Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 333
Natural Energy
Hello Everyone
No, this blog post isn’t about wind farms actually – it is about you.
Are you always full of beans or are you more floppy than jumpy? Are you more stressed than calm?
Have you heard the saying ‘you are what you eat’?
Are you made up of crisps, lots of sugary foods and fizzy drinks, or are you made up of traffic light fruits and veggies?
What we eat is taken by the body to make energy and replace cells with new ones. So whatever we eat really has a big effect on us.
Have you got a good sleep routine? Do you go to bed at the same time every night with no messing about? Do you go to bed well before midnight?
Do you keep putting off things that you should do and then they all catch up with you and you get very stressed?
Emily keeps a bullet journal now and she says it means getting herself organized is a lot of fun. She can write down all the things she needs to do and then she can look at her list and decide what she needs to do first. She needs to do the most important thing first.
There is a special word for this. lt is called prioritizing. A priority is the most important thing you need to do from a choice of things.
Doing the right things to make yourself feel good will help you a lot and you will find that you are able to concentrate at school.
After a good night’s rest the first thing to do is have a good breakfast.
Don’t go for hours without food after that, and sit down when you eat.
Good foods for energy are: watercress, peas, beans, peaches, berries, grapes, cherries, oranges, melons, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, all green vegetables.
Dark green vegetables give you iron which is good for your blood. They also give you a lot of other very important minerals.
Maybe you don’t like cooked spinach but you can eat it raw like lettuce in a salad. lf you put herbs into your salad, they make it really tasty!
Perhaps you don’t like fresh apricots but you liked dried ones because they taste a bit like sweets.
Maybe you don’t like boiled cauliflower but you like it in a cheese sauce, or you don’t like boiled carrots but you can eat them hidden in a vegetable soup.
Perhaps you don’t like herb teas but they taste alright when you add honey.
Whole grains are a good thing to eat too. This means porridge, brown rice and wholewheat pasta. Pulses can easily be added to stews and soups to give you an energy burst. Have you tried lentil soup with added grated cheese?
lt is also important to drink enough water. Drinking lots of fizzy drinks really isn’t good for you but water might seem boring in comparison.
The thing to do is force yourself to drink water for a while and you will get used to it within just a few days. Once you start a good habit it is easy to continue. You could put a tea bag in it to make it taste like peppermint or even slices of lemon.
Milk is also good for growing children.
Fatigue is often one of the first symptoms of dehydration.
Try flavouring your meals with cayenne pepper and herbs and spices instead of salt. This is a really big health tip.
And if you use salt – sea salt or Himalayan salt is much better for you than table/cooking salt.
You need lots of exercise to keep you energized too. That seems strange, doesn’t it? You might think exercise would wear you out but it actually cheers you up.
Don’t exercise on a full stomach. Do warm up exercises before you start doing something taxing and cool down exercises at the end. This stops you muscles from aching. When you exercise your muscles contract, so you have to gently stretch them out afterwards and then they won’t ache the next day.
Exercising your muscles is good, but over-doing it can harm them.
Swimming is really good exercise because it uses all your big muscles and works your lungs too.
Cycling is good exercise and so is dancing, which is a lot of fun, but a brisk walk can do you a lot of good too. Putting oxygen into your body in this way is really good for you.
These kinds of exercises are called aerobic exercises because you are pumping air into yourself when you pant.
Exercising outside in the fresh air burns off more calories than exercising inside and sunlight gives you Vitamin D.
Children can do yoga too. lt is not just for adults. Yoga helps stretch you and gives you good posture. lt gives you a good, calm feeling after doing it too.
You can find beginner yoga lessons on You Tube. Don’t start with the hard stuff; you don’t have to stand on your head in lesson one!
Being upset can drag you down. Maybe you have a fear of change – like your parents are moving house and you are worried about having to make new friends. So find someone to talk to about your feelings because it can really help.
Your surroundings can have a big effect on you. Cheery colours and plants are good for your mood. Walking or sitting in nature is brilliant for your well-being.
So is nice music and smells.
So is finding things to look forward to.
lf the dark winter months get you down, you can get light bulbs that are like daylight. They will make your room nice and bright and if you do a lot of crafting, you should always work in good light anyway.
Do you have any favourite ways you like to energize yourself?
Bye bye everyone – don’t forget to subscribe to my blog!
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Thank you!
And see you again next Fun Friday!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bill: l have removed all the unhealthy food from the house.
Bob: Really?
Bill: Yes, it was delicious!
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
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Picture Gallery
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
Miss Pringle’s class looked a bit floppy this week.
They have all been working hard during the term and also revising for tests and doing lots of homework. They looked like they needed a holiday.
“Not long to go before we break up for the summer holidays,” said Miss Pringle.
She also thought she had been listening to a bit too much moaning and groaning from her class just lately and decided they needed a bit of a pep talk!
Who wants a moany-groany class!
This is what she told them…
If you have a negative perspective on day to day events, you will get into the habit of being tense and use a lot of your mental energy in worry rather than being constructive.
If you try to stay positive on the other hand, you can do a lot to influence the outcome of a situation – your attitude to things is all-important.
In turn, this gives you more self-confidence because you will come to realize how much control you can have in your life when you take responsibility for your thoughts and actions.
Optimism gives you good energy.
If something has gone wrong, think about what you have learnt from the situation. You might have done something wrong and you will know not to do it again.
Every time you face a problem, try to think about what you can do to make things better. This is a good habit to get into.
You may need to be flexible in your approach. One solution may not work but another might.
You may need to implement plan B and then C and then D as well before you sort things out. The important thing is to not give up.
And just because you have not managed to do something before, it doesn’t mean to say that you can’t manage it now. You are older and wiser than you were before – at any age!
It is a human thing to worry about changes and the future and the unknown. A lot of people get frightened about changes.
When things change they might get better!
The more you become solution-orientated (think about solutions more than problems) and have faith in your own abilities, the less you need worry about life.
If you are worried about tackling a big task, break it down into little steps and just concentrate on one step at a time. This really helps you to not get overwhelmed about everything you have to do.
Don’t whine and complain about things. Nobody likes a complainer.
Keep telling yourself that you are capable and you can manage to do things.
Even if you are not really sure that you can, if you engage in positive self-talk you will start believing yourself in the end.
This is because a human brain is very impressionable. If you keep telling yourself that you can do it, you will start believing it.
You can become your own cheerleader!
Choose friends that are sensible and positive children and you will all have a good influence on each other.
If you feel stressed, sit down and have a hot drink and think everything through. Talk to someone if it helps.
Always thinking about how to deal with things in a positive way gets to be a habit that will serve you well through life.
For example, if your parents have told you that the family is going to move to a house far away and you are upset and frightened because you will have to leave all your friends behind, you could arrange to keep in contact with them via e-mail or even Skype. If you want to write letters to each other, go and buy a box of really lovely writing paper.
When they write letters to you, you can keep them in a pretty box. They might even be able to stay at your house for a weekend in the holidays.
Then think about all the new people you are going to meet. You may end up with twice as many friends as you had before!
It is also very important to celebrate your victories. When you have faced a tough challenge and won through, take a moment to pat yourself on the back and realize how capable you are.
The children all thought that Miss Pringle was very wise.
To find out how to make a flick book look at Blog Post 166
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Quick Quiz
Can you put the numbers into the titles of these songs and add them up to make a total?
- The _ Days of Christmas
- _ Blind Mice
- We _ kings of Orient Are
- l Saw _ Ships
- _ Green Bottles
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE A STRlPED SUMMER PARTY DRESS FOR A 12” DOLL
This dress is made in lovely summery colours and has a cape to go with it in case the weather turns chilly at the end of the day.
It is very easy for a beginner to make.
DRESS (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and green dk yarn cast on 20 stitches
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Change to white dk yarn
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Change to green
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Change to white dk yarn
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Change to green
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Change to white dk yarn
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Change to green
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Continue knitting in stocking stitch
Decrease 1 stitch at the beginning of the next 4 rows (16sts)
Knit 8 rows of stocking stitch
Change to green
Knit 1 row of garter stitch
Sew up the two side seams using over-sew stitching with right sides together
EVENING CAPE (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and green dk yarn cast on 40 stitches
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Change to white dk yarn
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Change to green
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Change to white dk yarn
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Change to green
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Change to white dk yarn
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Change to green
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Don’t cast off
Cut off the yarn leaving a length of about 20-30cm and thread this through the stitches on your needle and pull the knitting needle away
Secure the yarn at the place that will make the top of the cape as wide as you want it to be and tie two cords or ribbons to the top front corners of the cape.
Make a belt to pull the dress in at the waist by crocheting 50 chains into a length of white yarn.
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Quick Quiz Answers
- The Twelve Days of Christmas
- Three Blind Mice
- We Three kings of Orient Are
- l Saw Three Ships
- Ten Green Bottles
12 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 10 = 31
