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Take Advantage Of Your Child's Energy Levels
By Joseph Browns, Fri Dec 9th
“Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing thoseyou hold well.” -Josh Billings If parents want to be able to make best use of time with theirchildren, then it is crucial for a parent to start becomingalert to the state that their children are in. Tired? Satisfied?Bored? His shoe hurts him? She has a stomachache from thespaghetti? And so on....This applies particularly during thetime that children are playing with toys. They want to be happy.And you want them to be happy too.. Here’s one way of looking at it: it’s a bit like dealing with ababy. Your baby cries. So you figure, usually and probably it’sone of four things. One, the baby is hungry. Two, the baby needsa diaper change.Three, the baby is tired. Or four, the babywants to be held. You would probably test each of these out tosee if the baby will stop crying. What’s happening here is acontinual process of trying to figure out and be sensitive tothe the baby’s needs. Right? So we are dealing with asensitivity to the child, and a willingness to experiment tofind out exactly what the baby needs. Once the thing is done(for example, changed a dirty diaper and put on a clean one) andthe baby stops crying, and is now smiling and gurgling, youthink: “Bingo! I did the right thing there!”.
So the checklist is a key to a parent’s success, because itprovides the parent with the various possibilities of dealingwith a baby’s (or child’s) needs. As babies turn into toddlers who turn into pre-schoolers whoturn into kids (and so on), their needs naturally get moresophisticated. In order to keep up with their kids, parents needto increase their checklist. Not only that, but to change thechecklist as the kids grow, as some needs get taken off the listand others get put on. So it helps to start off with this ideaof a checklist for each of your children. It can be simply amental checklist. For those who are more organized, they canwrite it down. An example of a checklist for a 6 year old can be: 1)Parents2)Food 3)Friends 4)Clothes 5)Sleep/Fatigue 6)Homework7)Entertainment 8)Siblings & Family (relationships) For each of these items you can ask yourself- is my child happyand fulfilled
in these areas? What areas does the child needhelp in? It would be difficult for them to be having fun playingif they have problems elsewhere. In dealing with each of these items, here’s an example ofdealing with a checklist item: Energy Levels/Fatigue: Let’s takea closer look at this. Children naturally have routines duringthe day. Wake-up, get dressed, breakfast, school, after-schoolactivities, suppertime, homework, evening snack, bedtime. Yetyou cannot expect children to have the same energy level in theafternoon after a long day of school/play as they would have inthe morning when they are fresh from a full night of sleep. Manyexperienced parents know that when children are tired,especially little children, they just do not function as well inbeing able to do activities, in listening to their parents, oreven at times to behave normally (!!). So this is a good itemfor the checklist: How tired is your child? “I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want tothink, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want toread, and all the friends I want to see.” John Burroughs For parents, the same can apply for the time spent with theirchildren! Parents who want to get the most out of being able tobuild relationships with their children should consider (asdifficult as it is) to schedule their day around the times thatchildren have high energy levels. An example of a good time to be with the children is aftersupper. Often children are well-fed, and the time spent sittingat the dinner table allows them to recharge their batteries.They are refreshed and well-fed and ready for some eveningactivity. The time that is well-spent with children is like depositing alot of value into a bank account of love and trust with yourchild. And what could be more valuable than that? “Life is half spent before we know what it is.” George Herbert About the author:Joseph Browns (http://www.home-educational-toys.com) wants toshare his experiences and expertise in how parents can findvaluable opportunities for quality time with children to acquirepriceless family memories. A total environment approach istaken, dealing with issues like educational toys, parent-childrelationships, environmental + interior design, health,communication skills, and child education.
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