Getting a child to eat healthy food can be a monumental challenge for any parent. However, studies show that all of the haggling, arguing, and hassle is actually worth the effort as a healthy diet leads to enhanced academic performance in school. In fact, malnourished children often struggle in school because they are more likely to miss school, score lower on standardized tests, and repeat grades. Worse, bad eating habits can lead to serious health problems, such as diabetes, that not only affect academic performance but a student’s ability to participate in extracurricular activities.
When you follow the chain of negative events, starting with bad nutrition, it is easy to see how a child’s academic career can suffer. For example, bad nutrition leads to a weakened immune system, which leads to increased doctor visits and missed school days. Missing school makes it harder for students to maintain their grades or keep up with lessons. Even if a student can keep up, bad nutrition can interfere with their ability to accept and digest information. Too much sugar, for instance, can cause attention deficit disorder-like symptoms and chronic headaches, making learning nearly impossible.
These particular nutrition problems usually arise when kids are left in charge of preparing their own breakfast and lunch. If they don’t skip meals all together, they usually are making poor food choices. Out of convenience, kids are drawn to processed foods that are high in sugar, sodium and fat. This brand of malnutrition is particularly insidious because health, growth and cognitive problems may not be noticed until a serious issue has developed.
The simple act of eating breakfast can make a world of difference in warding off many of these health problems. According to the Dairy Council of California, “A nutritious breakfast provides approximately one-fourth of the recommended dietary allowances for key nutrients such as protein, vitamin A, vitamin B6, calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc.” This explains why schools offering breakfast service have seen such major improvements in their students’ overall health, attitude and performance.
However, breakfast is just one of the many ways parents can ensure their kids get a healthy start. Following are some additional suggestions for teaching your children healthy eating habits.
5 Tips to Better Student Nutrition:
1. Don’t make the mistake of offering a wide variety of packaged snack items; rather offer a few healthy snacks like fresh fruits, trail mix, or cheese.
2. Make sure the school offers healthy options for lunch and snack; otherwise pack your child’s lunch.
3. Bring your kids to the grocery store to help choose their favorite foods.
4. Limit their intake of high-sugar drinks including fruit-flavored drinks such as punch, soda and even 100% fruit juice.
5. Let your kids help prepare a healthy meal; they’ll have a great time learning to eat nutritiously.
Showing posts with label schools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label schools. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Finding Your Perfect Home
If you have decided to pick up everything and move to a new city, you are probably full of mixed emotions. It can be exciting to move but it can also be a nerve-racking experience. How can you find a neighborhood that is right for you without ever having lived in that city? Its a difficult decision if you are renting and an even tougher decision if you are committing to buying a home. Read along, and this article will give you some tips on choosing the perfect neighborhood for you and your family.
The first thing that you need to take into consideration is what kind of home you are looking for. Do you want a house, a condo, an apartment or a townhouse? Do you want to live in an active city or a slow paced suburb? Is it important that you be close to shopping, restaurants, or parks? Before you start looking, decide what type of home and area you want. It will save you quite a bit of time.
Once you find a possible area, you need to take into account the crime rate. Everyone wants to live in a safe neighborhood. The easiest way to find crime statistics is to call the local police department. They should be able to give you statistics. You also want to look at the sex offender registry to make sure that your area is not heavily populated with sex offenders. Lastly, look around closely at your neighborhood for signs of crime. Look for broken glass, bars on windows and doors, graffiti and people loitering. If you can, drive the neighborhood at night. Many neighborhoods look like heaven in the daylight but quickly become hell when the sun goes down.
If you are moving with children, you will want to look at the local school system next. Are the schools in walking distance or will your kids have to ride a bus? How do the schools rank? You should be able to do a search online for the school district and come up with rankings. Even if you do not have kids, you should probably look into the school system. Who knows, you might one day decide to have children. Also if you are buying the home, you want a good school system. Bad schools make for lower property values and homes that are harder to sell.
If you are purchasing your home, you must also look at what the property values are doing. Are they moving up or are they stagnant or even falling. Your realtor should be able to let you know. If they aren't much help, do a search for the county's tax appraiser online. They will probably have a searchable database with previous years home values. If that fails, look to see if the neighborhood is kept up. Are yards neatly trimmed or are they overgrown and full of weeds. Do people pick up the trash or are cans, cigarette butts and bottles thrown about. If the neighborhood isn't kept up, you can probably bet that it is on a downward slide.
It might seem like a lot of work to do this much research on your new home, but it is better than choosing a bad one. If you sign a lease on a bad home, you might be stuck there for one or even two years. If you buy a home in the wrong neighborhood, you might be unable to sell it and may be stuck there longer. Do your research however and you will dramatically improve your odds of finding your perfect home.
The first thing that you need to take into consideration is what kind of home you are looking for. Do you want a house, a condo, an apartment or a townhouse? Do you want to live in an active city or a slow paced suburb? Is it important that you be close to shopping, restaurants, or parks? Before you start looking, decide what type of home and area you want. It will save you quite a bit of time.
Once you find a possible area, you need to take into account the crime rate. Everyone wants to live in a safe neighborhood. The easiest way to find crime statistics is to call the local police department. They should be able to give you statistics. You also want to look at the sex offender registry to make sure that your area is not heavily populated with sex offenders. Lastly, look around closely at your neighborhood for signs of crime. Look for broken glass, bars on windows and doors, graffiti and people loitering. If you can, drive the neighborhood at night. Many neighborhoods look like heaven in the daylight but quickly become hell when the sun goes down.
If you are moving with children, you will want to look at the local school system next. Are the schools in walking distance or will your kids have to ride a bus? How do the schools rank? You should be able to do a search online for the school district and come up with rankings. Even if you do not have kids, you should probably look into the school system. Who knows, you might one day decide to have children. Also if you are buying the home, you want a good school system. Bad schools make for lower property values and homes that are harder to sell.
If you are purchasing your home, you must also look at what the property values are doing. Are they moving up or are they stagnant or even falling. Your realtor should be able to let you know. If they aren't much help, do a search for the county's tax appraiser online. They will probably have a searchable database with previous years home values. If that fails, look to see if the neighborhood is kept up. Are yards neatly trimmed or are they overgrown and full of weeds. Do people pick up the trash or are cans, cigarette butts and bottles thrown about. If the neighborhood isn't kept up, you can probably bet that it is on a downward slide.
It might seem like a lot of work to do this much research on your new home, but it is better than choosing a bad one. If you sign a lease on a bad home, you might be stuck there for one or even two years. If you buy a home in the wrong neighborhood, you might be unable to sell it and may be stuck there longer. Do your research however and you will dramatically improve your odds of finding your perfect home.
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