Children are becoming couch potatoes.  They’re spending more of their their time looking at screens (computers, tv’s and video arcades) and they’re waistlines are increasing too. 

According to the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 17 per cent of children and adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 are obese, while in Australia, it’s around 20 to 25%.    

Studies show that on average, children spend around 5 and a half hours in front of screens each day – which amounts to around a third of their waking day (assuming they’re getting the recommended amount of sleep which is 10/11 hours for kids aged from 7 – 12 and 8/9 hours for older kids!   This inactive lifestyle when coupled with obesity puts young people at real risk of health problems such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes and cardiovascular problems.

Quite simply, eating the right food and getting the right amount of exercise is absolutely essential for the health of our children. 

As every parent knows (and is thankful for!), the television can be a useful babysitter – keeping young people entertained whilst mum and dad get on with other things like essential domestic chores.   But if your children are spending too much time with their electronic ‘childminder’ and not enough time in the playground– perhaps it’s time to get them out and about doing something physical, challenging, exciting and mentally stimulating too.  Martial arts.

Children learn valuable life lessons and skills through martial arts.  During their many hours in front of the TV, our children could very well have encountered the iconic Bruce Lee and his heroic exploits or the Karate Kid’s uplifting road to fame, but karate for kids goes way beyond a swift hand chop or a flying leg kick.  It develops muscle tone and strength, aerobic fitness and endurance.  It also builds self-confidence, integrity, respect and self-esteem.  It’s a sport that has the ability to unlock a child’s potential (and that of an adult as well), says Perth karate expert, Grant Rollinson, and which can set a child up for success in life.

Kids karate lessons are a great way of building fitness and strength and developing essential life skills including  :

·         Develops integrity and courtesy, builds discipline and respect

·         Boosts concentration

·         Builds self-esteem and leadership skills

·         Reducing stress levels

·         Helps people overcome fears and rise to the challenge

·         Fosters sense of community  

·         Stimulates a love for healthy living and exercise

Overweight or obese children face real challenges, not only physical but social and emotional ones too, and working with them to find a safe and healthy activity can quite literally, save their life.  With its multifaceted approach, kids karate can make an enormous impact on a young life as it emphasizes not only physical health but emotional and social strength too.

In the words of master Anko Itosu : ‘Karate begins and ends with respect’.

NXT 2.0

Mindstorms NXT 2.0 Lego is better models, more customisable programming & all-new technologies! With LEGO MINDSTORMS you can body and affairs robots that do what you want! With the contents in the set you get everything you need to create & program your LEGO robot, also make the robot perform loads of different operations. The robot can be fitted, for example, with sensors which control motors and react to light, sound, touch, etc.

The new Mindstorms NXT 2.0 Lego toolkit features everything you require to generate your first robot in 30 minutes & then thousands of other robotics inventions that do what you want! Designed for ages 10 and up, the 2.0 robotics tool set features everything you need to create and program your first robot in approximately one hour.

Creating a NXT 2 Lego robot is challenging — but not too difficult — with an illustrated step-by-step booklet and software showing the way. The booklet gives you instructions for building a basic “Quick Start” robot only, which is an easy introduction to the MINDSTORMS experience. This robot took our two adult testers about 30 minutes to build and 30 minutes to program. After that, they spent a lot of time just playing with their creation and testing its abilities.

Once you master the basics of NXT 2 Lego, you’ll need to use the included software to get instructions for more advanced creations. You can also use the MINDSTORMS web site to find instructions for many other robots, or you can create robots on your own. No matter what you choose to create, the principles are the same: just build the robot using the LEGO elements in the kit, and program it on your computer using the software. Then watch your robot come alive.

Overall, Mindstorms NXT 2.0 scores an excellent rating for its clever design elements. Our testers enjoyed the way the set brought a new level of interaction to their LEGO experience, and appreciated how easy it was to create their first robot. They also loved the way this set encourages inventive play — all the cool hardware that makes up the set can be used to build any robot you dream up. Finally, our testers liked how this set offers a great balance of learning and fun, and encourages interest in science, computers, and engineering.

One of a kid customer review about NXT 2.0 “NXT 2.0 is a great tools for anyone interesting in Science, computers, Robotics, Mechanics, or anyone who wants to enjoy themselves & create something great. It is simple to make use of and the possibilities are endless!!! No doubt this is probably one of the best toys/investment any parent can give to a child (I’m a kid too, but I have really gotten a lot out of it!). It allows kids to explore their imagination and make something unique. LEGO is a abundant aggregation and the affection of the kit is excellent. An absolutely great buy!!!.”

Is Internet Marketing presenting a problem for you?
Have you ever been trying to make some cash on line?
Does every little thing you attempt seem to guide right into a highway block?

I know how you feel. I felt the exact same way. When I found my secret I found out how easy making things occur might be. I watched some movies and used the pause perform whereas jumping backwards and forwards between browser screens. Inside a couple of minutes I had a blog on line able to obtain Web traffic.

This technique is an awesome car for Internet Marketing. You do not need FTP, HTML, PHP or any of those different technical abbreviations. In case you can sort and communicate with other folks, you should use this secret to build an Web Business round your love or passion in life.

In case you are like me, the technical things have in all probability detoured your progress or possibly even precipitated progress to come back to a halt. With my secret methodology this doesn’t happen. This method is straightforward and there are some killer step by step movies to guide you down the path to success. If the movies have you misplaced, you can simply call the office or ship in an email assist ticket.

I began using these strategies around the 4th of January. I posted to my blog, submitted the put up to the social community websites and then submitted articles to directories like this one. I checked my domains site visitors on my blog on Feb. 4th and had over eleven,000 visitors.

This is some fairly good action for the primary month out.
I just returned from a visit to Florida where we did these methods for 3 days with a gaggle of fifty people. It will likely be fascinating to listen to about the results next month. I will submit one other article when this info is available.
To Your Success.

Find Out More:

internet marketing consultancy singapore

What child does not like playdough? I know there are a few out there, but most children (and adults) love to play with playdough! You pay big money for a small amount and then the kids end up leaving it out all night and it dries out, so that is a lot of money down the drain.

Homemade playdough also makes a great gift. Instead of going out and buying packs of playdough as a gift for your child’s friend, or as party gifts, make up a few batches of homemade playdough, divide into cute little containers that you can find at any craft store, and you have a nice gift from that heart and you saved a little money in the process. Another bonus is that these are usually safe if swallowed, even if they do taste bad. No additives in it that you would need to worry about. I have even got a recipe here for peanut butter playdough for those that do not have a peanut allergy! This works great with little ones that are still prone to sticking things in their mouth. I do have to admit that our favorite was always the Kool-Aid playdough recipe because it always smelled so good!

So, grab your kids and head to the kitchen and build some creative memories together!

Uncooked Playdough

Ingredients:

Available in 5 vivid colors, Miss Brittany’s Organic Preschool Fun Dough is handmade in Chicago, Illinois from a small selection of kosher, organic ingredients. Perfectly Pink, Going Green Green, Oh My Goodness Orange, Purple Power, and Blueberry Bounce (only available in the Fun Dough gift set) are created with just the right amount of nontoxic liquid watercolor. No additives or preservatives are included in this organic play dough.

Directions
1.
2.
3. Store covered.

Ingredients:

1 cup salt
1 cup water
1/2 cup flour plus additional flour
Saucepan

Mix salt, water, and flour in saucepan and cook over medium heat.
2. Remove from heat when mixture is thick and rubbery.
3. As the mixture cools, knead in enough flour to make the dough workable.

You may like to study additional info on my site on Make Kool Aid Playdough and How To Make Playdough.

OK, you’ve made a decision that you’d like to sell things on eBay. Here are a few points that you should really know before you decide to go and throw yourself in at the deep end.

What things to Sell.

Firstly, you need to know what it is you are going to sell: what is your speciality? You are going to do much better on eBay if you turn into a great source for a certain sort of item, as those who are interested in those items will keep coming back to you over and over. You won’t get any kind of respect or real reputation when you simply sell junk at random.

When you think about what to sell, there are a few things to consider. The most important of these is to always sell what you know. If you try to sell something which you don’t know anything about then you’ll never write a good description and sell it for a good price.

You may think you just aren’t specifically enthusiastic about anything, but if you think about what sort of stuff you normally purchase and which websites you go to quite often, I’m certain you are going to uncover some kind of interest. When all else fails mention it to your friends and family: they’ll most likely say “Oh, well why don’t you sell…”, and you’ll slap your forehead.

Out of the things you know enough about, then look at which items you could actually acquire for a good enough price to resell, and how suitable they would be for shipping. If you can find something which you are knowledgeable about and it’s small and light enough for postage to be fairly inexpensive, then that’s fantastic!

Don’t be worried if you think the thing you might be offering is too obscure – it’s not. There is a market for just about anything on eBay, even stuff that wouldn’t sell once in a year if you stocked them in a store. You will most probably do better yet if you fill a niche than if you sell something common.

Taxes and Legal Matters.

Should you make enough income, you should know that you’ll need to start paying tax – this will not done for you. If you choose to sell things on eBay on a full-time basis, you should probably register as a small business.

Prepare Yourself.

There will probably be ups and downs when you sell things on eBay. Don’t pack it in if something goes slightly wrong with your first few sales: the sellers who’re successful on eBay are the ones who enjoy it, and stay at it whatever happens.

Anyone can sell on eBay, if they have confidence in themselves – and if you do make the decision that it isn’t for you, then the start-up costs are so small you won’t really have lost anything.

How to coach soccer

When it comes to a simple thought like how to coach soccer, almost everyone gets into a spree of finding am appropriate reply. All said and done, soccer coaching is a daunting task and calls for a great deal of patience and skill on the part of a coach to keep the players motivated.

I’ll share 5 matchless tips that can never go wrong when it comes to enhancing your team’s performance.

1.   Your plans should be comprehensive: Make complete and methodical plans if you wish to get the desired results in coaching. When deciding the team goals and the timelines to achieve them, involve the players and take their opinions into consideration too. Goals not met within the time frames decided for them, get in the way of a team’s progress.

Once decided, stick to the plan but leave some flexibility for minor changes as needed. No matter how well made the plans may be they need changes due to sudden events.

Soccer Coaching

2. Practice sessions should be thrilling and fun-filled: When designing a practice schedule for kids, give due importance to the fact that variety in drills and exercises does the trick. You can practice this rule in lot many ways. For example, after the practice session is over, divide them into small groups and introduce fun games that not only relax their mind but also promote team spirit among them.

3. Both freedom and discipline should complement one another: A coach should always give priority to discipline in the team. But, what is important to understand is that freedom is also as important for the kids to feel strongly towards discipline. You must always understand the importance of freedom and relaxation while teaching soccer.

Between the drills, leave some time for the players to relax, share time with each other or simply unwind. The concept of how to coach soccer also encapsulates a good idea to take them out on an excursion once in a while.

4. Maintain tolerance and support: Motivate your team to do new things and when these new things do not work out as expected, be cool about it. Keep their activities under check. If you must intervene to correct a potential blunder or a silly mistake, do it without reprimanding them.

Bear in mind that when you retort, the kids feel intimidated and when you show compassion and encouragement, they feel motivated to do even better.

5. Maintain balance:  A practice session is where the kids get to know their talent and soccer skills. It is well known that when we talk of a team, there are bound to be players of different calibers; the good, bad, and worst. It becomes your responsibility as a coach to make the best use of your good players in inspiring others.

Buddy your best players with the weak ones so that they play together and share tips even after the drills. It is essential that the players do not feel being compared with each other.

Your goal; to start utilizing the tips that you’ve just learnt in providing answers to the thought of how to coach soccer.

To know more about youth soccer and the latest trends and techniques, subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community.

Andre Botelho is a recognized authority in youth soccer coaching and has already helped thousands of youth coaches to dramatically improve their coaching skills. Learn  how to explode your players’ skills and make training fun by downloading your free ebook at: Youth Soccer Training.

You’ve probably seen some Confederate money, either the original item on display somewhere, or a replica like those on sale in gift stores near old battle sites.  On the other hand, have you ever looked at a Confederate States of America bond?

Confederate war bonds were used to raise funds for desperately required victuals and supplies for the South’s troops in the course of the conflict. They were a means for the the Confederacy to raise funds by getting its citizens and others to lend to it.  A person would lend funds to the CSA and in return be given one of these bonds, a piece of paper bearing a written promise to pay back the bond purchaser–along with a certain amount of–beginning on a certain date in the future.

The end of the war, and the destruction of the southern cause, guaranteed that the lenders never collected on the debt.  The bonds themselves disappeared into trunks and closets.

Nowadays, the bonds that survived these many decades are prized by collectors. And, you can turn around and sell Confederate bonds (and other paper collectibles) in the online auction market for an excellent profit.

The South’s war bonds can be appreciated as decorative art (if you frame them, they should be matted using museum type material to prevent damage; glareless picture-frame glass is also recommended, despite the the additional cost.

Confederate war bonds were put out in a range of dollar amounts. They furthermore varied in terms of the inscriptions and artwork they used.

People who collect them are intrigued by the vignettes, or illustrations, used on the different Confederate bonds. Among the ones to be mentioned are an allegorical male figure reclining on one elbow, with maps and a globe; a wood-burning locomotive with a ship in the background; a a paddle-wheeled steamer; a sailor brandishing a Rebel flag while resting an emblematic cotton; and CSA president himself president Jefferson Davis surrounded by flags and cannon.

Take as an example a $1000 Confederate bond that I acquired and had framed a while back. It is beautiful, having words printed in elaborate italic script and, in its center, a vignette of General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. You probably know that Gen. Jackson was killed in the confusion of war, after being mistakenly shot by a southern soldier during the Battle of Chancellorsville. Being one of the South’s greatest heroes, therefore it was entirely predictable that his portrait should come to grace a Confederate bond.

Southerners of course were not the only purchasers of Confederate bonds. Many people across the sea in England, and also as other countries of Europe, did so too. Perhaps they were people whose sympathies in the Great Conflict lay with the South and its cause. Or perhaps they were simply putting a bet down on on the outcome of the war.

Buying and selling Civil War bonds has become a noteworthy activity within the hobby of scripophily, which refers to collecting old financial instruments (including stock certificates, bank notes and railroad bonds, for instance) for their historical and artistic value.

If you are interested in exploring this subject further, you can find books, as well as free information on the Web about Confederate bonds. Learn a lot about their historical background and then attend coin shows where dealers often have them for sale. If you’re just interested in the art aspect, you can buy one or two of the more common issues fairly inexpensively.  If you are interested in buying and selling for profit or as a business, naturally you will need to seriously study these bonds, their different issues and how to grade them for condition, and be ready for the give-and-take of negotiating with other knowledgeable dealers.

Now, leave it to an enterprising British woman to become the foremost expert on making money–even earning a living–selling pieces of American paper, not only old currency and bonds but even pages ripped from old magazines.  You can discover more about this woman’s surprising eBay paper selling method here.

Tryouts soccer

Depending on the purpose of your team, choose players to take part in the tryouts soccer. Help to improve the competitiveness of the kid if you are working with kids. If you see a lot of athleticism and love of the game, then go ahead and help your players shine.

You might find few players who’s new to team but has got the skill to learn fast naturally. In such cases, take time to prepare the player for the tryouts.

What you find below are only a few points that help coaches to prepare players for the upcoming tryouts and soccer tournament.

Prior to Tryouts: Get your players in shape by making them run approximately 3 days a week. This surely helps to build the stamina. Ability to run 2-3 miles by the end will definitely make players to be in good shape.

Soccer Training

Steadiness and agility are also to be considered. Good running and stopping as well as change of direction are essential too. To accomplish this, players should do short sprints. The short sprints can be from 40-100 yards on a flat surface accompanied with markers. The sprints should be at least a few times.

Shooting can be practiced by hitting the round target drawn with the chalk on the wall. The target should be drawn two feet from the ground and a foot diagonally. The players should be informed that the target should be hit from a distance of 10 feet.

When they are able to do that, vary the distance and ask them to continue.

Day of Tryouts: On the day of tryouts, get there early with your players so that they get plenty of time to warm up.

If kids need not wear something specific, ask them wear something distinctive. To point to someone wearing blue socks and give an opinion is easier than pointing to a group of girls wearing red T-shirts and white shorts.

Tryouts soccer, many of them, starts with small games like 2v4 or 4v4 to goals, and work up to 8v8 to goals with goalkeepers.
Many decisions are made in the small-sided phase. Often, players are rated as a) definitely, b) maybe, and c) certainly not. The ‘may be’ players get the most playing time in the 8v8 stage, so as to arrive at a decision. So encourage kids to play with energy and take control of the game.

You should communicate well in the games, because it makes your player to observe you and to stand out in a positive way. Leaders are the players who give instructions and help other players with vocal and visual signals. Silent players somehow appear to be out of the game mentally.

Players should greet their coaches on all possible occasions. Soccer association is very strict about the etiquette of the players.

Some food for thought; players who keep asking questions know better what’s going to happen at the tryouts soccer and during any follow-up tryouts. This doesn’t include everything. You should consider joining our youth soccer coaching community for it has got newsletters, articles, and videos to make you a better coach.

Andre Botelho is a recognized authority in youth soccer coaching and has already helped thousands of youth coaches to dramatically improve their coaching skills. Learn  how to explode your players’ skills and make training fun by downloading your free ebook at: Soccer Training Drills.

Most individuals start a community forum simply because they have a eagerness for a particular subject. They want to form a debate group of like-minded men and women. If you are thinking of beginning your own community forum you need to ask yourself whether there will be  sufficient interest from others to make it worthwhile. A forum where there are only ever a small amount of members can be discouraging, and will often fold after a while.

There are some kinds of forums which will always attract a high level of interest. Among them are ‘Webmaster’ forums. After all, if you run a forum, a blog, or a website, you are a webmaster. And, as we are all learning all the time, trying to keep up to date with new technology, advertising methods, SEO, web design and so on, discussion forums on this topic will always get members.

Usually the most successful forums aren’t too broad in focus. Take for example a forum on cars. One might think that a forum discussing cars in general would be popular, since it would cover something and everything to do with cars. But, most people want to speak about the type of vehicles that interest them. So, a discussion board on a narrower topic, such as ‘Old Classic Cars’ or ‘Car Repairs’ or ‘Electric Cars’ or even narrower still – ‘Aptera Cars’ – is more likely to get a following than ‘Cars’ in general.

Likewise say with domestic pets. A forum on the topic of ‘African Parakeets’ is likely to get a solid regular membership base compared with one on ‘Birds’ simply because the birds
one would be too general.

Finally, do try to go for something that hasn’t been done before, or there is still little competition. In one of the earlier illustrations I mentioned the ‘Aptera’ car. If a forum was created as soon as the Aptera electric motor vehicle was first being discussed and their web page came online, then the chances are that this forum would get a loyal membership eager to talk about this particular vehicle. And, as interest in the car grew, so would the membership on the forum, even if it was an unofficial one.

The same is true of any other forum. If you can get in at the starting you stand a good chance of success. If it’s been done before, then you have to be better than the rest to stand any chance, and that’s never an easy task.

Free soccer drills

An easy way to explain to the players about the role of free soccer drills. Rules are followed. As a coach, you are free to experiment, innovate, and make your own drills and games.

For your own specific requirements the existing soccer exercises can be altered. Some of the best practices for creating a effective soccer training program.

Be open to new ideas. It is natural that all your plans may not work out as desired. If it rains, the kids may get sick or may not turn up. Make arrangement to cover all the possible obstructers.

We should have plenty of planned soccer practice games. If some do not fit into your schedule, eliminate them and go to the next. You can learn what works with the kids by going along with them.

Soccer Drills

Prior warm up before any practice session is a must. The kids should use both regular soccer drills for warming up and also the soccer ball. The kids should practice kicking the ball around between their feet’s and kick the ball around.

There is plenty of free soccer drills which are fun yet can be used for warm up activity.

A soccer ball is made available to each of the soccer player. Plan for several activities which are individualistic in nature; which can be performed using the ball. They should practice shooting, dribbling, and hitting the ball to the wall etc. The player’s movement should be free and the playing area shouldn’t have any lines or marks.

The players in soccer coaching should be indulged in group activities upon completion of the individual activities. There is a lot of fun in drills like passing and receiving the balls. Make the kids play soccer grouped into team without a goalkeeper. Let them hit the goals and do not set boundaries for this game.

The players should be taught to defend after learning to attack. This will give them a free hand in developing their own unique style.

During this drill groups of teams should be formed by the players. The kids take up some time to adjust from individual to group activities to learn the concept of team play. A coach plays a guiding role here.

Teach the players the importance of playing as group to win matches. The drill ingrains the knowledge of playing as a group without doing much with the ball and to practice in a limited area.

This is the easiest way to conduct a soccer exercise. Be innovative and integrate different free soccer drills which will be helpful to the kids to learn.

If you want more information and knowledge please subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community where a lot of learning resources are available.

About the author

Andre Botelho is a recognized authority in youth soccer coaching and has already helped thousands of youth coaches to dramatically improve their coaching skills. Learn how to explode your players’ skills and make training fun by downloading your free ebook at: Youth Soccer Training.