10 Innovative Ways To Nurture Your Body This Month

Innovative Ways To Nurture Your Body This Month

The importance of taking care of your body cannot be overstated. Regarding self-care, men’s health is often overlooked, but it should always be a priority. Men can nurture their bodies and promote good health in many innovative ways. And when you begin incorporating positive steps to your wellbeing, children are more apt to follow suit.

Ways To Nurture Your Body

Here are some great tips for incorporating habits into your daily routine that will help keep you feeling strong, healthy, and energized!

1. Move Your Body Regularly

It is essential to stay active to maintain physical fitness and overall health. Incorporating regular exercise into your schedule can help reduce stress levels, improve concentration and focus, boost energy, and prevent the risk of certain diseases.

Whether going for a walk around the block or joining a gym, make sure to move your body daily and get those endorphins flowing!

2. Get Enough Sleep

We’ve all heard that we need to get seven hours of sleep a night — the bare minimum — to function correctly.

However, men are often more prone than women to skimp on their Zzzs due to work stress or other commitments. Getting enough rest can help you feel alert and healthy throughout the day.

3. Eat Omega 3-Rich Foods

Omega 3 fatty acids are essential for maintaining good health and promoting optimal nutrition for men. Foods such as salmon, tuna, walnuts, flaxseeds, and avocados are rich in these healthy fats.

There are many omega 3 benefits for men. These fatty acids can help reduce feelings of inflammation and help you think more clearly.

4. Take Supplements

If it’s tough to get enough of certain nutrients in your diet, consider taking supplements to make up for any deficiencies.  Vitamin D, zinc, selenium, magnesium, and iron are all essential minerals that men should get regularly to stay healthy and balanced.

Speak with your doctor about which supplements may or may not be beneficial for you.

5. Cut Out Unhealthy Habits

We all have unhealthy habits that we could stand to cut out from our lives — smoking being one of the more obvious ones.

Even if you’re not a smoker, other bad habits, such as excessive drinking, overeating, and too much caffeine, can take a toll on your body over time. Make small daily changes in your life that will lead to healthier long-term habits.

6. Practice Mindful Eating

Mindful eating can be beneficial for both physical and mental health. This involves being aware of the food you put into your body and taking the time to savor each bite without distractions or feelings of guilt.

This helps us become more conscious of our cravings and satiety levels so we don’t overeat or binge eat out of stress or boredom.

7. Meditate

Meditation has become increasingly popular for its many benefits, including reducing stress and improving concentration.

Setting aside a couple of minutes daily to focus on breathing and clear your mind can help you feel more relaxed and in control of your emotions. Meditation can be a valuable habit to work on if you’ve had a difficult day or struggle with anxiety.

8. Avoid Stressful Situations

We all have to deal with stress in our lives, but it’s essential to know how to manage it properly so it doesn’t take a toll on your physical health.

Identify the sources of stress in your life and try to avoid them as much as possible. If that isn’t possible, find ways to cope with the stress, such as deep breathing or listening to calming music.

9. Drink Plenty of Water

Staying hydrated is essential for maintaining a healthy body and avoiding dehydration-related illnesses. Ensure you always have a bottle of water handy to keep hydrated throughout the day.

10. Pamper Yourself

Finally, don’t forget to give yourself some much-deserved self-care now and then!

Take time out of your busy schedule to relax and unwind — whether treating yourself to a massage, going out with friends, or simply taking a few minutes each day to practice mindfulness exercises.

A little bit of pampering can go a long way in helping you feel refreshed and rejuvenated.

What Are You Waiting For?

Taking good care of our bodies is essential for living a long, happy, and fulfilling life. Men should particularly pay attention to maintaining their health since it often gets neglected due to work demands or other commitments.

Thankfully, one can take many simple steps to nurture their body, such as eating omega 3s, taking supplements, maintaining a well balanced home routine, cutting out unhealthy habits, and practicing mindful eating.

Taking the time to nurture your body is an investment in your health that will reap benefits for years to come!

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When Your Child Wants To Start a YouTube Channel: Is It Safe?

When Your Child Wants To Start a YouTube Channel: Is It Safe?

If you’re ever approached by your child and they have dreams of entertaining the world online by starting their own YouTube channel, you must do your research. While there are some perks to becoming an influencer, caution is always necessary. Let’s look at how your kid can become a YouTuber without compromising on safety.

Consider the Benefits of YouTube

Some parents can too easily shout out a resounding “no” when their kids say they want to start a YouTube channel. Usually, it’s because they think YouTubing is not worth the time or that there are better passions to pursue. However, YouTube is growing by leaps and bounds with billions of users around the world. Countless content creators are making a good living just by posting their opinions and content a few times per week.

In fact, there are many ways that kids and adults alike can make money on YouTube, including by getting enough views and subscriptions so you can join their partner program. Once a member, creators make money by running ads during the videos. The more viewers, the more money. There’s also the possibility of making money by selling products and merchandise, asking fans for donations, and adding affiliate links in the description of the videos.

Keep in mind that if your child is under 18, they are not eligible to join the YouTube partnership program themselves. Instead, you will need to sign the contract as a parent or guardian.

Even if they don’t become famous, your kids can learn many skills when working as a YouTuber, including video production, public speaking, sound editing, and more. Tech skills like these will continue to be relevant as time passes. So if your kiddo can dip their toe in the pond and learn a few things, then they could have a great career even outside of YouTube.

So, inquire further and take the time to ask your kids what they want to do on YouTube. Ask about the type of content they are thinking of producing. If it seems age-appropriate and they agree that you can monitor their channel along the way, then consider letting them try.

Learn about how to make a clear presentation: (Explainer Video)

Monitor Their Work

If you have younger children, especially those under 13, then it’s essential that you’re there with them every time they upload and open up their videos to comments. The general rule is that it’s not illegal for a child under 13 to create a YouTube channel. Still, the parents must be aware of the account and cognizant that data can be collected from that account.

Even so, it’s wise for you to be there when they get set up so you can help them to choose an appropriate username. Although your child may make age-appropriate videos, they can still see other content if they are not using Restricted Mode on YouTube. Be sure to turn this mode on and turn off AutoPlay to ensure your child does not view inappropriate content.

Once your children start posting online, continue to monitor the videos that they make and create a strict rule where they cannot upload until you have reviewed it and provided the OK. From this point, it’s essential that you monitor their activity, especially when it comes to the comments section.

While your children may get some positive feedback, people can be mean in the comments section, and many will take any chance they get to tell your child that they don’t like the video. Although some constructive criticism is okay from time to time, constant negativity can impact your child’s mental health and force them to quit YouTube or cause other issues down the line. When the comments get too out of control, disable them.

Staying Safe Along The Way

If you take the time to monitor your child’s activity and keep negativity contained, then becoming a YouTuber is generally a safe endeavor. However, just like with any online activity, there can be threats and risks. For instance, it’s important to set boundaries about if, when, and where it is appropriate for your child to livestream videos.

When your kids start having a more significant presence online, they’ll also be subjected to more cybercrime, including phishing scams. You should expect occasional emails from hackers pretending to be YouTube administrators who try to trick you by saying how your account has been suspended and that you must click a link to clear up the situation. However, when you click, you open a doorway to the hacker into your system, and from there, they can cause havoc in your larger home network.

To prevent this and other scams, try some anti-phishing best practices, starting with educating your kids on how to spot these scams. In addition to spelling mistakes and unexpected messages, you need to check the domain the emails are coming from If the message doesn’t come from YouTube or Google, avoid further action. Adding extra protection onto your child’s device just in case a hacker tries to gain access, like two-factor authentication or robust antivirus software.

It can be daunting when your kids first approach you and ask to start a YouTube channel but remember not to be too fast to shut them down. Ask questions, encourage them when necessary, take steps to keep them safe, and they can be successful.

About the Author
About the AuthorKatie Brenneman is a passionate writer specializing in education, mental health, family lifestyle and online safety. When she isn’t writing, you can find her with her nose buried in a book or hiking with her dog, Charlie. You can follow her on Twitter.

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The Power of Youtube and Movie Subtitles In Teaching English: Tips for ESL Educators

The Power of Youtube and Movie Subtitles In Teaching English

When talking about acquiring English language skills, subtitles in films are often mentioned as a helpful technique. However, effectively applying this method for optimal results is a challenge many individuals encounter. It may also be a concept that educators have not considered as a method to enhance their teaching.

How can an ESL educator use movies and YouTube subtitles to teach English?  Keep scrolling down as we delve deeper into this topic and discover how to create engaging and high-quality ESL lessons for your students.

How To Use Movies And YouTube Subtitles To Teach English

When incorporating video subtitles in an ESL class, it’s crucial to follow a structured approach that initially includes watching the entire film or video with bilingual subtitles to ensure comprehension of the main content. Once that is established, engaging in activities becomes essential.

How To Use Movies And YouTube Subtitles To Teach English
Learning English with movies is fun. Source: Unsplash

Here are some activities for checking student comprehension when working with separate scenes:

Choosing A Word

This lively and simple activity focuses on practicing and improving listening skills by repeating words from a movie or YouTube clip. Here’s how it works:

  • Before watching the movie, assign each student a word appearing in the video at least once.
  • While watching the video, students should stand up whenever they hear their assigned word and then sit back down.
  • After the activity, have students re-watch the video with subtitles to learn more about the pronunciation and meaning of the vocabulary.

Matching Vocabulary Meanings

Get ready for the foundation of a significant boost in vocabulary improvement! In this activity, a list of words featured in the video becomes invaluable learning material.

The student’s objective is to match each word in one column with its corresponding meaning in the other column.

Once completed, learners can review and correct their results by re-watching the video with subtitles, guided by the teacher. This allows them to grasp the correct pronunciation of the words.

Make Learning Fun Through GamesLet your students play games while learning. Source: Unsplash

Trying A Buzz Game

This activity is designed to evaluate the level of observation among your students; follow this guideline for a fun quality time together:

  • Divide the class into small teams.
  • Ask questions related to the video, such as “What does Peter say about his destination for the next holiday?”
  • Play the video clip without subtitles; teams should listen carefully to find the answer.
  • After a set time, replay the clip with subtitles and provide an explanation to check the results.

Ordering The Events

After viewing the entire video, the ESL educator supplies students with approximately ten cards (each outlines a specific event or scene from the movie).

The task is for students to arrange these cards in the correct chronological order, reconstructing the sequence of events depicted in the film.

This exercise sharpens memory skills and deepens students’ comprehension of the narrative structure.

Describing A Place/Scene

In this activity, each student gets the chance to select and describe their favorite movie scene, location, or character from the film or video. To ensure accuracy in English grammar, they can begin by writing down their descriptions.

To effectively organize this section, a valuable tip for you is to create a game involving different teams.

This way, team members can support one another in introducing new words and grammar usage. For example, determining the correct verb tense, simple or past tense.

By encouraging teamwork and fostering creative expression, this activity can both improve students’ language skills and add an enjoyable element to the learning process.

The Reason Why Using Movies and Youtube Subtitles To Teach English Are Good

The utilization of movies and YouTube subtitles as a tool for teaching English is backed by a strong rationale.

Our brains naturally seek pathways that facilitate information processing, making it easier to comprehend information in our native language than in another, like English.

Language Learning Benefits of Subtitles in Movies and on YouTube VideosUse of movies and videos works wonders for new learners. Source: depositphotos

That said, it does not mean using movie and YouTube subtitles to teach/learn English is useless. In contrast, it is a practical way, although students could find it difficult at the beginning.

When using English subtitles, students allow their brains to activate both speaking and listening parts. In this way, English words will “stick” to the brain for a long time.

Language Benefits

From a language perspective, it aids the brain in associating words with their meanings – this is what happens in our brains when we learn a new language.

The brain can assimilate the visual and auditory aspects of the language, contributing to improvements in reading speed, grammar, word recognition, and more.

Moreover, movies and YouTube videos use authentic language, including informal expressions, idioms, and colloquialisms.

By exposing students to real-life conversations and natural speech patterns, the tools help them become familiar with authentic English language usage.

Enjoyment Benefits

From an enjoyment standpoint, integrating movies with English subtitles injects an element of entertainment into the learning process.

If students do not find learning English exciting, it becomes harder for them to get the high effective result. Hence, this strategy is a suitable way to attract your student to the lesson.

Contextual Learning

Subtitles provide contextual cues that aid in comprehension and interpretation. Students can grasp the meaning of words and phrases by observing their use in specific situations and dialogues.

This assists in facilitating a deeper understanding of language nuances and cultural references.

Listening Comprehension Development

Watching movies and videos with subtitles encourages active listening and trains students’ ears to discern spoken English.

They can practice identifying spoken words and phrases while connecting them to the corresponding written forms.

Listening Comprehension Development Through the Use of SubtitlesHow to use movies & YouTube subtitles to teach English – Source: Wallpaper Flare

Flexibility And Self-Paced Learning

Subtitles offer flexibility for individual learning preferences. Learners can pause, replay, or slow down the video to focus on specific scenes or challenging parts, allowing for self-paced learning and personalized language practice.

Suitable Learners

While learners can attempt this method at any stage, it offers the most significant support to individuals at lower proficiency levels.

The impact may be less noticeable for advanced students, as it primarily serves as recreational time rather than providing substantial challenges.

ESL educators are strongly encouraged to apply this approach with beginner or lower-intermediate students, since it can produce remarkable advancements and ensure a captivating classroom experience.

Additionally, numerous beginner-friendly resources, such as Grammar Wiki, are readily available to assist learners in kick-starting their language learning journey.

Tips to incorporate english subtitle into language teachingTips to incorporate english subtitle into language teaching – Source: Pixabay

Conclusion

How to use movies and YouTube subtitles to teach English:  With these unique strategies and ideas for fostering an engaging language-learning environment, ESL educators can explore and develop their innovative approaches from now on.

How about you – what methods do you usually apply for your English class? For more exciting ideas for learning languages, feel free to share them with us.

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5 Reasons to Encourage Sensory Play Over Screen Time

5 Reasons to Encourage Sensory Play Over Screen Time

People might live in the technological age, but human hardware hasn’t changed. For your child to develop physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, they need sensory play to engage with the world around them. The young serve as a valuable reminder to us all to step away from our phones and iPads and embrace real life, not a virtual one.

Children have managed just fine without screens since the dawn of humankind and continue to do so in some cultures today. Depriving this population of their need for sensory play stunts their growth, prompting mom and dad to step away from the computer and go outside.

Why is limiting the hours your child spends on a tablet crucial to their development? Here are five reasons you should encourage sensory play over screen time.

1. It Encourages Oral Language and Communication Skills

You communicate as much by how you say something — your tone of voice, attitude and inflection — as you do by the words you choose. Interacting on a screen helps children build written communication skills but can leave them woefully behind in speaking with others. This inability will plague them through life, as research shows that relationships play a far more vital role in getting ahead than talent. Your kids need to know how to speak with other people.

How do children develop this skill? They do so in large part by engaging in sensory play with their peers. In such relationships, there’s no power differential — kids don’t have to defer to authority as they do when speaking with adults. Nature and science guide them.

How? Sensory play encourages new neural connections in the brain. This helps your child see the world differently, including through others’ eyes. They also develop mindfulness, learning how they should express things to others and assert their needs while remaining respectful of other people’s desires.

2. It Keeps Kids More Physically Active

The obesity epidemic continues among America’s children. Childhood obesity has tripled in the past several decades, and one in three qualifies as overweight or obese today. Part of the problem is too much sedentary time spent on screens.

Sensory play gets young bodies off couches and moving. Even children who don’t enjoy competitive sports get into activities like kiddie yoga and dance. What child hasn’t spontaneously jumped on a bed? While you might want to take your kids to the park for a safer environment for rough and tumble play, most youngsters love to move, given the opportunity.

3. It Engages Children With the Wider World Around Them

Some psychologists consider children “blank slates,” but this innocence extends beyond not knowing how to read or write. It encompasses everything — from how they relate emotionally to other living things to looking at a pile of sticks and realizing they could build a miniature log cabin.

Everything is new to a child, not only their minds. They need to use their bodies, senses and emotions, developing and honing those, too. They do so by engaging with the wider world around them, getting dirty, making mud pies, climbing trees and occasionally scraping knees.

4. It Encourages Creativity and Problem-Solving

Even the best educational tablet game can only present so many possible answers to multiple-choice questions. However, life isn’t as neatly defined as an academic test. There are often dozens of ways to get to the “right” answer — and there may be five or six correct solutions to boot.

Sensory play encourages creativity and problem-solving. For example, a child playing with homemade play-dough has to figure out for themselves how to change the consistency if it won’t mold into the shapes they want. Adding a little extra water might not be a huge thing for an adult, but it represents a significant problem-solving step among tiny tots.

5. It Builds Resilience and Emotional Regulation

Resilience is your ability to bounce back from difficult situations. Emotional regulation refers to being able to recognize and effect change in how you feel by choosing behaviors that improve your outlook. Both skills are important to making it in a highly competitive world where your kids will eventually meet with challenges and uncomfortable situations.

You can’t learn to regulate emotions that you haven’t first experienced. Sensory play allows children to encounter these feelings in a safe arena first, so they can develop the skills to manage them when the stakes are higher. For example, losing a little league game teaches kids how to handle disappointment while remaining a good sport.

How do you develop resiliency? It’s very similar — you have to first undergo adversity. Sensory play allows children to encounter this in a safe, natural way.

For example, a child who is building a sandcastle might try several different techniques until they create a recognizable structure, but there are no harsh penalties for all the “buildings” that collapse while they hone the process. Your child’s only hurdle to overcome is their frustration — but that’s a crucial lesson to learn.

Encourage Sensory Play Over Screen Time

Today’s children spend too much time on screens, affecting their physical, mental and emotional health and development. This is why parents and schools should encourage more sensory play at home and while learning.

The five above reasons justify encouraging sensory play over screen time. Doing so fosters healthy development and emotionally resilient children.

About the Author
Ava Roman (she/her) is the Managing Editor of Revivalist, a women’s lifestyle magazine that empowers women to live their most authentic life. When Ava is not writing you’ll find her in a yoga class, advocating for her children or whipping up something delicious in the kitchen!

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