Something happened the other day that reminded me about the need to teach children to be responsible and organized with their ‘things’ and I wanted to share it with you.
Our daughter has tutoring in town, an hour away, every Friday night. It is her job to make sure she has a change of clothes and her tutor worksheets and weekly book. On one recent occasion Emma forgot her jeans, so that she was only in her super-short tennis shorts and nothing else - ok while paying tennis in daylight, but not once the sun has set and it’s the middle of winter!! Yes... I could make it easy on her and do this job for her, but apart from preventing her from being cold on the odd occasion it wouldn't teach her anything about responsibility or organization. Instead is was a great opportunity to help ensure she doesn't forget in the future.
If I did this an other things like it for her, she wouldn’t be thinking for herself and learning to think ahead and be more responsible for her belongings and the jobs she has to do as she gets older. It’s these experiences I believe, that instill important life lessons in our kids and helps them step up and become more independent. Kids learning to be organized and responsible for their stuff is a big part of this and I give our kids lots of opportunities to step up, so that they get a chance to do this.
Without it there is Over-Dependence on you and worse still, possible stunted emotional growth. Which would you prefer in your growing, developing child? Sure there’ll be some mishaps and mistakes along the way but that’s exactly where the learning comes from!
Happy Organizing
Claire McFee
Organize Your Life Organizers
Showing posts with label organize your kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label organize your kids. Show all posts
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Are your children over exposed to Advertising and missing their childhood?
I just watched a really interesting program on the ABC about The Consumerism of Childhood.. .
There were many experts interviewed explaining the dangers of the dangerous amount of advertising and manipulative marketing our children are exposed to from increasingly young ages. TV is obviously one of the biggest culprits but in this rapidly advancing technological world – all other manner of communication such as phones/ instant messaging/ chat rooms/ sadly schools & most disturbingly sly observations of children ‘in action’ with their friends that you are not even aware of, let alone have given permission for – all aimed at targeting our kids ever more closely so that what is being pushed on them is harder and harder to resist. Marketers are even conducting MRI”S of kids watching various ads to see what parts of the brain light up the most and therefore do more of that. Shocking I know!
In many ways it is a sad reflection society has come to this and clearly the Industry self regulating itself is not sufficient. The only way to keep tabs on how much your children are exposed to this media manipulation is by creating boundaries for you kids in the relevant areas and keeping the lines of communication open. Since our kids were very young we have talked about how ads exaggerate if not flat out lie about what their product or service can do, so they have a very healthy level of scepticism when it comes to advertising.
They are still not immune of course to the lure of wanting some latest and invariably expensive gadget – they’re only human and we sometimes let them purchase these things – within reason though.
We can all get a bit slack about the amount of hours that our children are having screen time be it TV or the Computer. I notice this happens in our family in Winter time, when it’s cold and the kids just want to curl up on the couch and VEG out. Just how much they are Vegging out is becoming increasingly clear and increasingly alarming. Kids impressionable young brains can literally be wired in the wrong ways affecting IQ; impulse control; anti social behaviour and so on. The statistic in numerous areas such as weight problems/ diabetes & Mental Illness problems are rapidly on the rise.
It can be hard to put limits on things that all your children’s friend’s supposedly have constant access too, and it requires having a strong resolve. I have wavered a few times with my 10 yo daughter and 7 yo son in this area in the past – but have always regretted it. Quite a while ago my husband and I banned TV in the Mornings, which although difficult at first –with a lot of complaining, this soon completely disappeared. I subsequently took I to the next step and have curtailed their watching of programs after school.
Because I work form home this has meant a big commitment from me to not work during the hours of say 3 till 8pm so that I can keep the kids minds active and engaged in more interesting ways. This may be playing hangman and doing a puzzle or putting together a letter to Gran and Gramps with some recent digital photos to send via good old fashioned snail mail. The difference in ‘quality’ communication and learning and engagement with each other increased markedly when we did this – I wish I’d done it sooner!! There’s no point admonishing yourself about when you put the foot down about too much TV and Computer time - it’s simply better late than never.
If you would like to read more on this topic you might like to read How to Organize TV/Computer time for your Kids.
There were many experts interviewed explaining the dangers of the dangerous amount of advertising and manipulative marketing our children are exposed to from increasingly young ages. TV is obviously one of the biggest culprits but in this rapidly advancing technological world – all other manner of communication such as phones/ instant messaging/ chat rooms/ sadly schools & most disturbingly sly observations of children ‘in action’ with their friends that you are not even aware of, let alone have given permission for – all aimed at targeting our kids ever more closely so that what is being pushed on them is harder and harder to resist. Marketers are even conducting MRI”S of kids watching various ads to see what parts of the brain light up the most and therefore do more of that. Shocking I know!
In many ways it is a sad reflection society has come to this and clearly the Industry self regulating itself is not sufficient. The only way to keep tabs on how much your children are exposed to this media manipulation is by creating boundaries for you kids in the relevant areas and keeping the lines of communication open. Since our kids were very young we have talked about how ads exaggerate if not flat out lie about what their product or service can do, so they have a very healthy level of scepticism when it comes to advertising.
They are still not immune of course to the lure of wanting some latest and invariably expensive gadget – they’re only human and we sometimes let them purchase these things – within reason though.
We can all get a bit slack about the amount of hours that our children are having screen time be it TV or the Computer. I notice this happens in our family in Winter time, when it’s cold and the kids just want to curl up on the couch and VEG out. Just how much they are Vegging out is becoming increasingly clear and increasingly alarming. Kids impressionable young brains can literally be wired in the wrong ways affecting IQ; impulse control; anti social behaviour and so on. The statistic in numerous areas such as weight problems/ diabetes & Mental Illness problems are rapidly on the rise.
It can be hard to put limits on things that all your children’s friend’s supposedly have constant access too, and it requires having a strong resolve. I have wavered a few times with my 10 yo daughter and 7 yo son in this area in the past – but have always regretted it. Quite a while ago my husband and I banned TV in the Mornings, which although difficult at first –with a lot of complaining, this soon completely disappeared. I subsequently took I to the next step and have curtailed their watching of programs after school.
Because I work form home this has meant a big commitment from me to not work during the hours of say 3 till 8pm so that I can keep the kids minds active and engaged in more interesting ways. This may be playing hangman and doing a puzzle or putting together a letter to Gran and Gramps with some recent digital photos to send via good old fashioned snail mail. The difference in ‘quality’ communication and learning and engagement with each other increased markedly when we did this – I wish I’d done it sooner!! There’s no point admonishing yourself about when you put the foot down about too much TV and Computer time - it’s simply better late than never.
If you would like to read more on this topic you might like to read How to Organize TV/Computer time for your Kids.
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