Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is a book that explores the hidden forces behind successful people. Gladwell shows that as much as talent and hard work are responsible for many of the success stories that we see and hear, there is much more to success than meets the eye. A bit repetitive so you can skim some parts but overall great lessons.

Short Summary

Outliers are people who stand out. They are the top athletes, businessmen, billionaires, professionals, educators, scientists, and politicians. They are the definition of success. The ones that everyone looks up to.When stories of outliers are told, there is a tendency to emphasize individual effort. Gladwell argues that there is another side to the story. Individual effort does count for a lot of things but it is just one of the reasons for success.In other words:Outliers don’t have a singular story. Luck, birthdays, opportunity, upbringing, and many other factors all play oversized roles too

What Are The Outliers

The Matthew Effect: advantages tend to accumulate over time. Those that are given an early push get more advantages as time goes by and those that are put at a disadvantage continue to get limited resources. The Matthew Effect is basically another way of stating the law of cumulative advantage.The story of outliers follows a similar pattern. If you are put at an advantage over your peers and friends from an early age, the advantages will lead to meaningful differences in performance that persist for extended periods.

The Matthew Effect

The 10,000 Hour Rule: it takes about 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become an expert at anything.But while this is true, the convergence of luck and opportunity is neededFor example:i Bll Gates had unlimited exposure to computers at an early age or most of the Silicon Valley billionaires were just at the right age (born around 1955) and were in their early 20s when the computer revolution began.Yes, preparation does play an oversized role when it comes to achieving greatness but so does luck and opportunity.

The 10k Hour Rule

Having high intelligence (IQ) does not automatically mean that you will be successful in life. Above a certain IQ range, there isn’t much difference in performance. There is a threshold for achieving in a particular area. Once that threshold is achieved, the influence of grades and IQ scores lessens with time.

The Trouble With Geniuses

Studies show that background and upbringing have more of an impact on success than IQ scores.Children from middle and upper-class families are taught to speak up, stand for themselves, and express thought independence. They grow up believing that their voice and opinions matter even in the face of authority. And this explains why they achieve more throughout their lives. On the other hand, children from poor backgrounds don’t receive as much attention from their parents. As a result, they grow to be timid around many situations and develop stifling deference to authority.

The Role of Upbringing

For some outliers, disadvantages are often blessings in disguise. Rags-to riches stories focus on the many odds that the hero had to overcome, but they fail to point out that the odds work to empower the hero over future adversities.Outliers also benefit from “Demographic luck” or being born at the right time.At the same time, engaging in meaningful work no matter how humbling gives you the opportunity to learn and grow.Humble meaningful work can also serve as a pebblestone for the prosperity of future generations.

Starting Out At A Disadvantage Can Be An Opportunity In Itself.

Cultural legacies play an important role in determining the success of outliers.These legacies shape how we react to our environments, how hard we work, how we approach opportunities, and our deference to power and authority.

Cultural Legacy

The difference in performance between low-income students and high-income students is not down to differences in intelligence. Given the same opportunities, students from the two groups perform at the same level.Low-income students’ performance drops during the summer vacation. Their reading levels drop and their maths grades go down suggesting that the home environment has an oversized effect on school performance during the period.With proper instruction guidelines and interventions, it is possible to bridge the gap between low-income and high-income students.

Low And High Income

The length of the summer vacation also has implications on how well students perform. Students from the Asian countries of Japan and China have longer school days and as a result have better reading and math skills.

Summer Vacation

These hacks help you face a situation that “everybody knows” how to solve

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Think Outside The Box

Outliers don’t have a singular story. Luck, birthdays, opportunity, upbringing, and many other factors all play oversized roles too. This book shared the other factors.

From the bestselling author of Blink and The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success overturns conventional wisdom about genius to show us what makes an ordinary person an extreme overachiever. Why do some people achieve so much more than others? Can they lie so far out of the ordinary? In this provocative and inspiring book, Malcolm Gladwell looks at everyone from rock stars to professional athletes, software billionaires to scientific geniuses, to show that the story of success is far more surprising, and far more fascinating, than we could ever have imagined. He reveals that it's as much about where we're from and what we do, as who we are - and that no one, not even a genius, ever makes it alone. Outliers will change the way you think about your own life story, and about what makes us all unique. 'Gladwell is not only a brilliant storyteller; he can see what those stories tell us, the lessons they contain' Guardian 'Malcolm Gladwell is a global phenomenon ... he has a genius for making everything he writes seem like an impossible adventure' Observer 'He is the best kind of writer - the kind who makes you feel like you're a genius, rather than he's a genius' The Times

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From the bestselling author of Blink and The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success overturns conventional wisdom about genius to show us what makes an ordinary person an extreme overachiever. Why do some people achieve so much more than others? Can they lie so far out of the ordinary? In this provocative and inspiring book, Malcolm Gladwell looks at everyone from rock stars to professional athletes, software billionaires to scientific geniuses, to show that the story of success is far more surprising, and far more fascinating, than we could ever have imagined. He reveals that it's as much about where we're from and what we do, as who we are - and that no one, not even a genius, ever makes it alone. Outliers will change the way you think about your own life story, and about what makes us all unique. 'Gladwell is not only a brilliant storyteller; he can see what those stories tell us, the lessons they contain' Guardian 'Malcolm Gladwell is a global phenomenon ... he has a genius for making everything he writes seem like an impossible adventure' Observer 'He is the best kind of writer - the kind who makes you feel like you're a genius, rather than he's a genius' The Times

Malcolm Gladwell is the author of five New York Times bestsellers—The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, and David and Goliath. He is also the co-founder of Pushkin Industries, an audio content company that produces the podcasts Revisionist History, which reconsiders things both overlooked and misunderstood, and Broken Record, where he, Rick Rubin, and Bruce Headlam interview musicians across a wide range of genres. Gladwell has been included in the TIME 100 Most Influential People list and touted as one of Foreign Policy's Top Global Thinkers.

Malcolm Gladwell

Outliers

<ul><li>There's a ton of name churn now - new names coming in, old names dropping out of use</li><li>Names that were rising fastest in popularity in 2021 apparently included Loyal, Ozzy, Emberlynn, and Raya</li><li>These are names meant to define one's individuality rather than blend into the crowd</li><li>Originality is the point</li><li>An entire pop-culture subgenre dedicated to making fun of made-up baby names</li><li>On Facebook, there are many groups dedicated to this.</li></ul>

Name churn

<ul><li>For decades, social psychologists have researched the links between given names and life experiences</li><li>Names represent an act of possibly futile branding on the part of parents.</li><li> "Cultural" names are very often "made up."</li></ul>

Why do we mock the names we mock?

<ul><li>Status is a way that people help make sense of their social worlds.</li><li>When deciding how to approach a stranger, we look for clues in their dress and their manner. These clues help us decide how we want to behave.</li><li>Class is a major way that status is experienced and communicated. And over the last few decades, class has become less stable, less guaranteed - for everyone, including white people, for a change.</li></ul>

Status and class

Why do we mock the first names we mock? It’s clear that the act of “making up” names for kids is a breach of some sense of decency for a lot of white people in particular. It comes down to class anxiety and status policing.

Understand yourself and those around you.

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Why Do We Mock Names?

<ul><li>Work out as a family. Exercising together will not only enable you to motivate each other but will reduce the chance of distraction from having to tend to the needs of little ones. </li><li>Schedule time to exercise. Try to make this the same time each day and ensure that the whole family knows that this is ‘exercise time.’ </li><li>Collate a ripper playlist. Great music makes all the difference! </li><li>Dress for the occasion. Changing into comfortable workout clothes and shoes will help put you in the right headspace for exercise.</li><li>Track your progress.</li><li>Reward yourself. Set yourself a simple, achievable goal and cho<warningtag>ose a (non-food related) reward.</warningtag></li></ul>

Tips for keeping motivated to move

You need: 2 dice, a mat or towel , and a timerRoll a dice to establish how many sets of each exercise you will do. Roll it again to establish how many repetitions you will do in each set. Then you complete the 8 exercises one after the other. Do the first round at low intensity to warm up. When you have finished have a breather/drink break and roll the dice again. Continue for a half hour.<ul><li>Squats with punches at the top</li><li>Star jumps</li><li>Tricep dips</li><li>Crunches</li><li>Lunges (alternating legs)</li><li>Sprints across the yard</li><li>Bicep curls </li><li>Reverse crunches.</li></ul>

Roll the Dice workout

You need: A deck of cards, mat or towel (for crunches and plank/hover holds), a timerTurn over one card at a time and do the exercise associated with the suit. The number on the card is the number of repetitions you will do. Ace = 1. Jack, Queen and King = 10. Jokers = 10 burpees. Work out at low intensity for the first five minutes to warm up. Do 15 minutes of each round with a breather/drink break in between.<ul><li>First round</li><li>Hearts: Calf raises</li><li>Spades: Front kicks</li><li>Diamonds: Push ups (knees or toes)</li><li>Clubs: Supermans</li></ul>Second round<ul><li>Hearts: Sumo (wide-legged) squats</li><li>Spades: Star jumps or step touches</li><li><warningtag>Diamonds: Bicep curls </warningtag></li><li><warningtag>Clubs: Reverse crunches.</warningtag></li></ul>

Deck of Cards workout

You need: A mat or towel (for crunches and plank/hover holds), a timerWorkout at low intensity for the first five minutes to warm up. When you get to the end have a breather/drink break and repeat 1-2 more times.<ul><li>30 sec of squats</li><li>30 sec of tricep dips</li><li>60 sec of supermans</li><li>30 sec of lunges </li><li>30 sec of bicep curls </li><li>60 sec  of crunches</li><li>30 sec of sumo (wide-legged) squats (as 10 full squats, 5 pulses)</li><li>30 sec of sprints across the yard</li><li>30 sec of pushups</li><li>60 sec plank/hover hold</li><li>30 sec calf raises</li><li>30 sec punching up high</li><li>60 sec star jumps or step touches</li><li>30 sec power knees</li><li>30 sec arm circles</li><li>60 sec side planks.</li></ul>

30/30/60 Workout

You need: A mat or towel (for crunches and plank/hover holds), a timer You complete 6 exercises for 45 seconds each with a 15-second rest in between each, but you get to choose from either List A (Heads) or List B (Tails). If you prefer, you can flip a coin to determine which exercise you’ll do. When you get to the end, have a breather/drink break and then repeat 4-5 times. Perform the first round at low intensity to warm up.List A (Heads)<ul><li>Skipping</li><li>Tricep dips</li><li>Crunches</li><li>Kicks to the front</li><li>Squats</li><li>Wall sit</li></ul>List B (Tails)<ul><li>Running across the yard</li><li>Pushups </li><li>Plank / hover hold</li><li>Running on the spot (heel<warningtag>s to butt)</warningtag></li><li><warningtag>Lunges</warningtag></li><li><warningtag>Calf raises.</warningtag></li></ul>

Would You Rather? 

How to make home workouts fun and accessible

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How to Start Working Out at Home

You can exercise at home. Here are our favourite fun workouts. All can be done at home with kids and require little to no equipment.

Fun Ways to Exercise At Home with Kids

Every year, most students have a few nerves about going back to school. This is normal with the change in routine and unknowns of what a new school year will bring. School may also bring unique worries and pressures that cause anxiety, such as:<ul><li>The need to fit in socially and make friends</li><li>Fears of bullying or peer pressure</li><li>Academic pressure to make good grades</li><li>Athletic pressure (to make the team or to perform well on the field)</li><li>Life changes, like entering a new school</li><li>Anxiety about security and safety at school.</li></ul>

Why children get back-to-school anxiety

While the pandemic is no longer a "new" thing, highly contagious variants continue to cause its spread.<ul><li>Students may worry about their health or a loved one's.</li><li>They may also worry about potential interruptions to their school year or extracurricular activities. The stress of the past few years may continue to affect students as well.</li></ul>It's important to validate any concerns your child has by checking in with them frequently. Encouraging children to focus on what they can control is a good way to manage anxiety, too.

Anxiety about going back to school during a pandemic

Children show anxiety in different ways. If you're concerned your child is feeling anxious about school, be on the lookout for changes in your child's behavior and mood.<ul><li>Signs of anxiety can include:</li><li>Disturbances in sleep</li><li>Increased defiance or irritability</li><li>Lack of concentration</li><li>Less energy</li><li>Loss of appetite</li><li>Physical symptoms like nausea, stomach aches, muscle tension or dizziness</li><li>Refusal to go to school</li><li>Sadness or crying.</li></ul>

Signs a child is feeling anxious about school

<ul><li>Pay attention to your child's feelings and listen to their concerns.</li><li>Explain to your child what you know about what the school year or classroom will look like to help them mentally prepare.</li><li>Show children how to behave and how to feel about themselves, even in the midst of anxiety.</li><li>Establish routines. Being consistent with bedtime, mealtime, playtime, screen time and expressions of love can create a sense of stability.</li><li>Coach your child through relaxation exercises.</li><li>Show encouragement and celebrate the wins.</li><li>Seek mental health support if needed. Pay attention to signs of anxiety.</li></ul>

Tips to help manage your child's back-to-school anxiety

Back to school resources & advice for parents

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Back to School Basics for Parents

Going back to school can bring excitement for some kids, and for others, some anticipation and worry.

The pressures of a new school year can trigger anxiety in kids. A Children's Health psychologist shares ways to help decrease back-to-school anxiety.

Back-to-School anxiety: Ways to help your child cope

If your child is in elementary school, then they probably don’t have too many expectations. However, if your child is a tween or teen who has more specific expectations regarding their schooling, then the first week of school will be more important.You can help your child organize their schedule and decide when they need to do things like catch up on their homework, study for tests, and complete extracurricular activities. By doing this, you can make sure that your child has all the time they need to do everything they have to do and have a positive experience when school starts again.

Plan For The First Week Of School

Kids always get excited to see their friends, and one way to get them excited about going back to school is to get them excited to see their friends at school.A week or so before school starts, arrange play dates with your kids' friends so that they re-bond. Kids who have friends at school will actually look forward to going back to school.

Plan Play Dates Before School Starts

Even if your kids still have their old backpack, lunchbox, and water bottles from last year, it is a good idea to buy them new school gear to get them excited about going back to school. Take your kid(s) shopping for back-to-school gears and supplies and let them be a part of the fun.If you can't afford to buy new school gear, let them buy new school supplies like notebooks, pens, pencils, and all the supplies your kids would need at school. You can always shop online if you are short of time.

Buy New School Gears & Supplies

Most schools have a welcome back week a week before schools start, and you will get a chance to go to school and pick up textbooks, PE clothes, and any other school materials they need.And if your school doesn't have a back-to-school week, visit the school with your kid(s), and find out who their new teachers are, if possible, and where their new classes are going to be, so they won't have the anxiety of finding their new classes or teachers the first day of school. If possible, find out who their new classmates are and touch base with them.

Visit the School

Celebrate the start of the new school year with a fun School Year's Eve dance party, or dinner party, and ask your kids to make a list of fun memories from school to share with you.Let them talk about good memories from the years before, and what they most missed about school.

Have A Back-to-School Eve Party 

The kids may still have anxiety about getting sick at school. Taking a trip to your pediatrician might be a great idea to ease their worries.Let your doctor explain to the kids about all health concerns, and what they can do to avoid getting sick. If you can't take a trip to the doctor, research with your kids about all the precautions they can take to avoid getting sick.

Have A Back-To-School Check Up

Most kids hate doing homework, and if your kids are like most kids, they will hate it more if they don't have a comfortable homework station to do their work.Create a neat, cozy, and fun homework nook, and let them know that they can count on you if they need any help with their homework.

Create A Homework Nook

The night before school, when kids go to bed, decorate their rooms or their doors with back-to-school banners and balloons. It will be a great surprise when they wake up in the morning to a decorated room. It will cheer them up and will get their minds off of back-to-school jitters.You can also buy back-to-school signs and t-shirts and take memorable photos of your kids holding their signs in their new back-to-school clothes.

Decorate Your Kids' Rooms

<ul><li>Buy cool snacks that your kids really love and pack for the first day of school with their lunch. Let them choose their favorite snacks to take to school.</li><li>Let your kids choose small but fun rewards or treats for after school, like ice cream or a favorite candy. When you have something to look forward to, your day is always better.</li></ul>

Give Them Some Goodies 

<ul><li>Have a back-to-school theater night. Ask your kids to take turns and play their favorite teacher, and you be the student.</li><li>Or pretend you are a reporter from The Times and interview your kids about their goals, wishes, and fears about the new school year.</li></ul>You would learn so much about your kids, and you would be able to help them with their jitters.

Back-To-School Theater Night 

Create a jar and let your kids write their goals and wishes starting the first day of school and put them in the jar (with their names).At the end of the school year, they will have so much fun reading them.

Create a Wish Jar 

How To Prepare Your Kids for Back-To-School For most parents, back-to-school season is the most exciting time of the year. After all, it’s a new school year with brand new possibilities and opportunities for your child. But while you might look forward to the fresh start, your kids may not share your enthusiasm. For many kids, after spending summer playing and having fun with friends, returning to school can feel like a letdown. If you think your children have reservations about going back to sc

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Tips To Get Your Kids Excited About Back-To-School

It can be physical (pushing, punching, or hitting), verbal (name-calling or threats), or psychological and emotional (spreading rumors or excluding someone from a conversation or activity).And with the pervasive use of social media, inappropriate behavior between kids can occur outside of school hours via emails, text messages, and Instagram posts (cyberbullying).

Bullying can exist in many forms

<ul><li>Typical bullying symptoms include physical complaints such as tummy aches, as well as worries and fears, and a child not wanting to go to school. </li><li>Anormal defense is to avoid or withdraw from things that are making them stressed.</li><li>Of course, these symptoms are not exclusive to bullying, but they still warrant a deeper probe into what may be behind them</li><li>It can be helpful to ask questions and get your kids talking about their social situation.</li><li>As kids get older, they have a significant awareness of peer relationships, so you can be more direct with your questions.</li></ul>

How to recognize bullying

If your child is being bullied, it's important that you help them understand that it is never their fault. Bullying is always more about the person who is engaging in the behavior and not the person being targeted.It's not up to a child to prevent their own bullying, but it can be helpful to have a plan in place for how to address it and potentially help stop it from escalating.

Have a plan in place

Practice phrases your child can use to tell someone to stop bullying behavior.<ul><li>These should be simple and direct but not antagonistic: "Leave me alone." "Back off." "That wasn't nice."</li><li>Your child could also try, "Yeah, whatever," and then walk away.</li></ul>The key is that a comeback shouldn't be a put-down because that aggravates a bully.

Create a list of responses

Role-playing is a terrific way to build confidence and empower your child to deal with challenges.You can role-play the bully while your child practices different responses until they feel confident handling troublesome situations. As you role-play, teach your child to speak in a strong, firm voice.

Role-play "what if" scenarios

By age 3, your child is ready to learn tricks that may help them feel more empowered in difficult situations, including when being faced with bullying behavior.Tell your child to practice looking at the color of their friends' eyes and to do the same thing when they are talking to a child who's bothering them. This will force them to hold their head up so they will appear more confident.Confidence can help your child feel more empowered in a challenging situation.

Promote positive body language

Check in with your kids daily about how things are going at school. Use a calm, friendly tone and create a nurturing climate so they aren't afraid to tell you if something's wrong. Emphasize that their safety and well-being are important and that they should always talk to an adult about any problems, even problems that they think are "small" ones.

Keep an open line of communication

The better your child feels about themselves, the less likely the bullying will affect their self-esteem.<ul><li>Encourage hobbies, extracurricular activities, and social situations that bring out the best in your child.</li><li> Tell your child the unique qualities you love about them and reinforce positive behaviors that you'd like to see more.</li></ul>

Build your child's confidence

<ul><li>When your child tells you how they defused a harasser, let them know that you're proud of them.</li><li>If you witness another child standing up to a bully in the park, point it out to your child so they can copy that approach.</li><li>Above all, emphasize the idea that if your child shows that they can't be bothered, a bully will usually move on.</li></ul>

Praise progress

<ul><li>Remember your self-worth. When someone says something bad about you, say something positive to yourself.</li><li>Project confidence. Tell the bully how you feel, why you feel the way you do, and what you want the bully to do. Learn to do this with a calm and determined voice.</li><li>Disarm the bully with humor. Laugh at their threats and walk away.</li><li>Stay safe and tell an adult. </li><li>Try to treat others with kindness. Stand up for other students who are bullied, and ask them to stand up for you.</li></ul>Children must understand that bullies have a need for power and control over others and a desire to hurt people.

The your kids right way to react

<ul><li>Report repeated severe bullying. Learn about the school's policy on bullying, document instances of bullying, and keep records.</li><li>Encourage your child to be an upstander (not a passive bystander).</li><li>Communicate with your child's school and report bullying incidences.</li><li>Contact the offender's parents. Getting parents involved is the right approach only for persistent acts of intimidation.</li></ul>

Take action to stop bullying

<ul><li>If your child is being bullied, remind them that it's not their fault, they are not alone, and you are there to help.</li><li>It's important for kids to be able to identify their feelings and know that you want to hear about them so they can communicate what's going on.</li><li>What parents shouldn't do—no matter the child's age—assumes that this is normal peer stuff that will work itself out. It should never be accepted that a child is being picked on or teased.</li></ul>

Teach coping skills

The first step to dealing with bullies is knowing how to recognize when your child is being bullied.

Mean kids aren't just a middle-school problem. The trouble has trickled to the youngest grades. Learn how to spot it -- and how to protect your child.

A Parent's Guide for How to Deal With Bullies

<ul><li>Setting aside an hour or two on a Saturday or Sunday will help you tremendously during the school week.</li><li>Look on Pinterest, flip through your favorite magazines, or look online to search for recipes. Create a menu for the week.</li><li>Once you have some dinner recipe inspiration, write a grocery list and go shopping.</li><li>Feel free to get your kids involved too.</li></ul>

Set your menu for the week

For a quick make-ahead weekday breakfast that works in a lunch box, too, assemble yogurt parfaits in a jar. They're protein-rich, nutritious, and kid-friendly.The steps:<ul><li>Spoon 3/4 cup Greek yogurt into a jar with a lid. </li><li>Drizzle 1 to 2 teaspoons maple syrup over the yogurt, top with 1/3 cup melted frozen raspberries, and finish with a spoonful of granola or toasted nuts. </li><li>Cover with a lid and refrigerate until ready to eat.</li></ul>

Make a portable breakfast parfait

Setting up for breakfast before going to bed will save time and stress in the morning. <ul><li>For example, use the timer on your coffee machine.</li><li>If you are having cereal, put out the bowls and spoons along with the cereal boxes. </li><li>Have washed berries in a bowl ready to grab from the fridge. </li></ul>Packing lunches the night before also means that parents can enjoy their food instead of scrambling to get lunchboxes ready.

Set up for breakfast before bed

<ul><li>Make waffles from scratch and freeze them. Then, in the morning, just pop them in your toaster oven, and you are set.</li><li>Also, you can make hard-boiled eggs the night before and store them in the fridge.</li></ul>

Freeze your breakfast favorites

Prepare lunch-packing bins on Sundays. Keep one in the fridge stocked with things like string cheese, yogurt, veggies, and washed fruit and one on the counter with items like granola bars, nuts, and single-serve applesauce pouches. You can pick other ingredients/foods, but this gives them a good start and streamlines the process because everything is quick to grab and pack.

Encourage your kids to prep their lunches

Have prepared one balanced snack after school and then tell kids that the next opportunity to eat will be at dinner.Make sure that the snack has protein, high fiber carbohydrate, and some fat to keep little tummies satisfied.Some examples would be plain Greek yogurt + granola + fruit or veggies + hummus + oatmeal cookie or half of an egg salad sandwich + milk

Schedule afternoon snacks

For a crunchy snack that packs more nutrients than chips or cookies, set up a DIY trail mix bar and let your kids make their own:<ul><li>Put out favorite nuts, seeds, dried fruit, dark chocolate chips, pretzels, whole-grain cereal, dehydrated fruits, etc.</li><li>Give your child small reusable containers or wax paper bags to assemble their own trail mix. </li><li>Make multiple bags to store for quick grab-and-go snacks for days to come.</li></ul>

Make a DIY trail mix bar

<ul><li>A lot of people get discouraged thinking meal prep has to mean prepping everything or nothing. Find a middle ground that works for you.</li><li>Prep the bare minimum—have raw veggies ready to roast and protein ready to cook. Grains like rice will last all week when prepped in advance!</li><li>Having a few staples ready will hold you accountable, encouraging you to stick with your plan, but also provide flexibility to modify as life happens throughout the week.</li></ul>

Prep (but don't cook everything) on Sunday

Keep your freezer stocked with dinner items like pasta sauce, chili, soup, and curries.A well-stocked freezer will save you from that dreaded 5 p.m. scramble of trying to decide if you can piece together a meal or if you should order in.

Freeze batches of dinner soups, sauces, and curries

Back to school: easy tips for breakfast, lunch, snacks

Getting back into the school routine can be stressful and daunting for parents, not least when there's that added pressure to give your kids the nutrition their brains need to thrive. Follow these easy tips for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner and you'll be golden for that first week and onwards.

Meal-Prep Hacks for the First Week Back to School and Beyond

It is important for kids to have a daily routine but occasionally, small changes in their daily habits can stimulate their brains to think in different ways, which will provoke curiosity.It can be something as simple as changing the bar of soap they normally use, for foam soap and letting them discover the new texture, play with it and determine which they prefer.

Changing the routine

You could leave a good morning note under their pillow, organize a treasure hunt for a snack, or invite someone they like for lunch and don’t tell them until the loved person arrives.

Positive surprises can enhance a child’s curiosity

If you can take a day off work and let your child skip school, they will remember it his entire life. You can spend some enjoyable time together: take them to the local bookstore and eat their favorite ice cream. But you will need to make it clear that it is an exceptional day. Just be sure to know they aren’t missing out on anything that day at school.

A day off school

Experiencing the process of making a cake – from the ingredients to the final result – can be quite amazing for a child.And, doing it themselves, will awaken all their senses: hearing how to do it, seeing the transformation and colors, touching unusual textures, smelling the cake while it is baking and finally tasting it!

Bake a cake together

Reading a tale before bedtime is a good habit to get kids to sleep. However, always reading the same stories can get monotonous.<ul><li>To make it more fun, you can tell them stories with open ends so they can use their imagination to finish the story.</li><li> Other ways to help them develop their creativity with tales is by asking them to come up with a new title and encouraging them to start the story or continue with it.</li></ul>

Open-ended stories

Kids are continuously asking questions and sometimes they can be quite tough to answer. To be able to give them a constructive response it is necessary to understand why are they asking that question.For instance, when they ask you ‘why do you have to go to work?’ they don’t want to hear a list of reasons. They have a desire to spend more time with you.

Be prepared to answer questions

<ul><li>When your child asks you something like ‘why does it rain?’, you can explain to them the cycle of rain and at the end of your rationalization, you may mention the forms of water without explaining it in detail.</li><li>If they are interested, it may call their curiosity to ask you more about that subject. This is because if we know nothing about a subject, we cannot be curious about it but as soon as we know a little bit about something, our curiosity is picked up.</li></ul>

Curiosity can lead to more curiosity

By asking questions to your kids, you will pick their brains and make them think about different possible solutions to a problem or matter.Some questions ideas are:<ul><li>“Do you think you are a good friend?”</li><li>“Where is your favorite place in the world?”</li><li>“If you could invent something that would make life easier for people, what would you invent?”</li><li>“If you had superpowers, what would they be?”</li><li>“If you had your own country, what would it be called?”</li></ul>

Be the one who asks the questions

Discovering new cultures is a great way to nurture curiosity. And local food is an excellent way to find out more about a new culture, its flavors, manners, and tradition.Take your kids for a lovely meal in an authentic Japanese, Thai, Indian, Vietnamese or Spanish restaurant, whatever you think they will enjoy more.

Discover new cultures

If this is an option, take your kids to a foreign country to experience new cultures, see diverse places and meet new people.One of the main reasons why we travel is to satisfy our curiosity and traveling makes us more curious. So getting your kids into this stimulating circle at an early age, will help them get pleasure from visiting new places during their whole lives.

Travel and visit new places

Do you know how music affects your brain? People who study music actually tend to use both sides of their brains.This makes them better at lateral thinking, which means being able to solve problems through a creative approach.

Encourage your children to study music

As a parent, it can sometimes be tough to let your kids do what they want. They can often want to do the most inconvenient things. But as long as their latest idea isn’t dangerous, it is better to let them explore the world in their own way.At a certain age, toddlers develop the desire to do things by themselves, and it is recommended to let them try. Saying things like “that’s not how you should do it” can negatively affect their curiosity. You may better let them make mistakes and learn from them.

Let your kid be a kid

Exciting ways to awaken kids’ curiosity

Do you still think that curiosity killed the cat? After reading this article, you may be rephrasing this idiom to ‘curiosity actually saved the cat’!

How To Encourage Curiosity In Children

This is the emotional stress parents impose upon their children and is often related to academic performance, extracurricular activities, social standards, appearance, friendships, and romantic relationships.Certain parenting experiences might prompt you to pressure your kids to make different choices, such as when:<ul><li>your child struggles with something that came easily to you</li><li>your child makes different life decisions than you did</li><li>your child chooses friends who you think are poor influences.</li></ul>You may feel that your own choices could make their lives easier, more successful, or earn you the admira<warningtag>tion of other parents in your circle.</warningtag>

Parental pressure

Parental pressure may come from good intentions, but it can hamper a child’s self-esteem.

Parental pressure often comes from a place of good intentions, but too much pressure can have harmful mental health consequences.

The Effects of Parental Pressure on Children’s Mental Health

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