A Happy Family

10 Reasons Why You Should Read with Your Children

>> Feb 10, 2012

1. Reading out loud to babies and young children helps them to get accustomed to language sounds and begin to learn words. Over time it will improve your children’s vocabulary and writing skills, which will help them to do well in school.

2. Books can often introduce children to new things about the world, such as exotic animals and faraway places. Although they learn new things every day, their world and experiences are limited. They will begin to build a wealth of background knowledge in a number of areas including science, history, and social studies.

3. Children who learn how to read at an early age will develop vivid imaginations. Even before they can read the words, they’ll learn to predict what might happen next from the colorful pictures and the story they hear you tell them.

4. Books provide a healthy alternative to television. TV can expose children to violence, sexual promiscuity, and drugs at a young age. It also trains children to be passive consumers rather than active thinkers.

5. As your children learn to read on their own it will help boost their self-esteem and confidence. They will become more likely to be leaders and achieve success.

6. Children who read become more empathetic to others because they learn to understand human emotion through books. Above all things, literature values humanity and celebrates the human spirit.

7. Reading helps children to develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Most children’s books involve characters getting into a problem and coming up with a solution. Children who read will learn to understand the logical sequence from beginning to end and have examples to draw on when they solve real-life problems.

8. When you read to your children, you are a positive role model by showing them that reading is important to you. As a result, your children will value reading as well. This is the best way to foster a lifelong love of reading and learning.

9. Reading to your children just before bedtime each night will help calm them down and establish a routine that they can rely on. Studies have proven that children who are exposed to computer and television screens before bed will disrupt their sleeping patterns, which are essential for healthy development.

10. Most importantly, reading with your children will strengthen the bond that you share. Reading together allows you to interact with them when you take turns reading sentences or you ask them what they think might happen next. The physical closeness of having your child on your lap or sitting next to their bed will express the love you have for them.

Jan Pierce is a 4th grade teacher who has over 20 years of experience in the classroom. She also owns the site Elementary Education Degree for students interested in earning a degree in elementary education.

5 Ways Having Income Protection Will Benefit You and Your Family

It is a sobering fact that for most people to live comfortable lives, they must have a steady income that can be sustained over a long period of time. Without this income, a person’s standard of living declines rapidly, making getting by particularly hard. This is why many people are getting income protection insurance, as becoming sick or injured during the crucial working years of your life can be very damaging for your financial future. If you ever encounter a serious health problem, income insurance can support you and your family, and the benefits are more than just having food on the table. Here are a few examples of why it's good to have income protection.

To Keep the Family Business

If you and your family have worked hard to run a successful business, having income protection insurance will help you keep it. If you aren’t able to work, your business could fail, meaning not only losing your salary, but your hard-earned business as well. Having your income protected might just save you from losing it all, so if your salary is the lynch pin in your family business, make sure it’s protected. Check out income protection quotes online to find out how you can protect your family’s finances.

To Avoid Bankruptcy

In this day and age, most of us live pay cheque to pay cheque and have debts that require continual attention, such mortgages, business loans, personal loans, and the list goes on. Any change in the pace that these debts are paid off can alert creditors and cause them to take action for their money. If this happens, not only can your cash flow be cut off, but also existing debts can then cripple you to the point of bankruptcy. Income protection will keep this from happening to you and your family, and will make it much easier for you to financially pick up where you left off when you are able to start work again.

To Keep the Family Together

In the situation where only one of the parents is making money, income protection may be necessary to keep the family together. When the working parent can't work because of sickness or injury, the other parent may be forced to take the kids to live with other family for a while. This situation can be devastating for a family unit, especially the children, so it's important to prevent this from happening.

To Avoid Depression

Not being able to work is bad enough, but it hurts the most when it has been forced on you because of something beyond your control such health problems. People in this situation who don't have income protection run an extremely high risk of becoming depressed, especially when they feel like they can't support their families anymore.

To Keep the Family Home

In times of a financial crisis, often the first thing to go is the roof over your head. It happens all too often that people lose their family home and are forced to downsize just because they became injured or sick. If you have income protection insurance you will still have your income coming in, so you won’t have to worry about losing anything.

When You Need to Replace Your Kitchen Cabinet Doors

The kitchen is an important part of your home. The key function of a kitchen is for cooking or preparing food; but nowadays, it’s also a nice place for dining, gathering and entertaining. A modern kitchen is usually equipped with a sink, a stove, an oven, a dishwasher, a refrigerator, and other electric applications. Other essential kitchen equipment is kitchen cabinet with the strong cabinet doors; it will become a great storage and determine your kitchen’s appearance.

If you want to have an organized and tidy kitchen, you must install kitchen cabinets, the built-in equipment that functions for storage of your food, cooking utensils, dishes, and even your electric appliances.

Since you will use it daily, having the strong construction ones like wood kitchen cabinets is much recommended. Let’s say that you’re planning a kitchen make over. You crave to do something different with your kitchen cabinets. If your cabinets are still in good condition, just replacing the kitchen cabinet doors will give you a new look.

Nowadays, you can find cabinet doors available in many different styles and materials. But since you only replace the cabinet door and keep your cabinet frames, you should choose one that will suit most with the existing cupboard base units. Purchasing unfinished cabinet doors could be a great solution, as it will ease the process to fit the size and design requirements. The different style and color between your kitchen cabinet doors and the cabinet bases will only spoil the look!

To get a new modern look in your kitchen, you don’t need to spend lots of money anymore. You should only replace your kitchen cabinet doors. Make sure that you purchase a high quality and custom one. To more beautify your cabinet doors, you can add the attractive handle hardware. Select the right handles that can add value to the door design.

The Great Source of Texas Gourmet Foods and Products

When it comes to the state of Texas, what do you have in mind? Besides the food, I think many people will relate Texas with horses, ranches, boots, cowboy hats, and the real country music. Don’t you agree?

Since I’ll write more about Texas food that I found online at Republic of Texas here, let me mention first the top four famous foods in Texas. They are chili, barbeque, chicken fried steak and tex-mex cuisine. For your information, Texas chili contains full of meat and very hot chili peppers. When you try Texas barbecue, you’ll discover thick grill-smoke taste and highly spiced sauce.Texas chicken fried steak is known for its quality meat and tasty white gravy. Tex-mex cuisine combines American food items with traditional Mexican dishes.

As mentioned before, if you search for Texas gourmet food and other Texas made goods, Republic of Texas Company Store is the right place for you to visit. The store is a great source of all things Texas. It’s really worth to drop by as they provide not only a wide variety of gourmet food, but also wine, sweets, nuts, and Texas clothing. Don’t you know that this store offers more than 100 gourmet Texas made stuffs and excellent foods? Isn’t it great!

If you’ve planned to send appreciation gifts to anyone, you can also refer to Republic of Texas Company Store. They offer you with gift packages in various price ranges. I think it would be a great idea for a unique gift package. Mexican food lovers will surely love this store too. You can try the delicious Mexican cuisine there. Their various tamales are so tempting!

For you who will hold a party or another event, why don’t you serve great Mexican food at your party by hiring the reliable party cateter Dallas? You don’t need to prepare things as catering with Mattito’s provides you with comprehensive service; it will include special menu that suits your needs, dishes, stainless flatware, buffet stalls, and ornamentations. It will really ease your jobs, right?