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Creativity Activities for Kids — powered by eHow.com

Keeping your child’s mind active and sharp through activities can sometimes be a challenge for parents.

There are certainly a lot of options. And some parenting experts feel it’s best to expose your child to an array of activities so they can find what they like.  After the recent Winter Olympics, I personally aways find it intriguing that many of the athletes found sports that they loved so early in life.

Now while every child may not grow up to be the next Apollo Anton Ohno, Lindsay Vonn or even Picasso, studies show that engaging your child’s right side of the brain (the creative side,) can definitely lead to enhanced mental functionality overall.

Take a look at the video eHow has produced offering a variety of ways to stimulate creativity. While playtime is a focus in a child’s early years, it’s important to keep providing activities for creativity throughout their formative years and well into their adolescence.

What types of games and activities do you plan for your own kids? Please share in the comments below.

As we spend the month discussing healthy relationships, it’s important for parents to be able to identify what makes a healthy relationship and what creates a codependent relationship.

OHealthy’s article “Answers to Your Questions on Codependency” defines codependency as: an emotional and behavioral condition. It affects a person’s ability to have healthy, mutually satisfying relationships.

“Originally, codependent was a term used to describe people living with, or in a relationship with, an alcoholic or addicted person,” says Judy Stange, Ph.D., Dr. Stange is senior advisor for health care reform at Mental Health America in Alexandria, Va. “Today, however, the term has broadened to describe any codependent person from any dysfunctional family.”

What are the signs?

Q. How can you tell if you’re codependent?

A. Codependents often have these traits:

• An exaggerated sense of responsibility for the actions of others
• A tendency to do more than their share, all of the time
• An extreme need for approval and recognition
• A tendency to become hurt when people don’t recognize their efforts
• A drive to do anything to hold on to a relationship
• A sense of guilt when being assertive
• A need to control others
• A lack of trust in self and/or others
• Difficulty identifying feelings
• Problems with boundaries

If you see several of these traits in yourself, talk with a mental health provider, Dr. Strange says. “Effective treatment is available.”

Visit OHealthy to read the full article.

How do you keep your relationships balanced? Please share your comments in the box below.

As we wrap up our conversations discussing tween nutrition this month, it might be a great time to look at OHealthy’s article “Teaching Your Kids to Choose Good Foods.” Here’s an excerpt:

According to Joel Steinberg, M.D., professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas and supervisor of a weight-guidance clinic at the school, it’s up to parents to ensure that today’s children don’t turn into tomorrow’s artery-clogged, diabetic, obese adults.

And parents can start as soon as infants are ready for solid food, such as beans, peas and carrots, in baby-food form.

“When you move to table foods, offer those same foods — and don’t doctor them up with ketchup, butter, salt or cheese,” he says.

All is not lost if a preschooler or grade-schooler has already had a taste of chicken nuggets and won’t eat a baked chicken breast as a result. Dr. Steinberg advises parents to place healthy foods on children’s plates during mealtimes anyway.

“Don’t force them to eat the food,” he adds. “Even if they don’t eat it right away, they’re curious and will eventually try it.”

Also resist the temptation to prepare separate meals for children.

“Everyone eats the same, or they don’t eat,” says Dr. Steinberg. “In other words, if your 6-year-old doesn’t eat his vegetables, he goes without.  When he gets hungry enough he gets another chance to eat his vegetables.”

Do as I do

You should also look at your own diet if you want your children to be healthy eaters. Kids follow their parents’ lead. It’s not fair, for example, to tell them they need to eat vegetables while you chow down on a pizza. If you eat a well-balanced diet, your kids also are likely to eat well.

Encouraging healthy eating means more than serving healthy foods — it means lifestyle changes, as well. Dr. Steinberg recommends that all meals, including snacks, be eaten at the table with the television off.

The television — and computer — should be kept off at other times during the day as well, in order to encourage a less sedentary lifestyle.

“It’s amazing,” says Dr. Steinberg. “People walk their dogs every day, but they don’t walk with their children every day.”

So next time Fido is leashed up, take the children, too.

Dr. Steinberg acknowledges that adults have little influence over children’s eating habits once the youngsters reach middle school.

“But if you bring them up in a home where they eat the right food, their diets tend to be easier to maintain and they tend to make the right choices,” he says.

Visit OHealthy to read the entire article.

How do you inspire your tween to choose the right food?

Watch our latest video with TweenBeat blogger Thomas Brock and hear him talk about parenting, Sponge Bob and why he loves blogging.

As we discuss how to improve your tween’s nutritional value, take a recipe from OHealthy for a terrific vegetarian pizzia.

All Red and Ready-to-Go Pizza

Ingredients

• 1 whole-wheat flat bread (pita without the pocket, about 8 inches in diameter)
• 2 tablespoons roasted red pepper (packed in water)
• 2 tablespoons thinly sliced red onion
• 2 tablespoons flavored tomato paste (pesto, roasted garlic, or Italian seasoning)
• 1/4 cup finely shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 1 tablespoon chopped sun-dried tomato
• Sprinkle of crushed dried red pepper, basil, garlic, or other seasoning, to taste

Directions

Spread the flat bread with the toppings and place the bread on a toaster oven tray. Use the “top brown” setting. The pizza is ready when the cheese bubbles, in three to five minutes.

Serves one

The serving contains about 367 calories, 16 g protein, 13 g fat, 15 mg cholesterol, 44 g carbohydrates, 2 g fiber, and 905 mg sodium.

Click here for more OHealthy recipes.