: North Texas Kids : Your family guide to raising happy, healthy kids

5 Reasons Volunteering Benefits Your Family

How Volunteering Can Help You Spend More Time With Your Kids

by Nick Carroccio

Our daily lives are filled to the breaking point with work, chores, and school. All these activities sometimes fall short of the fulfillment we crave. May I suggest you can find that complete satisfaction by volunteering for our children? There are few things in this world as fulfilling as seeing the excitement, pride, and a great big ear to ear smile on a child’s face.

As a young boy, I was blessed with very involved parents. They made time in their schedule for things we could do together. There is no doubt in my mind that my dad had as much fun in Boy Scouts as I did, and that the time together brought us closer. Thanks to my parents I derive that same joy with my children and with being a volunteer.

Today as a parent I get to pay it forward with my daughters. My oldest took an interest in my tournament Bass fishing. When she asked to go fun fishing with me the first time at the age of 3, of course I was happy but thought it would be one time and out. I was happily surprised when she not only had fun but asked to go again. Just when I didn’t think it could get any better, my 4 year old has started fishing as well. Of course “catching” is more fun than fishing but the time we spend together is priceless.

A natural extension of spending time with our own children is volunteering for the benefit of children in our community. In case you need some, here are 5 great reasons to volunteer:

Do You Know What Your Kids Are Doing Online?

What Your Kids Are Really Doing Online

Guest post by Michael Levin

The Internet affords children endless opportunities to get into serious trouble, downloading what they shouldn’t download, looking at what they shouldn’t be looking at, and getting ideas about what they shouldn’t be getting ideas about.

But the good news is that if your kids are like mine, they may be doing some or all of those things…but there’s another use for the Internet that’s attracting their time and attention.

It’s called teaching.

It’s Tough to Stand Firm!

Standing Firm with Your Kids is Hard, but Better for the Long Run

When our children are young, we get many opportunities to stand firm over things like candy before dinner, screen time limits and their begging for stuff. Even though these are simple things, it can be rough on us to remain firm. After all, it’s painful to endure the ensuing responses whether they be disappointed looks or all out melt-downs. But deep within our souls we realize we must remain strong. We may not always act on that knowledge, but there is long term payoff each time we do stand firm.

When my children were young, I had shortsighted vision about standing firm. I guess when I stayed strong it was because I felt it was best for my child not to have whatever it was they were begging for at the time. I don’t think I was giving lots of thought to the practice I was getting for when they were older. I now have the hind sight to share with others what holding firm is really all about, long-term.

Saying ‘no’ when you know you should tells your child that she has a strong parent, you love her enough to set and enforce limits and helps her to learn delayed gratification as well as resilience. Another great thing about standing firm is that you are modeling inner strength for your child. When you do not cave to her pressure, she is less likely to cave to peer pressure later on.

Is Your Family Overscheduled?

Seek Balance with Kids Activities

by Kerrie McLoughlin

It makes my head spin to think about how overscheduled some families are these days: school, afterschool care, homework, dinner, sports or dance once a week, swim lessons or another activity twice a week, games, birthday parties and campouts on weekends. The range of extracurricular activities available to children today is mind-blowing, but of course we want our kids to have everything. But Jill Connors, mom of five, says, “I know friends whose kids are in school that are so scheduled that anytime they are home they are ‘bored.’”

So where’s the time for fort building, skateboarding, cops-and-robbers and other free activities that let a kid’s imagination run wild? Dad Jeff Pearlman is outraged by this overscheduling dilemma and wrote in a piece on CNN.com, “Kids are gifted with 18 years of childhood. … Yes, I want mine to do well in school, and learn the virtues of compassion and empathy and hard work. But I also aspire for them to jump on our trampoline until their legs sag from exhaustion, and ride their bikes up and down the street, … and chase down the ice cream man and watch in amazement as the pink petals fall from our cherry blossom tree.”

Teaching Our Son to Go the Distance

Showing Our Kids the Value of Hard Work and Saving Money

by Lorraine Brock

Over the course of the last two years our middle son Caleb has been saving money for a car. It’s sort of a requirement in our home that our boys invest some of their own blood, sweat, and tears into such an important purchase.

All of our boys have had active schedules through their teen years including a choice to play competitive football. Our oldest son decided to stop playing his junior year, so he was able to secure a part-time job that allowed him to earn and save money for the past four years.

Advice for Working Moms Juggling Career and Kids

Book Review of Mastering the Mommy Track: Juggling Career and Kids in Uncertain Times

If you are looking for advice for working moms who are struggling to juggle kids and their career, then this book was written for you and for me. I recently had the chance to review Erin Flynn Jay’s new book, Mastering the Mommy Track: Juggling Career and Kids in Uncertain Times. Jay addresses four areas of life that concern each of us as women and mothers: home, health, parenting and work-life issues. Self-care is the underlying theme throughout the book and Jay reminds us how important it is to keep ourselves healthy! This book is full of tips, advice and reminders on everything from triggers that cause communications problems with your spouse to how to select the right type of childcare for your family. I found the book to be an easy read, full of stories of real women who have experienced struggles similar to mine and my friends. Plus Jay offers effective, simple solutions for finding the balance we crave.

Know When to Have Your Child Tested for Learning Differences

School more of a challenge than expected?

Signs point to when to have your child tested for learning differences

by Sarah Jayroe

The first day of a new school year should be an exciting time in every child’s life. There are exciting books to read, science experiments to perform and art projects to create. There are clubs to join and sports teams to cheer on. Don’t forget, of course, all of the new friends to make. The lifelong love of learning is beginning to blossom. Unfortunately, this is not the sentiment for all students.

For some students, going back to school can be a time of dread. Anxiety, uneasiness and feelings of low self worth can set in and, unfortunately, can have lasting repercussions. These are the students that have a feeling that something is “off” or that they are “different.” These students may not grasp academic concepts like their peers. How do you know if this is simply a phase or possibly something more? Could this uneasiness in your child be caused by an undiagnosed learning problem?