Teaching Babies to Read - How to Use Your Computer to Maximize Your Baby's Reading Program By Krista Guerrero

If you are already teaching your baby to read, you can easily begin using your computer to maximize your baby's program. All you need is a program like Power Point and a few minutes.

If you want to use your computer to create digital flash cards you can easily do so in just a few minutes. You will need a basic understanding of Power Point to get started. If you are teaching your baby to read, you need to keep in mind that the words need to be large, as large as you can make them on your computer screen, and separated from any images.

When you go into Power Point you can quickly create slide shows in which you can set them to change automatically. If you have a very active baby, this may be an ideal way to teach new words. This will save you having to fumble with flash cards. Just get your program set up and sit down with your baby and quickly watch a slide show.

If your baby likes to view pictures along with the words, you can set up the show to display a word and then a picture. If you are using the slide shows for your own personal use, you can easily grab images from the Internet to make your presentations more captivating for your baby.

You can make your slide shows simple or more complex. You can even record sound to the presentation if you want to. Once you set up one, the rest will be easy. Just use the file you created, as a template and it will take you no time to create new shows for your baby.

Using your computer lightens the load when creating new materials for your baby's ever increasing curiosity about everything.

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Teach Your Kids to Vent Anger in a Healthy Way By Gina Nuqui

Kids often throw tantrums, say hateful remarks and show destructive behavior when things don't go their way. Teaching your kids ways to release anger in a healthy way is important for them to avoid hurting other people either physically or emotionally. Your child will most likely grow to become calmer when they are angry if they practice anger management early in their childhood.

• Set a good example for your kids. Be careful on how you react to irritating situations in front of your children, because kids tend to adapt their parents' behavior. For instance, if your food takes too long to be served in the restaurant, talk to the waiter in a calm and refined way and avoid causing a scene. This way, your kids will learn how to act properly when they don't get what they want.

• Provide guidance. Offer your kids techniques to help them calm down when they feel like bursting in anger. Tell them to count from one to ten and take deep breaths or go out to get some fresh air. Explain to your kids that anger is a normal emotion, but they do not have to cuss or hit people when they are mad, because their frustration won't go away.

• Be firm. Stick with the rules that you made for your child when it comes to anger and never tolerate his negative behavior. Your kids will most likely take advantage of you if you cannot stand firm with your decisions. Do not be afraid to punish them if they continue their negative behavior, so they will realize that they are wrong.

• Take note of media influences. Media has great impact on children's behavior and attitude, so protect your children from violent TV programs, video games and music. Children are vulnerable to media messages so they tend to imitate what they see or hear.

• Reward your child for his good behavior. This will show your child that an acceptable behavior gives out positive results.

• Create a "calm down" wall on his bedroom. Get your kids involved in designing their "calm down" wall. Put print stickers with positive slogans about dealing with anger. Avail of cheap postcard printing and decorate the "calm down" wall with easy steps for handling anger. You can also provide a portion of the wall where your kids can write the things that make them angry. For instance, if your child gets angry when you ask him to clean his bedroom, tell him that he shouldn't get mad. Tell him that the reason why you want him to clean is for him to become responsible and organized. Remind your kids to look at their "calm down" wall whenever they feel angry and frustrated.

More topics on Print Stickers can be found at Cheap Postcard Printing

Teaching Your Child the Truth About Success & Achievements By Matthew Mitchell

Your child's grades and performance in school is one of the most important things in their life right now. The better their grades are the more prepared they'll be for life... or will they. In the grand scheme of things grades are only a small part of the total picture. Research suggests that it's less important 'what' grades a child receives as opposed to 'how' they approach learning and achievements. Focusing on success and perfect test scores can actually make your child less successful in the long run.

When getting the right answer every time is the most important thing in your eyes a child becomes fearful to make a mistake. This is not to say laziness or poor study habits should be condoned. Instead a new focus on what learning actually is and a new approach to success is needed. If your child wants to approach a problem in a way that doesn't seem "right" or the "regular" way let them explore that possibility and learn through trial and error.

Currently our schools focus on convergent thinking to teach children. Convergent thinking is the idea that there is one correct way to find an answer. When teaching difficult subjects teachers prescribe a method to find the answer. Exploration and experimentation can't be tolerated in this setting because of time constraints. The end result is a group of students that are taught what to think and not how to think. Children are punished for failure or trying new methods.

Juxtaposition to convergent thinking is divergent thinking. Divergent thinking is the idea that there are many possible ways to solve a problem. With divergent thinking the possibility of multiple solutions is common and acceptable. The problem with divergent thinking is that a school cannot test student very easily and teaching is far less efficient (under the scope of the current model). The truth is real life problems cannot be wrapped up in cute canned solutions learned in school. The data and skills needed to succeed in life are diverse and complicated. The current model of teaching success is flawed and out of touch with reality.

In order to give your child the best chance of success (not just good grades) follow some of these guidelines.

Focus on growth not achievements. Growth and progress is what ultimately leads to success and achievement. When parents focus on achievement, praise achievement, and reward achievement at the expense of focusing on growth it sets up an imbalanced precedence. The lopsided view of achievement will surely grow with a child as they develop. As a result they will not feel content with only progressing. Progress coupled with failure is ultimately failure. The idea should be reversed. Progress coupled with failure is success! Progress and growth are the most important factors in success. Achievement is short lived and is usually defined by some arbitrary means.

Failure is an option. A child that embraces failure should be rewarded. This is walking a fine line because all types of failure are not the same. Failure due to lack of effort, poor preparation, or being idiotic is not what is meant here. Instead failure in the face of tremendous effort, intelligence, and exploration is among the highest achievements.

Additional Resources: Troubled Youth Programs
Schools for At-Risk Teens, Military Schools.

Tame Your Angry Child With This Power Tool! By Jean Tracy

Do you have an angry child? Does he growl like a pit-bull to get his way? Look inside for 5 parenting tips. They'll give you a power tool for turning your angry kid into a rational child.

To get what they want, kids learn to holler at an early age. Babies cry. Toddlers scream, bite, and kick. Older children use these behaviors and add pouts, sarcasm, and arguments to get their way.

As parents, our job is to tame them for the real world. But how do you get your angry kid to become a rational child?

Imagine a ruler that measures anger. This ruler numbers from zero to twelve. Zero is never angry. Twelve is pistol-ready to fire at any moment.

To help your child become rational you need to use your parenting skills. You need to show him pull how to remove his finger from the trigger, lay down his anger, and use his head.

To become rational he'll need to move his anger from 12 on the ruler to the frustration zone between 4 and 8. In this area he can begin to act rationally. Here's how:

5 Parenting Tips for Taming Your Angry Child ~

1. Use or draw a ruler with numbers from zero to twelve. Color the area between 4 and 8 to make it special. That's the frustration zone.

2. Talk about the ruler with your child. Discuss how twelve is ready to explode at any moment like a pit bull protecting his bone. We're not dogs. We're humans. As human beings we have the power to think before we act. To do this we need to use our power tools, a thinking mind with thoughtful choices.

3. Show Zero on the ruler. Discuss how zero represents no feelings. Rocks are at zero because they don't have feelings. People do. Our task is to bring our anger down from 12 to the frustration zone, the area between 4 and 8.

4. Ask your child to pick a time in the past when he exploded with anger. Tell him to close his eyes and feel the emotion he had at the time. Then tell him not to open his eyes until he brings his emotion down to the frustration zone between 4 and 8. When he opens his eyes, ask him how he did it. If he says, "I don't know," tell him to guess.

Listen to his answers. I know they'll be fascinating. Tell him to practice this technique whenever he's upset. This is his power tool.

5. Practice the technique above. Pick out several more situations when he acted with anger. With each situation tell him to feel the anger he had at the time. Then work with him to bring his emotion down to the frustration zone.

Discuss how he can use this power tool any time he needs it. It's within his mind. It's his gift of reason.

Conclusion for Taming Your Angry Child:

Use the above parenting tips. Display the ruler on the refrigerator. Discuss it often.

Be your child's model. Tell your child how you used your power tool to bring your emotion into the frustration zone.

Praise your child when he tells you how he used his power tool to control his anger. If you do, you'll be taming your angry child and you'll be building his rational character too.

Jean Tracy, MSS, invites you to subscribe to her FREE top-rated Parenting Newsletter, "Tips and Tools for Character Builders" at http://www.KidsDiscuss.com and receive 80 fun activities to share with your kids.

Subscribe to Jean's Parenting Skills Blog at http://parentingskillsblog.typepad.com and discover a new parenting skill with each blog post. Use it today!

Let the Poor Say I Am Rich By Evelyn Higginbotham

When my mom and dad knew that they were to be sent to work as missionaries in South Korea in the mid 1950's, the first thing they did was go to school. They studied Korean language, history and church growth classes. For two years before they even set foot on Korean soil, they were immersed in the preparations of a lifetime of service to the church in Korea. It was exciting and dangerous and challenging for them to arrive with two little children (I wasn't born yet), to adjust to that war-torn land.

As years went by and I came along, their Korean language skills improved tremendously, my dad could navigate through the most treacherous streets in his Land Rover, negotiate out of a traffic ticket with any Korean policeman, and befriend practically anyone he met. They were constantly going to church meetings, grand openings of Christian schools, or new churches out in the countryside, making long speeches surrounded with Korean church officials. The church, the country, the service to those people was their life...but not mine.

I learned to love some of the food and parts of the culture, but every time we'd see an American TV show on the US military channel, I would long for that far distant country that was supposedly my own. The Korean toys and dolls of 1968 were so poor and uninteresting, and the clothes were so odd when I compared them to the Sears catalog my grandmother would send us every six months. My siblings and I would dream of chocolate ice cream, American hamburgers, real pizza with real cheese, everything American. In the process, I began to resent the fact that I was stuck in a third world country while my cousins got to have what I thought, was the best of everything.

Only years later did I come to realize how shameful my attitude had been, how much of a blessing it was to experience another country, to have the opportunity to learn another language and to have the honor of being a part of the work of God. I had a rich and extraordinary childhood, but in the cold winters with the air thick with the smell of rotten fish from the open markets, with roads full of frozen mud puddles and lined with beggars, I just couldn't see it.

Now I am so thankful that God gave me that past, and I feel a sense of grief when I see others who have come to the US, whose hearts and minds still cling to their countries and refuse to learn the beautiful lessons that God has for them here. I was a selfish child who wanted what I couldn't have, and I've tried my best to make sure my children never hold those attitudes no matter where we've lived. I just wish others who have it so easy could understand.

Evelyn Higginbotham was born into an American missionary family serving in South Korea in the early 60's. She attended Seoul Foreign School and graduated from Rutgers University having studied Soviet and East Euopean Studies with the plan of serving as a missionary in what was then, Soviet bloc countries. But her plans changed when she married her husband David who eventually entered the ministry as an evangelical pastor. They and their two children have lived in Brooklyn NY, South Africa, the Philippines, Los Angeles, London, England and now in Houston, Texas where they continue their work of counseling and church ministry.

Evelyn has been editor of the church Succeed in Life newsletter, supplies articles for the succeedinlife.org website, and regularly blogs on http://www.thehappymisfit.blogspot.com She has co-written the book "Possessed Believers" with her husband, David, and wrote the short biography of the ultra-marathon runner, Argentina Senda, entitled, "Why I Run", published for distribution in South Africa.