For some, summer is almost half over, for others…school will be starting soon. It is never too early or too late in the summer to review and strengthen skills learned in school this past year. It seems that over the summer weeks, kids let their brains take a vacation, too! I see all too often kids may know their math facts or know how to read, but they don’t know how to analyze and synthesize information or understand the importance of financial literacy. Critical thinking skills such as these can be enhanced in many fun ways. Here are five fun online learning websites that do just that with educational games, activities, and more!
Free Fun Learning Websites
Cyberchase on PBS Kids Go!
Vacation, camp, beach trips, and amusement parks are often part of a child’s summer break. But how can they keep from losing the math skills they developed during the school year? Cyberchase online offers fun episodes, web games and hands-on activities and events and free, fun resources to strengthen children’s math skills over the summer.
Visit Cyberchase online at www.pbskidsgo.org/cyberchase with your child or grandchild…or on Facebook, www.facebook.com/cyberchase… to access sneak peeks at the new episodes, fan events, exclusive behind-the-scenes videos, photos and more related to the Cyberchase Summer Challenge. Cyberchase Summer Challenge gives kids opportunities to get points and earn rewards three ways: make games for others to play, play cyber trivia, and do fun activities at home. Watch Cyberchase on your local PBS Station and visit the website, too, for summer learning fun!
Reading is Fundamental – Reading Literacy
A wonderful, interactive website for fun summer learning and continued fun learning throughout the year has been created by Reading is Fundamental, a literacy non-profit. The RIF website is developmentally age appropriate for babies starting at age 0, toddlers, and preschoolers. On the RIF website, parents and grandparents can listen with your youngest children to lullabies, songs, nursery rhymes, and stories along with appropriate reading games and finger plays. Preschoolers can be guided as they interact in reading activities, singing, playing, doodling, and exploring. The Grown-ups section offers advice, additional reading activities, and featured articles supporting children’s literacy.
“Motivating children to read throughout the summer is essential to building lifelong readers,” says Carol H. Rasco, president and CEO of Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), the nation’s largest children’s literacy nonprofit. “And reading is the doorway to all other learning.”
At the end of the day, it all boils down to this: read. Read together, read separately, read aloud, read silently, read everywhere. Read signs, cereal boxes, advertising, comics, directions, magazines, too. It’s the surest way to make certain that your kids will start the school year off right. I love this site. I spend time on RIF.org with all of my grandkids each time they visit. We all enjoy it! The oldest grandchild (9) likes to help her younger sister (pre-k) and brother (toddler). (more…)
Life is stress. That’s the definition of life I heard somewhere at a time when I didn’t understand what it meant. But now with the economy in a rut, the environment going down hill faster than we can correct the wrongs, plus personal stressors…life is definitely “stress.” And we do need stress relief more than ever!
Ways to Reduce Stress
Whether it is debt relief, your career, a relationship, raising your grandchildren, or illness that is causing you stress, you need to find ways to reduce the stress you’re experiencing. Woman’s Day (February 1, 2010) has a list of 10 simple, inexpensive ways we can help ourselves achieve stress relief so the stress doesn’t get the best of us.
Listen to slow tunes. This first bit of advice is one that I do during my often stressful 45-minute commute to and from school where I’m a high school special education teacher, which is stressful in itself. Slower music tunes are shown to lower heart rate and blood pressure.
Give yourself a time out. When I can’t find a quiet spot to spend 5 minutes of “down” time, I go out to my car or take a short walk outside. The sunshine alone helps boost my mood.
Burn a scented candle. One fragrance that helps me is lavender. I can’t burn a candle at school, but I can use a lavender lotion which calms the nerves – actually lavender reduces the the activity of genes normally elevated in stressful situations. Other fragrances that are reported to do the same are lemon and mango. (Try using a lemon scented cleaner or air freshener in the home, too.) I also keep some lemon drops in my bag and car.
Laughter is the best medicine. A good laugh increases your heart rate and blood pressure. After the laugh, they are lowered and you feel more relaxed.
Lend a hand. Helping others helps us feel good. It also helps us put our own life into perspective. Cutting the grass, running an errand, cooking a meal, tutoring children, providing transportation, etc., for neighbors or friends can be small acts of kindness that have big results in relieving stress.
Exercise with a friend. Exercise has the same effect that a good laugh gives you, only with more healthy benefits and longer lasting. Exercising with a friend helps you connect with someone so that you won’t feel so isolated. You’d be surprised how many others have the same stressful concerns.
Lend emotional support. Call someone you know who is going through a difficult time and listen to her as she shares what’s going on in her life. It will help her by venting and you feel less stressed. It takes the focus off of your troubles.
Chew sugarless gum. The repetitive motion of chewing is calming, putting the stress on the gum and relieving tension. It also may lower cortisol, a stress hormone.
Distract yourself. I go on Facebook and play Bejeweled, trying to beat a friend’s points. When I don’t have access to my laptop, I take out my Sudoku book and challenge my cognitive skills. Games can be found also at WomansDay.com/braingames.
Loosen up. Feeling stressed? Wear loose clothing. Pressure on your stomach or back can cause discomfort which causes tense muscles.
Take Care of Yourself!
The main point here is to take time out for yourself. Don’t lose yourself within all the madness that may come your way. Take care of you first and it will help you take care of what needs attention. If you’re not at your best, then you can’t do your best.
Safety on the Web should be a top priority for parents and grandparents today…everyday. No matter how diligent parents (or grandparents) are in monitoring their children’s interactions online, they cannot be aware 100 percent of the time. It’s just impossible.
My oldest granddaughter will be turning 9 in a few weeks. She has a Facebook account. But, before you shake your head or click your tongue (tsk tsk), let me tell you that her parents have taken every precaution to limit her use…to keep her safe. K’s Facebook account is totally private and her mom is a “friend” under an unknown (to her friends) account so she can login at any time to check for appropriateness. Only good friends are allowed to be her Facebook friends. K can only use the computer when her parents are near. She knows to let them know if something unusual occurs.
SafetyWeb.com
I’m recommending to my daughter and son-in-law that they take K’s web safety one step further by signing up for a SafetyWeb.com account. They know there is peer pressure that eventually may influence my granddaughter’s online behavior or she may be bullied online if a “friend” turns on her or a predator may somehow connect with her. It’s never too early to start monitoring a child’s online activities. Do you know 42% of kids surveyed report being bullied online? It begins in school and the social sites enable bullies to continue. I’m sure you’ve heard of the terrible outcomes of children being bullied online.
Once a SafetyWeb account is set up, SafetyWeb monitors online public information connected to each registered child. The program also alerts parents immediately to new accounts or changes to existing accounts. I like this safety site because they also go the next step by continuously updating their blog for the sole purpose of educating parents to the dangers of the web. Because the developers of SafetyWeb.com are experienced in social site development and have worked with law enforcement, they are able to keep ahead of those that may prey on teens and even those younger jeopardizing their safety on the web.
Grandparents Can Help with Web Safety, Too!
If your grandchild’s parents are agreeable, you as the grandparent can open an account and monitor your grandchild’s online activities for safety’s sake. It’s good to know there are safety sites on the web to help us keep our grandchildren safe.
I remember back 34 years ago when we first brought our first born home. It was the middle of April and the temperature was in the 80s. The nurse had given us a bottle of water for our baby girl to take with us because of the heat. We arrived home, the day after Easter. No one was there except Mommy, Daddy, baby Lori, and our curious dog, PT. After we were settled in, Mommy was resting and baby Lori was fussy so her new daddy gave her some water, as the nurse had suggested. Well, Lori screamed at the top of her lungs. I came running from the bedroom – what had happened I asked! My very worried husband didn’t know. He had just given her water. I felt panic fill me. Was our new baby sick? How would I be able to tell? Well, in this case, I found out quickly. I took the baby from Daddy and the water bottle, too. The bottle was ice cold! That explained it! I gave Lori’s daddy a lesson in bottle temperature 101.
And there was another time when she continuously cried…I had fed her, burped her, changed her, soothed her, rocked her, checked for diaper pins, sang to her, walked around with her…nothing helped. I felt myself about to go into panic mode. Was she sick? How was I to know? But, before I let anxiety take over and call the pediatrician, I tried giving her more bottle…thank goodness that worked! Poor little Lori was still hungry.
But, then there was the time she was screaming…absolutely nothing helped. I did call the pediatrician…a visit to him revealed she had a severe ear infection…so stressful being a new parent!
As new parents, we spend nine months emotionally as well as logistically preparing to welcome that magical newborn into our household. Nevertheless, we may not be prepared to evaluate our infant when he’s ill and to know when we can handle the illness yourself and when to get help. For infants under the age of six months, Dr. Margaret Lewin, FACP – Medical Director, Cinergy Health (www.cinergyhealth.com) offers the following some of the signs of illness and general guidelines for when to call the doctor:
Fever itself is not an illness, but rather the baby’s response to an illness – most commonly an infection. Call the doctor if your infant is less than three months old and has a rectal temperature above 100.3F, or if between three and six months has a temperature above 101F. Even if the temperature is lower than these general guidelines, call the doctor if the baby appears ill with such signs as a rash, irritability, poor feeding, trouble breathing, a stiff neck, persistent vomiting or diarrhea, signs of dehydration or is lethargic or difficult to arouse. (more…)
Helplessly hoping
Her harlequin hovers nearby
Awaiting a word
Gasping at glimpses
Of gentle true spirit
He runs, wishing he could fly
Only to trip at the sound of good-bye
Wordlessly watching
He waits by the window
And wonders
At the empty place inside
Heartlessly helping himself to her bad dreams
He worries
Did he hear a good-bye? Or even hello?
They are one person
They are two alone
They are three together
They are for each other
Stand by the stairway
You’ll see something
Certain to tell you confusion has its cost
Love isn’t lying
It’s loose in a lady who lingers
Saying she is lost
And choking on hello
They are one person
They are two alone
They are three together
They are for each other
the temperature was in the 80s. The nurse had given us a bottle of water for our baby girl to take with us because of the heat. We arrived home, the day after Easter. No one was there except Mommy, Daddy, baby Lori, and our curious dog, PT. After we were settled in, Mommy was resting and baby Lori was fussy so her new daddy gave her some water, as the nurse had suggested. Well, Lori screamed at the top of her lungs. I came running from the bedroom – what had happened I asked! My very worried husband didn’t know. He had just given her water. I felt panic fill me. Was our new baby sick? How would I be able to tell? Well, in this case, I found out quickly. I took the baby from Daddy and the water bottle, too. The bottle was ice cold! That explained it! I gave Lori’s daddy a lesson in bottle temperature 101.