Posted by Teacher Ria in Multimedia Center, Teaching Resources, Toys and Playthings | 1 Comment

Over-gadgeted Kids

A few days ago, I was in one of those gadget stores in a mall and I saw a kid, about three or four years old if I’m not mistaken, pull her mom to the displays and say, ” Mama, buy ipod touch“. A few minutes later, she walked out of the store with her very own “toy”.

Hmmm…some parents would frown upon such a behavior, but for me (okay, I may not be a mom, but… ) I think it CAN be a good thing. Granted it isn’t ALWAYS a good thing, I think it has limitless potentials. When my fellow teacher friends and I were discussing it, we talked about how different it is not to educate young kids. We now have so many modern ways of teaching the basic academic competencies, many of which were unavailable when we were starting out.

As I have said many times over in this blog alone, modern technology continues to evolve and new gadgets will continue to be invented. We can’t fight that, and so the best thing we can do is not just over-gadget our kids, but to make sure we find the potential of each of these gadgets to do good for our kids. Maybe I think that way because in a way, my mom indulged me with gadgets as well, but to be honest, it was through those gadgets that I learned many, many things.

Some guidelines, I think, that can be helpful are the following:

• set a “gadget schedule”  which allows you to monitor the amount of time spent on such activities
• enroll your kids in more “active” activities, such as sports and the like so they have alternative activities too.
• utilize the gadgets as educational tools by downloading educational apps and ebooks
• monitor, monitor, monitor their activities on the gadgets

Have fun

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Summer Fun Activities

One of the most difficult things to do during the summer break is to keep kids entertained. Sure there are lots of activities they can do, but many times, the weather makes it almost impossible to entice the kids out of their rooms, right? Or at least away from the television haha. Sometimes even the kids enrolled in our summer program get soooo super lazy to do anything because of the heat. I noticed, however, that the younger children are more easily swayed when it comes to doing activities especially if it’s fun and games.

Here are a few suggestions on how to get kids to beat the lazy summer blues away:

• Go on a nature walk. A few days ago we were walking by the park and we saw the village maintenance people cutting the grass with their weed whackers and clearing up fallen leaves with those shindaiwa blowers. We were able to talk about how plants grow, pick some leaves and flowers up for hand made paper and even talk about the senses with a discussion on how they liked (or disliked) the smell of fresh cut grass
• Do a recycling project. Use old juice boxes or milk cartons to make bird feeders, for example. During the summer it is  a good time to do some home cleaning after all.
• Avoid TOO MUCH ACADEMIC TASKS. Errr..it’s summer. Maybe the formal reading, writing and math tasks can be lessened a little bit, at least until about two weeks before summer ends. Let’s not forget that play is still important, right?

Any other suggestions? Maybe next time I can come up with a list of things to do…but it’s summer and teacher is on vacay too haha

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Rodrick Rules: The Diary of a Wimpy Kid returns to Cinemas

It’s been a long, hot summer for many and I’m sure right about now kids around the city are getting bored and restless, looking for something fun to do. Well, a quick trip to the movies will surely be one way to beat the summer heat.

Returning to the theaters this summer are the familiar characters from last years “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”. This year, the kids have grown a little bigger and are facing new challenges. Based on Jeff Kinney’s novel of the same title, the story gives viewers a refreshing look at brotherhood and family, allowing us to once more, appreciate the true meaning of family.

The movie opened last April 23 and is still showing in cinemas around the city. I enjoyed the movie immensely and it was such a good laugh It definitely is a fun and entertaining film to catch

The teacher in me appreciated how the film can allow us to understand the dynamics of sibling relationships even further and as always, this is a film that will make its way to my repertoire of learning materials.

“Diary of  A Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules” is brought to viewers by 20^th Century Fox and is distributed by Warner Bros.

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Random Thoughts of Summer….

The other day I was sitting in my garden hammock (I was so wishing I had one of those wooden swing sets instead of just a hammock, haha) and I was just thinking about this coming school year and all….

sigh.

Yes, this is me thinking whether my decision to have left the preschool was right or not for me. In my heart of hearts, I know it is right, but there’s a little part of me that still is scared about what lies ahead….

At the end of the day however, I would like to believe that despite my being unsure, everything will fall into place.

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Kids SHOULD be Kids

I have written about this topic several times already but in the wake of the whole Jan Jan incident and the controversial Mc Donalds commercial, I feel it is once more relevant to talk about keeping kids kids. In my developmental psychology class, we discussed this topic at great length and I was surprised at how one of my students said Miss, I can’t believe that my little sister has problems and concerns that I did not even think about until I was in high school!.  All I could say is that she was so right.

There have been so many changes in the way we view and treat children now. We allow them many things that were not allowed in our time. Just take a look at children’s clothing nowadays! One of my pet peeves really are the heels for kids, as I said in a previous post. To be fair, however, there are MANY, MANY clothing companies that still have very age-appropriate apparel for children of all ages.

We also tend to expose children to behaviors and tasks that are not necessarily age appropriate. This is also true about the academic demands we place on them. For one, we expect them to read even before they are ready to. I had so many problems with parents in my preschool about this for the entire 12 years I was teaching! It also gets to me when parents expect children to not be playful and restless and to sit through class for looooong hours. Um…kids, remember?

Sigh. Let’s let kids be kids.

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