books.
  This next one requires a little more work and planning, but children love to make robots out of plastic and paper recyclables. Under supervision they can connect pieces with duct tape or a glue gun. Children’s Museums often have creative robot corners and are worth a visit.
  When you think children are ready, they can hammer nails in a log you have brought in.  They can make designs with the hammered nails and add some poster paint for a beautiful sculpture.  They can also hammer the nails different heights to make interesting designs and use different colored markers on the nail heads. Then they can pull out the nails with help if they leave about an inch to wiggle in the hammer.
Children may like to create cars, houses, even a whole village from boxes, tape, papers and markers.
Photos: Fran Darling: fdarling fotos
Maya Angelou: York College ISLGP posted to Flickr.com, uploaded to Commons
More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio, 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

Teaching Children to Save

Start the Year Thinking About Saving!

Grandparent visits are great times to help children learn the importance of managing money. Young children can learn to save, donate, and spend wisely.The lifelong process of responsible personal finance can begin at a very early age.
Home Bank System
  To make a homemade banking system, label three see-through plastic containers with SAVE, DONATE and SPEND.
  There is also an award winning see-through plastic piggy bank with sections labeled SAVE, DONATE, SPEND, AND INVEST called "Money Savvy" piggy bank you can order on-line at: http://www.kidbanks.com/money-savvy-pig-bank/ --

Money Savvy Piggy Bank

This makes a great gift!
  Grandparents can help fill the bank by bringing coins instead of treats or toys when they visit. Young children like to receive coins rather than paper money from grandparents because coins seem like more money.  Unfortunately, children also like to eat coins or push them inside machines to see what will happen so supervise children handling money.
  Families can teach children to recognize and count the money. Sort pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters into piles using the proper names.
  Because pennies are worth “one,” they can be used to practice counting and end up with the correct value.  Move each coin and count together to avoid double counting and skipping numbers. Learning to say a number each time a coin is moved or dropped in the bank is an important skill and usually takes practice. Young children can count to ten or twenty and then start over again.
When children receive a new stash of money, supervise dropping equal amounts of money in each section. Otherwise, children quickly learn to place most of their money in the SPEND slot.
Talk About Money
  While the money is being counted, it’s a good time to teach young children to give to others through religious groups, charities, or the Humane Society.
 How do they plan to spend their money? What are they saving for?
 Families may want to encourage wise money use by matching the amount of money children devote to these areas.
  Families can make up a written piggy bank statement together and add or subtract the money in front of very young children. 

Take a 'Field Trip' to Your Bank Together!

Take children along when you do your banking and explain what you are doing.Open an account at the bank or credit union and give them age appropriate information. They won’t like learning their money is not actually in the bank or others use their money.
  Let children save up for items and take the money out of their own piggy banks. They often think twice before spending their own money and watching their pile go down, a good life lesson.
Photos: Fran Darling: fdarling fotos
More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio, 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest