May 2024

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May-Jun 2024 Reminder 

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Parents Zone

Can children strengthen their limb muscles at home?

Source: Registered Physiotherapist, Hui Wing Yee

Children have a heavy academic workload and spend more time at home, losing many opportunities to exercise. However, the development of children’s limb muscles is very important, and some stretching exercises for the waist and upper limbs can be done at home.

The first set of exercises is the lunge and twist, which helps to exercise the core muscles and lower limb muscles. First, open your feet to hip width, place your hands on both sides of your body, step out with your right foot to maintain a 90-degree angle on both knees, open your hands with palms facing forward, slowly turn to the right, and hold for two seconds. Then return to the original position with hands hanging down, repeating on both sides ten times.

 

The second set of exercises is quadruped limb raises. These exercises help strengthen our back and limb muscles. If possible, use a yoga mat to avoid putting pressure on your knees. First, start on all fours with your hands shoulder-width apart and your knees hip-width apart. Lift your right hand and left leg straight out, creating a horizontal line. Tighten your back and abdominal muscles, hold for two seconds, then switch to your left hand and right leg. Alternate between both sides for a total of ten reps.

Since childhood, children have learned the great method of storage and how to pack up toys without difficulty

Source:Taiwan Professional organizing advisor, Yu Zhi Lin

One of the parents’ nightmares is working hard to pack up the toys every night, but the next morning they were scattered all over the floor again. Pack up your stuff. How can parents teach their children to pack up their toys?

We decide how big the storage box should be based on the child’s age, which is about 1 to 2 years old. To prevent children from putting toys in their mouths, toys at this time are usually larger, so we need a slightly larger storage box. When children are younger, our standards can be very low, mainly to let them know that they need to clean up after playing with toys, pack them up in the storage box, and put all the toys in it. At this age, we need to train them to be tidy.

By the time children are a little older, about 3 to 5 years old, they can already have a preliminary classification. Know that there are different types of toys. At that time, the storage box does not have to be so big, we can change a smaller storage box, according to the different types of toys a little classification. We adjust the rules of the game a little higher; you can paste some classification labels outside the box, with patterns, colors, or word cards, so that children can easily identify. For example, a car, with a car pattern or a word card “Car”, so that children can slowly learn to remember this classification.

When children go to elementary school, they will have their own ideas and know what to put away where, so our storage box can become smaller. Then we can store many small things for children, such as little girls’ ornaments, small beads, and accessories for Barbie dolls. We can also use such a small box to sort, because after such a long time of training, children will find it very natural to clean up, and parents will also feel very relaxed.

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Parents Zone Parents Zone

What kind of rice is suitable for children’s eating?

Source: Founder of Kat-Spirit Nutrition Health Centre, Senior Nutritionist, Ng Yiu Fun

In modern society, we all pay much attention to the nutrition of children. What type of rice will provide more nutrition to children, and will they be willing to eat it? We often cook brown rice or red rice for children to eat, but they do not like it very much. The main reason is that it takes longer to chew or is harder, so they can’t swallow it after chewing for a long time.

This rice may even cause stomach aches in adults. Children’s digestive abilities are not as good as adults’, so we are worried that they may have stomach aches. Nowadays, many people do not eat white rice; they may switch to germ rice, millet rice, or oatmeal rice, and among them, I would recommend millet rice the most!

Source: Founder of Kat-Spirit Nutrition Health Centre, Senior Nutritionist, Ng Yiu Fun

In modern society, we all pay much attention to the nutrition of children. What type of rice will provide more nutrition to children, and will they be willing to eat it? We often cook brown rice or red rice for children to eat, but they do not like it very much. The main reason is that it takes longer to chew or is harder, so they can’t swallow it after chewing for a long time.

This rice may even cause stomach aches in adults. Children’s digestive abilities are not as good as adults’, so we are worried that they may have stomach aches. Nowadays, many people do not eat white rice; they may switch to germ rice, millet rice, or oatmeal rice, and among them, I would recommend millet rice the most!

I don’t recommend ten-grain rice for children, as their stomachs are more delicate, and the rice may need to be soaked overnight before it becomes soft. They may feel like there are many different kinds of rice in it and not like it. Of course, some children are more curious and may like it. But many children are accustomed to eating regular food when they are small and will only try different foods when they grow up. We may wait until they are ten or eight years old before giving ten-grain rice. However, we still need to soak it before boiling it with other rice. Otherwise, even if it is healthy, it will cause stomach aches.

Some people will put red beans in; how exactly do we put them in? We have to pre-soak the red beans until they are soft, or even boil them until they are soft, before cooking them with rice. In fact, red bean rice is very nutritious; for example, Japanese like eating red bean rice. Also, there are other types of rice, like sweet potato rice, corn rice, and chestnut rice, which is suitable for eating in autumn. Different combinations make eating rice more interesting than just plain white rice. Chestnuts are high in calcium and iron to enhance bone growth and help prevent anemia, and people will be more energetic and not so easily fatigued.