PitterPatterFeet

Kids are so funny and can give you such a great laugh with the things that they do and say. I’d like to share some of those moments with you now.

My girlfriend has an adorable 3 year old boy. Her and her husband went out to dinner with him recently. After being seated they removed all of the knives from the table, as a safety measure. Well he was not having that and yelled to the top of his voice:”GIMME BACK MY WIFE!”

His father just recently got braces on his teeth. After admiring his father’s braces he said to his parents:” I want bracelets on my teeth too.”

His mom was driving and trying to figure out which way to go. As she was deciding he screams from the back seat: ” GO TO NEW YORK CITY AND MAKE A LEFT!”

My friend and I were having such a good laugh.  It felt so good to have a break  and laugh. I marvel at how wonderful her little boy is. In addition he is also very smart. They were in the grocery store and he says to his mom: “Mommy that’s just stupendous!” Shocked his mom looked at him and then he replies “You know Mommy stupendous like awesome.

Wow!!!! isn’t that amazing that not only did he correctly pronounce the word but he actually knew what it meant. That is a joy and a pleasure to hear.

Just wanted to share a chuckle with you to brighten up your day. If you have any funny things that your child or children have done or said please share them with us we’d love to hear them. Please post your comments below.

A really fun way to prevent childhood obesity is by letting your child lead you in performing exercises. Notice the operative word here “perform”. There is a vast difference between doing exercises and performing exercises. Your child naturally knows this Read more »

It is easier than you think to prevent childhood obesity using specific movements designed to integrate the left and right hemispheres of the brain. These movements are particularly  fun when they are done with and to music. They can be dance movements, sports moves or moves that you wouldn’t ordinarily think of as something that would help to prevent obesity and get kids moving.

Really you say? Yes, really I say, this is because all movement helps to develop the brain. When children are moving they are learning. Read more »

Preventing childhood obesity is very easy when you start early with a child. It is never too early to start either. You can start even when the child is in the womb by rocking and swaying to music. It doesn’t necessarily have to be musical instruments or a CD or live band. A mother’s voice is a beautiful instrument to a child. It is beautiful music to their ears even in utero. You can make up your own songs which is a lot of fun and will give you a chuckle or two or you can sing nursery ryhmes or songs that were sung to you when you a child. The whole point of this is to Read more »

Empowering your child is a great tool to help in preventing childhood obesity. Children use food as comfort too, not just adults. Many people think of this as just a problem that adults have and never link it to children at all. You  can help prevent childhood obesity that may be caused by stress eating by helping children to feel good about themselves.

Helping children to feel good about themselves can be achieved in the following ways: teaching them something where they will gain independence and helping them to develop new skills. Children develop self esteem by Read more »

Getting children to behave is a universal challenge that every parent and teacher faces, but it doesn’t have to be. There are things that you can do if done consistently, that will help your child to behave. The key words here are “done” and “consistently”. I’m sure that you are all aware that in order to see results in anything you are going to have to actually do the things that you know you are suppose to do and do them consistently.

There are many different opinions and techniques that you can use to help your child behave but Read more »

You can do a lot for your baby by helping them to develop their brain and develop a love for their bodies and prevent obesity in the future by dancing with them. Many people mistakenly think that  you have to be a dance instructor or some other type of specially trained person in order to teach dance to your baby. While this is true there are things that you can do at home that your baby will love.

Babies are so excited by this new world and are anxious to explore it,  especially  their bodies and learning what it can do is very fascinating to them.  Now is a great time to Read more »

With the warm weather it’s so much fun and excitement to do movement activities outside. It is recommended that children get 120 minutes of moderate to rigorous physical activity each day. This will do a lot in helping to prevent obesity in children and help them in learning to have a healthy lifestyle. One activity that children love are bubbles!!!!Children are so excited at the thought of bubbles.

In my classes at Pitter Patter Feet I use bubbles to teach the children about spatial awareness and how it is so important to have your own personal space when moving. Every one should have their own personal space. They become aware of empty space and space that is filled or has something in it. As adults we take this for granted and are basically aware of personal space and try to respect it.  But children need to be aware of this and need to be taught this valuable lesson. They also learn about soft and gentle and hard and fast. Blowing bubbles takes self control.

I’ve found that the best bubbles are the big long wands that they sell at Wal-Mart for a dollar. I love these for several reasons. One because it’s so big you can blow a lot of bubbles at one time for a group of kids. To encourage confidence and mastery I have each child come up and individually blow and pop their own bubbles. They learn that in order to get the bubbles to come out they have to blow gently and slowly. This takes a lot of self control for a preschooler.

To get them moving I move around instead of just staying in one place. Another teacher was telling me at  a workshop  that I was conducting that you can run with the big wand and make bubbles that way too. I loved this idea because kids love to run and this adds to the fun. One last thing I do is tohave the kids pop the bubble with a different body part this presents a bit of a challenge to them and requires a lot of reminding but it’s fun too.

I heard that you can get the bubble wand at other places besides Wal-Mart but I found the ones from there have worked the best for me. I’d love to hear about your experiences please feel free to comment . Also for more ideas check out http://heatlthykidsweightloss.com/info.

Preventing childhood obesity isn’t only about diet, nutrition and exercise. A component of preventing childhood obesity is staying healthy. One way to stay healthy is to teach your child early about good  hygiene and creating good habits early. Things like brushing their teeth daily preferrably after every meal but once in the morning and then again at night before bed, washing their face and body, especially behind their ears which a lot of people forget and think is not necessary, are common.

One area that may surprise you are practices that should be used when Read more »

In today’s world everyone is stressed even children.  We as adults never think about children being stressed but they are stressed nonetheless. Unfortunately they don’t have a lot of ways of dealing with the stress that they are feeling.  When physical education was a requirement in the school system at least children had exercise to reduce stress.

When after school programs that encouraged children to run and play after school were still in existence and not gone the way of the dinosaurs, children Read more »