Archives for 2020

In general, it is incredibly important to ensure that your children wear their sunscreen on a regular basis. Summer is an extremely fun time for your children and they are likely to be excited about playtime outside. It also provides them with additional avenues for exercise. However, it is critical for them to wear their sunscreen whenever they are outside in order to keep them safe and healthy. Here are some of the best tips for getting your kids to wear sunscreen during the hot summer months.  

The Importance of Getting your Kids to Wear Sunscreen

The risk of skin cancer goes up exponentially with even just one bad sunburn. In addition, bad sunburns are extremely painful, which makes prevention key. You don’t want to see your child in pain and you especially don’t want to see them in pain that can damage their long term health. Regular sunscreen use is ultimately the best way to protect your children’s health. It is crucial to keep in mind that sunscreen should even be worn during the winter months. When sun reflects off of the snow, it can lead to sunburns and damage to the skin. Regular sunscreen use is crucial in preventing damage. Children need some level of exercise to remain happy and healthy. Having playtime outside can help to provide them with these benefits. However, it is crucial that they wear sunscreen while they are outside.

Consider a Reward System

A reward system can help to incentivize your children to wear sunscreen. You may want to consider allowing them to have an extra five minutes of playtime outside or providing an inexpensive toy in exchange for vigilant sunscreen use.

Make Sure they are Informed

Education can go a long way toward improving your children’s attitude towards sunscreen use. Ensure that they understand the incredible importance of sunscreen and protecting their skin from sun damage. This education can help to ensure that they understand why you are insisting on their sunscreen use.

Set a Good Example

Children tend to mimic what they see you do. When you regularly use sunscreen, they will be more inclined to also use sunscreen. It is important to model the behavior that you expect to see from your children. This same technique can often be applied to brushing your teeth.

Get the Right Kind of Sunscreen

First, you need to ensure that the sunscreen is adequate to protect your children’s skin. It can also be beneficial to ensure that you choose a kind of sunscreen that will be fun for them to use. For example, a sunscreen stick may be fun to give your children to “paint” on each other.

Give them Choices

Giving your child choices can help them feel more in control over the situation. The use of sunscreen isn’t optional if they want to play outside, but there are other aspects that you can let them decide. For example, you may want to let them choose where they put it on before leaving the house. This can help to provide them with more freedom and confidence in the sunscreen wearing process.

Accept their Input

Allowing your children to have some input can similarly improve their enthusiasm regarding wearing sunscreen. Let them give you input and their opinion regarding the various brands or types of sunscreen. If they like the sunscreen that they wear, they will be more inclined to wear the sunscreen whenever they go outside.

Make it a Habit

Developing good habits can go a long way toward improving your child’s health. When you ensure that they get in the habit of wearing sunscreen early on, they won’t know any other way when it comes to sunscreen use. This can ensure that they are more inclined to use their sunscreen.

Be Efficient

No child wants to spend a significant amount of time sitting around. They want to get out and play as quickly as possible. When you are efficient with your sunscreen application, they will be less resistant to wearing sunscreen. You may also want to consider applying sunscreen to their face while they are still in their car seat. This can help to prevent them from getting impatient and running away before you have finished. It is also important to keep in mind that sunscreen should be applied roughly 30 minutes prior to sun exposure to ensure that it is effective.

Use Clothing

Sunscreen isn’t the only way to protect the health of your children’s skin. You can also implement clothing in order to provide further protection. Long sleeves or hats can also help to keep their skin covered and protected. You may also want to consider allowing them to choose out the clothes that they use. This will ensure that they are much more enthusiastic about wearing the clothing. It can also be helpful to refer to this clothing as “gear” and explain that it is the same as wearing cleats for soccer or pads for football.

Make it Fun!

The more fun your child has while putting on sunscreen, the easier it will be to convince them to wear their sunscreen. There are many ways that you can do this. Consider making it a competition and time them to see who can apply their sunscreen the fastest. Another idea is to make it into a game, such as forming a “sunscreen train” to ensure everyone gets their sunscreen applied quickly and effectively. The more fun your children have with sunscreen, the easier it will be to keep their skin safe and protected.

The summertime is an incredibly important time to ensure that your children continue to wear sunscreen on a regular basis. This will go a long way toward protecting their skin and their health. Here at Corner Canyon Academy, we are passionate about the growth and development of your children. These various ideas and tips can help to ensure that your child is far more enthusiastic about the prospect of wearing sunscreen. To learn more about how to keep your children safe during the summer months, contact us at Corner Canyon Academy today!

Anxiety impacts the lives of many children. In fact, childhood in general can lead to excessive levels of anxiety. It involves navigating a confusing world, meeting new challenges, learning new skills, and overcoming fears. However, though there are many natural things that can cause a child to feel anxious, sometimes anxiety reaches an excessive level that requires far more effort to resolve. These methods may require therapy or other options. Approximately 1 in 8 children experiences excessive anxiety, but few of these children are able to receive appropriate treatment for extreme anxiety, which can make it more difficult to handle as adults. Here are a few of the biggest signs that your child has anxiety.

Types of Anxiety Common in Children

There are many common types of anxiety. It is important to understand what types of anxiety are the most common in children. This can help you to identify the anxiety that your child is experiencing and will help you to provide them with the appropriate care to manage their anxiety and their emotions. Keep in mind that these are simply the most common anxiety types in children and won’t necessarily cover every situation.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Generalized anxiety disorder is one of the most common anxiety types, especially in children. This anxiety disorder involves excessive anxiety or worry often about many different things. Generalized anxiety disorder tends to result in irritability, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, sleep disturbances, and muscle tension. If your child has these signs, it is possible that they are experiencing generalized anxiety disorder.

Separation Anxiety Disorder

Separation anxiety disorder is incredibly normal for children between the ages of 1 and 3. Though there are many possible methods for handling separation anxiety disorder, it is important to pay attention to when the symptoms are extremely persistent and excessive. This often indicates that additional help is needed.

Selective Mutism

Selective mutism occurs when the child refuses to speak in certain social situations. This tends to be seen most commonly in children around the age of 5. In many situations, these children are talkative at home, when they are in a comfortable environment, but won’t speak in school or other less familiar locations. This can lead to them actively trying to avoid school and drawing back from classmates.

Specific Phobia

Specific phobias are a type of anxiety disorder that results as an extreme fear of one specific thing. These can include things such as heights, water, spiders, or other common phobias. The child will often seem inconsolable when in the presence of their phobia, which can lead to many additional issues.

Panic Disorder

Panic disorder is an anxiety disorder that results in panic attacks. In general, panic attacks are characterized by shortness of breath, pain in the chest, nausea, a sensation of choking, chill or heat sensations, dizziness, and a fear of going crazy or dying. If your child complains about these sensations, it is possible that they are experiencing panic attacks and may be diagnosed with panic disorder.

Social Anxiety Disorder

Social anxiety disorder is a kind of anxiety that is associated with social interactions. Children with social anxiety disorder often avoid social gatherings and may even be resistant to attending school. Children with social anxiety disorder may have difficulty communicating with and forming relationships with other people their age.

Signs that your Child Has Anxiety

Understanding the various signs that your child has anxiety can go a long way toward identifying it when it is present. This can help you to obtain the appropriate treatment that your child needs. When a child has anxiety they may exhibit:

• Difficulty concentrating
• Not sleeping
• Waking up in the middle of the night with nightmares
• Not eating properly
• Easily becoming angry or irritable
• Tense feelings
• Extreme fidgeting
• Constantly worrying or having negative thoughts
• Clinginess
• Consistent crying
• Complaining of tummy aches
• Resisting going to school
• Having emotional meltdowns after school

If your child exhibits these symptoms, it is likely that they have anxiety. You may want to consider consulting with a mental health professional to help your child handle their anxiety.

Causes of Anxiety

There are many causes of anxiety, in addition to the many various types of anxiety. Genetics are often a huge factor in the development of anxiety. A child with family members who have anxiety is more likely to develop anxiety. Additionally, anxiety can simply be a matter of the brain’s chemistry. The way in which the brain functions can cause anxiety to develop. Life situations can also lead to anxiety, including things like traumatic experiences, moving often, a divorce, or many other events. In addition, anxiety may be a learned behavior that arises from seeing how others in their life handle their own emotions. There is no singular cause for anxiety, but identifying the cause of the anxiety may help to determine the ideal treatment.

How to Help your Child

If you suspect that your child is experiencing high levels of anxiety, it is likely that you feel helpless and want to help them. An important component of helping a child with anxiety is ensuring that you talk to them regarding their own worries and anxiety. Simply having someone to discuss their concerns with can help to provide them with some reassurance. However, you may also want to consult with a doctor or a therapist for specific recommendations. Therapy can go a long way toward teaching your child how to healthily handle their emotions, fears, and anxieties.

Ensuring that your child has a steady routine can go a long way toward helping them handle unexpected occurrences or substantial anxiety. A great way to provide a healthy, beneficial routine for your child is to enroll them in preschool. This can help to provide them with valuable learning opportunities and the ability to interact with other people their same age. At Corner Canyon Academy, we are dedicated to offering superior preschool services to help your child get a head start. To learn more about how preschool can benefit your children, contact our experts at Corner Canyon Academy today!

As a parent, there are many decisions that you have to make regarding the development and early activities of your children, especially when they have a lot on their plate. It can be difficult to coordinate your schedules and ensure that you get your kids to all of their activities. So should you add music lessons to their schedule? There are many benefits to obtaining early music lessons for your child. In addition, this can help to open more pathways for possible career options in the future. Professional musicians, for example, often begin in childhood. If this is a field they would like to go into, they likely need to learn how to play in the early years of their life. Early music lessons can also help to enhance their development and increase many of their skills.

Improve Many Academic Skills

There are many various academic skills that can be improved through early music lessons for your child. Enrolling them in early music lessons can go a long way toward making their schoolwork easier and improving their development. This can go a long way toward improving their ability to learn in school. Here are some of the ways in which early music lessons can improve many different academic skills of your children.

Math

Math skills can be substantially increased as a child becomes more familiar with playing music. Music requires children to learn, comprehend, and apply varying beats, scales, and rhythms to produce songs. This process is very similar to those involved in division, working with fractions, and recognizing patterns. Due to this, practicing music can improve a child’s aptitude for solving various math problems. It can substantially help them to understand how fractions work and can be applied in various scenarios.

Reading Skills

Reading skills are another academic skill that can be improved by playing music. When a child plays music, they are reading notes and converting them into sounds. They will also likely have to make small adjustments throughout the process. This is extremely similar to reading the words on a page and converting them to images in the mind. The similarity between each process helps to ensure that playing music will aid in improving a child’s reading skills. This is especially true when they must sight-read regularly, because this will help them to adapt to converting new music sheets into songs.

Basic Physics

Regularly playing music can help with physics comprehension later on. For example, a child who plays music often learns the way in which the instrument converts vibrations into sounds. This aids in understanding the physics behind sound.

Improve Memory

The memory provides a solid foundation for many various other skills. For example, the ability to effectively multiply relies a great deal on memorization. When a child learns how to play music, they may be required to memorize pieces of music for recitals or performances. This requires them to practice their memorization skills. The more practice an individual does with their memory, the better their memory skills will be. This skill can then be implemented to aid with other skills to enhance overall performance and capability.

Coordination

Hand-eye coordination is substantially improved with the use of regularly playing an instrument. This process involves visually reading music and converting it into an action performed by the hands. Regularly completing this process goes a long way toward improving an individual’s hand-eye coordination, which can improve their ability to play sports or complete other tasks.

Improved Social Skills

Learning music has been shown to help improve overall social skills. First, your child will have to learn to listen to their teacher in order to learn how to play. After, they are likely to play in groups along with other children. For example, playing in a group requires children to cooperate and communicate clearly with other individuals. This can also help them to develop friendships with individuals that have many of the same interests that they do.

Healthy Outlets

Playing an instrument goes a long way toward providing a child with a healthy outlet for their emotions. Many children have difficulty identifying and handling their emotions. Music provides a healthy outlet for their own self-expression, creativity, and excess energy. These actions can also make it easier for them to focus when it becomes necessary. This can go a long way toward ensuring that they develop valuable coping skills for their needs and development.

Cultivate Patience

Learning how to play music goes a long way toward helping to cultivate patience in your child. This is a skill that never results in immediate gratification. The more practice a child does, the more progress they will make in their skills. This helps them to learn how to be patient, as well as appreciate small victories and improvements. Learning how to play music can help improve their patience and learn that hard work reaps rewards.  

Increased Confidence

A child that learns how to play music often has increased levels of confidence. No one can accomplish the music skills for them. They only improve by practicing and working hard to increase their abilities. This leads to increased levels of confidence, because they know that it was their own work that allowed them to get better. This also helps to foster self-reliance and improve their ability to build their skills.

Aid with Creativity

Playing music helps to provide a creative outlet for children. When they have an outlet for creativity, they will be more likely to foster actions to improve their creativity. This also aids in self-expression.

Here at Corner Canyon Academy, we care about the development and happiness of your children. There are many ways in which playing music can improve the way in which they develop and otherwise improve their lives. In addition to this, preschool can help to enrich the overall development of a child and ease their way into kindergarten. To learn more about the benefits of various activities for your child, contact our experts at Corner Canyon Academy today!