Daily Rituals To Boost Weight Loss


Are you living a fast paced life where hitting the gym is completely impossible to find the time for?

Then simple daily health tweaks and making it a habit can bring about positive effects for your weight loss efforts.

By simply making smart lifestyle choices, you do not have to workout extra hours, starve yourself, or go into weight loss diets that seems to never satisfy your hunger.

Morning

Studies conducted at the Harvard School of Public Health proved that individuals who skip their morning meals raise their risk of high blood pressure, coronary diseases, obesity and diabetes. Good breakfast choices also matter when you want to lose weight or simply stay in shape.

Sticking to complex carbohydrates and lean proteins such as eggs and wheat toast will suffice. Getting up 10 to 20 minutes earlier and doing some light cardio can also help. Cleaning your home quickly can be a great ritual to adopt. Not only you get to keep a clean home, you also get a light workout.

Your metabolism during your night’s rest slows down. If you are taking thermogenic fat burners or other weight loss aids, taking them before eating your breakfast helps you jumpstart your metabolism and fat burning process for the entire day.

After you make sure that the supplements you take are safe and are approved by physicians, you can start taking them 20 to 30 minutes before your breakfast. Thermogenic fat burners are the likes of forskolin pills, green tea extract, raspberry ketones and garcinia cambogia. Though these supplements claim to help you lose weight, the best recommendations by professionals are still exercise and proper diet.

All Throughout The Day

Staying hydrated is the best way to stave off hunger – and what better way to achieve that than by drinking water. Cold water is preferable as it helps you burn off more calories. Since your body has to maintain a nearly fixed temperature, it needs to work extra hard in order to heat up the cold water you drank to reach your body temperature.

This allows your body to consume more calories due to this process. Stay Away from sugary drinks, and even fruit juices. Train yourself to only drink water and nothing else.

Another ritual you can use is to make your own lunch. You can prepare your lunch the night before and simply heat it up in a microwave before you eat it. This ritual will prevent you from buying unhealthy foods. Packed lunch also allows you to have a better control of your calorie intake. You can find simple but delicious meal prep recipes online.

If you sit at a desk the entire day, try to stand up at least once or twice every hour. Walk around at a quicker pace during a phone call or when you are taking your breaks and make sure to skip unhealthy snacks.

It is easy to grab a bag of potato chips from a vending machine during breaks, but always keep in mind that healthy food can also be quick and easy. Instead of eating cookies, biscuits or chips, you can snack on nuts like almonds and walnuts. You can also eat fruits as snacking alternatives.

Evenings

Treat your evenings like it is your day off. If you have little kids, you can pick them up from school and take them to a nearby park. You can also grab some celery sticks, cucumbers or baby carrots and hummus along the way to snack on. You can join your kids running around and playing.

Aside from strengthening your familial bond, you also help burn off calories and at the same time keep your kids healthy. If you are not rushing, you can pick up your kids and walk home along the sidewalks of your city. This avoids the rush-hour traffic we all dread and at the same time give you the exercise you need.

While preparing dinner, you can put on upbeat music and dance around. Avoid getting takeouts or food deliveries as these foods always contain more sugar, more salt, more fat and more junk your body does not need.

Turn off the TV while eating dinner to avoid mindless eating. Eliminate alcohol and smoking for good. They only raise your bad cholesterol and put you at risk of a stroke and other heart related diseases.

Regulate your sleep to help prevent hormone imbalance. Lack of sleep usually causes weight gain, anxiety, and depression. When you do not sleep well, you do not live well. According to the National Sleep Foundation, young adults to older adults should get at least 7 hours to 9 hours of sleep to maintain an optimal cognitive function.

Living freely

What does ‘Life of Freedom’ mean to you?

I think that to be living a ‘Life of Freedom’ you need to have Time Flexibility, Financial Flexibility, Wellness Freedom, Relationship Flexibility and Spiritual Liberty.

Time Liberty enables you to select what you want to finish with your time and just what type of work you wish to do. You own your time and your work; it doesn’t own you. You make the effort to do the things in life that definitely make you delighted. You manage to follow your passion, and have your earnings regularly growing. Current researches reveal that ‘Time Freedom’ is the primary point that individuals want even more of in their lives… more vital compared to both cash and sex.

Financial Liberty is having adequate money so that you could live the life you genuinely desire (whatever that suggests to YOU). You can increase your feeling of who you actually are and be a totally plentiful in every area of your life.

Partnership Liberty is exceptionally vital but frequently overlooked. Relationship Freedom focuses on household, close friends and associates and ensures that you make time for love and communication and to check out life with each other, growing along the road. It enables you to make dedications to loved ones, that are deep, meaningful, resilient and intimate, and permits you to take pleasure in similar interests and journeys.

Spiritual Freedom is all about recognizing precisely who you absolutely are and your objective in life. It makes sure that you have a connection to your greater self, and also to God and deep space. By peeling back the many masks that you have concealed behind and actually turned into one with on your own you have the opportunity to have Spiritual Freedom.

Wellness Liberty, to me this is the most crucial flexibility of all. Wellness Freedom makes sure that you have time to work out, to eat well, to keep a lean belly, to invest high quality time with loved ones to get lots of rest. All the various other freedoms incorporate to guarantee Wellness Freedom e.g. by having money to acquire the healthiest meals and dietary supplements and by making time to rest and work out.

Together, I believe, these 5 flexibility factors offer you the” Life of Freedom’. And Life of Freedom offers you the capability to make a decision. To decide which and what you desire in your life and to determine what to do with your time.

The primary step to developing” Life of Freedom’ is choosing precisely what you desire. Clearly defining exactly what you want in your life, just what kind of person you want to be, what you look and behave like and just how you really feel.

If you do not plainly specify what you want, just how will you recognize when you have it? When you don’t know what you wish, you tend to spent your time doing points that are not bringing you exactly what you want.

Develop a list of just what you genuinely wish in your life. Just what would certainly make you pleased and placed it in order of concerns, so it is clear exactly what you desire one of the most. Testimonial it frequently and previously you understand it you will certainly be steadily developing your ‘Financial Freedom’, ‘Time Liberty’, ‘Partnership Freedom’, ‘Spiritual Liberty’ and ‘Health Flexibility’.

Current research studies show that ‘Time Freedom’ is the number one thing that individuals wish more of in their lives… Relationship Liberty concentrates on household, coworkers and friends and guarantees that you make time for passion and communication and to discover life together, growing along the method. Wellness Liberty, to me this is the most important liberty of all.

All the various other flexibilities incorporate to make sure Health Flexibility e.g. by having cash to get the healthiest meals and dietary supplements and by making time to rest and exercise. Assessment it typically and previously you know it you will certainly be steadily developing your ‘Financial Liberty’, ‘Time Liberty’, ‘Relationship Freedom’, ‘Spiritual Freedom’ and ‘Health and wellness Freedom’.

Why Children Are More Susceptible To Illness Than Adults?

mom-holding-sick-toddlerChildren’s increased vulnerability to illness may be explained by a key difference in immune cells.

In a recent study, it was discovered that young mice’s immune systems secrete lower levels of the cytokine than in older mice, which is essential for the CD4 T-cell survival during infection.

It is a well-known fact that schools are popular breeding grounds for bacteria and viruses, but this cannot be connected with hygiene.

New research using mice shows that because young mice do not have immune systems as efficient as their adult counterparts, the younger ones may be prone to contact a viral infection, and take more time to clear from it.

Mice are often used to study mammals’ biology. Other similar mice studies investigated cancer development or the effect of fasting on longevity. Another example of such research explored the effects of garcinia cambogia extract on adipose cells and how this natural compound influences energy consumption and fat accumulation in cells.

In general, children are more susceptible to environmental risks than adults because of a number of reasons. First, kids are constantly growing and they eat more food, drink more water, and breathe more air than adults do. This is in proportion to their weight.

Also, their central nervous, reproductive, digestive, and immune systems are still in development stage. At some points of their development, contact to environmental toxics can cause permanent damage.

Kids act differently from adults and have diverse patterns of exposure. Little kids crawl on the ground and are greatly exposed to chemicals and dust that accumulate in soils and floors. Children cannot fully control their environment. They are usually oblivious of the risks and incapable of making good choices to shield their health.

The health problems that children have as a result from contact with poor sanitation, contaminated water, indoor smoke, and widespread disease vectors like unsafe waste and chemical disposals, insufficient food supply, and mosquitoes.

Significant improvement in minimizing environmental burden of disease on a worldwide scale can only be accomplished through focusing on the major risk factors, through an integrated approach. A wide-ranging comparative risk assessment advocates a cluster of 8 environmental problems, many of which may correspond in the places where children settle, learn and play.

In addition, children can also be affected by other environmental threats like air pollution, inadequate sanitation, and insufficient water, electronic waste, chemical hazards, injuries, radiation and emerging issues. Global environmental change, endocrine disrupting chemical and early life opportunities are also risks that put children in harm’s way.

In particular, the above study analyzed how CD4 T-cells respond to influenza. These cells play a very important role in the immune system, specifically in the adaptive immune system. They help the other immune cells’ activity by releasing T cell cytokines. This type of cells helps regulate or curb immune responses. CD4 T-cells are important in the activation and growth cytotoxic T cells, as well as in optimizing the bactericidal activity of phagocytes like macrophages.

This study revealed that the immune systems of children may yet ready to produce enough amounts of antibody molecules clear their lungs of influenza virus rapidly as adults. These findings were published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology’s July 2016 issue.

Influenza is a type of viral infection that your nose, lungs and throat. Commonly, it is called the flu, but this is not the same with stomach flu viruses that can cause vomiting and diarrhea. The flu is actually more dangerous that the common colds for kids. Every year, thousands of kids get sick with seasonal influenza. In some cases, the illness results in death.

Severe influenza complications are very common in kids under 2 years old. Annually, about 20,000 children below the age of 5 are brought to hospitals because of influenza complications. The flu seasons differ in severity, but, a number of kids die from the flu every single year. In last year’s influenza season, over 130 flu-related pediatric fatalities were reported.

Generally, influenza is easy to treat, but sometimes, its complication can be fatal. Most patients who have flu have mild illness and do not need antiviral drug or other medical care. They can recover in just a week or two.

People who are at high risk of developing this viral infection include young kids under 5, adults over 65, pregnant women, individuals who have weak immune systems, and people who are very obese. Also, residents of nursing homes and those who are suffering from chronic illnesses like heart disease, diabetes, asthma, and kidney disease are prone to having the flu. According to experts, annual vaccination is the best defense against the flu.

Dr. David E. Verhoeven hopes that by comprehending the major differences in the immune responses of young kids. Dr. Verhoeven, a researcher from the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa believes that they may be capable of developing greater ways to boost their immunity to the common pathogens that have the effects on their population. More importantly, the facts may be the factor that health experts may think about new designs of existing vaccines since both the immune systems of kids and adults may respond to them in various ways.

To establish this breakthrough, a team of scientists incorporated 2 groups of mice to replicate the effects of the flu infection in young kids and adults. Group 1 was 21 days old, while the other group was 8 to 10 weeks old. The two groups were infected with flu virus, strain H1N1.

The researchers then analyzed their immune responses to the flu. They discovered that CD4 T-cells in young mice secreted a major antiviral cytokine. It is called interferon gamma, and it is secreted at considerably lower levels than adult CD4 T-cells. The lower levels of interferon gamma cause higher rates of CD4 T-cell death throughout an infection. The young mice were incapable of having a strong enough immune response to eradicate the virus from the lungs until very late because CD4 T-cells are part of the antibody production.

The Deputy Editor of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, Dr. John Wherry, warns that anyone with young kids must be aware that they are bringing home all different types of germs and infections.

The new data that they have collected are highly valuable because they begin to mark at fundamental immune mechanisms that control differently at young ages that might let setbacks in viral clearance, which could decipher to longer capacity to pass on such infections to new hosts.

Non-Violent Ways to Discipline Children

undisciplined kidsInstilling regulation among kids is the most challenging task for parents. It is natural among kids that they will be restless and will force you to keep all their demands and needs.

However, you have to handle it in a way so that you don’t get rude to them and at the same time can teach them the importance to be disciplined. Well, it must be said that while teaching discipline to the kids, you need to face a power struggle sometime. Still, if you are aware of the processes of handling the entire task smoothly and of course non-violently, you can win easily. Here we will discuss about the most-effective and non-violent ways that help to discipline a kid.

Teacher-disciple relationship

While doing the task we have to remember that we are teacher and they are taught and have to organize the task carefully. Some non-violent options that prove useful in teaching discipline are:

  • Ignoring the problem behavior
  • Paying attention to the kid’s positive qualities
  • Re-examining one’s expectation from the kid
  • Restructuring the environment where the kids grow
  • Using the time-out location procedures
  • Redirecting the kids attention

If his or her behavior is not dangerous you must ignore it and should not scold the kid for that behavior always. You just keep a watch on the kid so that the same thing doesn’t happen again and again. Even from the childhood days, we have to observe the positive qualities in the kids and have to praise it always.

Actually, we have to make them feel that good behavior is praised always and bad habits are not welcome. In order to keep them busy in constructive activities, we have to engage them in interesting and funny tasks to shift their attention from the destructive practices.

Understanding their Capacity

However, it is not a good idea to impose all the responsibilities on the kids, as we have to moderate our behavior towards them as well. That is why it is not good to expect something more from the kids’ capacity. If you force him to deliver something more than what he can, it will prove detrimental.

Disciplining a younger child versus disciplining an elder one is a bit difficult. The option that proves more effective in this regard is restructuring the environment where the child is growing. Often it is seen that environment plays an important role in disciplining a children. If we think that the child cannot adjust with the environment, we must consider restructuring it.

Out of the Time Process

If it still proves difficult to control a child and if the matter goes out of hand, we must think of a bit tough yet safe option. Removing the child to an away and safe timeout location will help in bringing change. Don’t assign any task to the child and let him/her sit there for a few minutes, until he or she gets the permission to go. After sometime when the kid returns, we will find him/her changed, modified and disciplined as well.

For The Pre-School Goers

When kids start visiting a school they get disciplined automatically but prior to sending them to school we have to handle them carefully so that they be disciplined in schools as well. Some non-violent methods for the pre-school goers are:

  • Caring for the kid intensely
  • Understanding their interests
  • Keeping them in company of other disciplined kids
  • To help them play with interesting toys
  • Listening to their problems and finding a worthy solution

Boy or girl: you choose

boy or girlRemember that hopeful young boy saying he wanted seven sons and seven daughters when he grew up? Or that family that had five girls and was longing for a baby boy? Their hopes don’t have to be in vain! They may or may not realize that they do have other options. In the past couple years, planning parenthood has become a step easier. If and when to have children has “safely” been up to parents for about sixty years now, but what to have (as a “safe” idea) has only been around for a couple of years.

Recent studies are showing, though, that at this point, only eight percent of parents would want to use available technology to pre-select their baby’s gender. Research done on United States fertility clinics—half of which are offering the option of choosing the gender of the baby—show that “sex selection” without any medical reason to warrant it was performed in only about nine percent of all embryo screenings last year. The popularity of this procedure is likely to increase, however, as long as parents increasingly see nothing wrong with “toying with nature,” or taking matters into their own hands.

Of course, you know at least one family with four boys or six girls longing for a baby of the other gender? The Millers were one of those families. Parents Shane and Sharla had three boys, and with each birth, Sharla kept hoping for a girl. Wanting a guarantee that her next child would be a girl, Sharla looked into adoption. This was when she stumbled across the website of “The Fertility Institutes,” a site belonging to fertility doctor Jeffrey Steinberg. Through an in vitro fertilization (sound familiar?) technique called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), Dr. Steinberg could guarantee the gender of the Millers’ baby. This technology was created to discover some embryos with dangerous and possibly lethal genetic diseases. It can also be used to choose the gender of children, not the direction the creator of this technique had in mind.

To Sharla Miller, however, PGD was a dream come true as she wanted a girl after having three boys. In November, Dr. Steinberg fertilized Sharla’s eggs in a lab dish, producing fourteen healthy embryos, seven male and seven female. He took the embryos that he wanted—three of the females—and implanted them into Sharla’s uterus. Nine months after this long, expensive procedure, “Natalie Miller” was born. She had cost the Millers $18,840, but yes, they had their girl.

While many grateful families have showered their praise on the PGD procedure, a lot of people are concerned that with this technique, science is crossing a line that should not be crossed. “If couples can request a baby boy or a baby girl,” writes Claudia Kalb, in her “Brave New Babies” article in the health section of Newsweek, “what’s next on the slippery slope of modern reproductive medicine? Eye color? Height? Intelligence?”

In most countries it is illegal to use embryo selection in order to choose the sex of your child, but not so in the United States where it is legal and not even regulated. Dr. Mark Hughes, founder of PGD, is especially concerned. He said that if you have the technical ability to do something, doesn’t mean you have to it. Other fertility specialists are divided over the issue.

Not only are scientists playing with life in lab dishes, but also what happened to God choosing what children couples should have? When this question was brought up to Sharla Miller, she insisted that she did not feel like she or the doctors were playing God. She said it is like any other medical procedure.

But diseases and illnesses have always been recognized as problems needing treatment—children are a gift from God! Doesn’t God know far better than man whether boys or girls would be better for each couple, and aren’t they a blessing regardless of their gender? Many people are saying they simply “feel uncomfortable” with PGD, and would rather leave the gender of their baby “up to chance,” but it’s really more serious than that. By paying thousands of dollars to get the kind of baby that we want, we are denying God’s wisdom of what is best for us.

Recruiting Today’s Youth to Technology Fields

girls and scienceScience, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers are fun, creative, innovative…and pay pretty well too. How do we get that message to pre-college students so they consider careers in STEM? How do we excite students, girls in particular, to explore how they can change the world and make it a better place through a STEM career? Through messaging, engaging experiences, role models and education, we can make a difference.

Messaging

The National Academy of Engineering’s recent study, “Changing the Conversation: Messages for Improving the Public Understanding of Engineering”, provides great insights into what motivates and interests pre-college students about technical fields. The research found that youth today have little understanding of what engineering is all about – engineers help people, but not directly, and are disconnected from people.

The good news is that less than 15 percent of the youth surveyed described engineers as nerdy or boring. Youth want well-paying jobs that make a difference and they believe engineering is a good career choice…just not for them.

We must change the language we use to describe our STEM professions. We must stop reinforcing the images of “nerdy and boring” when defining STEM careers if we want to recruit more students and especially more diverse students. We need to stop focusing on math and science as the required inputs – students know they must do well in math and science and we don’t need to emphasize it like we tend to do – and focus on the outputs, career opportunities and how STEM professionals make a difference in the world.

As engineers (and other STEM professionals), we create, innovate, imagine, discover, design, innovate and contribute. We are creative problem solvers, essential to the health, happiness and safety of our world’s citizens. We shape the future.

We must also change the images we use to describe our STEM professions. Girls are drawn to images of people, not things. We must stop creating images of the things of our professions – gears, gadgets, bridges, computers, cell phones, cars, etc. We must create the images of our profession using people – people communicating or collaborating using computers or cell phones or gadgets, people impacting the world using technology, people creating and innovating.

Engaging Experiences and Role Models

Engaging, hands-on STEM experiences where students can successfully design and create provide students the opportunity to gain confidence in their skills and allow them to consider the possibilities of pursuing STEM careers. Providing students opportunities to design and create and succeed – with role models, mentors close to their age and of the same gender, and experiences connected to real-world issues with an impact on society – can encourage both male and female students to consider STEM careers.

“Successful” engaging experiences are critical. Research has shown that how girls classify their success and failures is important in their career choice. Girls are more likely to attribute their successes to hard work (”I worked hard to successfully write that computer program.”) while they attribute their failures to their personal lack of ability (”My program didn’t work. I am no good at engineering.”).

Boys, on the other hand, attribute their successes to ability (”My computer program worked. I am good at writing programs.”) while attributing failures to external forces or lack of effort (”My program didn’t work. The professor didn’t give us good instructions.”). For girls in particular, providing role models who can share their experiences, show their career path, counter the “lack of ability” internal argument and generate excitement about their contribution to our world will open the eyes of our youth into the possibilities of a career in STEM.

Successful engaging experiences can take many forms and best practices abound in the research and published proceedings of the Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN) and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Team-based experiences, one-time short activities, long-term involved designs, faculty-led experiences, student-led activities – all are successful if they engage the student in the design and creation experience, provide a challenge, integrate the effective messaging, relate to real-world and societal impact, and allow for success in some form.

Education

As a profession, we must continue to educate the community about careers in STEM and the impact STEM has on our everyday lives and the health, happiness and security of our world. We must educate our teachers and counselors on the requirements for our profession and the benefits our profession provides to us as individuals and to our society. We must educate our coworkers and peers on the effective messaging research and encourage a changing of our language. And we must continually educate ourselves on the issues that impact the career choices of girls and the research and best practices in STEM field recruitment.

Hong Kong Disneyland – A Vacation Treat for Everyone


Everyone loves amusement parks. That is what makes Hong Kong Disneyland one of the best attractions in Hong Kong. You can enjoy great rides, attractions of all types and great food. There are parades and everything else that makes this a worthwhile place to visit. There are even great hotels right on the park grounds so you can go rest whenever you feel like it.

What Does Hong Kong Disneyland Have to Offer?

There are five themed areas in Hong Kong Disneyland. They include Main Street USA, Adventure land, Toy Story land, Fantasy Land and Tomorrow land. These five themes will each have their own special shows and just going to one of them is like a park in its own. Besides finding the different themes you will be able to enjoy a train ride through the entire park. This will give you a chance to see the entire park.
That’s not something that is easily done. There is an animation academy that will teach you how animation works. There are even fireworks at night for everyone to enjoy. Besides all of this there are great rides for all ages. There are rides for young children and older kids. Whatever your preferences you will find a ride that is sure to please you.

Hong Kong Disneyland Characters

There are many characters that walk the park. You never know when you could run into your favorite character whether it is Goofy, Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck. Besides the classic characters you can find many of the beloved characters from your favorite animated movie. Woody and all of his friends can be found here. There is even a Toy Story land where you can see these characters. When you stay at one of the two hotels it is nothing unusual to see Goofy come to sit by the pool. Minnie Mouse, Mickey Mouse and so many more can be found in Hong Kong Disneyland.

Hong Kong Disneyland Hotels

To make your vacation to Hong Kong Disneyland complete you should get a room or rooms at one of the two hotels that are right on the park grounds: Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel and Disney’s Hollywood Hotel (cheaper). There are pools and buffets to enjoy. If you get tired and want to rest awhile, you won’t have to drive anywhere to get to your rooms. This makes the hotels very convenient.

Make Your Hong Kong Disneyland Vacation Plans

Whether you live in Hong Kong or going on vacation, you will want to see Hong Kong Disneyland. Compare it to the Disneyland in the US or Europe. Everyone will enjoy Hong Kong Disneyland. People from all walks of life and from every part of the world have a love for all of the Disney characters and movies. You can become part of it for a few days when you visit one of the Disneyland Parks. In the US, there are actually two of these great themed parks; Disneyland and Disneyworld. You can also find a Disneyland in Europe. Try traveling to the different parks to see what is the same and what is different. One thing you can count on is a lot of fun for the whole family.

Teaching chess to children

The other day I was wondering how to teach chess to my son without brainwashing him with the various movement of the pieces and check mating. Things he does not appreciate too much. So I started searching methods and by asking questions on a large chess forum, I harvested some very valuable advice.

One grandmaster who gives lessons to children aged 5-6 advises to play games with reduced hardware. For example play a match with 8 pawns against eight pawns, the aim being to take all the pieces of the opponents, and where pawns can promote. Or play a game with reduced chessmen, eg queen and three pawns against knight, bishop and three pawns. Children are interested in taking (eating) the pieces of the opponent, the concept of mat is too abstract for them.

And as children also want to play with all the pieces, you can try to play one time (10-20 min) and then they count the points when the time is elapsed: 1 point per pawn, 3 for a bishop or knight, 5 for a rook and 9 for a queen. This chess teacher states to start small, first a match rook against rook and then add pieces, bit by bit. Queen, rook, bishop is easy, then the harder pieces in small games and later the chessmate. A tip: do not show en passant, it is too complicated!

Another recommendation by a specialist is to use handicrafts. Bring colored pencils, a sharpener, an eraser, and a notebook and it goes very well. If small kids do not yet know to move the pieces, add color to some of the boxes or trace a path (especially for the knight), etc. Generally, everything is based on equipment (scissors, crayons, erasers, post-it on the board wall to mark the boxes, etc …) and works fine at this age to learn a game like chess. Otherwise try to think of memory games like reconstruction of a single position that was on the wall board. Along the same lines, ask them to place on the chessboard a position of mate with a tower, or a queen, after having defined the patterns in a  previous meeting .

A panel discussion raised the question of whether we can really teach the rules of the game and chess and mate to kindergarten children? There are published chess handbooks for teachers, and many grandmasters are known to have learned the game around 6 years old. There is also a very simple version of a chess instruction book for kindergarten children. But some people are skeptical and think that it is better to teach other simple games first, like dice, poker or bridge. They think that in kindergarten, it is impossible to learn properly even just the rules of the game in 16 meetings (on a 1 hour per session, which is the maximum time for children ages 5 to 6 years on a single subject before they start to flutter to something else).

The only notion of checkmate, although it is the object of the game, is so complex to understand for children this age. Even after 30 sessions of one hour over the year, only 10 to 20% of children confusedly perceive what the checkmate is all about. One should therefore be aware that at that age, more than learning chess, this is an awareness of the game of chess that you can provide, and chess is then effectively a support to introduce notions of official instructions like two-way table entries, location in space and geometric concepts associated with socialization.

Is there a big difference when children reach seven years? Yes, when children are 6 years old, they develop a real capacity for learning and attention. It is not by chance that basic skills are fixed at this age. 20 minutes sessions are recommended, knowing that a child this age can really mobilize for only 7 minutes, but a 7 years old can stand a learning session lasting 45 minutes which appears as largely sufficient. While some students can assimilate some rules of the game it seems difficult. However, learning in a club with children this age, in a motivated public place, is in turn possible and successful. One way to teach is first to show how to move the pieces properly and then approach the checkmate. But ignore the en passant capture. Then provide group lessons with the whole class involved,  lasting about thirty minutes. After that the children play by 2. A session can last an hour. It is true that their attention is limited to ten minutes, but it varies, if they are interested in an activity it is more.

Horse Riding Summer Camps for Kids


Sending kids to vacation sites that are equally fun and educational like horse riding summer camps for kids can make their time worthwhile without any feeling of missing out their long awaited vacation.

Understand that riding is not as simple as sitting on a horse, and the rider has a participation in making the ride a success. There are more things to expect from riding a horse than meets the eye, aside from having pure pleasure. It can benefit emotional, mental, and physical well being of a child which parents should take advantage of.

A Glimpse on the Benefits of Riding a Horse

Physically, riding can enhance a child’s coordination, balance, and awareness. Riding uses different muscles like abdominal, leg, back, and shoulder. Novice riders must expect that the muscles in their inner thigh will become sore, but it will strengthen just as quickly and become stretched. Riding a horse also aids in proper functioning of the liver and digestion. It can also pose as an option for therapy for those patients using wheelchairs.

Mentally, riding a horse can be a good training ground for developing mental awareness that every child should muster. Riding can provide for all the necessary means to keep the brain active at all times. There are times where quick decisions must be made in order to make the ride a success, and when that happens expect that the child will gain an added boost of confidence that will make that child believe in his or her own capabilities.

Emotionally, riding a horse can somehow teach a child emotional stability as many riders find it relaxing and somewhat calming. The rider and his or her horse must have harmony together in both mind and body. A child will eventually learn to feel the things that his or her horse feels and convey his or her own feelings in order to make a beautiful ride.

Planning for the Horse Riding Summer Camps

Choosing the right horse riding summer camp for the kids can be tedious, but it will be all worth it in the end. The horse riding summer camp might just be a life-changing experience that kids will be thankful for the rest of their days.

In order to give the best horse riding summer camp experience for the kids, look for camps that group kids that belong to the same age group to bind together common interests and make interactions with one another easier. This way, riding lesson sessions will also have a smooth flow.

Search for the most suitable time and most convenient location for the camp. Make sure to prepare everything beforehand in order to make certain that all of the things that the child will need are intact.

Discuss the program that a particular camp offers to weigh whether it is the camp that will most likely bring the benefits that a child must get and expect. And do not forget when you bring your child, this is a Summer camp, not a beauty competition, so do not come with your wedding nails.

If uncertain, make a thorough research about the target camp to take away any skepticism or doubt. Look at the things that the different camps offer and see which one is the best for the child.

Some Camps with their Price

Rawhilde Ranch is famous for giving campers a taste of a real ranch life including horse riding. It is located in North San Diego County. Daily activities include vaulting and western riding. There are also animal and horse science lectures plus roping, drama, and other fun activities. The camp is for boys and girls aged 7 to 15. One week costs $895; two weeks cost $1790; three weeks $2685; four weeks cost $3580. Longer weeks are also available.

The Windridge Tennis and Sports Camp offer specialized soccer, tennis, and horse back riding programs. The camp works hard in giving commitment in good sportsmanship, wholesome fun, and great learning experience amidst a very friendly environment. The camp caters boys and girls aged 8 to 15. Two weeks cost $1640 and three weeks cost $3075.

Frost Valley is where campers experience a different kind of journey from spending a night away from home for the first time to exciting adventures of horse back riding. The camp is for boys and girls aged 7 to 16. One week costs $800-$1700; two weeks cost $800-$1700; three weeks cost $800-$1700; four weeks cost $800-$1700; six weeks cost $800-$1700; eight weeks cost $800-$1700.

Are video games good for kids

Since the digital revolution in the early 2000s, children have started to invest more and more of their time into video games. Studies show that the average American 8th grader spends 23 hours a week playing video games as opposed to 12 hours invested in such games by average 8th grader in 2001.

The average amount of time gathered by various studies carried out on the topic has increased a lot, although it has not yet been proven, whether video games are really worth the time spent on them or are just a waste of time and energy.

Pros of video games

First of all, we must consider that video games have become far more advanced than they were a decade ago. The graphics and the complexity of the games is more and more similar to what can be experienced in real life.

For example, several professional motorsports drivers have admitted that they are training for different circuits on video games, as the game features are very similar to the real circuit. Even some colleges use some video games in their studies. For example the University of Florida, University of California-Berkeley, Boston College and several other colleges use a video game called Starcraft in their management studies, as they believe it is a great way to develop stategical thinking of their students.

Besides the ability of different video games to develop the thinking and brain of young children, it has also been found that video games motivate children to learn different topics that they need at the game. For example, in Jyvaskyla University in Finland a research found that 6-7 year-old children, who started playing different video games at an open-ended computer environment were much more eager to learn reading and writing than the other children at their age. Also the children who took part in the survey increased their peripheral vision and language skills in English quite significantly.

Cons of video games

On the other hand video games also may have negative effects on the mental health of children. Already in 1992 Japanese professor Takashi Sakamoto found that children at the ages on 11-13, who were playing computer games most of their time, were less creative and emphatic than the other kids at their age range.

After the invention of different social networks like Facebook, children can get connected with other kids at any time, whether it would be in a game, smart phone or just a chat online. Although the quantity of communication has increased, the quality of information seems to have decreased. At the end it may result with social disconnection and increase in likelyhood for depression.

As children are spending more time playing multiple electronic games, the rate of video game addiction is also growing. Addiction in any area in life is not healthy, especially for young developing minds. Usually video game addiction results in increased aggressiveness, social disconnection with family and friends and lower academic achievement.

In a study conducted by Iowa State university it was found that nearly one in ten youths is addicted to video games. One of the main dangers in that particular addiction is that the player may lose sense between the fantasy world and the real world. In several cases children have found to be trying to imitate violence seen in video games. Many researchers suggest that there may also be a link between playing violent video games and bullying.

All in all, video games may have both positive effects and negative effects on children.

On one hand they increase different mental skills, on the other hand overuse of them may result in various mental health problems, lack of creative thinking and empathy. Overall we must admit that in healthy doses video games may have a positive effect on the development of children. As in every other area of life, there must be found a balance – a balance between video games and other activities, a balance between the real world and the fantasy world.