What to Do with Kids Hooked on Rewards

Dr. Michele Borba, a child expert and author, enlightens us about “kids hooked on rewards”. Parents may think that children deserve a reward when they have done well. While this is true, this reward system can be bad for the children in the long run.

When we let our children use these rewards as motivation to excel or be successful at something, they will have a hard time later on if they no longer have parents to motivate them. The goal is that the kids should grow up motivating themselves for the right reasons.

How to detach kids from the rewards system

  • Never give unnecessary incentives
  • Give a positive comment on a job well done; never open your wallet
  • Let him know that giving himself a pat on the head is okay
  • Ask your child to keep a diary to keep tabs on all his accomplishments
  • Always remember not to open your wallet.

Read the full article here.

Give your child three nuggets of financial advice

1418827_coinsFinancial education has become just as important as the traditional disciplines of education early on in life. Martin Lewis for The Telegraph says that he would take enough care to pass on three pearls of financial advice to his daughter.

  1. Sellers are not acting unethically when they tempt you to buy but the final decision rests with you and it has to be a prudent one.
  2. Look for the Opportunity Cost while spending money. Spending on one thing censors you from spending on another thing. Thus you must know where best to spend your hard earned or dedicatedly saved money. Also, it is your choice whether you want to spend at every single opportunity or save for a big haul in future.
  3. You have to straddle on many grey fences. There are no clear answers to many financial questions. There will be times you will feel that A is just as fine as B and one financial viewpoint is just as good as a diametrically opposite viewpoint. This is why children should be taught the skills of financial decision-making from a very early age.

You can read the full article here.

What is your favourite advice to prepare your child to manage their future finances?

Ten hot jobs of the future for your children

1395294_robot_dogFuture is not a time; it is a place- a place full of possibilities where our most coveted hopes may meet our deepest desires. A lot of things keep changing as we keep moving at a speed of 60 minutes an hour towards the future. Jessica Winch for The Telegraph says that the whole idea of jobs would undergo a radical transformation. The surefire hits of today (read banking, law and stockbroking) will become a thing of the past and unheard-of jobs will become the hot jobs of the future.
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The best advice for being in a positive frame of mind

1110075_wonderful_3Great advice tends to be a very rare commodity. Often, some of the more mediocre ones come out in the garb of smart language or we simply assume an advice to be healthy because it is made by an elder person. This however does not change the fact that the real brilliant advices are like the Haley’s Comet. Pete Wargent for the Property Update writes how such advices should be kept for posterity by noting them down in black and white.
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Yelling at a child cannot yield any result

1412362_sunset_silhouetteYou do not need to take recourse to yelling in order to be authoritative. Yet, some parents make this mistake and adopt yelling as a major strategy for seeking corrections in their children. In fact, the amount of learning a child is ‘capable of’ is inversely proportional to the amount of yelling a parent is using. I was recently reading an interesting article on this topic by Sharon Silver for Popsugar Moms.

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How To Reduce The Bad Influence of TV – Study

Right channel - reduce bad influence of tvTelevision must have something going for it or else it would not have sustained for so long. Many of us parents would not hear of it for their children. ‘Off” is the only button on the remote control that gets used by many parents when they see their young child in front of the jukebox. However, selecting channels wisely instead of switching off the machine is the right solution says an new study according to education news.

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8 Videos That Prove Math Is Awesome

Math Is AwesomeMathematics is considered a powerful science but it can take up the form of art quite well too. I saw a few videos on Mashable which had me in fits (ecstatic fits I must say).  Having come face to face with so many powerful elements of mathematics, the only way I can react is by sharing the video link with you all.

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How To Improve Your Child’s Mood and Academic Performance

sleeping childA study focusing on sleep duration and resultant child behavior came up with telling results, says a new article from education news. As parents, we may not be too willing to admit that a small tweak with our child’s sleep-hours can bring a lot of difference. However, the study proves us just so wrong. Conducted over 33 children, from the age group 7-11, the results of the study were spread over two weeks. In the first week, children were allotted 9.3 hours of sleep and their behavior and temperamental stability was judged on a scale of 100 (100 being the worst and 0 being the best). On an average, children closed in on 50 points.

Over the course of next week, children were divided into two groups. One group was deprived of sleep by an hour while the other group was asked to sleep for an extra hour. The first scored an average of 54 while the second group averaged out at 47 (despite actually managing only 30 minutes of extra sleep). For such small fluctuations in sleep hours, parents and teachers observed a huge difference in a child’s behavior, mood swings and general agility.

Have you closely examined how an extra sleep-hour helps your child?

Better TV Means Better Kids | Education News

televisionParents have never been too keen on their children watching television, citing how it can completely corrupt their kids. However, the right TV channels might help children gain many virtues.  This is powerfully illustrated by a new infographic from educationnews.org.

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Kids and Parents: How To Live Without Regret

sunshine

As a parent, we all would you like our children to live a fulfilled, happy life without major regrets. In this context, I have come across an interesting article recently which speaks about the major regrets that dying people generally have. I am pasting link to the original article here- http://www.inspirationandchai.com/Regrets-of-the-Dying.html

Those who have heard the knock of death wish to change so much about their lives if they are given another chance. The article talks about five common regrets of the dying.

  • Almost everyone feels that they should have worked less madly and given more time to other meaningful pursuits.
  • That they should have given enough time to their friends.
  • That they should have allowed themselves more happiness.
  • That they should have expressed themselves more freely on many occasions.
  • That they should have kept away from the herd mentality (following the traditional norms).

These are all very important insights and we should definitely all take note, so we do not end up with deep regrets when it is time to go.

However, I beg to have a different take on this. I feel that life is a never-before experience. Someone has rightly said “Life is what happens when we are busy making other plans”. After all, we do not have any past lives to refer to. In absence of any rehearsal, we are bound to make mistakes in various events of life. This is why it might not be a great idea to rue our mistakes.

Actually, I have a small theory to why people start regretting a lot of things when death becomes imminent. Death is a bully. We try to live in denial of it before finally accepting it. However, we come across many emotions on the road to acceptance and regret is one such emotion. Here is an interesting thought: If somehow, the verdict of our death is reversed, won’t we keep living merrily the way we have lived thus far?

So, working further upon this theory, let us add a corollary: the beauty of life is that it allows us to make mistakes…correct them… leave them as they are…. move ahead…..stay with them. We can take our pick.

I think that there is limited gain in regretting our past. In fact it might not be too odd to state- If life is an occupation, mistakes are occupational hazards. We are imperfect by our birth and till our death we remain so. Is it a small achievement then that we manage to carve out a ‘whole life’ even with such imperfections?

What do you teach your children about living a fulfilled live?

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