Happy New Year to all. It's that time again - time to reflect on the events of the past year and on what lies ahead.
The new year offers the opportunity for a fresh start or a change in the way you have been doing something. What a great time to think about making changes or improvements within your family. The new year is also a great time to teach your children about setting goals, handling setbacks and persevering. ... all important steps on the road to growing up.
Why set resolutions as a family?
• Setting and managing goals helps children learn problem-solving
• Children learn best from watching adults
• Changing habits is hard
• Your resolutions affect the whole family
• Children help keep you honest
Some tips to help you set family resolutions are:
• Include the whole family in setting resolutions
• Be specific
• Set realistic and attainable goals and model the behaviors you want your children to follow
• Remind your children of the resolution as you track your progress
• Expect setbacks along the way and work together to overcome them
• Above all, celebrate your accomplishments, your progress or your completion
The list of possible New Year's resolutions for families is endless. The Child Care Council of the Finger Lakes offers some varied and exciting suggestions for New Year's resolutions that can benefit your whole family:
• Watch less television. We are not against TV in general, as it can be a wonderful medium for education, for keeping in touch with the world and for entertainment.
But consider these facts.
Recent studies have shown that the average American child watches 25 hours of TV per week. If we assume that your children sleep nine hours per night, that means that 24 percent of their waking hours are spent watching television. Think about that - that's nearly one fourth of their entire childhood - three full months per year and 10 full years by the age of 40. Imagine what could be done with all that time.
Try limiting each family member's television viewing and take the television out of the children's bedroom.
• Get fit together. Exercise at least three times per week. Try making a family activity calendar. Use a wall calendar on which you can put stickers.
One sticker goes on the calendar for each day you and the children are all active for more than 30 minutes. You should have at least three stickers per week.
Come up with an incentive system based on number-of-stickers milestones. Keep a running list of activities you enjoy doing as a family, such as jumping rope, hopscotch, red light green light, soccer, basketball, ice skating, sledding, foot races, obstacle courses, tag, dancing, bike riding, etc.
• Focus on safety and health. Always use sunscreen before going outdoors. Stay in the shade whenever possible and wear a hat and sunglasses. Always wear a helmet when bicycling. Get enough sleep. Always use age and size appropriate car seats, booster seats or seat belts in your vehicle. Keep guns, medicine and poisons out of reach of children and/or locked up. Teach children to never give out personal information such as name, home address, school name or telephone number on the Internet. Always remember to brush your teeth at least twice a day and always wash your hands after using the bathroom or before you eat. Make a point to visit your dentist and doctor as needed. Make sure immunizations are up to date. Take a break and find constructive ways to deal with the stress, such as exercising, reading, writing in a journal or discussing a problem with a trusted individual.
• Focus on nutrition. Start early with introducing a variety of food to children at young age. While infants can eat a lot of fruits and vegetables in their baby food, when they start eating table food, they often learn to copy the same eating habits as the adults in their family, so this is a great time for the whole family to be healthier together.
Let everyone in the family pick fruits and vegetables they want to eat from a variety in the store or in the kitchen. Mix fruit pieces in with yogurt or serve them with a dip or make fruit smoothies. Remember fruit snacks, even those with “real” fruit, fruit drinks and snacks with artificial fruit don't count as a serving of fruit.
Add fruit to cereal. Start a vegetable garden, and eat what you grow. Drink milk and water and limit soda and fruit drinks.
A wonderful activity is to plan and prepare meals together as a family.
• Focus on family. Eat dinner together as a family. Reacquaint yourself with your family. Spend more time together - talking, laughing, reading books, listening. Treat your family as well as you possibly can. Show more appreciation to your family. Tell your loved ones every day how much you love them, how important they are to you, and how glad you are that they're in your life. Smile more.
• Get involved in your community. Look for opportunities where you can volunteer working with community groups. Join an organization that helps people in need.
• Choose child care wisely. Start early to find the right child care. Give yourself at least three months to begin your search for day care. Determine how much you can afford. The Child Care Council of the Finger Lakes offers financial assistance for income eligible working and returning to school full-time families that are having difficulty paying for child care. Make a list of questions that are important to you and your child before you meet a prospective child care provider for the first time. Create a checklist to rate the program and visit programs with your child(ren) more than once and at different times of the day. Ask questions and take notes and after your visit, think about what you saw and heard and decide if you think this provider is right for you and your child.
If you have any child care concerns or questions, for referrals to licensed or registered providers or for information on financial assistance for child care call the Child Care Council of the Finger Lakes at 255-6994.
It's best to adhere to three principles for successful resolutions: keep them simple, keep them practical and, most importantly, make them together as a family.
If children and parents have each other for support and to keep each other honest, chances of following through on resolutions are much higher. Resolutions in and of themselves are useless if they are not followed by consistent action. If you make them together as a family, you will greatly increase the odds that you will follow through and reap the benefits.
- Sources: Babyzone.com and msnbc.msn.com
Elizabeth Akers Farrell is the child care resource and referral specialist for the Child Care Council of the Finger Lakes office in Auburn
Why set resolutions as a family?
• Setting and managing goals helps children learn problem-solving
• Children learn best from watching adults
• Changing habits is hard
• Your resolutions affect the whole family
• Children help keep you honest
Some tips to help you set family resolutions are:
• Include the whole family in setting resolutions
• Be specific
• Set realistic and attainable goals and model the behaviors you want your children to follow
• Remind your children of the resolution as you track your progress
• Expect setbacks along the way and work together to overcome them
• Above all, celebrate your accomplishments, your progress or your completion
The list of possible New Year's resolutions for families is endless. The Child Care Council of the Finger Lakes offers some varied and exciting suggestions for New Year's resolutions that can benefit your whole family:
• Watch less television. We are not against TV in general, as it can be a wonderful medium for education, for keeping in touch with the world and for entertainment.
But consider these facts.
Recent studies have shown that the average American child watches 25 hours of TV per week. If we assume that your children sleep nine hours per night, that means that 24 percent of their waking hours are spent watching television. Think about that - that's nearly one fourth of their entire childhood - three full months per year and 10 full years by the age of 40. Imagine what could be done with all that time.
Try limiting each family member's television viewing and take the television out of the children's bedroom.
• Get fit together. Exercise at least three times per week. Try making a family activity calendar. Use a wall calendar on which you can put stickers.
One sticker goes on the calendar for each day you and the children are all active for more than 30 minutes. You should have at least three stickers per week.
Come up with an incentive system based on number-of-stickers milestones. Keep a running list of activities you enjoy doing as a family, such as jumping rope, hopscotch, red light green light, soccer, basketball, ice skating, sledding, foot races, obstacle courses, tag, dancing, bike riding, etc.
• Focus on safety and health. Always use sunscreen before going outdoors. Stay in the shade whenever possible and wear a hat and sunglasses. Always wear a helmet when bicycling. Get enough sleep. Always use age and size appropriate car seats, booster seats or seat belts in your vehicle. Keep guns, medicine and poisons out of reach of children and/or locked up. Teach children to never give out personal information such as name, home address, school name or telephone number on the Internet. Always remember to brush your teeth at least twice a day and always wash your hands after using the bathroom or before you eat. Make a point to visit your dentist and doctor as needed. Make sure immunizations are up to date. Take a break and find constructive ways to deal with the stress, such as exercising, reading, writing in a journal or discussing a problem with a trusted individual.
• Focus on nutrition. Start early with introducing a variety of food to children at young age. While infants can eat a lot of fruits and vegetables in their baby food, when they start eating table food, they often learn to copy the same eating habits as the adults in their family, so this is a great time for the whole family to be healthier together.
Let everyone in the family pick fruits and vegetables they want to eat from a variety in the store or in the kitchen. Mix fruit pieces in with yogurt or serve them with a dip or make fruit smoothies. Remember fruit snacks, even those with “real” fruit, fruit drinks and snacks with artificial fruit don't count as a serving of fruit.
Add fruit to cereal. Start a vegetable garden, and eat what you grow. Drink milk and water and limit soda and fruit drinks.
A wonderful activity is to plan and prepare meals together as a family.
• Focus on family. Eat dinner together as a family. Reacquaint yourself with your family. Spend more time together - talking, laughing, reading books, listening. Treat your family as well as you possibly can. Show more appreciation to your family. Tell your loved ones every day how much you love them, how important they are to you, and how glad you are that they're in your life. Smile more.
• Get involved in your community. Look for opportunities where you can volunteer working with community groups. Join an organization that helps people in need.
• Choose child care wisely. Start early to find the right child care. Give yourself at least three months to begin your search for day care. Determine how much you can afford. The Child Care Council of the Finger Lakes offers financial assistance for income eligible working and returning to school full-time families that are having difficulty paying for child care. Make a list of questions that are important to you and your child before you meet a prospective child care provider for the first time. Create a checklist to rate the program and visit programs with your child(ren) more than once and at different times of the day. Ask questions and take notes and after your visit, think about what you saw and heard and decide if you think this provider is right for you and your child.
If you have any child care concerns or questions, for referrals to licensed or registered providers or for information on financial assistance for child care call the Child Care Council of the Finger Lakes at 255-6994.
It's best to adhere to three principles for successful resolutions: keep them simple, keep them practical and, most importantly, make them together as a family.
If children and parents have each other for support and to keep each other honest, chances of following through on resolutions are much higher. Resolutions in and of themselves are useless if they are not followed by consistent action. If you make them together as a family, you will greatly increase the odds that you will follow through and reap the benefits.
- Sources: Babyzone.com and msnbc.msn.com
Elizabeth Akers Farrell is the child care resource and referral specialist for the Child Care Council of the Finger Lakes office in Auburn
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