Early Education is the Key

The preschool debate – is it a must-have experience?

2009-02-20T16:55:00.001-05:00

Sue Shellenbarger , a journalist at the Wall Street Journal wrote an interesting article about research studies involving preschool programs and students. Here is an excerpt of her article:

An ongoing federally funded study of 1,364 children shows preschool time improves language and memory.

The few long-term studies undertaken so far, however, offer little proof that the academic benefits of an average preschool program endure. The federally funded study, by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, found that while time spent in the average child-care center or preschool is linked to better memory skills in third grade, compared to children in other kinds of care, the benefits shrink to insignificance in higher grades.

The only lasting effect of average programs documented so far for all kids is a modest increase in behavior problems. Sixth-grade teachers of children who spent a lot of time in child-care centers say they act up a little more than other kids, though their behavior is still within the normal range, the institute study shows.

But when researchers add high quality to the preschool equation, the research is more compelling. High-quality programs have low child-to-adult ratios, small classes and trained teachers who interact often, in a positive, sensitive and stimulating way, with children. The academic edge delivered by these kinds of preschools endures at least through fifth grade, in the form of superior vocabulary skills, the institute study found. For disadvantaged children in particular, several studies have shown high-quality preschool confers profound benefits into adulthood, including higher college attendance and income.

Certainly, preschool isn't essential. All children and families are different, and youngsters with attentive, educated parents and stimulating homes can do just fine without it. "If your child is participating in play dates and seeing other children," developmental progress "happens quite naturally" at home, says Kathleen McCartney, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. "Do all children need preschool? Absolutely not. Would most children benefit from it? Yes."

With two-thirds of U.S. four-year-olds now attending child-care centers or preschool, many kindergarten teachers expect incoming pupils to know how to sit still at circle time and relate to adults, Shellenbarger concludes.

Parents that aren’t ready to unleash their little one into the wild world of preschool or corporate child-care continue to enjoy nurturing their children at home with programs like Play2Learn or for the more passive child, Hooked on Phonics. Home care providers are a popular alternative but make sure your child doesn’t spend most of those hours in front of a television set or placed in a play pen. The learning environment and teacher attention to the child are the most crucial factors in recognizing whether your child is in a high quality or average setting.

The early years are the learning years… don’t let the most valuable time for affecting brain development pass you by – get busy learning about child development and becoming your child’s first teacher. You are your child’s first teacher whether they go to preschool or not.

War on our kids - standardizing testing is killing their innovative learning spirit

2009-02-16T16:51:00.004-05:00

If there is one thing about our education system that makes me sick and mad all at the same time it is standardized testing – especially when it cripples our youngest learners.

Will our children ever LOVE TO LEARN again? If we keep going down this path of standardized testing for the sake of the No Child Left Behind act’s accountability policies, no we will never have innovative and enthusiastic learners which will lead to an incompetent and dismal work force in the future.
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This article written by Brian Crosby, a National Board Certified Teacher and 20-year veteran teacher from Glendale, California was published on OhMyGov! in January.

Ever since No Child Left Behind left behind other ways to assess student learning beyond multiple-choice tests, the federal and state governments have gone giddy over standardized testing. And now it has reached a new low testing kindergartners, some of whom are four-years-old.

What are those in charge of educating children thinking when they come up with such ideas? Where is the parent outrage over such a misguided plan? Thank goodness only 10 percent of the elementary school principals have volunteered their students as guinea pigs for this experiment.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office reports "will spend between $1.9 billion and $5.3 billion to develop, score and report NCLB-required tests."

Just what was this money spent on before?

As a parent, I want the most highly qualified instructors teaching to my children. As a teacher, I want to be treated professionally so that I can meet the needs of parents and their children.

Meanwhile, whatever happened to the weight of the final grade in a class? Does all that day-in and day-out work of the student not count towards anything anymore?

The fact of the matter is that an accountability system is and has been already in place-it's called student work. It doesn't have a catchy name. One can't make an easy acronym out of it, and no politician can claim credit for it. Students learn significantly more from assignments that demand students to use higher-level thinking skills - assignments that go beyond the rote type of learning assessed on standardized tests.

The Role of Parents in Early Education

2009-01-30T22:11:00.001-05:00

The Role of Parents in Early Education

Education is an essential part of each of our lives – it aids the maturing process and helps each of us become independent and self-sufficient individuals. Education can be of different kinds, the most common kind being the one we’re imparted at formal institutions like schools and colleges. Education can also take on other forms – practical knowledge gained through experience, homeschooling imparted by parents or close relatives or formal training in creative arts like music, art, drama and the like. Whatever the form, education is necessary, and the role played by parents during the early educative years of the child cannot be emphasized enough.

We’ve seen the struggle that orphans and abandoned children go through all their lives, simply because they haven’t had the parental edge during their formative years. Children who do well later on in life are those who are fortunate enough to have parents who:

Facilitate: the learning process as much as they can. Besides the formal lessons that are taught at school, these parents supplement their children’s education with books, educational trips, sports, and other tools that contribute to the positive development of their children. They encourage them to engage themselves in activities besides schoolwork to enhance their all-round development and boost their academic performance. Children who are voracious readers have been known to have good writing and communication skills that stand them in good stead as they grow up and move into the adult world.
Support: their children through thick and thin. They don’t punish when things go wrong or when their kids are lagging behind at school. Instead, they are supportive and help them get to the root of the problem rather than just shouting at them or using harsher forms of penalization. They know that positive reinforcement works best when it comes to cajoling children into showing greater interest in academics.
Encourage: them to do well rather than forcing them to or threatening them with dire consequences if they do not perform well at school. They understand that grades are not everything and that as long as their kids are doing the best they can and living up to their potential, it’s enough.
Guide: and do not spoon-feed. The best parents are those who give suggestions and ideas when their children are asked to complete assignments and projects that are beyond their regular school lessons, and not those who complete their kids’ work from start to finish themselves. Yes, the projects are so much better when the parents do them, and these kids get the best grades, but then, it’s the children who do their own work who learn the most valuable lesson of independence and who enhance and give vent to their creative instincts.
Exhibit restraint: and are not overtly competitive. They don’t expect their children to be first in everything they do, and they don’t go overboard and overload the children with activities and lessons beyond their capacities. They understand that children are children, and that they deserve a normal childhood as opposed to being forced to become child prodigies that their parents can parade around.
Are involved: in all their child’s activities, thus showing that they care about them and their interests. Their children know that they can approach their parents for any kind of guidance and support, and that they always have time for them.

Enough cannot be said about the importance of the positive role that parents must play in shaping their children’s academic future. And the mothers and fathers who realize this truth are the ones who have children who achieve greatness.

This post was contributed by Holly McCarthy, who writes on the subject of online schools.

Educational change - a systematic approach

2009-01-26T10:44:00.004-05:00

In the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Mark Tucker, President of the National Center on Education and the Economy, writes "If education were a product and the United States were a corporation, we would try and figure out how other nations manage to succeed where we have clearly failed, and then beat them at their own game. Instead, many of America’s leading donors are lavishing their money on social entrepreneurs whose small, innovative programs don’t have a prayer of dealing with the problem at the scale that is needed."
Tucker goes on to outline a systematic approach to creating change in America's education system:
Other countries have not built highly effective and very efficient school systems by financing a handful of small, disruptive interventions. Not at all. They have developed policies that get results. It is the structure of those systems that account for their effectiveness.

To those of us who have studied these nations in detail for years, there is no mystery about what has to be done. America, too, needs to recruit teachers from the top one-third to one-fifth of college graduates. To get them, we need to pay them as much as the other professions they could just as easily choose to go into: medicine, law, architecture, accounting, engineering, and so on. We need to make sure the best of them can do very well for themselves without leaving teaching. We need to give them the same kind of control over the way their services are delivered to their clients as the other professions have over theirs, and that will mean turning virtually all of the decisions as to how the schools are run over to them.

By handsomely rewarding school faculties that produce smashing gains for their students and closing schools that fail to make strong progress, we can ensure that handing over the decision making is a wise move. But, if we do that, we will be making a big mistake if we continue to measure student progress with the cheap, minimum-competency tests the states now use. We need instead to adopt high-quality board examinations like those the most successful countries use, which can measure a student’s grasp of the concepts underlying the subject, the student’s creativity and capacity for innovation, as well as the student’s knowledge and ability to apply what he or she has learned to real-world problems. As many other countries have done long ago, we need to shift our financing system away from a reliance on the local property tax and toward a system that makes sure each and every student has the resources needed to get to internationally benchmarked standards.

That is not a list of modest changes; taken together, they constitute a major redesign of the American education system, a system that got its last redesign some 100 years ago.

Social entrepreneurs are no match for such a comprehensive approach. Imagine if the United States relied on elite, committed, but mostly short-tenured twenty-something volunteers to help solve comparable national crises such as the search for sustainable energy, or if the nation had done the same thing in response to the challenge posed by Sputnik. The idea is laughable. Yet that is precisely how we have dealt with the problem of our inadequate education system.

Entrepreneurs are not the solution. The solution is to completely change our education system in the United States as we know it today.

21st century jobs - prepare your children today!

2009-01-15T20:13:00.003-05:00

When I think about how schools are developing a plan for teaching to the 21st century skills all children will need, I often wonder whether the teachers - and students/parents for that matter - even know what jobs will be needed.

We are loosing jobs to the overseas markets at an alarming rate. Americans are going to have to work but do you know what kinds of jobs you may need to have training for in the 21st century job market?

Listed at Resumagic.com you will find a this list of Emerging Jobs:

Although mostly unheard of today, the following careers are expected to be in high demand in the years to come:

information broker
job developer
leisure consultant
bionic electron technician
computational linquist
fiber optic technician
fusion engineer
image consultant
myotherapist
relocation counselor
retirement counselor
robot technician
space mechanic
underwater archaeologist

Do our teachers have the training necessary to prepare our children in these fields? Is it solely the teacher's job to prepare for this kind of work? I always say we have to "begin with the end in mind." If this is the end, where will we begin and what are our plans for achieving knowledge in the areas that matter tomorrow - instead of yesterday?

Early education is the key!

21st century skills, the brain and Google

2009-01-08T19:59:00.006-05:00

Twenty first century skills are the backbone to innovation in business and competitiveness in global markets. Our children have to be taught how to think outside of the box and become creative thinkers. Textbooks aren't producing the types of employees innovative companies need. We must change course...rethink the way we train students to think and learn.

In my opinion, this begins at birth. The brain is ready to make connections and lots of them the day a baby is born. We have to stop telling ourselves that babies aren't "ready" for experiences and learning (because they are 'just babies'). Repetitive language, experiences and activities over time are necessary for hard-wiring the brain to think at a high level and in an innovative fashion.

Google has mastered the brain's formula. The brain makes associations to develop memory. For the brain to make associations it must have an infinite number of experiences by which to attach prior knowledge to make a new association. For example, if you are searching in Google or your brain for that matter, for information about poetry, you will retrieve information on poetry and other material that is associated with poetry. You will probably be connected to or reminded of famous poets and writers. You will recall or be directed to information on how to write, writing styles, penmanship, rhyme, classes being offered for poetry, music and art. All of these topics are associated with poetry.

However, in our current education system we teach in a linear fashion where students learn information a mile wide (lots of unconnected concepts, skills and information) and never connect most of that learning in a deep way to other concepts or apply it in a real world fashion. The brain doesn't retrieve information from memorized lists, charts or textbook questions which is the exact way most children are being taught to learn (and hopefully retain) skills and information today.

According to a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive for the American Society for Quality (ASQ)- a professional association that offers training and tools to educators and businesses - adults agree with educators that schools are not making 21st-century skills a priority.

In fact, 96 percent of adults believe that students today need to improve upon the skills needed to succeed in the 21st century. Skills listed by adults and parents as needing more development include organizational skills, communication skills, problem solving and reasoning, creativity, teamwork, and science and technology skills.

Early education is the key!

Parenting in 2009

2009-01-04T14:29:00.002-05:00

How are parenting trends going to change in the new year?

Perhaps, parents will spend more time creating an environment full of joy for learning and exploration for their kids in the home instead of worrying about overstimulating them with every possible toy and extracurricular class.

So in a time of recession, could it be that parents invest more of their own time with their children instead of money? Could this economic recession bring the end to "keeping up with the 'Jones'?" Could this economic recession help parents across our great country once again embrace the idea that "less is more?"

For young children, less toys, less scheduled classes away from the home and less at birthdays. While giving less to the things that don't really matter for long-term happiness, success (school and life) and relationships you have many other things to offer more of: love, time, conversation, exploration and nature. All of these things are what will make your child great! They also create in your child less whining, less selfishness, less wants, less anger and less depression.

I believe we will see a greater sense of community and less concern about giving kids every thing they want but more of what they need.

Let's society work together in 2009 to spend more time with our children to develop stronger literacy, emotional health and higher order thinking skills that children will benefit from in the long run. Let's stop thinking about this semester or this year when it comes to life and understand life is journey. We make choices on that journey that last a lifetime - good or bad! Early education is the key to happiness and success.

Affording child care and preschool in the new economy

2008-12-28T11:17:00.003-05:00

Child care centers are experiencing lower enrollment as an economic trend takes hold of centers nationwide. Parents are pulling their kids out of child care in record numbers to save money or to deal with issues arising from the recession. In its place, many parents are relying on a network of family members and neighbors to watch their kids.

With child care (for one child) costing on average $6,700 a year, parents facing job loss or slashed hours at work tell child-care providers that something has to go.

To tackle this problem head-on, some daycares are introducing new services to stave off falling enrollment. Centers are offering parents flexible and half-time care programs and are watching kids on a drop-in basis if the parent has a job interview or temporary job.

Even more, some centers are going to a 24/7 care program to serve parents who needed to take on a second job because of the economy or work late-night shifts. Parents are out of work and don't have the same 8 to 5 type of job. It is nice to see centers allowing the parents to create their own schedule. This type of service reduces parental stress over finding childcare, which in turn reducing stress on their children.

Still many other parents are turning to home curriculum products like Play2Learn to keep their children up to speed when they can't afford care. It's important for a child's development to maintain a structured-learning environment at home. Parents can easily do this and feel good about being their child’s first teacher for a fraction of what it costs to send their child to a childcare center.

Parenting styles - which style do you use?

2008-12-08T10:35:00.003-05:00

Paul Banas of www.greatdad.com has written an excellent post on parenting styles and how those styles differ. I found the content interesting while I also was able to define my parenting style and will inevitably make a few adjustments for the future. Check it out!

Many times, learning who we are as parents and how our behavior and attitudes affect our children are all that is needed to turn around a child that may be disruptive, disrepectful, anxious, sad or fearful. Early education is the key!

Idea Blob: Exciting work for teachers

2008-11-28T11:54:00.003-05:00

If you aren't familiar with the website - Ideablob - you should be. This is a wonderful place to see how creative the human mind can be and to create social change in our communities.

Every month they have contests to give away $10,000.00 to the best idea for that month. And this month, I think there is a GREAT idea to invigorate teachers. Michelle Evan's idea to create summer "workations" for teachers that help develop new skills relative to their students needs for the workforce is great. She understands teacher burnout and more importantly the need to connect teachers to the business world.

Please take a moment to visit Ideablob to give her your vote. While you are there, check out all of the other great ideas and put one of your own up if you like.

Early Education Laws Mean Well, But Fall Short

2008-11-19T12:52:00.001-05:00

When the legislators in 20 states decided Pre-Kindergarten would only be taught to low-income children, they did this with good intentions. But, according to recently-released national study by the Washington-based Pre-K Now, 700,000 middle-income families in these states are being excluded as the economy worsens.

The study breaks down the cost of basic living expenses for middle class families in the 20 states where pre-k is only for low-income children.

Some of the findings of this study are quite alarming:

Pre-K is the single largest expense for middle class families of four, taking up nearly 30 percent of monthly spending.

Most states with publicly-run programs have targeted services to poor children because they need the most help to be ready for kindergarten.

Middle-income children are behind in reading, writing and math when compared with their more affluent peers. For example, one in three middle class children does not know the alphabet entering kindergarten, compared with one in six upper-income students.

That kind of gap creates problems throughout a child's school career. Students who take pre-k are more likely to graduate high school and go to college.

Currently, of the 38 states with publicly-funded programs, only eight have offered free early education to all children because of its exorbitant cost.

It is an accepted fact that children from low-income households often need additional services and low-income resources and funding should not be cut to make room for those in more fortunate socio-economic situations. Frequently, the support systems are weaker, the emotional challenges greater and the life stresses more intense. However, given that all children benefit from early education, we cannot eliminate any group from this opportunity.

Middle-income children are no less entitled to quality education and reform for broader inclusion must be a priority. Our students are not achieving as greatly as we'd like because we're letting fiscal considerations get in the way of their educational needs.

By-line:

This post was contributed by Kelly Kilpatrick, who writes on the subject of a distance degree. She invites your feedback at kellykilpatrick24 at gmail dot com

The Today Show features a reading baby

2008-11-07T11:04:00.011-05:00

I just love to see babies reading and the proud parents, too. The parents of this particular two-year old attribute at least some of her abilities to early sign language for babies.

As a teacher of young children and a brain research “hound,” I know that it has far more to do with the amount of language they exposed her to and the varied approaches taken to make language fun. The sign language was definitely a piece of her reading development because it taught her to focus on patterns in language and visual cues. There are prerequisite skills needed for reading and she has definitely learned them early.

The fact is… BABIES have the capability to read as this baby did. Even if a child can’t verbally speak the words they can point to the correct word or the object while you are reading.

Try these things at home with your baby:

1. Use board books that have a single picture with a single word on each page for daily reading.

2. After reading the word “spoon” and seeing the picture spoon, find a real spoon in your home to allow baby to engage more senses than just visual and auditory.

3. Show baby the word “spoon” in a different book and show enthusiasm as you match the words between the two books.

4. Write the word “spoon” on an index card and place it in front of baby. Then place a spoon and another object in front of her - say, “where is the spoon?” while you point to the word card. Assist her in choosing the correct object if necessary.

5. Continue this pattern with other words in the book and very soon baby will start understanding rules of reading through these basic play activities.

The Play2Learn program by Wiggle Giggle Learn offers more organized and playful ways to learn to read early while also balancing your child’s development in math, science, social skills, problem solving and the arts.

Learning to live with less - children and today's economy

2008-10-23T13:57:00.001-04:00

With all of the talk lately about the economy and how Americans have been caught up in living above their means, I can't help but think about the children that have been encouraged along this same path.

These children will no doubt go through some withdrawals for the "things" they used to get. However, the good news is they will bounce back relatively quickly into their very fun world of "make believe." That is, if they are encouraged to use their imagination and pretend. Pretend play allows children to practice a variety of roles in life, set goals, accomplish tasks independently and most importantly play without any rules! Children who are overstimulated by lots of outside "stuff" will not learn to play by themselves or use items in their environment in creative ways (i.e. - daddy's old tie as the seat belt on your make believe adventure to Africa to see wild animals).

Where am I going with this? I want every parent out there to know how FABULOUS this economic situation really is for our children. It offers us a chance to step back from the "things" in life and focus on the "people." It offers us the chance to reduce the overbooked lifestyles of our children and allow them more free play time with less stress over being at three extracurricular classes a week that offer structured activities instead of what children need most - free play!

This economy will force us to talk about wants vs. needs with our children and we will get back to taking the time to instill the most important value of all - patience. Our children will begin to be able to set goals for things they want and create plans to achieve those goals. They will be able to give more than they receive. They will see the value in small things, like leaves changing colors or how bicycle wheels work.

Less focus will be on the marketing messages sent out by large toy companies and more focus will be on your family's self-marketing of less expensive, fun times with the family. Families will begin to spend more time together and the effect - priceless!

Toys that teach children to play independently

2008-10-23T12:53:00.006-04:00

Don't forget about the toys that make a real learning difference for babies, toddlers and preschoolers. They may not seem as "cute, cool or fun" but they sure develop your little one's brain power because she is working the toy and the toy isn't working for her. Here are my favorites and how they help your child.

Fine mo tor skills
Pop up pals are the perfect toy to develop fine motor muscles in the hands and fingers. Problem solving skills and cause/effect are strengthened through this toy as well. It might just be your little one's favorite.

Sensory balls Little ones learn through their senses and these sensory balls can provide hundreds of hours of independent learning fun for your baby, toddler or preschooler. They are fun to touch, kick, hit, roll and push. Balls develop large and small muscle control, critical thinking, cause and effect and problem solving skills. And, they are cheap too!

Touch and feel books and cards Bring pictures and words alive through your little one's senses with these great tactile books and word cards. You can't begin introducing vocabulary early enough. Your child will love it!

Rainbow stacker Let baby discover how fun measurement and math can be with a rainbow tower fun stacker. Toys don't have to cost a lot of money to be fun and educational. We love real wood toys and this is a great pick.

Wiggle Giggle Learn supports Head2Toe for speech and language development products

2008-10-16T10:52:00.000-04:00

Children with language delays can’t always afford the costly therapy they need for services with a speech pathologist. However, now they have resources to use at home developed by an expert in the field of speech and language development, Karla Duncan. Her passion for educating little ones that struggle more than the norm with speech and language development is empowering to me personally and professionally. Living with a child of my own who has delayed language abilities and seeing so many of my kindergarteners struggle, it is a blessing to see Karla offer such a wonderful product to parents.

As many of you know my company, Wiggle Giggle Learn was a potential finalist for the Yahoo! Seeds for Success empowering woman entrepreneurs grant in April 2008. Although we weren’t named one of the three finalists we have been watching them closely. Now the contest is coming to an end and you can support your favorite entrepreneur.

Wiggle Giggle Learn supports Karla Duncan of Head2Toe Publications. Head2Toe recently unveiled their first product and it is a great learning and teaching tool for parents, caregivers and teachers. I hope you all will check out her website and vote for Head2Toe to win the Yahoo! Seeds for Success contest that ends very soon. You can vote once a day and make sure to tell all of your friends.

Ready to learn from birth

2008-10-13T14:56:00.012-04:00

Wow - we (Wiggle Giggle Learn team) just arrived home from Indianapolis, Indiana where we had the pleasure of meeting thousands of new and expecting parents at the Indy Baby Expo.

Through hundreds of conversations we heard how excited parents were to begin the learning process with their little ones from infancy. They believed as we do, that the brain is developed and not inherited.

These parents are sacrificing time, resources, money and so much more to give their children the very best chance to become successful in school and life. It was heartwarming to say the least.

Wiggle Giggle Learn is happy to be the primary choice for learning at home (from birth to age four) through play. Our Play2Learn system, written by a National Board Certified Kindergarten teacher using the latest brain research on sensory learning, answers a question many parents have - "what should I be doing with my child at home (before he is ready to go to school)?"

Sensory activities, fun games and active learning are essential to long-term retention of concepts and early language, social, emotional, physical, mathematical and scientific learning. The brain is a pattern-seeking device from birth and early education is the key to learning.

Visit Wiggle Giggle Learn to see how you can become an active participant in your infant, toddler or preschooler’s brain development. Because... the brain is developed, not inherited – it is what we do to stimulate the brain that matters!

You may also be interested in visiting zero to three to read some of the latest brain research. The early years are the learning years – birth to three.

21st Century learning projects...join the blog challenge!

2008-09-29T15:49:00.009-04:00

Little guys vs. big guys in a head to head challenge for impacting student learning!

I am so excited to be participating in the Donors Choose annual blogger challenge for kids. The main idea here is to raise money for classrooms around America through donations from the most thoughtful givers - the "little guys," like you and me! We can make a difference in the education of our children by simply reading what teachers need and choosing projects to donate to that strike a chord in us.

With that said, during the month of October it is up to us, "the little guys," to raise as much money as we can to affect as many students as possible. We need to get the word out. Our friends and families can help us spread the word and get the projects funded. We are competing in this challenge with some really big bloggers and I mean REALLY big bloggers. Who will raise the most money in 31 days - them or us? There is power in numbers.
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Budget cuts in Washington have left teachers with little more than textbooks and workbooks to teach our children.

How much do you remember learning from of a textbook or workbook? I'm not sure about you, but I can't remember workbooks being fun.

Hands-experiences are costly but they teach for long-term retention instead of short-term memorization needed for nothing more than a good test grade at the end of the unit study.

Which is helping you with your career today – the workbooks being afforded by our government or hands-on experiences that have taught you to be a master at your craft?

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So… do you want to be a part of the team?

1. Preview our Donors' Choose page where you will find projects and the costs to fulfill them. Then you can choose to DONATE toward your favorite project if you can afford to give the gift of learning.

I have chosen a few projects that I think will have a great impact on 21st century work force skills.

Do you see other projects you would like me to add to our page? If so, drop me a comment and I will post it right away.

2. Secondly, send an email to your friends and family about our special page... the page for the "little guys." Come on... it is a game and games are fun!

C lick here for a direct link to send everyone to our donor’s page.

3. Finally, if you have a blog or website, add this widget to promote the blog challenge that is raising money to make our education system stronger.

Click here for our widget in a longer version.

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The law of attraction: When you give... you get!

Meet us at the Indy Baby Expo...as we inspire parents to inspire their young children

2008-09-06T16:30:00.003-04:00

Wiggle Giggle Learn is a gold sponsor for the fall Indy Baby Expo (October 11th and 12th, 2008) in Indianapolis, Indiana. We look forward to meeting with parents to discuss early learning and how inspiring youngsters to dream and imagine is far more important than overscheduling little ones with "classes" that keep them mostly "inside the box."

There are so many ways we can find more time in our days because time is infinite - isn't it? Time doesn't stop - does it? Many parents outsource everything, including parental duties due to a lack of "time." This is shortchanging our children and creating a society where things, events and work are more important than relationships. Your relationship with your child must be nurtured by you. Buying him toys or movies or taking him to "baby classes" doesn't develop a relationship. Many times these are the very things that corrode a relationship because someone must work harder to financially pay for all of those things. What does this leave the family with? You got it... less TIME.

Wiggle Giggle Learn wants to help parents get back to giving 100% to their family instead of whatever is leftover when you get home from work and other

Executive Function and Academic Achievement

2008-09-04T12:14:00.007-04:00

A super article for anyone working with or parenting a young child today!

Improving Academic Achievement - Executive Function Could Hold the Secret (copyrights belong to www.openeducation.net)

One relatively new topic for educators should have many elementary school teachers rethinking their basic classroom approach, especially those who work with children in the earliest grades.

The concept, dubbed executive function by experts, has actually been around for the better part of 20 years. However, the topic did not really hit mainstream America until Wray Herbert’s in depth look at the concept this summer at Newsweek.com.

Read more of this great blog post at Openeducation.net
Where they believe in free education for all!

Need your kids to play while you work?

2008-08-26T12:07:00.003-04:00

Trying to finish work at home but interruptions from little ones continue to get in the way? Try creating a treasure box for those times when you need uninterrupted time (30 minutes or less for young children). Fill this special box or basket with fun activities that your child can do by himself. Coloring books, crayons and special toys he doesn’t get to play with at any other time will make the treasure box special. Your child will love “plundering” as if he is shopping in a dollar store for new treasures. Make it clear that the treasure box is for special times and can’t be played with by mom or dad. It isn’t a time for your child to “show” you his new things. You must practice using the treasure box a few times and be sure to praise his ability to play independently with the box. Over time he will begin to associate his treasure box with “helping” mom or dad.

A word of caution – The treasure box only works if it seen as very special, so don’t overuse it or it will stop working. Now that you have a few tricks up your sleeve, I hope you’re able to meet that deadline.

Toys and our children

2008-08-21T16:43:00.004-04:00

Plastic toys are toxic to the environment and they are unnecessary for the fulfillment of childhood play. Until the mid-20th Century, inexpensive plastic toys were virtually non-existent, yet brilliant children developed into fine citizens and our world flourished. What seems to have been lost by Western society over in the past fifty years is the wonderful experience of kids playing with each other and inventing their own games and toys.

Market-driven plastic toy products are replacing self-directed and creative play. Play has become a multi-level branding opportunity for manufacturers and entertainment giants. Huge effort is devoted to gaining the support of consumers-in-training, a.k.a. kids.

What can be done in a world where plastic toys are not going away? We must acknowledge the high costs to our planet and the costs to our children’s skill development in the 21^st century. We must contribute less to the manufacturer of plastic toys, which will in turn decrease the burden on our air and water quality, energy and waste management systems and climate.

The development of creativity from exploration ultimately contributes to a child’s problem-solving capabilities but these skills are being nurtured by plastic toys that work for the child. The child must engage the imagination and use objects in a variety of ways. In schools today we can already see the loss of innovation that our kids will deliver as adults when it is their turn to run the planet. These so-called “awesome new toys” are developing children with low-level skills and cluttering our environment.

1. Playmates should be more important than play things.

2. Teach your children that their imaginations are more fun than most toys. They will explore more and think at a deeper level as natural problem-solvers.

3. Teach your children to recycle - a valuable lesson for their future

4. Limit plug time – replace television, computer time and video games with board games, outdoor activities, books and conversation

5. Discover the adventures waiting for you in different types of nature. Kids love surprises and they will love scavenging for new things.

6. Reuse your stuff by creating an “imagination box” for your child to play pretend with a variety of used clothes, shoes, steering wheels, paper towel tubes, tissue boxes, spoons, etc…

7. Spend at least a half-hour with your children playing actively with simple toys like balls and ropes.

8. Read a story.

Are all kids with behavior problems ADD or ADHD?

2008-08-18T15:43:00.001-04:00

Absolutely not and if the truth be told, nearly 70% of those diagnosed also don’t have ADD or ADHD. The first point I want to make is that labeling parents with ADD or ADHD children as bad parents is wrong. Children with behavioral issues may have these issues for a variety of reasons and these parents already harbor guilt and anxiety about the behaviors.

It is my personal opinion that we are raising a society full of extrinsically motivated children who live in over-stimulated environments with hyperactive schedules. Never before have children been carted off to as many “baby/toddler/preschooler classes” and given so many “things” to stimulate their learning. What do they observe all day? Action, lights, clutter and noise… and we wonder why the USA produces and consume over 80% of the world’s Ritalin supply.

Children react to the environments, stimulation and structure around them. If the child is used to consistency (working within a predictable schedule) and calm voices with very little distractions, then they will more than likely be calm, organized children. However, let’s say they have on-the-go parents who shuffle them from place to place, well then, those children will probably be less settled, hurrying around and distracted because of the lack of predictability.

Our consumer-driven society has led to many of the behavior problems in our children. These problems are easy to fix.

We need to pay more attention to our children than they pay to the television set.
We need to reduce the clutter and over-stimulation in their environments.
We need to settle down and give children more time to learn and grow with natural things in their environments and with lots of conversation between the child and parent.
We need to stop buying into the marketing ploys used by companies to sell “things” that are unhealthy for our children’s mental and emotional health. “Things” create selfish, ungrateful and entitled individuals who show little respect for those “things” because they see them as consumable/replaceable.

Environmental education for our children's future

2008-08-15T15:40:00.000-04:00

The "No Child Left Behind Act," has most schools so focused on new testing and curriculum requirements (in language and math) that environmental education is being pushed out of our schools. Hands-on, experience-based environmental education can reconnect kids to the natural world. It will help prepare our children for jobs in environmental fields of the future. We must demand that our children receive a well-rounded curriculum that includes real life experiences.

As a result, the U.S. Congress is working to pass the "No Child Left Inside Act" to get our young people learning outside and reconnected with nature through environmental education. Senator Jack Reed from Rhode Island and Congressman John Sarbanes from Maryland are the lead sponsors of the No Child Left Inside legislation.

The No Child Left Inside coalition also recently released a compelling video where you can see firsthand how environmental education is connecting children with the natural world. Go ahead and join the coalition today! Tell your congressmen and women how you feel about narrow focus of “No Child Left Behind.”

Sesame Street is getting better all the time!

2008-08-14T13:37:00.004-04:00

I am so excited about the newest website by Sesame Street - www.SesameStreet.org

SesameStreet.org is in BETA form right now, which means it is just getting started, may have a few bugs, run a little slower sometimes or have pages down for repair but your use and feedback will help clear all technical issues and your child will have lots of fun, too!

They have some very cool features, including over 3,000 Sesame videos and 1,000 Sesame playlists, parenting and caregiver tips, over 400 Flash-based mini-games and almost 90 full games, educational interactive activities, and a free weekly newsletter for parents offering information on upcoming events.

Go check it out and bookmark it for lots of future learning fun! Oh yeah, and tell your friends about it too! Who doesn't love Sesame Street? I've been a Big Bird fan my whole life! If you want to see the Sesame Street characters live, plan your next family vacation to Sesame Place - what a cool place to take the kids!

Are you smarter than an 8th grader?

2008-08-14T13:02:00.001-04:00

Take the Strong American Schools Quiz and find out!

See how well you do on the quiz and then compare yourself and chidren in the United States to children around the world.

Don't like what you see? Tell your governor, your local, state, and national elected representatives that you want a change for stronger schools.

We are only as strong as our schools, and our schools are failing our children.

Make your voice heard.

About Strong American Schools

Strong American Schools, a project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, is a nonpartisan campaign supported by The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation promoting sound education policies for all Americans. SAS does not support or oppose any candidate for public office and does not take positions on legislation.