Natural Parenting - A Much Better Way

“In today’s society, video games and computers have taken the place of playing outside for many children. Lack of physical activity can lead to obesity and a number of other health problems and children who do not spend enough time playing outdoors are typically deprived of social interactions and natural stimulation.
Recent research has found that children who play outside for an average of 90 minutes per day in good weather have less risk of heart trouble later in life.” Importance of Outside Play - Thekidstoystore.com

Author: Peg Baron
When the weather is nice, the kids (and Mom) are itching to get outside and play. I personally like the playing to learn approach. Did you know there’s an outdoor world of math and reading fun that awaits you and all you need is sidewalk chalk, dice, and your imagination? Anything we can do inside on paper can be done outside on the driveway or sidewalk, as long as we don’t care if it eventually gets “erased” by rain or sprinklers. Not only do the kids and I get to exercise our brains but we also get to exercise our bodies. I get to stretch my hamstrings and quads as I bend over to draw game boards or numbers, and the kids get to hop, skip, and jump around. Here are a few favorite sidewalk games I’d like to share. You can adapt any of them to the abilities of your children, and multiple ages can play
together.

Numbered Ladder Game

Draw a long, long ladder with at least 25 rungs, each rung big enough for a kid to stand in. Number each rung starting with 1 and going to 25. You also need a dice.

Rules - Grown-up throws the dice and the child hops up that many spaces on the ladder. If they land on an even number, they have to go back 1 space. Continue on until you have a winner.

Multiplication Ladder

Use the same ladder as above.
Rules - The child rolls 2 dice and multiplies the 2 numbers together.
He/she then totally covers in the answer square with chalk (their choice of color.) They continue until they’ve covered every square they possibly can, and then discuss why there are squares that won’t ever be covered.

Division Ladder

Again, use the same ladder as above.
Rules - Hand the chalk to your child and ask them to put a yellow triangle around any numbers that can be divided by 2. Next have them put a blue circle around any numbers that can be divided by 5, a pink square around any numbers that can be divided by 10, etc.

Numbers Bingo

Draw out as many bingo boards as there are kids and put a number
in each square. The kids can collect a pile of rocks or something for markers. Rules - Depending on the skill level, yell out an addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division problem for them to solve. They then cover the answer with a rock. The one who gets bingo is the winner. You can change the mathematic function with each game.

“Over the years, the hours that children spend playing outside can pay off when it comes to physical, intellectual and social development. Yet, such valuable interaction is fleeting these days. From 1997 to 2003, there was a 50% drop in kids who participated in outdoor activities such as hiking, walking and fishing, according to a University of Maryland study.” Mother Nature; Raising Healthier Kids - Usaweekend.com

The Reading Trail

Draw a trail of boxes and arrows down the sidewalk. Draw a box, then arrows directing them to the next box, about 10 feet away, and so on. At the end could be a beautiful drawing, if you’re artistically inclined, or a small prize, or a hug from you. In each box, depending on your child’s reading level, write a single word or a sentence. Rules - Your child starts at the
beginning and moved on when he/she reads the word or sentence.

Reading Obstacle Course

Set up an obstacle course with a sentence or word chalked between each obstacle. For example; sentence, zig zag around cones, sentence, jump through the hula hoop, sentence, balance walk on a length of string, sentence, jump over the blue “river” chalked on the ground. If you want, all your obstacles can be drawn on the sidewalk instead of using real items.
Rules - Read the sentence and go through the obstacle!

Color Me

Are you currently working on body parts, the circulatory system, or the heart? Let the kids chalk it out while narrating what they know. Themes like communities, animal lifecycles, wildlife, nature, your family tree, etc. are fun to draw out. Younger kids can work on color recognition.

The Alphabet Board

Make a giant game board with 25 squares. Put a letter of the alphabet on each square in random order, excluding the letter “x”.

Rules - Each kid has to start at the beginning and take each square one at a time. They have to come up with 5 words that start with that letter/sound before they can move on. To make it harder for the older ones, ask them to also come up with a word or two that end with that letter.

As you can see, it’s fun to learn with a stick of sidewalk chalk in your hand. I hope these games get you outside and get your imagination working as you tweak them to fit your needs. Have a great time and may the rain stay far away from your creations!

“After tens of thousands of years of children playing and working primarily outdoors, the last few generations have seen such interaction with nature vanish almost entirely. The implications — for children’s physical and mental health, and for the future of environmentalism — are immense.” Grist.org

Buy: Double Color Sidewalk Chalk Bucket

About the author:
Peggy Baron plays with her kids in Colorado, and runs
http://cookinkids.com/, a website devoted to helping parents and kids have fun together in the kitchen. Peggy is the editor of the popular Cookin’ Kids Newsletter, a bi-monthly newsletter with fun facts, recipes, jokes, games, cooking safety, and cooking terms wrapped around different themes.

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Infant massage is a regular practice in many parts of the world and is gaining in popularity here in the United States and it is no surprise when you look at the many benefits. As you will see, infant massage benefits everyone and it makes even more sense if you consider it from the baby’s point of view.

Author: Tina Allen

Infant massage relaxes and soothes:
Not only will your baby feel relaxed so will you! Nurturing touch is a naturally rewarding way to relieve stress for both you and your baby. Touch has been shown to decrease levels of Cortisol (stress hormone) in our bodies. Cortisol is always present in our bloodstream, but high levels of this hormone can be found in our bodies during times of extreme stress.

Deepens Bonding:
Infant Massage provides you with essential one-on-one time that will enhance your family bonding, understanding and ability to nurture. During massage Oxytocin is released in both the giver and receiver’s body. Oxytocin is our feel good hormone, also known as the hormone of love. This hormone helps to provide us with loving, nurturing feelings which helps us to bond. Mothers experience and increased production of Oxytocin during labor and breastfeeding but now research shows that even close physical contact and touch stimulates Oxytocin production. Great news for all of the dads out there who didn’t give birth to their baby, you can still produce the same hormones through the use of loving touch.

Infant massage seems to be sweeping the world at the moment - it’s popularity has exploded within the last few years, much of which is due to Vimala McClure and the IAIM. But, as with most natural healing techniques, it is by no means a new thing. People have been massaging babies for centuries. Once again, it is the Western World that is slow on the uptake. Childbirthsolutions.com

Improves Communication:
Touch is our first form of communication. So it is always natural to assume that communicating through touch enhances your ability to understand your baby’s special needs and respond appropriately. Infant Massage increases your confidence and sensitivity to your baby’s unique cues and forms of communication. You cannot spoil a baby by picking them up when they cry. When babies receive attentive responses to their needs they grow to become healthier and more secure in adulthood.

Contributes to Development:
Stimulates growth and healthy development of your baby’s body, mind and spirit. Massaged babies gain healthy weight better than babies who do not receive massage. Additionally, nurturing touch helps to enhance the digestion process. The systems of the body are stimulated during massage which assists in the absorption of nutrients and elimination of what is not needed. For some babies infant massage has also been shown to be effective at reducing the symptoms associated with Colic.

Helps Baby to Sleep Better:
Not only does massage help your baby to release stress which builds daily from new experiences, it allows them to relax. During this special time both you and your baby have time to relax. Massaging your baby helps your little one to sleep deeper and for longer periods of time which can translate into you being able to sleep longer as well! Through massage you will not only increase your loving, nurturing bonds with your baby, you will assist in their healthy and happy development!

Research specific to the benefits of infant massage has been ongoing since the mid 1970’s. This research has been conducted at various institutes and with infants who were premature, exposed to drugs in utero, and infants that had motor problems. All these categories of babies benefited from the nurturing touch of infant massage. These benefits included weight gain, neurological development, decreased hospitalization, and improved digestion. Childbirth.org

For excellent step by step instructions on how to massage your little one, visit: Makewayforbaby.com

Buy the Book: Baby Massage

About the author:
With over a decade of service to children and families, Tina Allen, founder of Liddle Kidz™, has become an internationally respected parent educator and expert in the field of infant and children’s massage therapy. Her innovative approach to children’s health has allowed her the unique opportunity to educate families and professionals throughout the world in the many benefits of nurturing touch.

In this final video of the three part series on Breastfeeding latch, you will clearly see the baby pausing to swallow the milk. This is the best way to answer the question that plagues every mother “Is my baby getting enough milk?”. It can be difficult to tell but clear urine, regular bowel movements, no signs of dehydration in the baby’s skin and of course - the pause- to swallow, all tell you that baby is getting plenty of milk.

Many fathers fear that they won’t be able to bond with the baby without feeding bottles. This is very far from the truth. Bonding doesn’t occur through the ingestion of food through plastic. Bonding occurs through a physically, loving relationship. There are many ways for a father to connect to his new infant. Bringing the baby to the mother to breastfeed is a great way to demonstrate to the baby that the father can, in fact, meet his baby’s needs. His baby will be well aware of the fact that daddy is the transportation to the food. lactivist.com

Author: Carrie Lauth

As a new or prospective father, you are probably somewhat familiar with the benefits of breastfeeding for mom and baby, but did you ever stop to think about what is in it for you? Aren’t you going to miss out by not getting to share in the joy of feeding your baby? Let’s see how Dads benefit when a Mom chooses to breastfeed their child.

Cost Savings
This is a big one for a lot of dads! Whether you are the sole income provider or not, adding a new member to the family can often be a source of worry. It may help to know that that one year of breastfeeding can save over $1,000 vs the cost of artificial infant food. That’s just for bottles and formula, and doesn’t include the extra Doctor visits and prescriptions that happen when baby is formula fed.

More Sleep
Let’s face it. You don’t have the equipment to handle the job of night feedings. While some Moms choose to pump and let Dad offer a bottle at night, for many Moms, snuggling up with baby at night to nurse is the norm. In a lot of families, this means Dad can head off to work with a full night’s rest.

Benefits of Being Breastfed

• Breast milk is the most complete form of nutrition for infants. A mother’s milk has just the right amount of fat, sugar, water, and protein that is needed for a baby’s growth and development. Most babies find it easier to digest breast milk than they do formula.

• As a result, breastfed infants grow exactly the way they should. They tend to gain less unnecessary weight and to be leaner. This may result in being less overweight later in life.

• Premature babies do better when breastfed compared to premature babies who are fed formula.

• Breastfed babies score slightly higher on IQ tests, especially babies who were born pre-maturely. 4women.gov

Proud Papa
When you see how your baby’s cheeks and thighs are filling out on Mom’s milk alone, you might tend to view mom as some kind of Dairy Queen. What an amazing capacity she has to help your child grow and thrive! Many Dads become huge proponents of breastfeeding when they see how healthy their babies are.

Health and IQ Benefits
Dads are especially impressed by the fact that breastfed babies gain an average of 8 IQ points over their formula fed counterparts. Breastfeeding also means that Mom is less likely to get ovarian or breast cancer. The natural extended birth control that many nursing Moms experience is also a plus in Dads book.

Focus on Mom
Since Mom is breastfeeding, you can find other ways to bond with your baby and be a support to Mom. Some ideas: take your baby for walks, burp and bathe her, sing lullabies at night, practice infant massage and of course read to your baby. You can also be in charge of helping Mom stay fed and hydrated in the early weeks while she recovers from the birth. And since Mom is handling the “input”, Dad can be in charge of “output”. Dads are far more likely to be willing to change diapers since a breastfed baby’s poop doesn’t have an unpleasant odor (until solid food is added!).

Seven great ideas to help do your part to make breastfeeding a success:

1. Support Natural Childbirth
2. Support rooming in if mom delivers in a hospital
3. Help out with the older kids
4. Take care of nighttime diapers since mom does the feeding
5. Be 100% supportive of nursing in public
6. Don’t question breastfeeding purchases
7. Brag about breastfeeding to anyone who will listen

Taken from Keep Abreast

Buy the Book: The Milk Memos

About the author: Motherhood is too short to wear an ugly nursing bra! Find one that even Dad will love at: http://www.SexyNursingBra.com

This video is part two of the breastfeeding latch series. In this video, Dr. Jack Newman discusses how hospitals are inadvertently undermining breastfeeding by teaching improper latch, improper habits (such as waking a sleeping baby to nurse) and giving bottles and artificial nipples which are latch destroying. He also mentions the ridiculous notion of switching sides after an arbitrary period of time (would you switch sides if you had a twin nursing on each breast?)

This video provides and excellent close up of the mother tickling the baby’s upper lip with her nipple followed by the baby instinctively opening her mouth wide enough to latch on properly. This gaping mouth is essential to a great latch. He has seen mothers breastfeeding all over the world, so his take on American breastfeeding culture is particularly interesting.