Summer can be an exciting and chaotic time for families with children. With your kids out of school, the entire routine that you have had gets thrown out of whack. There is less structure during the days. To ensure that your kids do not forget everything that they have learned during the year, there are many things that you and your family can do to ensure that your kids’ brains stay active. There is no activity that does not connect to learning in some way. Here are some things that you can do with your children, of any age, to ensure that they continue learning all summer long.

#1) Vacation

While many people believe that vacation is all about having fun and building unforgettable family memories, vacations can be even more beneficial. Recent studies have found that children who go on vacation with their family tend to do better in school the following year than those who did not go on a vacation that summer. Going on vacation helps children connect the things that they learn in school to real life. Children who go to the beach, an amusement park, a neighborhood park, the mountains, or any other place are able to connect what they read about to real-life events. This encourages their reading and participation in class.

#2) Interactive Television Shows

While we do not want to just sit our kids in front of the television all day long, we all know that it provides us with a much-needed break during the day. If you sit your children in front of the television for an hour a day you should ensure that they are watching the best kids educational shows possible. These shows typically encourage learning, spelling, reading, math, science, and social studies. No matter how old or young your child is, you can find an education television show for them to watch.

#3) Visit A Local Bookstore

You should encourage your children to read during the summer if it is not already mandatory by your school. Even if your child has to read summer reading books, you should still encourage them to read books that they find interesting. Some local bookstores, like Barnes & Noble, offer storytime each Saturday to encourage children to read. Children are able to connect with their peers, read along while they listen to a story, and look at other books while they are there. Some bookstores also give children a free book if they read so many books during the summer. This is a great motivator for some children.

#4) Cook or Bake With Your Children

If you are looking for a creative and fun way to work on math skills with your children this summer, you can cook and bake with them. Following recipes and measuring ingredients is a great and fun way to connect math to the real world. No matter how old or young your children are, you can find engaging ways to have them help you in the kitchen. For younger children, you

can ask them which is bigger, a tablespoon or a cup. Older children may have fun converting between ml and cups. If you are looking for a great recipe that is also healthy for you and your children, you can try baking banana oatmeal applesauce muffins. These muffins make the perfect breakfast or snack and can be shared with their friends if you are looking to set up playdates.

#5) Keep A Journal

If you are looking to improve your children’s writing and reading skills, you can encourage them to keep a journal this summer. Each day you can look to do something new and exciting with your children so that they have something to write about. If your children are young, you can help them write a sentence or two each day. If your children are older, you can encourage them to write a paragraph or even a whole page, depending on what you did that day. Keeping a journal not only helps them practice their skills, but it will be a fun thing for them to go back and read when they get older. You can encourage them to write each day by giving them stickers to decorate their pages with. Stickers are a great motivator for children of all ages.

How Life Today is Set Up

Life today may be one of the most advanced structured societies that ever functioned. Everything is systematically arranged in a way that not only makes sense but balances out almost everything about our existence to a science. We have grocery stores for our specific nutritional needs, gyms for our active needs, and libraries for our various ideas or questions. We are very fortunate to have lived in such an organized period in time that actually allows us to function close to our fullest capacity.

Different Types of Awards

Awards can be some of life’s most amazing experiences. Awards come in many forms that usually come with the acceptance of growth and responsibility. Examples of great rewards are: · Trophies or glass awards can symbolize a beautiful representation of your accomplishments.

· Events or parties can be held to bring about reinforcing praise that adds emotional value and support.

· Accomplishments in themselves can be great rewards that can almost have a positive addictive effect on you and your life.

Use Time To Recognize Your Strengths

Now, we can address the topic of today. What are your strengths? What are you good at? It is amazing how we all are different. We may have things in common. We can even share common experiences with others. But we know that no two lives are ever completely the same. In order to thrive in any possible way, we must find our strength.

Our strengths were embedded somewhere in our DNA for specific reasons. They help to give us confidence, satisfaction, and even happiness. Some may be good at sports, music, cooking, and so much more!

School Can Be Used To Help Us Reveal Our Strengths

One thing that should be stressed to today’s youth or anyone who is in school is that school is a wonderful place to define and sculpt your strengths. I am sure we can all relate about classes that we just could not stay awake in or topics in lectures that you absolutely dreaded. This is just a part of life that most of us should take heed to and never overlook.

Neither should we overlook when we are doing great! Almost everyone can relate to this as well. We all have strengths that we just have to find. This is not always the easiest task. Our strengths can be an ability to combat the fear that we had to reveal from experience. It can even be the

ability to make people laugh that was revealed after facing really hard times. Your strength is your reward in life that will continue to reward you for eternity once it is received.

Sports Are Another Way To Reveal Strengths

The adrenaline pumps to your veins as your fans call your name. Remember to plant your feet, focus, breath, swing. 1,2,3 and there it goes! The ball is out of the park! The crowd goes wild!

This is a snippet from the day in the life of anyone who plays sports. Sports are constructed to teach us how to channel our feelings and drives to work properly and give us results! We must learn how to train and function in ways that stimulate ourselves as individuals. The most exciting sports advantage is that we get to share these experiences with a team. Most of us play sports with peers who are learning and experiencing similar things in life. So, this enables us to exercise and express our individual strengths in the ways that will most likely be highlighted in society.

Showcase Your Strengths In Business

Business is the big league of life. Most people will have to use all of the prior discussed situations to enhance their performance in the business world. Those who have successfully mastered their strengths and weaknesses will find themselves in manager positions. Those who know how to go above and beyond to beat fear and setbacks may even become CEOs.

Engaging in business is a way to enhance good qualities. The rewards of it are money plus other forms of gratification that make life better.

Time and again you enter a sweepstake or a giveaway and you can’t walk away with any reward or prize money. By then you will probably have concluded that sweepstakes or giveaways are nothing more than a scam or a scandal to waste people’s time and only create brand publicity simply

Well, the truth of the matter is, sweepstakes actually work and winning them is possible, so long as you are persistent, patient and maintain a positive attitude. On top of that, you need to practice the right methods to employ to your advantage. Fortunately, we’ve got all that covered right here in this article.

Make use of the following strategies and start winning:

1. Create Facebook Interest Lists

One great way of constantly entering giveaways is to create Facebook lists that include pages that regularly hold giveaways. To create a Facebook list, all you have to do is:

a. Scroll down to the left sidebar until you see Interests.

b. Hover the mouse over to Interests and click the More link. You will then see the news feed change to show you lists that you’ve subscribed to or created. But if you’re starting out, you won’t see much on those lists.

c. Then click the +Add Interests button at the top of the page. The news feed area will change to show you a list of interests.

2. Follow Bloggers

Another great way of entering giveaways is to ‘like’ pages of bloggers who regularly hold and promote plenty of giveaways for items in your area of interest. But because Facebook doesn’t really show you pages of the posts that you ‘like,’ it’s a great idea to interact with your favorite Facebook pages by commenting and liking, which then tells Facebook that you’re interested in that type of content and you want more of it.

When you follow a page by liking it, you can use the settings on Facebook to ensure that you see only that page’s posts first or even get notifications for it.

Other than that, you can also subscribe to a blogger’s newsletter or just to their blog. This way you will receive an email about a giveaway every time something new has been posted.

3. Visit Giveaway Link Ups

Most bloggers will have a page that specifically lists giveaways. Some bloggers visit these pages and list their own giveaways.

4. Follow Social Media Hashtags

You can also find giveaways by following hashtags on multiple social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Just click a hashtag that you like and you will see all posts that related to that hashtag. You can click on generic giveaway hashtags such as #ContestAlert and #Sweeps.

5. Avoid Fake Giveaways and Competitions

Sometimes, clicking on a giveaway on Facebook could be nothing more than a well-thought-out scandal meant to extort money or other personal credentials from you. For example, there are posts that say “if you like this picture, you are eligible.” This is obviously spam and ads that promote contests like this are definitely setting you up to exploit you.

The best advice that we can give is only to enter competitions that are sponsored by a legitimate source, brand or company.

6. Enter as Often as Possible

The bigger the catch of fish you get in your net, the better your family will be satisfied at dinner. Likewise, the more you enter yourself in regular sweepstakes and giveaways, the better your chance will be at winning. It’s a simple formula that is basically common sense.

It’s also a good idea to keep track of the giveaways that you enter yourself in. Therefore, you should create a Google Docs spreadsheet just so you know which sweepstake or giveaway you’ve entered and when the winners will be announced.

Bonus tip: You can also participate in surveys and win prizes as well. And if that’s your thing, then click here.

A regular cigarette contains tobacco. The tobacco in these cigarettes has harmful substances that are not good for your body not matter how smoke it. You have heard people developing health complications simply because of too much smoking. Health risks arise with continued smoking of one or even more cigarettes per day. So, with no doubt it would be a favor if you stop stopping and find a viable replacement. However, the transformation process can prove to be challenging. Nicotine is addictive and it is what makes cigarettes addictive. This means you will require an alternative that can yield low levels of nicotine as you gradually reduce its intake. The only surefire way is to use e-cigarettes at vape uk. These are electronic devices that help those who would like to quit smoking.

So, if you are still wondering why you should quit smoking, here are cons of smoking cigarettes to your body systems and organs.

Central Nervous System

Nicotine is one of the key ingredients of cigarettes which mostly alter moods. So, when you smoke it reaches the brain faster and brings a more satisfied feeling after it energizes your system. But with time, its effect wears off and you begin to feel tired. Typically, nicotine is a drug that creates certain habits and this explains why it is so hard to stop smoking. You find that without it you cannot properly perform usual tasks since you might be irritated, depressed, and worn out.

Cardiovascular System

It is right to note that smoking harms your body’s cardiovascular system. See, nicotine can lead to tightening of blood vessels which in turn restricts the flow of blood. Eventually, the process- if you do not stop taking more nicotine- can lead to peripheral artery diseases.

Similarly, smoking affects your blood pressure. Blood vessels weaken and blood may clot on some parts of the vessels. These entire can increases chances of developing stroke. However, you should not forget that those who you smoke around are also susceptible to the same health risks as you.

Sexuality and Reproductive System

See, genital areas require a lot of blood. Nicotine affects overall blood flow in your body. This means your genital areas will not receive enough blood. This happens to both women and men. In most cases,

sexual performance is highly affected especially in men. Women may experience sexual dissatisfaction due to reduced lubrication and can adversely affect their ability to reach orgasm.

Integumentary System

Skin changes are one of the obvious signs of smoking. And it is true that there are substances in tobacco that can actually alter the structure of your skin. Skin cancer can be a risk resulting from smoking. Also, your nails and toe nails can get fungal infections if you keep smoking several cigarettes every day. Lastly, you may experience hair loss, and balding if you do not stop smoking the soonest possible.

Conclusion

You have explored the various effects of smoking cigarettes. So, if you want to keep your body’s systems in good health, it is time you did a favor for yourself by quitting smoking. Hopefully, you will find vaping your best gateway to stopping smoking.

Does your kitchen look like the standard boring setup that everyone has? Have you been on the fence about some of the things you can do to spice it up? If so, look no further. This article is for you. In this article, we’re going to take a look at some of the things you yourself can do to spice up your kitchen as well as some steps to take before you conduct any DIY project in your kitchen.

Before you conduct any DIY project in your kitchen, you need to ensure that you have your appliances covered. One of the ways you can do this is to get a home warranty plan. Even though it is similar to a home insurance plan it differs in what it actually covers. While a home insurance plan protects your home from weather/fire-related damage, as well as theft of your belongings, it does not cover appliances that simply stop working. Alternatively, TotalProtect Home Warranty covers appliances and can be best described as giving old appliances a new warranty.

1) Add Unusual Furniture And Accessories

One of the most simple and cost-effective things you can do to spice up your kitchen is to add accessories and furniture that isn’t typically seen in a kitchen. By doing this, not only will it help to spice up the kitchen, it will surprise your visitors and loved ones as well. Utilizing accessories such as standing mirrors, rugs or even a bean bag, will shock your visitors and definitely make your kitchen stand out in their minds for a long time after their visit.

2) Organization

Regardless if you have a small or large kitchen, one of the most essential aspects of having a kitchen is how it functions cohesively. Having handy hooks for various utensils to be placed on display, as well as to allow easy access and installing efficient shelves that hold your spices and various other ingredients, may not seem decorative by themselves. However, by combining them together, it can give your kitchen a professional impressive appearance.

3) Illumination

One of the things that makes a kitchen stand out is its lighting. If you have large windows, be sure to clear anything that may be blocking the sunlight from coming in. If you have a dark kitchen, consider the possibility of adding ceiling pendant lights, countertop lamps, or even string lights. Alternatively, you can consider a color changing lighting system that can be adjusted to suit the occasion such as red for Valentine’s Day, green for St Patrick’s day.

4) Smart Devices

One of the more interesting things you can do to update your kitchen is to add some smart devices. Kitchen based smart gadgets will definitely stand out in the minds of your guests each and every time they visit your house. Here are a few examples to consider:

· Intelligent Frying Pan – This frying pan doubles as a virtual chef which will guide you throughout the cooking process, such as to tell you when to add ingredients, the temperature of the meat, when to flip it, and when it’s finished.

· Smart Coffeemaker – Smart coffee makers feature scheduling options that you can use to program when you want coffee. Many smart coffee machines even allow you to give it instructions from your smartphone so you can brew coffee within 2 minutes of waking up before you get out of bed.

· Smart scales – Smart scales eliminate the need for various measuring containers. By placing a container on the scale, it will give you a reading through your smartphone.

· Smart Meat Thermometers – Many smart thermometers give you the ability to leave it in a meat of your choice, as to which you can check the temperature, from a distance by using your smartphone. In some instances, you can even customize it to give an alarm whenever the meat reaches the desired temperature.

5) Artwork

If the surface area of your kitchen walls enables the opportunity to hang different fixtures, consider various kinds of artwork. This in itself is not common amongst homeowners and will make your kitchen standout. One of the things you can do is to hang up artwork that correlates with the season. By doing this, what you will basically have is a kitchen with an interchangeable theme that you can change to match someone’s birthday or holiday.

There are a lot of benefits to being self-employed. You get to choose your own hours (in theory), do something you love, and explore new opportunities with amazing people.

However, self-employment also comes with a lot of challenges to consider. For instance, there’s no-one in the background to make sure that you still get paid if you need to take some time off work for sickness, personal reasons, or just a good old fashioned break.

There comes a time when we all need to take a break from work, but it can be very difficult for self-employed people to find a way out without struggling financially. However, you can’t just commit yourself to working every day, no matter what.

Here’s how you can make sure that you’re prepared for a much-needed absence when you’re self-employed, freelancing, or working as a contractor.

1. Keep Monthly Costs Low

First things first, the easiest way to make sure that a day off work isn’t a disaster, is to ensure that your monthly expenses are as low as possible. Check out the outgoing expenses that you commit to each month and ask yourself what you can do to reduce fees. For instance, if you’re taking out a loan, it’s crucial to ensure that you check you’re getting the lowest possible price first. If you’re currently committed to a specific gas or electric provider, can you check to see whether you can get a better deal elsewhere?

Cutting your monthly fees to an absolute minimum will ensure that you know exactly how much money you “have” to spend to keep yourself and your family safe each month. If you know how much you generally earn per day, you’ll also be able to calculate how many unpaid workdays you can afford each month without having to worry about unpaid bills.

2. Ensure yourself Against Unexpected Changes

If you’re new to freelancing or self-employment, then you may not know this, but you can insure yourself against the possibility that you won’t be able to work. As a self-employed person, you probably already have business insurance and other forms of coverage. Income protection insurance is a kind of cover you can get to replace your monthly income if you’re unable to work because of unemployment, accident, or illness.

If you’re worried about your long-term health, you can also try applying for critical illness cover as part of your life insurance. When you have this insurance in place, and you’re diagnosed with a medical condition, listed within your policy, you receive a lump-sum payout. It’s up to you which insurance seems more appealing. You could even get a combination of both.

3. Prioritise your Savings

The more money you have in your emergency savings account, the less stressed you’ll feel when you decide that you need to take time off work for holiday or sickness purposes. When you give yourself your income each month, you should be splitting your earnings into a series of different categories. First, you’ll need to put money aside for the taxes that you’ll owe at the end of the year – remember, you’re responsible for paying those.

Next, you’ll have to ensure that all of your critical expenses are handled, including office rent, mortgage, food, clothing, car insurance, and so on. Finally, when you’re left to assign “spare” money

to other things like entertainment and savings, make sure you put your savings first. The more you can have in your “just in case” fund, the better. Peace of mind when you need it will feel better in the long-term than extra shopping sprees and nights out now.

4. Plan in Advance

Finally, you can’t plan for when you might be sick or unable to work. However, you can plan for certain dips and lulls in your work schedule. The more time you spend self-employed, the more you’ll begin to notice changes in your calendar that happen every time of year. For instance, you might notice that you don’t make as many sales during April and March, but you earn double during June and July. In that case, you can spread your money out throughout the months by assigning extra savings during the months that you earn more.

Lulls in your income will also help you to figure out when you should be planning your family holidays and work breaks to experience the lowest impact on your income. The more prepared you are, the less money you’ll lose over the course of the year.

Divorce is a difficult time for adults, but for children, it’s much harder. When it happens, it changes their entire lives, including their family and living conditions. It also challenges their ability to trust in the stability and reliability of their parents’ support. When children are particularly young, it’s very easy for them to misinterpret that reason for the divorce and exaggerate how it’s going to affect them.

They are likely to experience a range of different emotions, including confusion, anger, shame, embarrassment, and outrage. They may also become very afraid, withdrawn, anxious, or clingy. Divorce affects children in different ways, but it leaves a mark on most of them.

If you’re going through a divorce, doing what you can to minimize the impact is very important. Below are some tips to help you help your children cope.

Tell Them It’s Not Their Fault

Children very often think that they are the reason their parents are getting divorced. This is because children tend to be very self-centered and believe the world revolves around them. Both parents should make it very clear to their children that the decision to divorce is not because of something they have or haven’t done. Reassure them that both of you still love them dearly and you’ll always love them and protect them after the divorce. You may have to repeat these sentiments over and over again before they’re accepted.

Maintain Consistent Routines

You can help shield your children from the trauma of divorce by keeping your children’s living arrangement and routines the same. It is a way of keeping their trust and helping them feel secure, safe, and protected. If possible, this means staying in the house they’ve always lived in, going to the same school, and sticking to the same routines. Sometimes change is unavoidable, but there are ways you can provide continuity.

Keep Boundaries

If you keep parental and child/parent boundaries, you’ll be able to parent in a more coordinated and effective manner. The parenting boundary can be preserved by staying calm and avoiding arguments in front of the children. Don’t use your children to pass messages between you and your ex and most definitely never ask them to spy on the other parent. Never put your children in a situation where they must side with one or other of you. It can be very tempting to confide in your children; after all, you might not have anyone else to talk to. They’re probably not mature enough to handle such a role, and it can easily overload them, leaving them feeling anxious, angry, or depressed.

If you haven’t got any friends or family to talk to, there are plenty of professionals who can provide support.  When it comes to support for any legal issues, you should contact divorce lawyer Barrington IL or solicitor who specializes in divorce and family law, for example, a Bristol divorce solicitor.

Encourage Them to Talk

It’s possible to help your children work through their negative reactions by encouraging them to express and talk about them in appropriate ways. Children express their feelings in a different way. Some prefer to talk about them while others are more comfortable acting them out. When they’re ready to talk to you, show them respect and listen to what they’ve got to say. If their adjustment is proving particularly difficult, you should consider taking them to family therapy with a qualified therapist.

It’s not going to be long before the summer is over and your kids will be going back to school. If you’re also going to be saying goodbye to the last of your brood, you might be wondering what you’re going to do with all your spare time. When all your children are at school full time, it’s going to be another chapter in your life. While there’s nothing wrong with being a stay-at-home mom, you might feel the need for a little more interaction and a new challenge.

It might be a few months away, but it’s never too early to start making plans. Such momentous transitions take time, research, and planning. It’s also something you’re going to need to discuss with your partner, and if your kids are old enough, it might be interesting to hear what they’ve got to say on the matter.

Whatever choice you make, it has to be one that’s right for your family. Here are five options you should consider.

Continue Being a Stay at Home Mom

Of course, this is the most obvious option, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t consider it. Never feel guilty or embarrassed about choosing to remain a stay at home mom – there are plenty of good reasons why it’s the best possible choice, and you’ll have no problem filling your days.

Think of all those years you’ve felt like a headless chicken running around never getting anything done as well as you’d like to. With the little ones packed off to school all day you’ll be able to focus on keeping your home spotlessly clean, be better organized, plan healthy meals every day, run errands and perhaps even tackle that project you’ve been meaning to do for years.

You’re also going to have more free time so relish it. You’ve been a full-time mom for quite some time now so you deserve a rest and have earned some relaxation time. There’s also the flexibility that comes with this role. If your kids are ill or can’t go to school, for whatever reason, you’re going to be available. You don’t have to worry about arranging care for them if the school decides to close for the day.

Think about how you can lighten the load for your partner now you’ve got more time on your hands. There may have been no complaints from them when they’ve got a long list of jobs to tackle after a long day at work, but that doesn’t mean it has been easy for them. You’re going to be able to take over some of the mundane tasks that were always left to them. Your partner is going to be able to enjoy coming home from work and being able to relax.

It’s the Perfect Time to Pursue a Passion

When you’ve got a household to run and kids to take care of, there’s little time for pursuing the things you love to do. Would you like to be able to spend more time in the garden creating a beautiful oasis of calm? Perhaps you’d like to try your hand at growing produce of your own and maybe keeping chickens. Have you always dreamed of writing a book or learning how to take breathtaking photographs? If there’s something you’ve always dreamed of doing but never found the time or energy, now’s the perfect time to fulfill your dreams.

Some might think of this as just a hobby, but you’ve got the opportunity to make it something more. A passion project is something a little more than killing time. Find something that stirs you and that you’re longing to do.

Work from Home

Thanks to technology, there are endless opportunities for anyone who wants to work from home. It tends to require a specialized skill but there are definitely more opportunities to work from home than ever before. If you want to know what’s available, the best thing to do is visit a range of different job websites. In the search options make sure you type in remote jobs and you’ll be surprised how many hits you get. Here are a few examples of the type of remote work available.

· Writer or blogger – you’ve got lots of relevant experience to share with any would be parents, so why not share it by way of a blog or website content?

· Travel consultant – this is a remote working option that’s becoming very popular, possibly because it often includes the benefit of travel credits that can be used for family travel.

· Social media specialist – this is more than posting selfies and family news on social media channels. You might be involved in checking ads and content for relevancy or creating content for a company’s social media sites.

· Recruitment Coordinator – would you like to help others find jobs? This type of role involves helping HR personnel with their recruitment process. It might include looking at resumes, performing background checks, helping with interviews and bringing new employees on board.

· Graphic designer – if you’ve got an artistic flair, there may be a job for you as a graphic designer. You could find yourself involved in a variety of tasks from designing a book cover to creating company logos.

· Proofreader – this role involves checking formatting, confirming facts, checking grammar and much more. You need to be a very detail-oriented person with a high level of language skills.

· Online teacher or tutor – you might not realize it, but education has been part of your daily routine for a number of years. You’ve helped your kids with their homework and taught them important life skills. These are skills that can be turned around to earn you an income.

· Data entry specialist – this can be a very flexible role that allows you to manage your daily routine by working when you’ve got the spare time. You’ll need strong keyboarding skills and sharp attention to detail.

· Customer service agent – do you like talking to people and helping them solve a problem. Why not try being a customer service agent?

· Health coach – you’ve been working hard to stay in shape all these years, so why not use your experience to help others? A remote role as a health coach can be a good way to help others lead healthier lives while keeping your own on track.

· Marketing specialist – in this role, you’ll be working to promote a product or service through branding and outreach. It’s the type of position that takes many forms including content strategist, SEO specialist, or marketing coordinator.

Go Back to Work

If you had a career before deciding to stay at home and raise a family you’ve always got the option of returning to that career. You may have been lucky enough to work for a company that would happily have you back. If you don’t, all is not lost. You will need to ask yourself a few questions, such as how many hours do you want to work and will you be looking for a full or part-time position? If you’d like to work full time, think about who is going to take care of the kids before you get home from work and if they’re sick or not in school for some reason.

Do you think your skills are up to date or are you going to have to think about further study? Thanks to technology it is possible to train or study for qualifications from home. If you’re interested in a career in infant nursing or midwifery, for example, there are NNP schools that offer courses online.

Before you start applying for jobs, get some advice writing your resume. As a parent, you’ve got a wide range of transferable skills that a prospective employer would love to hear about.

Become a Volunteer

One last option worth considering is volunteering. It’s the kind of work that can be very rewarding and fulfilling. Put those few spare hours to good use by helping out at a local charity or community center. There are lots on non-profit organizations who are always looking for people to lend a helping hand. It’s also going to look very good on your resume and may provide you with some opportunities to brush up on your skills, network and get some professional references.

Look for charities or community organizations in your local area. Get in touch and offer your services. You might find yourself helping at a local animal shelter getting the animals accustomed to human contact. You could help elderly people with their shopping or sit with them for company, dishing up hot dinners for the homeless, cleaning green spaces of rubbish, providing entertainment at an elder home, or helping at a local school or kindergarten.

Now you’ve got a few ideas for spending your time productively all your children heading off to school might not seem such a daunting prospect. This is a new chapter in your life, and nobody else is going to write it for you. Who knows, you might discover some things about yourself you never knew.

Although we could all benefit from a tropical getaway, our bodies can benefit from the fruits of those regions on a daily basis. By adding tropical fruit to your diet, you not only increase your daily value of vitamins but also can prolong your overall health and well being.

These fruits can mostly be found in the produce section of your local market. You may also find them in the frozen section as well. The particular fruits discussed in this article are considered among the healthiest and most beneficial for the human body.

Mango

The mango is a stone fruit because of the inedible stone-like seed found at its core. The yellow fleshy meat is very soft and juicy. Mangos are cultivated in Southeast Asia, the West Indies, and Mexico, but the largest source comes from China.

This magical little fruit is overflowing with goodness and nutrients, including vitamins A and C, B6, Iron, Folate, Zinc and vitamin E. The high amounts of A and C can replenish the skin and reduce signs of aging. Vitamin C plays an important role in the elasticity of your skin. Vitamin A is needed by your cells for growth in your hair, skin, and nails and helps to protect them from the damaging elements found in our environment.

Just like most fruits, mangos don’t have to just be consumed raw. They can be used in a variety of ways such as ice cream, sauces, and even mango syrup.

Papaya

The papaya is probably among the least common and probably the most overlooked. The papaya originated in Mexico, more specifically in Chiapas and Veracruz. Now they are grown in both South America and Central America but enjoyed worldwide.

In Asia, papaya is used as a post-meal fruit due to the high amounts of fiber it contains. This helps aid in digestion and in several studies has shown to improve constant constipation. Daily consumption can aid in weight loss as well.

Papaya contains 200% of the daily requirement for vitamin C, combined with the fiber and natural antioxidants, it can prevent cholesterol build up in your arteries.

Papayas are great served in sauces, desserts, and puddings.

Banana

This wonderful fruit is not monkeying around when it comes to your health. The aromatic banana can be found growing all over Central America in such countries as Panama, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Costa Rica.

Bananas are a very common fruit here in the US, but you may not realize that these fun little fruits are team healthy body all the way. The banana is a powerhouse of potassium. Potassium helps to prevent muscle aches which is especially beneficial during the hotter months of the year. In fact, a medium-size banana contains 422mg of Potassium and 3 grams of dietary fiber. There are many recipes for easy desserts using banana such as a No Bake Banana Pudding Pie.

Pineapple

The pineapple comes to us from Brazil and Paraguay. Pineapple comes from the Bromeliad Family. Bromeliad is a cluster of berries that grows around one central point. That means that each scale of the pineapple is actually an individual berry and can be pulled off in pieces.

Pineapple contains 75% of the daily value of manganese which is essential for normal brain and nerve function. Manganese also supports strong bones and connective tissue. Pineapple is often used as a natural decongestant and also contains thiamin and B vitamins.

Pineapple can be used in sauces such as the Asian sweet and sour sauce. For some people, it is perfectly acceptable as a pizza topping.

Avocado

Last but not least, let’s address the tropical superfood, the avocado. Avocados are grown all over Mexico and is a staple in most average cocinas.

This odd little fruit, that could resemble a dragon egg, is a powerhouse of nutrition. Avocado contains vitamins C, E, K, and B6. In fact, the avocado contains 25% of the daily recommended value of vitamin K, supporting strong bones and preventing osteoporosis later in life.

Avocados are best served in salads and on sandwiches. For information on preserving your fruit at its peak in order to make it last, see this article from the New York Times.