CARE ABOUT KIDS

PARENTS: Lead Hazards: You can take some immediate steps to reduce your family's risk: If you rent, notify your landlord of peeling or chipping paint. Clean up paint chips immediately. Clean floors, window frames, window sills, and other surfaces weekly. Thoroughly rinse sponges and mop heads after cleaning dirty or dusty areas. Wash children's hands often, especially before they eat and before nap time and bed time. Keep play areas clean. Wash bottles, pacifiers, toys and stuffed animals regularly. Make sure children eat nutritious, low-fat meals high in iron and calcium. Children with good diets absorb less lead. MY WORD: Don't try to remove lead-based paint yourself.

CAREABOUTKIDS

Parents: At 2 years, children enjoy rhymes (jack and Jill went up the hill). By 3, they learn responses which require signs and reactions, as in the game Simon Says. At the age of 4, they can cluster thoughts and words, by 5, they deal with information in a series. In the process, children begin the progression from concrete to abstract thinking - from perceptual (I see) to conceptural ( I put together in my mind). Children also talk out loud to themselves while doing things
rehearsing words to go with actions. As the child learns and becomes more familiar with language, this self-talk becomes abbreviated, then whispered. Finally, it disappears, absorbed into the thinking process. MY WORD: Children spend every moment of their waking time learning. They are human computers.

CAREABOUTKIDS

Parents: New toys intended for children under eight years of age should, by regulation, be free of sharp glass and metal edges. With use, however, older toys may break, exposing cutting edges.Older toys can break to reveal parts small enough to be swallowed or to become lodged in a child's windpipe, ears or nose. the law bans small parts in new toys intended for children under three. This includes removable small eyes and noses on stuffed toys and dolls, and small, removable squeakers on squeeze toys.MY WORD:Christmas and birthdays bring about a lot of toys for children. Toys are subject to wear and tear and as a result should be checked frequently for breakage and parts missing.