Boca Raton, Florida Hotel

Beat The Heat And Sun



Heat-related illness happens when the body’s temperature control system is overloaded. Infants and children up to 4 years of age are at greatest risk. Even young and healthy people can get sick from the heat if they participate in strenuous physical activities during hot weather. For heat-related illness, the best defense is prevention.

  • Never leave infants, children, or pets in a parked car, even if the windows are cracked open.
  • Dress infants and children in loose, lightweight, light-colored clothing.
  • Schedule outdoor activities carefully, for morning and evening hours.
  • Stay cool with cool showers or baths.
  • Seek medical care immediate if your child has symptoms of heat-related illness.

Just a few serious sunburns can increase you and your child's risk of skin cancer later in life. Their skin needs protection from the sun's harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays whenever they're outdoors.

  • Cover up. Clothing that covers your and your child's skin helps protect against UV rays.
  • Use sunscreen with at least SPF (sun protection factor) 15 and UVA (ultraviolet A) and UVB (ultraviolet B) protection every time you and your child go outside.

Summer Healthy Tips

 
1. Give Your Diet a Berry Boost
If you do one thing this summer to improve your diet, have a cup of mixed fresh berries -- blackberries, blueberries, or strawberries -- every day. They'll help you load up on antioxidants, which may help prevent damage to tissues and reduce the risks of age-related illnesses. Blueberries and blackberries are especially antioxidant-rich.

A big bonus: Berries are also tops in fiber, which helps keep cholesterol low and may even help prevent some cancers.

2. Get Dirty -- and Stress Less
To improve your stress level, plant a small garden, cultivate a flower box, or if space is really limited, plant a few flower pots -- indoors or out.

Just putting your hands in soil is "grounding." And when life feels like you're moving so fast your feet are barely touching the stuff, being mentally grounded can help relieve physical and mental stress.

3. Floss Daily
You know you need to, now it's time to start: floss every single day. Do it at the beach (in a secluded spot), while reading on your patio, or when watching TV -- and the task will breeze by.

Flossing reduces oral bacteria, which improves overall body health, and if oral bacteria is low, your body has more resources to fight bacteria elsewhere. Floss daily and you're doing better than at least 85% of people.

4. Get Outside to Exercise

Pick one outdoor activity -- going on a hike, taking a nature walk, playing games such as tag with your kids, cycling, roller blading, or swimming -- to shed that cooped-up feeling of gym workouts.

And remember, the family that plays together not only gets fit together -- it's also a great way to create bonding time.

Sneaky Ways to Keep Your Kids Learning This Summer

 
According to the National Summer Learning Association, if kids take a break from learning all summer, they not only miss out on new information and skills, they can lose up to three months' worth of reading and math skills from the previous year.
Yet making kids complete workbooks or review flashcards almost repels them from staying educationally engaged. As a mom who homeschooled my two boys for 10 years, I developed some fun (and often sneaky) ways to keep my kids learning all summer long and avoid the dreaded "summer slide."

1. Ask kids to create their own board games. Let them choose something they love (i.e. dogs, cooking, Disney, soccer, etc.), and challenge them to design a board game around their passion. From creating the game board and researching their topic to figuring out the rules and writing simple directions for others to follow, this hands-on activity truly puts the fun in learning.

2. Plan "surprise adventures." Think outside the typical tourist spots for these family field trips. Look for Civil War re-enactments, factory tours, Renaissance festivals, historic home tours, jazz concerts, ethnic festivals, botanical gardens, county fairs, living history farms, planetariums, animal sanctuaries, historic battlefields, lighthouses, and working ranches.

3. Teach your kids how to play chess. Don't know how? Learn together! (A simple Google search will turn up some great starting points.) Once your kids master the basics, sign them up for a chess club. "Chess trains your brain to think critically—to discover like a scientist, create like a technician, innovate like an engineer, and problem solve like a mathematician," explains Wendi Fischer, the Scholastic Director of America's Foundation for Chess, a nonprofit organization that brings chess into schools. "In fact, a third-grade student once told me, 'I like chess because it's sneaky learning.'"

6 Ways to Get Your Child Comfortable in the Water




1. Make the most of bathtime.

Begin by using this time as an opportunity to familiarize babies with water. “When he’s in the bathtub, get him wet and let the water go over his head and get into his ears,” Garcia suggests. “Having water in the ears is a very strange feeling, and he might not like it, but you have to keep doing it.” By age 1, kids should feel comfortable having water on their face.

2. Enroll in a mommy-and-me swimming class.

These programs, for kids ages 6 to 36 months, introduce swimming in a small and comfortable setting and help toddlers develop the motor skills needed to swim. “Parents don’t have to be swimmers to participate—the pool is very shallow so they just need to stand in the water,” Garcia says. During classes, parents do exercises such as positioning kids atop the water’s surface on their tummy and slowly rolling them onto their back, while letting them kick their feet and splash.

3. Sign up kids for lessons at age 3.

It’s time to progress to private or group swimming lessons without parental involvement. “If kids aren’t comfortable in water by age 4, learning how to swim will become harder with every additional year that you wait,” Garcia warns.

4. Start with fun games.

Instructors at Helen’s Happy Swim School begin by engaging kids in fun, trust-building, and confidence-boosting activities. “We’ll play games like ‘How wet can you get the teacher?’ and the kids will sit up on the deck, put their feet in the water, and splash the teacher,” Garcia says. Non-swimming parents can practice similar exercises, such as this version of “Red light, green light”: Stand in the shallow end of the pool and position your kids on the edge; have the swimmers-in-training do quick flutter kicks when they hear the “green light” cue and abruptly stop when “red light” is called out.

5. Mind the details.

A beginner’s environment can dictate whether the learning process is positive from the very start. According to Garcia, proper water temperature (80 to 82 degrees) is key for young swimmers. “Children don’t have a lot of body fat, so if the water is cold, their body will get stiff and they won’t want to learn anything,” she says. Another way parents can help keep their little ones happy in the water is to dress them in pool-ready attire. “Lycra-based swimsuits are ideal because the fabric won’t absorb water, whereas cotton boardshorts and T-shirts will hold water and weigh a ton,” says Garcia. “When children are carrying all that extra water weight, learning a skill such as kicking on a kickboard will be a lot more challenging.”

6. Take a dip.

When non-swimming parents rise above their fears and conquer the water, it sends a powerful and persuasive message to their children that will resonate far beyond the pool. Throughout the learning process, parents and children can work as a team by acting as each other’s biggest cheerleader. “I’ve seen parents who were so inspired by their child’s progress that it motivated them to learn how to swim,” Garcia says. “Now, they can enjoy water activities together as a family.” It’s no secret that children learn by example, so walking the walk—or swimming the swim—will probably be a parent’s most effective form of encouragement.

Summer Car Care Tips


For many drivers, the summer is the time of year when your tires hit the pavement most, and car care doesn’t take a vacation. Be sure your car is ready for all that mileage.
To help, here are some tips to get your car in tip-top shape for the busy driving season ahead:
• Wash and wax your car thoroughly. If you can afford it, have it professionally detailed. Direct sunlight can cause a car’s finish to become dull, but a thorough washing and waxing can also help keep your car’s paint and clear coat looking good.
It’s tempting to run the car through an automated car wash, but those big revolving brushes can dull the finish over time. If you’re not allowed to wash your car at home due to regional laws or neighborhood rules, seek out a good drive-thru wash and hand wax instead.
• Check and set your car’s tire pressure to the level specified in your owner’s manual or on the driver’s door sill. As temperatures warm up, the air in your tires can expand and that might impact the way the car handles.
Be sure not to over-inflate the tires. While low tire pressure can cause the tire to heat up if it’s not rolling down the road properly, extreme over inflation can cause a blowout in high temperatures. If you’re not comfortable doing this yourself, take your car to a shop like Big-O Tires, Sears Auto Center or Firestone Auto Care Center. Those kinds of chains will usually do it for free.
• Have a qualified mechanic do a visual inspection under the hood. If you’re comfortable doing this yourself, check for worn belts or hoses and make sure your coolant (sometimes called anti-freeze) isn’t too old. Coolant lasts a long time, but keeping track of when it was last changed, especially in older cars, can help you avoid overheating as the temperatures gradually climb.

Summer Safety Rules to Teach Your Child Now


The weather is finally nice and everyone is relaxing and spending way more time outside. It's just the best time of year.
You should be aware, however, that kids actually have a much higher risk of injury during this season. In fact, summer is often referred to as "trauma season" by many medical professionals, because children are spending way more time on playgrounds, boats, bikes, and other outdoor activities. That makes them more likely to get hurt than if they were just sitting inside.
But don't worry—your little one can still have plenty of fun this summer.The goal is to get your kid involved, too, so that she will learn to take care of herself from a young age.
Here are five simple rules you can start teaching your child right now:
  • Wear a hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen when you go outside.
  • Only go swimming when there's an adult there to watch, and make sure you have a life jacket on whenever you're on open water.
  • Stay inside when an adult is mowing the lawn. (There are an average of 35,000 lawn mower injuries that are serious enough to require an ER visit each year!)
  • Stay far away from campfires and fire pits.
  • Always ride down a slide feet first and one at a time.

How to Choose Sunscreen

Look for SPF (sun protection factor) numbers on the labels of sunscreens. Select an SPF of 30 or higher to prevent sunburn and tanning, both of which are signs of skin damage. Choose a sunscreen that protects against both UVA and UVB rays (usually labeled as a "broad-spectrum" sunscreen).
Sunscreen sprays are convenient but should be used with caution. For starters, sprays are easy to breathe in, which can irritate the lungs. Some sprays also are flammable, so you need to avoid sparks or flames when applying them and wearing them. And, sprays make it hard to tell if you have applied enough sunscreen, which increases the risk of sunburn.
Other things to consider:
  • Don't use sunscreens with PABA, which can cause skin allergies.
  • For sensitive skin, look for products with the active ingredient titanium dioxide.
  • If your teen or preteen wants to use a self-tanner sunscreen, be sure to get one that also has UV protection (many offer little or none).
Babies younger than 6 months should be kept out of the sun. When going outside, dress your baby in lightweight clothes that cover arms and legs — and don't forget a hat. If you can't avoid the sun, you can use a small amount of sunscreen on your baby's exposed skin, like the hands and face.