It's always good when you can gain two or more positive things from action. A member of my family recently lost her mother and in going through her mother's papers and boxes of momentos, she came across a collection of memorabilia from the childhood, school and college career of her brother. There were football letters that had never been sewn on the atheletic jacket, National Honor Society Certificates, newspaper clippings, party invitations, even his birth announcement; as well as newspaper articles on world events.
Not one to throw anything out, but always ready to pass the caretaking responsibility of items she can't throw away on to someone else, she came up with a "good use" for the items. In other words, she recycled them while unloading them. More important, however, she turned them into a free educational resource.
Her tactic was very simple. She first invited her brother's grandchildren to her home, spread the memorbilia out on the a along with craft tools and art supplies. In one afternoon they had turned the stuff she couldn't throw away into a scrapbook for their grandfather, just in time for his birthday.
While this was an efficient solution to relocating the stuff and a good art project for the kids, it was even more valuable as a lesson in U. S. and world history, geography and the progress of technology in our society. For example, the newspaper article's, one for November 23, 1963 declaring the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, gave rise to discussions about the location of Texas, Washington D. C. and Russia, the history of the our relationship with Russia and the Cold War, and how the world communicated before computers, Internet, and cell phones.
Copyright 2009 Creekside Education & Susie Williams
Contact me: creeksideeducation@gmail.com
Contents of this Blog are copyrighted by Creekside Education and Susie Williams and may only be used or reproduced for non commercial purposes and must include the following credit; "This information is copyrighted by and used with the permission of Creekside Education Blog by Susie Williams."
Friday, October 9, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Recess Anxieties Addressed by Peaceful Playgrounds
You would think that recess would be the least of a parent's worries when it comes to their children's school career. There's a great deal of free information on the blog Peaceful Playground that would indicate that parents, children and educators need to be concerned about recess and their playground. In a more personal way, I was reminded by my niece recently about parental concern over recess.
At a recent family gathering, she told the story of how, on her daughter's first day of kindergarten, she called her husband from her office and ask him to drive by the school at recess to make sure their only child was okay. When he questioned the neccessity and wisdom of spying on the local elementary playground, she voiced her fear, "What if she is all alone and has no friends?"
A brawny Wyoming oil field worker, he called back from the cab of his large red diesel knocking pick-up and whispered, "She is swinging with two little girls. She's laughing."
"Well, do they look nice?"
"Okay, I'm going back to work," was the only response she got. We all laughed, but recess fear, dangers and discomforts are very real for children and their parents.
Andrea and Melinda Bossenmeyer are the authors of the blog Peaceful Playgrounds and twitter at RecessDoctor. This is not a blog spawned from the anxiety of a parent of an only child, as my niece was experiencing. Andrea, an educator and marketer, blogs on nutrition, health, and childhood obesity. Dr. Melinda Bossenmeyer blogs on education, physical education, recess, physical activity, and playgrounds. She is the President and developer of the Peaceful Playgrounds Program and past elementary school principal. She spent 27 years as an educator and is the author of six published books on playgrounds and numerous articles on recess, playgrounds and play. She has presented over 100 conference sessions.
Andrea and Melinda have been blogging for over two years and their site is wonderful free resource loaded with information for parents and educators in their areas of expertise, IE., health and nutrition, and physical education, recess and playgrounds. In addition, to the free, well-written and supportive content on the site they publish a monthly on-line newsletter.
Check out their blog. It's great free information. You can follow them on Twitter. Just for fun they tweeted today a link to a group of photos of playground equipment from the 70s. Take a look. It could lighten up your day with some memories of the playgrounds of your childhood; http://su.pr/2DeR78
Copyright 2009 Creekside Education & Susie Williams
Contact me: creeksideeducation@gmail.com
Contents of this Blog are copyrighted by Creekside Education and Susie Williams and may only be used or reproduced for non commercial purposes and must include the following credit; "This information is copyrighted by and used with the permission of Creekside Education Blog by Susie Williams."
At a recent family gathering, she told the story of how, on her daughter's first day of kindergarten, she called her husband from her office and ask him to drive by the school at recess to make sure their only child was okay. When he questioned the neccessity and wisdom of spying on the local elementary playground, she voiced her fear, "What if she is all alone and has no friends?"
A brawny Wyoming oil field worker, he called back from the cab of his large red diesel knocking pick-up and whispered, "She is swinging with two little girls. She's laughing."
"Well, do they look nice?"
"Okay, I'm going back to work," was the only response she got. We all laughed, but recess fear, dangers and discomforts are very real for children and their parents.
Andrea and Melinda Bossenmeyer are the authors of the blog Peaceful Playgrounds and twitter at RecessDoctor. This is not a blog spawned from the anxiety of a parent of an only child, as my niece was experiencing. Andrea, an educator and marketer, blogs on nutrition, health, and childhood obesity. Dr. Melinda Bossenmeyer blogs on education, physical education, recess, physical activity, and playgrounds. She is the President and developer of the Peaceful Playgrounds Program and past elementary school principal. She spent 27 years as an educator and is the author of six published books on playgrounds and numerous articles on recess, playgrounds and play. She has presented over 100 conference sessions.
Andrea and Melinda have been blogging for over two years and their site is wonderful free resource loaded with information for parents and educators in their areas of expertise, IE., health and nutrition, and physical education, recess and playgrounds. In addition, to the free, well-written and supportive content on the site they publish a monthly on-line newsletter.
Check out their blog. It's great free information. You can follow them on Twitter. Just for fun they tweeted today a link to a group of photos of playground equipment from the 70s. Take a look. It could lighten up your day with some memories of the playgrounds of your childhood; http://su.pr/2DeR78
Copyright 2009 Creekside Education & Susie Williams
Contact me: creeksideeducation@gmail.com
Contents of this Blog are copyrighted by Creekside Education and Susie Williams and may only be used or reproduced for non commercial purposes and must include the following credit; "This information is copyrighted by and used with the permission of Creekside Education Blog by Susie Williams."
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Personalized Books & CDs as Reading Incentives for Children
It is not free, but it sure is fun. More4Kids a Tennessee based manufacturer and distributor of books and music for children, specializes in personalized books and CDs.
These kind of products are not new and have been around as a recognized incentive for children learning to read for several decades. Dr. Brenda Rollins, Ed.D, writes in the article Why Personalized Books? An Educator's Perspective about the building of self-esteem and the fostering of feelings of well being that are accomplished with the repetition of the child's name and "I" statements in personalized books. You can read Dr. Rollins article on this website, as well as other free informative articles for parents. Just click the tab Parenting in the navigation bar at the top of any page on the site.
This time of year we are starting to think about unique yet valuable gift ideas for the children in our lives. More4Kids places your child or grandchild's name in the text of the story or in the lyric of songs and stories on CDs. And this company sponsors weekly specials, often discounting their products 30-40%. This weeks special is a personalized Elmo music CD.The price is cut by $10 or 40%. Click here to see the product and discount.
More4Kids is a friendly company, run by Kevin and Julie. She designs personalized handmade baby gifts, also available on their site. They are one of our sponsors, so if you happen to buy one of their products through clicking on the links in this email or on their banner in the side bar, you also help the educational programs we sponsor.
As always if you have feed back on this company, we would love to hear it. Just email us at the address highlighted below.
Copyright 2009 Creekside Education & Susie Williams
Contact me: creeksideeducation@gmail.com
Contents of this Blog are copyrighted by Creekside Education and Susie Williams and may only be used or reproduced for non commercial purposes and must include the following credit; "This information is copyrighted by and used with the permission of Creekside Education Blog by Susie Williams."
These kind of products are not new and have been around as a recognized incentive for children learning to read for several decades. Dr. Brenda Rollins, Ed.D, writes in the article Why Personalized Books? An Educator's Perspective about the building of self-esteem and the fostering of feelings of well being that are accomplished with the repetition of the child's name and "I" statements in personalized books. You can read Dr. Rollins article on this website, as well as other free informative articles for parents. Just click the tab Parenting in the navigation bar at the top of any page on the site.
This time of year we are starting to think about unique yet valuable gift ideas for the children in our lives. More4Kids places your child or grandchild's name in the text of the story or in the lyric of songs and stories on CDs. And this company sponsors weekly specials, often discounting their products 30-40%. This weeks special is a personalized Elmo music CD.The price is cut by $10 or 40%. Click here to see the product and discount.
More4Kids is a friendly company, run by Kevin and Julie. She designs personalized handmade baby gifts, also available on their site. They are one of our sponsors, so if you happen to buy one of their products through clicking on the links in this email or on their banner in the side bar, you also help the educational programs we sponsor.
As always if you have feed back on this company, we would love to hear it. Just email us at the address highlighted below.
Copyright 2009 Creekside Education & Susie Williams
Contact me: creeksideeducation@gmail.com
Contents of this Blog are copyrighted by Creekside Education and Susie Williams and may only be used or reproduced for non commercial purposes and must include the following credit; "This information is copyrighted by and used with the permission of Creekside Education Blog by Susie Williams."
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