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Celebrating Thanksgiving Worldwide

Americans are not the only nationality to celebrate Thanksgiving. Just about every country has celebrated a bountiful harvest and a time of giving thanks. Though these harvests and celebratory days are not all at the same time, and have different rituals and customs associated with them, they are still family celebrations none the less. One of the things each of these holidays and celebrations have in common is that they involve food.

Thanksgiving in the United States

In November, more than 350 years ago, the pilgrims and the Native Americans gathered together for three days, singing, dancing, and feasting on wild turkey, fish, Indian corn, and venison. Today, families still get together, eat a grand dinner, try out new Thanksgiving dessert recipes, and enjoy each other’s company.

Incwala in South Africa

In December, this six-day festival, also called the Festival of the First Fruits, includes priests gathering seawater and foam from the ocean, young men cutting branches from a Lusekwane tree, and lots of chanting and dancing. The highlight of the event is when the king bites, chews, and then spits out the first piece of fresh fruit of the season. Now, all people have permission to eat their crops.

Lammas Day in the British Isles

On August 1, during medieval times, the first wheat harvest took place. People would bake bread and place it on church altars as offerings. They also made dolls out of sheaves of grain and then planted them in the spring to ensure a plentiful crop. Today, fairs are still held throughout the British Isles to commemorate the annual harvest.

There are many more interesting and unique harvest celebrations and events to give thanks held all around the world. Each holiday has its own customs, but they are all happy times spent with loved ones.

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What Busy Parents Should Know About Child Care

Parenting in today’s economy is no walk in the park. Trying to work and spend time with your children seems to be a constant struggle for many these days. Not to mention trying to stay up to date on all the new health findings that affect your child.

Nutrition

Mommy may have to go to work every morning, but she can make sure her kids get a wholesome breakfast. This is the beginning of the day for both you and your kids, so start it off right with healthy food. Get in all the four food groups.

Teaching Responsibility

If you have a teenager, give him some responsibilities. Small, but important things he can do to help mommy out around the house. Chores, helping with younger siblings, and even some cooking can both help ease your workload and help a teenager’s transition from childhood to adulthood. Each teenager is different and you will have to gauge how much he or she can handle.

Time and Attention

There is no replacing time spent with your children. You have to work and when you get home you will most likely be dead tired, but you must spend time with your kids. This is something that every child needs. Check up on their homework when you get home. If you can, make it back for dinner and have a family meal together every night. On your days off, make it a point to take them out and have some fun together. It will do mommy and the children wonders.

Funds

Aside from the above, parenting is also about providing financial security for the family. If you run short, don’t let the family feel insecure, get a payday advance. The less they have to worry about the better.

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Giving Your Children a Good Future

Like most parents, you probably want the best for your children. How can you raise a happy, healthy child, and ensure a good future?

Naturally, good parenting starts with a caring environment. You want to create a warm home where your child feels loved and secure. Make sure your children know that you are happy to see them, and that you enjoy being with them.

On that note, spend time with your children. If you’re divorced, this may be more difficult, due to work obligations and your visitation schedule. Whatever your personal situation may be, it’s important that your children know that you care for them, and want to be with them.

Don’t feel like you need to entertain your children all the time. While putting in a movie may seem like the easiest way to pass the day, allow your children to do their own thing sometimes. Children need to imagine, create and play on their own.

Pay attention to your child’s education. Education is an important component of success, and you should be sure that your child is learning. Even if a child is in an excellent school, a good parent takes an active role in their learning. Even the best schools leave a few gaps, and as a parent, it’s your responsibility to fill those in.

Be an inspiring person. That sounds obvious, but it’s probably the most important thing you do as a parent. You’re a role model. Your children watch you and learn how to behave. So, work hard, enjoy life, and be an excellent parent.

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What to do When Your Child is Driving

Result of a serious automobile accident.

Image via Wikipedia

When you kid gets their license for the first time you are probably thinking it’s a good idea to sell the car altogether. Let’s be honest, the idea of them driving is terrifying because you know they don’t pay attention and they are often absent minded people. But just because they have a few faults doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get the chance to learn the value of a responsibility like driving.

For you that means that having to set a number of ground rules that they can live by. This could range from anything but you’ll want to start with a curfew. You don’t want them having the car past a certain point in the night. Make sure you let them know that there are severe consequences for bringing the car in late. If you do not lay down the law then they won’t believe in it and will walk all over it.

The next thing you must enforce is that they pay for the cost of their own insurance, or at least help towards paying for that cost. It seems silly but it’s very true. They need to learn about the money it costs to own a car. It will give them a deeper appreciation for the car and it’s value and will help them avoid trouble. Plus it will keep them from taking anything for granted.

Just because they are getting a little freedom doesn’t mean that it has to be your nightmare. With simple ground rules and a set of reasonable expectations you will find that there is no reason whatsoever for you to worry about them.

 

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The Games of Youth: Virtual Casinos

It was a trade of cards, a toss of pennies and poker chips. Games were once confined to basements and lazy afternoons, with teens sharing gossip between rounds, indulging in laughter.

Now, however, the rules have changed: gambling has become an online experience, with skills earned with every press of a mouse, every glance to a screen. Strategies are explored (and mastered). Profits are earned. And you, as a parent, fret over the implications, the legality.

Your concerns are reasonable. They’re not, however, needed.

Youths can indulge in any online casino—as long as they are 18 and understand the responsibility they now wield. It’s not an offense to use the Internet for gaming; the restrictions come from age, not poker tables. Once this has been stressed, teens can try to gain the excitement they crave. It merely becomes imperative that all parents (including you) stress the importance of choosing the correct site.

Never allow your child to simply start playing. Be certain you both research any possible web pages carefully, seeking out client testimonials and references. All licenses should be displayed, all security elements should be explained—as well as created by impartial third-parties, and privacy measures should be detailed, including encryption codes and agreements to keep all personal information within the site (rather than trading it to other companies).

Always monitor the hours that your teen devotes to playing. While an online casino is undeniably exciting, it’s also potentially addictive. Compulsions are all too easy to gain while gambling, and youths are more likely to submit to those sensations. They define themselves to impulses and the immediacy of cards is often too great to deny. Create limits that will satisfy you both, demanding that school and household efforts be completed first.

Online gambling is a legal thrill. It merely requires an understanding of its rules and requirements. Discuss these with your teen and establish the necessary boundaries

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Learning Never Stops

Some of us never had the opportunity to go to college and earn a degree let alone a graduate degree like an MBA or PhD. But if we’re lucky, there is a person we’re close to who has gone through this experience and we get to share all the trials and tribulations with them. Sometimes we get to be a study partner and help them prepare for an exam or proofread a term paper. Although we didn’t do the research, we still get to benefit from being exposed to what they have learned. One thing I’m grateful for is being able to skip taking those strenuous college exams. I learned through a friend who was getting their MBA that the first big test they had to pass was the GMAT.

The GMAT is the exam every student must take if they want to get accepted into a graduate program. My friend was worried that she might fail until she stumbled upon a terrific GMAT prep course online. This was just like those old-fashioned prep books you would buy to get ready for tests like the SAT; but instead of learning by herself, she was actually participating in an online classroom atmosphere. She even had an instructor she could ask direct questions.

I know how beneficial this GMAT prep course was because she was able to explain to me all the different components that go into the exam. I even got to answer a sample question or two. Of course since I didn’t attend the class I got the answer wrong, but my friend knew the right answer. Thanks to this preparation she was able to take the test without any stress and plenty of confidence. Now armed with a high GMAT score, she can apply to many different colleges. I can’t wait to see what I’ll be learning from her next!

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Learning Advanced Driving Skills

Learning to drive can be one of the highlights of being a teen.  However, just because your state law says that age 16 is an appropriate time for this does not mean that your teen will be ready.  Some teens need longer in the learning stage than others, and some may need some special help or support before they are ready at all.  It is very important that you don’t rush your teen through just because they want to drive, this can be a deadly mistake.

Thousands of accidents each year could be avoided if the cars were not being driven by inexperienced drivers.  In many cases, it is not that the teen is doing anything wrong but rather that they simply don’t have the driving experience to know what to do if something went wrong.  For example, does your teen know what to do if their car starts hydroplaning?  What if a deer runs out in front of your teen’s car?  These are fairly common occurrences that can produce either a small problem or be the cause of a massive accident depending on how they are handled.

So, if your teenager is 16 but you don’t feel like they are ready to drive, what can you do?  It may be a trite saying, but practice makes perfect.  Let your teen drive with you in the car every chance you get.  Give them a chance to drive at night, to drive in the rain, to drive on the interstate.  These are experiences that will best be done while you are around to help with any questions or any problems that come up.

If you don’t feel like you are a good teacher, or your lessons turn into a battle of wills, maybe your child would benefit from professional instruction.  If you live in or near a major metropolitan area there is likely a variety of driving schools to choose from.  Do some research and find one that will work well for your family.

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How to make your Teen a responsible driver?

Driving can be really dangerous if the driver is a teenage children and not responsible enough to take care of traffic rules. The responsibility of making any child a responsible driver lies totally on the shoulders of their parents. You should know how to create perfect driving skills in your child. Never start teaching driving on the roads full of traffic and rush. In the beginning, parents should take their child to a safe parking area where they can practice openly without any fear. If you live in an area which is frequently hit by shoveling snows, you should teach your kids how to control the car skid. Your child should know different types of car crash accidents and the causes behind them.

Your child should know well all the traffic signs and it should be clear in their mind that they have to obey traffic signs and signals in any case. Discourage them whenever they break any traffic rule. Once your child starts learning, give car in their hand n different situations, just to make them as much experienced as possible.

You can also ask your child to pay the car insurance from his own pocket as it is a great way of making him responsible. He/she should know how to fill auto insurance claims as everyone of us knows that accident happens from nowhere.

Teach your child that music should not be so loud while driving as it shatters the concentration badly. Your child should know that one of the major reasons of car crash accidents is use of cell phone while driving.

If your child takes care of all the above mentioned things, he/she is no doubt a responsible driver.

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Tight Restirictions on Teen Driving

A national survey showed that teens, as a group, believe they are above average drivers. Anyone that has driven behind a teen or sat in the passenger seat next to one, knows that this is not really the case.

Teens are also much more likely to be involved in risky driving. Unfortunately due to peer pressure, seeking peer approval, and the way unsafe driving gives the appearance of maturity in their minds, teen drivers do not often consider the consequences of their actions while driving.

Because they believe they are above average drivers, and because there are so many reasons for them to take risks on the road, boundaries are needed to prevent accidents and deaths due to teen driving.

For new drivers, no driving after dark with friends in the car. Friends are a distraction. One may turn up the radio while another tells a funny joke while still another hangs out the window to try to talk to some guy in the next car. It is harder to see at night and accident rates increase exponentially depending on the time of day. A car load of teens at night is not a good safety risk.

No eating in the car. Eating takes hands. Eating takes hands that should be on the steering wheel of the vehicle at all times. Besides that, one dropped blob of ketchup or a misplaced pickle that falls on the teens’ clothes and the whole line of cars is suddenly piled up on top of each other.

No cell phone calls. Many states have outlawed talking and texting. However, many do not yet require a hands-free device for speaking. The problem is that it is not just a teens hands that are busy while he is on the phone, it is his brain. His lack of judgment and experience can cause a wreck at any time.

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Influence Your Teen’s Driving Habits

From the first time that a parent gets into a car with a child facing forward in the back seat, that parent has become the role model for driving for that child, forever.If a teen sees a parent get away with something he or she should not have gotten away with, the teen is more likely to try it his or her self.

While the style a parent uses while driving is very important, it can also be difficult to turn bad habits into good ones. Writing notes on an index card and taping it to your dashboard may help.

States have attempted to step in and create their own rules for teen driving. Many states are requiring advanced driver’s education class now. Many road test have been made more difficult in order to make sure that more people fail. Minimum ages for driving have also risen in many states. While the permit age is the same in many states, those states also ad more rules to their licensing to make sure that those who want to drive while following the rules, get to.

While there are ways to make sure teens are driving safely, some families are just not motivated enough to stick with any rules. Unfortunately, this is unacceptable. Teens have the chances to make adult decisions every day. Their brains, however, are not capable of weighing all of the consequences to make those decisions. Thus, teens drive recklessly, knowing there will be no consequences and assuming they can be both reckless and wreck-less. Unfortunately, they can not.

According to National Driving Statistics, teen drivers accounted for 12% of all fatal crashes in 2008. Besides that 19% of all deaths that occurred in car accidents involved a teen driver. Teen make up nowhere near 12 or 19% of the total driving population, yet they are still a part of this many accidents and accidental deaths per year.

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