Featured Article: Protect Your Children From Bullying
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Issue Number 67
Today’s Thought for the Day …
All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist
once he grows up.
As parents, it is our duty and responsibility to teach our children self-protection and self-preservation. Recently, the horrendous act of bullying has taken a whole new dimension with the advent of technology. Previously, parents were concerned with offline bullying only but now cyber-bullying has become increasing common. Essentially there are two main types of bullying, namely physical and emotional. Physical bullying is easier to deal with since it is easier to detect and prove and there is an existing framework to help deal with such forms of bullying like parents can report the bully to the school administration or even file a police case. However when it comes to emotional bullying, this is not only harder to prove and detect, but it may leave terrible emotional scars that can take a whole lifetime to heal. Having said that, do you want to know how to make your children bully proof, both online and offline? Here are some tricks. Build up confidence of your children Children who seem helpless, defenseless, with a low self-esteem and confidence as well as having some sort of disability are generally the ones which rise up in the bully radar. One way of actually preventing your child from being bully prone is to make him work harder in building a strong character. This can be done by encouraging him to do extracurricular activities like joining Scouts or practicing a sport. Increased responsibility Make your child feel important and give him a sense of belonging. This will build his self-esteem in the long run. For example, if as a parent you continuously compare him to other kids and are not appreciative of his behavior, this is likely to make him feel worthless and weak. The process of making your child bully proof starts at home. You cannot possibly expect others to treat your child with respect if you are yourself or his siblings emotionally downgrading him. Improved communication If you spot certain signs that your child might be bullied at school-unexplained bruises, loss of interest in school, decline in performance, fewer friends, mood swings - encourage your child to speak about his feelings and remain supportive and loving. Encourage friend network Encourage your child to stay within his friend circle at all times and avoid being on his own. Bullies are more likely to attack when your child is alone and helpless. Proper way to face a bully Teach your child how to remain strong in front of bullies and maintain his composure. Teach him to not give in and show that he is actually afraid of them. For example your child has to remain strong, maintain eye contact and proper posture and tell his bullies " You have to stop now otherwise I will report you". If a bully is stopped right from the start itself, the situation is likely to remain in control. Information about cyber-bullying Inform your kids about cyber bullying and the types of behavior that cannot be tolerated online. Encourage them to share any bad experience that they may have had online like someone is harassing them online with ongoing threatening mails or instant messages. Dangers of sex-ting As your kids grow up, you have to make sure that they understand the dangers of sending pictures with a sexual connotation to their friends. It takes only few minutes to send a saucy picture to someone, but the resulting implications can have lifetime impacts. Location of computers and software Make sure that the computers are in a strategic place where you can see what your kids are up to online. It is not about intruding their privacy-remember that if you are continuously keeping tabs of what they do online, they will find other ways of accessing internet without having you around. But from time to time, it is important to see on which websites your child is mostly logged on. Address cyber-bullying at early stages If you find that you child is getting more apprehensive when it comes to the use of computers and is showing signs of anxiety, raise the issue right from the start. Also make sure to do it in an understanding way and explain to them that no matter what the problem is, you will always stand by them and will not curb their internet privileges and access. Bullying in any form can have lifelong consequences and it is the role of parents to make their children resistant to bullies. Also by encouraging them to confide in you, you are more likely to detect the problem at an early stage and find the proper solutions to it. Although these tips can help make your child stronger, you have to decide if your child needs these tips or rather professional help in making him a stronger and more confident person. Troy Price
http://www.consultpivotal.com/e_55interestingwriting.htm
Activities for Kids: Story Starters
Here is a nice fruit machine style story starter, for short (or long!) challenges for writing. Its random and often nonsensical nature will appeal to primary school children and should inspire some creative results.
http://www.consultpivotal.com/e_storystarters.htm
Just for fun What do you call a cow that munches on your lawn? m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m A lawn mooer
This week’s books…
Modern cynics and skeptics... see no harm in paying those to whom
they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid
to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing.
Have a great week!
Bronwyn This ezine has been brought to you by Pivotal Kids. Please share it with someone who might like to read it. If you would like to receive new issues, please send me an email. I will not give your address to anyone for any reason. To stop receiving them, please just send an email with unsubscribe_kids_ezine in the subject line.
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