Raising Creative GrandchildrenWritten by Susan Stump
“Where did he come up with that?” Kids often amaze us with their imaginative ideas, and we should give ourselves a pat on back for playing a role in this development. Innovative thinking is essential for success in school and in life, and it’s our job as parents and grandparents to nurture our kids’ innate desire to be creative. Inventive play fosters original thinking, an asset when children are confronted with new situations. By providing activities that use their creativity and imaginations, we are giving our young ones an important tool to deal with life down road.Give them ideas. Children come up with things to do on their own, but we also need to provide them with new ideas of interesting activities. Think back to what you did as a kid. Did you write a diary, create elaborate puppet shows, or sing and dance for relatives? Share ideas from your own childhood experiences. Offer creative writing ideas like writing an episode for a favorite television show or writing a new ending to a favorite story. Craft projects offer another outlet for inspiring imaginations. Craft kits, especially those from Curiosity Kits and ALEX, offer a wide variety of unusual and fun projects. They’ve brought us a long way from sock puppets of our youth. These manufacturers offer ideas and supplies to make such things as scrapbooks, powerballs, soaps, candy, sun catchers, dolls, planes, dinosaurs, jewelry treasures, and lots of decorative items. Kids can gather ideas from instructions, and then give projects their own unique touches.
| | Paying for your Child's College Education Written by Cindy Morus
This is probably most intensive short-term cash drain on any family's finances. Unlike most other big- ticket items, such as homes or automobiles, that can be paid off in monthly installments, college tuition must be paid out over a relatively short period of time. With tuition at staggeringly high levels throughout nation, a family's commitment to provide higher education for children can be overwhelming.Ideally, a long-term plan for college education was initiated from birth date of your college-bound student. There is no better way to ensure a child's education that a systematic savings plan. But this is not an ideal world, many of us must finance part of college education out of monthly family budget. Before selecting a college, parents need to: Determine how much funding can be available from conventional sources such as savings, income from family budget, trusts, and part-time jobs, if more money is needed. Explore availability of scholarships, low-interest student and parent loans, second mortgages, and conventional loans.
|
