CSH Lower School: March 2012

My Kids' First iPad

In Family media management by Ingrid Simone, on 03.12.12

Before there were any apps for kids -- before there was an App Store, even -- my 2-year-old son was quite handy with the iPhone. Incoming call interrupting his Sesame Street podcast? Decline! Not saying this is good or bad -- it just ... is. Both my ex-husband and I tend to be early adopters, and in general we both embrace technology. This is reflected in the way we raise our kids.
So when the iPad launched, we were all over it. And while our kids have had other electronics of their own -- Leapsters, Nintendo DSes, a laptop computer, and now a Kindle -- the iPad was different. It presented amazing new opportunities, but it also raised new questions for us as parents. If you're planning to buy a new iPad for your family, consider these questions and suggestions.

Read more ... http://www.commonsensemedia.org/new/my-kids-first-ipad?utm_source=newsletter03.15.12&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=feature2

It's Time to Learn Outside

It’s time to learn outside.

If including nature in the daily school experience enhances health, the learning environment, and test scores, then why not find ways to do it?- Richard Louv

Combating Nature-Deficit Disorder

Best-selling author Richard Louv wants us all to get outside more—much more. Louv, the recipient of numerous recognitions and awards, including the 2008 Audubon Medal, chairs the Children & Nature Network, which has identified and supported "more than 80 city, state, provincial, and regional campaigns focused on getting children and you out into nature" (Charles, Louv, & St. Antoine, 2010, p. 8). In his book Last Child in the Woods, Louv (2008) discusses the phenomenon of nature-deficit disorder, which he defines as a "growing gap between human beings and nature, with implications for health and well-being" (p. 26).
Read more ... http://edge.ascd.org/_Its-time-to-learn-outside/blog/5834803/127586.html

And, see related remarks by NYT online commentator Timothy Egan at http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/nature-deficit-disorder/

Dr. Edward Hallowell YouTube video

Enjoy this YouTube video by noted child and adult psychiatrist Dr. Edward Hallowell, from the "Wonderplay Early Childhood Learning Conference" at the 92nd St. Y in Manhattan.
Hallowell speaks about making important connections with your kids. Lower School parent Beth Ferrer says this video reminds her of Hallowell's 2002 book The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness: Five steps to help kids create and sustain lifelong joy, a wonderful read.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIPGiYEnh7c&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Too Young for Finance? Think Again

Ron Lieber interviewed Sesame Street and Elmo about improving the next generation's financial habits at an earlier age. Watch the video »

By RON LIEBER

Published: April 15, 2011

One of the best things about being around preschool-age children is that they are a blank slate awaiting your imprint. All of the big questions come up before first grade — God and death, jail and fairies — and most 4-year-olds will believe pretty much any answer you give them.

Until recently, however, few people made much effort to get children this age to think hard about money. Why go all pecuniary on a child who has barely mastered counting?

In the wake of the financial crisis, however, and the realization that individuals share at least some blame for the bubbles, a number of people and organizations have taken up the cause of helping the next generation of grown-ups form better habits at an earlier age.

Read more ... http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/16/your-money/16money.html?pagewanted=all

Teaching Children the Value of Pre-Web Pages

Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Zoe Isaacs, left, and her classmates in Ida Owens' sixth grade art class worked on their illuminated manuscripts.

By KAREN JONES

Published: March 14, 2012

SQUEEZING paint from a tube is too tame for the sixth graders in Ida Owens’s art class. They prefer making their own with malachite (a green mineral), spinach and cochineal — or dried insects. “They love cochineal,” said Ms. Owens. “To them it’s working with bugs.”

Enlarge This Image

Photographs by Michael Nagle for The New York Times

The children create their own pigments with malachite, spinach and cochineal (dried insects), upper left, using 16th century techniques.

Her class at the Gordon Parks School for Inquisitive Minds (P.S./I.S. 270) in Queens is part of the Morgan Book Project, which aims to instill in children of the digital age an appreciation for books by providing authentic materials to write, illustrate and construct their own medieval and Renaissance-inspired illuminated manuscripts. The free program was developed by the Morgan Library and Museum with the New York City Department of Education for public school grades 3 through 7.

From Show and Look to Show and Teach

Published: March 14, 2012

THERE have been many strange sightings outside the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Marcel Breuer building over the years: a giant bird’s nest precariously perched on the cantilevered entrance; a neon sign that spelled out “Negro Sunshine”; and a giant replica of a toy fire truck parked at the curb for nearly three months, to name a few. So it is hardly surprising that recent passers-by don’t seem at all curious at the sight of tall black shipping containers rising from the sculpture court.

Six black-painted shipping containers will house the Whitney's education center, a 600-square-foot space with a band of glass on two sides and the roof, allowing visitors to watch what's going on inside.

It is not, as most people assume, some wacky installation for the 2012 Biennial, which opened on March 1. It is perhaps the first-ever pop-up education center at a New York museum.

“We really do put education front and center,” said Adam D. Weinberg, the Whitney’s director.

By CAROL VOGEL

5 Ways to Help Kids Find Balance

In Family media management, Physical health by Caroline Knorr, on 03.05.12

Sometimes it seems like the more tech savvy kids become, the fewer real-world skills they're capable of. Many can easily manipulate a smart phone, but basic stuff like chores, sports -- even making eye contact -- has become a challenge.
My kid was well past his tenth birthday before he achieved true proficiency at tying his shoes, but he could rule the world in Civilization V. One friend's kid has a hard time maintaining a conversation, but she IMs a blue streak. And another friend's toddler is a genius on a smartphone but resists all efforts at potty training.
Kids are more digitally plugged in than ever. According to Common Sense Media's 2011 Zero to Eight media-use study, half of all children have access to mobile devices at home, like tablet computers and iPods. And in 2010, a study by the Internet security company AVG found that a whopping 69 percent of 2- to 5-year-olds can operate a computer mouse, but only 11 percent can tie their own shoelaces.

Read more ...http://www.commonsensemedia.org/new/5-ways-help-kids-find-balance?utm_source=newsletter03.12.12&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SA_feature2

Small Steps: A Good-Health Guide

Photo illustration by Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

PARENTING has never been an easy job, but mothers and fathers today face challenges in raising their children that their own parents may never have had to address.

While children have always been picky eaters, for instance, parents today are trying to supply healthful food in a world dominated by chicken nuggets, processed snacks and soft drinks. Bike riding and hopscotch have given way to video games and text messaging. And working parents have to juggle day care, jobs and family.
At the same time, the barrage of health information on the Internet and elsewhere has introduced a higher level of stress for parents. Web sites promote supplements that increase a child’s brain health while news organizations report on the latest scare from baby bottles or too much television.

All of this makes raising a healthy child feel overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to be.

Read more ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/health/healthspecial2/15intro.html

A Challenge to Make Science Crystal Clear

At 11, Alan Alda was fascinated by the colorful, translucent undulations of a burning flame.

So he asked his teacher, “What is a flame?”

“It’s oxidation,” she said.

The answer dumbfounded him. A flame is indeed oxidation, a type of chemical reaction that occurs when something burns. But the word did not capture why a flame burns orange or why it produces heat, or anything else that the young Mr. Alda really wanted to know about it.

“It’s just giving it another name,” he said by telephone last week. “It’s like saying, ‘Well, a flame is Fred.’ And that really doesn’t get you anywhere.”

Bring on the Learning Revolution

"Bring on the Learning Revolution" by Sir Ken Robinson

Education and creativity expert Ken Robinson speaks on this YouTube video about the transformative changes and innovation needed in education today, about the importance of "personalized learning" for all students ...

http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html

How Exercise Fuels the Brain

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

Shannon Stapleton/ReutersDoes exercise keep your brain running?

Moving the body demands a lot from the brain. Exercise activates countless neurons, which generate, receive and interpret repeated, rapid-fire messages from the nervous system, coordinating muscle contractions, vision, balance, organ function and all of the complex interactions of bodily systems that allow you to take one step, then another.

Read more ... http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/how-exercise-fuels-the-brain/

Twilight of the Lecture

In 1990, after seven years of teaching at Harvard, Eric Mazur, now Balkanski professor of physics and applied physics, was delivering clear, polished lectures and demonstrations and getting high student evaluations for his introductory Physics 11 course, populated mainly by premed and engineering students who were successfully solving complicated problems. Then he discovered that his success as a teacher “was a complete illusion, a house of cards.”

Finding your Book Interrupted ... by the Tablet You Read it on ...

Can you concentrate on Flaubert when Facebook is only a swipe away, or give your true devotion to Mr. Darcy while Twitter beckons?

People who read e-books on tablets like the iPad are realizing that while a book in print or on a black-and-white Kindle is straightforward and immersive, a tablet offers a menu of distractions that can fragment the reading experience, or stop it in its tracks.

What to do when your Daughter's Friend is a Bully

What to do when your Daughter's Friend is a Bully

In our kids' early school years, we spend hours arranging playdates and planning parties. We become the architects (some call it "cruise directors") of their positive social development. With nothing but the best of intentions, we strive to help our little ones develop the skills to make and maintain friendships. Until the day they make -- and tenaciously maintain -- a friendship with a mean girl. Then what?

Read more ...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/signe-whitson/what-to-do-when-your-daug_1_b_1310876.html?ref=parents