St. James Kindergarten

As much and dearly as we love our children and love spending time with them, sometimes it is almost impossible to help your child with their homework, while you are cooking dinner.  Ignoring the fact that there is usually very little room for your child to spread out their work across the kitchen counter, while you prepare the meal, helping your child with their homework could mean a disastrous meal, by distracting your attention.  If you are looking for a way to get more involved with your child’s homework, but can’t figure out a way to fit it into your nightly schedule, perhaps making the move to an outdoor fully equipped kitchen may be the right decision for you.

Finding Time

Parents have busy schedules.  Between working, cooking, cleaning, shopping, etc., being a parent is a full time job, before you even add in the essential time needed to spend with your children.  Sometimes, finding that extra few minutes in the day, to spend with your child can be an impossible task.  This is why it is so very important for parents to learn to spend time, with their children, while completing these other responsibilities.  By taking the kitchen outside, you can spend more time with your child, while making sure that his meal is every bit as delicious, as you want it to be.

Patio Time

If you are able to take your kitchen outside, this will help you and your child find time for each other.  For instance, by taking the meal outside, you have now made your kitchen bigger, giving your child more room to move around and talk to you.  If your child is doing their homework, on the patio table behind you, while you are cooking, it is much easier to discuss the homework with him and help him where he needs help.

There are plenty of things we can do as parents to make sure we have more time to spend with our children.  Taking the kitchen outside is just one small way to make this happen, but in the end, every little bit helps.

When the safety of America is threatened by foreign invaders, the U.S. military is ready with the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard.  When a town needs protection against crime, we have the men and women of law enforcement with the city Police and the county Sheriffs.  When the cleanliness of a school is threatened by germs, we have the fine men and women of the…..custodial staff?  Janitor’s, yes, janitors!

A Salute to the Masters of Environmental Engineering

School janitors are the least recognized, for the job they do.  But let’s face it.  A school janitor has their eyes and ears on the school. They are armed not with rifles and grenades, but with spray bottles, mops and a closet full of janitorial supplies to clean and disinfect. They are the ones keeping kids safe from germs.  And, who will be the first not to recognize that children are just walking germ factories.  When was the last time you did not see a child eat something they shouldn’t.  When have you not seen them sneeze or cough, without covering their mouth.  They will stick their hands in their mouth and with their fingers covered with saliva touch whatever available surface there is in sight.  They go to the bathroom, without washing their hands.  Their noses run, and they wipe it on their sleeves or on their hands and touch other children or other surfaces. Oh, and lets not forget vomiting.  Kids will not only vomit for distance, they will have a volume capacity spewing out of them that adults would not think possible.

Duties of a Domestic Hygienist

Janitors must have at the ready any kind of cleaning instrument or cleaning supplies they might need to keep school environments as free from germs as possible.  They must clean sinks, toilets, urinals, floors (refinishing, polishing, sweeping, mopping, scrubbing, buffing, vacuuming), empty out garbage cans, restock restroom supplies (toilet paper, paper toilets, feminine hygiene products, air fresheners), clean windows and mirrors, clean tables and chairs, sanitizatize everything, and much more.  These are the men and women on the front lines of keeping kids safe, from the spread of germs, in the schools.  We owe them a debt of gratitude.

Yes, by all means, chat with other parents online in an effort to figure out how you can keep your kids off-line more.  And now, thanks to Webcam Chat you won’t have to sit there with your two finger method and type out what you want to say.  You will now be able to have an honest-to-goodness, face-to-face conversation… Just like in the old days, when you used to visit people, in order to talk to them.  It’s even better than talking over the phone, because you can see people’s reactions up close and personal.  Then again, considering the way some people walk around their home, you may not want to get all that up close and personal, with the balding, beer bellied, ripped dirty T-shirt and sagging, stretched out briefs clad father of the boy your girl is currently seeing.  Yeesh.  Maybe a phone call is a better idea.

Who Do You Get Your Parenting Tips from?

Your Mom and Dad are probably the people who have the most to do with, how you are currently attempting to raise your child.  Of course, Grandparents figure into the mix, sometimes.  Eons ago, Dr. Spock was trying to tell everyone how they should or should not deal with a child.  And, there are certainly no shortage of online ‘experts’ out there who are more than willing to share their vast knowledge, with you on the topic of rearing children.  New parents tend to need more tips than parents who have a couple of kids already under their belt, particularly when comes to babies.  Until babies come with a manual new parents will continue to be baffled, panicky, surprised, dumbfounded and more, without the proper guidance.  But hey, that’s half the fun.

Is Your Teen Out Of Control?

Sadly, I’m pretty sure that being out of control is part of being a teenager.  It’s when out of control becomes dangerous and illegal that it’s time to worry and step in.  What are other parents doing with their out-of-control teen?  This is one of the things that can be discovered through conversations, with other parents of teens.  How do you limit what they have access to online?  How late do you let them stay out?  Should you have a say in who they chum around with?  Should you have a say in who they date?  How are other kids doing with a certain teacher in school?  Where are all the kids hanging out when they’re together?

These and other questions can be the topic for your online chat with other parents.

There is a reason that math is known as the “universal language”.  Not only are the answers to math problems the same no matter where you are, math is actually its own language and one that not everyone can easily grasp.  When you are a child struggling with math, even the simplest math problem can get you frustrated and make you throw your math book across the room.  However, there are ways to get your child to get through even the most difficult math problems while making learning fun.  After all, most math problems began as puzzles to solve, for fun.

Online Gaming

We are officially living in the future.  All of the science fiction gadgets we used to see in movies and on TV when we were kids are finally becoming a reality.  One of the greatest inventions of the digital age is the internet.  You can use the internet for pretty much anything, but one of the smartest uses for it is helping your child learn.  There are plenty of online math games that are free and educational and they are designed to help any skill level, making math convenient and fun.  There are also more structured math lessons available at websites, such as: http://www.completecurriculum.com/ that can give you child that all important educational edge at school.  And, many of the generic internet games are not categorized by age, because different people learn at different rates and my five year old may be working on the same problems as your seven year old.  The games are designed to hone math skills, while also building confidence in your child, regarding what they have learned.  Just like any other video game, these games get tougher, and your child could go from a math novice to an expert in trigonometry, before you know it.

Worksheets

For some, video games may not be the most appealing choice.  If that’s the case, you can still use the internet to find what you need!  Try looking for math worksheets for your child.  The main difference between worksheets and video games is that video games immediately invoke a spirit of fun and wonder in your child while a worksheet may just be viewed as work.  If you are going this route, it is important to look for worksheets that are more fun than work, and something that will appeal to your child.

Getting your child over that math hump is going to take some time.  Again, it is its own language and your child is learning it.  However, with a little bit of help from the internet, they can be fluent in no time!

When did parent’s become spineless? When did parents lay down to the whims and will of their children, for fear of offending them. Why is it so much more important these days to be a friend to your child? When did parents stop being parents? (Let’s not hurt our child’s feelings by invading their privacy, that could damage and scar them for life.)

Want an example of not having parental control? Just look to the parents of Harris and Klebold, the Columbine High School students in Colorado, who murdered 12 of their fellow students and one teacher, before taking their own lives. Their parents turned a blind eye to the doors padlocked, from the outside to the boy’s rooms, where inside was bomb making equipment, video diaries, written diaries, guns and their computers. Their parents did not question or monitor anything the boys were doing, inside their rooms and on social media sites, on their computer, since this would have invaded their child’s privacy.
Isn’t part of parenting to nurture, encourage and especially to watch your child grow. Let me emphasize the watch part. I am by no means trying to suggest that every child who goes on the internet is trying to make a bomb, or has the intention of blowing up their school. But with the ease, that information can be accessed, on the internet, it is not difficult to stumble onto and into unwanted websites, even when you are not looking for them. Somehow, even if you are (as an example) searching for a recipe for “cream puffs” your computer will pull up web sites for “puffy nipples”. Not exactly the kind of plate you want to be serving, at the Sunday family breakfast—although I still have never figured out what ingredients a Spotted Dick contains.
Although on line predators are a concern and with the entertainment value of “To Catch a Predator” with Chris Hansen, this aspect of unwanted on line contact has made parents more aware. But, it’s not just the pervert predator, in a darkened basement wearing a trench coat, trolling the internet for young boys and girls that parents need to be aware. Kids on the internet can easily stumble onto websites that contain adult oriented material, with a click of a button. What started out as a school project for English class some afternoon can suddenly turn into an education in biology and the mating habits of the sick and twisted.
So what can parents do? First off, become a parent to your kids. Who is in charge? Second, don’t be afraid to monitor what your kids are doing on line. Get familiar with your computer and how the internet works. Kids spend hours on the computer and are savvy to the inner and outer workings of how programs function. With the amount of information on line, parents can go online to learn from websites, video tutorials, and like minded parent groups. Especially find out what your child is doing on social media sites, such as Facebook and My Space.
If you find your child is spending a lot of time on line, you better find a way to put parental controls on what they are doing. Several add on programs compile a url blacklist that will block unwanted and undesirable websites, from your child. If nothing else, put a time limit on their computer use, take the computer out of their room and move it to a more visible location, in the house where you can readily view what they are doing. It may not seem like much, but if parents are not proactive in what their kids are doing, kids will easily access websites that parents do not want them viewing.