By Todd Leavitt

The warmer months are just around the corner. Soon kids will be channeling their pent-up energy in healthy outdoor play. As parents we should offer healthy opportunities for our children to grow both physically and mentally. Adding backyard playground sets to families across the nation will encourage more outdoor play, a brilliant solution to home-bound kids.

Obesity in children is increasing at an alarming rate. These days, children are becoming more interested in watching inappropriate television shows and electronic games then they are actual physical play. It is estimated that children under 6 years of age spend an average of 2 hours a day watching television. While watching television, or playing games it has been proven that children tend to snack more than those that are participating in outdoor activity. A wood swing set could offer a solution to this problem.

A swing set will encourage a child to play hard. Running, jumping and sliding are all forms of exercises when it comes to a child playing, and the best part of all? They aren't even aware that they are exercising.

How do you know what kind of set to buy? There are several different types of backyard playground sets. The most favored seems to be a wooden set. These generally are more durable and safer than the traditional sets. And can add more attraction to your back yard. You should keep the age of your child in mind when making your selection. The set should allow for independent play at the current age level, but also provide a bit of a challenge for growth. Kids are natural thrill seekers, so the best bet would be to offer your child the opportunity to explore to their next level.

When choosing wood swing sets, look at the construction. The unit should not only look but feel sturdy as well. The edges on the set should be rounded to prevent splinters and injury. Avoid sets that are assembled with nuts and bolts that stick out past the surface of the wood, this is an accident waiting to happen. Any set that features a slide should have a sturdy support mechanism under the slide itself. Look for decks that have planks measuring 2x6, these will last longer and can hold adult weight, a needed feature for more than one active child. Examine the chains on the swing. They should have a thick coating that will prevent fingers and hands from getting pinched. Go for the thickest coating possible as this will last the longest.

A swing set will provide many hours of imaginative play if it is carefully chosen, and considering they last many years, its wise to choose a set that will be useful for years to come.

The laughter of children is like music to a parent's ears. This is why Tree Frog Swing Sets builds quality wood swing sets and backyard playground sets to give children more fun and enjoyment.

By M. Witham
It's a hard battle when you have picky, little eaters at home. Children are notorious for their odd and potentially non-nutritious eating habits. But as we continue to learn the importance of healthy eating to help prevent disease, illness and obesity, there is more pressure on parents to help their children learn the importance of healthy, nutritious foods. Although it's not always going to work, there are many ways to help encourage healthy eating habits for your kids. The most important thing to remember is patience with your picky, little eaters. Some days you may have to succumb to a cookie to keep the peace at home, but as long as most food choices are nutrient packed, you are on the right track.

Here are 5 tips to help your family, especially your children, make better food choices:

1. Be their role models as parents

It's hard to expect your kids to be making healthy food choices if you, as the parents are not providing an example for them to follow. Parents have a huge influence on their young ones so make sure that they are seeing you eat balanced meals and very limited junk food. By showing your kids a good example, it will make it a lot easier to win the battle on nutritious food. Be excited and show enthusiasm about good foods like fresh fruits and vegetables so your kids will be too.

2. Keep your kitchen stocked with fruits and vegetables

If you haven't already, now is a good time to go through your cupboards and remove all of the temptations of bad food choices. If you only provide fresh fruits and vegetables as snacks then your kids will soon learn to make these choices rather than chips or cookies. For the most part, we are much more likely to make smart food choices if we are not tempted by less healthy options. Eating well is easy when it is available for us, so try to make good foods readily available to your children.

3. Make food fun with games

If you are still struggling to make fruits and veggies fun, try to implement games that will encourage your kids to eat them. You could even make grocery shopping part of the game so that your kids learn how to pick out healthy options. For example, have your kids help you pick out fresh produce in every color of the rainbow. This will be a fun challenge for them and perhaps they will be more likely to try new foods as a result. You know that you have an unbalanced diet when your foods are all white or bland in color. So finding as many colors as you can, you will surely be getting extra nutrients.

4. Try to not to restrict food choices

Sometimes the more parents limit food choices, the more the kids will want to eat them. If you make strict restrictions on things such as candy, you are going to end up with a resistant child. So if your little ones do have a craving for a tasty treat, allow them to enjoy it and they will be less likely to keep asking for it. It's a good idea to explain that such foods are not a really good choice so we can only have them once in a while.

5. Educate your children from a young age

Education is the key to understanding why we should eat a certain way. Kids may not understand why they have to eat so many vegetables so if you can help them to understand the consequences of good and bad food choices, they will grow up with a better understanding. Simply knowing what certain foods do to our bodies can really help us to make the right choices. Especially as your kids begin to try to new foods and flavors, keep them educated on what the benefits of those specific foods are. Or if they are asking for non-nutritious foods, you could also explain what the bad side effects of that food will be.

Once your kids realize that you are not torturing them with food, they will be able to appreciate the gift of health. By making a few shifts in the food that you eat and cook, your kids will start to learn healthy behaviors that will help them in school and their development process. Don't fall victim to the idea that kids hate all healthy foods. Keep trying and you will start to notice more positive patterns. Remember to stay patient and continue to encourage healthy habits and eventually your picky little eaters will drop the picky.

If you live or work in Highland, Fulton, Columbia or the surrounding communities of Maryland and are searching for quality, affordable childcare, Little Builders Learning Center is now accepting applications for all of our MD childcare programs including infant and toddler care as well as our preschool. For more information or to schedule a tour of our facility, please contact our Maryland daycare center today.

By Sridhar Chandrasekaran

Assessing for Signs of Physical Abuse in Children

Learning important Points to Increase Child Abuse Awareness

According to world health organization's statistical data, approximately 40 million children are subjected to child abuse each year and it is the third leading cause of death in children in the whole world. Particularly, this falls under domesticated violence inside the homes and family walls. It is imperative to report cases as such immediately to authorities to prevent further harm. For so, it would be useful keep in mind these simple b-beat mnemonics to distinguish signs of child abuse for you may never know when to come across a child who silently screams for help.

B-BEAT Mnemonic stands for

Bruises at Various Stages of Healing

Intermittent battering and beating is the reason behind bruises healing at various rate. Some bruise may appear fading and some may appear fresh, this turns out to be as one of the most common signs of physical abuse in children.

Burns at Any Portion in the Child's Body

Victims of child abuse usually come from abusive parents who are also victims of the same domestic violence when they were young. Parent's characteristic includes sudden bursting of anger leading to impulsive beating. Throwing away things on the child or beating the child with whatever hard object there is at reach like lighted cigarette butt, flat iron, hot fluids that causes burn. Burn is also one of the common signs of physical abuse in children.

Edema at Head Portion or Cepahalic Inflammation

To develop reliable child abuse awareness, keep in mind that this certain sign of child abuse could easily be reasoned out by abusive parents as an outcome of a sliding and bumping accident. Careful assessment is needed. Questioning the child of the real cause must be in the absence of the parent or parents involved. Apparently, one of the evident and emergent signs of physical abuse in children.

Child Appears Sad and Withdrawn:

Constant physical maltreatment accompanied with verbal abused actually degrades a child's morale and self-esteem. One becomes unsure and inconfident with actions and decisions to be made. Children with symptoms of child abuse are generally withdrawn from the center of activities, aloof and mostly distrustful of the people around.

Tempermental Child as Sign

Abusive encounters bring about mistrust from abused children and hand in hand with this is the attitude of being temperament. They are easily triggered because of suspicion that other people around them would pretty much act the way their abusive parents do. Certain therapies apply to negate this negative behavior and symptom of child abuse.

Meeting along children who needs help is exclusively unplanned and out of our control. Children who are suffering from this kind of violence do not know how to seek help but they do need help, especially care. Developing good child abuse awareness could save children from the dangers of death and disabilities. Knowing the major signs of child abuse is a skill that could learned using this simple mnemonic B-BEAT.

Here is a blog that is exclusively dedicated for mnemonics and acronyms to give valuable tips on soft skills, behavioral skills and interpersonal skills

By Sandra Fierling

A helicopter toy is so versatile and there a literally models out there to interest 8 month to 80 year olds. It is quite amazing to see so many different varieties of helicopters that can bring joy to such a diverse age group.

Naturally the 8 month old gets to have a plastic or even wooden model of a helicopter. The 2-3 year old gets the concept of a helicopter flying, just like a car goes vroom vroom on a surface. There are also jigsaw puzzles of helicopters to interest a 4 to 14 year old (maybe even up to 80). The famous Tomas of Tank Engine fame now has Harold The Helicopter! Lego also has variations of helicopters you can build and I'm sure other well known 'brick building' companies that are similar to Lego. Of course there are games involving helicopters for all ages.

Still what we usually mean with a helicopter toy is a remote controlled helicopter and it is amazing how little such a helicopter can cost - prices start around $25. From ages 8 to 80 this is for you!

Many of these helicopters are for indoor flying only. They are often only around 8 ounces in weight and not powerful enough to manage outdoor flying conditions (wind, turbulence, etc.). They are great, however, at navigating around the home or better still an empty garage. The home is usually fraught with difficulties like light fixtures, window coverings, etc. so a garage without the car would offer a better flying environment. At least at first when your level of expertise is at a very low level.

What usually happens is that the 8 year old is very enthusiastic but often down at heart if he or she can't manage the helicopter how he would like it and isn't so much into practice until perfect mode. This is where the adult (usually the dad) comes in to help and supervise. At this stage it can happen that both son and father get hooked on flying helicopters around!

Most serious helicopter toy manufacturers like Syma and Gaui not only produce great helicopters but usually have all spare parts available for purchase too. You will usually need to take advantage of this throughout your sojourn in the helicopter field.

There are so many models that you often end up with several. There are also larger, heavier models specifically for flying outdoors. There are even remote control helicopters with cameras attached. It is an exciting hobby that brings you into the heady fields of aerodynamics and being ultimately conversant with many technical aspects.

So you see a helicopter toy really can follow you along your life's path and give you many hours of enjoyment.

Find out more here about what a Helicopter Toy can do for you and why they can be such a great hobby. For more information visit http://helicoptertoy.org