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."

Children and "Bad" Words

NRP has an article, titled "Why Kids Curse," that is worth reading. There is also an audio link on that Web page.

Ultimate Fighting Children

A link on Drudge Report on March 27 leads to a story concerning support for a program wherein parents allow their children to participate in ultimate fighting activities like adults. I guess my question is: Is this something social services should investigate?

Toxic Toys Report on PBS

Here is a link to a PBS Now Program video concerning toxic toys.

Google Wants to Target Ads to Children

I found an article at Slashdot, a tech news site, that reveals that Google has applied for a patent to detect, track, and target advertisement to children. This idea is unsettling to me. The article also has a link to the patent application.

Not Easy Being Green

I found this story on DRUDGE concerning a teacher/coach/mentor being sent home because he dyed his hair green for St. Patrick's Day. This incident occurred in Richland, SC at Richland High.

Most interesting for me is a memory of growing up in Charleston, SC, where an elementary teacher dyed her hair different colors, including orange, regularly without a problem in the 50s. My mother often told the story that the teacher responded after being asked why she dyed here hair different colors that she liked being different.

The Richland story has many angles to it. The "green-haired monster" was an African-American celebrating an Irish holiday is one angle. Another angle is that the teacher was helping to bring fun in a non-threatening way. I wonder whether schools are wound so tightly that it can't identify light teachable moments because it is focused is on the negative more often. Now, how many years have we known that positive reinforcement work much more often than negative reinforcement?

Profiling Children for Future Crime

My first thought when I read this article concerning a proposal in Britain to collect DNA from children as young as 5 years of age who may later be a criminal, was of the Tom Cruise movie where people were being arrested for "pre-crimes." Understanding that some young troublemakers have become U.S. presidents, sports heroes, bank presidents, and have held other high level positions in society, a plan to identify children for future crime seem utterly absurd.

Safe Toys Update

Did you know that some toys are made out of PVC? I never thought about PVC being used in toys. Well, PVC contain phthalades, an additive that is used to soften vinyl, and phthalates is linked to a variety of health problems according to an article in the USA Weekend (March 14-16, 2008, p. 6) newspaper insert. The article also indicates that phthalades in toys will be banned in California starting in 2009 and is already banned in the European Union and Japan. The HealthyToys Web site is also cited in the article as a search location to query PVC amounts in toys from a 1,200+ toy database.

Protecting Children with Consumer Alerts

When the media were up in arms about lead in toys from China last fall, I thought issuing consumer alerts as the solution was wimpy. Now Science Daily is reporting that consumers have arrived at the same view conncerning consumer alerts involving children. Read more here .

Giving Kids Control of Play

Here is a link to a NPR audio file and article that deal with giving kindergarten students control of play for development of working memory and cognitive flexibility (executive functions): Creative Play Makes for Kids in Control.