GIANTmicrobes

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Because children around the world need a chance to survive

I know I am straying off topic this time, but this message urgently needs to get out. I thought who better to share it with than parents who would do anything to protect their children.

In East Africa there are parents who can do nothing to help their children. Due to the worst drought in 50 years, poverty, and rising food costs, more than a million people are facing starvation. The ones who suffer the most, the ones who need more food for growth and brain power, are the children.

Please consider donating to help humanitarian efforts bring relief to these children and their families. I support the group Save the Children, because children are our future, in this country and around the world. Save the Children not only works to create lasting change for the children they help, but they also support their families' efforts to help themselves. They are also top-rated by charity watchdogs, so I know my money is going straight to those who need it most.

Donate to Save the Children's East Africa Food Crisis Fund

A group working to bring emergency water supplies to East Africa (as well as look for more sustainable water sources) is Oxfam International. They are helping communities look for more sustainable sources of water by drilling boreholes, developing motorized water schemes and improving traditional water harvesting systems. In the worst affected areas they have been trucking in emergency water supplies. The water is treated and used for drinking, cooking, washing and keeping animals alive. Each person gets at least 5 liters of water per day, the bare minimum people need. Community health workers also conduct public campaigns to help stop the spread of water-borne diseases.

UNICEF is another group that focuses on helping children. They have been operating across Somalia since the 70s. They are working on health interventions and vaccinations for those who are more susceptible to disease because of hunger and malnutrition.

Samaritan's Purse is also helping by distributing food staples to the area.

Please consider giving to any one of these groups (or others you support) to help provide relief to the starving families in East Africa. Think of the parents who love their children and want to be able to help them, but can't. None of us wants to ever be in that situation. We can help those parents help their children.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Fun with the first test of the season

Getting back into the swing of things can be tough sometimes. I like to have a little more play and fun in the beginning of the school season, so that when we have to do serious stuff (because some history lessons are very serious) it's easier to get through once we've opened up the gates to learning.

I write a lot on Squidoo to reach other audiences as well as connect with other homeschoolers and teachers. Plus Squidoo gives me the opportunity to do some things more easily (read I don't have to learn too much CSS or HTML).

One of the modules I can use on a Squidoo lens is a quiz. I thought it would be fun to create some quizzes for different lessons for my son (because he loves doing things on the computer). I thought I could do history on it and make some of the answer choices absolutely and obviously crazy in order to make it more fun.

I had never tried the quiz module before, so in order to test it out, I created a silly little quiz on superheroes. He definitely got a kick out of it.

If you'd like to have a little fun with your kids before hitting the books (videos, software, etc.), go ahead and try it out. It's called Are you a superhero?

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Free fraction teaching tools

This is just a quick note to let everyone know I just found a site that has free tools to help teach fractions more easily.

The Conceptua fraction tools are very visual and makes understanding fractions much easier. They have a paid subscription service (only $10 a month) but the free tools are there for anyone willing to learn them.

Conceptua has webinars to help teach people how to use the free tools and there are introduction videos for them.

I just want to have Nick brush up on fractions before we move on, so this is perfect for my purposes. Hopefully it will suit your needs as well.

Need help teaching multiplication and division?


If you need help with multiplication or division, check out Big Brainz' Timez Attack with the division expansion pack. This game is super fun. Kids (OK and me too) love it because of its videogame interface. They aren't just facing math problems but other challenges like mazes and moving platforms. The videos below show how incredible the program is.



Thursday, August 11, 2011

Free videos for teaching higher grades

Since I started homeschooling 8 years ago, I have always been excited to find a website that helps me teach (especially with subjects I need to learn or relearn myself).

Now that my son is going into 8th grade, I need more help with certain subjects. For one thing, because I work a full-time job, my time with Nick is limited and if I can find someone else to do some of the teaching or explain some lessons, then I have more time to help him with his extracurriculars (like videogame design) and with actually practicing new skills.

I have previously used videos I've found on YouTube, National Geographic Kids, History Channel and other sites to help with science, social studies and a few other lessons. With a little bit of research you can find all kinds of videos to help you create a multisensory lesson that helps deepen your child's understanding of it. (For a more complete list of the free stuff I've found on the Internet, click here.)


Where does the time go?


The problem with trying to find the perfect video to go along with a lesson is all the time it takes! I won't say it is wasted time because videos do help make a lesson so much more interesting, but it still seems like a lot of lost time.

When I found BrainPOP I was willing to pay a nominal fee for the ease of finding the videos I needed. With YouTube you never know what you are going to get, but with BrainPOP I knew it was going to be kid-friendly. I can still use a lot of BrainPOP videos even though my son is getting older because he doesn't feel BrainPOP is too childish. They do cover some topics that will be part of his studies this year, so I'm keeping my subscription. Plus they just introduced games. We haven't tried many but we are certain to discuss them when we discuss videogame design.

Another site I was willing to pay a fee for is Lynda.com. They do mainly creative lessons (graphic design, website design, 3-D animation, etc.). I thought this would be perfect for my son who wants to learn more about game design. I think it's important for him to know what others he would be working with are doing. (Plus, truth be told, I use Lynda.com for my own education. I enjoy learning code and animation and things like that.) At Lynda.com the lesson are all organized and I don't have to create a lesson plan or anything. That's perfect for both of us.

What about government, higher math and sciences?


But I was still on the lookout for some way to provide video lessons for those big subjects. I still plan on going over book lessons (for reading practice), but I think videos on certain math formulas or government lessons will make the lessons sink in better (that and lots and lots of practice when it comes to math).

So I was happy to find a couple of free sites that have lessons for these higher-level topics.

Brightstorm has thousands (yes thousands) of free videos of instructors discussing math (algebra up to calculus) and science (biology, physics and chemistry). They aren't as exciting as BrainPOP with all the animated characters, but they do cover the topics pretty well. I think they will be wonderful introductions to a topic that we will cover in more detail later. Most of the time my son is actually paying attention to them (I can tell because he actually knows answers when we discuss the topics later).

Most recently, I discovered HippoCampus which actually does do a little more on the graphics side with their videos. They cover algebra, American government, biology, calculus, environmental sciences, physics, psychology, religion, statistics and U.S. history. Plus, the couple of math lessons I tested out quizzed me. I can't wait to look into those videos a little more.

Incorporating videos while not home


I mentioned earlier that I'm not home during the day. Yes, I work a 45-hour job. So, how, you may ask, do I get my son to watch the correct videos or do other online tasks that correspond with his schoolwork?

I create a computer file for my son with the list of things I want him to do. Because it is a computer file, I can copy and paste links to videos I want him to watch and all he has to do is click and watch. If there are worksheets or reading that go along with a topic, I will put those as separate items on the list and leave the supplies he needs on his chair in front of his computer. I will number items on the checklist if they need to be done in a particular order. Of course we discussed this plan long ago and he knows how it all works.

NOTE:
You may know (if you've read previous posts) I mostly unschool and my son creates his own schoolwork, but I do want to make sure he gets the basics. It's a give and take for both of us. I allow him to explore topics of interest to him as long as he gets through the list I create for him. I refuse to let him just sit around and play videogames all day.


Any links to share?


If you know of other websites that offer lessons for higher grades, please let me know in a comment. I am always looking for new sites to explore. Of course, I'll be sure to share any others I come across as well.

Top Secret Adventures Free Kit

Sunday, August 7, 2011

My stance on proper parenting

I received an email this week from someone promoting a story on how to embarrass your kids off of Facebook. The title already made me squeamish but I tried to remain positive and hope they were not actually encouraging parents to humiliate their own children publicly. Some writers will try to use some kind of reverse psychology in their headlines to lure readers in. 

However, I looked at the story and realized they were, in fact, encouraging parents to alienate their children. I was completely disgusted. It was basically teaching parents how to be cyber bullies to their own flesh and blood.

Let me just go on record right now and state:

It is wrong to ridicule, humiliate, belittle, bully or otherwise alienate your own children!


The way I think of it is this: Do I want to have a wonderful relationship with my son now and when he is all grown up? Well, of course I do!

If I treat him with respect — and that means respecting his feelings as well — then I am building a bridge of trust between us.

But parents who think it is funny to embarrass their children on the Internet — which would be the same as standing in the middle of town and shouting things to every passerby — are setting their children up for failure.

Failure number one

First off, how can children go to their parents to discuss important topics (like illegal drugs or puberty) if they don't trust or respect their parents? Parents who makes it a practice to ridicule their children are effectively cutting their children off from ever listening to them again. If they have something important to teach their children, their words will fall on deaf ears.

Failure number two

Secondly, if parents make a habit of humiliating their children in front of all their friends, then the only friends the children make will likely not be introduced to their parents. That means they will never know what kind of people their children decide to hang out with (or what kind of influences they will be). That also means their children will begin the practice of lying to keep the parents from finding out about their friends and their lives. That could only lead to more deceit and betrayal. And that starts them on the path to no good.

Failure number three

Finally, when children who have been bullied repeatedly by their parents move out, they will undoubtedly inflict the same kind of punishment on their family if they ever have the chance to have one. It will be hard for them to learn to form loving, trusting relationships with people if they have never experienced those kind of relationships at home while growing up. If they do form a family, it will likely be based in fear or superficiality.

Parents should be parents AND trusted friends to their children


When I first started out learning how to discipline my son in order to teach him to be a good person, I read everything I could find about child behavior and child psychology. I came at it with a scientific approach but also knew that I should trust my gut in some situations. It helped to understand how children learn and how their brains develop in order to know if I was using effective techniques in teaching my son right from wrong.

Many times I would read or hear: You cannot be your child's friend. You must be an authority figure.

At first, I understood why it would be important to be an authority figure. Young children must understand that they cannot do as they please. Young children have not yet learned how to be a good friend, so being an authority figure was best to help my son understand when he was not being nice to someone. This is important when teaching children to share, to respect another child's space and things, and to not hit and shove when they don't get their way.

But as my son got older and learned how to be a good friend, I felt it was important to allow him that sense of independence of being a trusted advisor. Family decisions were not made for him or without him. He was allowed to voice his opinion so that he knew he was an important part of the family and not just some object to be commanded around.

I did this partly because I knew I needed to develop independence in him. Some day he will need to make important decisions on his own, and he needs the confidence to make the right decisions. Being wishy washy when peer pressure is involved is the reason some kids fall to it. Knowing that his opinions and feelings matter means he will be more secure in telling someone "No" when he needs to.

Of course the fact that he feels comfortable coming to me about important decisions he has to make helps too. As a trusted advisor to him, he knows I won't belittle him or ridicule him when he needs to talk to me about something. On that same note, I know he will listen to me when I offer my opinions and knowledge on something because he knows I have his best interests at heart.

So I had to go with my gut on that whole friend thing, but so far it has paid off. He does come to me with questions or problems. And he does listen to me when I need to talk to him. Not only is schoolwork easier but teaching him about life itself is easier.

And none of this would be possible if I had decided to be a big bully to him.

Remember, children learn what they see NOT what you tell them do


Do you remember the poem Children learn what they live? It has always had an impact on me. Hopefully, you will take it to heart too.

Children Learn What They Live

By Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D. © 1972


If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.

If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.

If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.

If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.

If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.

If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.

If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.

If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.

If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.

If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.

If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.

If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.

If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.

If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.

If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.

If children live with fairness, they learn justice.

If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.

If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.

If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.