While there is no actual cure for the common cold, there’s plenty you can do to ease your symptoms. Before you reach for that cold medicine, however, the best remedy might simply be soup—specifically, chicken noodle soup.

One dietitian explains exactly how chicken soup can help fight colds: “Studies have shown that a hearty bowl of chicken noodle soup may help clear nasal congestion and ease cold symptoms,” said Sandy Allonen, a clinical dietitian at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “It’s all about the ingredients.”

Besides the obvious nutritional benefits of carrots, celery, and even onions and chicken, chicken noodle soup has some other healthy tricks up its sleeve. As Allonen explains, the warm broth can soothe a sore throat and provide hydration, the steam can help clear your nose, the salt can stimulate your tastebuds (encouraging you to eat more even when food tastes bland), and even the chicken can help.

“Chicken is high in tryptophan, which helps your body produce serotonin that can enhance your mood and give you the feeling of ‘comfort’ that helps make chicken noodle soup a true comfort food,” Allonen said. With all the bugs going around these days, it’s time to put the soup on.

Raising a bilingual child is an incredibly rewarding experience. It gives parents the opportunity to share a part of themselves and their world, while also opening up so many new possibilities for their young and eager learners.

While studies have focused primarily on the career benefits of being multilingual, there are also great cognitive benefits too. Recent studies show that a bilingual experience has been linked to improved cognitive abilities, particularly in problem-solving.

Research has shown that the sooner a  child is exposed to a second language, the better. According to the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences at the University of Washington’s published research, babies raised to listen to languages early stay adaptive to the different sounds. Assistant Professor Dr. Naja Ferjan Ramirez shares “results underscore the notion that not only are very young children capable of learning multiple languages, but that early childhood is the optimum time for them to begin.”

So how do parents encourage bilingual learning? It all starts at home. Parents can start by making sure the home environment is integrating the language in everyday life. Here are five helpful tips to get started:

1. Talk, Play, Sing & More Talk

​Babies respond best to personal interactions when learning a language. As a child, it’s nearly impossible to learn a language just from watching a TV show or playing with an app. Social interaction is necessary for language development and interacting with young babies through “baby talk” can really stimulate learning for the youngest of learners. Think about how a child mirrors your sounds and words, those are the basic building blocks—start talking early, and often!

2. Read Books to a Child Early & Often

Not only does reading to your child bring a lot of social and emotional benefits, but it also helps with language development. It’s another active way of engaging with children.

However, not all language books are created equal. Direct translations of English books can make it harder to learn about cultural expressions and figures of speech necessary for social interactions later on. Think about the books you share with your child and what you want them to learn. Having faced my own troubles finding quality books from authentic authors, I started Enlingos, which delivers Spanish and bilingual books for kids 0-6 to test out before buying.

3. Use TV Programming as Reinforcement, but Don’t Use It as a Crutch​

Kids shows and language programming are great tools to keep children engaged with second language learning. Turn to shows on Netflix like Little Baby Bum, Word Party, or Pocoyo, and change the language output to Spanish (or whatever language you are teaching). You can also purchase a subscription to Little Pim—online programming geared towards multi-language learning. While I recommend using these options as additional resources, it’s important to note that only listening passively to language does not help in development. Nothing can truly substitute in-person active interactions in a child’s language development.

4. Online Classes Can Be a Helpful Tool for Meaningful Interactions

As we continue to live through the pandemic one way that we’ve benefited from these times is the larger selection of online learning classes now available to kids. Classes found on Outschool, Care.com, or through sing-alongs like 123 Andres are now geared towards younger learners. While younger kids don’t do as well sitting in front of a screen just attending these classes together is a great way to support interactive play and learning.

5. Travel Early & Often When Able, or Increase Your Virtual Interactions

Yes, I know that the pandemic has limited this severely if not halted it altogether. But travel used to be, and will one day continue to be, the best way to keep children engaged in language learning. Travel gives children the opportunity to use their language skills with others, expand their learning, and deepen their motivations to be bilingual. While we may not be able to travel right now, do your best to increase the virtual interactions with friends or relatives from other countries. To know that others, not just he or she, speak the language can be an incredible booster for children as young as two.

So there you have it. While kids (just as adults) may have different levels of comfort in being bilingual throughout their life, it’s important to start paving that path early for them. There are still so many undiscovered benefits to teaching a child to be bilingual, not just for the child but for the parents as well.

 

Alejandra Tejada is the founder and CEO of Enlingos and Totts.  After spending four years in product innovation and digital consumer research, she left a startup incubator at a Fortune 100 company to pursue her passion for sharing travel, culture and learning with children by creating products serving young parents.

 

If your child is starting Pre-K or Kindergarten this Fall, there may be a great deal of uncertainty about what that experience will actually look like.

Distance learning may not be an option for children this age, who learn best by having concrete experience with learning materials and toys, and face-to-face interaction with their teachers and other children. In-person learning may not be realistic either because young children often struggle with social distancing and mask-wearing.

Whether your child attends school this September or not, here are 5 ways to make them more comfortable with wearing a mask.

1. Explain in simple age-appropriate terms that we need to wear a mask to keep ourselves and others healthy. The face-covering keeps us safe from giving germs to others and from getting germs from them—no need to go into frightening detail about what happens if we do get sick.

2.  Allow children to choose a mask to purchase, or to help make or decorate their mask. Their participation can help foster ownership and more of a willingness to wear a mask.

3. Have masks available for creative dramatics and imaginary play. Make a few smaller versions for their dolls and stuffed animals so they can be included in the action. Having their favorite “stuffy” masked helps to normalize face coverings. Toy Doctor’s kits and Superhero capes are great props to stimulate pretend play with masks.

4. Introduce the word “practice.” Suggest that they practice wearing their mask while watching a video or listening to a story.

5. Model “masking.” When they are practicing wearing a mask at home, you should too. Though it doesn’t always seem so, your example will always be the biggest influence.

And finally, know that if your child is attending school in-person, they will be more likely to follow their teacher’s instructions about mask-wearing when other children are doing so as well. Most kids want to be in-step with their peers and in this case, it will serve them well.

I am a parent and grandparent with over four decades of experience in early childhood education. I share my passion, wisdom and experience, with parents and the people who care for and about children at Little Folks Big Questions, where we're out to answer the questions parents face in today's world.

Photo: Yoto

Do you have childhood memories of listening to tape cassettes on long drives? Or maybe it was stashes of CDs in the glove box? Great audio can turn long drives with the family into exciting adventures, and podcasts are a great way to entertain and engage young minds and stimulate interesting family chats.

We’re big fans of family-friendly podcasts—we even make one ourselves called Yoto Daily! And if you’re looking for the best podcasts for kids on long road trips, then here are five of our favorites.

1. But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids If you want to spark some interesting drive-time conversations with your kids, then this is the place to start. But Why asks kids to send in their own questions, and then answers them with the help of subject matter experts. Questions vary from the small (why do ladybugs have spots?) to the big (What is the Coronavirus?) and episodes cover a wide range of subjects in between—cooking, science, language, and more. But Why is always entertaining, and breaks down complex subject matter into terms kids can understand and relate to.

2. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: This inspiring podcast isn’t just for bedtime, and it’s not just for girls! The publishers of the excellent Rebel Girls books bring some of their favorite biographies to life in the form of audio fairy tales. Each episode explores the lives of famous (and famously overlooked) women including Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Frida Kahlo, and Margaret Hamilton, and will no doubt inspire some fascinating conversation in your car and beyond.

3. The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian: This interstellar adventure podcast follows an 8-year-old boy, Finn Caspain, who lives on an interplanetary space station with his friends and their pet robots. Each episode is packed with sharp-witted humor and great sound effects, and the creator’s son, Griffin, makes regular guest appearances as the show’s Editor. There are over 100 episodes (around 13 hours) of this podcast available, making it perfect for enjoying over the course of a long family holiday.

4. Story Shed: When he’s not creating Yoto’s own kids’ podcast, Yoto Daily, Jake Harris is at home on the Story Shed podcast. Each episode features a new and original story for kids of all ages, often written with teachable lessons in mind – in fact, Jake was a school teacher himself before joining Yoto! Story Shed stories are great fun, often teeming with Roald Dahl-esque tension and humor. If your kids are into reading, they’ll love listening to these stories and uncovering the deeper meanings hidden within them.

5. Ear Snacks: This podcast is created by award-winning musical duo, Andrew and Polly, and explores the big wide world in all of its absurd, melodic glory. Young kids will learn about simple everyday things (rain, shadows, fruit) and delight in all the funny voices and eccentricities of the two hosts. Each episode features some terrific original tunes which will have the whole car bopping along, and submissions from listeners make the show feel relatable for young listeners.

 

 

Ben Drury is a father of two and the CEO of Yoto, a screen-free audio platform for kids.

You are spending so much time at home with your baby due to the pandemic. Without mommy and me music classes, story time and infant swim lessons parents are looking for new ways to engage their little ones. Based on the latest infant cognitive development research, infantio, an iOS app & online streaming service designed to stimulate infants’ minds from the get-go, releases today in the App Store and at infant.io.

babies tablet

Designed to stimulate infants’ minds from the get-go, this series of high-contrast animations capitalizes on the fact that babies are born with an innate expectation of how the physical world behaves, as well as the capacity to keep track of quantities and perform basic arithmetic. Simple puzzles, patterns, counting exercises, and mechanics demonstrations are designed to captivate the tiniest thinkers without overstimulating them.

The infantio app offers two modes, stimulate and soothe, and an included session timer to help parents track and manage screen time. infantio’s animations include age-appropriate patterns and puzzles as well as physics and math demonstrations.  An included session timer helps parents track and manage screen time, while a soothe mode pairs the animations with calming, classical music to help babies  and their parents unwind and relax.  

infantio is compatible with iPhones and iPads and is available now for free download in the App Store. The animations are also streaming on infantio.io.

—Jennifer Swartvagher

Featured photo: Jelleke Vanooteghem on Unsplash

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Photo: Tam Gryn

Until recently, taking trips with the kids to museums was a regular weekend activity. Now that the museums are closed, and honestly we don’t feel comfortable venturing out, I began to think about how we can get our kids to engage with art.

It is important to keep kids interested in art even with less access. According to the Denver Art Museum, kids benefit from “experiencing the work of other artists—the importance of focus, experimentation, taking risks, and making mistakes.” It also fosters their creativity and they learn about cultures from around the world. Art helps kids express their emotions which is particularly important in today’s world with so much stress that might not have affected them before.

Taking inspiration and advice from Tam Gryn put me on the right track. She is a mom and an art curator who spent a lot of time traveling the world, living in NYC, and now calls Miami her home with her husband and two small children. Tam began her art career with the Artist Pension Trust and had several other impressive positions with different galleries and art fairs. She is currently the Head Curator at Showfields, a unique shopping and art experience retailer.

So, how to keep the kids interested in art and in making their own? Tam gave me great suggestions.

1. START THEM YOUNG—VERY YOUNG

Tam explained that when she was pregnant with her son, she was an independent art curator in NYC. With her pregnant belly, she knocked on gallery doors asking if there was availability on the calendar for a radical art exhibition. The Radiator Gallery picked up the show “Conceived Without Sin,” an ironic title given her pregnant state. When the opening day arrived, her then three-month-old son was in attendance. She explained, “My artist friends were supportive. We took turns to carry, feed, and play with my baby while the exhibition was being installed. I believe that exposing children to art when they are tiny gets them to believe that art is a part of everyday life and activities.”

2. TURN ART INTO A STORY

Online art tours at museums, public outdoor art installations, and many great books for adults and kids are engaging. Tam recommends that even if your children are young, a good way to introduce them to artists is through stories and anecdotes about the art, the artists, the space, and the context around them. Since kids love to run around and can sometimes be loud, public outdoor art exhibits are a safe and entertaining way to give children exposure without fighting with them to behave. Most museums offer family days or family programs online including kid-friendly arts and crafts, book readings, and other stimulating activities that are fun and educational.

3. WATCH YOUR KIDS EXPERIENCE ART & YOU’LL LEARN TOO

Tam told me that observing her kids experience art inspired her to make one of her boldest career moves. She explained that because kids discover the world through their multiple senses, it’s counter-intuitive to tell them “Don’t touch!” That is when she realized that most art was exhibited in a way that felt unnatural. Exhibitions are usually restricting and intimidating and are meant to be seen with your hands behind your back. This understanding led Tam to start commissioning artists to create interactive art.

Interactive art is meant to stimulate the 16 additional human senses including: hearing, touch, taste, smell, pressure, itch temperature, pain, thirst, hunger, direction, time, muscle tension, proprioception, equilibrioception, and extrasensory perception. Interactive art is inclusive for children and offers adults the instinctive childhood experience of exploring beyond their visual senses. Experiencing art using your entire body leaves you no choice but to connect, especially in a world filled with technology and 2D imagery.

You probably have interactive art at home. One day, Tam’s kids were playing with Mister Potato Head and her 3-year-old said, “He is like Picasso!” Kids interpret what they experience to their everyday lives and it becomes a part of how they see the world.

4. ASK YOUR KIDS WHAT THEY THINK

When looking at art, let your children explore and seek out what they want to see first. Tam says that at home, she tries to steer them towards specific books that she knows will stimulate them more than others. If you are looking for a way to have your children express their emotions in a constructive way, which can often be extremely challenging, see what they are drawn to and ask them questions.

Once, Tam and her daughter encountered a piece that was made with broken glass and other found objects. Her daughter asked why the piece was broken. Tam explained that the artist was probably angry and had broken objects to create something beautiful, and that is art. Her daughter was happy to hear this, and it seemed like she identified with those feelings. That moment might not have happened had Tam not allowed her daughter to seek out the piece and then start talking about it.

5. APPRECIATING ART AT HOME

One of Tam’s favorite summertime activities with her kids is inspired by the established artist Carlos Cruz Diez and his color studies. A great activity to do outdoors is to use food coloring, water, and droppers in different bowls. Kids can learn about primary colors and by mixing them, they can find out which secondary colors are created. The kids entertain themselves for hours, playing with the water and their toys.

While we navigate the summer with our children, exploring new forms of art is a positive way to spend the day, will inspire your children to be creative, and may even offer them a way to express some of their frustrations and emotions and turn it into something beautiful.

 

I'm a mom of two children, wife, and love my fur baby, traveling and playing UNO.  My passion is discovering services and products by entrepreneurs, especially those that can cut down on some screen time and help our family create lasting memories together. 

Did you know that all children are born with intrinsic attributes of a successful scientist? Well, they do. It is in their nature to experiment with new things, seek answers to endless questions, and they are always curious about everything within their sight. Young kids pick-up everything they find and show genuine interest in the world around them. That is basically what scientists do.

But what happens when they get to school and hate everything about it, including the science tasks they so readily undertook as toddlers? Everything seems complicated, boring, and completely out of touch with their lives. At one point, you too probably thought that most science projects at school were unnecessarily tiresome.

As a parent, what can you do to ensure that your kid doesn’t lose their interest in science even after joining the school? Simple answer: By creating a science-friendly home and encouraging your kids to experiment, ask questions, and take part in all science programs in the community.

Here are 6 techniques:

1. Take them to science camps. On top of providing your kid with hands-on learning opportunities, science camps bring together hundreds of young scientists who can influence your kid positively through one-on-one interactions. When kids come together to explore and analyze science, learning becomes fun. Science camps are easy to find within your locality but in case you have no idea where to begin, you can visit one of the universities in your hometown. Most science camp organizers liaise with local universities and museums to run science programs.

2. Allow them room to explore. Many parents don’t warm up to this idea because of the mess kids make when they explore, but there isn’t any way around it if you want your kid to love science. Even the greatest scientists became who they are today through experimentation, sometimes through trial and error. Allow your kids to try things out on their own. If they want to observe a pool of water under the microscope, let them be. If they want to build something using dirt and water, the best thing to do is to dress them appropriately. Make it acceptable to get dirty in your household and while at it, buy them a science kit in order to make their work easier and more fun.

3. Allow them to play video games. Video games such as Minecraft will introduce the virtual world to the kid and nurture their interest in the science of coding. Not all games will teach your kid the language of programming, but there are many that will. Help the kid to choose the right ones. Video games come across as an excellent way of enhancing your child’s problem-solving skills. Skills such as negotiating, customizing player qualities, and different game levels equip children with the needed skills for progression to higher levels. Such qualities come across as necessary in later life.

4. Help them keep up with the latest discoveries. Kids are naturally eager to learn about how the earth came to be and how it operates. Topics such as Earth’s rotation and how day/nights came to being are very interesting for everybody. Now build on that interest by letting the kid follow breaking news about major scientific breakthroughs. Now build on that interest by letting the kids follow breaking news about major scientific breakthroughs.

5. Go hiking. By walking through nature, you will be igniting the kid’s curiosity in regard to the world around them. You will create a terrific environment for the kid to bring up scientific questions on their own. For example, hiking can arouse the kid’s curiosity about photosynthesis, how plants eat, breathe, and grow. Besides, you will be seeing lots of animal species, birds, and insects, all of which you can photograph and try to research their adaptations. Your kid will love doing that. They won’t even realize they’re learning.

6. Squash science-related stereotypes. Many kids have the wrong impression of science, especially girls. Make it your job to demystify these stereotypes and change your kid’s attitude towards science. Explain to them that physics is as simple as building with blocks, or that the simple act of breathing and excretion is biology. The key here is to make the kid see that he/she uses science every second.

We cannot emphasize this enough: Learning, especially in science, is founded on curiosity. It is your job to create a climate for discovery for your kids. Don’t force the kid to love science. Just answer their questions and stimulate curiosity. Everything else will naturally fall into place.

 

Fatima Salahuddin is a preschool teacher with 8 years of experience teaching 3-5-year-olds. In her experience, she has devoted her professional life to give her pupils the best she can, teaching them how to love themselves first, and improve student’s learning and behavioral skills.

Miami parents, we’ve got you covered. If you are looking for things to do with your kids while they are home with you, there are tons of virtual events to keep them busy with science activities, live animal encounters, drawing classes and more. Many of our favorite Miami businesses have come out with amazing virtual content during this crazy time and we have a huge calendar full of virtual activities to stimulate those little brains. Scroll through to find some new faves.

Test Out Your Skills with NASCAR Kids

Nascar

Come test your skills on NASCAR Kids. Learn all about NASCAR, play games or if you're feeling inspired, design and drive your own! 

Online: tinybeans.go-vip.net

Zoocademy with Zoo Miami

unsplash

Zoo Miami is bringing the zoo to you with its new online program spotlighting resident wildlife and behind the scenes footage. Zoo Miami's debut animal spotlight features “Hope”, the first koala born in the zoo in over 20 years, sharing tender moments with his mother. The uplifting video is now available on YouTube for those that need a moment of zen. Stay tuned for new videos on Zoo Miami’s social channels.

Online: tinybeans.go-vip.net

Learn about the Animals of Jungle Island

Jungle Island

Jungle Island’s Education Manager Emma Guss will post cool photos and a weblink to where kiddos and parents can locate the lesson of the day. Look out for new themes every week, ranging from Everglades ExplorationSpread Your WingsPrimate Practices and more. Guss will lead the virtual learning exercises and has designated Tuesdays and Thursdays as “homework” days. 

Online: tinybeans.go-vip.net

Frost Science at Home

Frost Science

At Frost Science, science education is always at the forefront of our thinking. Our commitment to providing free educational resources and sharing the power of science with our community is stronger than ever. Through this new Frost Science@Home digital platform learning series, we will be sharing a curated array of resources, videos, DIY science activities and more to help keep you engaged. The page will continue to stay updated with new information. 

Online: tinybeans.go-vip.net

Miami Seaquarium at Home

flickr

Explore the wonders of the ocean even on days away from the Miami Seaquarium! Life is a little different right now, but we should always take a moment to relax and have some FUN! The Kids Corner features Activity Sheets, Fun Facts, Reef Ranger Apprentice program and more. Keep checking back as more Activity Sheets will be uploaded soon.

Online: tinybeans.go-vip.net

Tour Miami-Dade Parks From Home

istock

Head to the Miami-Dade youtube page to find interactive videos you can watch from home. Videos will include fitness classes, tours of the parks and animal interactions with Zoo Miami's Ron Magill. You can watch along in their Instagram on Thursdays (videos will then be uploaded to Youtube channel).

Online: tinybeans.go-vip.net

Check Out Our MASSIVE Virtual Events Calendar

istock

For more virtual fun every day of the week, head to our virtual events calendar. You'll find dance classes, scavenger hunts, animal encounters, drawing classes and MORE!

Online: tinybeans.go-vip.net

—Kate Loweth

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