Healthy New Year's Resolutions For Children PLUS GIVEAWAY! 1/27

Since 2012 is officially here, I know we're all making New Year's Resolutions of our own. Some of us...Okay, MANY of us, myself included, would like to lose weight and get fit. Others may have other goals like traveling, learning a new skill, or even just appreciating our blessings more. New Year's Resolutions are highly personal and can be major accomplishments or even something as small as learning to put the toilet seat down so your spouse doesn't fall into the cold toilet water at 2:00AM when she stumbles into the bathroom half-asleep. Okay, so this should be my husband's plan, but I am not at all holding my breath! You can't always teach an old dog new tricks, I suppose.

While we're all focused on making 2012 a life-changing year for ourselves, not many of us think about helping our kids set New Year's goals for themselves. This year, while making your own New Year’s Resolutions, why not work with your children to set goals of their own! Display their resolutions throughout the house and set up a reward system for accomplishing tasks or goals.This can be the perfect time to sit down with your kids in a happy, non-threatening way to discuss discipline,behavior and even let them set their own fun or silly goals.

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I have had this discussion with my preteen, and his goals for the New Year are being less forgetful, learning how to study more effectively, and saving his money rather than spending it on things that are wasteful, such as candy or ice cream. Pretty good goals, if I do say so myself!

Even younger kids, such as toddlers, can set smaller, realistic goals for the new year. (With Mom and Dad's help, of course!) I want to work on a few things with my 2 year old, such as sharing with her baby brother, learning her ABC's and 123's and (hopefully) potty-training and learning to clean-up after herself when she's done playing with a toy.

One awesome way to help with spelling, ABC's and vocabulary building is by using one of her favorite snacks, Earth's Best Crunchin' Blocks! Not only are they delicious, they an excellent source of calcium, but since they are crackers shaped as letters of the alphabet, you can make snack time into an enjoyable learning experience. Reward your children for getting the word or letter correct by allowing them to pop the cracker into their mouths!_ Sophie LOVES playing games with her Crunchin' Blocks and is actually able to repeat the ABC's with some help from us, of course. Once I can get her to sit still long enough to do it, I plan on posting a video of this. It's too darn cute!

For older kids, regular trips to the library are a great way to help improve reading. You can set up fun reading challenges with monthly goals they need to reach. For example, have a child pick several books from different genres or about different topics. My son LOVES space, so he loves reading about aliens, space travel, and astronomy. If he reads 10 books in this genre, we have agreed to take him to the Air and Space Museum! He's pretty excited about that, and is diving into his reading with enthusiasm.

Every year the American Academy of Pediatrics provides 20 tips for healthy New Year’s resolutions for
children that you can suggest to your kids, depending on their age. Some of these tips include:
• Cleaning up toys every day
• Brushing teeth in the morning and before bed
• Drinking milk and water every day
• Sharing and being nice to other children at school
• Washing hands after using the bathroom

Setting healthy and achievable New Year's Resolutions with your kids is a great way to help improve their sense of independence and promote good self-esteem. Have you talked to your kids about setting goals for the New Year? What would they like to accomplish in 2012? I'd love to hear your ideas!

HOW TO CONNECT TO EARTH'S BEST:

For more info about Earth's Best Organic and for some great parenting tips, please visit their website.

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WIN IT:

To help get your kids off to a healthy start this year, Earth's Best is offering one of my lucky readers a great prize package which will include Earth's Best Organic Snacks and a Sesame Street Meal Sampler! How cool is that?!

Please use this easy Rafflecopter form to enter.


This giveaway is open to US residents 18+ until 12:00AM on January 27, 2012. No PO Boxes. Winner will be drawn using Rafflecopter's Random Number Generator. All entries will be verified, so play fair! I will notify winner via e-mail and they will have 48 hours to reply before I am forced to redraw winners. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. This contest is not affiliated with Facebook in any way. Thanks for entering, and Good Luck!

***Disclosure: As an Earth's Best Blogger, I received complimentary products to facilitate my review. No other compensation was provided and all opinions are 100% honest and have not been influenced in any way.***

a Rafflecopter giveaway