CRAFTS FOR CHILDREN

These crafts projects use materials found around the house, like egg cartons, cardboard, paper, boxes, string, crayons, paint, glue, etc. See a page about color mixing to see how to combine paint to make all the colors of the rainbow.

These crafts projects are for preschool, kindergarten and elementary school children. The crafts use materials found around the house, like egg cartons, cardboard, paper, boxes, string, crayons, paint, glue, etc. See a page about color mixing to see how to combine paint to make all the colors of the rainbow.

Fold the two square edges of a paper bag under (at the dotted lines), to form the animal's head.

You now have the shape of the animal's head.

Raccoon Cut out ears, eyes, and a nose. Glue them to the raccoon's face.

Dog Cut out ears, eyes, a nose, and a tongue. Glue the tongue inside the mouth. Glue the eyes, nose, and ears to the dog's face.

Fold the two square edges of a paper bag under (at the dotted lines), to form the animal's head.

You now have the shape of the animal's head.

Bunny Cut out long, pink ears, eyes, a nose, and paws. Glue them to the bunny.

Panda Cut out ears, eyes, a nose, and paws. Glue them to the panda.

Pig Cut out ears, eyes, a snout, and paws. Glue them to the pig.

Polar Bear Cut out ears, eyes, and paws. Glue them to the polar bear. Using a black crayon or marker, draw a nose and mouth. Cut out tiny claws and glue then to the paws.

Children can make these fire trucks to pretend to ride in or to use as a toy box. If you like, you can cut out the bottom of the box (before making the craft) and the children can enter the box, carry it, and walk around pretending to be a fire fighter. This is a messy craft. Work on newspaper and wear old clothes! Each fire truck takes one cardboard box and four paper plates.

Supplies:

A cardboard box Four paper plates Red and black paint 3 paint brushes Black, white, blue, and orange construction paper Scissors Glue

Paint a cardboard box red and let it dry.

Paint four paper plates black and let them dry.

Cut two headlights and fenders from white construction paper and glue them to one end of the truck.Cut a windshield and windows from light blue construction paper and glue them to one end of the truck.

Glue the wheels to your truck.

Cut two ladders from orange or brown construction paper and cut two hoses from black construction paper. Cut white hub caps. Glue all of these to the sides of your truck.You now have a great fire truck to ride in or to use as a toy box!

THE WATER

The Importance of Drinking Water

We take advantage of our access clean drinking water. Most of us go to the faucet and get a glass of clean fresh water several times a day and never give the first thought to theimportance of water. We have become so accustomed to having it, we rarely think about what our lives would be like, if we had to struggle to find water that was even halfway safe to drink.

Sadly, in many other countries across the globe, this a problem that is all too real for it’s inhabitants. They are forced to drink water from rivers, streams, watering holes, and other water sources, that are more than likely diseased or polluted. They are forced, often times, to bathe and cook with this same dirty water. Imagine what it would be like if all the water that you had available, was water that you were sure was going to make you sick to drink. What would it feel like to have to give your children this water, knowing that it could endanger their health, or even their life. What a helpless situation this would be. It is heart wrenching too even think that there are people that deal with this every single day of their life.

It does not have to be this way for them. Here in America, and many other countries as well, we have the ability to help these people. There are organizations out there today, that specialize in getting clean water to the people who need it the most. Because of the fact, that most people don’t consider clean water, when thinking of all of the different charities, these organizations struggle. They struggle to accomplish enough, to make a real difference. There are millions of people in need , and only a few hundred who care to help.

You can help by taking charge and stepping up. It’s something we all can, and should do. Start by researching some of the different clean water organizations and seeing what you can do to help. The next step will be to raise awareness to the problem. Start speaking up about this problem in your community. The more people understand and can relate, the more people will be willing to do what they can to help.This is a problem that cannot be fixed overnight. It is going to take a commitment from everyone to even see a little difference. Nevertheless, the more we stand together, the bigger the change can be

TAKE CARE THE EARTH

Recycling is Important

Recycling is one of the best ways for you to have a positive impact on the world in which we live. Recycling is important to both the natural environment and us. We must act fast as the amount of waste we create is increasing all the time.

The amount of rubbish we create is constantly increasing because:

• Increasing wealth means that people are buying more products and ultimately creating more waste.
• Increasing population means that there are more people on the planet to create waste.
• New packaging and technological products are being developed, much of these products contain materials that are not biodegradable.
• New lifestyle changes, such as eating fast food, means that we create additional waste that isn’t biodegradable.

 Environmental Importance

Recycling is very important as waste has a huge negative impact on the natural environment.

• Harmful chemicals and greenhouse gasses are released from rubbish in landfill sites. Recycling helps to reduce the pollution caused by waste.
• Habitat destruction and global warming are some the affects caused by deforestation. Recycling reduces the need for raw materials so that the rainforests can be preserved.
• Huge amounts of energy are used when making products from raw materials. Recycling requires much less energy and therefore helps to preserve natural resources.

 Importance To People

Recycling is essential to cities around the world and to the people living in them.

• No space for waste. Our landfill sites are filling up fast, by 2010, almost all landfills in the UK will be full.
• Reduce financial expenditure in the economy. Making products from raw materials costs much more than if they were made from recycled products.
• Preserve natural resources for future generations. Recycling reduces the need for raw materials; it also uses less energy, therefore preserving natural resources for the future.

SCHOOL PLACES

A classroom is a room in which teaching or learning activities can take place. Classrooms are found in educational institutions of all kinds, including public and private schools, corporations, and religious and humanitarian organizations. The classroom attempts to provide a safe space where learning can take place uninterrupted by other distractions.

Most classrooms have a large writing surface where the instructor or students can share notes with other members of the class. Traditionally, this was in the form of a blackboard but these are becoming less common in well-equipped schools, and are replaced by flipcharts, whiteboards and interactive whiteboards. Many classrooms also have TVs, maps, charts, books, monographs and LCD projectors for presenting information and images from a computer.

For lessons that require specific resources or a vocational approach different types of classrooms both indoors and outdoors are used. This is known as situated learning. Classrooms can range from small groups of five or six to big classrooms with hundreds of students. A large class room is also called a lecture hall. A few examples of classrooms are computer labs which are used for IT lessons in schools, gymnasiums for sports, and science laboratories for biology, chemistry and physics.

A school library (or a school library media center) is a library within a school where students, staff, and often, parents of a public (state) or private (fee paying) school have access to a variety of resources. The goal of the school library media center is to ensure that all members of the school community have equitable access "to books and reading, to information, and to information technology."A school library media center "uses all types of media... is automated, and utilizes the Internet [as well as books] for information gathering." School libraries are distinct from public libraries because they serve as "learner-oriented laboratories which support, extend, and individualize the school's curriculum... A school library serves as the center and coordinating agency for all material used in the school."

 School libraries are similar to public libraries in that they contain books, films, recorded sound, periodicals, realia, and digital media. These items are not only for the education, enjoyment, and entertainment of the all members of the school community, but also to enhance and expand the school's curriculum.

PRESCHOOL EDUCATION

Preschool education or Infant education is the provision of education for children before the commencement of statutory and obligatory education, usually between the ages of zero and three or five, depending on the jurisdiction.

In British English, nursery school or simply "nursery" or playgroup is the usual term for preschool education, although the term preschool is also commonly used. In the United States preschool and Pre-K are used, while "nursery school" is an older term.

Preschool work is organized within a framework that professional educators create. The framework includes structural (administration, class size, teacher-child ratio, services, etc.), process (quality of classroom environments, teacher-child interactions, etc.), and alignment (standards, curriculum, assessments) components that are associated with each individual unique child that has both social and academic outcomes. At each age band, appropriate curriculum should be applied. For example, it would be normal to teach a child how to count 10 after 4 years old^. Arguably the first pre-school institution was opened in 1816 by Robert Owen in New Lanark, Scotland The Hungarian countess Theresa BrunszvikIn 1837, Friedrich Fröbel opened one in Germany, coining the term "kindergarten". followed in 1828.

The areas of development which preschool education covers varies from country to country. However, the following main themes are represented in the majority of systems.

• Personal, social, economical, and emotional development
• Communication, including sign language, talking and listening
• Knowledge and understanding of the world
• Creative and aesthetic development
• Educational software
• Mathematical awareness and development
• Physical development
• Physical health
• Playing
• Teamwork
• Self-help skills
• Social skills
• Scientific thinking
• Creative arts
• Literacy

Some preschools have adopted specialized methods of teaching, such as Montessori, Waldorf, Head Start, HighReach Learning, High Scope, The Creative Curriculum, Reggio Emilia approach, Bank Street, Forest kindergartens, and various other pedagogies which contribute to the foundation of education.

Creative Curriculum has an interactive website where parents and teachers can work together in evaluating preschool age children. The website is very user friendly and prints off many reports that are helpful in evaluating children and the classroom itself. The web site has a variety of activities that are targeted to each of the fifty goals on the continuum.

The International Preschool Curriculum adopted a bilingual approach to teaching and offers a curriculum that embraces international standards and recognizes national requirements for preschool education.

In the United States most preschool advocates support the National Association for the Education of Young Children's Developmentally Appropriate Practices.

Family childcare can also be nationally accredited by the National Association of Family Childcare if the provider chooses to go through the process. National accreditation is only awarded to those programs who demonstrate the quality standards set forth by the NAFCC.
Two popular Australian curriculums are the Emergent curriculum or the Building Waterfalls

program.

EL SALVADOR

Education in El Salvador follows a (1 or 2) -9-2-5 system:
One or two years of preschool (called kinder, short for kindergarten), which are not part of the State's Educational System.
Nine years of Basic Education divided in three Cycles of three grades each:
1st Cycle: from 1st to 3rd grades,
2nd Cycle: from 4th to 6th grades,
3rd Cycle: from 7th to 9th grades, which is a transition time between primary and secondary education/high school (e.g. specialized teachers for each assignment).
Two (or an optional three years technical program) of Middle Education:
Two year General Bachelor's Degree (High school Degree)
(or an optional) Three year Technical Bachelor's Degree (Technical High school degree) (e.g. Accountancy, Computer Science, Secretary Degree, etc.)
Five years (minimum) of university or other tertiary education.

However, the national educational system is not the only one available.

Pre-university education is not free. The State provides public education for which a fee is paid if the person paying can afford it and only one payment per family is made (i.e. siblings pay only one fee). Public education

The University of El Salvador (UES) is the largest of the three public Universities in the country.

In 2010, the literacy rate was 82% for both sexes.

In 1992 the Ministry of Education under Cecilia Gallardo de Cano embarked on a program of reform of basic education. is nevertheless inconstant in quality, being even extremely poor in rural areas and not so good in urban areas.

GAMES

playground or play area is a place with a specific design for children be able to play there. It may be indoors but is typically outdoors (where it may be called a tot lot in some regions.

Modern playgrounds often have recreational equipment such as the see-saw, merry-go-round, swingset, slide, jungle gym, chin-up bars,sandbox, spring rider, monkey bars, overhead ladder, trapeze rings, playhouses, and mazes, many of which help children develop physical coordination, strength, and flexibility, as well as providing recreation and enjoyment. Common in modern playgrounds are "play structures" that link many different pieces of equipment.

Playgrounds often also have facilities for playing informal games of adult sports, such as a baseball, adiamond, a skating arena, a basketballcourt, or a tether ball.

"Public" playground equipment refers to equipment intended for use in the play areas of parks, schools, child care facilities, institutions, multiple family dwellings, restaurants, resorts, and recreational developments, and other areas of public use.

A type of playground called a playscape is designed to provide a safe environment for play in a natural setting.

Recognizing the need for such, former President Theodore Roosevelt stated in 1907:

City streets are unsatisfactory playgrounds for children because of the danger, because most good games are against the law, because they are too hot in summer, and because in crowded sections of the city they are apt to be schools of crime. Neither do small back yards nor ornamental grass plots meet the needs of any but the very small children. Older children who would play vigorous games must have places especially set aside for them; and, since play is a fundamental need, playgrounds should be provided for every child as much as schools. This means that they must be distributed over the cities in such a way as to be within walking distance of every boy and girl, as most children can not afford to pay carfare.

The jungle gym, monkey bars, or climbing frame, is a piece of playground equipment made of many pieces of material, such asmetal pipe or rope, on which children can climb, hang, or sit. The monkey bar designation refers to the rambunctious, climbing play ofmonkeys.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare - Hamlet speech - To be, or not to be

Hamlet Act III, scene I

Hamlet:

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.

ADD

AD/HD is a diagnosis applied to children and adults who consistently display certain characteristic behaviors over a period of time. The most common core features include:

• distractibility (poor sustained attention to tasks)
• impulsivity (impaired impulse control and delay of gratification)
• hyperactivity (excessive activity and physical restlessness)

The behaviors must appear before age 7, and continue for at least 6 months. A crucial consideration is that the behaviors must create a real handicap in at least two areas of a person's life, such as school, home, work, or social settings. These criteria set ADHD apart from the "normal" distractibility and impulsive behavior of childhood, or the effects of the hectic and overstressed lifestyle prevalent in our society. 

According to the DSM-IV (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition) some common symptoms of ADHD include: often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes; often has difficulty sustaining attention to tasks; often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly; often fails to follow instructions carefully and completely; losing or forgetting important things; feeling restless, often fidgeting with hands or feet, or squirming; running or climbing excessively; often talks excessively; often blurts out answers before hearing the whole question; often has difficulty awaiting turn.

ADHD is diagnosed two to four times more frequently in boys than in girls, and they use of stimulant medications in its treatment. The diagnostic criteria for ADHD are based on extensive research and, if applied appropriately, lead to the diagnosis with high reliability.

Inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity are the key behaviors of ADHD. The symptoms of ADHD are especially difficult to define because it is hard to draw the line at where normal levels of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity end and clinically significant levels requiring intervention begin.

The specific causes of ADHD are not known. There are, however, a number of factors that may contribute to, or exacerbate ADHD. They include genetics, diet and the social and physical environments.

TREATMENT OF AD/HD: 

Clinical experience has shown that the most effective treatment for AD/HD is a combination of medication (when necessary), therapy or counseling to learn coping skills and adaptive behaviors, and ADD coaching for adults. 

Medication is often used to help normalize brain activity, as prescribed by a physician. Stimulant medications (Ritalin, Dexedrine, Adderall, Adderall XR, Concerta, Vyvanse, and Focalin XR) are commonly used because they have been shown to be most effective for most people with ADHD. However, many other medications may also be used at the discretion of the physician. 

Behavior therapy and cognitive therapy are often helpful to modify certain behaviors and to deal with the emotional effects of AD/HD. Many adults also benefit from working with an AD/HD coach to help manage problem behaviors and develop coping skills, such as improving organizational skills and improving productivity. 

Myths about Attention Deficit Disorder

Myth #1: All kids with ADD/ADHD are hyperactive.

Some children with ADD/ADHD are hyperactive, but many others with attention problems are not. Children with ADD/ADHD who are inattentive, but not overly active, may appear to be spacey and unmotivated.

Myth #2: Kids with ADD/ADHD can never pay attention.

Children with ADD/ADHD are often able to concentrate on activities they enjoy. But no matter how hard they try, they have trouble maintaining focus when the task at hand is boring or repetitive.

Myth #3: Kids with ADD/ADHD choose to be difficult and could behave better if they wanted to.

Children with ADD/ADHD may do their best to be good, but still be unable to sit still, stay quiet, or pay attention. They may appear disobedient, but that doesn’t mean they’re acting out on purpose.

Myth #4: Kids will eventually grow out of ADD/ADHD.

ADD/ADHD often continues into adulthood, so don’t wait for your child to outgrow the problem. Treatment can help your child learn to manage and minimize the symptoms.

Myth #5: Medication is the best treatment option for ADD/ADHD.

Medication is often prescribed for Attention Deficit Disorder, but it might not be the best option for your child. Effective treatment for ADD/ADHD also includes education, behavior therapy, support at home and school, exercise, and proper nutrition.

Tip for helping your child with ADD/ADHD stay focused and organized

·         Follow a routine. It is important to set a time and a place for everything to help the child with ADD/ADHD understand and meet expectations. Establish simple and predictable rituals for meals, homework, play, and bed. Have your child lay out clothes for the next morning before going to bed, and make sure whatever he or she needs to take to school is in a special place, ready to grab.

·         Use clocks and timers. Consider placing clocks throughout the house, with a big one in your child’s bedroom. Allow enough time for what your child needs to do, such as homework or getting ready in the morning. Use a timer for homework or transitional times, such between finishing up play and getting ready for bed.

·         Simplify your child’s schedule. It is good to avoid idle time, but a child with ADHD may become more distracted and “wound up” if there are many after-school activities. You may need to make adjustments to the child’s after-school commitments based on the individual child’s abilities and the demands of particular activities.

·         Create a quiet place. Make sure your child has a quiet, private space of his or her own. A porch or bedroom can work well too, as long as it’s not the same place as the child goes for a time-out.

·         Do your best to be neat and organized. Set up your home in an organized way. Make sure your child knows that everything has its place. Role model neatness and organization as much as possible.

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/adhd_add_parenting_strategies.htm