Another Reason for Early Childcare Attendance

Here is an article that highlights research suggesting that early attendance at daycare may help reduce childhood leukemia risks.

Earth Day

I found this soft-back book at the number one company on the Fortune 500 list. I intend to develop a program to use year round for preschool students.

Today I went to a craft store that was giving out pine sprigs in honor of Earth Day. I thought all the sprigs would be gone since I arrived at the store late in the morning and only the first 100 customers were to receive sprigs. I received a sprig at the check-out counter, and I remarked that less than 100 customers had preceded me today at the store. The cashier remarked that she still had sprigs because some customers didn't want them, not even to give to someone else.

This is my best Earth Day because I'm proud of my efforts to help the environment since the last Earth Day. In fact, I became a better gardener since last year. I made my own compost, and I've grown and eaten vegetables from my garden.

Another thought for today is that each year we celebrate Earth Day with planting trees and highlighting the environment; however, I believe each person needs to account for what he or she has done to help the environment since the last Earth Day.

Untagged

I have concluded that many school officials are more interested in iron-clad risk management than ensuring children have rich play experiences as children of prior generations have had. I say this because of another article citing that one more school is forbidding children the opportunity to play tag at school. If some children are playing too roughly, wouldn't a good solution be to disallow them from playing the game?

Essence of Interpretive Dance

This is joyous to see...the dancing, not so much the promotion.

Educational Video Games

A recent national report revealed that in many states nearly half of high school students don't graduate. One student who dropped out said he did so because he was bored. I began wondering whether the low graduation level had anything to do with methods of teaching. That is, are we expecting students of the computer generation to be fully engaged in learning with old methods of teaching? Now a survey is out indicating that most kids want educational video gaming in school. Maybe fresh ideas as this one will help hold students' attention in the classroom. I do think as more computer-savvy teachers go into classroom, use of educational video gaming and other new ideas in the classroom is inevitable.

Early Neglect and Later Agressive Behavior

Science Daily has an article that summarizes a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study that asserts that early neglect may lead to aggressive behavior in children. The study involved 1,300 children and monitored the children from birth to age 8.

A few days ago I mentioned a CNN report that indicated that a signiicant number of young children are abused and neglected. Therefore, the foundation for later agressive behavior starts early indeed.

You Can't Bank on It

PC World.com has an article that highlights "cool gadgets" available in Asia, but not in the U.S. One interesting gadget is a bank that reacts when a coin in waved in front of its eyes and when a coin is placed in its mouth. If this product were available to U.S. children, they would use it and enhance their habit to save.

Statewide Internet Safety Training for Children

SlashDot is reporting that Virginia has taken the lead in being the first state to provide statewide Internet safety training for school children. Here is the link SlashDot provided.

Male Monkeys Prefer Boys' Toys

The following link to New Scientist leads to report of an interesting study that concluded that male monkeys prefer boys' toys. I don't think we can, however, leap to any evolutinary conclusions.

Most Hideous of Sins

Of all the crimes against humanity, I can think of none less despicable than abusing or neglecting children, particularly children within a year of birth. Most recently, statistics were released about the high rate of physical abuseand neglect of very young children. Here is a CNN report.

More Important Than Nonsense

Of course you've heard a young child talking to her- or himself while playing. Piaget called it egocentic speech and viewed it as an inability of the child to see the point of view of others. Vygotsky's "speech to self" characterization of children's self talk gave more significance to this childhood practice, however. Now Science Daily is highlighting a study that found that preschool children do better when they engage in "private talk" while completing a task. Most interestingly, children with autism also completed task well with when using "private talk."