Turn Off TV To Teach Toddlers New Words

Toddlers learn their first words better from people than from Teletubbies, according to new research at Wake Forest University.

Children younger than 22 months may be entertained, but they do not learn words from the television program, said Marina Krcmar, associate professor of communication at Wake Forest and author of the study.
"With the tremendous success of programs such as 'Teletubbies' that target very young children, it has become important to understand what very young children are taking away from these programs," Krcmar said. "We would like to think it could work, that Teletubbies and other programs can teach initial language skills. That is not true."
In the study, Krcmar evaluated the ability of children ages 15 -- 24 months to learn new words when the words were presented as part of a "Teletubbies" program. She then evaluated their ability to learn the new words from an adult speaker in the same room with them.
Children younger than 22 months did not accurately identify an object when taught the new word by the television program, but they were readily able to connect the word with the object when the word was presented by an adult standing in front of them, she said.
"During the early stages of language acquisition, and for children who still have fewer than 50-word vocabularies, toddlers learn more from an adult speaker than they do from a program such as 'Teletubbies,'" Krcmar said.
The results of this study have important implications for language acquisition. It indicates exposure to language via television is insufficient for teaching language to very young children. To learn new words, children must be actively engaged in the process with responsive language teachers.
"We have known for years that children ages 3 and older can learn from programs like 'Sesame Street,'" Krcmar said. But, it seems television programming for children under the age of 2 does not help build vocabulary.

The results confirm the recommendation of the Academy of Pediatrics to avoid television for children under 2 years old.
As part of the study, Krcmar also found that the children were just as attentive to an adult speaker on the small screen as they were to the Teletubbies characters. And, the children identified the target words more successfully in response to a video of an adult speaker than to the Teletubbies.
"The idea that television can help teach young children their first words is a parent's dream, but one not supported by this research," she said.
The study was published in the June 21 issue of Media Psychology.




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Recall

NEWS from CPSC
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Office of Information and Public Affairs
Washington, DC 20207

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 7, 2008
Release #09-003

Firm's Recall Hotline: (800) 934-4497
CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908

Children's Necklaces, CD and MP3 Players Sold at Limited Too and Justice Stores Recalled by Tween Brands Due to Violation of Lead Paint Standard

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Products: Children's Ball and Heart Necklaces, Portable CD and MP3 Players

Units: About 12,000

Importer: Tween Brands Inc., of New Albany, Ohio

Hazard: Surface coatings on these products could contain excessive levels of lead, violating the federal lead paint standard.

Incidents/Injuries: None reported.

Description: This recall involves a Ball and Heart Necklace with pink beads of varying sizes and a pink heart located in the center; a Portable CD Player with flowers and dots available in blue and pink; a pink MP3 Player with purple, green, blue, yellow, and red hearts; and a light blue MP3 Player with a picture of a monkey's face on the front.

Sold at: Limited Too and Justice retail stores nationwide, the Limited Too catazine (catalog), and on www.limitedtoo.com from May 2007 through August 2008. The Ball and Heart Necklace sold for about $8, the Portable CD Players sold for about $25, and the MP3 Players sold for about $55.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should immediately take these recalled products away from children and return them to any Limited Too or Justice store for a full refund and a coupon for a 15% discount off a future purchase.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, call Tween Brands at (800) 934-4497 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday or visit the firm's Web sites at www.limitedtoo.com and www.shopjustice.com

********************************************************


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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from more than 15,000 types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction. Deaths, injuries and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the nation more than $800 billion annually. The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard or can injure children. The CPSC's work to ensure the safety of consumer products - such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals - contributed significantly to the 30 percent decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years.

To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury, call CPSC's hotline at (800) 638-2772 or CPSC's teletypewriter at (800) 638-8270, or visit CPSC's web site at www.cpsc.gov/talk.html. To join a CPSC email subscription list, please go to www.cpsc.gov/cpsclist.aspx. Consumers can obtain this release and recall information at CPSC's Web site at www.cpsc.gov.

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Baby Einsteins: Not So Smart After All

The claim always seemed too good to be true: park your infant in front of a video and, in no time, he or she will be talking and getting smarter than the neighbor's kid. In the latest study on the effects of popular videos such as the "Baby Einstein" and "Brainy Baby" series, researchers find that these products may be doing more harm than good. And they may actually delay language development in toddlers.


Led by Frederick Zimmerman and Dr. Dimitri Christakis, both at the University of Washington, the research team found that with every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants learned six to eight fewer new vocabulary words than babies who never watched the videos. These products had the strongest detrimental effect on babies 8 to 16 months old, the age at which language skills are starting to form. "The more videos they watched, the fewer words they knew," says Christakis. "These babies scored about 10% lower on language skills than infants who had not watched these videos."

It's not the first blow to baby videos, and likely won't be the last. Mounting evidence suggests that passive screen sucking not only doesn't help children learn, but could also set back their development. Last spring, Christakis and his colleagues found that by three months, 40% of babies are regular viewers of DVDs, videos or television; by the time they are two years old, almost 90% are spending two to three hours each day in front of a screen. Three studies have shown that watching television, even if it includes educational programming such as Sesame Street, delays language development. "Babies require face-to-face interaction to learn," says Dr. Vic Strasburger, professor of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. "They don't get that interaction from watching TV or videos. In fact, the watching probably interferes with the crucial wiring being laid down in their brains during early development." Previous studies have shown, for example, that babies learn faster and better from a native speaker of a language when they are interacting with that speaker instead of watching the same speaker talk on a video screen. "Even watching a live person speak to you via television is not the same thing as having that person in front of you," says Christakis.

This growing evidence led the Academy to issue its recommendation in 1999 that no child under two years old watch any television. The authors of the new study might suggest reading instead: children who got daily reading or storytelling time with their parents showed a slight increase in language skills.

Though the popular baby videos and DVDs in the Washington study were designed to stimulate infants' brains, not necessarily to promote language development, parents generally assume that the products' promises to make their babies smarter include improvement of speaking skills. But, says Christakis, "the majority of the videos don't try to promote language; they have rapid scene changes and quick edits, and no appearance of the 'parent-ese' type of speaking that parents use when talking to their babies."

As far as Christakis and his colleagues can determine, the only thing that baby videos are doing is producing a generation of overstimulated kids. "There is an assumption that stimulation is good, so more is better," he says. "But that's not true; there is such a thing as overstimulation." His group has found that the more television children watch, the shorter their attention spans later in life. "Their minds come to expect a high level of stimulation, and view that as normal," says Christakis, "and by comparison, reality is boring."


He and other experts worry that the proliferation of these products will continue to displace the one thing that babies need in the first months of life — face time with human beings. "Every interaction with your child is meaningful," says Christakis. "Time is precious in those early years, and the newborn is watching you, and learning from everything you do." So just talk to them; they're listening.




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Evaluating Children In Preschools And Early Childhood Programs

Growing interest in publicly funded programs for young children has drawn attention to whether and how Head Start and other early childhood programs should be asked to prove their worth.

Congress asked the National Research Council for guidance on how to identify important outcomes for children from birth to age 5 and how best to assess them in preschools, child care, and other early childhood programs.
The Research Council's new report concludes that well-planned assessments can inform teaching and efforts to improve programs and can contribute to better outcomes for children, but poor assessments or misuse of the results can harm both children and programs.  The report offers principles to guide the design, implementation, and use of assessments in early childhood settings.  
Federal agencies, states, school systems, and other organizations that evaluate early childhood programs or the children they serve should make the purpose of any assessment explicit and public in advance, the report says.  For example, a state should specify whether an assessment will be used to help teachers gauge the progress of individual children or to help public agencies decide whether to continue a program's funding.
"The goal of the assessment should guide the choice of the assessment tools used, and assessments that will have widespread effects should meet high standards of rigor and validity," said Catherine Snow, a professor at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University and chair of the committee that wrote the report.  "For example, using a standardized test with a sample of children in a program would be suitable if the goal was to determine whether the program is bringing children closer to national norms, but if the purpose is to guide instruction within a specific classroom, a nonstandardized assessment linked to the curriculum would be appropriate."
Effective assessment must be part of a larger system with a strong infrastructure to support children's care and education, the report says.  Facets of this system should include clearly articulated standards for what children should learn and what constitutes a quality program.  Other aspects include professional development opportunities, training to familiarize policymakers, teachers, and administrators with standards and assessments, and continuous monitoring to ensure that all elements of the system are working together to serve the interests of the children.
The report urges extreme caution in basing high-stakes decisions -- such as determining whether a program will receive continued funding or whether a child is eligible for services because of an identified disability -- on assessments of young children.  Models such as those set forth in the No Child Left Behind Act strive to link yearly progress assessments to explicitly defined academic content areas for children in grades three through 12.  It would be inappropriate to borrow this model unchanged and apply it to early childhood settings, the committee said, because well-defined academic content areas are not characteristic of excellent care and education for younger children.
Cutting a program's funding or imposing other negative consequences based on assessments of the participating children should happen only under certain conditions -- if the program has been given enough resources to meet expectations, for example, and if the level of children's development when they entered the program has been taken into account.  Child assessment results should never be the only information considered.  And a program should not be closed or restructured if doing so would have worse consequences for children than leaving it open, the report adds.
Likewise, decisions to penalize a teacher should never rest solely on findings from assessments of students in his or her classroom, without considering children's starting points, how the test is related to the curriculum, and whether the teacher has adequate support, professional development, and other resources.
Programs' quality should be evaluated based not only on how they affect children's academic skills such as language and mathematics, but also on whether they improve other important aspects of child development, such as social and emotional skills, the report says.  While good measures of certain outcomes -- such as literacy and language development -- currently exist, tools to assess other abilities such as problem-solving and creativity remain underdeveloped, and more effort will be required to improve their quality.
In addition, the report notes, some assessment measures have only been tested with populations that do not represent the diversity of children enrolled in today's early childhood programs.  Care should be used in assessing the status or progress of young children with special needs and those for whom English is a second language, because many existing instruments have not demonstrated their validity for these groups.
The report was sponsored by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies.  They are private, nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under a congressional charter.  The Research Council is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.



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Missing Children Success Stories

Abductor Leads Authorities to Missing Children

On April, 24, 2008 a concerned father contacted NCMEC to report his children missing. After receiving proper documentation and photos of the children, a NCMEC poster was created and posted on the NCMEC website, www.missingkids.com. The poster was also disseminated through NCMEC’s corporate photo distribution program in the hope that someone would see the poster and recognize the children.
About a week later, the abductor contacted NCMEC; at which time, the Call Center took a lead on the case. Utilizing information from that lead, a search was conducted and a location was obtained. The information was passed on to law enforcement, who acted on the information and recovered the children in Colorado. The abductor was arrested and the children are in good condition.

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Child Located After Three-Year Investigation

A detective with the Central Point Police Department in Central Point,OR contacted NCMEC on February 1, 2005 to report that a 17-year-old girl had run away from her foster home. After law enforcement obtained the proper documentation and a photograph of the child, a poster was created featuring the child. The poster was posted on NCMEC's website at www.missingkids.com and distributed in the areas where law enforcement believed the child may travel.
NCMEC continued to work with law enforcement over the next three years to distribute posters, run public database searches, and disseminate information received about the child. A breakthrough in the case came on December 12, 2007, when law enforcement learned the child may have been arrested, but provided an alias name at the time of her arrest. Using both the descriptive information of the child and the arrest photo, law enforcement went to NCMEC's website and compared the information to NCMEC's poster of the child. The photo of the child was then forwarded to the searching mother, who confirmed that it was in fact the missing child. The child was recovered on February 27, 2008.

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15-Year-Old Recognized from NCMEC Poster in Nail Salon
A father called NCMEC’s Call Center on September 23, 2007 to report his 15-year-old daughter missing. The child left her house to walk to a high school football game and school dance but never arrived. When the child did not return home later that night, the father became concerned and contacted law enforcement and NCMEC.
NCMEC obtained a photo of the child and created a poster to distribute. Posters were disseminated through ChoicePoint’s ADAM Broadcast fax program, one of NCMEC’s Photo Partners, to various businesses within a 20-mile radius of Santa Ana, Calif.
A detective with the Garden Grove Police Department in Garden Grove, Calif. worked with NCMEC to follow up on leads received by NCMEC’s Call Center over the following two months. A break in the case came when the child was recognized by employees of a nail salon from a poster sent to the business by ChoicePoint.
The child was recovered safely by law enforcement on November 11, 2007.

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Father Reunited with Daughter Missing for 25 Days
A father contacted NCMEC on October 16, 2007 for help in recovering his 10-year-old daughter. The child’s mother had abducted her from the Cayman Islands and fled to the United States, where the mother had relocated eight years earlier after leaving the child behind with her father.
Before contacting NCMEC, the child’s father obtained an emergency order from the local family court granting him full rights to the child and declaring the Cayman Islands the child's habitual residence.
Three days after receiving the case, a case manager with NCMEC's International Missing Children Division coordinated search efforts with the Cayman Police, the U.S. Secret Service, and the Virginia State Police, which ultimately led authorities to the location of the child and mother. The father worked with an attorney from NCMEC's International Child Abduction Attorney Network (ICAAN), a group of attorneys who volunteer to represent left-behind parents of children from other countries who have been wrongfully removed from or retained in the United States, to assist him in registering his Cayman order with the local U.S. court.
The father's U.S. attorney registered the Cayman custody decree under Virginia's UCCJEA (Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act) on November 3, 2007 and obtained an emergency pick up order from the local family courts. That same evening, county police officers executed the order, and upon service of the court papers, the mother agreed to return the child and not to contest the court's decision. The father was reunited with his daughter 25 days after she had been wrongfully removed, and they returned safely to the Cayman Islands.

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Child Returned to Dominican Republic After Abduction to the U.S.
A father in the Dominican Republic contacted officials at the U.S. Embassy in Santo-Domingo in June 2007 to ask for help in locating his 7-year-old daughter who had been abducted to the U.S. by her mother earlier that year. Familiar with NCMEC's resources and expertise in international family abductions, the U.S. consular officer immediately contacted NCMEC's International Missing Children Division (IMCD).
Working closely with the searching-father, a case manager with NCMEC's IMCD coordinated efforts with Interpol officials in the U.S. and the Dominican Republic, as well as with agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Embassy, and the U.S. Department of State. With the help of the Georgia Clearinghouse, NCMEC located the child and the abductor through school searches.
A Dominican court awarded the father provisional custody of the child in August 2007, and an attorney from NCMEC's pro bono network, the International Child Abduction Attorney Network (ICAAN), agreed to assist the father with his case. NCMEC worked closely with the father and his attorney to coordinate travel to and court dates in the U.S.
Four months after NCMEC received the case a U.S. judge scheduled an emergency hearing and ordered the child to be picked up by the U.S. Marshals. On October 19, 2007, the court ordered the child be returned to the Dominican Republic. The father and child were happily reunited, and on October 22, 2007, they traveled safely back to their home in the Dominican Republic.


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NetSmartz411

Have questions about how to keep kids safer on the Internet? NetSmartz411
is here to help!

NetSmartz411 is a first-of-its-kind, online service provided
by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to
answer questions about Internet safety, computers, and the Web. NetSmartz411
is provided at no cost to the public and made possible by a generous donation
from the Qwest Foundation.
The general public — especially
parents and guardians — can directly access the NetSmartz411 Library
to search for answers to their questions, as well as contact NCMEC experts
to ask specific questions related to online safety and the Internet.
All research and answers provided by NetSmartz411 are prepared by highly
skilled professionals who work in the Exploited Child Unit at NCMEC. These
individuals are rigorously trained to understand the Internet and all areas
of emerging technologies, and are well-versed in the online techniques
used by child predators.
NetSmartz411 is powered by CA’s Unicenter^® Service Desk. In
addition to providing the service management solution, CA provided on-site
technical support to assist NCMEC in the installation and configuration
of NetSmartz411.

Visit NetSmartz411 now! Bookmark it!

NetSmartz411 is an extension of The NetSmartz
Workshop, an interactive, educational safety resource for children aged
5 to 17, parents, guardians, educators, and law enforcement that uses age-appropriate,
3-D activities to
teach children how to stay safer on the Internet.

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HISTORIC AGREEMENT WILL STRENGTHEN THE FIGHT AGAINST CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

Agreement Will Help Reduce the Proliferation of Child Pornography Online

Washington, DC – Cable operators that bring Internet service to 87 percent of homes in the United States will take additional voluntary measures to limit the distribution of child pornography on the Internet under an agreement announced today among the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), and the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG).
Under the unprecedented industry-wide agreement, all cable operators represented on NCTA’s Board of Directors have agreed to help reduce the proliferation of child pornography by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with NCMEC.  This commitment represents the largest number of broadband subscribers protected by the terms of the MOU as these operators offer broadband Internet service to more than 112 million homes.   
"Building on our strong commitment to online safety, the cable industry wants to help combat child pornography and exploitation," said Kyle McSlarrow, President & CEO, NCTA.  “By signing the NCMEC MOU, cable Internet service providers are reaffirming their strong commitment to online safety and Internet literacy for all American families."
"We are deeply grateful for this industry-wide attack on child pornography," said Ernie Allen, President & CEO, NCMEC. "It is not possible to arrest and prosecute every offender.  We must be creative and build new public-private partnerships to address this insidious problem more effectively.  Today's announcement represents a bold step forward."
On behalf of NAAG and the 45 Attorneys General who have signed a letter in support of the NCTA-NCMEC MOU, Rhode Island Attorney General and NAAG President Patrick C. Lynch commended NCMEC and NCTA on the agreement.
“Although NCMEC has recently signed similar agreements with individual companies, this agreement is notable as the first such agreement NCMEC has reached with an entire sector of the nation’s communications industry,” Lynch wrote.  “The NCTA agreement with NCMEC will limit the ability of predators to store and exchange images of exploitation of those who are, by definition, among the more vulnerable in society.  We congratulate the cable industry for taking a strong stand in support of child safety.”
Specifically, the cable companies have agreed to use NCMEC's list of active websites identified as containing child pornography, to ensure that no such site is hosted on servers owned or controlled by those companies. The companies will also report these instances to NCMEC's CyberTipline and where appropriate revise their policies around other potential sources of child pornography, such as, for example, newsgroups.
The agreement with NCMEC will provide cable broadband service providers with an invaluable source of information to help them enforce their terms of service, all of which forbid the hosting of such illegal materials on their servers.  The information provided by NCMEC to cable service providers will also help them identify instances of child pornography, facilitating their reporting of such material to NCMEC as required by federal law.  This in turn enables NCMEC to refer these cases to law enforcement for investigation and prosecution.
The cable operators that have agreed to execute the MOU within 30 days include: Comcast Corporation; Cox Communications; Charter Communications; Cablevision Systems Corporation; Bright House Networks; Suddenlink Communications; Mediacom Communications; Insight Communications; Bresnan Communications; Midcontinent Communications; Broadstripe; GCI; Harron Communications; US Cable Corporation; BendBroadband; Eagle Communications; and Sjoberg’s, Inc.  Time Warner Cable has already signed the MOU.
 NCTA’s agreement with NCMEC is the latest milestone in cable’s efforts to ensure online safety and promote Internet literacy for all families and Internet users.  When NCTA launched its PointSmartClickSafe online safety initiative (www.PointSmartClickSafe.org) in June 2007, cable ISPs pledged in a code of conduct to support law enforcement in its efforts to ensure online safety for American families. 

# # #

NCTA is the principal trade association for the U.S. cable industry, representing cable operators serving more than 90 percent of the nation's cable television households and more than 200 cable program networks.  The cable industry is the nation’s largest broadband provider of high-speed Internet access after investing more than $130 billion over ten years to build a two-way interactive network with fiber optic technology.  Cable companies also provide state-of-the-art digital telephone service to millions of American consumers.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.  Since it was established by Congress in 1984, the organization has operated the toll-free 24-hour national missing children’s hotline which has handled more than 2.2 million calls.  It has assisted law enforcement in the recovery of more than 126,000 children.  The organization’s CyberTipline has handled more than 594,000 reports of child sexual exploitation and its Child Victim Identification program has analyzed 14,437,865 child pornography images and videos.  The organization works in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) was founded in 1907 to help Attorneys General fulfill the responsibilities of their office and to assist in the delivery of high quality legal services to the states and territorial jurisdictions.  NAAG’s mission is: "To facilitate interaction among Attorneys General as peers. To facilitate the enhanced performance of Attorneys General and their staffs."  NAAG fosters an environment of "cooperative leadership," helping Attorneys General respond effectively - individually and collectively - to emerging state and federal issues



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Know the Rules...For Going To and From School More Safely

Every day millions of children take to the streets and roadways to get to and from school. For many children this experience is a new one, and they may not understand or be able to use the safety rules. Young children do not have the same frame of reference for safety as adults do. They may not “look before they leap,” which is why it is so important for families to supervise young children and practice safety skills with their older children. The tips noted below will help prepare for a safer journey.
Tips for Parents and Guardians

1. Instruct your children to always TAKE A FRIEND and walk and ride in well-lit areas and never take shortcuts or go into isolated areas. When walking and biking teach them to stay aware of their surroundings and observe all traffic rules in place to more safely share the roads and sidewalks with others.
   
   
2. Walk the route to and from school with your children pointing out landmarks and safe places to go if they’re being followed or need help. Make a map with your children showing acceptable routes to and from school. If your children wait for a bus, wait with them or make arrangements for supervision at the bus stop.
   
   
3. If anyone bothers your children while going to or from school, teach them to immediately get away from that person and TELL you or another trusted adult. If an adult approaches your children for help or directions, remember grownups needing help should not ask children for help; they should ask other adults. Instruct your children to never accept money or gifts from anyone unless you have told them it is OKAY to accept in each instance.
   
   
4. Even though there can be more safety in numbers it is still not safe for young children to walk to and from school especially if they must take isolated routes anytime during the day or night. Always provide supervision for your young children to help ensure their safe arrival to and from school.
   
   
5. Instruct your children to leave items and clothing with their name on them at home. If someone they don’t know calls out their name, teach them to not be fooled or confused.
   
   
6. Ensure current and accurate emergency contact information is on file for your children at their school. If you, or another trusted family member or friend, need to pick your children up, make sure to follow the school’s departure procedures. These procedures need to include the school’s confirmation of your children’s departure with only those you authorize to pick them up.
   
   
7. Teach your children if anyone tries to take them somewhere they should quickly get away and yell, “This person is trying to take me away” or “This person is not my father/mother/guardian.” If anyone tries to grab them, teach them to make a scene and every effort to get away by kicking, screaming, and resisting.
   
   
8. Teach your children if anyone follows them on foot to get away from that person as quickly as possible. If anyone follows them in a vehicle they should turn around, go in the other direction, and try to quickly get to a spot where a trusted adult may help them. Advise them to be sure to TELL you or another trusted adult what happened.
   
   
9. Instruct your children to never leave school with anyone they don’t know. If anyone tells them there is an emergency and they want your children to go with them, teach your children to always CHECK FIRST with you before doing anything. Also teach your children to always CHECK FIRST with you if they want to change their plans before or after school. Make sure your children always play with other children, have your permission to play in specific areas, and let you know where they are going to be. Instruct your children to TELL a trusted adult if they notice anyone they don’t know or feel comfortable with hanging around them.
   
   
10. Remember to practice these safety rules with your children to make certain they really know and understand them. Make the walk to and from school a “teachable moment” and chance to put their skills to the test. Teach your children to trust their feelings.

Key Tips to Reinforce With Your Children

1. Always TAKE A FRIEND with you when walking, biking, or standing at the bus stop. Make sure you know your bus number and which bus to ride.
   
   
2. Say NO if anyone you don’t know or a person who makes you feel scared, uncomfortable, or confused offers a ride unless I have told you it is OKAY to do so in each instance.
   
   
3. Quickly get away and yell, “THIS PERSON IS NOT MY MOTHER/FATHER/GUARDIAN” if anyone tries to take you somewhere or is following you. If anyone tries to grab you, make a scene and every effort to get away by kicking, screaming, and resisting.
   
   
4. NEVER LEAVE SCHOOL GROUNDS. Always check with the school office before leaving school.
   
   
5. NEVER take shortcuts or walk through alleys to get to or from school faster. We will talk about which way to go to and from school. Remind me of activities in which you participate causing you to leave earlier or arrive later than usual. Remember to call me once you have arrived home.

For additional information about specific modes of transportation to and from school visit the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov.



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Sorry I have been out of comission!

We had a family trip, I busted my ankle, and we just got busy this month!! Now that is is dying down, I need to write more! I am slacking on my blog 365, and I still have not gotten all my blogs transferred over. I have one a day, or more, everyday since January!!! I wish I could get them all in lol.


So we are back, and I will post more later!



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10 Tips for Parents of School-age Children

1. Read aloud with and to your child every day

  Experts recommend 30 minutes a day
  Pick books that are too long or difficult for your child to read on his own
  Choose genres that your child prefers
2. Create a print rich home environment

  Include both books (and books on tape) and writing materials
  Include newspapers and child-oriented versions of popular magazines (e.g., Time for Kids, National Geographic for Kids)
  Set aside a special reading area in your homeand make sure everyone uses it
3. Model reading and writing

  Make use of the family reading area on your own
  Let your child see you reading for work or to learn something
  Let your child see you reading for pleasure
4. Read and write with your children in your home language

  Let your child see you reading and writing in the language(s) which are most comfortable to you
  Stock your home library with books in English and books in your home language
  Let your child read at home for fun in whichever language she prefers
5.  Cook with your child to develop literacy

  Read recipes together
  Read the labels on ingredients together
  Make a family cookbook of favorite recipes
6.  Explore books together

  Ask your child questions
  Point out new vocabulary and ideas
  Explore the characters motivations and relate them to your familys life
7.  Tell stories together

  Talk together about your family history and perhaps, do a geneology chart
  Look at old vacation photos and discuss your memories of the trip
  Tape your storytelling
8.  Write with your child

  Provide lots of writing materials and papers
  Encourage your child to draw and write on her own
  Encourage your child to write thank you notes to grandparents, make to do lists, write signs such as Torys roomkeep out! and the like
9.  Communicate regularly with your childs teacher about his literacy development

  Find out what is happening at school
  Ask questions about your child and what you can do to support her
  Volunteer and/or observe in your childs classroom
10.  Visit the library often

  Encourage your child to get her own library card
  Take advantage of library programs such as family book clubs
  Find out who are your childs favorite authors and genres and go with him to the library in search of interesting books



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Tips for Getting More Involved in My Child's School

• Attend back-to-school nights, student exhibitions and other school events. Get to know the teachers and other school personnel. Listen to their plans, know what they hope to accomplish with their students, and understand why they chose these goals.
  
• Attend parent organization meetings. Voice your hopes and concerns for your child and for the school. Help organize parent-teacher meetings around your interests and those of other parents.
  
• Offer to tutor students. If you are comfortable with technology, volunteer to be a computer tutor for both students and teachers, or ask if there are other ways that you can help the school to use technology.
  
• Offer to help in the office or the cafeteria or to chaperone field trips and other outside events.
  
• Agree to serve on parent and community advisory groups to your school. They may consider everything from school policies and programs to the kinds of parent involvement activities the school plans.
  
• Work in a parent resource center or help start one. In these school centers, parents may gather informally, borrow materials on parenting and children's schoolwork, and get information about community services.
  
• If you are unable to volunteer in the school, look for ways to help at home: Call other parents to tell them about school-related activities, edit the school newsletter or make educational materials for teachers. If you are bilingual, help translate school materials or interpret for non-English speaking parents in your school.

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Getting the Most Out of Parent-Teacher Conferences

• Set up a conference early in the school year. Let the teacher know that you are interested in your child's education and that you want to be kept informed of his progress. If English is your second language, you may need to make special arrangements, such as including in the conference someone who is bilingual.
  
• If possible, also arrange to observe the teaching in your child's classroom. Afterward, talk with the teacher about what you saw and how it fits with your hopes for your child and your child's needs.
  
• Before a conference, write out questions you want to ask and jot down what you want to tell the teacher. Be prepared to take notes during the conference and ask for an explanation if you don't understand something.
  
• Talk with the teacher about your child's talents, hobbies, study habits and any special sensitivities he might have, such as concerns about weight or speech difficulties.
  
• Tell the teacher if you think your child needs special help and about any special family situation or event that might affect your child's ability to learn. Mention such things as a new baby, an illness or a recent or an upcoming move.
  
• Tell the teacher what kind of person you want your child to become and what values are important to you.
  
• Ask the teacher for specific details about your child's work and progress. If your child has already received some grades, ask how your child is being evaluated.
  
• Ask about specific things that you can do to help your child. At home, think about what the teacher has said and then follow up. If the teacher has told you that your child needs to improve in certain areas, check back in a few weeks to see how things are going.
  
• Approach the teacher with a cooperative spirit. If you disagree with the teacher about an issue, don't argue in front of your child. Set up a meeting to talk only about that issue. Before that meeting, plan what you are going to say. Try to be positive and remain calm. Listen carefully. If the teacher's explanation doesn't satisfy you, and you do not think you can make progress by further discussion with the teacher, arrange to talk with the principal or even the school superintendent.

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10 Tips for Choosing Books for Children of All Ages

• Have children choose their own books as soon as they start showing a preference for one over another.
  
• Find the children's section of your local library. Get to know the librarian, who can be a great resource.
  
• Find out what your child is interested in, and help choose books that are related to his or her interests.
  
• Ask friends, family, and teachers what books their children have enjoyed; try a book swap.
  
• If your child does not like a book you are reading together, put it away. Reading is a fun time to share, not a time to fight.
  
• Again, Again, Again! Children may want to read the same book many times, even if you think they have outgrown it. 
  
• Use book lists generated by various literacy organizations; they usually have good suggestions. For example: American Library Association, International Reading Association, Children's Book Guild
  
• Look for books that you will like reading aloud. Your enjoyment will shine through and become contagious.
  
• Try out different kinds of books to see what appeals to your children.
  
• Have fun! Show your children the joy of reading and how it can open up a brand new world!

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Using Poetry to Build Community Partnerships

• Poetry Placemats
  Have children write poems about RIF or their favorite storybook characters on large sheets of paper. On the back of each decorated poster, attach a letter with information about RIF and how people can get involved in your program. Laminate each poster, and ask a neighborhood restaurant to use them as placemats during the month of April.
  
  
• Gift of Poetry
  Have children write thank-you poems to RIF volunteers. Decorate or wrap each poem and give it to a community member who volunteered this year. (This is also a nice way to recognize volunteers during National Volunteer Week)
  
  
• Poetry Contest
  Ask a bookstore or other retailer to sponsor a poetry contest for kids. Stores can donate gift certificates as prizes, or winners can participate in a poetry reading at the store.
  
  
• Rhyming Bookmarks
  Ask kids to write short poems on strips of cardboard, and then decorate them. Laminate the strips if possible, and arrange to have them distributed at the public library or a bookstore (with a purchase).
  
  
• Publish an Anthology
  Organize a poetry contest, in collaboration with your local newspaper, bookstore, or school paper. First prize could be to have the poem printed in the paper, or posted at the bookstore. All winning entries, including honorable mentions, could be included in an anthology produced by the sponsoring publisher, with a copy given to each contributing child, and copies given to local school and public libraries.
  
  
• Poetry Cafe
  Hold a poetry slam (a performance competition for writers and readers of poetry), a poetry reading, or a discussion group in a local coffee shop or restaurant. Or transform a room at your RIF site into a caf and invite members of the community to attend and participate in the event.
  
  
• Writing Poetry
  Kids sometimes have trouble getting started writing poems. Look for fresh idea-starters on www.gigglepoetry.comincluding fill-in-the-blank poems, and help writing nursery rhymes, limericks, and list poems. Look for lively tips for writing (or teaching) poetry provided by Jack Prelutsky, Karla Kuskin, and Jean Marzollo on www.teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/
  poetry/index.htm. And check out www.rif.org/educators/articles/poetry.mspx for more poetry resources including activities, booklists, information about poetry slams, and tips for exploring nursery rhymes and poetry with kids.

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20 Ways for Parents to Encourage Reading

1.  Scout for things your children might like to read.  Use their interests and hobbies as starting points.
2.  Leave all sorts of reading materials including books, magazines, and colorful catalogs in conspicuous places around your home.
3.  Notice what attracts your children's attention, even if they only look at the pictures.  Then build on that interest; read a short selection aloud, or simply bring home more information on the same subject.
4.  Let your children see you reading for pleasure in your spare time.
5.  Take your children to the library regularly.  Explore the children's section together.  Ask a librarian to suggest books and magazines your children might enjoy.
6.  Present reading as an activity with a purpose; a way to gather useful information for, say, making paper airplanes, identifying a doll or stamp in your child's collection, or planning a family trip.
7.  Encourage older children to read to their younger brothers and sisters.  Older children enjoy showing off their skills to an admiring audience.
8.  Play games that are reading-related.  Check your closet for spelling games played with letter tiles or dice, or board games that require players to read spaces, cards, and directions.
9.  Perhaps over dinner, while you're running errands, or in another informal setting, share your reactions to things you read, and encourage your children to do likewise. 
10.  Set aside a regular time for reading in your family, independent of schoolwork, the 20 minutes before lights out, just after dinner, or whatever fits into your household schedule.  As little as 10 minutes of free reading a day can help improve your child's skills and habits. 
11.  Read aloud to your child, especially a child who is discouraged by his or her own poor reading skills.  The pleasure of listening to you read, rather than struggling alone, may restore your child's initial enthusiasm for books and reading.
12.  Encourage your child to read aloud to you an exciting passage in a book, an interesting tidbit in the newspaper, or a joke in a joke book.  When children read aloud, don't feel they have to get every word right.  Even good readers skip or mispronounce words now and then.
13.  On gift-giving occasions, give books and magazines based on your child's current interests.
14.  Set aside a special place for children to keep their own books.
15.  Introduce the bookmark.  Remind your youngster that you don't have to finish a book in one sitting; you can stop after a few pages, or a chapter, and pick up where you left off at another time.  Don't try to persuade your child to finish a book he or she doesn't like.  Recommend putting the book aside and trying another.
16.  Treat your children to an evening of laughter and entertainment featuring books!  Many children (parents, too) regard reading as a serious activity.  A joke book, a story told in riddles, or a funny passage read aloud can reveal another side of reading. 
17.  Extend your child's positive reading experiences.  For example, if your youngster enjoyed a book about dinosaurs, follow up with a visit to a natural history museum.
18.  Offer other special incentives to encourage your child's reading.  Allow your youngster to stay up an extra 15 minutes to finish a chapter; promise to take your child to see a movie after he or she has finished the book on which it was based; relieve your child of a regular chore to free up time for reading.
19.  Limit your children's TV viewing in an effort to make time for other activities, such as reading.  But never use TV as a reward for reading, or a punishment for not reading.
20.  Not all reading takes place between the covers of a book.  What about menus, road signs, food labels, and sheet music?  Take advantage of countless spur-of-the-moment opportunities for reading during the course of your family's busy day.



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