Yoga is “preventative medicine” for children and adults. Yet the world does not embrace preventative action. Just look at hunger, global warming, health care, and poverty. Now you see that some people do take action, but many do not.

Educating the public about the many benefits, which children experience from Yoga practice, is a full-time job for some Yoga teachers. Although most of the public thinks of Yoga postures as a “mild” form of exercise; there are many more different aspects to Yoga practice.

Yoga is a complete holistic approach to health. Yoga teaches proper breathing, dieting, exercise, meditation, relaxation techniques, and many more natural solutions to health problems.

Yoga and Ayurvedic medicine have dieting practices based upon a person’s constitution or dosha. This same classification can be made for exercise routines. An Ayurvedic doctor will, most likely, recommend specific exercises based upon a patient’s dosha.

The entire approach of Yoga and Ayurveda is based upon preventative measures. There are also solutions for “damage control,” when a person has an existing ailment, but any doctor can agree that many of today’s health problems are preventable.

Let’s look at global obesity. The public is very tired of hearing about obesity. Your spam filters are working overtime to pull all of the “Instant weight loss” methods out of your Email box. If you read through the spam, you will notice that spammers want to sell you pills, not permanent solutions to obesity. The spammer’s approach is to make quick money off the public.

When the majority of our population refuses to exercise, the easy money is in selling pills, instant weight loss, and “snake oil.” There is a solution, but most of us will not like it. Yogic diets are full of fruit, vegetables, and natural food. Even in India, it can be observed that diabetes is on the rise, when people eat “junk food.”

As the Indian economy has improved, so has the “middle class appetite” for processed food. This runs parallel to western social and economic patterns.

What does this have to do with Yoga for kids? Yoga is a lifestyle and the earlier you expose children to good health habits, the better your child’s health will be.

As parents, we have many choices, but establishing good health habits, within our children, is an obligation. We also have to eat properly, and exercise, with our children. If you cannot go to a Yoga class, you can always take your child out for a walk. Parents are role models, and any child will copy the image, which you create for him or her.

Yoga classes for children are a parent’s gift of good health. Yoga gives kids a better chance to develop good habits, handle stress, find natural solutions to good health, and live a quality life.

© Copyright 2006 – Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

About the Author

Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, is a co-owner and the director of Yoga teacher training at: Aura Wellness Center, in Attleboro, MA. http://www.riyoga.com He has been a certified Master Yoga teacher since 1995. To receive a Free e-Book: “Yoga in Practice,” and a Free Yoga Newsletter, please visit: http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html

NOTE FROM ‘RAISEYOURCHILD.ORG’: check with your physician if Yoga is appropriate for your child.

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1. Build on Success: If you see that certain methods of work are successful for you, then use these and build on them.
2. If you do poorly or fail a test, find out from your teacher/professor what you did wrong and how you can improve. Don’t dwell on your failure but go forward using your new information to change what you did wrong.
3. Look at each day first thing in the morning: set your priorities, make a separate list of what you want to accomplish. Keep your daily goals in mind.
4. Once you have set your priorities for the day, do one thing at a time. Don’t get involved in trying to accomplish all your goals at once.
5. There is always time to do the important things. If you find yourself short of time, skip what you can do another day. (Don’t forget: recreation is important).
6. Don’t feel guilty or upset about what you didn’t get done at the end of t a particular day. This is counter productive.
7. Use good study techniques: divide up study periods with short breaks; outline books and notes; read for content and ideas; set the proper study-atmosphere.
8. Before a counseling appointment, plan your questions.
9. If you are waiting for an appointment, use that time to plan, read, write a letter home or just relax. This waiting time may be a gift.
10. When you find yourself procrastinating, ask yourself: ‘what is in this for me?’ and ‘what am I avoiding?’
11. Set time deadlines for each goal.

    

12. Make use of tutors if you are having problems with a certain subject.
13. Trust your own priorities. Don’t let someone else’s ideas change what you want to accomplish that day.
14. When you find yourself spending time on an unplanned event, don’t get upset and feel guilty. Just use this time as an enriching experience.
15. Learn to distinguish someone’s need fro help from their trying to avoid doing their own work.
16. ALWAYS ASK YOURSELF: ‘WHAT IS THE BEST USE OF MY TIME RIGHT NOW?’

Based on Alan Lakein.

I found this overview in the bottom of a drawer I was cleaning out. Realizing how helpful these pointers are, I thought I’d share it with all students everywhere.

Good luck studying!

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The schools have the responsibility of teaching us specific subjects like language, math, science, etc. In addition, though, our schools teach us social skills and the other life skills we need. In school, we learn how to schedule our time and how to make decisions.

After high school, some children go on to university, college, community college, or a technical school. Oftentimes, that’s our children’s first experience with true independence, which is a completely different kind of education. And, in addition to the formal subjects, schools of higher education also offer learning in social skills and other life skills.

The freshman year offers the potential for pitfalls, and students show their ability or lack of ability to handle independence quickly.

Food, money, recreation and study habits are the four most common problem areas in the freshman year. You can help your child succeed by talking with them about this ahead of time and helping them set specific goals in each of these areas.

Food: With the multiple choices in the school cafeteria, and no one monitoring their intake, children may choose based on taste rather than nutrition. The infamous ‘freshman fifteen’ weight gain comes from this.

Money: Unprepared students are likely to run into disastrous problems when they are suddenly expected to make payments for books, housing and tuition.

Recreation: Without supervision and a curfew, freshmen can get caught up in the excitement of seemingly unlimited time to play. Sometimes their dorm mates are of legal drinking age, leading to the temptation to party all the time when that seems to be the only opportunity for fun and socializing.

Study habits: Regular studying rather than last minute cramming is essential. Being a full time student is equivalent to having a full time job, and freshmen are often surprised by how much time they need to study in addition to the time spent in class.

You can help your college-bound child prepare for school by talking with her about these potential problem areas, and helping her set realistic goals. During the senior year in high school, you can help your teenager prepare for college by giving her the chance to practice more independence while still living at home.

You can give your teenager the opportunity to schedule his own time, to choose his own food, to budget his money and time, within some limits. It’s important to be balanced, giving him some freedom yet not too much.

The danger for teenagers who have had no choices at home is that they tend to go out of control when they first get to college and have complete freedom. Setting goals and achieving them, making wise decisions, and learning self- discipline are all habits that are learned over time, not overnight.

Of course, some students are better off taking some time between high school and college, or attending a community college and continuing to live at home. This gives your teenager the opportunity to learn important life skills before going on to formal education. As a parent, you can help your child to evaluate and decide the best route. If your student needs more time to develop maturity and life skills, you are wise to give them the time rather than pushing them before they are ready.

Whether your teenager goes directly from high school to college or takes a break, you can help them make choices and develop skills that will serve them well throughout their lives.”

Author Description

Lila Norden combines 14 years experience in education and consulting to offer valuable information, helping you make decisions about your education and career. Visit the web site FP Employment for additional articles and resources.

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The Internet is an amazing tool, available for use by millions upon millions of people every day. Unfortunately, just as many people abuse the resources provided by the Internet. Sexual predators abuse the Internet by using it to stalk vulnerable people, collect personal information, and plan their attacks.

Before giving your child Internet access, have a conversation about both the benefits and dangers of the Internet. Lay down a set of rules to govern your child’s use of the Internet and be sure to include the following:

• Explain the importance of keeping personal information private. Explain what personal information is. Younger children may not understand that addresses, phone numbers, school names, and parent names should be kept private.
• Keep the computer in a public place. Children should not need privacy while using the Internet to network with friends or while they are doing homework. You should be able to monitor your child’s Internet use at all times.
• Make sure your child knows that he can, and should, let you know if anyone he meets on the Internet makes him feel uncomfortable. The same applies to information or websites that your child may accidentally access; knowing how your child gained access to dangerous information will help you to prevent a similar occurrence in the future.
• Prohibit the exchange of personal photographs, especially with strangers. A picture, combined with any other personal information that may have been obtained, will increase a sexual predator’s chances of locating and harming your child.
• Make sure you have access to your child’s user ID’s and passwords, not only for e-mail accounts but also for any website that requires the input of personal information for private access.
• Prohibit your child from meeting online friends in person. If there is a reason for you to allow a personal meeting, it should be in a public place and in your presence. Your child should not gain the impression that it is ok to meet other people without your permission.

While teaching your child about the dangers of others on the Internet, be sure to explain that your child should not abuse the system or hurt others. Incidents of children bullying classmates on the Internet have increased as well, and your child should contribute to keeping the Internet a safe place for his friends as well as himself.

Once the rules are set, make sure they are strictly enforced. Not backing down will let your child know you are serious about his safety. It may not seem like it at the time, but your child will thank you later in life.

Ambrose Duperon
http://www.onlinepredators.info

If your children use the Internet you must read our free report – “Online Predators“

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You should consider a child savings account or buying bonds when planning for your child’s financial future. From the time we first become parents, of course we want the best for our children. We do everything we can take care of them responsibly. We feed, clothe and love them, and hope that they’ll grow up to be everything they can be, with full and active lives. However, if something should happen to us as parents, what would happen to our children? Life insurance is one way to help our children make sure they have what they need if the guardians we choose for them do not have the financial means to provide the life we want for them. Savings accounts and bonds offer a viable strategy regardless of your financial status.

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When you start to invest in your childs future this way, you do a number of beneficial things. First of all, you can begin to save money in your children’s names when they’re young by making regular deposits. They can also contribute funds to their own accounts, in the process learning how important and rewarding saving can be. This can help offset the cost of tuition for college as educational costs in the country skyrocket or for any other educational programs they might need in the future. However, unlike many college savings programs, funds in a child savings account do not have to be spent solely for education in the event, god forbid, they choose not to go to college. Money is available should there be an emergency, or for any other situation, without penalty for withdrawal. The money deposited in a child savings account is available to the child immediately.

Several financial institutions offer special accounts just for children, so finding one should not be a problem. But, finding the best child savings account that has a comparatively high interest rate will probably require a little homework. Not much though, you can easily compare financial institutions online with a click of the mouse. However, these accounts may include a requirement that an adult will be in charge of the money until the child reaches a certain age.

Another way to save money for your children’s future is to purchase bonds for them. Bonds hold the money you have initially invested for a set amount of time before they mature, so the interest rate on these is usually higher than a more flexible savings account. However, you shouldn’t put too much money away into these types of bonds unless you are prepared to have money in them for a long time. Usually, bonds must sit for about three years before they mature, and in many cases, much longer, before you can actually cash them in to receive full value.

Regardless of whether you decide on savings, purchasing bonds or both, you’ll create a financial cushion for your children’s future when they may need it most. This also gives you the peace of mind to know that your children will be taken care of long past your initial investments in them financially. With a little research for choosing the best one and regular deposits into a child savings account your kids financial foundation will be laid.

About the Author

Get More information on savings accounts click here College Savings Accounts Also go to http://SavingsAccount.Totalinfoguide.com where you can get more info on your savings account options including high interest savings accounts. Internet savings accounts, child savings accounts and more…

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A frequent topic of discussion among baby boomers is whether to save for retirement or pay for their kids’ college education.

You worked hard to raise your kids. You made sure that they had the right clothes, the cool shoes, and all the other “chachkas” they needed to fit in. You hope you did all the right things. Now, as your kids prepare to head off to college, you find yourself looking at anywhere from $20,000 to $45,000 a year (per kid) for tuition, room and board. Do you cash out your 401K to pay for their college? Or do you ask them to take out a loan?

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Part of the problem has to do with the fact that many Americans have negative savings. Not only did they fail to plan for their retirement, they also didn’t put away money for their children’s college, and they have no little or no personal savings. Another part has to do with the escalating cost of higher education.

It used to be that only those who went on to years of graduate school ended up with hefty student loans to pay off. However, it is not uncommon for today’s kids to graduate from college with a bachelor’s degree and a hundred thousand dollars of debt. This debt sits like a huge anchor on our children as they struggle to make the transition to fully independent adults.

For example, young adults in a serious relationship or engaged to be married must now consider how they will pay for their combined astronomical debt. And couples that have already married face a similar dilemma — if only one partner has a loan, should they be paying off that bill together?

There are no right or wrong answers for these issues, and every family has a different set of circumstances. However, the decisions you make will have far-reaching consequences for your lives and the lives of your children.

Think “In-State”

By no means do I claim to be an expert in this area, but my husband and I have embarked on a strategy that seems to be working well for our children and us.

Having four kids puts a real burden on any family’s finances. Having those kids very close in age is a recipe for financial disaster. As young parents, we couldn’t afford to save money for our kids’ college education, so we gambled on the idea that maybe two out of them would earn a scholarship of some sort.

By 8th grade, however, it became painfully evident that the scholarship strategy was not likely to pan out. Our kids were all loveable and smart, yet none had the innate drive, determination or IQ to attend Harvard or even a state college on a scholarship. As a result, we had to make some tough choices, and make them relatively quickly.

After studying our lifestyle and finances, we determined that with some sacrifices on our part and some help from our kids, we could put them through college without them having to obtain huge loans and mortgage their future. However, this required adopting some fairly stringent rules in regards to where they could attend college.

We started by explaining to our children that who they wanted to be and what they wanted to study was their choice. However, since mom and dad would be paying for the college education, the choice of school was ours.

Based on this rule, out-of-state schools were out of the question. We saw no reason to pay $30K a year more so our children could ski the Colorado Mountains. State schools in California were widely available and much more affordable.

Another option was to graduate high school at age 16 by taking a proficiency test and attend community college for two years. This would save at least $20K a year in tuition (even at a state school), and give them the ability to easily transfer to any state university of their choice. If they got accepted at a good university right after high school, we would have no problem paying the bill. Otherwise, it made more sense to attend community college for two years and then transfer rather than attend a mediocre college right out of high school.

Responsible Choices

The results are as follows.

Our oldest daughter applied and was accepted to UC Irvine right out of high school. She lived on campus for the first year and commuted the second year. For her third year, she transferred to UC San Diego, and will be a junior next year in her hometown. Our middle daughter, who recently turned 18, took the proficiency test at 16, completed her AA in a community college, and received an acceptance letter from all of the schools she applied to.

The fact is, in-state schools cost half as much as out-of-state. If you can’t afford the higher tuition and extra room, board and travel expenses, it is prudent to encourage your child to apply to a school nearby. Unless money isn’t an issue, it doesn’t make sense to send your kids out of state just because their friends are going along for the ride. Plus, the transition will be less stressful on their bodies and souls.

The moral of the story?

Our job is to raise responsible adults and show them how to live their lives to the fullest while being practical at the same time. While our children’s education is extremely important, attending their party school of choice is not. If your financial situation doesn’t allow you to put your kids through school, help them make the right choices by choosing affordable yet credible schools while borrowing as little money as possible. Help them make responsible choices so they don’t begin their journey into adulthood burdened with a mountain of debt.

And while we’re at it, let’s all do a better job of planning for our retirement. After all, we want to be an asset and not a liability to our kids.

For my husband and I, it’s two down and two to go. Good luck with your own children!

About The Author

Yana Berlin is the founder and CEO of www.fabulously40.com, devoted to the celebration of all things, primarily women and the challenges and joys they face juggling their careers, children, relationships, and life’s other issues. Fabulously 40.com is a social network for women that catalyzes its members to celebrate and embrace their life. Since launching www.fabulously40.com. Join us as we embark on our journey to the best times of our lives at www.fabulously40.com.

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As most people say, time is money. It is also very important that people learn how to budget time so that they can be more productive and efficient.

The skill of knowing how to budget one’s time should be learned early on, especially before one joins the workforce. This is because having discipline with budgeting time is a skill that young people will find very important in the workplace. Young people can learn to budget time by focusing on their priorities.

Planning a study system

Planning a study system while you are in college can become an effective tool in making your college life more bearable. A study system can help you avoid the stress of cramming and all-nighters. Before you create your study system, you should first assess the subjects that you are taking and allot the appropriate amount of time that you think you need for each subject, depending on the difficulty of the subject. Your study system should also be flexible enough to allow changes, depending on how you do in the subjects.

Preparing and reviewing

In college, studying means that you need to prepare and review for subjects. Preparing involves reading assignments, doing library work, writing papers, memorizing vocabulary and solving practice problems. On the other hand, reviewing involves going through your notes, going over reading materials and clarifying new principles and ideas introduced in the class. To help you review, you should set aside a regular review period, which can help preparing and reviewing for exams much easier.

Finding time to rest

Apart from allotting specific times for studying, it is also important that you allot time for sleep and other activities that can relax you. You cannot spend all your time studying since doing so will only cause you to burn out, and you will not do well on your exams if you are always tired.

Starting early in learning the value of budgeting time can become a powerful tool for people who wish to live productive lives. Knowing how to budget your time does not only ensure higher productivity; it also means that you have enough time to enjoy the good things in life.

Budgeting provides detailed information on Budgeting, Budgeting Software, Capital Budgeting, Personal Budgeting and more. Budgeting is affiliated with Home Grants.

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Where did the Fall Term go? You just dropped off your son or daughter in August and now you are making plans with them to come home for Thanksgiving/winter break. Transportation arrangements are set. Dates and times figured out. Bring home some items for storage. Make a list of what they need to take back. But one forgotten item: How will you handle them being home again?

What guidelines if any should exist? It is not an easy time. Yes it is wonderful that they will be home, however things are not the same. For the past few months, they have been on their own setting their own bedtimes, having their own “rules”.

Granted, some visits require very little conversation and others a great deal. In either case, it is still an adjustment. One item to remember: they have been on their own for a few months now. They will just try to be the independent individuals you want them to be.

Over a 4-day break it is not such a big deal. By the time your son or daughter comes home, they will be heading back to college but what about winter break when they are home for at least a few weeks? You want it to be a happy time, an enjoyable time – not a time when you cannot wait for them to go back.

General Guidelines
1. General guidelines are needed.
2. Acknowledge that things have changed.
3. Understand there needs to be give and take.
4. Realize you are still the parent.
5. Realize your student is accustomed to being on his or her own.

Expectations:

Spending lots of time with your son or daughter.

Having the same “rules” as before.

Spending some quality time together.

Going out to dinner.

Realize:

Your students have been “in charge” of their lives for the past few months and are accustomed to this.

Your students will expect to spend a lot of time with the friends they have not seen in a while.

Your students now live on a “college” schedule: going out late at night, going to sleep in the middle of the night and sleeping till noon.

A good balance can certainly be set up between what they want and what you want.

This is an adjustment period for them as well. Give them a break.

You may need to acknowledge their independence, give them more leeway than when they were home before, but always keep in mind: it is still your house, not a dorm. You are the parent.

What if it doesn’t work out too well?

Don’t feel too bad. This happens all of the time. It will probably be better the next time they visit.

Always keep in mind:

There has been a great deal of change for both of you. They are growing up and you are learning to let go.

Whatever you do, respect each other’s feelings, rules.

It is really great for them to be home! “There’s no place like home”.

About the Author

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