Balance Important For Your Child's Mental Health

Yes it's true.... sillyDaddy fractured his toe recently while running from the children on top of the couches in the family room....

While my balance may be in question, eM and I have encouraged the kids' balancing skills to build their coordination, strength and esteem - and all our friends just thought we were careless parents.

We've let them climb and move through their home, let them problem solve about how to get around or over obstacles and even allowed them to stumble occasionally in our safe, child proofed environment.

So far they've come through in much better shape than I have.

I reached back into my sillyDaddy archive to find this article that made an impression on me from early last year.  Published in Research and Developmental Disabilities journal, the study found that "all [children] with balance problems do exhibit symptoms of anxiety, pointing to a link between the two conditions."

According to the research, children in the study, five to seven year olds with an anxiety diagnosis, went through a 12-week sensory-motor intervention in which, "the children use equipment to experience their environment and move in space."  Their balance improved, anxiety was reduced to normal levels and their self-esteem increased.

Improve Balance, Relieve Childhood Anxiety

Free Google Calendar Makes It Easy To Organize The Family

Do you wish you had a more organized and reliable way to coordinate schedules with your wife? Would you like to be able to share your schedule with friends and family? Wouldn’t it be cool to have an up to the minute weather report right on your calendar?

You can have all this and more with Google’s free shared calendar application!

If you have a free Gmail account you have access to Google’s free calendar application. There’s absolutely nothing to download because it’s all web based.

You will be able to create specialized calendars, share them with friends and family or keep them private, overlay multiple calendars on top of each other so you can easily see conflicts, send appointment alerts to your phone or email, and add free extras like a calendar for all US Holidays and a Weather overlay!

Internet Crime Up 22%!

you are the water buffalo in this scenario (J took this pic. Nice, right?)

A scary report out this month from the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)  regarding cyber crime.

Especially scary because it details a  high rate of cyber-crime in the Washington DC Metro Area.

The IC3 is an organization put together by the FBI in conjunction with the National White Collar Crime Center and the Bureau of Justice Assistance.  I mentioned their list of 17 identity theft prevention tips in my hardening your passwords post.

According to the report, Maryland ranks 19th and Virginia 28th in the number of perps per capita!

Complaints to the IC3 increased 22% last year and the average amount of money lost per complaint jumped from $265K in 2008 to $560K.

The Top Three Crimes:

• 20% non-delivery of goods or services.
• 14% identity theft.
• 10% credit card fraud.

If you haven't done so already, please plan on carving out some time to protect yourself.

Review the four post series:
Protecting Your Identity
Stop Credit Solicitations
Freezing Your Credit
Hardening Your Passwords

***

Spring Equinox - Not Just For Druids Anymore!

Have you always wanted to celebrate the spring equinox but were too intimidated by druids and wickens?

Spring equinox isn't some bizarre, candle lighting, virgin sacrificing, robe wearing ritual.  It's a meteorological event.

And we're takin' it back baby!

The spring equinox is one of two times of the year when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator and day and night are of equal length.  This year's spring equinox will occur on March 20th at 1:32pm.

You know what that means???  From here on out we'll have more day than night and summer isn't far behind!!!

Now, lets go kick some druid ass.

***

Build A DIY Secret Bookshelf Compartment!

Regardless of whether or not you actually have anything secret to store in your home, every Daddy, silly or not, wants a secret compartment.


I've read lots of interesting ideas for creating secret spots but they always looked like they'd take years to complete and cost thousands of lives.

This is a quick and easy secret compartment that, so far, has fooled everyone who's looked for it.

Steeple Chase Time!

Steeple chase season arrives in Maryland on April 10th with the 108th running (that's just over a century to you and me) of the My Lady's Manor Steeple Chase!

J & D have attended each year of their lives; eM and I have attended almost every year since we've been together and I attended with friends many years before that.  It's a fun event, great for people with or without families.  This is one of the few remaining vestiges of my pre-fatherhood days when I still had disposable income.  In fact, it might be the only surviving vestige.

Now the vibe at this race is a little different than the Virginia or International Gold Cups that DC folks are used to.  It's more ancient country manor & LLBean vs. nouveau riche & fancy hats.  Oh you can still find plenty of pompous but most folks are very friendly.

Quality Fathering Boosts Your Child's IQ

While I was posting about the research released last week concerning girls and math ability, I was reminded of another article in the sillyDaddy archive.

The research (pasted below) released at the end of 2008 found that an involved dad boosts a child's IQ in a significant way!

The author, a psychologist at the University of Newcastle (where they also happen to make a lovely brown ale....bada bing) writes, "This is not half a point, this is a few points of IQ, on average."

The research was based on surveys of more than 10,000 children completed over more than 50 years and was published in the journal of Evolution and Human Behavior.

 Time with dad is time well spent
   by Ewen Callaway

When picking out that perfect Father's Day gift next year, sons and daughters might want to look to their own accomplishments before deciding between a gaudy polyester tie or splurging on a new set of golf clubs.

The more effort a father invests in his children, the smarter they are as kids and more successful as adults, new research shows. And highly educated fathers make even more of a difference than less educated dads, all things being equal.

Use Filters and Labels To Manage Your Gmail

Does your swamped Gmail Inbox have you down? Wish there was an easy way to sort through and organize all your mail?


Well there is!

Gmail has easy to use filter and labeling options that allow you to handle and organize your mail BEFORE it ever hits your inbox.

As an example, I have a filter set up to capture mail from my favorite retailers. And while these are retailers that I want to hear from, I still don’t want their email choking my inbox.

Each time one of my filtered retailers sends me an email, Gmail captures it, labels it, and diverts it to a special folder I’ve labeled “Retailer”.

The "Retailer" folder keeps an unread email count in my side bar so I always know if a retailer has sent me something new. Now, instead of these emails hitting my inbox, they wait patiently in the folder until I want to read them.

Here’s how to do it: