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Teaching Food Hygiene: Safety On The Syllabus
Source: raisingkids.co.uk

My friend’s son refuses to eat eggs because they come out of chickens’ bottoms!

At the other end of the spectrum are students who eat fortnight-old leftover baked beans from the tin and believe antibacterial chopping boards will protect them from all ills.

Now Food Technology inhabits the place cookery and domestic science once occupied in the curriculum, many parents are concerned their children are growing up without learning the basics of food hygiene and preparation.

What can you teach at home?
With many families relying on pre-packed meals, the traditional way of learning how to handle food safely and sensibly through experience is less common and schools have been forced to cut back on practical cookery through lack of resources.

Let your children get involved in making family meals. Little ones can help buttering bread and enjoy splashing about, washing up safe, plastic items. By the time they’re in their teens, some children are better chefs than their parents - just think how nice it will be to have dinner cooked for you!

Lessons in food hygiene
What are the most important points for food hygiene in the kitchen? Set a good example and start teaching the basics early. Follow these rules and even small children will soon be learning by example:

• Always wash hands, with soap (water alone will not do) before handling food, particularly if you have been to the bathroom previously. Ensure that the rest of the family also wash their hands.
• Store raw meat at the bottom of the fridge where liquids can’t drip onto other foods.
• Make sure meat and fish is thoroughly cooked to destroy bacteria such as salmonella and parasites. Chilled cooked foods, such as pre-prepared chicken, were recently found to have the highest amounts of listeria and salmonella of all foods - these should be heated until piping hot before serving.
• Small children are more susceptible to salmonella poisoning so cook eggs until the yolks are hard.
• Never cut any food (bread, fruit, vegetables) on a board that has had uncooked meat on it previously. Also use separate knives.
• Scrub wooden chopping boards scrupulously and let them air dry, and ideally use rigid plastic chopping boards.
• Defrost any foods from the freezer completely and then heat until piping hot.
• Babies’ bottles and feeding equipment should be properly sterilised until your baby is 6 months old.

Playing can stimulate the children’s brain. Children learn how to fine their skills and figure out the world through play. Realizing this, many parents nowadays outfitted their house with expensive development toys. But actually this is not necessary. Just buy toys that are multi-functional and have numerous way to play, so they don’t easily get bored with the toys. Children will enjoy more if you play together with them.

If you are looking for toys, make sure you consider about the safety. Choose toys that most suitable for your children’s age. Neglecting about the safety can cause incidents such as choking hazards. Here are some tips to buy safe toys:

• Choose battery-powered toys instead of electrical toys to avoid electrical shocks or burns.
• Choose toys with sound less than 85 decibels. Toys that exceed 100 db can cause hearing damage. Toys labeled with “intended for outdoor use only” means they emit really loud sound.
• Avoid flying objects.
• Avoid sharp edges toys.
• Avoid too tiny parts. This make cause choking hazards.
• Avoid violent videos or games.
• Choose suitable toys for your children’s age.

Be sure you supervise your toddler when he is playing.

Visit www.educationaltoysplanet.com for safe and quality educational toys.

By Joan Franklin Smutny for Your Baby Today

A gifted child demonstrates unique and clever behavior long before a school acknowledges it. Though, parents-especially new parents with little experience-may not recognize the special talents of their child until a standardized test or a teacher evaluation identifies those talents. Some parents may suspect that something is different about their child, but they shy away from the subject. Parents are the best judges of their child’s abilities, particularly from infancy to seven years old; therefore, they should trust their instincts and act on them.

What do you look for in a potentially gifted toddler? A high level of curiosity is often the most immediate sign of giftedness, but you also should look for early development in three general areas:

• Motor skills (ability to execute large and small motor tasks with ease)
• Quantities (large vocabulary, long attention span, long and often complex sentences, fast absorption of knowledge)
• Comparisons (compared to other children: finds more ways to use toys and tools, an imaginative approach to activities, concocts creative solutions to problems, shows deeper understanding of questions and answers from adults)

Your toddler may be gifted if he or she:

• Sits through a reading of a long book and then asks hear it again
• Walks or talks early, and/or shows early interest in the alphabet
• Shows interest in and understands numbers and time concepts
• Completes puzzles intended for older children
• Compensates for handicaps-learns to adjust and function in spite of them
• Demonstrates strong sensitivity and response to music
• Remembers complex events and describes them vividly long after the fact
• Expresses an advanced sense of humor-recognizes incongruities as humorous
• Relays stories or narrates events clearly and creates a plausible ending to a story
• Absorbs songs and poems quickly and recites them accurately
• Expresses impatience with limitations (i.e., when the mind wants to perform tasks that the body can’t yet handle)
• Comprehends how things should fit in the scheme of things; stands firms is intolerant of something she perceives to be unfair
• Consistently organizes, sorts, arranges, and classifies things, and then assigns them all names
• Understands cause and effect, makes inferences, responds to directions, and multitasks earlier than others

To notice a toddler’s special talents — that is, before they attend school — is beneficial to their development. If they receive the support, guidance, and instruction that are appropriate to their skills, they’re more likely to reach their full potential. As a parent, you are your child’s first teacher-be observant and encouraging.

Source: parenthood.com