Resources For Parents

150 Ways To Show Your Kids Your Care

1. Notice them
2. Smile alot
3. Acknowledge them
4. Learn their names
5. Seek them out
6. Remember their birthdays
7. Ask them about themselves
8. Look in their eyes when you talk to them.
9. Listen to them
10. Play with them
11. Read aloud together
12. Giggle together
13. Be nice
14. Say yes a lot
15. Tell them their feelings are okay
16. Set boundaries that keep them safe
17. Be Honest
18. Be Yourself
19. Listen to their stories
20. Hug them
21. Forget your worries sometimes and concentrate only on them.
22. Notice when they're acting differently
23. Present options when they seek your counsel
24. Play outside together
25. Surprise them
26. Stay with them when you're afraid
27. Invite them over for juice
28. Suggest better behaviors when they act out
29. Feed them when they're hungry
30. Delight in their discoveries

Get more of these great ideas at:

http://www.search-institute.org/

Accessed July 10, 2010

Childhood Obesity

Did you know that an obese teen has more than a 70% chance of being obese as an adult?

(Office of Surgeon General, The Surgeon General’s Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation Fact Sheet accessed 7/15/10).

As parents there is a lot you can do prevent obesity!

First be sure that everyone in your family is getting plenty of exercise.

• Children, age 6 and older should do 1 hour (60 minutes) or more of physical activity every day.

• Most of the 1 hour or more a day should be either moderate- or vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity.

• As part of their daily physical activity, children and adolescents should do vigorous-intensity activity on at least 3 days per week. They also should do muscle-strengthening and bone-strengthening activity on at least 3 days per week (from 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines, US Department of Health and Human Services).

Exercises like walking, running, cycling, swimming, jumping rope, games that involve a lot movement, etc are some examples.  

Parents can be an example for their kids.  Adults need exercise too. It is recommended that adults between the age of 18-64:

Smokeless Tobacco

(Chew, Snuff and products in the form of lozenges, tablets, tabs, strips and sticks)

Let’s be clear, there is no safe or safer tobacco product.  Any and all tobacco products are harmful to health and increase risk of cancer and disease.

You be aware that many smokeless tobacco products are packaged and flavored to appeal to young people.   According to the CDC, teens who use smokeless tobacco products are more likely to become cigarette smokers (CDC.gov/tobacco [accessed 6/30/10]).

•  Smokeless tobacco also increases the risk of premature and low birth weight babies in pregnant

    women and decreases the sperm count in men and causes irregular sperm cells. 
•  Further, smokeless tobacco, like cigarettes, causes an addiction to nicotine. 

• Teens who start using a smokeless tobacco product, typically become a cigarette user.

Are you a smoker?

40 Developmental Assets

Search Institute has identified the following building blocks of healthy development that help young people grow up healthy, caring, and responsible.

1. Support

2. Empowerment

3. Boundaries and Expectations

4. Constructive Use of Time

5. Commitement to Learning

6. Positive Values

7. Social Competence

8. Positive Identity

For more information, please visit

http://www.search-institute.org/

• Should do 2 hours and 30 minutes a week of moderate-intensity, such as walking at a nice easy pace, or 1 hour and 15 minutes (75 minutes) a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, such as walking at a brisk pace or jogging, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity.

• Aerobic activity should be performed in episodes of at least 10 minutes, preferably spread throughout the week.

• Additional health benefits are provided by increasing to 5 hours (300 minutes) a week of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity (1 hour, 5 days a week), or 2 hours and 30 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity physical activity, or an equivalent combination of both.

• Adults should also do muscle-strengthening activities that involve all major muscle groups performed on 2 or more days per week.

What can you do about it?

If you smoke, make your home and car smoke-free places.  Tobacco smoke gets embedded into your furniture, clothes, and hair.  You will reduce your children’s exposure to secondhand smoke if you don’t smoke in the house or car.  The best thing you can do is to quit smoking.  It’s hard, but try and keep trying if you don’t stay quit.  A list of tobacco cessation classes can be found under the “Local Resources” page of this web site. 

If you don’t smoke, be aware of secondhand smoke and move yourself and children away from the source of the tobacco smoke.  It is okay to ask someone not to smoke.  Be sure that any child care provider you use does not smoke or has a smoke-free policy such as there is no smoking in the home day care at anytime or there is no smoking outside while children are present.  Be an advocate for yourself and your children.