Your Child Must Have Self Control

We must teach our children to have self-control. They must be able to control their anger and manage any conflict they are confronted with in life. Building self-confidence and teaching children to cope with stressful situations is extremely important. Our children must have self-awareness and set realistic goals with realistic timetables to complete these goals all while managing frustration, set-backs and disappointment.

Raising our children to have self-control means modeling self-control in our every day lives. We will never have children who manage anger properly if we don't show them how. Teach them how to accept criticim, admit mistakes and know the difference between right and wrong. Teach them how to respectfully stand up for themselves and when to stop and perhaps count to ten or even to one hundred if necessary. Let them know we all learn from our mistakes and we can continually work to improve our behavior and self-control at all times.

Know Your Family's History

How many of us know much about our family's history? Start out by making a simple family tree. Make sure you include your children in this activity. Go as far as you can on your own. Contact other family members to fill in what they know. Post information on your blog, facebook,or research family on line. It will take on a life of its own and you can find family members you never knew existed. My family recently found family members just this week. It was truly exciting! So, develop a sense of family history and find out some very interesting fact.

Tip #79: Make Sure Your Child Has A Good Working Relationship With Their Teacher.

Tip #79: Make Sure Your Child Has A Good Working Relationship With Their Teacher.

Parents must make sure their child has a good relationship with the teacher. If your child is having problems getting along with the teacher there are somethings you can do. This can be accomplished by strategically getting involved and preventing the teacher-child relationship from deteriorating further. Here are some suggestions from Stacy DeBroff, author of "The Mom Book Goes to School".

1. Tell the teacher the concerns your child expresses, and ask for the teacher's insights. Don't be confrontational, listen to their prospective, and come up with potential solutions.

2. Be aware that the teacher might not remember things perfectly, so unless there was a major incident you are concerned about, focus on fixing issues for the future, not getting the most accurate account of what has already happened.

3. Address problems in the child-teacher relationship directly to your child's teacher. Advocate for your child by repeating their concerns in a meeting without the child. You can say, "This issue concerns me because I am not sure why my child has this perception. I would like to make you aware of it and hear what you think and how we can turn this perception around."

Always try to handle these situations calmly and even handily. It will make all the difference in the child-teacher relationship for the rest of the year and years to come.

Tip #78: If Your Child is Having Difficulty Get Help

Everyone wants their child to do well in school. What can you do if your child struggles with school work?

You must realize that children will often develop and learn at different stages. Try not to panic and don't become frustrated. It will only frustrate the child. Many children will hesitate to admit whey they don't understand because they don't want to appear "slow" or "dumb". As long as a child has a strong base and passion and confidence for learning, it will hopefully become easier. That brings us to tip #78.

Tip #78: If your child is having difficulty in school and nothing is working get your child some help.

First, take a breathe and realize that most kids struggle at one time or another. Just because a child is having difficulty doesn't mean there is a learning disability. It may mean the child is not developmentally ready for certain concepts. Patience is the key. Don't do the work for the child, but let the child work through problems as independently as possible. Children need to feel that they are successful, not the parent will do the work. Make sure you meet with the teacher and together create a plan on what you can do at home to help your child. See if the teacher has any concerns and work together to solve the the situation.

Next, find out concrete examples of the problems your child is having, like test scores, classwork, or homework. That way you will better understand how to help. If you cannot help with a certain subject, seek help from older siblings, friends, tutors, or ask the teacher for suggestions. It is important to address any academic problems as soon as possible. The child doesn't need to go on to another concept, chapter, or grade level without mastering all basic lessons.

Lastly, be positive and give your child confidence. Nothing will cause a child to bottom out more then feeling frustrated and that the work is too hard. Have high expectations for the your child, but have realistic goals and expectations. Not every child will be great in every subject. Just let the child know that hard work and putting in the time will make a difference.

Traits of Highly Effective Schools:#6

Elaine K. McEwan writes a book about the qualities and unique characteristics of school that help students get the "Best Education Possible". Each chapter offers research-based trait and examines its impact on student achievement. Trait # 6 is High Expectations.

High Expectations - Teachers can say they have high expectations because they expect their students to do tons of work and pass very difficult test.  However, tons of work and difficult test do not necessarily mean high expectations.  In order to qualify for membership in the high expectations club, teachers have to believe that their students can achieve, explicitly teach them how to get smart, and convey a profound and unwavering commitment to their academic success. 

How can High Expectations be achieved:

1. Eliminate Low Expectations - Once your convey to children, whether consciously or not that they are too "dumb" to learn, they will almost always prove you right.

2. Intervene Before They Fail - Help students achieve academic success by giving intervention to students who show non-mastery in reading and other content areas.

3. Build in Rigor and Relevance - An average student who attended a "high rigor instruction school" would learn about 78% more mathematics between Grades 8-10 than comparable students in a
"low rigor instruction school.

How To Outsmart Breast Cancer: Part 2

According to an article in the October 2010 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine, 38 percent of breast cancer cases could be prevented with diet, exercise, and weight control. Yesterday's blog hit on watching weight gain, incorporating certain veggies in your diet, taking vitamin D, and avoid excess hormones. Today we will look at 5 more tips on preventing breast cancer.

5. Back away from the bar: The reality is that the more alcohol you consume, the greater your odds of getting breast cancer possibly because it raises estrogen levels. The consensus among health groups is to limit consumption to one drink or less per day.

6. Race for the prevention: Being physically active, it turns out, could be the single best thing you can do to protect your health. For a start, regular aerobic activity for 30 minutes a day, five days a week. This will help control weight, but it also acts directly on body chemistry to lower levels of circulating insulin and estrogen.

7. And keep on going: Surviving and thriving after diagnose may also depend on stepping up the pace. In a review of six studies involving 12,000 breast cancer patients, researchers found that regular exercise could reduce disease recurrence by 24 percent, breast cancer deaths by 34 percent, and overall deaths by 41 percent.

8. Don't miss mammograms: When government-sponsored task force announced last year that it didn't think there was enough evidence to subject women in their 40s to regular mammograms, and that women in their 50s could be screened every other year. A major 2009 study reported that three-quarters of breast cancer deaths occurred among women who did not undergo regular screening.

9. Assert your individuality: Public health guidelines focus on the population as a whole, but to protect your health, you need to get specific. You may need a stepped-up screening schedule if, for example you've ever had a breast biopsy (even if benign). Likewise, if you are at increase risk due to family history, you may need more frequent exams or screenings with MRI. Make sure your doctor knows your family history (father's as well as mother's).

How To Outsmart Breast Cancer: Part 1

According to an article in the October 2010 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine, states that no matter what age you are now, or what generation you belong to, it's not too early, or too late, to take steps to avoid the disease. Below are steps 1-4 that make a difference from eating the right vegetables, to taking the correct supplements.

1. Watch out for weight creep: If you could still fit into your high school prom dress (with Spanx, if necessary), you're in good shape in more ways than one. Woman who have gained between 21 and 30 pounds since age 18 have a 40 percent increase risk of breast cancer compared with those who have put on five or fewer pounds, an American Cancer Society study found.

2. Embrace cauliflower: Recent research seems to show that adopting a pattern of eating that includes lots of fruits and vegetables is beneficial. When Colorado State University scientist took a second look at the famed Singapore study, the research that initially pointed to the Asian-style diet found that even among Chinese women, those who ate more "vegetable-fruit-soy" diet had a lower risk of breast cancer than woman whose plates contained less of these. The veggies that seemed to to the most good: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and kale.

3. Swallow a super supplement: In a Canadian study involving more than 6,000 women, those who reported taking a daily dose of vitamin D were 24 percent less likely to develop breast cancer. The science is not definitive, but evidence is growing that women with adequate vitamin D blood levels have a lower risk of breast cancer than those whose levels are below normal.

4. Avoid excess hormones: Most women are aware that hormone therapy has been linked to a higher risk of breast cancer. But studies have also found that birth control pills raise your chances slightly, at least while you're actually on the Pill (the risk starts to go down when you stop taking it; after 10 year, it's the same as it would be if you'd never been on the Pill).

Stay tuned for tomorrow because there will be 5 more preventive measures you can take to help in the battle against breast cancer. We as women and mothers must take care of our health for the sake of the family. By the way, men are known to get breast cancer too.