Why family time is important?

Family is everything in an individual’s life, and one realizes it very well, some sooner and some later in life. As elders of a family, it is crucial that you make it a point to give your children the proper essence of family time as frequently as possible.

source: churchleaders

Life’s getting super busy for everyone, be it for kids or adults. But in such tight schedules, it is also quintessential to get ample time with your loved ones around you. We can quickly break the need for it into three points—

1.       Your children gain a lot of self worth and self esteem

Accept it or not, but it’s a fact that children always feel left out when it comes to getting the audacity or say in stuff related to the house, fundamentally and legitimately, because they are too young to be a part of important decision making. This can also contribute in making them feel insecure. But when you as an elder make sure to spend quality time with your children, as a complete close knit family, they start believing in the importance and value you give them, and this makes them have a morale boost, both in terms of their importance as well as self esteem.

2.       It strengthens bonds and understandings

Family time is always a satiating feeling for the family members. Be it going for a movie or excursion together, or just having meal together—it strengthens your bonds and helps you understand each other better. You also tend to rely on each other more and you know that the others will always be there to support you. For children, indulging in fun stuff with parents embed a positive thought in their minds, wherein they know that good or bad, come what may, they can always count on their parents.

3.       Children get the chance to open up

This is especially for many of those parents who have a complaint of their children always keeping to themselves and not opening up about their lives and experiences. Family time helps in breaking those communication barriers and since, your children start to eventually rely on you with their stuff; they tend to open up more about their day to day activities.

Why do you think family time is important?

If you too think that spending time with family is a must for everyone, then do leave your comments below stating your own set of reasons for the same. You can also follow us on Facebook.

Interesting ways to motivate your kids to do household chores—

Parents carry a plethora of responsibilities on their head—from expenses to familial commitments, to kids’ educations, planning for the future, etc. The least their kids can do to make everyday lives a bit easier for them is helping them in household chores. All over the world, it is one of the prime concerns of every parent to get their kids to do some chores. Well, here are some interesting ways you can motivate your kid to help you with chores—

1.       The WiFi password is your trump card

With technology ruling every heart these days, your kids are quite digitally enhanced and are always on their laptops, mobiles and tablets. One way to motivate them to do chores is by telling them that they will be rewarded with the WiFi password only after they are finished with their chores.

2.       Give and take business always works

If your kids scatter their toys or gadgets on the floor, the best thing to do is pick them up and confiscate them. Tell your kids that they won’t get their stuff back till they finish a chore properly. This way next time, they won’t leave anything scattered fearing their stuff getting confiscated by you.

source: sheknows

3.       Rewards for finishing the chore line

Create a chore pin for your kids’ bulletin board, which will be a kind of “to do list.” As soon as the finish each of the chores, they have to strike it off and paste it back on the bulletin board chore line. Reward them with a prize to boost their enthusiasm on completing chores.

4.       Use technology to your advantage

Kids love games and computers; use the “chore wars” website, which is primary focused on a competition to earn more XP and points for every chore one finishes. Give your kids a boost by playing a “kids vs. adults” concept on this website, and customize it according to your choice.

Tips to write a good essay in exams

Essay writing can be tedious for many, especially for those who repel the thought of long form writing. But if you want to earn marks and score well in the subject, then you cannot run away from essay writing.

source: myeconoair

Here are five quick tips to help you write a good essay in your exams—

1.       Write what has been asked

Don’t divert from the topic and make sure that in the flow of writing, you don’t lose the focus from the topic. You can of course draw references and examples from other elements, but ensure that your prime focus throughout remains on what has been asked to you, especially in case of argumentative essays.

2.       Frame a good intro

You won’t really go and watch a movie if you don’t like its trailer. A trailer is somewhat an intro of a movie that captivates the audience and convinces them to watch the movie in the theatre. Similarly, the intro of an essay that is the first two paragraphs is crucial as they determine whether you have intrigued your reader enough to make him read further.

3.       Break the essay into parts

This doesn’t mean that you have to use bullet points, but break it into three parts, wherein the first part talks about the topic in general, the second talks about your views on it with logic and reasoning and the third gives a conclusion in not more than a paragraph about what is your final call on the agenda. This makes it easier for the reader to understand and even for you to analyse and pen down the information accordingly.

4.       Follow an essay plan

Before starting to draft the essay, process a plan in your mind about how you would go with the topic, what all you know about the topic and what all needs to be there on the paper. Not everything you know about the topic is going to be useful and hence, you need a plan to demarcate the necessary and the unnecessary in your mind before you start to write.

5.       Don’t exaggerate and write as much is needed

Don’t go on writing just to make it look like a real long form writing. Your examiner will get disappointed if you repeat points and don’t give something new to keep the flow of the write up. So unless you have something new to offer, don’t stretch and exaggerate the essay. Overdoing it will only hamper your grades.

Why is it so important to maintain a good sleeping pattern during exams?

Examinations are an evaluation of what you have learnt, understood and how well you can put it into words by manifesting your ideas properly. Though it is quite true that stress, restlessness, confusion become a part of your exam phase, with worries about marks, time management as well as peer pressure.

Eight hours of sleep are crucial and mandatory for a human body, in order to ensure that it functions well and operates on day to day tasks efficiently. During exams, when your mind is already stressed out, your sleeping pattern for every day becomes all the more crucial and needs to be well maintained.

source: cbc

Unhealthy sleep patterns mean weaker brain

Panic during exam time is pretty obvious, but many students mistake it grossly and think it is all right to spend nights before and during exams studying, learning those chunks of texts and reading more than what their brains can take. However, they need to understand that this act is more of a bad step, which does more harm than good.

With such rigorous study sessions and staying awake at night, your brain loses the tenacity to concentrate and focus on topics properly. You also in a way force your brain to indulge into activities, when all it needs is adequate rest to keep it functions smooth. This in return affects your mood, your learning and hence, your academic performance as well.

Higher stress levels

Inadequate sleep, unhealthy and light sleeping patterns can cause a number of health issues in your body. For the starters, sleep deprivation increases the secretion of cortisol—which is the stress hormone in our body, and as you know stress is the root cause of a number of health hiccups, be it headache, nausea, or something as chronic as diabetes.

Therefore, it is wise as well as healthy to take proper breaks between study hours and give your body and mind the right amount of rest they deserve. Only then can you concentrate well on your subjects and your brain will be rejuvenated after a long sound sleep, to focus on topics better.

Childhood stress can trigger skin cancer

Childhood is that base on which the entire building called “life” stands. It is flexible. Whatever you inculcate in the mind of a child is there to stay for a long, long time, unless of course the child changes things for himself as he grows old through sense experience.

Every little thing in one’s childhood has a role to play in the future; interests, hobbies, dreams, fears, beliefs and health issues.  Recent studies have suggested that stress in childhood, be it in the form of a tragic event or neglect by parents can make a severe damage on the child’s future, by harnessing his immune system, making him more prone to skin cancer.

Source: naturallyhealthyskin

This study was conducted by the scientists of Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, and involved the study of Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC), which is a type of skin cancer tumor. It is generally considered to be nothing severe and is not malignant as scientists suggest that one’s immune system is capable enough to fight against such cancer types. However, things are way too different if your body’s immune system is weakened due to early exposure to stress and mental turbulences.

The studies also suggested that early life stress can not only trigger skin cancer in an individual’s later life, but also cause ovarian cancer—as it too is a result of immunogenic tumors.

It is thus very crucial for parents to prevent their children from being exposed to any form of stress and give them a happy and healthy childhood that they will fondly recall as they grow old. Spend as much time with your children as possible and always make them talk to you. Your child might be an introvert, but it is your responsibility to convince him that he can open up to you without any hesitation.

As it is rightly said, happiness is the key to solve every problem. 

English grammar—5 ways you can improve your grammar

If anything works the best when it comes to language, it’s a good accent and impeccable grammar. Quite often we end up making some petty mistakes with our grammar even though our fluency in the language maybe excellent.

source: timelydigest

Here are five quick tips on how you can improve your grammar and make your grip on English language more strong—

1.      Agree with the subject-verb agreement

The most common mistake one makes when it comes to grammar is not following the subject-verb agreement. It is crucial for making a meaningful sentence. If your subject is in singular form, ensure that your verb is in singular form as well. If subject is plural, then so will be the verb.

For example,

The girl sings well.

The girls sing well.

2.      Be aware of how to use homophones

There are many words in English that sound the same, and often, in hurry we end up using the wrong word in place of the right one. We must pay close attention to the meaning the word is making in a sentence, rather than jotting it down in a flow of hurry.

Examples of the common mistakes we make when it comes to homophones are with the use of “there” and “their” and also “its” and “it’s”

Some other examples include misuse of “weather” and “whether,” “then” and “than,” “you’re” and “your,” etc.

3.      Know the difference between adverbs and adjectives

For attaining the right grammar, one needs to understand the difference between an adjective and adverb. While an adjective defines a noun or a pronoun, adverbs are used to define a verb.

For example:

4.      Read as much as possible

The benefits of reading are multidimensional. You get to learn a list of new words and increase your vocabulary, improve your writing skills and also your grammar as regular reading lets you understand about proper sentence structures more and more and helps you polish your grammar.

5.       Try making proper use of technology

There is a list of mobile phone apps that help you correct your grammar and also learn new words. Additionally, you should always take help of MS word grammar checker to ensure whatever you write is grammatically correct.

Growing up with imaginary friends—Should you be concerned?

“Astronaut!”

“Doctor!”

“Singer!”

“Actress!”

“Wrestler!”

Phew! The list of aspirations for a kid is always a never ending one. With ambitions, dream jobs and hobbies changing every day, every minute, there are a plethora of things that kids do. Some of which amuse us, some surprise us, while some worry us.

While it is only common for kids to have their own perceptions about things, which of course, change as they watch and learn, and grow up, some things, however, remain somewhat stagnant. One such thing is having imaginary friends.

source: millennialinflux

It differs from kid to kid how the imaginary character created by them or to an extent by the society blends in their lives.

How by the society, you may ask? Well, characters like Santa Claus and Tooth Fairy, which are definitely not real, but we raise our kids making them believe in these characters. No, it is not wrong to introduce them to these characters since they are an integral part of childhood, but we must know that children need to be aware about the difference between fictional characters and real ones.

It is beyond doubt that kids these days are more aware than kids of prior generations, thanks to rapid developments in technology and communications, but despite such progresses, there are many children who become prone to psychological identity disorders, as they grow up believing something and someone to be real, when they are not.

Sometimes, getting neglected by parents, avoided by peers, and harshly treated by people can have a grave impact on their minds, and they may end up finding solace in a friend, whose existence isn’t even real. What can be worse is its intensity may get magnified and as they grow older, they may end up getting diagnosed with identity disorders, jeopardizing their mental states.

While psychologists say that it is normal for kids to confide in their imaginary buddies or pets, as a part of growing up, they also suggest that parents need to step in when it gets too serious and continues after their kids have attained a certain age of maturity.

It is very important for parents to look out for such elements from their kids’ early childhood days. Share stories with them, introduce them to fictional characters, but make sure that they treat them as fiction and not reality.

Spend as much time with them as possible, and make sure they don’t feel neglected.

Keeping these simple points in mind can actually help them understand and appreciate life better, and remain as close to reality as possible, rather than finding solace in something that is only an illusion.