Bedtime

This afternoon, some of the kids and I had an intetesting discussion about a couple of things: 1) how much sleep they get each night and 2) which scary movie is theIr favorite. As you can imagine, I had to put my two cents in since I was the only adult to provide a responsible comment! Some kids (who shall remain nameless) told of staying up until past midnight on school nights, often watching the television in their room or talking on the phone. Of course, I gave them my best parent lecture about how their brains need that down time to rejuvenate and rebuild some stamina for the next day. This is verified through so many research studies! Kids should get 9-11 hours of sleep each night- in my girls' cases, most nights! I know it can be hard some nights, but it makes such a difference in the school day. This little change, which can be mastered in a short while, can change the level of success your child experiences! Another thing that could help make big changes in your child's progress is checking their diet. What they eat on a routine basis affects the amount of attention they can give to each day's lessons and activities. Sending them to school with some protein in their bellies(a cheese stick, yogurt, peanut or almond butter, a piece of turkey, etc) instead of only simple carbohydrates like sugar cereal or toast will also make a difference! Try these changes and see if you notice a difference in school and home attitude. You will be impressed! I won't even mention what I said during the scary movie discussion....I will let you guess my stance on putting those types of images in a child's brain forever! Ok- down off my soapbox!

Kids-if you read this post and understood the three opinions I was pushing with my commentary, you have an idea of one of our future areas of focus in writing: the Op-Ed (opinion-editorial). Whisper to me tomorrow two of my opinions and you're bank account will grow by two dollars!
:-)