Happy New Year!

The Wolf by Meeta

Here we are, 2007 and a fresh new start. For us at The Daily Tiffin we seem to be having a great start. We just found out that the names of the top food blogs nominations have been announced at Well Fed and The Daily Tiffin has been nominated in the category Best Blog for Family and Kids. We would really like to thank everyone who put in the good word for us and nominated The Daily Tiffin for this category.
Until January 9, you can vote for us here. It won't be easy as all the nominees are fantastic.

The beauty of a new year is you get to start new and all over again. Have you all made any new year's resolutions?

Don't go rolling your eyesballs now! We all need some kind of goals to achieve and what better time to start than at the beginning of a new year.

I thought I would do a little research and see what the top resulutions among my family, friends and collegues are. The interesting thing was when I compared them to the search I did on the internet, it seemed that many others have similar goals they would like to achieve.

So here are the top ten resolutins of 2007:

1. Spend More Time with Family & Friends
2. Getting into shape. More sport
3. Loosing weight
4. Quit smoking
5. Enjoy life. Less stress
6. Quit drinking
7. Pay off debt
8. Learn something new
   
9. Get a better job
10. Help others

According to Proactive.com, people to do make resolutions are 10 times more likely to reach their goals than people who don't.

How about the kids? Do they need goals and resolutions? Sure they do. Just like it is important for us to have something to achieve, children too need the feeling of being responsible and being able to achieve their goals.

Discuss these goals with your kids in a gentl and playful manner. Do not force them into anything. If you feel there is a certain resistance then you should let go.

Here are a few great ideas, which I picked up at AAP.org

For our toddlers a nice easy resolution is "I will brush my teeth regularly." This was actually a goal Soeren and I set about two years ago. Although he never really caused any trouble to brush his teeth, it was important for me to show him that it was a very healthy thing to do. We bought him a book about a little kid who ate too much candy and never brushed his teeth. The book goes on to show what happened to the little kid - he suffered some pain and needed to go to the dentist. As one of my friends is a dentist, we visited her and she showed Soeren the benefits of taking care of his teeth. This little process really stuck into his head.

For the children between the ages of 5 and 12 a few ideas:

1. I will drink milk and water, and limit soda and fruit drinks.
2. I will look for a sport (like basketball or soccer) or an activity (like playing tag, jumping rope, dancing or riding my bike) that I like and do it at least three times a week!
3. I'll be nice to other kids. I'll be friendly to kids who need friends - like someone who is shy, or is new to my school.

Hope you have fun reaching and attaining those goals you and your children set.

Good Luck!


This Post was written by Meeta from What's For Lunch, Honey?