Teenagers can be notoriously difficult to please, but your planned birthday part for your newest teenager can still be fabulous. Now is the time to get busying finding out exactly what would make your child happiest as he or she turns 13.
Talk to Your Child’s Friends
Rather than simply choosing something that has worked in the past, it may be time to branch out and to get some helpful hints from those who think just as your teenager does. His or her friends will have some of the best ideas for what would be fun to do, see or eat at the party. While not all ideas may be viable, your child’s friends may be able to clue you into an idea that you otherwise never would have considered.
Get the Menu Just Right
For most teenagers, the menu is key. Most children this age are incredibly hungry but are also becoming hugely picky. This is not the day to worry about healthy foods although it can be good to have a few healthy options, such as fruits, available for those who want them. However, it also does not take much to make kids this age happy. Consider a grill-out, a pizza party or hamburgers or tacos with all the fixings. Also, be sure to have plenty of sweet treats on hand other than just the birthday cake.
Enlist Help
If you are busy or just do not know where to start, consider enlisting professional help. A party planner NY will know just who to contact for all of the details and will help you organize the entire event. They may also be able to help you bring in outside entertainment.
At this age, your child may be starting to get pickier about likes and dislikes and may be particularly hesitant to invite certain friends from school. However, planning a birthday party can still be hugely successful when you know where to go for guidance.
Surprise a dog lover you know or a furry friend with a basket of treats and toys. Design the basket so that it's easy for the dog to open if you decide to give it to the animal. Use clear or animal print cellophane to wrap the basket when you're done adding the items that you want to include. Setting a theme for dog gift baskets is often the easiest way to get the things that you want to give. Examples of themes include items for new puppies and a new mom, celebrating a birthday, or celebrating a holiday.
Instead of a basket for the base, you can use a dog bed. This will allow for the entire gift to be functional for the animal. A wicker basket with a pillow is an option as well and can also be used as a bed for a smaller dog. A chest for all of the dog's toys is also an option to consider instead of using a basket. Incorporate a blend of treats that the dog can eat, daily care essentials, and a few toys. If the basket is for someone who loves dogs, then you could include a mug with a word or phrase on the outside or a wine glass with an image of paw prints or something else related to dogs. Decorative signs for the wall, a table, or a shelf are also options to include in a basket for someone who loves dogs.
Making a basket for a dog to enjoy is often easier. Make sure the treats that you include are easy to eat for the animal. Get a variety of toys that the dog can play with according to the animal's age and health. Pet supplies to put inside the basket could be anything from pads for the floor or shampoo for a relaxing bath.
The older
you get, the harder it is to study. Not only your memory isn’t as sophisticated
as when you were children, but your responsibility also increase. If you are
high schooler or college students who happens not to be born with silver spoon,
you probably have one (or more) part time job to help you cover the cost of
your study (or saving for your future education). Even if you’re lucky enough
to not need any part time job (yet), then you’re probably busy in
extracurricular programs because you need to polish your CV for future use.
So,
distraction increased as you get older. How do you get back your focus to study
if that’s the case? Here some points from us for you.
1. Put Studying Back on Your Top List
You may deny this for a moment. “What do you mean, put it back? It has
always been on the top!”
But, has it? It’s easy for studying to slip down on your priority list
because of a couple of reasons. First, it seems like it’s not urgent, compared
to other things with closer deadline (like this month’s rent or this week’s
first date with someone you’ve been crushing on for a long time). You feel
like, there’s always tomorrow to study, the final test won’t be coming for at
least three months anyway. Second, studying is not fun, so it’s easy to
procrastinate on it. And if you’ve started procrastinating, you know that
you’ll have thousands of reasons not to do it.
So, if you want to focus on your study, put it back on your top
priority. Sure paying rent is important, but you can have two important things
to do simultaneously. Just make sure one of them is studying.
2. Eliminate or Delegatethe Unnecessary
What if you have difficulty in step 1 because you have too many
important things? Then it’s time to eliminate some of them. List all of your
current responsibilities, from studying, to part time work, to attending some
clubs, to spending quality time with your friends, to doing laundry and
cleaning your dorm.
Now, separate them into three part: the important, the urgent, and
neither. The important part may only have three list, and your study should be
one of them. You decide how the rest of them are sorted.
Then, take the neither part, and eliminate them from all of your plan.
Hopefully forever, but if you can’t, then at least this week. If you still
can’t delete or postpone them for a certain time, then think of a way to give
those task to other people (for example, by calling your senior in the
journalist club that always give you more task than necessary and say finally
say no to him assigning you to cover a news).
3. Build Supportive Environment
The power of environment is sometimes bigger than our own willpower.
It’s hard to follow a low-carbs diet if you stock rice, bread, and cookies in
your dorm room. Similarly, it’s hard to focus on studying if you’re surrounded
by TV, music, or phone that won’t stop pinging from notification.
Focus more on your study by building a supportive environment on that.
Find a place where there is no TV or music or probably even friends – if you’re
that easily distracted. If you live alone, then studying at home can be the
solution. However, it also depends on your studying style. Some people can
actually fall asleep when they study at home, without anyone else to supervise.
The ideal study place that works for me is a quiet public place not too
close to your school or campus (less chance to bump into someone who can pull
you into hours-long conversation), like library or coffee shop. During that
time, turn your phone off and hide it from your sight. Some people study better
with music, but only choose songs without lyric, because lyric can be actually
distracting.
4. Set Aside Time
This step is easier said than done. Because, if you haven’t done the
previous steps, you would think that you don’t have enough time in a day.
However, if you have diligently eliminate or delegate your task except the
absolute necessary (in which your study time is included), you will find
yourself with enough time pocket to fill.
Now that you find you actually have time to study, it’s time to actually
use it. For the first few times, treat the study time as sacred. It means,
nothing can get in the way between you and your study time. Not your
co-workers’ request to switch shift and not your peer group inviting you for
pizza (yes, say no even to pizza). After several weeks, you’ll see studying as
a routine, and it will take you less effort to start compared to today.
5. Take One Way Commitment
If you’re a stubborn person, then maybe it’s time to take a harder
approach. Take one way commitment to study, one that you can’t back up from so
you’ll have no other choice to do it. The best commitment you can take on
studying is to hire a tutor. Not only you will be less likely
to skip the study session because you’ve already paid for it, but you actually
get additional support from other people to study.
Moreover, by hiring a tutor, you can understand a subject faster, and
therefore you can have extra time to study more material, or use that time to
finish other duty you have. But, remember to use that extra time only after
you’ve finished your tutoring session.
Distraction will always be there, and we suspect it will increasingly
get worse in the following years, with the development of technology. However,
you can still rely on your inner quality to stay focused in this very
distracting environment, by following our advice. Do you have other advice we
haven’t thought before to be more focused at school?
Here are some basic tips child care providers can use to guide children's behavior. Remember the different strategies work best at different ages.
Keep rules simple and easy to understand.
Discuss rules with children and write them down. Consider children's suggestions for rules. Repeat the rules often. A few rules that work well with children include:
- Help each other.
- Take care of our toys.
- Say "please and "thank you".
- Be kind to each other.
Say what you mean.
Use "do" instead of "don't" whenever possible. Choose your words carefully, especially when you are guiding children's behavior. Keep sentences short and simple. Focus on what to do rather than what not to do.
- Try saying "Slow down and walk" instead of "stop running".
- Try saying "Come hold y hand" instead of "don't touch anything".
- Try saying "Keep your feet on the floor" instead of "don't climb on the table"
- Try saying "Use a quiet voice inside" instead of "stop shouting".
Talk with children - not "at" them.
Children often don't pay attention when you are talking (or shouting) "at" them. Guidance is much more effective when you talk to children at their eye level. Look them in the eyes, touch them on the shoulder, and talk with them. Resist the urge to simply lecture. Instead, give children time to respond, and listen genuinely to their point of view.
Set a good example.
Children watch you all the time. They say how you talk to other children and adults. They say how you cope with anger or frustration. They watch how you deal with sadness and joy. They listen to how you say "I'm sorry". The way you handle the ups and downs of life teaches children a lot about how to behave and get along with others.
Encourage the children to set good examples for each other.
Children also learn a great deal from each other. Encourage appropriate way to share, play and be kind to each other. Give clear, simple choices. Give children a choice only when there is a choice. For example, saying "It is nap time, do you want to lie down now?" is not really an option if your rule is that everyone will rest at nap time.
Show respect for children.
Talk to children about misbehavior in private, rather than in front of others. Remind them of reasons for rules, and discuss what they can do differently.
Catch children being good.
All children want attention. It is better to give them positive attention for good behavior than negative attention for misbehavior. Comment on something positive about each child, each day. Better yet, strive for several times a day. And share the good news. When children have done something positive, mention it to other children and parents.
Encourage like a good coach instead of a cheerleader.
A cheerleader just shouts general praise! "What a great job!" or "What a beautiful picture!" A good coach tells you what you're doing right, uses praise as a teaching tool, and lets you know why he or she is proud of you. If a child sets the table, you might say, "You did such a good job setting the table!. You put the spoons and forks in the right place and remembered the napkins!" When you look at a child's painting, you might remark, "This painting just glows with color. You used blue, green, red, yellow, and orange. Tell me how you did this!"
Use play activities to teach social skills.
Become a character of children's pretend play and show children how to use good manners and be kind. Read children's books that show how children resolve problems. Play "what if" games. Encourage children to act out ways to work together.
Teach children how to resolve conflict and solve problems.
Help them recognize and name feelings, identify problems clearly, come up with ideas for solving the problem, and try possible solutions.
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Teach children how to apologize.
Learning how to apologize is a skill. Young children have a hard time understanding another child's feelings, but by the time they are four years old they should begin to recognize that apologizing is a good way to make up for hurting someone else. Keep it simple. With time and practice, children will not have to be prompted, and their apology will be more genuine. Teach preschoolers and school-age children the four basic steps of apologizing:
- Look at the other child
- Say the child's name
- Say "I'm sorry"
- Say why
Teach children how to correct their misbehavior.
If a child throws a food onto the floor, give him a broom and show him how to clean it up. If a child draws on the wall, give her a wet cloth to clean the wall. even if the child cannot successfully clean up the entire mess alone, participating in clean-up teaches him that his actions have consequences. Overtime, experiencing consequences helps children learn self-control.
So what's with the long hiatus and the sudden changes?
Well, being in the field of teaching full time plays the primary reason, although, it never dawned on me to totally quit blogging as I know deep in my soul that it is a passion I cannot let go of so I still fire updates now and then.
What Photobucket did also affected my motivation a lot. I supposed most bloggers are familiar to this story. Most of the photos I used in all my pages were hosted by them (for free of course) so the sudden changes was like a doom to my blogging endeavor. It took me awhile to rebuild that "spirit" and do something instead of letting everything I have worked for for a long time go to waste. Thus, the recent changes.
And so to keep all my pages from untoward circumstances of any form, I have decided to take all my Worpress-hosted blogs back to Blogger and IBT is one of them. Of course, along with that is another brand new look I have painstakingly took time with just to put everything back in place. It's good to know though that my tweaking ability is still around to help me get through it all.
I am also thankful that it's summer still! I have the liberty to sit down and spend some solid time dealing with online undertakings.
Spending wise, from here onward, I only have to worry about domain renewal now. That's what I have been trying to keep, whether the page is streaming or not. After all, it not about the monetary gain, but the long years worth of good memories that I kept here is what matters. And I have just decided to continue piling up more of it here as well as to my other pages.
