What Doesn't Work: Literacy Practices We Should Abandon
Here are some common literacy practices in US schools (and everywhere) that research suggests are NOT OPTIMAL use of instructional time:
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Here are some common literacy practices in US schools (and everywhere) that research suggests are NOT OPTIMAL use of instructional time:
Toddlers can learn better, develop faster and become less susceptible to diseases by regularly eating a healthy diet. Here are some of the best superfoods for toddlers to optimize their growth and development.
All parents know that sleep is important to growing kids, especially now that kids don’t seem to be getting enough of it, thanks (or no thanks) to tablets and smartphones. Where it gets quite confusing, however, is how many hours of it children really need as different health institutions and experts seem to be giving inconsistent info.
Children get cuts, scrapes and bruises. Curious and brave, kids are constantly playing and exploring. It’s part of growing up. But playtime that seems harmless can turn into something much more serious within seconds.
Using laser pointers to play pretend rocket ships or make the family pet run back and forth looks like fun. But an eight-year-old boy’s experience with laser pointers is proof of the serious damage they can cause. Johnny Marshall was at his sister’s school fair when he saw a laser pen at one of the vendor booths. After some begging and pleading, his parents gave in and bought him the toy. Johnny was playing with his new toy at home when he shone it into his eyes out of curiosity — something that many children might do. Within a quarter of a second, he was left with a thermal burn and permanent damage to his retina.
What holds them back is that they don’t learn to be original. They strive to earn the approval of their parents and the admiration of their teachers. But as they perform in Carnegie Hall and become chess champions, something unexpected happens: Practice makes perfect, but it doesn’t make new.
Dr. Leonard Sax has been a family physician and psychologist for 27 years, conducting workshops around the world for parents, teachers, social workers, counselors, school psychologists and juvenile justice professionals.
He’s also a dad, and it’s from all those perspectives that he took on his fourth book, an alarm bell of sorts titled, “The Collapse of Parenting,” out recently from Basic Books.
Recess is a lot more than just a free break for kids to play after lunch period. That free, unstructured play time allows kids to exercise and helps them focus better when they are in class. Now a school in Texas says it took a risk by giving students four recess periods a day, but the risk has paid off beautifully.
What should you say if your child develops unhealthy idea of body image and starts talking about diet?
A few years ago, when our child was still waking up at night (he was two at the time), I went into our Doctor’s office with this complaint… “My 2 year old is still waking up at night .” Her advice changed our nights!
Anyone who’s ever bitten into a slice of watermelon knows it induces a state of relaxation like few other fruits. But did you know that the fruit can also be used as medicine? Humans began doing just that thousands of years ago. Renowned physicians like Hippocrates and Dioscorides actually praised the bright red melon for its healing properties.
In honor of Father’s Day, Huffington Post asked the International Association of Professional Birth Photographers for photos that capture the important emotional and physical support dads-to-be provide their partners, as well as the utter magic of fathers meeting their babies for the first time. Here are 35 of them, with captions from the photographers.
A mom's letter to the doctor who suggested her abortion of her daughter upon the diagnosis of Down Syndrome reveals a truth we all should ponder about. The letter reads:
His growing up, moving on, and leaving childhood behind as he reaches for all his full potential. It's wonderful and magical and bitter sweet
Finding Dory is set to be a huge draw because it works by cleverly and subtly tapping into our love of nostalgia. It is a movie about a forgetful blue fish desperate to find her long-lost parents...
Researchers suggest helicopter parenting may keep kids from making — and learning from — mistakes. Helicopter parents are those who intercept their kids' mistakes before they even have a chance to make them. That protectiveness may help keep kids from getting hurt or from getting bad grades, but a new study found this parenting style may cause serious harm to a child's psyche..
At some point of time in our lives, we have to deal with changes. While some of us deal with changes more readily, there are also those who are resistant to them. As adults, we find ways and strategies to help ourselves cope with such transitions. It is pretty much the same with toddlers, but these small ones would need us to help them find a coping mechanism.
When our kids get fussy with food, our go-to is a PB & J. And if desperate times call for desperate measures, maybe we’ll cut them into star shapes to spare us all the headache of a mealtime tantrum. But one mom who is putting our sandies to shame is Laleh Mohmedi.
My favourite kind of healthy toddler recipes are the ones that have few ingredients and don't take much time to prepare. These thirty healthy recipes are super simple to make and contain just three ingredients or less!
A renovated Marine Cove at East Coast Park has thrown open its doors this week, welcoming visitors to spanking new eateries, as well as a big children's playground.
People probably know the recreational enclave by its former landmark, the McDonald's outlet, which has been torn down.
In its place is a new beach-style building, with more "gourmet" offerings, such as a salad bar.
According to parenting experts, there is a indeed a quick fix to your child’s bad behaviour. You’re more than likely assuming that this tactic involves something to do with mixing up your disciplinary skills or strategies, and–for the most part–you’re right. Surprisingly enough, though, the real trick of this strategy is to look inward.
The only way we are going to change the world is to change it one man and one boy at a time.
To celebrate his new hearing aids, one toddler busted out some cute moves.
Like many other American parents, I had an obsession: academic success for my child. Only, I was going about it completely wrong. Yes, my daughter would later go on to test above average with her academic skills, but she was missing important life skills. Skills that should have been in place and nurtured during the preschool years....
With these honey bee coloring pages, you can color your own wonderful honey-producing pollinator! I created these two coloring pages from a bee drawing that I colored live for you to enjoy. Coloring can be a very relaxing activity for not just children, but adults as well; it’s a great way to wind down at the end of the day, especially with some nice music turned on.
These fabulous toys will keep your toddler busy for five minutes... a miracle we know!
Musical beds is a common nocturnal pastime in our household. The night starts out right with both children asleep in their own beds, but by the morning, usually at least one of them is in my bed and I am usually either on the lounge or in one of their beds.
Is there any way to get those darned children to stay asleep… in their own rooms… in their own beds.. for the entire night?
It's so simple, but a lot of people have no idea it's even a thing.
Over 350 kids receive basketball pointers in first Jr NBA S'pore open clinic; 1,400 more to benefit
We've somehow decided that little kids can't understand these complex topics, or we want to delay exposing them to injustices as long as possible (even though not all children have the luxury of being shielded from injustice).
However, young children have a keen awareness of and passion for fairness. They demand right over wrong, just over unjust. And they notice differences without apology or discomfort.
Racial identity and attitudes begin to develop in children at a young age. Two- and three-year-olds become aware of the differences between boys and girls, may begin noticing obvious physical disabilities, become curious about skin color and hair color/texture, and may also be aware of ethnic identity.
5 Elementary Strategies
1. Use children's literature: There's a wealth of children's books (check out here: http://www.adl.org/education-outreach/books-matter/#.VwQW3_krLcs) that can be read aloud and independently to approach the topic of bias, diversity, and social justice.
2. Use the news media: Find topics and news stories that bring forth these themes and discuss them in the classroom -- like the nine-year-old boy who was banned from bringing his My Little Pony backpack to school because it was the source of bullying.
3. Teach anti-bias lessons: Social and emotional skill development lessons are the foundation, and then teachers can move to lessons on identity, differences, bias, and how bias and bullying can be addressed individually and institutionally.
4. Give familiar examples.
Take advantage of children's interest in books, TV shows, toys, and video games, and use them as opportunities to explore diversity, bias, and social justice.
5. Explore solutions: Re-think the concept of "helping others" to include discussions about the inequities that contribute to the problem and consider actions that can address it. For example, while it's useful to provide food to homeless people, we want to deepen the conversation to convey a social justice perspective and a wider lens with children. Therefore, discuss the stigma and stereotypes of homeless people, learn about unfair housing policies, and reflect on solutions that will reverse the problem in a lasting way and encourage students to take action.
When your kids are waking too early, it can make them tired, cranky and just not very happy kids. I put our kids to bed early, at 7:00 and I want them to sleep the full 12 hour, so I teach them to naturally sleep in a little later.
Parenting a toddler while I was pregnant was not as simple as I thought it would be.
I imagined in that last trimester as my stomach housed a whole human, that I'd be able to sit on the couch and rest while instructing my two-year-old how to engineer towers with blocks.
Laugh on.
Theresa Kachindamoto, the senior chief in the Dedza District of Central Malawi, wields power over close to 900,000 people… and she’s not afraid to use her authority to help the women and girls in her district. In the past three years, she has annulled more than 850 child marriages, sent hundreds of young women back to school to continue their education, and made strides to abolish cleansing rituals that require girls as young as seven to go to sexual initiation camps...
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of taking two or more young children to a store, you know it can either be: A) Challenging, or B) A complete nightmare.
Single mom of two, Aly Bothers, recently experienced the latter. Her raw, now-viral Facebook post will leave you nodding your head, crying alongside her and wanting to give her a big hug. Because we’ve all been there.
Logic: Temporary boredom enhances the child's creativity and let them explore the world around them. If children wouldn't be given a planned routine even for just a day in a week, they would be able to come up with something that triggers their cognitive and analytical skills.
Any good parent wants their kids to stay out of trouble, do well in school, and go on to do awesome things as adults. And while there isn't a set recipe for raising successful children, psychology research has pointed to a handful of factors that predict success.
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Unsurprisingly, much of it comes down to the parents. Here's what parents of successful kids have in common:
Approximately at the age of two, children learn bowel control first before bladder control or the reverse way. The child’s bowel or bladder control is mostly done in the morning than in the evening. Experts suggested that potty training should only be initiated when your child is already showing certain signs of readiness which is visible in the ages of two to three years old. There are signs when they already exhibiting attitudes of controlling their bowel or bladder.
Google wants to help teach kids how to code, so now it’s launching a hardware platform for kids (and curious) adults to learn the principles of code. It’s called Project Bloks.
Do you know how to administer CPR or the Heimlich maneuver in babies and kids? If your answer is no, well, you should. Mind you, knowing how to perform these emergency maneuvers on adults is entirely different when performing it on babies and kids.
It’s hard for parents to understand how a toddler can go from eating everything to barely touching his or her meals. It’s even more difficult for them to understand why kids are so reluctant to try new foods. And without a big picture understanding of why kids eat the way they do, parents are left frustrated and are more likely to make feeding mistakes.
A child needs a good partner in learning. Instead of telling our children to read more, maybe we can start putting aside our time to join them in this can't-emphasize-enough activity that will expand your child's potentials.
Let’s face it – no matter how “angelic” you think your children are, there will be times in your life as a parent when you’ll find yourself dealing with your kids’ annoying behavior; attempting to calm them down when you won’t buy what they want; and feeling helpless when they start “acting out” or throwing tantrums.
Although there are several tried-and-tested ways on how to deal with such episodes, parents may also want to know how to teach their children to “channel” or refocus their negative emotions, so that they can avoid the dreaded tantrums in the first place.
Don’t stop reading aloud to your kids—even when they’re in their teens. It sounds weird and funny, but speech language therapist Anthony D. Koutsoftas, PhD., one of the speakers at “Beyond Borders,” the first convention by the Philippine Association of Speech Pathologists (PASP), insists it is one of the best ways to improve your child’s reading and language abilities.
In today’s society, we are concerned with obesity in children but there are also children who are underweight and would benefit from eating more. Some parents may be tempted to feed their children with high calorie foods to boost the child’s weight, but eating wisely is important as children have small stomachs and should consume calories that are of good nutrition. Here are 12 healthy foods that can help young children to gain weight!
Those itchy, red eyes may be a common childhood ailment.
Wouldn't it be great for restaurants to hold a special hour of dining for special needs kids? A mom from South Florida is hoping that more restaurants would do this after her experience with her special needs child.
Between school drop-offs and pickups, dance classes and hockey practices, it’s hard to imagine any parent has enough time to fit in an effective workout. But guess what? You can do it if you break up the exercises throughout the day...
In a country where more than 35 per cent of girls are discouraged from studying and going to school, young prodigy Sushma Verma from Lucknow has a different story to tell! At age 7 when most of us were barely able to dedicate 30 minutes to studying, Sushma had already completed her 10th. At the young age of 13, she had enrolled herself in college and was getting her Master’s Degree in Microbiology from Lucknow University.
Here’s one Father’s Day craft we know both Dad and your kids will love. Do you remember Shrinky Dinks from when you were little? They were so fun! Well, they make blank Shrinky Dink sheets now that you can use to create your own projects with.