Middle Childhood: Your Best Effort by Angela Johnson

All children need encouragement.  In middle childhood, kids are learning many skills and they need to be praised when they try hard to achieve a task.  When they are doing their homework, be intuitive to their frustrations and adjust accordingly.  If they vacuum the floor, tell them thanks for helping instead of telling the child that they missed a spot.  If they are folding towels and they are not exactly the way you fold towels, applaud their efforts.  Children being made aware of their importance and competency in life and life tasks will likely grow up to be adults who know they can get a job done and know they are important.  Children need to be valued.

  Some chores have limited room for error, which would include feeding and watering pets or livestock, watering the garden and any chore that would cause damage or injury by doing an inadequate job.  Be sure the child is ready for the responsibility.  There is not a good reason to normally settle for less than their best, but we need to seek out and praise effort and hard work and be creative when addressing the need for improvement.  A child who believes he or she is capable will be more motivated to move on to more complex tasks.

Parents and caregivers have a hard time finding the right balance.  Life gets busy and chaotic at times and we need to be sure that our children are given our full attention in a positive manner as much as possible.  The few minutes before and after school and work can be great times to give your children your full attention.  You may feel like you have too much going on, but the best thing a parent or caregiver can do is give the children all of you, whenever it is possible.  If you have a half an hour with your kids in the morning, do your best to make your time together special and get the day off to a good start.  Caregivers and children may have limited time together but if you can put away your own “stuff” and have some special time together every day, the children will be more confident and secure in their daily living, having been reassured that they are important.  Give the time, energy, effort, patience and love it takes for your children to grow up to be considerate, competent, confident and resilient adults.    Angela Johnson

Middle Childhood and Divorce

Middle Childhood is generally described as the period of life between the ages of 6-12 years of age.  This is the age where children are attending school, and making new friends outside of their family.  This can be very scary for children as they are learning how to adapt.  As children are becoming more of an individual during this stage what happens to their development when parents decide to divorce?  Divorce at any age for a child is a very confusing thing, but I feel especially at this age where they know enough to know something is wrong, but not enough to know that its not their fault and may place blame on themselves.  Children of divorce have more social, academic, and behavioral problems.  This may result from children being afraid of the unknown such as their future.  Where am I going to live?  Am I still going to see my other parent? Some may think that the divorce maybe there fault.  What parents need to do is  provide a stable, structured, nurturing environment and focus on the child’s needs.  Make sure there is cooperative parenting, and that the children see both parents as much as they can as this will help them transition better. 
Sam Martel

Middle Childhood: Colds, Pinkeye, Germs...OH MY! - Ashleigh Sayles

              For most scientists, middle childhood is children between 6 and 11.  During these years a lot of changes happen for children.  This is normally when children first begin school and start a social relationship with peers.  Middle childhood is when children although still extremely dependent on their parents began to branch out and become social individuals of their own.  Physically children at this age are going through changes; the still developing immune system is still pretty weak.  Immunizations become vital around this age, providing your children with protection from diseases like: chicken pox and measles.  Illnesses such as asthma and pneumonia are also environmental conditions that can be onset by cold weather and infections. The first few years of school for most children is the time when they are most likely to contract illnesses. During play and being around other children who may be sick, your children are exposed to various germs and viruses daily.  Illnesses like cold, stomach virus, pinkeye, ear infections, and flu are common among middle childhood aged children.  Most of which, are contagious and can be passed through sneezing, coughing, or any type of physical contact making it easy for children to contract and pass on these diseases.  To help with containing the spread of these illnesses there are a few things that parents can do and remind their children to do to keep them healthy. 

1      1.       Ensure that your child is up to date on immunizations.

2      2.       Reminder: wash your hands after using the bathroom.

3      3.       Reminder: cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze.

4      4.       Reminder: keep dirty hands away from your eyes and mouth.

5      5.       Reminder: don’t share foods and drinks with your friends.

Middle Childhood Obesity--Kreslee Ketcham

In the United States population 32% of the children are overweight with 11% who are considered obese.  Obesity has been shown to run in families however that is not always the reason, and no you cannot blame it entirely on technology.  Parental feeding practices plays a HUGE role in your child's weight, some parents overfeed their children thinking that food will make them happy or help them with their discomforts.  However these parents are really just setting their children up to lead unhealthy lives, causing maladaptive eating habits and to have serious health complications further down the road such as diabetes and chronic heart diseases.  One way to insure your child's future health is to make sure that their diet consist of all the necessary nutritional needs.  Yes, i know this sounds like a daunting task but if you really want what is best for your child a simple meal plan doesnt sound that bad does it.  Remember that awful food pyramid they made you learn about in health class in junior high, that is your ticket to planning out your meals.  The pyramid tells you how much of diary, breads/grains, fruits, vegetables, meat, and fats that you need throughout your day to make sure all your nutritional bases are covered.  With portion control, adequate nutrition and a little bit of physical activity a day, you will help your children have the best possible step in the right direction to leading a healthy life.  Also, if you think about it, you will also participate in this with your children so it will in turn help you in the long run. So picture this, don't your want to see your future grand-babies and be the cool hip grandparents that can still keep up with the young ones?  Take the right step for your families future and think about the foods you put in your bodies, treat your bodies right because thats the only body your going to get. 

Early childhood -- Pretend play

I love early childhood because of the pretend play. My younger grandkids love to pretend. Shyanne is 4 and she has a play kitchen. She pretends she is cooking all types of foods and drinks, and of course we all have to sample and tell her how delicious it is. I have a ball playing pretend with her and my other grandkids. We pretend we are princes, adventurers, and even mommys and daddys. Nothing is more entertaining than a small child pretending. I enjoy it when they have their dolls and they are carrying on a three way conversation, giggling, laughing, and talking about what the plans for the day are? They have such wonderful and vivid imaginations. Such small children with the most wonderful imaginations ever. They can be whatever they want to be and dont care if anyone thinks that they can or not. Early childhood is a wonderful and amazing time for child and for their parent.

felicia (sponsel) wiseman

Spanking: It's for your own good...or is it?

Mom: "Kaden, since you just smacked your brother and would not share you need to go sit in time out for 3 minutes!"
Child: "NO!!!!"
Mom: "Kaden, you have two choices, go sit in time out for 3 minutes or get a swat on your butt...which do you choose?"
Child: crying and kicking his feet "Noooo, mommy!!!! I don't want to. No, no, no!!!"
Mom:  *SWAT* Now SIT THERE FOR 3 MINUTES!!!

This is a scene that is all too familiar in many households across America. No matter how many studies come out, no matter how many classes are taken on the negative affects of spanking parents continue to hit their kids.

Is it abuse? Not if it doesn't leave a mark....That seems to be the general rule of thumb among social workers investigating child abuse across the country. No only that, but you may be hard pressed to find a social worker who doesn't swat his or her child on occasion if the situation seems appropriate.

But what are the appropriate situations for a smack? Are there really any at all?

I will go against the masses and take a firm stand suggesting there are not!

Harsh punishment (swatting or spanking) models aggression. You are essentially telling a child not to do something that you are, yourself, doing. It seems counterproductive.  (Kinda like the death penalty: Do NOT kill...or we will kill you?!?! Does that baffle anyone else?)

We know that one of the most prominent ways that children learn what to do is through what the adults around them do: modeling.  Adults show children how to behave.

What, then, are we showing our children when we swat or spank them when they have done something wrong? We are showing them that is ok, yet telling them it is wrong. I am pretty sure we are confusing the heck out of them in the process.

I will not argue that a swift swat on the butt will extinguish the unwanted behavior at the moment, but is it really gone for good? Chances are it isn't. Chances are (and studies show) that your child is still going to do that thing you don't want him to, he just won't do it where you can see it.

 I, too, am guilty of once getting so frustrated, so overwhelmed, that I gave my son a quick swat on his butt to end his inappropriate behavior immediately (I also felt INSANELY guilty afterward). But was this really what was best for him? Or was it my own selfishness and need for an immediate end to the behavior that was literally driving me insane that provoked such an act?

I would like to challenge all of you to make a change and take the road that may be a little more difficult for us as parents, but more beneficial for our children. Just give it a try! A one week challenge...Instead of spanking your child, instead find every reason to praise your son or daughter. Every tiny little thing from going to the bathroom on the potty to eating all his or her peas. Be consistent for one week and I guarantee the results will astound you!

By Tina Parker

Jennifer Marshall- Punishment

Discipling children is not the easiest job. We need to be consistent and find alternatives to punishing our children. Parents are always scared to punish their children because they are afraid what the side effects are. Some side effects are that children feel personally threatened even if all children in the family are receiving the same punishment. The children also try to avoid the punishing parent. So for the future the children may have issues with realtionships. With the side effects there are issues for their future relationships.
There are many alternatives to harsh punishment. Consistency. Being Consistent with positive punishment is good because children will know that their behavior is not acceptable. Having a warm parent child relationship is another alternative. Distracting children with love and affection with punishment helps children know that they are doing a bad behavior and know not to do it again. Doing positive discipline helps children know it is wrong and does not scare them. And it keeps the child from being fearful of their parents.