Families, parents, youth, seniors, singles in West Virginia

Hello, West Virginia!

Welcome to what we at WVLAR call the "Special People" page, which has lots of good links for families, parents, youth, seniors, and singles. We are continually looking for new sites to list here, so please help us. If you know a site that you would like to see listed, let us know. In the meantime, if you are a parent, check out the article below...

POINTS FOR PARENTS

photo courtesy of Glencoe/McGraw-Hill

School has been back in session for quite awhile, and West Virginia families are back into their school year routines. Hopefully, these routines include a lot of family time such as dinner together several nights a week.

Families are so busy with parents’ work schedules, children’s school and activities, church, and whatever else involves them they often feel overwhelmed and exhausted.

Parents wonder if they are doing the right things to properly raise their children, and they seek answers to questions about child rearing and situations that affect their families. There are many places to turn for answers, but often time simply does not allow the search for those places.

We have found several sites that present forums, questions, and answers that might help you parents in your quest to do the right thing. West Virginia parents have the same concerns as parents everywhere, so most of these sites are national sites and are not devoted only to the Mountain State.

The website FAMILYDOCTOR.ORG contains lots of answers to questions that parents have asked on topics like spanking and parental frustrations.

The KEEPKIDSHEALTHY.COM website really has much good information ranging from tips for all age groups of children, a discussion about chores, and even reverse psychology to television viewing. It’s quite helpful and worthwhile.

A service of Girls and Boys Town called PARENTING.ORG provides many good pieces of advice and information. We found one of their past articles entitled “Is my Child Too Busy” especially helpful since that very question is one often overheard parental concern . It seems to many that children nowadays are so programmed in so many activities that they don’t even know how to play anymore.

Dr. Jay Hoecker with the Mayo Clinic wrote a column that has a lot of good advice for parents. With all of the current uproar about childhood vaccines, you might also be interested to read what he says about that subject.

Parents of infants to five years old who feel overwhelmed may wish to learn about the PARENTS AS TEACHERS program. Go to their site and click on Parents Enter in the upper left side of the page. Their West Virginia programs are listed on the site also.

One site devoted to West Virginia parents (and teachers as well) is excellent. Take a look at WV PARENT CONNECTIONS .

Many resources are out there for parents, and we have only given you a few, but we hope that these few may help ease your anxieties and answer some questions you may have about parenting. If you know of another site that is especially helpful, let us know. We’d be glad to add it here.

Good luck, parents!

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