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- Find out
if you and/or your children are eligible for assistance with health care, child
care, food stamps or housing. Contact your local office of the Human Services
Department Income Support Division (see the "state" section of the blue
pages of your phone book).
- Become actively involved in your
child's education. Attend parent teacher meetings and conferences. Spend time
regularly helping your child with homework. Visit the library regularly. Read
to your younger children and let your older children read to you.
- Turn
off the TV and spend time with your kids. And when you do watch TV, watch together.
Teach your kids to be critical thinkers. Discuss the programs you watch and the
values they portray. Pick apart the commercials and talk about the manipulative
techniques they use.
- Don't smoke or drink alcohol if you are
pregnant. Never smoke around children; and set a healthy example for your children
by not smoking or abusing alcohol or harmful drugs.
- Get to know
your children's friends and their families. Ask the parents if they have guns
in the home, and if so, whether they are unloaded and locked up.
- Help
your children learn responsibility by giving them a place of significance in your
home life. Design tasks for them that are suitable for their attention span and
developmental ability. Encourage them often and help them learn from their mistakes.
Withhold negative criticism and bestow trust. Give attention, affection and admiration.
Build trust,openness and honesty.
- Teach your children about
democracy. Explain to them why it is important to be an active citizen. Study
the candidate's positions with them. Take them to the voting booth with you and
show them that you care enough to vote for candidates who care about children.
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