A. Does your environment provide the same language you and your partner speak ? This will mean you will have to invest a lot of effort to expose your child to another language.

B. Or is the dominant language of your environment (language of the country/school/nursery) different from yours ? In that case you will be faced with relatively low effort. Below is a summary of key challenges and recommendations for the high effort scenario.

Monolingual parents in a same-language environment (e.g. English speaking parents in an English speaking country)

You are speaking your native language to your child(ren) and the environment you live in surrounds your children with that same language as well. Your environment does not help you with your goal to bring your children up bi-lingually, all the effort will have to come from you.

Parental Effort Required for Bilingual Children: High Effort

Special Challenges: Enough second language exposure in your children’s life.

Special Advice: Find others in the same boat and tackle the project together.

Parental Effort:

Your children are spending all their time in one language, be it in the environment (school/friends) or at home. In order to give your children the gift of bilingualism you have to “adopt” a new language into your DAILY life. For your children to eventually become fluent in a language, they need to have regular, continuous exposure to it – a 1 hour/week language club alone is not enough (although this would be a start and could be the basis for a later increase in exposure). If you aim for bilingualism, i.e. sophisticated language skills – as opposed to basic skills – your children should be exposed to the language for at least 1 hour a day. As the environment does not help you, all the effort will have to come from you – but it will be worth it ! You need to find enough language opportunities for your children which they can enjoy (personal interactions and media), plan trips to the country, show an interest/respect in the people from the country and maybe learn the language yourself. A good idea is to join or start a support group to surround yourself by others in a similar situation who can encourage you along the way.

Special Challenges:

You need to be very organised and maybe also creative to keep enough exposure to the 2nd language in your life, as all language input will come from third parties. Your children might already have a full calendar of after-school activities and you might have budget restrictions which don’t allow you to add more classes/courses or tutors.

From a motivational perspective your challenge is to make the exposure to the new language fun and enjoyable for your children rather than a chore. This can be done by choosing the right quality with the help of a good support network and by varying the type of language resource you choose.

Special Advice:

1. Get support: Join a support network and find other families in the same situation. Teaming up with others in the same situation makes your job much easier. Not only do you have others to share your experiences and challenges with, you can also bring together enough children to start new clubs/courses. You can swap materials to keep the language input new and interesting without spending more money. Your children might also find it more fun and less daunting to see other children with similar background in the same situation. A support network can get you in touch with equally committed families and save you the job of having to find new language opportunities by phoning around.

2. Build your own resource library. Start collecting ideas and sources for language resources which can help you create extra exposure of your children to the second language, e.g. media (TV, DVD, books, music, and interactive computer games). You can find a selection of resources online at the Multilingual Network.

3. If you can, read to your children in the second language. You can read books in a second language to your child – provided your language skills are good enough. This is a great way to extend vocabulary.

4. Nourish and build your children’s pride in making the effort to learn another language. Mono-lingual peers (and their parents) might not understand your motivation to exposing your child to a foreign language. Their comments might make you/your children unsure of whether it is all worth it. General advice: never take advice from someone on something, unless they have done it successfully themselves ! Surround yourself with people who are positive and supportive rather than holding you back. As your children’s school/peers might not reward/recognise your child’s new skills, you should praise your child lots and highlight to your children regularly how wonderful they are being able to speak in two languages, keeping friendships with children from different countries etc. Don’t take it for granted, talk about it!

Silke Rehman is a co-active life coach specializing in helping powerful women, who dream of making a real difference in this world. She coaches because she loves seeing her clients grow and achieve things they did not think were possible. Silke shares her thoughts and expertise with the world at http://www.developandgrow.com and you can buy her book “Make Your Child Multilingual!” here Raising Bilingual & Multilingual Children

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Studies have shown that forcing your child not to do a particular thing can have adverse effects. Children cannot be ‘tamed’ by force. We must understand this. If parents keep on trying to discipline their children, the expected results would never come.

This does not mean that parents should not do anything about their children if they do no study properly. There always is a middle way. Online Tutoring is perhaps a smart approach to educating children without alienating them. Parents, instead of shouting at their children, should embrace the power of the Internet. Let’s face it, children love surfing the Internet. Ask them and they would have a sea of information at their disposal about social networking, instant messaging, and technology.

Children love making friends online. Why not then connect them with experienced online tutors specializing in online math tutoring, homework help or even assignment help? If utilized properly, online tutoring can deliver great results. It is all about extracting the best out of technology and education to provide kids with right mentoring.

Children should not feel burdened while learning math or science online. Tutors should exhibit patience while teaching kids over the World Wide Web. Generally, an online tutoring session lasts for an hour. Hence, tutors should ensure that they make the most out of every session.

Accept it or not, children prefer a friend over a teacher. Online tutors, therefore, should try developing a friendly rapport with their students. The purpose of online tutoring is not to help children solve a few problems. It is more about helping the child apply those concepts in real life. After all, education is of no use if it cannot be applied to our day-to-day life.

Children have an amazing sense of humor. They love to laugh. They love to play. Using games, toys, eatables, and stories to teach them is therefore quite productive. Coming back to the media habits of children, parents should encourage their children to use the Internet to enrich their general knowledge. Online Games are not always bad. There are many games available on the Internet that can really try the IQ of children.

Try teaching a child how to subtract 3 from 5, and you might face disappointment. However ask him/her this “suppose your Mom brings 5 chocolates for you and your brother takes 2 from you, how many chocolates you will have?” and you might get the right answer. Online Tutoring, especially online math assistance, can be made simple by including fun ways to teach.

The human brain grasps the best when something interests it the most. The key to productive tutoring is encouraging the child to ‘imagine’.

Over 25 million children can be found online! While you cannot keep an eye on which websites does your child visit, you can definitely do something that would not offend your child and still provide him with quality education. Online Tutoring is perhaps a smart approach to educating children without alienating them. Parents, instead of shouting at their children, should embrace the power of the Internet. Let’s face it, children love surfing the Internet. Ask them and they would have a sea of information at their disposal about social networking, instant messaging, and technology.

The Author brings over 6 years of e-learning and online tutoring experience. Having a deep understanding of pedagogy and child psychology, the writer has developed numerous strategies to improve e-learning and online tutoring for Grades K-12 and higher through various techniques that question the conventional ways of instructing. website: http://www.brainquotient.com

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1. Shop secondhand stores, yard sales, consignment shops and at factory outlets.
2. Create a clothing co-op. Buy clothes from parents with older children, or develop a swap.
3. Pack clothes in storage bins once your children outgrow them. Reuse them when your younger children grow into them, sell them at a garage/yard sale or through a consignment shop, or donate them to a charity for a tax deduction.
4. Ask family members to save the clothes their children grow out of, or do not want anymore. You can then go through the clothes and see what you want to keep.
5. Search online for online coupons and free shipping codes.
6. Shop off-season to find clothes on sale – shop in the spring for winter clothes on sale and in the fall for summer clothes on sale.
7. Buy children’s clothing in a slightly larger size so they last a few seasons.
8. Avoid back-to-school sales since the clothes will be 50 percent off two weeks later.
9. Add your name to store mailing lists to receive coupons and sale information.
10. Inventory and organize the clothing in closets so you know what you have or don’t have prior to shopping.

Teach your children to keep clean clothes out of the laundry basket. Clothing lasts longer with fewer washes!

Hilary Basile is a writer for MyGuidesUSA.com. At http://www.myguidesusa.com, you will find valuable tips and resources for handling life’s major events. Whether you’re planning a wedding, buying your first home, anxiously awaiting the birth of a child, contending with a divorce, searching for a new job, or planning for your retirement, you’ll find answers to your questions at MyGuidesUSA.com.

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As a parent, I’m always looking for ways to teach my children life long lessons about money. One of the best teaching tools I have found is money! What I really like about money as a teaching tool is not only its effectiveness in teaching my children, but also its effectiveness in reducing my taxes!

In a recent article, I asked you to think about this question:

What Tasks Can Your Children Do For Your Business?

What tasks did you come up with? Here are some of the more common tasks:

- Filing
- Cleaning
- Answering phones
- Running errands
- Data entry
- Maintaining the company’s online presence
- Updating the company website
- Research

As you can see from this short list, the tasks can range from simple to complex depending on your child’s skill set. The more advanced your child’s skill set, the more your child can earn – keep reading to find out why this is a good thing!

- How To Legally Reduce Your Taxes By Hiring Your Children -

When your company pays your children, this is money that your company would usually:

Distribute or pay to you, or
Pay to another employee to do the tasks

If the money is distributed or paid to you, it is taxed at your individual tax rate. If the money is paid to another employee, then that money is leaving your family circle and can no longer work for you and your family.

Having your company hire your children keeps the money in your family and moves the income from your tax rate to your children’s tax rates.

Your children’s tax rates start at 0%. This means if you are in a 30% tax rate, then paying your children shifts income from your 30% tax rate to your children’s 0% tax rate and you reduce your taxes!

- Your Children’s Tax Rates -

The first $5,450 of earned income to each child is taxed at 0%. What happens if your children earn more than this amount? You may still save taxes because your children also have 10% and 15% tax brackets. This provides great opportunity to shift your income to a lower tax bracket!

What about payroll taxes?

Your business and your child may be responsible for payroll taxes, which total approximately 15%. Don’t forget to factor this in when you are calculating how much you save in taxes by hiring your children.

However, there are exceptions to this rule. These exceptions exempt some businesses from having to pay payroll taxes on wages paid to children of the owners. The rules are very specific to each situation so be sure to discuss this with your tax coach.

Getting your children in the game and on your payroll provides many opportunities to reduce your taxes. Even more exciting is what your children can do with this money to put their money to work.

Tom Wheelwright is not only the founder and CEO of Provision, but he is the creative force behind Provision Wealth Strategists. In addition to his management responsibilities, Tom likes to coach clients on wealth, business, and tax strategies. Along with his frequent seminars on these strategies, Tom is an adjunct professor in the Masters of Tax program at Arizona State University. For more information please visit http://www.provisionwealth.com

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Developing healthy peer relationships is critical for the normal development of a child. Peer relationships have been found to be an important predictor of positive adult adjustment and behavior. Difficulty in finding friends leads to feelings of low self-esteem and these feelings usually continue into adulthood.

Children with poor social skills are at risk for delinquency, academic underachievement, and school drop out. Even though the inattentiveness, impulsiveness, and restlessness frequently persist into adult life, these problems are of less importance as the child gets older. Rather, the main difficulty ADHD patients encounter as they reach maturity is their inability to interact appropriately with others.

ADHD children often lack the social skills that are essential to success in life. These children can be socially inept, and their lack of interpersonal skills may cause them a multitude of difficulties. In addition, positive relationships with friends in childhood provide a critical buffer against stress and help to protect against psychological and psychiatric problems. ADHD children lack these positive interactions and thus are at risk for a number of emotional problems.

Probably 60% of ADHD children suffer from peer rejection. ADHD children are less often chosen by peers to be best friends, partners in activities, or seatmates. As the children grow older, their social problems seem to get worse. Their inappropriate behavior leads to further social rejection and exacerbates their inability to relate to others appropriately. Long term these children are more likely to have difficulty finding and maintaining successful careers. This is not surprising since social aptitude can make or break careers and relationships in the adult world.

Causes of Poor Peer Relationships

ADHD children are frequently disliked or neglected by their peers. It is difficult to determine all the factors that make a child unpopular, but children who frequently display aggressive or negative behavior tend to be rejected by their peers.

Impulsivity and Aggression

ADHD children tend to be more impulsive and aggressive than other children. Teachers observe that the social interactions of ADHD children more often involve fighting and interrupting others. These children are more intense than others and behave inappropriately in social contexts. For example, ADHD children are more likely to yell, run around and talk at unsuitable times. They also tend to want to dominate play, engage in off task behaviors and engage more in teasing and physical jostling of peers. This sets up a process of peer rejection.

Academic Problems

ADHD children often do not do well in school. Poor school performance by itself does not result in social rejection. However, the way the child responds to his academic difficulties can contribute to inappropriate social behavior. Children who cannot engage themselves with classroom work assignments often disrupt and irritate their peers.

Inattention

ADHD children have difficulty with sustained attention. Deficit in attention seems to be related to peer rejection independently of the aggressive, impulsive, and hyperactive behaviors of ADHD children. These children become bored more easily than other children. As a result, they are more likely to become disruptive in the classroom.

ADHD children have difficulty in modulating their behavior and changing their conduct as the situation demands. They have apparent social-cognitive deficits that limit their ability to encode and recall rules of social cues. Children with ADHD pay less attention to others verbally in games and other activities.

Many ADHD children are aware that they are socially inept. Children who are anxious or fearful about peer relations are unlikely to behave in an effective manner. These children withdraw from peer interactions and, in this way, limit their ability to gain acceptance and friendship.

Children are rejected by peers when they appear to be different. Similarity fosters social acceptance. Because ADHD children do not learn social clues as well as other children, they tend to be viewed as strange.

Bad Behavior

One of the keys to your child’s social success is proper behavior. If your ADHD or ODD child frequently misbehaves, it is your obligation as a parent to teach your child how to improve his behavior.

If your child is aggressive or defiant, if he does not accept the authority of adults, or if he conducts himself in a such a way that children his age will view him as a behavior problem, then your child will have a difficult time making and maintaining friendships. The friends he will attract are other aggressive problem children, the type of child with whom which you would rather your child not associate.

All children need friends. Behavior problem children have trouble making friends with others, so these children tend to congregate together. They reinforce each other’s bad behavior. If you are an aware parent and you have control of your child you can put a stop to friendships with these children. However, you must have control of your child’s behavior in order to help him to avoid the trap of bad friends.

Conclusion

Helping children with ADHD build close peer relationships is an important goal to focus on, and is one that often may be over looked. You, as a parent, have the ability to help your child accomplish this important social goal. You should make every effort to help your child in this area. His psychological health and his happiness, both now and in the future, are very much dependent upon how successful he is at making and maintaining childhood friendships.

About The Author

Anthony Kane, MD is a physician, an international lecturer, and director of special education. He is the author of a book, numerous articles, and a number of online programs dealing with ADHD (addadhdadvances.com/childyoulove.html) treatment, ODD, parenting issues (addadhdadvances.com/betterbehavior.html), and education. You may visit his website at http://addadhdadvances.com. To sign up for the free ADD ADHD Advances online journal send a blank email to: subscribe@addadhdadvances.com?subject=subscribeartcity

akane@addadhdadvances.com

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