Sunday Post: Culture…What Do Children Really Need?

Posted on April 8, 2012 by viviankirkfield

Today is Easter Sunday. It is also the second day of Passover. Just as with Christmas and Hanukah, these Christian and Jewish holidays are usually celebrated around the same time. It’s not by chance, of course.

If you trace most major religious holidays back to their beginnings, you will find they have the same roots and seem to be based on pagan festivals that were held thousands of years before.

Jake at Time after Time has a Sunday Post Challenge and every week he provides a theme…this week’s theme is CULTURE.

The word ‘culture’ has many definitions. Because of the holidays that are upon us, I’ll use this one: the set of shared attitudes, beliefs, customs, practices and social behaviors of a particular nation or group.

And it seems that no matter what the holiday or which religious or ethnic group is celebrating…presents are involved, especially for the children. Easter baskets filled with candy and stuffed animals, Christmas trees surrounded with gaily wrapped gifts, eight days of presents during Hanukah, gifts given as ransom for returning the afikomen (piece of matzoh) during Passover get-togethers.

Children love presents…but the most important gift we can give them is our time and attention. This is another similarity that is cross-cultural. Children need to be treasured no matter whether their parents are Christian or Jewish, Muslim or Hindu, American or French, Canadian or Spanish, rich or poor, highly educated or unable to read. artistic or sports-minded. If we look at cultures all over the world, we see that this is true…in most societies, parents, and often the entire community, strive to cherish the children. Of course, in war-ravaged areas or when epidemics of famine rage, it is often the children who suffer the most.

If we want to be in our children’s memories tomorrow, we need to be in their lives today. Read with your child. Talk with your child. Walk with your child. Play with your child. Cook with your child. Paint with your child. The bond you form now will last a lifetime.

Today is also the first day of National Library Week. Why not go to your local library with your child this week. Help your child pick out some books and read at least one every day. Studies show that children who are read to on a daily basis are more likely to succeed in school.

Don’t forget to nominate your favorite library in the comment section! Twenty-five libraries across the US and around the world can receive a free copy of Show Me How! Build Your Child’s Self-Esteem Through Reading, Crafting and Cooking. Nominations close the last day of the month…don’t let your library lose out on the chance of getting this award-winning resource for parents and teachers.

If you’d like more information about Jake’s Sunday Post:

http://jakesprinters.wordpress.com/

And here are some other bloggers who are doing Jake’s Sunday Post:

http://imagesoftheheart.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/sunday-post-culture/

http://wp.me/p2iujW-2J

http://jullianeford.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/sunday-post-culture/

http://bokunosekai.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/sunday-post-culture-a-competition-in-padang/
http://lucidgypsy.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/the-sunday-post-culture/

I will try to add more as they are posted.

Reflections: Memories Of Easter & Passover… (eof737.wordpress.com)
A Zissen Pesach! Happy Easter! (pbenjay.wordpress.com)
PPBF: The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes (viviankirkfield.wordpress.com)
Sunday Post: What’s Your Nature? (viviankirkfield.wordpress.com)

Child Alert: Hot Car Deaths!

Posted on May 19, 2011 by viviankirkfield

Image via Wikipedia

On Thursdays, I usually try to write about something health-related.

Summer is just around the corner…and temperatures will be heating up soon.

Please remember that your car can be an instrument of death even when it is not moving!

Leaving children in a parked car is ALWAYS dangerous…however, in the summer, when the interior of your car can reach 100 degrees plus in a very short period of time, it is even more important to NEVER leave a child in a parked car.

Even with the windows cracked open, the heat inside can severely damage or kill a child (or a pet).

Read this article from Parenting.com for more information on this subject: Tragedy in the backseat: Hot car deaths.

Let’s resolve to have a safe healthy summer with our children!

If you are hoping to cut down on car trips because of the rising cost of gasoline and the need to watch your budget, there is so much to do right at home. Children don’t need fancy amusement parks or expensive toys. Your time and attention is really what they want and enjoy most!

Check out Show Me How! Build Your Child’s Self-Esteem Through Reading, Crafting and Cooking. As the title states, you will find picture book suggestions to read to your child, easy craft projects and simple cooking activities to keep your little ones happy and busy all summer long. We’re offering a special reduced price on our website…50% off the cover price! For just $22.50 per copy, you’ll have 100’s of fun-filled, educational, self-esteem building activities…they will be right there at your fingertips!

Cinema Sunday: My Picks of Great Flicks: The Ten Commandments

Posted on April 24, 2011 by viviankirkfield

Image via Wikipedia

Cinema Sunday: My Picks of Great Flicks: The Ten Commandments

This past week was filled with holidays, for people of both the Christian and Jewish faiths. Today is Easter Sunday and tomorrow will be the last night of Passover.

Have you seen The Ten Commandments lately?

The networks usually air it during these holidays and it was on TV last night…ALL NIGHT…it’s such a long movie, but, in my opinion, well worth the time invested.

Of course, I had to watch it…although I’ve seen it many time before and actually own a copy that my dad had purchased and then had sent it to me as a gift. My dad LOVED watching movies and had an enormous collection of VCR tapes. He was very eclectic in his movie viewing and enjoyed comedies, action/adventures, westerns, romances and thrillers. He’d worked, in an office on the distribution side of the movie industry, for Warner Brothers and other motion picture companies ever since he was a teenager and so movies had always been part of his life.

As a young child, I would watch television on Saturday mornings with my father…this was before Saturday mornings were flooded with cartoons for kids and cooking shows for adults. There was always a movie…The Thief of Baghdad, a 1940 film starring the Indian child-star Sabu, was one of our favorites. Perhaps it was the idea of having three wishes or maybe it was the fact that Sabu was such a little boy and the genie was SO HUGE…my dad was only 5’4” tall and quite sensitive about his lack of height. It must have made him feel better about himself to see this tiny person triumph. My dad also loved James Cagney movies…perhaps for the same reason, as the famous actor was only about 5’5” tall.

I’m always encouraging parents to spend “quality” time with their young children – reading, crafting and cooking – because participating positively with a child in these activities really does build self-esteem, develops their pre-reading skills, and creates a life-long parent-child bond. I don’t remember ever reading, crafting or cooking with my dad (my mom was the one who did those things with me)…but the time my dad spent with me, watching old movies on the television, was his way of participating positively…and it certainly worked!

I know this was going to be a review and recommendation of The Ten Commandments…it became a post on how my dad found a way to spend “quality” time with me. Perhaps The Ten Commandments doesn’t need any help from me. If you are looking for a movie that kind of explains the Jewish holiday of Passover and you love epic movie productions with a cast of thousands, and you like watching films with Charlton Heston and Yul Brenner and a host of other icons of Hollywood…get a copy and a BIG bowl of popcorn (or maybe two) and enjoy!

Just a reminder – tomorrow is the last day of the Hoppy Easter Eggstravaganza Blog Hop and Giveaway. The giveaway of a copy of Show Me How! ends at 11:59pm on Monday night. Just click on the Blog Hop link above and leave a comment telling me you have subscribed to this blog. You can get extra entries by grabbing my button, posting the giveaway on your blog or facebook or tweeting about it.