Posts Tagged ‘parenting’
How to Prepare Your Children for Adulthood
It would take years to cover every aspect of parenting because there are just too many out there. This subject has such a vast amount of information that it would be easy to become overwhelmed very quickly. But we do understand that it is all in the interest of helping us get through nearly two decades of parenting experience. What is possibly the case is many people start their families, and they are so busy with everything that reading up on parenting may not be at the top of the list. There are different ways of doing things, so there might be some of you that will actually start reading about this before others would. So, kudos to all those who take the initiative to get a little bit smarter on the subject!
We all can remember our last year of high school because the light at the end of the tunnel was finally visible. Then it seemed like our last year with our friends was gone before we knew it. So, you know exactly what they feel and what they face on an almost daily basis. This is when you should really offer your support, help them out and just be there for them. Positive encouragement is always a good thing regardless of how many times you have to reassure them. Just keep a watch at how well your child deals with the fact that high school is ending and they will be leaving the nest. Then, do what you know is best, and after all those years of parenting. We know that everything will be okay. Did you ever live through a situation where your parents allowed you to do something even though they knew the result would be negative? Now you appreciate that your parent was allowing you to learn a possibly hard lesson. However, it’s probably a lesson you never forgot. These are judgment calls you simply have to make and they depend on the situation. While you should not allow them when the consequences are too serious, it is very helpful and valuable to allow your children to make some decisions for themselves.
There isn’t at teenager who doesn’t have a moment in their life where they think they are adults like their parents. We all know they really aren’t and understand what is truly happening. Still, one of the most powerful forces in the mind of all people is belief.
Don’t forget to treat them like the young adults they are. You can do this in a few ways. For example, speaking with them as adults and letting them know you have certain expectations that go with the territory they want so badly. You might have to establish some new rules around the house and garden that are more aligned with the new status.
Successful parents will teach their children skills that will allow them to survive in the outside world. We don’t have the ability to and should not fight their battles for them. This is why any child that has a healthy mindset will figure out how to handle the things that are presented to them.
Check this a bit extravagant private ad video of the one of many surrogate mothers online:
Supportive Parenting Views-All that Your Child Really Needs
Besides this article the blogger posted regarding alcohol withdrawal symptoms and delved into hemorrhoids treatment and ideas about lowes jobs as well.
You will find that there are a wide range of parenting situations from the ridiculously funny to the embarrassing. There is little need to mention rage and frustration since it’s a give. But it is true when it comes to children, and a big reason for that is they can be brutally truthful without even realizing it. This is one of the cool aspects of being around kids and raising them.
However there are often real lessons for us as parents in these situations. It can be irritating but cute when we need our kids to help us stay honest.
It’s challenging to have just one child, but so much more is involved with multiple children. It’s not a surprise that parents have to learn to switch gears very quickly. There is even the role of mediator. A child’s brain is constantly learning new things at a young age, and that includes what you teach them about getting along with others. Social interaction with other children will be a lot easier because you are starting early. This is part of the socialization process that is critical to their success later on.
Quite frankly, I do not think that it is right to make seventeen and eighteen year olds make decisions that will affect them way on down the road, considering the fact that they have no experience. Yes, those lovely times of “thinking” what they want to do for a career. Quite naturally, they have so many things to choose from these days. But as a parent, the best that any of us can do is to ensure that they have enough information on the subject. It is within their reach. Then see to it that you always stay in communication with and work with your child. Be there for them, but most importantly, let them know that they are making decisions for their life.
You have the chance to give your teenagers more tough love by supplying them with more things around the house to do. Obviously, we are talking about both the tween and the teenage years. Chances are that both parents are working outside the home and single parents have to resort to this to get help around the house. But we suggest this because it will help them learn they need to help the home team. Yes, that is right – the home team. You should explain exactly why you are doing this and what you want them to learn about it. People are more willing to do things if they know what they are doing and why they are doing them. Parenting at home can be beneficial, especially when dealing with certain types of experiences. For example, we talked about managing money and letting them make their decisions. Even if they spend every penny, they’ll still be safe. They will realize the discomfort and aggravation of wanting to do something, but they cannot because they blew their weekly paycheck.
Learning History at Home Schooling
Do you consider that passing time in traditional classrooms is a waste of time? For some people, that is probably true. For example, an exam is due and the students are told to memorize a lot of dates and names. However, after taking the exam, they will probably forget 90% of those dates and names. That’s what the majority of students do every time they have exams. If you are one of these people, you will find traditional history lessons boring, so home schooling, which concentrates more on the history of the world, will probably interest you more.
Simple memorization is not enough to realize the significance of famous people and important events. Through home schooling in history, you can learn about the different cultures of the past in a unique, but interesting way – your own way! Through the study of history, you will also understand the current situation of the world today.
If you think that home schooling is the most effective option for your child’s education, you must also be prepared to take on some responsibilities. Since there will be no teacher physically present, you will have to supervise your child’s learning progress yourself.
Let’s say your child is interested in a particular sport. You could combine history and home schooling by just hanging a map on the wall of your child’s bedroom and mark the location of his favourite sports team. Make sure that you track all the team’s games, scores, activities and schedules. Then, you could go back to history lessons by reading biographies of the various athletes, who had been famous in the particular sport that your child follows. Aside from that, you can also look into the history of that particular sport and discover where it originated, its inventor, and the other things happening at that particular time in history.
For instance, let’s say your child loves baseball, you can teach your child about the history baseball, government hearings on the use of steroids and other favourite sports at that period in time. Just remember that you can adapt this method to any interest like dancing, flight, cars or any invention. You can also have conversations with your child about current affairs or read interesting historical documents and other books. Apart from that, you could also watch documentaries together with the rest of the family. There are various resources that you can use while home schooling, like TV, maps, newspapers, books, a globe, an atlas, and encyclopedias. Because of the enthralling adventures that you and your child will read about and see on film, your child will find it easier to remember the names and dates of the history lessons. After all, learning is better when it is done in a fun way.
These methods are recommended if the child is still young, but once your child is older, you must choose an appropriate home schooling program that is suitable to his/her age group. The programs are available at the elementary, high school, and even college levels. You just have to search online for these various programs. A good thing about these programs is that you can adapt them to suit the interests of your child. However, you must ensure that all the lessons are followed by your child.
Once you and your child decide to try home schooling, you must be prepared for some changes to take place in your life. The learning environment will now be your home not a school and through the various resources that you can use including the computer and Internet.
Online Dangers to Child Safety
What is there to say about the world children inhabit these days? Sexed-up television, pornographic Internet sites and videos and violent board games. A world that is dropping its standards, values, and morals each day, surrounds our children.
What makes it even worse is that we cannot use Parental Controls any more to prevent our children from accessing websites of an adult nature. These days children are knowledgeable about technology and sometimes more so than their parents. How can we keep our children safe from online dangers? How can we as parents provide safety for our children, while still battling the corruption going on around the world?
Parental Controls are available on most types of Internet software, yet today, children are skilled at by-passing these Parental Controls. So, what can we do? We can protect our children by monitoring their time spent on the Internet closely.
How to use parental controls: It depends on which Internet provider you have, however, I will write only of the Internet providers I am aware of, since not all programs are the same. To use AOL Parental Controls, you will have to go to ‘Safety’ on the toolbar and click on ‘Parental Controls’.
Once you get there, you will see a list of usernames available. Look for your child’s username and click on the username. You will see a popup window appear. Click on ‘Edit Web Control’ and then click ‘Kids Only’, and close. Now your child is protected against dangerous sites.
Chat rooms can be serious threats to children, since anyone can go into these rooms. Often predators frequent these areas, so as to entice children into a web of danger. In the AOL program, click on ‘Safety’ and then click on ‘Parental Controls’.
In the same way, click on the ‘Edit IM Controls’, ‘Edit E-mail Controls’, and ‘Edit Chat Control’ and follow the same steps as you did to establish the ‘Parental Controls’.
It is a good idea to install passwords. Having passwords will offer additional protection to your child. However, do not give the child the passwords, because this will give the child control over the Internet connection, and the child might also reset the controls.
It is also wise to use your ‘Popup Controllers’ too, since if you do not turn on the controls, pop ups could carry a virus that could corrupt your computer or popup adult content, which your child will see when online. You can go into ‘AOL Safety’ at the toolbar to start these popup blockers.
If you use Internet Explorer; open a page. Click on ‘Tools’ at the top menu, then click ‘Popup Blocker’ and then click ‘Popup Blocker Settings’. Read the information carefully and set the program at medium. Medium is standard and will block most pop ups. If you put the settings higher than medium you could find it difficult to open websites for browsing.
Some of the dangers posed to children online include: Internet Porn; Child Porn; Child Sexual Abuse; Mobile Porn; and more. As you can see, your child is at serious risk, and if you want to master safety, you have to monitor, and take the steps to safeguard your child against online dangers.
According to recent studies, students have encountered sexual malpractices through webcams, instant messengers, and mobile phones. Additional studies show that pornographic websites out-rate CBS, ABC, and NBC, thereby making more profit than each of these television channels in a year. The studies claim that the largest group that views porn sites are children. These children are between the ages of twelve and seventeen.
The statistics showed that around 74% of the porn sites had unmonitored banners, while another 66% of the sites did not issue adult content warnings. Another 11% of the sites did not have sexually explicit content warnings, and 25% mousetrapped the visitors, by not allowing them to leave the sites. Only 3% of the websites out of more than 14 millions adult sites requested adult permission for minors. Protect your child now!
Send a Kid to Camp for Fun and More
If you went to overnight camp as a child you can always tell a favorite story you can still remember in exact detail, down to the smell of that pine forest. Memories of summer camp are lifelong reminders of lessons with a lifetime?s worth of value with friends you haven’t forgotten. Learn how to select a Summer Camp Finding a Summer Camp
Few places on earth can provide a child with opportunities daily fun the way a camps can. Fun would be reason enough to go to overnight camp, but summer camp offers much more to enrich a child’s life, whether it?s a Traditional Camp or Nature camp or a nonspecific resident camp.Summer Camp
Summer camps are healthy! Exercise is a part of any child?s life of play, and camp is a natural provider of constant, safe, imaginative physical play. This brings opportunities for every camper’s intellect and imagination to get plenty of exercise at the same time.
Summer camp offers a wonderful template for kids to learn the skills of social interaction in a more creative and independent way than school settings allow. Still gently guided by adult role models called counselors, campers get an chance to apply what they have been taught at home in a independent world..Summer Camp
Speaking of value, given our current economy sleep away camp is easily the most affordable summer care choice available. Camp is so much more than childcare. It’s a place and time for kids to gain independence, enhance their skills, make new friends and above all have fun.
Campers discover their own capacities and grow into them, setting newer and higher standards for their own behavior themselves. The camp context encourages perseverance, listening skills, teamwork, recognizing similarities and appreciating differences. A pattern of self discovery that that is uniquely nurtured and developed at camp becomes a lifelong habit.
Sleep-away camp is an opportunity for each child to come to a new place and try new things while making new friends. Everyone starts as an equal with a chance to just be them self. Summer camp is so much more than the most affordable childcare choice parents can make?
Swift Nature Camp is one of the few camps nationwide that offers a beginning camp experience only for the first time camper. Learn More at Youth Summer Camp
To learn all about picking the right summer camp visit Best Summer Camps
What is Nature Deficit?
April 22nd, 2010 will be the 40 year celebration of the first Earth Day here in America. Since then many rivers have been cleaned up and smog eliminated from our cities. Despite all that success, today our kids are suffering.
Richard Louv , child expert, believes the lack of nature for our kids is causing extreme concern. He calls this phenomenon nature-deficit order. He feels rends such as rises in obesity, attention disorders, and depression are all in part caused by a lack of play in nature.
Summer camps since the early 1900 have been getting kids outdoors and informing children about the environment. Yet, when folks talk today about camp it could be a skateboard camp or a math camp at a college campus. Summer camp is a wonderful way to get your child to have greater appreciation for the environment. Swift Nature Camp is a place that can help you develop you child’s joy in nature. .Environmental Camp
Swift Nature Camp is noncompetitive, Outdoors Summer Camp for boys and girls ages 6-15. The focus is to Appreciate nature while doing traditional camp activities. We make Nature Fun , here are a few camper comments
“Swift combines the best summer activities with learning. We have fun. doing all the activities but it the beauty of the nature that makes this place special”
“Last year a turtle came right up by our cabin and laid its eggs.”
“The zoo and the Nature Center are best cause the animals are fun to play with …I even got to adopt one.”
We have a lot of songbirds. If you listen, you can hear a lot of robins, cardinals, woodpeckers, but its the loons at night that make camp amazing”
Camp Director Lonnie says” It ‘s excitement that makes our Science Camp work.” Our catch and relaease Frog hunts are most popular. Adventure trips like canoing and hiking really bring it all together.”
For SNC camp is more than nature our small size allows us to promote each child’s personal development by providing fun, friendship and leadership in a supportive and noncompetitive environment away from home. While children are home all year long, that’s your time to plant the seeds and direct the thinking patterns which guide your child to how they should behave and socialize. But at summer camp children will have an opportunity to act on their own, be self-reliant and try things for themselves.
Our Counselors are wonderful role models that promote perseverance, listening, teamwork and appreciation of differences, campers set new and high standards for their own behavior. This in turn brings their new found independence more in linewith what yu are trying to do at home. We are on your side.
We see Swift Nature Camp as an opportunity for each child to come to a new place and try new things and make new friends. Summer camp is a new world. Who you were before has no bearing on who you want to be, because camp is a new beginning. Many of our campers return year after year saying that “Swift allows me to be my real self with real people” and we feel that’s a good thing.
All this happens in the fun and sun of the north woods of Wisconsin. For staff and campers alike, Swift Nature Camp is more than just a place to be: it is their summer home. So why not join our Swift family this summer?
You can learn more about selecting a wonderful summer camp by visiting Summer Camp Advice Find a Summer Camp
Kids Get Homesick
Thinking of sending your child to summer camp? But what about Homesickness? You don’t have to be a camper suffer from homesickness. A strange, new place can trigger separation anxiety. It is a normal part of childhood for many kids. It is evidence of the loving, trusting relationship you have built with your child and therefor, separation for the first time often is scary.
At a Kids Summer Camp a camper knows that separation is followed by reunion, but emotionally, it can be difficult to accept. When in the midst of adjusting to living with new people in a new environment, children can get overwhelmed. Even for children who enjoy new adventures and love sleepovers with friends and relatives, a short bout of homesickness is a common reaction.
As parent it’s important not to measure your success by by your child’s homesickness. Don’t feel as if your child is not independent just because your child is having a difficult time adjusting to summer camp. It may be difficult to understand how hard your child finds the first few days at camp. For them often it seems that he will never see you again. Be sure to rationally look at your child’s reactions. Often kids are just looking for a reassuring hug
Anxiety can cause the least rational reactions in children as well as adults. Homesickness is a temporary feeling that can over come with adult support. The benefits of overcomes homesickness are enormous It increases self-confidence and self esteem. Don’t give up when you get that letter saying come pick me up I hate it here. Instead call the camp director and discuss how they might be able to help your child
Is it ever right to say that it isn’t working and bring your child home? Sure, but you must make this decision with a great deal of thought and awareness of the long-term consequences. Campers who come home before the end of their stay often feel like failures. However, sometimes, even with the best of intentions and efforts on the parts of the parents and staff, a child is just not ready for camp or it’s just not a good fit. If, after a real trial (a week is not to long), and the best efforts between home and camp your child is clearly not adjusting, it’s time to bring the camper home.
If you make the decision to bring your child home, hopefully in agreement with the camp director, then you need to support your child fully through what he may think is a failure. Don’t go through an intense reevaluation the day he comes home, but after a few days, you should sort out what went right and what went wrong with the experience. Help your child to understand that even though the camp experience was disappointing, he is not a failure because he came home. Let your child know that you may reconsider another sleepaway camp program at another time because you have confidence in him.
A unqniue SUMMER CAMP FOR KIDS, Swift Nature Camp offers a program designed only for first time campers. This Discovery Camp works because during the 12 days it allows camper to move past homesickness and into self confidence. This program limits campers to about 50 with 6 in a cabin with 2 or 3 staff. All campers are here for their first time, setting a level playing field for all campers. If your child is a little reluctant to leave home, look for a program that is especially designed only for first time campers
Find out how to pick a summer camp at Summer Camp Advice Camp information
What To Do When Your Camper is Homesick
Homesickness is a feeling that anyone can feel A strange, new place, even if it is exciting and fun, it is normal to miss home. Separation anxiety or homesickness is a normal part of childhood. It is appropriate, in loving, trusting family. Because your child loves and feels secure with you, separation can be scary and uncomfortable
A Kids Summer Camp provides separation followed by a reunion. Yet, emotionally, it can be difficult to accept especially for children. Early on while adjusting to a new environment and living with new folks, children can get overwhelmed and even scared. Kids who enjoy new adventures and love sleepovers with friends may experience homesickness but usually it is limited.
As parent it’s important not to measure your success by by your child’s homesickness. Don’t feel as if your child is not independent just because your child is having a difficult time adjusting to summer camp. It may be difficult to understand how hard your child finds the first few days at camp. For them often it seems that he will never see you again. Be sure to rationally look at your child’s reactions. Often kids are just looking for a reassuring hug
Homesickness is not about your child loving or trusting you enough, or about her independence or willingness to take risks. Homesickness is a temporary feeling that can be beaten with the support of camp staff. Beating homesickness it is a huge boost to to a childs self-confidence and self esteem. Helping kids get over home sickness is what camps do well. Be Sure to talk to the director if you feel this may be an issue for your child
Should you ever give up? Sure, but don’t act to quickly, unless you feel their is a problem more than just homesickness. Feelings of failure often accompanies those who return early. Sometimes, a child is just not ready for camp even with the best of intentions and efforts on the parents and camp. Especially, when it’s just not a good fit. If, after a week or ten days with the best efforts of your camp, your child is clearly not adjusting, it may be time to bring your camper home. Usually going for a visit does not help the situation.
If you make the decision to bring your child home, hopefully in agreement with the camp director, then you need to support your child fully through what he may think is a failure. Don’t go through an intense reevaluation the day he comes home, but after a few days, you should sort out what went right and what went wrong with the experience. Help your child to understand that even though the camp experience was disappointing, he is not a failure because he came home. Let your child know that you may reconsider another sleepaway camp program at another time because you have confidence in him.
Swift Nature Camp offers a unique SUMMER CAMP FOR KIDS that is designed only for first time camper. This program works because during the 12 days it allows camper to move past homesickness and into self confidence. With a limited amount of campers and all campers at camp for their first time it sets a level playing feel for all children. If your child is reluctant to leave home look for a program that is only for first timers.
Find out how to pick a summer camp at Summer Camp Advice Camp information
Teenage Drug Abuse and Teen Alcoholism: Why Are Our Children Turning to Drugs and Alcohol?
The really worrying thing about teenage drug addiction and teenage alcoholism, is at how young an age the children of today are turning to drugs and alcohol. As a result, it’s not at all unusual to find kids of 12-13 in rehab receiving treatment for addiction.
Being a teenager is a confusing and difficult time. You’re generally trying to make sense of things, especially yourself, and your place in the world. Hormones that are all over the show, first real meaningful interactions with the opposite sex, and the general pressures of school life, make it hard.
The teenagers of today are also being exposed to far more, far earlier, because of the media and MTV type culture we now live in. Sex, drugs and alcohol are possibly not regarded as ‘out of bounds’ subjects as they were 15-20 years ago.
So with the natural experimentation that goes on anyway as a teenager, it’s not unusual to start experimenting with alcohol and drugs from 10-11 years of age. And without the maturity to handle that, it’s inevitably going to cause problems.
To pin the increase in teenage drug abuse and alcoholism down to any one point is impossible though. There are just too many variables at play.
With peer pressure added to the mix of being exposed to more at a much earlier age (not forgetting the experimentation that tends to go on anyway) – you definitely have a significant reason for the increase in teenage addiction. Peer pressure especially, which results in you doing loads of stupid stuff anyway, plays a huge role in influencing your behaviour at that age.
I possibly think too that the standard of parenting, is possibly not what it used to be and so also plays a significant role. These days both parents tend to work, hours worked are generally longer, you have more single parent families, divorce rates are higher – all this stuff is going to affect teenagers who then use alcohol and drugs to escape their emotional turmoil.
But I think one of the biggest reasons today for the escalating problem of teenage alcoholism, and especially teenage drug addiction, is the availability of alcohol and drugs. If you look especially at the kinds of drugs readily and easily available on the streets today, heroin and amphetamines being two of the worst, it doesn’t take long for kids to get addicted. And these are drugs that weren’t available as easily 15-20 years ago.
Getting on top of the fight against teen drug abuse and alcoholism is becoming more difficult. In reality, as a parent, there is only so much you can do. Providing a stable and loving family/home environment is your most important task. All you can then do, is hope that it will be enough.
Earth Day is More
On April 22, 1970, 20 million people across America celebrated the first Earth Day. It was a time when cities were buried under their own smog and polluted rivers caught fire. Now Earth Day is celebrated annually around the globe. Through the combined efforts of the U.S. government, grassroots organizations, and citizens like you, what started as a day of national environmental recognition has evolved into a worldwide campaign to protect our global environment.
Despite this awareness of Nature and the Environment there is a staggering divide between children and the outdoors, child advocacy expert Richard Louv directly links the lack of nature in the lives of today’s wired generation-he calls it nature-deficit-to some of the most disturbing childhood trends, such as the rises in obesity, attention disorders, and depression.
Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder has spurred a national dialogue among educators, health professionals, parents, developers and conservationists. This is a book that will change the way you think about your future and the future of your children. The bottom Line we and our youth need to spend time outdoors.
Schools have tried to use nature in the class room for some time. At Holman School in NJ, Ms. Millar began an environmental project in the school’s courtyard. It has become quite an undertaking–even gaining state recognition. It contains several habitat areas, including a Bird Sanctuary, a Hummingbird/ Butterfly Garden, A Woodland Area with a pond, and a Meadow. My students currently maintain the Bird Sanctuary–filling seed and suet feeders, filling the birdbaths, building birdhouses, even supplying nesting materials! In addition, this spring they will be a major force in the clean up and replanting process. They always have energy and enthusiasm for anything to do with “their garden”.
Many schools have taken on projects like Ms. Millar, Yet, Despite schools teaching of nature kids rarely play outside, we as a nation have lost the ability to just send our kids out to play. Watch out for the “boogie Man” has infiltrated our lives. As parents we live in fear. Yet, it seems we are learning that a wonderful way to help our children get outside is summer camps. These Camps help children develop into mature adults. A new study finds that most of todays parents overprotect their kids. 50% of all kids have stopped climbing trees, and 18% have been told that they can’t play tag or chase. Even hide-and-seek has been deemed dangerous. And that dreaded stick…”will put out someone’s eye”, is definatly a No No.
Is the Internet and computers to blame for the decline in outdoor play? Maybe, but most experts feel it’s mom and dad. Play England says “Children are not being allowed many of the freedoms that were taken for granted when we were children, They are not enjoying the opportunities to play outside that most people would have thought of as normal when they were growing up.”
Voce argued “that it was becoming a ‘social norm’ for younger children to be allowed out only when accompanied by an adult.” “Logistically that is very difficult for parents to manage because of the time pressures on normal family life,” he said. “If you don’t want your children to play out alone and you have not got the time to take them out then they will spend more time on the computer.”
The Play England study quotes a number of play providers who highlight the benefits to children of taking risks. ‘Risk-taking increases the resilience of children,’ said one. ‘It helps them make judgments,’ said another. We as parents want to play it safe and we need to rethink safety vs adventure.
Examples of risky play that should be encouraged include fire-building, den-making, watersports and climbing trees. These are all activities that a Summer camp can provide. At camp children to get outside take risks and play, this while being supervised by responsible young adults.
A Noncompetitive, Traditional OUTDOOR CAMP in Wisconsin called Swift Nature Camp is a wonderful place to start. Boys and Girls Ages 6-15. enjoy Animals, Science along with Traditional camping activities out in nature . Swift places an emphasis on being an ENVIRONMENTAL CAMP where we work with kids in acquiring a deep respect for nature. It is our meaningful, fun-filled learning through active participation that makes it so fun. . We focus on natural curiosity and self-discovery…This is NOT School.
No matter what skill level or interests your children have, Swift Nature Camp has activities that allows them to excel and enjoy. All activities are promoted in a nurturing, noncompetitive atmosphere, giving each camper the opportunity to participate and have fun, rather than worry about results.
Out-of-camp trips, such as biking, canoeing, backpacking and horse trips are a great way to get kids out in nature. Kids love to discover new worlds and learn to be comfortable in them. This is why Swift is so much more than just a SCIENCE SUMMER CAMP.
Earth day has provided so much..but their is more we can learn from nature. This summer help your child regain their appreciation for nature by sending them to Swift Nature Camp. This is an opportunity that will be treasured the rest of your child’s life.