bedtime and wake time around the same
time every day—even on weekends.

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Carve out screen-free
family time
With work, school, sports and other
activities taking so much of our time and
attention, it can be difficult to steal away
quality time as a family. Schedule family
dinners, game nights or walks just like you
would anything else. Make it a rule that
during these activities, all cell phones and
electronic devices will go in a basket where
they cannot be seen or heard.

“Devices can be a fun part of who we are
and help us stay connected to others,” says
Noble. “But if we don’t create guardrails
around them, we won’t be able to connect
with the people right in front of us.”
To get your kids to open up during family
time, ask plenty of open-ended questions.

Rakelle Mullenix, a mother of two in
Annandale, Virginia, has a jar full of fun
questions such as “If you could have one
superpower, what would it be?” and “What
is something you know how to do that
you could teach others?” Her family takes
turns pulling questions from the jar and
answering them out loud. “Every so often,
we change the questions to suit our current
life,” she says.

Eat the rainbow
We all know by now that we should eat fewer
processed foods and more fruits and vegeta-
bles. Elizabeth Owens, a certified nutrition
specialist in Burke, Virginia, and owner of
Wellness With Elizabeth, says a great way for
families to do that is to increase the amount of
colors they eat through fruits and vegetables.

“Fruits and vegetables get their colors
from phytonutrients, chemicals that provide
antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits,”
Owens says. “A good goal for families would
be to eat one to two servings of each color
each day.”
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