Mother’s Day 2012

May 5, 2012 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

In May we honor mothers. So this month I have a few stories about mothering and hopefully some encouragement for you as a mom.

As most of you know, I live and serve in Malaysia. While our sons were in school here, I was a stay-at-home-mom. My husband traveled a lot, but I was nearly always with our sons. However, every three months I had to leave and re-enter Malaysia for a new tourist pass to live here. On one of my returns to Malaysia I had the following conversation with the Immigration officer. [Read more…]

Raising a Bilingual Child

April 3, 2012 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

Language learning always fascinates me, so I took a fresh look at language learning and bilingual learning. As usual, I found some very interesting information to share with you.

The New York Times, on March 17, 2012, published an article titled, Why Bilinguals Are Smarter¹. They say, “Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.” Those are pretty sweeping claims. [Read more…]

TV and Kids

March 1, 2012 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

This month I decided to do some investigation into the effects of TV and other electronic media on children and their development. How much TV is too much TV? and What kinds of TV are detrimental and if any of it is helpful to children’s growth?

It seems there is general agreement that a child’s exposure to TV of any type should be limited. The American Academy of Pediatrics even said children two years and younger should not watch any TV whatsoever. Yet, there is also general agreement that we are completely ignoring this advice. Most parents lobby for and seek TV programs with appropriate content as a matter of convenience, since TV clearly serves as a babysitter of sorts for parents feeling time-constraints.

In many homes the TV is turned on early and stays on late. The programs viewed shows less actual choice and more habit. There are TVs in several rooms of most homes. Many children not only have their own TV, but electronic games, a computer, a DVD player for the car, and the list goes on.

[Read more…]

Flu and Colds

February 5, 2012 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

We are in the midst of the flu season for 2012. Mike and I have fought both colds and flu this season already, so I’ve been doing some checking about what you can and should do to protect your family from the flu. Here’s what I could find out.

Flu shots
Although no one likes to get a shot, this is the only proven way to be protected against the most virulent and common flu virus for the year. Some people can use a flu nasal spray, but only your doctor can tell you if you qualify for the spray instead of the shot.

Flu vaccine is up-dated every year. So although you are immune to the virus in last year’s shot, that immunity won’t cover this year’s virus.

The flu shot does not cause you to get the flu since the virus is not live. If you were exposed around the time you took the shot though, you could still get it. There are a huge number of different flu viruses, so it is possible to get flu that wasn’t covered by the shot. You will have immunity to any flu in your flu shot or for any flu that you get.

It is not too late to get the shot. Until the last flu for the year has made its rounds in about May, you may still need the protection. [Read more…]

Getting Your Family to Help

January 6, 2012 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

Wow 2012 got off to a tough start for my husband and me. I hope yours was much, much better. We have been down with a flu bug and it’s after effects. Broken night’s sleep has robbed us of strength for the day. We’re both on the mend, but needless to say, we are almost a month behind in our internet work.

So this month I’m going to share some ideas from a newsletter that I get regularly called Mamapedia. You may like to join the list or just browse through the web site.

Many of you receiving this letter have children too young to begin doing chores, but keep these ideas in mind and hopefully chore time won’t become fight time in your home. For those of you with children old enough to help with chores, don’t be afraid to try something new. If what you have been doing hasn’t worked well, January is a good time to try a new scheme, learn new habits, and see big improvements.

Here’s to a better 2012! [Read more…]