Sometimes the indoor games become a necessity just because the outside weather is too hostile or not at all comfortable for kids to venture.

On a rainy day or snowy day, the movement of the kids is usually restricted to the house and this restriction can be dangerous if the mind of the child is not kept preoccupied in activities like indoor games.

Without the indoor games a kid would get bored and as everyone knows “empty mind is a devil’s workshop” the child can become a nuisance or make a mess of  everything that is around.

There are different types of indoor games.

Board or Dice Games: these games are usually based on the dice . These games carry with them both elements of fun and education. Some of the most popular dice or board games are

Snakes And Ladders:  There are 100 coloured and numbered squares. Some of the squares have the snake’s mouth while some of them have the snake’s tail. Some of the square have the base of the ladder while some have the pinnacle of the ladder. One has to move by the numbers on the dice. If he/she lands up in the square with the mouth of the snake then there is a penalty but if it is the base of a ladder then there is a bonus. The object of the game is to reach 100 before other players.

Scrabble: It is a word game. It is very simple and is very effective at improving vocabulary as well as the spellings. To play this game one needs just the letters, the scrabble board, pouch and the tile racks. A dictionary should be kept at hand so that there are no disputes.

Aces in the pot : The principle of this dice based game is that the player should not roll 6 on the dice the movement this happens he/ she is penalized. Two dices are used in this game.

Drop Dead : this game is also based on the dice. 5 dice are used and on every turn 2 and 5 should not be rolled on any of the dice. Every time this happens the score of the player is zero.

The other popular dice games are help your neighbour and shut the box.

Some of the popular Card Games are :

• Constructing a house
• Cheat (I doubt it)
• Concentration
• Go Boom
• Go fish
• Old maid
• Slapjack
• Snap
• Spit (speed)

Popular Parlour games include:

• Musical chairs
• Do you love your neighbour?
• Hot boiled beans or hot and cold
• Lookabout
• Pass the Slipper
• The Name Game
• Never Smile

Various types of puzzles and mazes are also famous indoor games.

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Such a life style makes them live under considerable amount of stress. Such stress could produce negative effect in their life. Yoga can help children to tackle these pressures properly and enables them to learn different techniques that would be required to face life’s challenges in the future.

Yoga is an excellent way for children to exercise. But, it must be taken into consideration that children’s bodies are still growing and strenuous exercises or difficult asanas might not be suitable for them.

But, a suitable yoga program could be developed for the benefit of children that would include more gentle poses and breathing exercises from a number of different types of yoga.

A child practicing yoga is benefited in different ways. The physical benefits include improved flexibility, increased strength and coordination. They become more calm and relaxed and their concentration improves.

The Instructors have found out that a multi disciplinary and interactive approach works quite well for teaching yoga to children.  Different yoga asanas could be taught by imitating various plants and animals in a very playful way. This could be farther extended to include storytelling, games, drawing pictures and playing various musical instruments.

The natural tendency of these children towards creativity and curiosity makes these fun and quite effective for them. It has been found that this multi disciplinary approach of teaching yoga is an excellent way of learning. Kids are able to explore their innate ability across various fields like linguistic, logical, visual, musical and many others.

Different postures used in yoga asanas involve in stretching and bending that help in relaxing tense or contracted body muscles. These posses when carried out in slow and rhythmic repetitious movements are found to be extremely beneficial in toning the body and massaging the internal organs. Such exercise helps in improving the overall immunity by restoring circulatory, respiratory and digestive vitality. 

Yoga is a very gentle form of physical exercise and there is very little chance of getting injured even if is overdone. But, the postures involved in yoga asanas are to be done very precisely and to be synchronized with proper breathing. Therefore, children under the guidance of an expert yoga teacher should practice yoga

Children could start learning yoga from the age of five. Initially, it could be a session of fifteen to twenty minutes that could be gradually increased to thirty minutes for older children. This training would help them establish connection amongst their body mind and spirit and would enable them sail through life smoothly in their future life.

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When every you gift anything to any kid be sure it is unique. There are various types of personalized gifts available in the market. Some of these gifts are as follows.

• Personalized Story Books : The story books can be personalized by putting the name of the kid as the main hero in that story.
• Dress material : The name of the kid can be painted or embroidered on the dress material that is to be presented to the kid. This dress could be for small kids or larger ones who like to wear personalized tee shirts for sports.
• Watches : Usually the kids are habituated to wake by the ringing of the alarm clock. This alarm clock can be personalized with the name and photo of the kid on the dial. The wrist watch can be customized in a similar way.
• The coat rack or the hanger can be personalized with the name of the kid on it. This can teach the child about things to be kept in their proper place.
• The school bag which the kids carry to school can be personalized with the name of the kid printed on it in appropriate colour.
• If it is a birthday a personalized birthday cake with the kid’s name on it can make a memorable day for the kid.
• Baby girls usually like to treasure small things in small boxes. You can gift a personalized girl’s trinket box.
• The cover ups that the kids use soon after bath could be personalized by making it bear the name of the kid.
• The equipments with which the kids play such as the baseball bat or the hockey stick could be personalized by printing the name of the kid on it.
• Jewellery: The kids could be gifted with jewellery that bears their name. The pendent with the kid’s name is the best example of personalized jewellery.
• Photos: The range personalized gifts with reference to photos is very wide. This includes personalized photo :
  • frames ,
  • tickets,
  • jigsaw puzzle
  • on the calendar
  • on the Rubik’s cube
  • on the mouse pad
• Personalized board and dice games are also a good gift.
• Even the pillow covers could be personalized.

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Hide and Seek: This is one of the most famous outdoor games. All kids hide except the one who has to find the kids who are hiding. The first kid whose hiding place is disclosed becomes the seeker in the next round of the game.

Tomato: All the children are asked to sit in a circle except one who stands in the centre of the circle. The children ask questions to the centre kid and the centre kid has to answer by only saying “tomato”.  The objective of this game is to make the centre kid laugh, dislodge him from the centre and take his/ her place.

Capture The Flag: The group of children is divided into two teams. Each team is given a specific area where they have to hide the flag. Once the flag is hidden some kids could become soldiers to protect it. The objective of the game is to get the flag from the opposite team into your area.

Doggy Doggy Where’s The Bone? :  This game can be played indoors as well as outdoors. One of the kids is selected to be Doggy . Now while he /she is sitting on the chair any object like an eraser or sharpener is kept under the chair. This object is called bone. The Doggy is asked to close his/her eyes and count till some specific number. In the mean time others try to steal the bone and hide it. Then the rest of kids get together and ask the Doggy  to find the Bone. If the doggy answers it correctly he/she  is rewarded but if wrong he/she is penalized.

Heads up Seven up:  Seven kids are selected from the whole group. The other kids are asked to keep their heads on their desk and not look anywhere. The seven kids are asked to touch any other seven students. The seven students have to guess the right kid who touched him/ her.  If the guessing is right the kid is rewarded and if wrong penalized.

Simon says: This game is very simple and the kids have to do according to the instructions and if they fail they have to sit out of the group for some time.

Human Chain: This game is all about catching other kids, merging them into the chain and doing team work to catch other kids.

The rest of the popular outdoor games are

Wolf’s Dinner Time

Hula Hoop Toss

Lilly Pad Leap/ Ice Berg Jump

Camping Trip

Duck Duck Grey Duck

Freeze !

Head Or Catch

Quaker Meeting

Roaring Lion

Red Light Green Light

Prisoner

Sleeping Lions

Red Light Green Light

Doors & Windows:

Obstacle Course

Hen And Chicks

Guess What I Am

4 Corners

Ball In The Air

Baby If You Love Me Smile.

Queen Bee

King

Piggy Wants A Signal

Red Rover

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To provide help to families, US Congress passed a law about ten years ago and established a health insurance scheme for children, which is known as State Children’s Health Insurance Program. This plan aims to cover the growing number of children living in the United States who are not covered by any health insurance plan. There are many families who cannot afford private health insurance because their income is insufficient to afford such health insurance scheme but their income is too high to claim benefits from Medicaid scheme.

Under this scheme, the family is charged maximum of 5% of their gross annual income and many cases they are eligible to receive medical treatment free of charge.

The coverage under this scheme varies from state to state but all states provide a minimum coverage that includes well-baby and well-child physicals, immunization and emergency services.

If a child is already covered under any health insurance scheme then he or she is not eligible to get state insurance coverage.

In case your children is not eligible to get medical care under the state plan, then you will have to decide whether you want to cover your children under a family policy or you want to have an individual plan under the child’s name. Generally, it is more economical to get your child covered under family policy plan. But, in case you have only one child then taking out an individual policy for the child would turn out to be a cheaper option.

Most colleges and universities provide treatment to their students for minor illness and injuries. But, all students should have some form of health insurance to cover them against major ailments and injuries.

You should always try to have your children covered under your own individual or family policy as most of these policies would cover these children even if they are away at school. However, some of these policies might put certain restriction regarding coverage and you should check it carefully.

In case, you feel that your child require their own individual health insurance policy while they are studying in a college, there are a number of insurance companies that are ready provide such a policy.

Ultimately, as a parent we have to ensure that our children are adequately insured against health hazards. 

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The fashion of our dress also says something the culture, mentality and personality of the person wearing the dress. Fashion is also considered as a combination of beauty with practicality. Fashion is considered as an art form that is pragmatic in nature. Various cultural and social factors are involved in our fashion leading to development of different styles of fashion.

In the past, fashion was mainly involved with adult persons’ dresses. But, recently fashion has been paying equal attention to different age groups including babies and children. Previously, this segment of population was generally ignored by the clothing industry.

But, children’s clothing now constitutes a very important segment of the present day fashion industry.  A varied and extensive range of clothing is now available that is appropriate for the age of these children. The children’s clothing industry has now become quite popular too.

As the popularity of children’s clothing industry increased, more and more fashion designers started to focus their work exclusively for designing dresses for children and babies Increasing interest of these designers helped in diversification in children’s clothing and providing a lot of originality. Increasing popularity of children’s clothing led to many supermarkets and clothing stores to stock them.

Even some of these clothing stores started to deal exclusively with children’s clothing. Earlier, children’s clothes were poorly designed and looked quite dull. But, the present day children’s clothing is quite appealing and quite ingenious in design, stimulating the children’s’ imagination and building their sense of aesthetics and beauty.

Children are also enjoying the attention they are getting from the fashion industry. Many of these children spend more time looking for most interesting and imaginative clothes for them to wear. They are now facing many options regarding models, colors and design making them select more than one piece for them to wear.

Another factor that is helping in the increasing popularity of children’s clothing in today’s world is the fact these clothes are now available at much cheaper price making it affordable to any average parent. The factors that have helped in reducing the price because of substantial increase in import and appearance of many discount-shop in the market that has been farther helped by equal distribution of these clothes between supermarkets and clothing stores. Online stores that sale children’s clothes are also gaining popularity.

It is hoped that this article would be able to give you a brief idea regarding present situation regarding children’s clothing.

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Dressing a baby first of all  depends on whether the baby likes dressing or not.  Some babies  are never steady, some are constantly on the move, some wiggle,   some hardly move, some just cry at the top of their voice as if they are hurt, while still others do all the above mentioned simultaneously .

The baby is not interested in what you are doing , but interested in how much you pamper it during the process. Once the baby gets used to it then it becomes normal. The dressing depend on the size and age of the baby. The art of dressing a newborn which is also called diapering can be mastered gradually and involves the following steps:

First of all find a secured place for your baby. It could be the floor or the table.  In any circumstances the floor is far better  than the table especially with reference to the accident and chance of falling off. The only thing is the mother will have to bend , crouch and kneel more while changing the diapers of a baby on the floor. Moreover  using the floor for this purpose proves to less expensive than table because you  can place all that you need at the same time on the floor. If at all you select the table make sure  it is waist high.

Utmost care has to be taken while dressing the baby, especially when on the table. You should never turn your back on the baby. Practice and make it a rule  of keeping one hand on the baby while changing the diaper with your other hand.

The mother can strengthen the bond with her baby while dressing the baby.  The process of dressing  the baby gives a chance to the mother to connect , talk and touch the baby.

Be organized and prepared to meet the call of the nature of the baby any time.  The baby could be soiling any time.  So the mother needs to be prepared and organized every time and any time. Keep the diapers and other things such as ointment  and wipes  within reach.

Clean the baby’s bottom thoroughly with wipes. Wipe from front to back. this decreases the chance of infection that spread through  stools.

Apply diaper ointment if your baby is suffering from diaper rash.

Take special care about the baby’s  tendency to urinate.  The baby may urinate when you are changing the diaper so place a soft cloth to avoid being splashed with the baby’s urine.

The diapers should be secured properly

The diapers should be disposable and fit the baby such that the urine or feces do not leak out.

If you are using cloth diapers then you have to secure it as well as provide for some absorbing material from the inside of the diaper.

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For a mother there can be no better news than the wellness of the child. The health of the child is the prime concern for the parents.

To diagnose a sickness the activities of the  baby have to be keenly observed. The parents  should understand the way the bay communicates especially  the crying during and between  sleeping, feeding, cuddling ,   and changing of diapers. The parents should monitor the eating  and sleeping  patterns of the kid. The common illnesses and major health issues especially with reference to babies involve :

Colds : It is the most common illness and health concern. Most of the babies suffer from cold many times in their first years. It is a viral infection .  The nasal membranes  and membranes of the  respiratory passages . The breathing passages are filled with mucus causing difficulty in breathing.

Coughing,  breathlessness, runny nose are some of signs of cold. This can be along with a bit of fever and reduction in appetite.  A nasal aspirator could be used for suction of secretions prior to sleeping.  It is better to consult a doctor in severe cold.

Constipation :  A transition from liquid food to solid food can cause constipation in most of the babies.

Diarrhea : A bacterial or viral infection  or allergy can result in watery and too frequent bowel movements. This is known  as  Diarrhea. Diarrhea can lead to dehydration. Babies suffering  from Diarrhea  need a lot of feeding. It is better to consult a doctor for advise of giving Oral Rehydration Salts to the baby.  Give a lot of liquids and fluids to compensate the loss of fluids from the body.

Ear Infections : The growth of germs in the middle ear leads to accumulation of the fluid. As a result of this there could be ear infections.

Fever : Something wrong in the body  results in increase in the overall body temperature.  It is not of much concern  but  at the same time it is better to consult a doctor when the fever is very high.

Gastro-esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) : Sometimes in babies,  the circular band of muscle that acts as a valve between the stomach and the esophagus is immature. This leads to the  regurgitation of the acidic contents of the stomach,  back into the esophagus. This causes pain. This disease is called Gastro-esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) : This is a viral infection. It is  common but very serious sickness especially in early infancy.

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Are your kids very safe or in safe hands?  This multi million question needs to be addressed effectively, efficiently and as quick as possible. Safety of kids involves the following issues.

• The kids who have not learnt to stand and walk should never be left unattended. Moreover these sort of kids tend to put in mouth everything that comes in their hand.
• Small children should be kept away from fire. An unattended child may crawl towards the fire place and hurt itself. Small children sometimes like to play with match sticks and in this process burn themselves. Safety measure for kids should be doubled when it is a festive season and when the crackers are going to be lighted or fired.
• Some chemicals especially insecticide, pesticides, rat killers, chemicals used for cleaning tiles are highly poisonous. These could be fatal if consumed. It is the responsibility of the parents to keep these things away from the reach of the kids.
• The pet animals should be kept clean of lice and be regulated vaccinated against rabies. It is always better to keep the kids away from the pet.
• Keep small children away from water especially hot water. Hot water can cause serious burns to the kid. Extra Precaution and safety measures have to be taken in case of taking the kids to a swimming pool, a lake, a dam or any other water body.
• A naked live wire could be fatal for the kid. Moreover when the electric plugs and sockets are open the child may try playing with it by inserting a metallic pin or small rod. This can also at times prove fatal.
• If a alcohol bottle is left carelessly for the kid to fend it then it could be a dangerous situations. Not only can the kid consume the alcohol and risk itself but also break the glass bottle and injure self and others.
• Always keep the medicines beyond the reach of the kids because misplacing a medicine could be risking the life of the kid.
• Grown up kids who have just learnt to walk and have started going to schools should be specially attended to. These kids do not know how to walk on and cross the road. When kids stroll on the road unattended, a mishap is awaited.
• While travelling in a car, bus, train the kids should be told to not to take out the head and hands out of the vehicle.
• The child should be instructed never to reveal its identity to strangers on the net and on the road. The kids going out of the house should have their identity card mentioning their name, address, and phone number.

The makeup items should be kept away from kids. Never keep glass and other brittle and delicate items within the reach of the kids.

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Food varies with the age of the child. The intake of food increases with the age of the child.

Initially the baby feeds on the breast milk which is the best food for it, at least for as long as the mother can feed it.

The baby food available in the market is usually meant for kids from four months to 2 years. There are different types of baby food and what types of baby food is meant for what baby age is mentioned on the packet of the baby food. Usually the baby food is to be served in the paste form. The baby food is necessary because the child does not have teeth and moreover it lacks the experience of eating solid food.

Small babies should not be fed with things that choke them such as grapes, popcorn, hot dogs and hard candy. The kidneys of the baby are not ready of salt so salt should not be given to a baby at a very early age. Examples of liquid style food for babies are pureed vegetables and fruits. Initially the food should be in a smashed form or a paste form but later on when the teeth grow and the child learns to chew, one can include small, soft pieces or lumps of food.

Usually 9month babies   start feeding themselves but require some assistance from the parents. Baby food should be introduces to babies only after the signs of readiness are seen in the child. Sitting without help is one of the signs of readiness. The other sign of readiness it displaying interest in the food being eaten by people around.

As the child grows its life starts becoming more and more active. The more the child plays, the more calories it burns and obviously the diet is going to increase.  A child should start eating variety of foods.  A balanced diet is constituted of all the food groups.  Consumption of food depends on the age, sex and also the play full nature of the child.

Some foods should be eaten less while there are some foods that should be consumed more.  Try that the child eats more of grains, vegetables, dairy foods and fruits. Try that meat and oils are eaten the least. Usually the diet of the male child is more than the female child.

Care should be taken that the kid does not over eat. Over eating could lead to obesity.

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