Is your child excited about school?

Does she eagerly share with you daily about her day at school?

Does he look forward to the challenges each day brings?

Does she work hard to stay on top of assignments and homework?

Children spend a good part of their day, in fact, much of their childhood at school. While most kids embrace the challenges and camaraderie of school life, our enthusiasm, interest and most of all, our involvement, allows them to feel happy about school.

You’ve been with your child for the numerous practise and coaching sessions.

You’ve attended every single game that she’s played.

And now that she’s standing on the victory podium proudly holding aloft her trophy, your heart is bursting with pride.

As parents, we look forward to our children’s report card with a mixture of anticipation and apprehension. We eagerly scan their grades and feel either excitement and pride or concern and frustration. We tend to focus on their academic performance as an indicator of their intelligence, and as the only indicator of their future success.

But there’s considerable research to prove that when it comes to success, EI or Emotional Intelligence is as much, if not more important, than IQ.

“You’ve really put in a lot of effort.”

“I appreciate that you put your toys away after play.”

“You made your little brother happy when you shared your treats.”

The messages kids hear about themselves easily translate into how they feel about themselves. Negative messages undermine their confidence whereas positive messages reinforce behaviors that are desirable.

So, does that mean we should only tell our children that they are wonderful, special and great so that they become self-confident?

Not quite.

You’ve just stopped your child from putting a crayon in her mouth, and you turn around to see her chewing on her doll’s hand. No, you tell her, and put it away and she promptly sticks her fist in her mouth, giving you a triumphant grin.

For a toddler, the entire world’s a giant lollipop. Everything needs to be explored through touch and taste, but these early explorations also leave our children exposed to germs, viruses and bacteria, and consequently, sickness and infection.

So how can we ensure they remain healthy and free from serious ailments?

There’s a fun song that kids are taught in school that goes to the tune of a popular rhyme ‘Row, row, row your boat’.

Wash, wash, wash your hands

Wash them nice and clean

Scrub them here

Scrub them there

And scrub them in between

We want our kids to have a good start in life. So along with the right education, security and health, we want to make sure that they get the best nutrition to grow healthy and strong. The foundation for this is adequate and high-quality PROTEIN.

We tell our kids, “Eat the meat in your plate,” and “Eat your beans,” and we’re right.

Proteins are the building blocks of the body and play an important role in both physical and cognitive health.

Does your 9-year-old insist on you packing the same kind of school lunch everyday? Does your tween binge on junk food with his friends and then claim he’s too full to eat dinner?

As our child grows up and spends more time outside home, we have less control over what they eat and how much they eat. We cannot try to convince or pressure them to eat healthy the way we did when they were younger.