Bilingual children in poor families are at increased risk for falling behind in reading and language skills during the summer holidays, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Parents should provide these children with language-rich activities over the summer, says the ASHA, which offers the following tips:

* Talk to your child in the language you’re most comfortable using, even if it’s not the language used at school. For example, have more conversations with your child about what he or she did during the day, play board games together, work on a home project.
* Set aside time every day to read with your child.
* Enroll your child in summer camps and activities (some city- or YMCA-run camps are more affordable or offer sliding-scale fees for low-income families). This will help their language skills continue to grow.
* If your child enjoys spending time on the computer, direct him or her to Web sites that have fun, interactive language-based games that build vocabulary and reinforce topics learned at school.

source: Yahoo! News

This is a guest post by Wendy Teller

The other day, I turned on my Direct.TV and started surfing channels. I found a show on TV called Family Guy. It looked funny, so I decided to watch it. This show is about an American family with a dad, mom, three kids, and a dog. The dog talks. So does the youngest child. Well, I think he talks. It seems like some people, especially the dog, can understand him, but I don’t think that everyone can.

Anyway, in this episode, the family is having a garage sale. Brian, the dog, accidently sells the baby’s teddy bear. Stewie (the baby) is very upset about this, but Brian lies about it. Brian tries to make it up to him by buying him a new one, but ends up telling Stewie that he sold the bear. Stewie tries to find the bear using some kind of DNA tracking device.

I thought this show was really weird. What kind of child uses a DNA tracking device. And what kind of a dog sell things at a garage sell? Better yet, what kind of a dog can talk?

Through out the show, it seemed that the dad was really really rude to his daughter, who was his personal driver for some reason. He spends the episode trying to annoy her. He even tries to set him on fire.

I didn’t really understand the humor of a lot of the episode. There were funny parts here and there, but nothing amazing. I think I will have to watch this show a few more times to be able to understand it.

Reading is one skill that children must be mastered early on. Because of low reading ability, children would have an impact on weakness mastery of science and mathematics. Later on, this question arises, whether the technique of reading or foster child’s interest toward reading should take precedence. Please note that children aged 18 months to 4 years old have a great curiosity. Curiosity is not only appearing when viewing color images in the book, but also symbols of numbers and letters contained in the book.

Introduction to the enjoyment and love of books can be started by parents through the family environment, by giving examples. Parents can set an example by showing the habit of reading books in front of their children. When the children became interested in the reading of his parents, teach the kids interact with books. Parents can read books or told about the contents of books or reading material they read when their children are interested to participate in reading.

Do not forget that parents create a safe and comfortable atmosphere for reading to children. Children who are interested in a reading will often ask their parents. This is an important moment for the lessons to read and understand the contents of the reading. Parents must be willing and able to provide facilities which prompted a discussion about the reading asked by their children. This was at once trains analytical and comprehension skills of the children.

If you just experienced your beloved children losing their control, give a good example for them by demonstrating healthy ways to react to situations that can make them depressed. No matter how difficult it is, keep trying not to scream when you’re disciplining your children. Instead, try to clear and focus on the problem.

When your child has calmed down, stay calm and explain that yelling, cursing, and slamming doors are unacceptable behaviors and there are consequences – then explain the consequences. Your actions can show that anger is not the correct way for children to ask for something. If your child is angry at the department store, once you have just explained why you do not want to buy candy for her, do not despair – this shows that anger is something that is not acceptable and is not effective for them to do.

Consider talking with your child’s teacher about classroom arrangement and proper behavior which is expected. Try to remember your own actions, whether you are overcoming as well as possible about the situation which is depressing. If not, you may want to ask your doctor whether family counseling is necessary for your beloved family.

In the world nowadays there are so many bad things can happen to us and our children. Therefore as a good parent, we must be able to protect them from any kinds of danger, whether it is from the outside or from the inside.

Providing our kids a safe place to grow is one important thing that we should consider. Choosing the suitable neighborhood for our kids development is also plays crucial role. With a good neighborhood it is hopefully our kids are able to grow without worrying any kinds of danger that can harm them. Choosing a place to live is important, because when we are living in a bad place our kids are able learn various things that is not suitable for their age. Many lessons that they receive from a bad neighborhood are destructive and dangerous. It is dangerous for their mental and physical development. Therefore we must be very careful in selecting the place we want to live. If the situation is not allowing us to have suitable neighborhood for our kids to grow, then parent must be able to teach their kids about what is good and what is bad.

Being a parent is not an easy job, therefore a good preparation is crucial in welcoming our God given gift to this world. We are surely do not want anything bad happen to our children.