Showing Your Kids How to Fish

October 17, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

Jeanie Smith asked:


You know your kids love to try new things. They have been blessed with the same adventurous spirit that you have. After a long, cold winter, they are tired of the indoors. But you are not sure what you can do with them that they have not yet tried. Boating and fishing offer you a great way to spend time with your children and to create memories that will last a lifetime. You can do several things that will allow you to make the most of your time together. 

No matter how young or old your children are, involve them in everything that you do as you embark on your fishing journey. Your kids want to feel needed and this is the perfect opportunity for them to help you. There is no better way to instill a sense of accomplishment in your kids than to allow them to help you with “grown-up” jobs. Depending on how old they are, assign them certain small things for which they are responsible. Some of these include ensuring that everyone has a personal floatation device and letting them coil a line. Your children will walk away at the end of the day with a renewed sense of confidence in their ability to help Mom and Dad.  Keep your children busy while you are fishing. They prefer to stay active. Plan your fishing outing accordingly.

Include exciting water activities such as snorkeling, tubing, or looking for various wildlife. Of course, showing them the basics of fishing will forever keep them and you busy! There are enough details involved in the sport of fishing that you will need to take your kids on multiple trips before they are fluent in the language of the angler.  You have an excellent opportunity to teach your kids while fishing on a boat. You have the ability to teach them new skills that they use long after you have caught your last fish. Merely being on the water allows you to teach kids new things about their environment. You can also teach them about boating, fishing, and safety skills. Try to incorporate these teachings into fun, intriguing activities.  Introduce them to new and exciting things as they are ready. For example, create a game that teaches nautical terminology. Focus on words like port, starboard, or bow. You should build upon this knowledge. After they know these terms, help your children learn the best way to safely drive a fishing boat or cast a fishing line. Always be an observant teacher.

The combination of boating and fishing allows for an enormous amount of learning.  This type of hands-on learning lasts a long time. Your children will benefit in many ways. They will discover things that help them become better fishers and boatmen. Participating in an activity that is thousands of years old teaches them about tradition. They will eventually be able to teach their kids all that you have taught them. This includes many of the elements of responsibility that come with helping adults achieve a goal.  Your children will have unlimited amounts of fun as they encounter new settings, new climates, and new wildlife. Most importantly, fishing and boating with your children will give you the chance to spend quality time with them. This is worth more than all of the fun had and the lessons learned.



Overcoming Staff Hiring Issues When Starting A Child Care

October 4, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

Sean Tan asked:


Whether you are starting a daycare because you enjoy spending time with kids or because you want to get into a wonderfully profitable business opportunity, you will need to employ some people to help you out. Yes, it is true that the child business is extremely profitable, because with both parents working in most houses, it becomes extremely important to enroll their kids in a daycare.

Parents would select daycare centers that are close to their homes, or on the way to their offices, so that they can easily drop and pick up the kids when they are en route to their workplace. But, even for the chidcare operators, such as you, this can be a very exciting experience, you get to spend time with some angelic kids and get good money for that too! Of course, there are responsibilities of handling the kids and keeping them engaged, but I would say that is better than most of the jobs on the planet.

Let’s talk about the staffing issues now. When starter kits, you cannot avoid hiring a few people as your staff members. Selecting them is important, because you will be entrusting to their care some very impressible children. Look into the following points:

1. Actually speaking, whether a person has experience or not in the day care kids business doesn’t really matter that much, because all humans have an inherent tendency of looking after kids. But what is more important is the past history of the person. Do not hire anyone without performing some background checks on them. Ask for references, and double-check them.

2. Start with short term contracts with your staff members, because you need to look into their methods of working. But, it is better to sign a long term contract as soon as possible, as the kids in the home business get used to people soon and don’t like changes. Changing staff continually will make kids and their parents worried. It is advisable to make long period contracts with people whom you have probated for a while.

3. Clearly explain the way your childcare operates to all new recruits, at the very start. The rules and regulation of your daycare, their job timings, and modes of payment everything should be made clear to them. This prevents a lot of uneasiness later on.

It is advisable to advertise your starter kit only after you have your staff in place. That makes your business much more credible. When people have meetings with you about whether to use your daycare or not, they will definitely ask about your staff. In fact, that is an indicator of how important a good staff is to your child center.