Category Archives: Parenting

Garden Games To Play With Your Kids

05/04/2020 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

With the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, families with children have been looking for more and more ideas of things to do with them outdoors. If you’re lucky to have an outdoor space, then it really can be a blessing, and be transformed into a playground, to create lots of fun for the kids. Garden games are not only just for kids, though. All members of the family can get involved, and throughout all times of the year, not just during this lockdown period. Here are a list of things that you could try out:

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Water Balloon Dodgeball – this can be a lot of fun, and is perfect for a warm summer day. All you need is water balloons, filled with water. If you can get two colors, and two teams, then you just play a normal round of dodgeball, but you’ll get wet if you get hit! You could introduce no firing zones and other rules; whatever will suit your family.

Cornhole: this is a fun game for the family to play, that can improve accuracy and throwing skills. A homage to a classic fairground game, you could even play for cotton candy! You can make your own cornhole game with cardboard and beanbags, or you could look at a site like Cornhole Worldwide to get things of your own. It works well for children of a variety of ages, and is the kind of game that will grow with them.

Natural Art: this is all about collecting a variety of things that you can find in your yard, such as leaves, grass, sticks, and flowers. Then you can use what has been collected to make small things like nests and bug hotels. Of course, you could use some things like crayons, string, and tape that you already have, to help their works of art to last longer.

Cup Races: for this game, you will need some empty cups, string, and something to make a hole with (like scissors). Water guns are also a must, but water balloons could work well too. What you need to do is to build some parallel tracks using the string. Then make a hole in the empty cup, and thread the cup onto the string. Then you have to make the cup move by using the water gun (or popping the balloons). The cup that gets to the end the fastest wins. If you’ve got some competitive kids with lots of energy, this can be a great idea.

Tug Of War: all that you need for tug of war is some players and rope. Make two teams that are fairly equal, and put a marker or flag in the middle of the rope. Once all players are ready to go and have the rope ready, the games can begin. Once a team succeeds at pulling across most of the other team, the rope will slide towards them, and then they will win the game. This can be fun for big kids and teens especially.

Going Healthy, Parenting

How To Help Your Aging Parents Stay Socially Active

05/01/2020 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

As you get older, you will notice that your parent’s age really starts to show and they may struggle with a lot of simple things that they used to take for granted. It’s important that you’re there for them and you help them to maintain their independence for as long as possible. There are a lot of things that you can do to help your aging parents, but one of the most important things to consider is their social life.

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Even with Home Care Assistance, helping your parents to stay socially active is so important because it slows cognitive decline and prevents loneliness. With the simple tips on this list, you can make sure that they have an active social life.

Learn To Communicate With Them

Older people that are experiencing problems with their hearing often struggle to communicate. This means that, even when you are spending time with them, they may not engage socially that much. That’s why it is important that you learn how to communicate with them properly in a way that they can understand, so you can engage them in conversation. These hearing loss communication tips will help you to make yourself understood, and understand your parents better. If they are not already using them, you need to make sure that they are fitted with hearing aids as well. By improving communication, you will find it a lot easier to help your parents stay socially active.

Find Senior Exercise Programs

Exercise is so important for older people as well, so you should look for some senior exercise programs in the area. It’s a great way to make sure that their physical health is taken care of, and it’s a brilliant place to meet people as well. Attending one of these senior exercise programs will give them a regular opportunity to socialize and they can meet other elderly people that they can spend time with outside the exercise classes as well. One of the key factors that you must take care of when taking your elderly to a senior exercise program is their catheter supplies. In old age, it is common to lose control of bladder motion, while there could be other reasons for it as well. One of the many solutions to this problem are catheter supplies from Byram Healthcare that are readily available at home. You can also consult with the experts for more information on their urology and catheter programs.

Engage Their Hobbies

If your parents have hobbies, you should see whether there are any local clubs that they could get involved with. Things like book clubs, for example, are a great place to meet like minded people and exercise their brains at the same time. There are groups and clubs for so many different hobbies these days, and you can easily find them online, so make sure to engage your parent’s hobbies and use them as an opportunity for socializing.

In some cases, they may not be able to do their hobbies in the same way that they used to. However, you should try to think of ways to adapt those activities so they can still get involved in them.

Offer Them Lifts

Often, elderly people are isolated because they do not have access to the right transport. They are unable to drive themselves, and they may not feel confident enough to take public transport if their mobility is not good. That’s why you should offer them a lift whenever they need it. Let them know that if they want to visit friends then you are always willing to drive them over there or take them both out somewhere else, like the park or a coffee shop.

Get Them Online

While there are a lot of negatives to things like social media, it is also a good way to bring people together. If you can teach your parents about technology and get them online, it helps them to stay socially active. You can set up family group chats so they can always message you and you can send them pictures. It’s a good idea to teach them how to video chat as well because, even if you can’t see them in person, it’s a good way for them to catch up with you. If they are able to use social media and search online, they will find it a lot easier to find local groups and activities that they can get involved with.

Teaching your parents to get online might be tough, but there are often local computer courses for elderly people. Attending these classes is yet another great opportunity for socializing, and it will help them get to grips with new technology that helps them to stay connected.

Helping your parents to stay socially active is so important because it slows cognitive decline and prevents loneliness. With the simple tips on this list, you can make sure that they have an active social life.

Going Healthy, Health, Life, Parenting

Managing to Stay Healthy Whilst being a Parent

04/22/2020 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

Your body is amazing, but to keep it amazing we need to make sure we keep it healthy and give it a check over every now and again. This can especially difficult if you happen to be a parent. From making sure the children get to school on time. Making sure their homework is completed, to bath time and feeding them, and all the other things that come by default when you are a parent. It can seem impossible to have some me time, but it doesn’t have to be! This article helps show you how and what you can do to keep yourself healthy and give yourself that much needed me time, a survival kit for new dads, and mothers out there!

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Maintain a Healthy Diet

A key element to health is your diet. Being a parent, it can be difficult to make sure you eat healthily whilst also trying to regulate what the children are eating! Some people opt for highly regimented diets, which may not work around your family life. This is not the only way you can diet, maybe you just want to remove the snacks from your life. The food on the go. Studies have shown that regimented times of eating, having the three main meals of the day at the same time every day really helps with weight loss. Combine that with removing the on the move food and snacks in between, and replacing them with nuts, fruit, and salad, will make you into a health and diet ninja!

Try to use Natural Products

This is a must. Many products out on the market are actually quite harsh and harmful to your skin. Some products use alcohol and other chemicals as a base ingredient, and in time these chemicals will actually dry and age your skin, so they are not the best. Products that have a natural base of ingredients are far better for your skin, and due to the rise in popularity and the demand high for natural products they no longer need to break your bank!

Adapt an exercise plan for you

When looking at exercise routines to follow, either through an app or TV or at the gym through classes, everyone has their ‘top routine’ or ‘best routine’ that is bound to work every time. Well, this is not the case for everyone. A highly regimented exercise routine may not suit a working or single mother or a mother in the first place who needs to care for the children. It may not take into account personal conditions or situations which do not affect the person recommending the routine. Why not try a gym?

Don’t forget to Nourish the Entire Body

This point links with the above, never forget the rest of your body! Many people have their focus set on face creams, eye primers, face masks and more, and never really think twice about products that could help the skin on the rest of their body. The face is just a small part of the skin that covers your body, and there are many amazing products out there for the body as well as the face! As well as body butter that is amazing, you can buy affordable body oils which are also great for adding moisture to the skin. Also, natural body soaps are great for the bath or shower, so when you are washing the day away, at the same time giving your skin much-needed refreshment and leaving you feeling happier and more relaxed!

Using Your Senses as you Exercise

This is another great tip to get the most of the workout you do already, but adding another element of mindfulness into the mix. An example of how you could use this method in your normal routine is your morning run in the park. Are you playing music through your headphones? Are you just focused on the end goal of when you finish or where the next bench is? That is perfectly normal, as we all have those same thoughts. But, image that same run, but you really turn into the noises around you. The morning birds tweeting in the trees. The wind blowing through the hanging branches of the trees around you, and the noise of the rhythmic thud and gravel noise when your feet touch the ground every couple seconds. Although it sounds really basic and simple, firstly, it is! But at the same time, you will find again like the breathing techniques, you will slow down and really take in your environment, and get so much more satisfaction from your workout.

So, those are some quick tips on keeping healthy whilst being a parent! Do what is best for you, and keep doing a great job!