Category Archives: Tips

Winter Outdoor Activities To Try

01/13/2020 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

winter, outdoor, activities, skiing, snow, fitness, exercise — **Pixabay. CCO Licensed.**

You don’t have to spend the whole winter huddled up indoors on the couch. There are plenty of outdoor activities that are perfect for the winter months. Here are just a few great outdoor activities to try in the winter.

Skiing/snowboarding

Skiing and snowboarding are two of the most popular winter sports. Not only does this activity enable you to climb mountains and take in breathtaking views, but you also get the adrenaline rush of travelling down these mountains at speed. Of course, you can set your own pace – while some people try to see how fast they can go, others prefer to take things slow and enjoy their surroundings. Either way, it can be a great workout on the leg muscles and the heart. Ski resorts are the best places to go to enjoy this activity, as well as soaking up the buzzing ski culture that accompanies it.

Ice skating

Ice skating is another popular outdoor activity to try in winter. While there are plenty of indoor ice rinks that can be used all year round, an outdoor rink in the winter could allow you to skate under the stars in the evening. Ice skating can be a graceful form of dance or a competitive racing sport – you can choose what you get out of it.

Sledding

Many of us have enjoyed sledding as a kid. On a snowy day, it can be a great outdoor activity for getting some thrills. It’s cheaper than skiing or ice skating and you can give it a go practically anywhere providing there’s snow and a hill. There are many household items that you can use as a sled if you haven’t got a specialized sled. Alternatively, you could try making your very own sled if you feel you’ve got the DIY skills.

Ice fishing

Love fishing? A great activity to try in the winter months when the water is frozen over could be ice fishing. There’s a whole new art to this type of fishing, which can make it a fun challenge for even experienced fishers. To help be successful, it could be worth buying some ice fishing gear. There are plenty of guides online that can teach you tips.

Foraging

Foraging is a way of collecting free ingredients from nature which can be used in cooking and cleaning. While spring and summer are popular times to forage, you can also find lots of ingredients to forage in winter. These include berries, nuts and seeds. There are winter foraging guides that you can read online to help you identify edible ingredients, as well as teaching you various recipes in which you can use these ingredients. It could help you to save some money in the winter, while also bringing some freshness to your food.

Going Healthy, Health, Lifestyle, Parenting, Tips

How to Keep Your Family Happy and Healthy During the Summer Holidays

07/08/2019 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

Now that school is nearly over, your kids are probably really excited about their soon to be freedom! It’s a bit of a change to how things normally are, it can be really tempting to just order a takeaway and put a film on to keep your kids entertained, but it’s really important to make sure that they get out and about during the summer.

Your kids are probably really excited that they’ll have a break from homework, deadlines and rushing to catch the bus. This break means that your kids (and you) now have time to relax. Obviously, you need to take a break from time to time, however, you should make sure that it doesn’t affect your kids negatively. Having a routine is good for them, so you don’t want to change it up too much.

Get them Moving

Taking too long a break can actually cause a lot more problems, as it can cause unhealthy changes. In fact, some studies suggest that summer may be the most fattening time of the year for kids. So, as a parent, you should be thoughtful about how much exercise your kid is actually doing during the summer holidays.

It’s important to make sure that they don’t spend all day in bed. Whilst you can give them the occasional one, you should still make sure that they get up and active most of the time. Otherwise when they go back to school at the end of the summer holidays, they’ll probably struggle to readjust to getting up early for school.

Create healthy habits

Junk food can have a pleasing taste due to the high levels of artificial sugars. However, they might create mayhem to your family’s moods and health. Nowadays, many kids are either obese or overweight. Therefore, creating a healthy lifestyle can play a significant role in maintaining weight. On many occasions, children that are overweight are very prone to heartburn, which can be caused by eating certain types of foods. Medications can be useful for treating heartburn in kids. However, consult your doctor before buying any heartburn medication, because there is a popular heartburn relief drug that has been recalled by the manufacturers.

Keep to your Normal Routine

This goes hand in hand with getting up early. Sure, you can have an extra half hour in bed if needs be, but don’t let yourself or your kids get into the habit of staying up late and getting up late. It’s a really hard habit to break. Why not make the most of the day and get up and out of bed as soon as possible? The weather’s great outside so you should definitely make sure to soak up some sunshine.

It might also help you to create a list of activities that you can do together. Make sure that you allocate a specific time for this. This way they’ll have something to do (just like they would if they had to get to school). So, this will help stop them just rolling out of bed and sitting on the couch all day.

Remember to Keep Cool and Have Fun!

While it’s important to make sure that your kids have a routine, you don’t want to overdo it. It’s vital that they have some downtime. This is particularly important as sometimes in summer it can get very hot and this can lead to dizziness, tiredness or even feeling faint. This is something that you want to avoid. So, one way that you can do this, is to have fun in a cool room inside your house. In order to do this, you might find it beneficial if you have an air conditioning unit installed in your house. If you don’t have one then you can always check out a website like airecontrol.com. Having an air conditioning unit installed can really help you stay cool and not get too hot during the summer.

It’s important to keep hydrated whilst the sun is shining. If you or your kids get too hot, then you might become ill and this is a sure way to ruin your holiday. You should make the most of those cool rooms that have nice air conditioning. However, if you do want to go outside, then make sure that you drink water regularly. Don’t forget to put plenty of sunscreen on your kids if they are spending all day outside. You can find about more about the right sunscreen to put on your kids here.

Life, Parenting, Tips

How to Prepare Your Child for College

04/02/2019 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

Starting college can be one of the most daunting times in your child’s life so you need to make sure you do everything you can to prepare them for going it alone. Here are some ideas of what you can do to help.

Scheduling

One of the biggest challenges they’ll face is organizing their own time. Most children are so used to their parents deciding what, where, and when they do things that they haven’t had chance to develop the ability to do this for themselves. Start to take more of a back seat role in their day in the run up to college to see how they handle the freedom. Most importantly, they will have a large workload at college that they will need to organize into manageable chunks. Their time at school will have given them some practice in this but they need to be aware of the leap they will be making in terms of the workload they will be facing. At college, a lot of self-study is required so they need to be able to motivate themselves with solid goals for their future in mind.

They will also need to learn the importance of staying on top of any bills they have, as well as making sure they find the time to look after themselves by doing weekly food shops for healthy produce and exercising regularly. A lot of people tend to develop unhealthy lifestyles as a result of their new-found freedom at college, so make sure your child is aware of the importance of sticking to healthy routines.

Looking After a Home

One of the most important things to teach your kids before they head off to college is how to cook and clean. If they don’t know the basics of cooking, they are likely to stick to unhealthy convenience foods which could have a negative impact on their health. If you don’t think you have the time to teach them yourself why not invest in some cooking classes for them to inspire them to try making some delicious recipes.

It is also extremely important for them to know how to clean their home properly so that it doesn’t become an unhealthy environment for them to live in. A lot of student accommodation is of a questionable standard so ideally, they need to know how to handle issues like damp. They are also about to live with other students who may live in a much less tidy way than they are used to, so it could be an idea to prepare them for this by teaching them the art of diplomacy when it comes to asking people to do their fair share of housework without offending them.

Help Them to Move

On the day of the move try hiring a van to help them move their belongings, as this can be a stressful time for them. And bear in mind that van insurance can be quite difficult to understand so take your time when you’re organizing it. When you get there, help them to set up their room as it may help them to have your personal touch if they’re worried about living away from home for the first time. Take them to do their first food shop too so that they know where to find the local shops and set a date for the next time you’re going to see them as it is not unusual for them to feel a little abandoned when you leave them to it.

Before your child heads off to college make sure you prepare them by teaching them how to schedule their time, how to maintain a healthy lifestyle and home, help them to move and make sure they know that you’re still there whenever they need you. It won’t be long before it’s difficult to get them to see you at all! For more parenting tips take a look at going-dad.com.