Category Archives: Parenting

Top Saving Tips For Summer Camp

05/29/2018 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

Sending your kids to summer camp is an enriching experience for them. It can teach them all about team work, decision making and interacting with others. They get to learn new skills, and build up resilience, which will definitely benefit them in adulthood. However paying for summer camp can also be an expensive experience for parents. The average cost of a day camp is over $300 per child. If you are looking at private or speciality camps, these can cost between $500-$1000 per week. For many parents, this is a necessary cost, when they are juggling work and childcare over the summer months. So how can you make allowances in your budget to pay for summer camp?

Using a dedicated savings account

There is no way around it, keeping children entertained costs money. When they are young, it is worth setting up a dedicated savings account kept solely for funding things like summer camps and school field trips. By paying a little into this account regularly throughout the year, you will be able to budget better for the summer months when they aren’t at school, and need entertaining. Managing your family finance can be made easy, simply by setting up a regular payment into this dedicated account. For instance, if you know that you need to pay $300 for camp, you’ll need to put by $25 a month.

Have a clear out

Part of really good spring cleaning, is getting rid of all of the clothes that don’t fit anymore, and the toys that are no longer played with. Every year, set by a weekend to have a clear out. You could decide to have a yard sale – you will be surprised how useful your unwanted possessions are to others. With the average price of a yard sale item being 85c, it could potentially make you hundreds of dollars to put towards camp costs. Alternatively, it is worth listing items that are in good condition on eBay, Gumtree, Craigslist or one of the local Facebook selling pages. Not only will you be able to make a little money to put towards summer camp, but you will be making your home more organized and tidy.

Look into bursaries and grants

Many summer camp foundations offer a limited number of grants to children that they feel would really benefit from the camp, or that have done something community spirited during the year. These grants recognize that there may be families that can’t necessarily afford the cost of a summer camp experience, but have children that deserve to take part in engaging and interesting activities. These funding opportunities are open to everybody.

Summer camp is a wonderful and exciting experience for children. With some regular saving, your children can spend the school holidays learning new skills and meeting great friends.

Life, Parenting

Give Your Children A Taste Of Your Own Childhood!

05/25/2018 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

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It might be worthwhile to give your children a taste of your own childhood! Not only is this a fun activity for the both of you, but it can help you bond and help them gain an understanding of your life at their age. The first step will be to remove all unnecessary devices on a weekend. This means planning in advance to go without phones, games consoles, laptops or any other form of electronic devices that swallows their time.

Now, children love these devices, meaning that this might be easier said than done. However, planning this in advance and ensuring a fun and long weekend of activities can help mitigate this a little. Next, consider the following:

Camping & Playing Outdoors

You might decide to embark upon an outdoor retreat, where you relax with your children, cook marshmallows on the fire, and tell spooky stories. You might simply do this in your backyard for ease of use, no need to head to the ends of the country to experience this unless you really need to. Then you might consider playing party games, having a party, or playing fun games like ‘army’ in the local woods. You might choose to buy a Spud Gun, the old classic weapon of children, and show them how it works. You might head on a nature trail, or play with a kite on the local beach, or build a treehouse with them out of planks of wood and nails. This can be an awesome thing to consider as long as you’re willing to put the effort in, but remember, it’s not exactly the safest thing you can construct for your child.

Movie Night

Why not have a movie night, spent watching the movies that were important to you as a child? You might even go all out and purchase a 4:3 boxed television and a VHS player to watch them in the quality you did as a child. Make your favorite childhood meal (and load up on the snacks and sweets,) and keep an indulgent evening relaxing with your children and experiencing something truly wonderful with them. After all, children know not what they have with the current movie effects they can see and take for granted, and the fact that Marvel’s cinematic universe is amazing and displays exactly what we had in our heads the whole time.

An Action Packed Day

What were the most important activities to you as a child? The ones that you truly enjoyed? Could it be bowling or go-karting? Paintball or fun outdoor sports? There’s more than likely going to be a center around you that offers this form of wonderful pursuit, and taking your children here can give you an incredible experience away from screens, maybe showing them the benefit of heading outside in the pursuit of sports or rough and tumble play.

With these tips, you are sure to give your children an excellent taste of your own childhood. Reminiscing has never felt so good.

Parenting

Getting To The Bottom Of Your Child’s Never-Ending Naughtiness

05/21/2018 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

When you go out with the kids, the chances are that you’d do anything not to be the parent with THAT child. You likely have nightmares of trips which end in temper tantrums and disapproving stares. Ahh, the joys of parenting. It’s enough to leave you wanting to lock the doors and never set foot outside again.

But, despite your best efforts, your child may start to misbehave in just the way you fear. As well as being a nightmare come true, this can cause a real strain on familial relationships. Obviously, you love your child without end. But, it can be pretty hard to like them when they’re throwing themselves on the floor and kicking your ankles. In front of everyone, no less.

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Behavior like this is clearly unacceptable. And, there’s no denying that you need to do what you can to let your child know that. But, if things have been this way for a while, and your punishments aren’t having an effect, it might be time to change your approach. For the most part, children who are acting out for no real reason do respond to punishment. Even if your efforts don’t have an effect the first few times, things will change over the course of a few weeks. Your child will soon know that the price they pay for misbehavior isn’t worth the thrill.

Unless this has been happening for months. That’s a sure sign something else is going on. Often, there’s an underlying cause for naughty behavior. And, as the parent, it’s your job to determine what that is. So, read on to find out how can you get to the bottom of that seemingly never-ending naughtiness.

Consider if a medical condition is to blame

More parents than ever now know about conditions like ADHD (attention deficit disorder). Studies have shown that at least 5% of American children between the ages of 4-17 have the condition. Though, the CDC considers that this number could be even higher. Either way, that’s a whole load of kids. And, as you’ll learn from sites like Parenting Pod, misbehavior is one of the first symptoms, with children suffering from ADHD unable to control their emotions from their early years. As well as making your child more liable to temper tantrums, ADHD can mean an inability to listen to instruction. And, that would explain why your child is failing to respond to your punishments.

And, ADHD isn’t the only medical condition worth attention. Anxiety is another leading cause for unruly children. After all, anxiety manifests in nervous energy. And, children with nervous energy often feel no way to release that feeling than to throw a screaming fit. Anxiety-induced naughtiness could also become prevalent in an attempt to seek reassurance. It may be that your child feels anxious when you’re focusing elsewhere, and thus throws a tantrum to detract your attention back on themselves.

Obviously, it’d be unfair to punish your child for any of the above issues. These are medical problems which need medical attention. And, it’s your responsibility to get it. So, take the time to do more research into these conditions and others like them. Then, book an appointment and speak things through with a doctor.

Is there an underlying cause?

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We’ve all heard about the bully who acts out because of a bad home life, right?. Well, the same could be true for your child. Not that they have a bad home life exactly, but that something at home is causing their misbehavior. If, for instance, you leave your child with a minder often, they may feel as though you don’t give them any attention. In an attempt to change that, they could get into the habit of playing up while you’re away so their minder has to call you back. This could also lead to misbehavior when you’re around in an attempt to get as much attention as they can. Equally, if you and your partner are arguing, they may misbehave to distract you both.

Or, it may be that the underlying cause isn’t at home at all. If children are being bullied, there’s also more chance of playing up at home. Their frustration about what’s happening at school could easily build and explode once they’re safe in the family unit. Even if bullying isn’t an issue, falling outs with friends can also cause this kind of behavior. And, again, with any of these issues, it wouldn’t be fair to punish your child. If you suspect something like this, take the time to talk to your child and get to the bottom of things. Then, set about either making changes at home, or speaking with their teacher. As soon as your child feels safe again, you may find that their behavior improves.

Is the fault with your reactions?

None of us likes to think that we’ve gone wrong somewhere on the parenting journey. But, if you react to each tantrum by giving your child what they want, you may need to look at yourself a little closer. We’ve all been there. Your child is screaming, parents are watching, and you want the ground to swallow you whole. On those days, it can seem so much easier to let them have the sweets already. You’re only human, and your days are hard enough as it is. But, if you give in to a tantrum even once, you’ll do untold damage. In no time, your child will associate bad behavior with positive reinforcement, rather than punishment. Even if you send them to their room when you get home, their tantrum served its purpose. Not to mention that this is giving crossed messages which are sure to lead to confusion about what’s acceptable. To make sure this doesn’t happen, always stick to your guns when it comes to bad behavior. Set in place reliable punishment methods, and stick with them no matter how embarrassed you get. Your child will soon learn that they can’t win you over by screaming.