Sweet Little Feet...Hand-beaded socks for your little sweetheart

Inside this issue...
Shop: Team/School Spirit Socks
Fitness: 20 Minute Home Workout
Recipe: Nacho Popcorn
Education: Adventures in Learning
Development and Behavior: Are Your Kids Too Busy?
 

Crafts: Weekly Reusable Calendar
Family Finance: Back to School is a Good Time to Start an Allowance
Health and Safety: Backpack Safety
Beauty and Fashion: Do Your Hands Make You Look Older?
Just for Fun
 

Back to School Already??!??

I can’t believe it’s time for back to school!  My kids start school on August 3rd. It seems like the summer just began..... I’m not ready for summer to be over yet!

I’ve been busy getting clothes and school supplies together to prepare.  If one of your little back-to-schoolers happens to be an athlete or a cheerleader, check out the team/school spirit socks below.  You can get them in any color combination, and you can also add football, baseball, basketball, or soccer ball beads for an extra touch. Also, check out the recipe for nacho popcorn in this issue - it makes a great after school snack that’s easy to make and light on the calories.  Keep reading for more tips and tidbits that will help get everyone ready for back to school.

If you find this issue useful, feel free to pass it along to your friends, and remind them of the contests for subscribing to the newsletter.

Happy “Back - to - School”!

Till next week,   

Jennifer

Shop
Item of the Week: Team/School Spirit Socks

Athletes, cheerleaders, fans: show your support for your favorite school or sports team with beaded socks in your team colors. You can also add footballs, baseballs, basketballs or soccer balls
$6.00 - $7.00

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Fitness
20 Minute Home Workout
By Diana Statham

If you are busy, not able to get up early morning or have no time for gym just follow this 20 minute home work out to stay healthy and fit.

1) Jog : in one place for 3 minutes

2) Jumping jacks: 25 repeats   
When landing, bend your knees slightly to reduce the impact on knee joints.

3) Crunches : 15 repeats
Lie flat on your back with your knees bent. Place your hands behind your head with elbows pointing outwards. Support your neck with your hands. Keep your neck in a straight line with your spine. Flex your waist to raise the upper torso from the mat. Lower yourself until the back of your shoulders touches the mat. Muscle worked: rectus abdominis

4) Hip Bridges : 10 repeats
Lie on your back. With your hands at a 90 degree angle to the floor, lift your body off the floor to form a straight line, a sort of a bridge, from the shoulders to the knee. The position should resemble a table … your hands and legs as the legs of the table and your upper body to your knees as the surface. Hold this position for two seconds. Squeeze your gluteus (butt muscles) and then lower yourself.
Muscle worked: Lower back, hamstrings and gluteus.
 
5) Step – up’s : 1 minute
You will need a stepper for this.
Muscle worked: hamstrings, gluteus, quards.

6) Reverse crunches: 15 repeats
Lie on your back with your hands on your sides. Keep you knees bent. Bring your knees towards your head, till your hips come slightly off the floor. Hold this position for a second, and then lower your knees.
Muscle worked: lower abs and obliques.

7) Mountain climbers : 1 minute
Get your hands and knees and raise your knees like a starting block sprinter. Run in that position, supporting your upper body with the palms of your hands. Keep your back straight.

Muscle worked: triceps, deltoid muscle, gluteus, quards, hamstrings, calves.

8) Push – ups : 15 repeats
Muscle worked: triceps, deltoids, pectorals.

9) Squat thrusts: 1 minute
Stand straight. Now, drop to a crouch position. Immediately thrust your legs out straight behind on your toes, in push up position, now jump to pull legs  back to the chest, in crouching position , then  stand up straight,
Muscle worked: arms, legs, chest, and lower back.

Cool down by walking around, till your heart rate starts getting back to normal, stretch.

A minutes rest is needed in between exercise. Proper form is important. Do not hold breath. Sip water during the workout. This workout targets the whole body, improves cardiovascular efficiency and tones and strengthens the body.

Diana for http://www.health-care-information.org Offers information on various health topics such as diseases, injuries, and medical tests.
 

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Kid-Friendly Recipe
Nacho Popcorn
www.weightwatchers.com

Serves 4
Prep Time: 5 min
Cooking Time: 9 min
Level of Difficulty: Easy

American’s favorite snack food with a Mexican spin.  Perfect for a healthy after school snack.  We suggest tomato, olive and jalapeno toppings but it’s great straight out of the oven, too.

Ingredients

12 cups Jolly Time Healthy Pop 94% fat free butter flavor microwave popcorn
1/4 cup light butter
2 tsp reduced sodium taco seasoning
3/4 cup reduced fat Mexican-style shredded cheese

Instructions

Preheat oven to 300°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Place popped popcorn in a large bowl; remove any unpopped kernels. In a small microwave-safe bowl, microwave butter until melted; stir in taco seasoning mix. Pour mixture over popcorn; toss until evenly coated.

Spread popcorn on prepared baking sheet; sprinkle with cheese. Bake until cheese melts, about 6 to 8 minutes. Yields about 3 cups per serving.
 

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Development and Behavior
Are Your Kids Too Busy?
By Jennifer Johnson

“Andrew has Tae Kwon Do on Mondays and Wednesdays, baseball practice on Mondays and Tuesdays, Cub Scouts on Thursdays, and guitar lessons on Wednesdays. Emily has gymnastics on Tuesdays and Thursdays, tennis lessons on Mondays and Wednesdays, piano lessons on Tuesdays, and Girl Scouts on Wednesdays.” Oh yeah, they also have one little extra thing on top of all that…… homework.  Sound familiar?

I hear variations of the above all the time from my friends and from other moms at my kids’ school.  Sometimes, it makes me feel that I’m failing my kids somehow because I’m not involving them in enough extra-curricular enrichment.  But then sometimes I think those kids might be missing out on an important part of childhood…. That is, just plain being a kid.

Are we raising well-rounded children or are we just putting them on a path to burnout by age ten?

A recent KidsHealth® KidsPoll found that 41% of kids ages 9 to 13 reported feeling stressed most of the time or always because of too much to do. Of the 882 kids surveyed, 77% said they wish they had more free time.

So why do our kids have so much going on?

Sometimes the drive to be involved in so many activities comes from the kids themselves.  Their friends are all into sports and other activities and they don’t want to be left out. High school students have the added pressure of building an impressive resume for their college applications.  Other times it’s the parents who want to keep their kids as busy as possible in order to keep them out of trouble and keep them from being lazy.

There’s no doubt that a jam-packed schedule is physically and emotionally exhausting to both the kids and the parents.  Family life suffers when parents are so busy and stressed-out over coordinating schedules and ferrying kids from activity to activity.  Family “together” time dwindles and it can be next to impossible to have dinner together, which studies have shown is very important to children’s health and well-being.  Too much to do can also take its toll on kids’ social lives and friendships, since they may not have any time to just hang out and play together. Having a full activity calendar causes overwhelming pressure to succeed and can lead to low self-esteem, a range of behavioral problems, and sometimes even drug use.

But there is a flipside. Two studies of how middle-class children spend their time outside of school have shown that being involved in organized activities is linked to positive results in school, behavior, family life and emotional development. In fact, the children who were not involved in any activities at all were the most at-risk group.  The key seems to be a balanced approach. The group of kids who were found to be the most well-adjusted were the kids involved in just one or two activities for less than four hours, two days a week.  The old adage “moderation in all things” applies here.

How can you tell if your child has too much on his plate?  Typical signs of overload include feeling tired, anxious or depressed most of the time; complaining of headaches and/or stomachaches; not completing homework or finishing it late at night; grades starting to drop; rushing through meals; complaining about having to go to practice, lessons, etc.; consistently getting to bed late; and being in an overall bad mood much of the time.

So, what can you do to help your child ease up?

*When considering whether to sign your child up for yet another activity, determine if YOU the parent can handle the schedule. Take into consideration the time commitment required, like games and practices, as well as anything extra you’ll be expected to do.  Are parents required to help organize, make phone calls, do fundraisers, work concessions? Chances are, if it seems too stressful for you to coordinate it all, it’ll be too stressful for the kids, too.

*Choose activities that are appropriate for the kids’ age, abilities, and temperament.  If it’s too difficult, they’ll get frustrated.  If it’s too easy, they’ll get bored. 

*Carpool with other parents or swap pick-up and drop off times.

*Make sure schoolwork comes first. If grades start to slip, one activity is out.

*Try to schedule at least one or two nights a week of family time (dinner together, game night, etc.)

The key is to strike a balance – you want your kids to have enough going on so that it will benefit them, but not so much that they are overwhelmed. Set limits and rules ahead of time; for example, each kid can only play one sport per season, or they can only have after school activities on 2 nights a week.   Kids need time to just “be,” with no intended goal in mind or pressure to succeed, and we need to make sure they have some time for that. Earlier this school year, my oldest daughter had 4 different activities, which took up every afternoon or evening after school.  It became too much for her and for me, and she began showing several of the signs of overload listed above. Keep in mind that it’s ok to bow out gracefully if that happens. We quit all but one of the activities. Now she has Tae Kwon Do two afternoons a week. That’s it. She’s able to finish her lessons and complete all her homework assignments, then have plenty of time left over during the week to play with her friends, ride her bike, play on Webkinz, read a book (one that she doesn’t have to read), or just hang out and do nothing.  You know, just being a kid. 

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Crafts
Weekly Reusable Calendar             Difficulty: Easy
(from www.kaboose.com )                       
 

Help your family keep track of important occasions with this weekly reusable calendar. Wipe-off marker makes it perfect for kids to keep track of their homework assignments too.

What you’ll need:

• Calendar printout (see below)
• Self-adhesive magnetic strips
• Laminate or Con-Tact paper
• Dry erase markers, thin tips

Family Finance
Back to School Time is a Good Time to Start an Allowance
Copyright 2005 Financially Intelligent Parent – All Rights Reserved Eileen Gallo, Ph.D., and Jon Gallo, J.D.

What do good schools and well thought out allowances have in common? Both teach your child a vitally important life skill: reflective thinking. Kids are naturally impulsive. Learning how to reflect before making a decision – learning to think in terms of choices, alternatives and consequences -- is a great life skill for kids to learn.

Stanley Greenspan, M.D., one of the country’s leading child psychiatrists, says that children who develop the ability to think in terms of choices and consequences are likely to grow into teenagers and adults who “can solve problems and assess and evaluate their own impulses and desires.” Teens and adults who never develop this skill are “limited to their immediate and often impulsive reactions to events.”

What do we mean by a “well thought out allowance?” It’s been our experience that many parents simply haven’t a clue when it comes to their kid’s allowance. They don’t know when to start, how much to give or what the purpose of the allowance is in the first place.

Since back to school time is rapidly approaching, here are answers to the four most common questions we get from parents about allowances.

Q: When do you start giving your kids an allowance?

A: There’s no magic age. Start an allowance when your child becomes interested in money and using it to buy things. This is usually about age six. But if there are older children in the house already getting an allowance, don’t be surprised if your five year old asks for an allowance. For your child’s first allowance, look at the piggy bank recognized as a Parent’s Choice Award Winner that has four transparent chambers and four slots, labeled Save, Spend, Invest and Donate.

Q: How much should the allowance be?

A: While there is no magic age, there is a magic amount! The allowance should be enough to shift to your child the ability – and the responsibility -- to pay for some of the things you’ve been buying in the past. Keep track of what you’re spending on your child. Then figure out which items you will continue to be responsible for and which expenses you want the allowance to cover. Here’s a simple example. Your six year old is really into Yu-Gi-Oh and the allowance tracker shows that you’re laying out $4 a week on average for Dark Beginning Super Cards. We suggest you start him off with a $5 a week allowance. Fifty cents is for saving and another fifty cents is for charity. The remaining $4 can be spent any way he wants during the week but explain that you won’t be buying him Yu-Gi-Oh cards anymore. You’ve created a situation in which he is learning to think reflectively: “Should I spend the $4 on a toy at the drug store or on a Yu-Gi-Oh card or should I save for a few weeks so I can buy a more powerful Yu-Gi-Oh card?”

Q: How long a time period should the allowance cover?

A: When you first start, give the allowance weekly. As your child gets older, increase both the amount of the allowance so that it shifts more responsibility to your child, and the time period that the allowance covers. If your child is handling a weekly allowance responsibly, try extending it to two weeks, and then to a month at a time when your child is in his or her mid teens. And be consistent. A recent survey of school children in Chicago found that their biggest complaint about allowances wasn’t the amount or the frequency; it was their parents’ failure to provide the allowance consistently.

Q: Any special suggestions for teenagers?

A: Sure. As your kids get older, try a clothing allowance. At the start of each semester, work out a reasonable clothing budget and allow your child to select his or her own clothes. Clothes have tremendous symbolic importance for teenagers, and while they may be fiscally responsible in other areas of their lives, they can easily blow their entire month’s allowance on clothing. A separate clothing allowance prevents this from happening, and it also gives them control of something that has great meaning in their lives. Provide your kids with a clothing allowance that covers the clothes they need for one semester at school. Specify which types of clothing are covered by the allowance: school clothes, after school clothes, party clothes, etc. Try to let your child have as much autonomy in buying clothes as possible. If her school requires uniforms, we suggest that you buy school clothes for her and provide a clothing allowance for after-school clothes. Boys in particular usually aren’t interested in formal clothes. If you want your fourteen-year-old son to have a nice suit to wear on formal family occasions, pay for it yourself and let him use the clothing allowance to buy what he is interested in wearing.

Back to school is a time for new ideas. Using an allowance to help your kids learn to think reflectively can be a constructive new idea for your family.

Visit the Financially Intelligent Parent community at www.FIParent.com – where you can download the FIP Allowance Tracker that allows you to chart what you are spending on your child for two weeks. If you become an on-line member, you’ll also have access to an interactive FIP Allowance Advisor that helps you figure out which items you want your child to be responsible for.

Copyright 2005 Financially Intelligent Parent – All Rights Reserved Eileen Gallo, Ph.D., and Jon Gallo, J.D. Authors of “The Financially Intelligent Parent” Creating positive money and life values for your children www.FIParent.com  (877) FIParent
 

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Education
Adventures in Learning
by Tracy Catarius

Who says learning is dull? Children like having fun, (who doesn’t?) So we need to incorporate more fun into our teachings. There are several ways to do that.

Games: 20 questions: this is a great way to teach facts. You can find sites or books on any subject and then make a list of questions for each thing you want to teach about. For instance, say you are studying Art History. You want to teach your child about famous artists. You would go to sites or books about the artists and make a list of questions for your child to answer. Here is a site about Leonardo da Vinci: http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/, visit here to find facts about this artist and make up your question and answer sheet. You could play one of several ways, have the child answer the questions knowing the subject is Leonardo da Vinci, make a list

of facts from your questions and have the child guess who the facts are about or if your child is old enough, have him or her do the research and question sheet then test you! I like the last choice as I feel s/he would absorb more information this way. Here is a site to download a FREE sample of 25 questions and answers on a variety of subjects and difficulty including science, sport, history, geography, entertainment, literature, cinema, T.V. and others: http://tinyurl.com/3kgne.

Brain Teasers: make up brain teasers for math problems.

Spelling lessons: make up a word search, crossword puzzle or hangman game using words on your spelling lists. The possibilities are endless! Here is a great website for online education games: http://www.funbrain.com/

Field trips: Kids love field trips. Learning about the oceans? A trip to an aquarium is fun. Teaching agriculture? Perhaps there is a farm nearby. You could contact the person running the farm to see if you can arrange to bring your kids for a tour. A hike in the woods can serve as both gym class and a lesson in nature.

Music: We all love music. How about adding fun to music? You know that turning anything into a song will help with memorization. Look at the Alphabet Song, who has ever forgotten how to say the alphabet after learning that song? Dry Bones is a great song when learning about the bones in the body. Even better would be to make up a song of your own together. You could do the first line and your child does the next line. Take turns until you have a full song about your subject. The sillier the song, the better! Don’t forget to have a dance session using those songs. Dancing will raise your heartbeats and increase the blood flow to your brains. Studies show that the increase of oxygen to the brain generated by physical activity improves memory and learning. Plus it has the added benefit of being great for your body and your kids will have fun while getting some exercise. There are far too many children turning into couch potatoes these days. And what better way to have fun and bond with your family than singing and dancing together.

Crafts: If your child is old enough to read, you can make placemats together. It is relatively easy to do. All you need is some clear contact paper or laminating sheets, a magazine or newspaper, some clear drying glue and construction paper. Look through magazines and newspapers and cut out articles or snippets that are about things you want to teach your children. Glue them onto the construction paper and after they dry cover with the clear contact paper or laminating sheets.

If your child cannot yet read, you can do the same thing using letters you are teaching along with pictures of things that start with that letter, clocks with different times, animals with facts, or whatever else you want to work on. For more craft ideas, click here: http://tinyurl.com/5n3tg

Science projects: Science is so much easier to learn with hands on experiments. You can go with the tried and true experiments like the electric potato. You and your child can brainstorm together to come up with ways to experiment. There are a few e-books with different experiments you can do using household objects: http://tinyurl.com/4tvpj or http://tinyurl.com/6hhzz.

History: A great project to undertake for history would be to research your family’s genealogy. You should form a new lesson around each generation of the family. Learn about great grandparents and study the Depression era at the same time. Remember to save everything for future generations and also, don’t forget to add info on you and your children. For any older generations still living in your family, this would be a wonderful opportunity for them to bond with your children. And for your children to hear straight from their mouths what life was like “in their day,” would make it seem more real and perhaps make them more appreciative of all the luxuries we have now. If you don’t know where to begin, click here for an e-book that shows you how, http://tinyurl.com/3w9bl. Creating a scrapbook to go along with this project is a wonderful idea. Collect old photographs from family members. How neat to have a scrapbook that starts out with old black and white photographs and ends with color photos? Maybe you can get some old magazine clippings from certain eras to add to the older pages. Here is a great resource for learning about scrapbooking, http://tinyurl.com/49qqb.

Math: For older children or those that receive an allowance, I think setting up a checking account is a great idea. Keeping the checkbook balanced is a good way to learn math hands on. This also gives the added benefit of teaching the value of money and responsibility. Perhaps you could set up a chart for each week where a percentage of his or her allowance will go in the checkbook, a percentage to charity and a percentage for them to spend as they wish. Change the percentages for each from week to week. Now you are teaching percentages, fractions and teaching about charitable giving.

Grammar/Foreign Language: Look for websites that have a pen pal service. If you are teaching your child Spanish, you could look for a pen pal in Spain or any other Spanish speaking country. This will help with the learning of another language, grammar, letter writing etiquette and ability as well as learning about other cultures and countries. Plus your child may very well make a wonderful life-long friend.

There are countless other ways to incorporate fun into learning. We have only scratched the surface. I hope you have been inspired by these ideas. Have fun thinking up different plans!

Tracy Catarius may be contacted at http://www.greatestkidsbooks.com tracy@myubah.com
Tracy Catarius is the owner of Mattcmama’s, a resource site for parents and Greatest Kid’s books, a site devoted to children’s education. You can visit these sites here: http://www.mattcmamas.com and http://www.greatestkidsbooks.com. She is also the editor of Kid’s Education First newsletter. Be sure to sign up for this fr*ee newsletter at the site. She is lives in Massachusetts with her husband and is the stay at home mother of one son and one daughter. She also has a personal family library of approximately 1,000 books on various subjects.

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Health and Safety
Backpack Safety - What Are the Basic Rules?
by Martin Smith

Most kids carry backpacks to school everyday, and pediatricians, physical therapists and parents are reporting increasing numbers of schoolchildren complaining of back, neck and shoulder pain, along with tingling or numbness in their arms and hands. This is being attributed to children carrying heavy loads of schoolbooks in backpacks and often not following backpack safety rules and using the bag improperly.

However don't scrap your child's backpack and run out to buy a sling bag, or briefcase type book bag. Evidence exists that says these are even more harmful than the backpack. So what is a parent to do? Backpacks if made correctly, worn properly not over packed and packed correctly, are fine. A back friendly bag will have wide padded shoulder straps, a padded back, and a waist belt.

This takes care of most of the problems. The straps, on this type of bag, avoid the pinching of the shoulders by narrow unpadded straps on other backpacks. The waist belt and padded bag help to reduce the bouncing of the bag on the back. This reduces repetitive impact injury. Some backpacks even have a chest belt, and side straps to stabilize the load.

This type of backpack is obvious the better choice, because it uses the back and abdominal muscles, the two strongest muscle systems in the body, properly. A heavy backpack, incorrectly worn, can pull the child back, so the child leans forward to compensate for the pull. This can compress and possibly damage the vertebrae, causing back and neck pain.

This leaning forward also tends to cause the child to roll her shoulders inward. This with the forward lean can also compress the lungs and cause problems for asthmatic kids. The best backpacks are made of sturdy material, have padded wide shoulder straps, padded backs, waist and chest belts. These extra belts help to put some of the weight bearing on the legs and hips. You have the right backpack, now you have to make sure your child knows how to use it properly.

First teach her how to pack it properly, heavier items like textbooks should be placed closet to the back, don't over-pack, and don't pack anything you do not need for school, Now see that he lifts it properly, and that he uses both shoulder straps, the waist belt and any additional belts.. Before purchasing a backpack check on line for results of product testing and ratings, by reliable consumer protection groups, of any backpack you are considering.

Be aware that price is not always an indication of quality, nor does lower prices necessarily mean a poor product. You must do your homework. Also look on line for wholesale dealers in backpacks .We found a top brand backpack that has all the proper padding all the belts and a mini frame to help support the load for just a thirty dollars more than the average mid-range back pack.

More important than the price is that you get the right type of backpack, and that your child uses it because the best most expensive ergonomically sound backpack in the world, is worthless if she doesn't follow the backpack safety rules.

Author Bio
Elaine Smith is a successful freelance writer providing advice for consumers on purchasing a variety of School Backpacks, Backbacks, and more! Her numerous articles provide a wonderfully researched resource of interesting and relevant information.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

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Beauty and Fashion
Do Your Hands Make You Look Older?
by Natalie Katsman

When you hear about wrinkles and skin aging, your first thoughts are about face and neck. But the earliest signs of aging will show on your hands.

Often neglected, hands need to be regularly taken care of. Frequent contacts with water and chemicals, sun, cold weather, gardening - all put your skin under a big stress. While hands do not have many oil glands, they will give away your age earlier than your pampered face.

In the meantime, it has been noticed that after making eye contact, the next thing people pay attention to is your hands.

What can you do to keep your hands beautiful?

- Moisturize! Several times a day. Dry skin is easily injured and looks wrinkled.

- Protect your hands - wear gloves when gardening, washing dishes, or dealing with chemicals

- Use sun protection

- Keep your hands dry. Any water left on your hands will evaporate and dry out the skin.

- Give your hands a special treatment - herbal or oil bath - once in a while.

Here are a few suggestions for your next hand spa:

* Herbal hand bath

Bring 1 qt of water to boil and pour over 1 tbsp of herbs (you can use all of these or just one: chamomile, nettle, sage, coltsfoot, calendula). Let the infusion cool to 100-110F and soak your hands in it for about 15-20 minutes. Dry your hands thoroughly and apply a rich moisturizer.

* You can make your own nourishing hand cream.

Thoroughly mix 1 teaspoon of honey and 3 tbsp of unsalted butter. Add 1 tbsp of strong herbal infusion. This will make a very rich cream. It will take a while to absorb, but leave your hands silky and smooth.

* For dry skin use this hand treatment 1-2 times a week:

1 tbsp Glycerin
1 Egg yolk
2 tbsp vegetable oil (olive, almond, or another oil of your choice)
Lemon Juice of 1 lemon
3 1/2 - 4 oz of an herbal infusion (for example: chamomile, calendula, elderflower) or rose water.
Other tips:

Mashed potatoes (with milk) will make a great hand mask.
When cooking with eggs, don't throw the eggshells away. Scrape out the remaining egg white and spread it over your hands.
Rubbing your skin with a piece of lemon will give the skin a more even tone.
After washing dishes or dealing with other alkali detergents, rinse your hands with sour milk or with vinegar-in-water solution (1 tbsp. vinegar per 2qt of water). This will help to restore pH balance of the skin.
Keep your hands warm. Not only for the sake of better skin, but for your overall health. Flue and colds often start with cold hands.
 

Tip for gardeners:

- Before digging in the dirt, scratch a bar of soap with your nails. When you are done working, cleaning your hands will be so much easier!

Nails.
Just like your skin and hair, your nails need moisture and conditioning too.

Here are few tips for better nails:

If you use nail polish, do not use acetone polish removers.
From time to time give your nails a break - let them be "naked" for a few days.
For stronger nails, soak them in horsetail infusion.
Olive oil that you probably have in your pantry will make a perfect strengthening nail bath (warm it first).
Cuticles. Removing them is not always a good idea because it makes your nails more vulnerable to infections.
Yet, if you decide to do the procedure, prepare the nails first:
apply a rich cream to the cuticle area. soak your nails in warm soapy water for 5-6 minutes. After drying your hands, push the cuticles back and then carefully cut them off with small scissors.

As always, topical measures are not always enough, especially if you have brittle, split or dull nails.

There are vitamins that will help:

* Organic Silica - to speed up the growth, avoid brittle and split nails.
* Essential Fatty Acids - Omega 3-6, Primrose Oil, Borage Oil, Fish Oil - for healthy and strong nails.
* Vitamin B (particularly B5) - for healthy nails and skin.
* Chelated Iron - to avoid vertical ridges and spoon nails.
* MSM (Methyl-Sulfonyl-Methane) - provides building material for healthy cells.

For better absorption of vitamins and minerals, take digestive enzymes or bitters to stimulate digestion and help your body clean itself of toxins.

Whichever way you choose to care for your hands, even if it is just a hand lotion from your local grocery store, use it regularly. After all, doing so many things, your hands deserve care and attention.

The Author

(C) Natalie Katsman, 2003.

Learn skin care secrets, find out how to protect your skin and preserve its youthful and healthy appearance. Visit us at:

http://www.Natural-Aid.com

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This Week’s Featured Game: Fly Catcher

Description:

This is a wonderful strategy game where you have to control the frog to make jump and gather all the flies without hitting poison flask to proceed to the next level. You have 60 seconds and limited attempts in each round. Have Fun!

Instructions:

Play This Game = Use Mouse