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Communicating and Providing for Children Today
Aug
05
Tips for Kids and Summer Sports
By: kathy2 | Discussion (4)

Image courtesy of iphotosports

Image courtesy of iphotosports

With kids getting ready to go back to school, we need to remember that with the beginning of school comes the beginning of fall sports. And the training for these sports begins in the summer months. Here are some tips for anyone – not just our kids – who is going to be doing any activity outside.

  • Try to perform activities early in the morning or late in the evening. These are the cooler parts of the day.
  • If you are not used to the heat, spend some time out in it before you have to be out in it and pace yourself while you are working. People who are not used to the heat can become tired more easily than those who are in it more frequently.
  • Hydrate!!!!! Probably the easiest and most important thing you can do to be safe in the heat. Make sure you start drinking BEFORE you are actually thirsty. Thirst is our bodies’ way of telling us we are low on fluids (like the low fuel light or oil lights in our cars).
  • Avoid drinks with caffeine or alcohol. These can dehydrate you. Sports drinks like Gatorade or PowerAde are fine if you are a serious athlete. For the average person water is still the best thing you can drink.
  • Lastly, if you are working or exercising outside and you become weak, dizzy or lightheaded – STOP! Go inside if possible and rest. If going indoors is not an option find a cool spot in the shade and rest.
Sports ddrinks are good, but waters better

Sports drinks are good, but water's better

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May
06
Children and Advertizing
By: kathy2 | Discussion (0)

There is a wealth of information both online and in journals about the effects of advertizing on children.  Really, it’s too much to put into a blog post; you could have a whole blog with daily posts dedicated to the topic of children and advertizing. 

But we do know that children absorb messages from the wider culture, and advertizers are the ones who put those messages into the wider culture.  Now, this isn’t all bad; how will consumers know what’s available if we don’t see it advertized?  People need to sell stuff and people need to buy stuff, and advertizing facilitates that relationship.

The scare stuff is when that relationship is built on exploitation of any group of people, but especially kids.  There are ads that exploit kids’ need to fit in, to feel secure, or to get positive attention.  There are ads that exploit gender or racial sterotypes, and kids just assume that anything they see on TV or in print is reliable.  Now, we adults know that’s not true, but kids accept the authority of what they see. 

Among the overwhelming amount of information and opinion on this topic, here are a few facts, gathered chiefly from the Love Your Body Day website.

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    • For children ages 6-17, the number one after-school activity is watching TV.

 

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    • Students spend about 900 hours in the classroom and 1,500 hours in front of the TV each year.

 

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    • Children who watch four or more hours of TV a day are less likely to read at grade level or play well with friend. Children who watch four or more hours of TV a day are more likely to believe claims made by advertisers.

 

 

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    • Saturday morning commercial TV advertisers bombard children with ads for sugary cereal, salty snacks, fast food and junk food.

 

 

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    • Before teens reach the legal drinking age they have watched 100,000 alcohol commercials.

Those are only a few of the alarming statistics you can find about kids and ads.  We don’t have to wrap our kids in cotton wool or lock them away from the world.  But we should take the time to talk to them about what they see and hear, so that they will learn to think critically about the advertizing that they abosrb. 

Remember, advertizers’ job is to sell stuff.  They are not interested in our children’s well-being…that’s our job.

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