5 Good Ideas

Just putting this here, I read it someplace and thought I might like a copy to hold myself accountable. So far we are doing pretty well. Of course, it is pretty easy to work up a sweat here in Texas (see #1). It is currently in the mid-eighties here in November!

The research is telling us that if we want to improve attitudes, mental and physical health and academic performance, we as parents need to promote the following 5 things:

• Children need to play outside for at least an hour after the school day. They should be at the point where they are almost sweating.

• Dinner with your family every night or at least 4 times a week. This is shown to decrease eating disorders in females, decrease smoking and drug abuse rates in males and recent research suggests it teaches life-long good eating habits—more fruits and vegetables.

• Early to bed. Research suggests that children need 10-12 hours of sleep a day to be ready to learn.

• Limited television, video games and computer time, especially an hour before bed time.

• Reading time every evening. This is a great time for the whole family to sit and read together.