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Try giving a bike next time you want to boost your child's creativity and fitness levels.

This month we’re focusing on offering tools that will help your tween become more creative. Every birthday or celebration of a special moment offers you an opportunity to boost your child’s creativity levels. OHealthy’s article, “‘Hot’ Toys May Not be the Best Present” offers some tips for parents. Here’s an excerpt:

“Parents often feel like they have to rush and get the toy of the moment,” Paula Kramer, chairman and professor of occupational therapy, said in a university news release. “These toys may be unique and novel, but they’re not always the best choice for the child, or the toy with the longest life. If a toy is static and doesn’t promote creativity, imagination and change, it will probably end up in the corner.”

When selecting a present, adults should consider a child’s specific needs and interests, as well as a toy’s potential to encourage healthy mental and physical development. Kramer also suggested looking for toys that are either at a child’s ability level or just above it to provide a challenge and promote the child’s progress.

High-tech gadgets such as video games dominate store shelves, but traditional items such as bicycles and sporting equipment help children get active and develop spatial relationships.

“Traditional toys, such as Lego, are also great, because they help build skills such as fine motor manipulation and creativity,” Kramer said. “While they come with instructions on how to build certain things, kids can choose to build anything they want.”

She also recommended that parents give the gift of their time.

“Gifts aren’t all about money, and children love spending time with their parents and other children,” Kramer said. “Whether it’s a day at the ice-skating rink, a trip to the zoo or an IOU to take them and a friend to a movie of their choice, giving a part of yourself is economical, builds positive memories and strengthens the parent-child relationship.”

Visit OHealthy to read the entire article.

What do you think would make a great toy for your tween? Please share in the comments below.

One of the most difficult boundaries these days to set is the one between work and home. With parents working late hours and bringing work home to accomodate family responsibilities, the lines begin to blur.

But the health consequences of bluring those boundaries can be high. The OHealthy article, “Seek Success, But Skip the Stress” looks at how one parent of two handled the situation. Here’s an excerpt:

As if being a single mother of two weren’t enough, Krista Kurth was a high-powered consultant at a major accounting firm who was taking night classes toward a degree in organizational development. But when her body shut down with chronic fatigue syndrome, she realized that no motor could keep running without a pit stop.

Her two-year quest to recover taught her a lesson. The formula for success, she learned, must include mental and physical rest.

Millions of Americans have yet to grasp that fact. They believe that longer hours at work, combined with less recreation and relaxation, will lead them up the corporate ladder. The truth is that unchecked stress hinders more than it helps.

“People have the sense that they’re important and successful if they’re busy,” says Dr. Kurth (yes, she went on to earn that Ph.D.) She also co-authored Running on Plenty: Renewal Strategies for Individuals, which offers advice on staying energized despite work demands.

Machines can run around the clock. But Dr. Kurth and co-author Suzanne Adele Schmidt, Ph.D., emphasize that people are living organisms who must stop and refuel to work properly. By not taking brief, hourly breaks, they say, you could take up to five times longer to complete tasks and grow more likely to make mistakes.

Research backs them up. In one study, 69 percent of people who reported feeling highly stressed on the job said the stress made them less productive, workplace stress expert Charles Spielberger, Ph.D., wrote in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. About half of those stressed-out people said they had suffered burnout, job-related medical problems or both.

A state of alert

Overwhelming paperwork, deadlines, meetings, phone calls, and e-mails cause your brain to order the production of hormones that put your body in a state of alert. Whether you know it or not, your body pools its resources to deal with the threat causing the stress. Your muscles tense, you breathe harder and your heart beats faster.

If this keeps up too long, your body cracks under the pressure. The result? Headaches, difficulty sleeping and concentrating, short tempers, upset stomachs, and lower morale. All are early warning signs of job stress, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Some studies suggest this stress can lead to heart disease, depression, anxiety, muscle pain, cancer, ulcers, a weakened immune system, and even suicide.

“It’s a big problem and it’s growing,” says Dr. Spielberger, director of the University of South Florida’s Center for Research and Behavioral Medicine and Health Psychology. “The world continues to change faster and faster, which puts more pressure on people to try to keep up.”

Visit OHealthy to read the entire article.