Whether you are experiencing your first child or your third – or even more – it’s never too late to learn new ways to help support your child and guide them to building a beautiful life. Our duty as parents is to help shepherd them to make the best out of their capabilities, and it isn’t as simple as throwing out some seeds and watching them sprout.
It’s a labor of love, figuratively and literally, to raise them and provide for them the tools to care for their health and to find joy. Life is filled with dangerous situations and pitfalls, many of which rear their heads around adolescence and even into their adult lives. Planting the seeds of love, happiness, and good health can help keep these issues at bay. That’s why we’re going to go over some ways that you can aim to keep your child healthy and happy in many different ways!
Bonding Experiences That Provide Mental Stimulation and Exercise
Spending time together is one of the best ways to build a close and loving bond. You can get the most out of these experiences by turning them into valuable learning opportunities to stimulate their minds and instill an interest in various subjects. So let’s explore some ways that you can guide your child’s mind.
- Art Galleries: If your child is old enough and understands not to touch the art, galleries are a great way to introduce them to valuable expression skills. Learning about the artists and their origins can help remind them that even the most talented people are still just people – and show that they too could accomplish this if they desire it and set their mind to it.
- Natural History Museum: A natural history museum maybe a little dry for some, but getting to experience the past and understand how certain factors shaped the world and civilizations would help expand their minds into better understanding complex scenarios.
- Specialized Museums: Depending on the interests your child or family may express, you may also find intrigue in several museums dedicated to specific topics like Automotive Museums for a car-loving child or Aerospace Museums for the ones that dream of being an astronaut.
- Aquariums: Aquariums are a bountiful learning experience where you get to view animals that live deep underwater. This offers an opportunity to inspire an interest in science and biology and a passion for the wellbeing of the planet and its oceans.
Nutritious Foods That Taste Great
We all know the physical and emotional challenges well-you are what you eat!” but it is more accurate than we give it credence. However, nutritional science is way more complicated than most people know. This is why getting a little help is never a bad idea. Some people even use planners who can cut out the extra work of formulating a nutritionally complete meal that is suited for your family and their growing bodies.
You can get complete vegan meal plans delivered to your door and cut out the extra shopping. That also means less calorie and nutritional math. Studies show that clean, vegan eating provides nutrient-dense foods rich in antioxidants and pure protein. This supports a robust, nutritionally diverse food experience for your young ones. It can help them understand and appreciate healthy eating practices that can influence choices as an adult and open their palates to new food experiences.
As an added benefit, it provides you an opportunity to teach them about foods from different cultures, ecology, and a consideration for how green eating can impact our environment.
Teach Them About Nature
Whether we live on a farm or in the big city, nature is still a part of our human experience. Teaching your children how the world around them can provide them with exercise, fresh air, and give them peace of mind, thus satisfying our goals of health and happiness. You can also introduce them to beaches, parks, and unique terrains in your local biomes. Just make sure you pack the sunscreen and ensure that it is an age-appropriate location for your child.
Taking time to walk through nature trails, hiking, or even camping are great ways to build strength, independence, and an understanding of safety. In addition, these kinds of exercises can make a strong heart and legs.
Studies have shown that nature reduces stress, anger, frustration, and fear. Meanwhile, it also reduces the associated stress hormones, balances the heart rate, blood pressure, and induces positive emotions. This extends even beyond the similar positive effects that exercise alone can provide emotionally.
Provide Them With The Sleep They Need
Sleep is more than just resting – even as adults, our brains utilize sleep to process vast quantities of information and skills. This is especially important for children, whose brains are soaking up an incredible amount of information like sponges. The science about understanding how much sleep children need has changed, but they certainly need more than we do. Let’s take a took at some of the current guidelines for sleep:
- 4 Months to 1 Year: For babies within this age range, they recommend that you let them sleep an enviable 12 to 16 hours in 24 hours. This includes time spent napping in addition to the night’s sleep. It is typically between the four and six-month range that your baby will begin to develop their circadian rhythm and start to sleep in larger blocks of time. It is recommended that you have a high-quality crib mattress to help them remain comfortable
- 1 Year to 2 Years: For toddlers in this age range, the recommended amount of sleep is 11 to 14 hours. Only slightly less than before as they begin to develop better sleeping habits. Still, it is essential to make sure that they receive adequate time to rest and take naps.
- 3 Years to 5 Years: As your child develops more physically and mentally, their recommended window of sleep is 10 to 13 hours. They will still need their naps and breaks, but you may find them becoming less frequent.
- Six years to 12 years: Their sleep requirements continue to decrease during these ages but remain incredibly important. It is recommended that they sleep within a 9 to 12-hour time frame.
- Thirteen years to 18 years: As your child begins to approach maturity, the sleep recommendations start to shift to the adult sleep requirement of 8 to 10 hours.
Encourage Artistic Endeavors
Encouraging your child to explore artistic endeavors will help them understand their feelings and express them across a number of mediums. Even at an early age, there are several ways in which this can be done to do with appropriate tools and mediums. In addition, encouragement and positive response to their work is vital. Here are some common expressive mediums:
- Sculpting
- Writing
- Drawing
- Painting
- Music
These can even be turned into group or family activities and use this time to share thoughts and communicate feelings.
Spend Time Reading Together
Reading offers significant improvement in cognitive function and reasoning skills. You may begin reading to them at a young age. As they develop their reading skills, you can have them take over reading different passages to challenge them, eventually letting them take over the reading aloud. This can boost their confidence, and studies have shown that reading increases happiness, empathy, mental health and reduces the chances of Alzheimer’s later in life. That means this simple act can also help with both fronts of health and happiness.
There are a lot of things you can do to keep your child happy and healthy across all spectrums of wellbeing. It isn’t an easy task, as rearing your children will always be fraught with challenges, both physical and emotional. But you are bringing a new life into this world, and we know now more than ever, that we need more brilliant people. We need more artists, and people who will inspire beauty in their path. We need sharp and cunning minds to innovate science and protect our natural environments and explore new medicines. And you can help bring that into this world.