Smiling Mom

School is back in ses­sion and many of our kids are ending yet another sum­mer of fun and relaxation.

In my ten years of teaching, I’ve encoun­te­red many chil­dren who could have bene­fi­ted from some basic hou­sehold rou­ti­nes.  As a result I’ve com­pi­led a list of healthy habits & rou­ti­nes that help make the tran­si­tion from sum­mer to school much smoother.

1.  Bed­time, bed­time, bed­time.
Your child’s body, age 12 and under, on ave­rage requi­res 10–11 hours of sleep per night.  Every night.  If you have a tee­na­ger, they gene­rally require 8 1/2 hours to 9 1/2 hours of nightly sleep.

Why is this infor­ma­tion impor­tant?  It’s sim­ple.   Kids per­form bet­ter, are able to focus more, and have bet­ter days when they are fully rested.

…sleep depri­va­tion adds up over time, so an hour less per night is like a full night without sleep by the end of the week. Among other things, sleep depri­va­tion can lead to:

• dec­rea­sed attentiveness
• dec­rea­sed short-term memory
• incon­sis­tent performance
• dela­yed res­ponse time

2.  Eat a healthy break­fast each morning.

Make sure that your child’s break­fast con­sists of high-fiber and nutrient-rich whole grains, fruits, and dairy pro­ducts.    Limit the amount of highly refi­ned sugars and car­bohy­dra­tes your child eats each mor­ning.  More sugar in the mor­ning equals a less focu­sed student.

Evi­dence from the report sug­gests that eating break­fast may improve cog­ni­tive func­tion rela­ted to memory, test gra­des, and school attendance.

Eating break­fast, a healthy break­fast, is impor­tant.  VERY important!

3.  Pack a healthy snack.

Around 5 1/2 hours pas­ses bet­ween the time a child eats break­fast to time lunch is ser­ved.  That’s a long time to ask one of our stu­dents to be without food, calm and on task.

Remem­ber to pack a healthy snack each and every day.

Not coo­kies or sugary, pre­pac­ka­ged foods. But healthy foods such as fruit, vege­ta­bles, cheese, or dried fruits & nuts.

4. Rou­tine, rou­tine, routine!!

Create a rou­tine your child can count on for the after-school hours.  Have a spe­cial spot for home­work com­ple­tion and make clear how much rest time your child has prior to begin­ning home­work.  Have a set din­ner­time and bedtime.

Having a family rou­tine can create a sense of secu­rity.  When a child feels safe and secure at home, he/she always per­forms bet­ter at school.

Good luck and have a won­der­ful school year!!

Ori­gi­nal Sili­con Valley Moms Blog post.

Hubby and I took our first real vaca­tion together since we were married six years ago.  And we took it without kids!!  Thanks to my mom and dad, we were given the gift of time to recon­nect, relax, and enjoy Mexico’s Yuca­tan Penin­sula.  It was gor­geous!!  Hubby deci­ded to blog send daily emails to our family to let them know how our trip was going.  I called this a blog­ging, he did not.  Wha­te­ver.   Since he did the leg work, I thought I’d steal his words and sprin­kle in a few addi­tio­nal pic­tu­res for your enjoyment! 

Well, the time has come to go. It is 12:30 on July 31^st. We are sit­ting in the hotel lobby ready to go. We anxiously await get­ting back to the kids, but will defi­ni­tely miss the beach and solace.

Yes­ter­day was a good and pro­duc­tive day. We got some shop­ping done, as pre­dic­ted, but deci­ded that we nee­ded to spend more time at the beach. So, we laid out there from about 3:00 pm until 7:30 pm. Then got ready to eat.

Din­ner was alright. I had the veal while Nette had the tuna. They were good, but nothing to write home about.

Our jour­ney home is begin­ning. We will be tra­ve­ling for the next 10 hours or so. We miss you all and look for­ward to seeing you all within the next few weeks.

And this, my friends, is the end of my husband’s blog­ging days.  In the end, I’m really glad he narra­ted our daily acti­vi­ties.  It will help me remem­ber our won­der­ful time together.

Thanks Hubby!!  Now if only we can take a vaca­tion like this every year!!

Hubby and I took our first real vaca­tion together since we were married six years ago.  And we took it without kids!!  Thanks to my mom and dad, we were given the gift of time to recon­nect, relax, and enjoy Mexico’s Yuca­tan Penin­sula.  It was gor­geous!!  Hubby deci­ded to blog send daily emails to our family to let them know how our trip was going.  I called this a blog­ging, he did not.  Wha­te­ver.   Since he did the leg work, I thought I’d steal his words and sprin­kle in a few addi­tio­nal pic­tu­res for your enjoy­ment! 

Good mor­ning, ever­yone!  It’s now 10:40 am on Wed­nes­day, July 30^th. Nette and I just got back from break­fast where we had much of the same as yes­ter­day. The plan for today is to walk down­town. We need to purchase our bus tic­kets for tomo­rrow to get back to the air­port in time. Appa­rently the bus sells out some­ti­mes, so we’re buying the tic­kets a day ahead. Besi­des that, there’s some shop­ping we’d like to do for the kids.

Yes­ter­day was awe­some. From 9:00 am until 4:00 pm, Nette and I laid on chaise lounge chairs at the beach. Whe­ne­ver we got too hot, we’d simply go down, take a dip in the water, and come back up to the chairs. We both got a ton of rea­ding done and some pretty good sun­burns (des­pite being sha­ded almost the entire time). At about 2:30 pm a rains­torm got us, but it was still warm enough for us to stay at the beach as it passed.

(Note to self… next time hide all evi­dence of you being topless on the beach prior to taking the only photo of your hubby on the beach…)

At 4:00 pm we got up, came back to the room, clea­ned up, and rela­xed from our “exhaus­ting” day at the beach. Then, it was off to happy hour. You already got that photo, but you may not have noti­ced what we were drin­king. Nette got a Mai Tai while I got something they named after the hotel. It was just about as foofy as they come — it was pink. I love me my foofy drinks!

Din­ner was a BBQ com­plete with susage, ribs, chic­ken, flank steak, and all the Mexi­can fixins. It was deli­cious. After din­ner we read some more and thus ended an inc­re­dibly rela­xing day.

This pic­ture is the view from our seats at the beach at about 6:00 pm last night. As you can see, it is still warm enough to go swim­ming late at night…

Hubby and I took our first real vaca­tion together since we were married six years ago.  And we took it without kids!!  Thanks to my mom and dad, we were given the gift of time to recon­nect, relax, and enjoy Mexico’s Yuca­tan Penin­sula.  It was gor­geous!!  Hubby deci­ded to blog send daily emails to our family to let them know how our trip was going.  I called this a blog­ging, he did not.  Wha­te­ver.   Since he did the leg work, I thought I’d steal his words and sprin­kle in a few addi­tio­nal pic­tu­res for your enjoy­ment! 

Back by popu­lar demand, my feet. Happy hour, thank you for bles­sing us with your existence!