Why Teaching Kindness in Schools Is Essential to Reduce Bullying

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Edutopia – Lisa Currie

Phrases like “random acts of kindness” and “pay it forward” have become popular terms in modern society. This could perhaps be best explained by those who have identified a deficiency in their lives that can only be fulfilled by altruism.

It seems there are good reasons why we can’t get enough of those addictive, feel-good emotions, as scientific studies prove there are many physical, emotional, and mental health benefits associated with kindness.

As minds and bodies grow, it’s abundantly clear that children require a healthy dose of the warm-and-fuzzies to thrive as healthy, happy, well-rounded individuals.

Patty O’Grady, PhD, an expert in neuroscience, emotional learning, and positive psychology, specializes in education. She reports:

Kindness changes the brain by the experience of kindness. Children and adolescents do not learn kindness by only thinking about it and talking about it. Kindness is best learned by feeling it so that they can reproduce it.

A great number of benefits have been reported to support teaching kindness in schools, best summed up by the following.

Happy, Caring Children

The good feelings that we experience when being kind are produced by endorphins. They activate areas of the brain that are associated with pleasure, social connection, and trust. These feelings of joyfulness are proven to be contagious, encouraging more kind behavior (also known as altruism) by the giver and recipient. Acts of kindness help us form connections with others which are reported to be a strong factor in increasing happiness.

Greater Sense of Belonging and Improved Self-Esteem

Studies show that people experience a “helper’s high” when they do a good deed. This rush of endorphins creates a lasting sense of pride, well-being, and an enriched sense of belonging. It’s reported that even small acts of kindness heighten our sense of well-being, increase energy, and give a wonderful feeling of optimism and self worth.

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by MindMake via MindMake Blog

Five Emerging Trends For Innovative Tech In Education

Is Technology Distracting You Or Your Children From Vital Sleep?

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Eileen Burns

With the explosion of modern technology has came a saturation of technology and media that is stressing us out, affecting our health and wellbeing, particularly our sleep.

We now have generations of children and adults glued to their mobile phones, laptops. ipads or xbox…late in the wee evenings, when we should be tucked up in bed having sweet dreams.

Instead many of us are  glued to social media, tv or online games such as facebook, candycrush … A generation over stimulated with not enough quality sleep are falling asleep to electromagentic radiation with kindles, mobile phones…

Other than the obvious DNA dangers of radiation from all the gadgets now plugged in or homes that aren’t turned off at night, the health risks are extremely concerning.

Generations no longer know how to SWITCH off, relax and go to bed feeling RELAXED. Instead they fall asleep often over stimulated, exhausted, irritable, to often the over stimulation of what they have been viewing.

Sleep Cycles are so easily affected especially in children and teens who need adequate sleep for repair and growth. So easily knocked off with the glare of a computer or ipad screen, especially children and teens who require enough sleep for necessary repair and growth.

So many of us are dropping off to sleep with graphic, violent or heart racing images from late night tv, instead of the nice, quiet, soothing, natural nightime environment that helps us get the GOOD QUALITY sleep we deserve and that is required to restore and repair the body, to face the day happy, healthy and refreshed.

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by MindMake via MindMake Blog

Toy Subscription Services That Make Your Kid Smarter And Save You Money

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Fatherly – Steve Schiff

You’re already subscribed to monthly boxes that keep your sock game strong and your dog’s breath fresh, certainly your kids deserve the same personal shopper treatment. Of course, you could probably just curate highly personalized, monthly crates of toys, games, projects, and activities that teach them about global cultures, STEM, coding, building, sustainability, art, and any other interest little kids can dream up. You have plenty of time for that, right?

If You Don’t Mind A Little Mess

Promote your little maker’s STEM skills with creativity kits from Green Kid Crafts, like a basil and sprout gardening kit, or that timeless classic: the baking soda volcano. Depending on your child’s age, each box of 4-6 kits is either an opportunity for quality time together or an effective way to absorb their attention for a few hours while you get some work done.
Green Kid Crafts ($20 monthly, $19 for 6 months, $18 for 12 months)
Ages: 3-10

If You Believe Adventure Can Come In A Box

As seen on Shark Tank, Surprise Ride delivers a monthly “adventure” in the form of activities, lessons, instructions, fun facts, and snacks curated around a random theme. Your kid will know about everything from Amelia Earhart to bees, dragons, and Paris, all without ever thumbing through a World Book. Do they even make the World Book anymore? Doesn’t matter, you were in at “snacks.”
Surprise Ride ($30 monthly, $25 for 6 or 12 months)
Ages: 6-11

If Your Home Is Absolutely Out Of Space

Each Sparkbox offers 4 educational toys and games, curated based on an age-appropriate “curriculum” designed to promote play between you and your kid. At the end of each period, you return the products (free of charge) and receive a new box. Theoretically, this would let you get rid of the horde of misfit toys currently occupying your house. Good luck with that.
Sparkbox ($35 monthly, $20 bi-monthly)
Ages: 0-4

If You Want Your Kid To Invent The Future (Or At Least Work In It)

Bitsbox delivers a new set of coding projects every month that allow kids to build real apps for real devices (in real life, despite being originally launched on Kickstarter). Because toys that teach coding are awesome, but an ongoing subscription service will keep your kid interested in coding long enough to land them one of those crazy future jobs that don’t exist yet.
Bitsbox ($20 monthly PDF, $40 month to month, $35 for 3 months, $30 for 12 months)
Ages: 6-12

If You Just Want To Get To The LEGOs Already

LEGOs are the greatest, but they’re also expensive. With Pley’s monthly subscriptions, you can get more than 400 different kits — all über sanitized, because kids are the greatest, but they’re also gross — delivered directly to your door. They won’t even charge you for lost pieces, because you’ll eventually step on them and that’s punishment enough.
Pley ($20 for ‘Easy’ and ‘Medium’ toys, $50 for ‘Easy,’ ‘Medium,’ and ‘Advanced’)
Ages: 2-You

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by MindMake via MindMake Blog

3 Destructive Things School Taught You Without You Even Realizing It

Toddlers, TV and Touchscreens: Arguments For and Against

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NurseryWorld – Prof Annette Karmiloff-Smith and Dr Richard House

Do ICT and multimedia in the early years have positive potential, or are they a danger to development? Here, two experts make their case.

FOR

Touchscreens and TV are here to stay, so let’s explore their positive features, says Professor Annette Karmiloff-Smith, Birkbeck Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, University of London

Touchscreen use is growing at a phenomenal rate. A recent survey indicates that UK family ownership of touchscreens increased from 7 per cent in 2011 to a whopping 71 per cent in 2014 (Ofcom, 2014), with the likelihood of it soon reaching nearly 100 per cent. Instead of indulging in emotional reactions about the potential negative influence of touchscreens, let’s explore their potential positive impact on child development.

What makes touchscreen devices different from other toys? Why are infants and toddlers (and older children) so fascinated by them? Why are children with ADHD quietly focused when using touchscreens (Stevens and Muslow, 2006)? Unlike passive TV watching, the child’s active interaction with touchscreen devices generates dynamic, contingent, audiovisual sensory stimulation.

The variety, frequency and complexity of the contingent responses from touchscreen devices far exceeds anything that books or traditional toys provide. These are facts that cannot be ignored even if, as parents and teachers, we do not welcome the ways in which touchscreen devices are engulfing childhood activities. In fact, touchscreen devices may actually generate heightened levels of cognitive activity compared to books and other toys.

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AGAINST

We have to proceed with caution to avoid a developmental catastrophe, says Dr Richard House, academic, chartered psychologist and campaigner on early childhood

As last month marked the 70th anniversary of the nuclear incineration of Hiroshima, Japan, and its 140,000 population, I begin by mentioning the recent open letter, signed by Professors Stephen Hawking and Noam Chomsky and thousands of others, making a formidable ethical case for an international ban of ‘killer robots’ with AI.

Their plea graphically illustrates how we cannot assume that technological and scientific ‘progress’ is always necessarily beneficent for humankind. This needs spelling out because I so often hear a refrain of helpless resignation about ICT – for example, ‘Well, it’s part of the modern world, so we just have to accept it and work with it.’

I profoundly disagree. Unthought-through ideological commitments to technology are extremely dangerous. It’s an empirical and a developmental question as to whether ICT is appropriate for young children, and never something that we should blindly accept through robotic adherence to the new cultural myth that technology is always and necessarily a progressive force.

UNNECESSARY …

A simple way to summarise the arguments against early ICT is to say that in early childhood, it is unnecessary, inappropriate, and harmful.

Unnecessary: children will learn any ICT-related skills far more easily when their fine motor skills are well developed – and by then, many current technologies will likely be redundant anyway.

Inappropriate: is it necessary or appropriate for children’s early learning to be ‘accelerated’? Many authorities are fundamentally questioning this common assumption.

Harmful: apart from the alarming research findings reviewed by psychologist Dr Aric Sigman on ICT’s negative health effects (see ‘More information’), a core aspect of early experience is learning to be human. The real, human-relational and natural world is challenging for all human beings to understand. To confuse children when they have hardly begun to get a handle on this world, by introducing them to virtual, techno-magical worlds, is surely an absurd reversal of the natural order of things.

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What To Do When Your Kid Is The Bully?

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Parents.com – Suzanne Peck

Here’s what to do if your kid turns out to be the bully at school.

It usually starts with a phone call from the school: Your child’s in trouble for bullying. “Ninety-nine percent of parents will say, ‘No way, not my kid’ and get defensive,” says Jennifer Cannon, a family therapist in Newport Beach, California. “But every kid is capable of bullying, even the kid you think is an angel.” So why do kids bully? Ronald Mah, a family therapist in San Leandro, California and author of Getting Beyond Bullying and Exclusion PreK-5, describes two distinct reasons why kids bully. “One reason is when popular and powerful children use bullying to maintain their power and popularity. The other reason is when children who experience a sense of deprivation feel entitled to bully other kids; that is, ‘I’ve been dealt a bad hand, so the rules don’t apply to me.’ or ‘I’ve been picked on, so I’ll get to them before they get to me.'” Kids also observe examples of bullying behavior every day through media, politics, TV reality shows, other kids at school, and even family dynamics. They may not understand that such behaviors are not acceptable anywhere.

• Get to the Root of Your Kid’s Bullying Problem
• The 4 Common Types of Bullying

Just take a deep breath, gather details about what exactly transpired, and let the school know that you want to work together for a positive outcome. At the same time, make sure that your child is treated fairly regarding school discipline. For example, new federal data shows that students of color and students with disabilities are disciplined much more frequently and more harshly, with suspensions as early as preschool. Assess your child’s actions without rushing to judgment and focus on understanding the behavior that’s involved before deciding on the appropriate consequences. The good news is that kids can unlearn bullying behaviors, and you can help them change their ways.

What to Do If Your Child Is Bullying Others

Acknowledge the Behavior

Sit down with your child, speak in a calm, firm tone, and ask him what happened and why he behaved a certain way. Be a good listener and avoid blame. Kids need to understand that it’s okay to admit they made a mistake. Ask questions to help him understand how his behavior affects others: “Is what you did respectful? Did it hurt someone? Would you want someone to do that to you?” Emphasize fair treatment of all people by saying, “We don’t behave that way in this family because we respect other people, and we don’t want other people to treat us that way,” suggests Walter Roberts, a professor of counselor education at Minnesota State University, Mankato and author of Working With Parents of Bullies and Victims.

• How to Deal With School Bullies

Focus on Consequences

Help your child understand that she is accountable for her actions. “Outline and follow through with consequences for bullying behavior. Write them out, review them once a week, and enforce them,” Cannon advises. Depending on the circumstances, you can eliminate something your child cherishes so the consequence will be significant, such taking away your child’s cell phone, eliminating or reducing TV or video game time, or preventing participation in a social outing. Or, better yet, turn the bullying incident into a teachable moment by discussing positive ways your child can handle future situations that lead to good consequences. Have your child write a paragraph describing what it would feel like to be in the other child’s shoes or write an apology letter.

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by MindMake via MindMake Blog