Natural High for Teens and Tweens

Teens and tweens lead a busy life, and that life can wear them out. Most of us have seen young people guzzling caffeine-packed energy drinks.

Many energy products are marketed directly at kids, who may see them as a means to stay awake and alert. They may even be conceived as a way to get better marks or even to be more outgoing at parties. Designer drugs too, can be seen as a way for weary youth to maintain a high energy level.

It is important for parents to educate children about the health risks associated with these practices, and to teach them to rely on safer alternatives that will provide a natural high.

Suggestions for parents: Natural high . . .

Remembrance Day, or Veterans Day, is celebrated in our schools every year. Your kids probably come home wearing poppies and reciting “In Flanders Fields.” They may also look forward to a special school assembly with singing, poems and the reading of student essays.

But do your kids really understand what Remembrance is about?

Peace is a key concept taught in schools today, and they often adopt it as a central theme for Remembrance Day activities because it is more relevant to our children’s lives than the rituals from my own school days. In the primary grades especially, this strategy affords a busy teacher opportunities to reinforce cooperation in the classroom, to teach conflict resolution skills and fulfill requirements for anti-bullying curricula.

More on Teaching Remembrance….

Wear a Red Poppy for Remembrance

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row . . .”

So begins what is perhaps one of the best known poems in the English speaking world. Canadian surgeon Lt-Col. John McCrae penned the verses in Ypres, Belgium during World War I. The day before he had seen his friend die on the battlefield, and that day presided over his friend’s funeral. McCrae rejected the poem, ripping it out of his notebook and throwing it away. A fellow officer saw him do it, and retrieved it. Months later it was published by Punch magazine.

Why a Poppy?

The poppy is today a symbol of Remembrance. Because of John McCrae’s poem many of us believe the flower’s connection to war and commemoration begins with the Battle of Ypres, however this is a blossom that has long been known as one of the battlefield. Poppies were associated with war dead as early as the Napoleonic Wars, as these “weeds” grow widely in Europe and tend to pop up unexpectedly when a battle disturbs their dormant seeds in the earth.

Lest We Forget…..

“Unity” of Home & School?

Early in my eldest daughter’s primary school education we went to a parent-teacher evening and her classroom teacher was passing out a poem by elementary principal Ray A. Lingenfelter. The poem, called “Unity,” is posted up on numerous school web sites and given, both by teachers to parents and by parents to teachers.

On the surface it is a lovely expression of the cooperation between home and school, a recognition that both parents and teachers are important people in the development of a young child. It begins:

I dreamed I stood in a studio
And watched two sculptors there,
The clay they used was a young child’s mind
And they finished it with care.

Read more . . .

A little while ago I was honoured to receive the One Lovely Blog Award, and I’ve offered the award to other bloggers whose work I have recently discovered. I wanted to give my readers an update about the folks who I nominated, and also about some of the people they have chosen to award. The chain continues and there are other blogs to discover, many which may be of interest to those who read School’s Out.

Jennifer Laviano is a Connecticut lawyer who devotes her practice to special education law. She writes a wonderfully informative blog, but beyond that she is simply a warm and caring professional who goes out of her way to provide the public with information about the rights of special education students and their families. She has nominated a number of blogs that touch on the subject of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) as well as those on special education in general, on dyslexia and bipolar disorder, and on special education law. Please take a moment to see her list of nominees in the post “I Guess This is ‘One Lovely Blog’!”

One of Jen’s nominees, Matthew Stoloff, is also a lawyer. As one of the areas of his practice is student rights and special education rights, it is not surprising that in his post The Lovely Blog Awards: My 15 Nominees he mentions a number of blogs about special needs, special education and the law. What was interesting was that some of his nominees focus on service dogs for disabled people – including dogs for children with autism, a subject not yet widely discussed. I encourage my readers to check out Matthew’s nominees as well!

Fellow Blogalogues writer Brick, who writes both Encourage Health and Tech Gadget, had a shorter list of nominees, but just as much worth visiting. His nominees include some writing and literature blogs, one on the mystical, and a couple written by parents – but not necessarily always confined to topics involving the kids. Please check out “One Lovely Blog Award” is Greatly Appreciated.

Also accepting the lovely blog award were:

• Karen at Candid Diversions
• Annie at PhD in Parenting
• Jimmie of Jimmie’s Collage
• Ellen of To The Max
• Tammy at Autism Learning Felt

I hope you’ll take some time to visit them all!

Cheers,

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Our holiday weekend is over, and we’re trying to get settled back into our normal routine. There’s still a bunch of catching up to do, but things are getting accomplished slowly.

I’ve updated my Roundup of Health Articles, with links to new items. This fall in particular, health is a special concern for all parents of school-aged children. Fall is usually time for seasonal flu and colds, for the ever dreaded head lice, and for a return to issues such as what constitutes a healthy school lunch, or how much homework a young child should be assigned. With H1N1 we are hearing more health news than usual this fall, and there are so many new questions for every piece of news.

Canada and the United States are taking different approaches to some aspects of H1N1 prevention, while they are very much in agreement on others like adopting the proper hand and respiratory hygiene. Since we took a break from our Science Sunday video this week, here’s a little bit of health science for you, in the form of a video from the CDC. It goes over some of the preventive measures – which are, of course, important for the regular cold and flu season.

This video shows handwashing technique in a bit more detail – both with soap and with an alcohol-based sanitizer. These videos are both excellent resources, first to educate adults and then to help with teaching children. My oldest pointed out right away that in the CDC video the model should have removed her ring. Did you catch that? Kids are often better at seeing these things than we are!

Stay well!

Cheers,

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• H1N1 critical illness can occur rapidly; predominantly affects young patients (scienceblog.com)
• Pregnant women more susceptible to H1N1: feds (ctv.ca)
• CDC: 28 Pregnant Women Have Died From H1N1 in U.S. (shoppingblog.com)
• Pregnant Women and H1N1: Quebec Offers Preventive Leave (associatedcontent.com)
• 76 U.S. Children Have Died From H1N1 Swine Flu (shoppingblog.com)
• Swine flu masks don’t have to be dull and boring (inquisitr.com)
• Masks and Swine Flu (associatedcontent.com)

Aside from this week leading up to my oldest daughter’s 12th birthday and Thanksgiving here in Canada, I’ve had some personal business to attend to (doctor’s visit, professional’s reports to sort through for the kids, a whole new diagnosis to learn about.) And I’ve had some fun stuff going on with work too, so expect that there will be some news for you in the near future on that front.

I’ve been approached by a company that provides free French and Spanish language learning tools online, and I will be looking into their sites so I can get back to you with a review.

I’ve also had the honour of being interviewed by a fabulous writer who has just been featured on CNN’s web site. She approached me about being included in a series of feature stories about freelance writers who are gaining recognition for their work. The article is “Meet AC Contributor Kyla Matton“.

So while the blog has been quiet, things are definitely not quiet behind the scenes! Keep a look out for more news :)

Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian readers, and Happy Columbus Day to those of you in the US.

Cheers!

Some Items You Might Find Useful:

• Thanksgiving Kids Activities with a Difference
• Audio-Books for Children
• Layered Shepherd’s Pie Recipe
• Seasonal Flu Shots Delayed in Canadian Provinces
• Conflict Resolution for Kids

It’s been a busy week, so I’m a little late getting this posted. Sorry for not being more prompt!

I logged in to check my comments/spam queue, and I found a wonderful surprise amongst all the unwanted ads: I have been given an award for School’s Out! Beth Davis (PlusSizeMommy) also writes here at Blogalogues, and she has been kind enough to give me this award to let me know that she has been enjoying what I write. For a blogger, for any kind of writer, this is one of the best rewards of writing. To know that others are reading what I share, and that they are enjoying or learning or growing as a result, this is a tremendous feeling.

You can find Beth’s post, nominating several other worthy bloggers, on her personal blog here. Also, please check out her HodgePodge blog here at Blogalogues.

Thanks so much for thinking of me, Beth! It really brightened my day.

Here are the rules of the “One Lovely Blog” award:
Accept the award
Post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

My nominees for the “One Lovely Blog” award are a fantastic group of people who inform, entertain and sometimes even urge their readers into action. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do:

1. Article Writer for Hire
2. AutismLearningFelt
3. Candid Diversions
4. Chasing Education
5. Code Blue to Blue’s Clues
6. Encourage Health
7. Hands-on Learning
8. Holistic Homeschooler
9. Jimmie’s Collage
10. Online Writing Opportunities
11. PhDinParenting
12. Poetic Lotion’s Silky Blog
13. Special Ed Justice
14. To the Max
15. Toni TV

Cheers!

Before I get to this week’s video, I wanted to apologize for a glitch without Science Sunday line-up. I do a lot of the work on these posts ahead of time & then queue them up for publication at the appropriate time and day. This is a good way to be sure that your expected features will be ready on time each week – that is, if I’ve paid attention and set the proper date! Apparently last week we ended up with two videos because the video for the week prior, Put Some ACh Into It, was delayed. So I do want to apologize for you missing a video two weeks ago, but I hope everyone enjoyed both videos last week. It goes without saying that I’ll be watching that little calendar in my “publish” box more carefully from now on….

This week we’re going to look at something fun: soap bubbles! This video will probably be of most interest to kids in the 9+ age bracket, but there are resources for younger kids after the video. Think of places we see bubbles – not just soap bubbles, but bubbles in the water when we swim, and the lovely bubbles in soda pop, an egg white meringue or foamed milk for a hot chocolate (or the parents’ cappuccino or latte!)

Bubbles are a great therapeutic tool for those of you who have kids with special needs. Children with speech or respiratory difficulties are often given bubble blowing as an exercise in directing their breath and pursing their lips. My son’s occupational therapist recommended getting a pair of clean fly swatters, and getting him to swat at the bubbles we blew. This helps develop motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Babies love to watch the light dance on the surface of bubbles, and they just seem to be a nice, calming influence for us all. A warm bubble bath after a long day is welcomed by all – big or small.

Here are some bubble resources:

• Bubbles Thematic Unit (Teacher Created Resources) – Lesson plans for unit study and cross-curricular activities, ages 8-10
• Bubbleology Lapbook (Hands of a Child) – Five-day unit study for ages preschool -7, complete with crafts, activities, recipes, lesson plans
• Made With Love: A Collection of Recipes for Art & Craft Projects (One Mother’s Love) – Recipes for use with kids from preschool on up, includes bubble solution, doughs, paint, flubber and many more
• Grades K-2 Science Experiments, Volume 1 (Homeschool Learning Network) – Activities to demonstrate core concepts and skills (measuring, scientific method, etc.) and applications of physical and biological sciences (bubbles, nature study, classifying life forms, etc.)
• Matter and Its Changes (Rainbow Horizons) – Ages 8-13, worksheets, quizzes and puzzles, and hands-on activities in the physical sciences, including bubbles!

With the flu season upon us and concerns over H1N1 swine flu transmission in school, a lesson in bubbles is a great time for parents to reinforce proper handwashing techniques with kids. Whether you wash with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, do it right and do it often!

Cheers!

Next in our series of Science Sunday videos.

Camera: Jake Wachtel | Editing: Chris Sonne | Rap: Mary-Kate Hurlbutt
Original song: Ice Cube’s “You Can Do It”

Not every student will fully (or even moderately well) understand this video but it’s a fun addition to the series, and I liked that it was made by students for students. If all it does is get kids interested in studying science, it’s achieved something. Next week, I have some fun from a science educator who also raps, and we’ll have a focus on physics!

Resources:

Check out Neuroscience for Kids if you want more details on acetylcholine and norepinephrine. It’s basic, but it’s a start. Here are some resources that will help you with a little human biology and anatomy – at a level that even your youngest students will appreciate!

Biology Notebooking Pages (Journey Through Learning)
A good resource for projects, all ages. If you’re not familiar with notebooking, it’s sort of scrapbooking for school. The notebook pages are blank templates you can print off for your students to fill in. Once they’re complete they can be presented in a folder or binder, depending on the thickness, or you can bind the project at home or your local copy store. Great for unit studies and Charlotte Mason homeschooling, but you can use notebooking blanks as a supplement to any form of curriculum.

Hands-On Experiments: Biology (Remedia)
Experiments using everyday items, for homeschool or classroom. Ages 8-13. Includes 15 experiments, complete with individual supply lists.

Inside My Body (Journey Through Learning)
A very popular lapbooking unit that you can make up in a folder. A range of topics are covered, and vocabulary lists are provided. Lots of illustrations. Grades 2-7.

Human Body (Teacher Created Resources)
A unit study in which the child’s body is traced and put up on the wall. He then colours and cuts out pictures of his organs to add to the outline. Everything is layered realistically. A few bones and muscles are included, but the main focus is organs. Recommended for ages 8-10 but even little ones love to be included, and the activities are quite suitable for their skill set. Older kids can read the provided descriptions to learn the function of each body part studied.

Biology4Kids
This web site is one of the popular “4Kids” sites (e.g. Chem, Physics, Astronomy, Geography + NumberNut) that have tons of free resources for kids and teachers. Interactive activities like quizzes and games are included. Science principles are explained clearly, in language kids can understand. I suggest starting your exploration with Animal Systems if you go straight there after viewing the ACh video above.

Cheers!