Debi Taylor-Hough

Bright-Kids
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Vol. 5, No. 15 - April 28th, 2008
http://brightkids.wordpress.com
mailto: debi@simplemom.com
Copyright 2008 Deborah Taylor-Hough
ISSN: 1536-0466 All Rights Reserved
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Subscribe: join-bright-kids@hub.thedollarstretcher.com
***: leave-bright-kids@hub.thedollarstretcher.com
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IN THIS ISSUE:
-- "Dear Readers"
-- Quote-able
-- Science and Literacy
-- "My Child is Just Going Through the Motions"
-- Reader Tips
-- Assorted Information (resources, archives, etc.)
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< < O U R . S P O N S O R > >

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Dear Readers ...

If you've never tried the BudgetMap product mentioned in the
previous sponsor ad, I'd really like to encourage you to think
about it. My oldest daughter (age 21) is learning that sometimes
difficult young adult process of figuring out how to budget each
paycheck so everything you need actually gets paid for. She's
found the BudgetMap system to be the best solution to her "do
have any gas money left?" dilemma than anything else she's
tried so far.

Here's the link to BudgetMap again in case you missed it:
http://www.budgetmap.com/click.here/bright_kids/20080428

On a completely different note, a couple of men in Olympia, Washington
(my former hometown) have started a ministry -- "Go to Church Day" --
to encourage folks who are former church attenders to visit a church of
their choice on Sunday, May 5th (that's this coming weekend).

Since the timing was right to mention it before the deadline, I thought
I'd toss in a note here in Bright-Kids just in case anyone out there's
been thinking about heading back to church one of these days. This
might be the perfect opportunity -- chances are good you won't be the
only new visitor on "Go to Church Day."

Also, if you live in the Tacoma/Auburn/Kent/Puyallup/Federal Way area
of Washington state, feel free to swing by and visit the church where
I'm now on staff part-time. We'd love to welcome you! :-)

White River Church
http://whiteriverpres.org

Simply Yours,

--Debi
(Deborah Taylor-Hough)
Editor, Bright-Kids Email Newsletter
--Author of the popular 'Frozen Assets' cookbook series, 'A Simple
Choice,' and 'Frugal Living For Dummies(r)'
--Editor, Simple Times and Bright-Kids email newsletters

http://brightkids.wordpress.com
http://thesimplemom.wordpress.com
http://snurl.com/DebiTupperware
http://dsimple.wordpress.com
http://whiteriverpres.org

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QUOTABLE

"Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits."

--Thomas Alva Edison

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SCIENCE AND LITERACY
Copyright National Association for the Education of Young
Children. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
http://www.naeyc.org/

Young children have a sense of wonder and curiosity about
the world. While watching snails in an aquarium, blowing
bubbles, using a flashlight to make shadows, or experimenting
with objects to see what sinks or floats, children are busy
finding out how the world works.

Because they are ready to learn about the everyday world,
young children become highly engaged when allowed to
explore their surroundings. They create strong and enduring
memories of what they have experienced through their
investigations. They readily acquire a rich vocabulary that
they use to describe and share these memories. In this way,
children's natural interest in science can be the foundation
for developing language and literacy skills. In short, science
gives children something to talk, read, and write about.

Because science is so intriguing, young children are eager
to learn new words they can use to describe what they see,
touch, smell, and hear. Their investigations support a variety
of early literacy experiences. Young children can be encouraged
to talk about their explorations and observations or to report
on their findings through drawings, words, photographs, and
even graphs and charts.

While many adults think of science as a discrete body of
knowledge, for young children, science is finding out about
the world that surrounds them. This is exactly what they are
interested in doing, all day, every day.

Science for young children builds on several ideas:

1) Young children are active, self-motivated learners who learn
best from personal experience.

2) Young children construct knowledge through participation
with others in activities that allow them to experiment, solve
problems, and play and learn with others.

3) Young children should be allowed to make choices about
what they explore and experience.

4) Children's social skills develop best when they can learn
and practice them through activities that mean something to
them.

For example, science, language, and literacy skills can grow
during and after a walk outside in the fall. The children watch
leaves falling from trees and blowing in the wind. They might
read a book about leaves, paint tree and leaf pictures, collect
leaves of different sizes, shapes, and colors, and use real rakes
to gather leaves in a pile.

Through this creative and exploratory process, they'll get to
use many forms of knowledge to build theories about the world.
Their activities will let them learn new words and ways of thinking
about and talking about their experiences.

Young children, like all scientists, need to practice the skills
of predicting, observing, classifying, hypothesizing, experimenting,
and communicating. They also need time to reflect on their findings,
how they reached them, and how the findings compare to their
previous ideas and the ideas of others. In this way, children are
encouraged to continue the discovery process.

By building on young children's curiosity about the world around
them, families, teachers and other adults can make science
come alive, thereby reinforcing science learning. Science provides
a rich knowledge base that will become an essential foundation
for later reading comprehension. Exploring the natural world
presents authentic opportunities for children to listen and talk.

ABOUT THE ARTICLE:
--Excerpted from "Science in the Preschool Classroom" by Kathleen
Conezio and Lucia French -- an article in the NAEYC journal, 'Young
Children'. Early Years Are Learning Years(TM) is a regular series
from NAEYC providing tips to help parents and early childhood
educators give young children a great start on learning. The National
Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is online
at: http://naeyc.org

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< < O U R . S P O N S O R > >

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"MY CHILD IS JUST GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS"
Copyright Dr. Scott Turansky & Joanne Miller, RN
Used with permission. All rights reserved.
http://effectiveparenting.org/

Sometimes children learn to go through the motions or just
get through a discipline experience. They'll parrot the answers
that they know you want to hear. You know that helping them
change their heart is the right thing to do, but you don't seem
to be getting anywhere. What do you do?

Sometimes the solution is bigger consequences. That tends
to be what parents think of first and sometimes that will work,
but the solution is usually more complicated. The key may
be adding positive consequences that help children practice
a heart change.

One mom said, "My twelve-year-old son was struggling with
meanness. I'd tried removing privileges from him for several
months but that didn't seem to be working. I decided to try
something different. I asked him each day to find three kind
things he could do for his brother. He would have to report
to me before he was free to go out and play. By focusing on
the positive we began seeing some significant change."

These are good ideas, but sometimes change is slow or
doesn't seem to be there at all. In these cases, we must
take a two-pronged approach. First, we set up a good routine
and enforce it consistently. It's like a gelatin mold. We're
establishing boundaries for children and require right responses
even though they don't seem to be able to assimilate it on a
deeper level.

Then we pray. After all, God is the one who can change a
heart.

Look for small opportunities for dialogue, modeling, and
correction that you might use to help them change. Find
positive influences for your child. It's amazing how many
times a youth leader at church can say the very same thing
that you are saying at home but your kids will receive it better
from someone else.

Hang in there. The job of parenting requires a lot of faith and
work. Both are necessary to help children make changes
that will last.

For more about helping children change their hearts, read the
book, "Parenting is Heart Work," by Scott Turansky and Joanne
Miller: http://snurl.com/heartwork

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
--Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller, RN, BSN are authors
of a large number of books and other resources on parenting
and family life. You can visit them online and subscribe to their
free parenting email newsletter at: http://effectiveparenting.org/

You can order their books online at:

"Home Improvement: 8 Tools for Effective Parenting"
http://snurl.com/effectiveparenting

"Say Goodbye to Whining and Complaining ... In You and Your Kids!"
http://snurl.com/goodbyewhining

"Parenting is Heart Work"
http://snurl.com/heartwork

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READERS WRITE / READERS' TIPS
Submitted by Bright-Kids' readers.
Send your tips to Debi: dsimple@aol.com

== Bulbs ==
I did a silly, silly thing this year. I bought a bunch of spring
flowering bulbs (daffodils, tulips, hyacinths) and put them in
an outdoor shed to get around to planting "later." Ha! Later
became "never," and I just realized they're still out in the shed!
My children have found it fascinating to see how the plants
grow now that they're growing outside of the ground -- yes,
much to my chagrin, the bulbs have all started sprouting. But
rather than wasting a perfectly good "mistake," we're using it
as a family educational activity. We're even going to try
planting the bulbs now and see if they take root and survive
their mistreatment (probably not, but it'll still be interesting).
~Debi, editor, Bright-Kids e-newsletter
(yes, it's me who did this silly flower bulb thing) ;-)

We'd love to hear YOUR fun ideas to encourage kids to learn
something new or try something different! Or even just have
some good old-fashioned family fun. :-)
______________________________

READ-ALOUD BOOKS FOR FAMILIES:

http://snurl.com/reading4kids

Recommended books for children and families
(This is a great list to print out and hand to your kids'
grandparents for suggestions at gift-giving times!) :-)
_______________________________

A special thanks to Gary Foreman and the friendly folks at
The Dollar Stretcher for making this mailing list possible! :-)
http://www.stretcher.com/
_______________________________

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DEBI'S RESOURCES:

Personal Blog: http://dsimple.wordpress.com
Nature Study Books: http://astore.amazon.com/naturestudy-20/
Frugality/Simplicity: http://thesimplemom.wordpress.com
Cooking Ahead: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/frozen-assets
Bright-Kids: http://brightkids.wordpress.com
Tupperware(r): http://my.tupperware.com/debihough
Personal Webpage: http://simplemom.com
My Church: http://whiteriverpres.org
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Bright-Kids - 04/28/08 - Science and literacy; just going thru the motions