Children People

Most western countries start primary school education at age six. That is the age at which we believe most children can start learning to read.   However, some children arrive at primary school already able to read. This does not happen by chance. Invariably, these children’s parents have made an effort to teach them.

If these children can learn to read before they even start primary school, why do we wait until six years old before children start learning at school?  The answer is that education authorities have to make a practical decision.   Younger children need more care and attention. It takes more resources to teach younger children and it costs more money. Most children are ready to start learning to read before age six but a few are not ready. The education authorities choose this age because it is when almost all children are ready to start learning to read. It is an age when children are becoming more independently capable and able to learn in a classroom environment.

The education authorities decide that six years old is a suitable age to start teaching children to read. It is a practical decision and the right one. That does not mean that children cannot start learning to read before this age. It just means that if parents want their child to have a head start in literacy skills then it is their responsibility to teach. All children develop at their own pace but generally, it is possible teach children to read or at least lay the foundations before age six.

Teaching younger children demands a personal touch. It requires patience, imagination, creativity and perseverance. This is a skill that parents need to develop as they work with their child. However, there is no doubt that with time and effort, parents can give their children a head start in literacy development before they start primary school.

Research has shown that children start developing the cognitive visual skills to identify the complex shapes of letters from as early as age two. A few children read their first words by age three and some can read simple sentences by age four. These children are advanced but this is usually due to the effort their parents put in to teaching them. Almost all children can learn the alphabet and to read a few words before age six. It is just a question of how much effort and time parents are willing to spend teaching their child.

A head start in literacy skills is an advantage children can carry into the rest of their lives. It makes their early schooling experience more positive and boosts their self-esteem. Contrastingly, children who start primary school and find they are already bottom of the class can develop negative attitudes to schooling that impact their educational development for years to come. One of the greatest gifts a parent can ever give their child is a sound early base in reading and writing.

There are many parents nowadays who start to provide their children with an allowance at an early age. This can be considered as a good practice as children would be aware about the good spending of money and at the same time grasp important saving habits. Nurturing children with such habits could be yet another factor to enhance their development trends.

As soon as children become around 6 years old, they may be ready to accept the idea of receiving the allowance and being responsible for it. Normally, at this age, children may not fully know about how to spend their money. As a result, a few bad decisions may crop but these are understood to be part of the learning phase. At a tender age, children are completely innocent and therefore have no maturity at all. Good handling of their allowance can be a bit difficult for them, initially. But during the course of time children can get used to spending, hence keeping a balance between spending and saving.

Moreover, giving children the opportunity to handle money since the young age can be a definite advantage. As said, children make mistakes spending at a young age. There are so many adults nowadays that have fallen into immense debts due to bad spending habits. If they had learnt about saving their money when they were children, chances are that they may not have been in their current situation. Children who take a good habit since they were young can keep this habit for a lifetime. For instance, children who have learnt about brushing their teeth everyday before going to sleep may keep this habit for a long time to come.

Furthermore, the allowance that children get may differ from one parent to another. Some parents can give their children allowance depending upon the chores they do. Here, again, parents may be helping their children to know about the importance of work. That is, you have to work to earn the money. In other cases, parents prefer to give their children an allowance based on their grades or age among others. On the other hand, some parents choose to give their children the money when they need it. In such a circumstance, it could be better to make a schedule. A good idea would be to provide children with an allowance at least once a week.

With this done, children would know about their spending limits. Children would as well be aware about their spending power, so may not want to buy too many things. This will get them ready to face life when they become adults, especially when they start to work. With already an experience about the good handling of money when they were children, such adults may rarely struggle financially. Therefore, it is recommended that parents nurture their children with such habits at an early age. There is no better way of living than being financially secure and free of debts.

Sanjou is a freelance writer who writes articles for Working With Children Today ( Working With Children Today), and Helping Children ( Helping Children), Equality Options ( Equality Options), a leading independent Training and Consultancy Service who has developed its reputation and portfolio working by offering a range of specialist workforce development and training services to the Children and Young People Sector.

IMPACTS OF TELEVISION ON CHILDREN Television has become a significant social phenomenon in Pakistan. There is no doubt that television has a great influence on children from a very early age itself and it will affect children’s cognitive and social development. The role that Television plays in socializing children is very great. Television can be educational and beneficial, but their negative aspect, such as the amount of aggressive and violent activity it displays daily, is causing grave concern to parents and educators around the world, especially in Pakistan. Whether and how we will manage to control the harmful effects of television and harness its potential for the good of children is a subject of ongoing debate. Though not yet investigated empirically, TV viewing is, generally believed to generate social forces of undeniable influence in Pakistan. With more than 1. 5 million sets in use and about seven hours of daily transmission, the number of viewers is now estimated to be over 12 million. These statistics may be modest by international standard but these are not insignificant in a country where’ the rate of literacy and per capita income are still very low. Children do not generally become consistent viewers until they are about 3 years old. Even then they do not watch the set constantly because their span of attention is very short. Os they get easily distracted. Now-a-days the working parents are so busy; they don’t have enough time spend with their kids. The mother has to do the cooking and look after the child simultaneously; there may not be servants also. So she switches on the TV and puts the child in front of it. Slowly it becomes addicted to the television. And the mother blames the child for regularly watching TV. Most of the ‘speech delay’ cases seen among babies are caused due to the excessive TV watching. Television watching is not interactive. It is a one way mode of activity. In order to develop speech, as the young one begins to produce the babbling sounds; we must reproduce a similar sound, so that the young one is motivated to talk more, which slowly leads to verbal communication. TV viewing patterns are affected not only by program content but by the formal features of television as well, such as animation, high action, loud music and visual and auditory special effects. These formal features, which help to attract as well as retain children’s attention, are to some degree, independent of programme content, and they are important for younger and older children alike (Kapoor). Children increase their viewing time gradually until, in preadolescence, they are watching TV almost four hours a day, and housewives too watch most of the TV programmes. Often there is clash between their children regarding the channel they prefer. The elders would prefer the serials, while children want their favourite cartoons. Children watch a variety of programmes, boys prefer action, adventure and sports programmes, and girls prefer human social drama and music. Small kids will not understand what they see on television, in a reasonable manner. Children must be able to distinguish between fantasy and reality. Displaying what has been called ‘magic window thinking’ the little kids are likely to believe that TV images are real as the people and things about them. During the age of 2 and 3 they come to understand that the characters and objects they see on TV are not actually present inside the set. As kids grow and their cognitive skills continue it improve, their ability to distinguish fantasy from reality improves as well. When they get older, children understand that shows are made up, scripted and rehearsed. The impact of violence in television can be reduced by helping young children distinguish between what they see in Television and reality. We must also constantly inform them that television is an unrealistic portrayal of the real world and aggressive behaviours are not as universal in the real world as they appear to be on TV. If we go on watching interesting TV programmes we will not realize the time that has elapsed. Due to excessive TV watching our attitudes, moods, behaviour will all get affected. Television viewing takes time, and may displace other activities, such as sports, exercises or even talking to others. Guests are not properly taken care of if they visit other houses during popular TV serials. Also, in most of the houses the TVs are placed in the drawing room. Even though we will talk with the guests, our attention will be constantly diverted by the TV. We must make it a practice to switch off the TV when guests come. Earlier, children loved to visit other housed with their parents, but now-a-days, if we ask them to join us, they will say “Amma, please, we will sit at home and watch TV,” They prefer sitting at home and watching TV over visiting relatives or friends. Parents must also ensure that children are getting sufficient physical exercises. It is also not a good practice to place TV in the dining room. In the busy modern time, there is lack of communication between the family members. Watching television during dinning hours, however, will prevent family members from conversing with one another freely. Some parents will switch on the TV and feed the children. The parents will be happy as the little one opens his mouth like gold fish and swallows the food while watching TV. The parent is not realising that she herself is developing in the child that habit of watching TV while eating food. Now-a-days some children watch TV even while doing home work. This practice must be dissuaded from the beginning stage itself. All the children’s programmes and cartoon channels are intermixed with advertisements. These advertisements have a definite influence on the tender mind. Fast food snacks filled with masala and aginomotto are harmful to health. As these snakes provide tattoos and stickers children often try to influence their parent’s consumer choice; parents must not entertain this. The present trend in the theme of serials is not satisfactory. In all the stories, importance is given to the negative aspects of human personality. They depict the different ways to cheat other people, the unhealthy relationships between the husbands and wives, the shortcut ways to get money buy cheating people. Violence is given preference. By watching these types of serials, throughout the time, the behaviour of even the elder generation seem to have changed. They have become narrow-minded and they tend to find fault with others and enjoy gossips and go into negative thinking. In the past, grandparents loved to look after the young ones. But now the modern grandma is reluctant to find time to spend with their grandchildren among these never-ending serials. This is a cyclic process. Children learn through imitation, if they elderly persons are behaving like this, how we can blame the little ones” as a result a selfish generation is emerging! The parents must go on talking to the child while watching TV, that is, they must explain the programme contents to they younger ones. This will help the children to make important connection between actions and their consequences. Studies have shown that children whose parents explain events and clarify information tend to be more imaginative, less aggressive and less hyperactive and tend to understand the contents of the programme better. But at present, the parents do not spend time with children, nor do they discuss the values of the programme. Co-viewing can also help a child to cope with the fear produced by the programme. The friendly relationship between the parents and children will also improve. The programmes in the National Geographic Channel are also very informative; the travelogue helps to gather information on other countries. By watching such programmes we will get a feeling that we are actually visiting these places. The important buildings and places shown in such programmes give us valuable knowledge. Children will be able to know about and understand different culture. The important thing to keep in mind is that parents must not blame the children for watching TV. Together they must prepare a tentative timetable for Television-viewing. Children must be given some time to watch their favourite programmes, but parents must have an eye on the programmes which the children watch. There must be open discussions among the family members and parents must provide a positive guidance to children. This will help them to learn to evaluate the TV programmes and what they see. Also, we must not discuss in front of the child his/her habit of watching TV throughout the time, even if that be the case. We must slowly steer him out of the habit instead.

Children’s Franchise offers a wide range of advantageous services to children and their parents. Parents are often offered guidelines on caring and educating their children through Children’s franchise. Franchises for children sometimes employ very efficient people like qualified nurses to take care of the children properly. There are different kinds of franchises for children that offer fruitful services to the parents for growing up their children in a healthy manner. Children’s Franchise can be related to clothing and education of the children. Professional and good franchises help in all round development of a child. Different types of Children’s franchise are language training franchise, maths learning franchise, cultural (music and drama) franchise, educational franchise and many others. All these franchises run with the chief motto to help the children in developing themselves in every aspect of their life. A reliable Children’s Franchise programme sometimes also offer the grand opportunity to benefit from excellent educational classes and beautiful organic clothing too. Children are provided with an award winning teaching resource programme. A Children’s franchise takes initiative to make the children creative, energetic and more knowledgeable. You can find many Children’s Franchise offering an active physical play programme for children. These types of franchises are solely established to impart physical training and enable the children to acquire strong motor skills. The children are also offered necessary classes to develop their independence, discipline and self-confidence. You can find an affectionate and caring environment uphold by the franchises so that the children can develop positive personality traits and necessary social skills. Children’s franchise offers the challenge and satisfaction to be successful in life. You can judge a good franchise by examining its features. People running a Children’s franchise must be confident, enthusiastic and possess good interpersonal skills. A franchise should have self-motivation and commitment to build a successful business and maintain expected standards of the programme. Again, it is of utmost importance that a Children’s franchise should be able to identify and resolve difficulties whenever the situation arises. A good Children’s franchise must be able to manage the staff. With all the aforementioned features a Children’s franchise can be successful and effective for the children. To get more information about Children’s franchise, feel free to contact Tatty Bumpkin™…  

What are good rules and rewards for teenagers? Why do we bother putting rules into place? Limits and guidelines during adolescence are an important part of getting the budding adult ready to leave home. During this preparation time, keeping focused on the end result (a successful adult) is important. When presenting and negotiating rules with your adolescent, begin by exploring the potential results of successfully following guidelines. Here’s what your list might look like: You’ve reached maturity when… You choose to be with family and engage politely with them during family time. You manage your own homework and schooling. You develop good solid friendships: e. g. consistent, caring and respectful. You balance your needs versus your wants: e. g. schooling versus electronics. You spend time every day engaging in housework on your own. You take care of your own stuff such as doing your own laundry and cleaning up after yourself. You manage your own schedule (academic, work, home, social). You take care of your body by exercising regularly, your nutrition by making good food choices and your mind by giving yourself relaxing/reflective time. You manage your own money for entertainment, activities, and clothing by keeping a checkbook and budget. You work outside the home to earn and contribute to your own care. You manage your time and inform your parents in detail and beforehand about your plans and schedule. You can cook basic meals. You volunteer for your community. Do all of the above and you’ve achieved INDEPENDENCE and maturity! Clearly all of these skills do not have to be accomplished for an adolescent to move away from home and succeed, but the majority of parents that I work with want nothing more than to raise a well-balanced and independent child. In the meantime, however, parents have to set rules that slowly but surely move the child toward independence. Rule categories might include: family time, academic expectations, use of electronics, household responsibilities, personal responsibilities, financial responsibilities, social limits, mind and body responsibilities, community responsibilities. Here’s what the rules might look like for a 13-15 year old. Rules: the following are our expectations to help guide you toward adulthood. Family time is a priority. We have one day a week exclusively for our family as well as family meals on Tuesday and Thursday. All homework, exercise and chores must be done before electronics are used. __ (you decide) hour(s) worth of homework or studying Monday-Thursday and on Saturday so you keep up with projects as well as an understanding of the class material. We expect some form of exercise for physical and mental health including walks, sports, and other exercise programs. We encourage quiet time for reading and reflecting. We encourage no junk food during the weekdays. All electronics are off during family time. Facebook, My Space, instant messaging, and texting are privileges that we support as long as they are balanced. We support your social interactions; however we reserve the absolute right to monitor any electronic exchange. We will be your “friends” on Facebook or MySpace. Any written diary or phone calls are clearly your private information. The difference is based on safety. We will coach you on the use of the Internet and what is acceptable to write and publish online and we will make sure your connections are appropriate. Grades are important. We expect B’s and above. For Facebook, MySpace and instance messaging privileges, we need to see B’s and above on all work brought home or on webgrader (an online grading resource) from the week before. Mom and Dad will check on Monday evenings. No missing, F’s, or C’s on your weekly work. The only exception is if you are absent. Every Monday you have a new chance at good grades for the coming week. We have the right to have you delete your Facebook, MySpace, instant messaging, and cell phone accounts if these rules are not followed. If you achieve a ___ (GPA) for the Semester, you get to start driver’s education. Chores are essential. We depend on your participation in managing the household. You get your age in allowance ($1 x 14 = $14) for finishing chores. Although we will assign chores generally, our goal is for you to look around the house and make helpful contributions rather than us having to ask you to do a chore. You need to do your own laundry on Saturdays. You will contribute one meal a week. We will teach you how to cook several meals. You now have your own checking account. We will give you a monthly allowance for your monthly entertainment. This will not include your cash allowance on Mondays for household chores. This is the money we have always spent on you for entertainment (friend’s birthdays, movies, etc. ) that amount you will now manage. You will need to budget it so that you have money throughout the month. As you get older, you will receive budgeted money for other expenditures like clothes, cell phone bills, etc. Mom and Dad will help you budget your money and learn to use a checking register. As the adolescent reaches 16-18 years of age, the rules change depending on your child’s level of maturity. Teenagers need continued guidance, like the rules offered above, but others need more freedom in order to exert their own judgment. I recommend adding a curfew for adolescents 16 years old and above. Allowing for more freedom at this age – allowing your children to make more choices, even some controversial ones – allows them the freedom to fail while still under your protective roof. Keep in mind that 18 is just around the corner. Learning important life lessons in your teens while living at home provides a safe environment in which growth can take place.

As parents we are our children’s very earliest teacher – a very important role – so we need to model for our children the kinds of behaviours that we wish them to follow. Creating a relationship based on respect for each other, appreciating them as they are and encouraging them towards responsibility and independence are important goals for parents in nurturing their young child. Here are 7 tips to being an inspiring first teacher for your child and to having a loving and close relationship with them: 1. Show your child respect by giving them lots of cuddles and time 2. Get down to their eye level and really listen to what they are saying. Listen with your lips shut as well as with your heart 3. Understand things more from their perspective and talk about their feelings 4. Appreciate the things they can do and praise them 5. Let them have a go first as they try new things instead of doing things for them 6. Allow them to do some little jobs like helping put toys away. This helps them learn to be responsible 7. Notice the things they can do by themselves as they get older and praise them. This will encourage your child to keep on striving to achieve new goals and eventually become independent When you parent your little one keeping these 7 tips in mind, you will be building a wonderful close bond, while encouraging them to grow and develop to their full potential. And isn’t that after all what we as parents want most of all?