What We Need Is Healthy Education Reform
It never ceases to amaze me how little balance we humans have. Ellwood Cubberly gave rise to the administrative model that we follow today. At the end of the 1800’s around 1899, this businessman dabbled around in the classroom. He became superintendent of schools in San Diego. He introduced industrial management as the administrative system. So, we get a standardized education that ignores individual progress.
Then Dewey was an educator and philosopher. He believed in experiential learning where children could learn theory and application at one time. He did not believe in what he called “dead knowledge” which was disconnected from relevant life experiences.
But, again, humans of the progressive movement showed their uncanny lack of balance. Instead of guiding what the children learned and then allowing them to explore, children were allowed to lead themselves. So, it was difficult to measure or monitor how the children were progressing. Because Dewey’s philosophy was misunderstood, many people steered clear of them.
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Tis the Season for Eucalyptus
If you are looking for smell goods for your house, but don’t want an overpowering commercial air freshener. Well, ‘tis the season for eucalyptus. It is usually hard to find fresh. But, during the fall and holiday season, you will find it in bunches and mixed in flower arrangements in some floral department. Eucalyptus cleans the air and gives you a wonderful burst of freshness when you approach pass by it.
A Quick Household Freshner
If you are like me and cannot stand a stale house, this little trick might help. We have two large dogs and with large dogs come large smells, especially during the dreary wet days of fall.
The dogs often stay in the laundry room. I have found that lilies are powerful order neutralizers. Yes, I have allergies. But, it seems the lillies and the dog smells fight it out and my sinuses still win.
Here is a tip for moms short on time and long on household chores
Did you ever wonder how a washing machine gets so dirty? I mean isn’t it suppose to clean clothes, yet it can be one of the dirtiest appliances. How does a refrigerator get so grungy? Crumbs, solidified jelly, and spilled soup can cause quite a mess in the refrigerator. The wonderful thing about the refrigerator is that it preserves spills into sticky hard to remove putty like substances. But, if you are tired of hot water and a steel wool Chore Boy, then try Clorox wipes.
Clorox wipes easily and quickly wipes down a refrigerator and breaks up stuck on food without scrubbing. The refrigerators shelves will sparkle.
Olive Oil – The Miracle Oil
Olive Oil has long been touted for its health benefits. It’s rich in monounsaturated fatty acids and antioxidant properties. It helps protect us against heart disease as well as a long list of other medicinal purposes. It has a distinct flavor and is well tolerated by the stomach when used for cooking.
But, did you know that extra virgin olive oil is also good for your hair and skin? If you have dry hair or have received a bad perm, olive oil can help add moisture back into your hair. A mixture of half olive oil and half castor oil known as the Oil Cleansing Method (OCM) can also be used to clean your face. It softens the skin and can reduce the number of blackheads because it does not upset the skin’s natural balance. Cleansing products can strip the skin of it natural oils causing it to compensate by overproducing oil.
I have been using the OCM method and it is working just as well as my facial scrub in controlling my blackheads. My skin is really soft. People with oily skin can try more castor oil. If you have moderate to severe acne, the mixture may help. But, you should probably see a dermatologist.
Slow and Steady Wins the Exercise Race
Like in the fable The Tortoise And The Hare, I have learned the same applies with exercise. The trick to exercise is to find the exercises that are most effective on the areas of your body that needs work. For example, my lower abdominal area looks like a kangaroo pouch. It was a pooch years before my two C-sections. When I was in middle school, my PE teachers were not very good. Therefore, when we were required to do sit-ups (as we used to do in school), my sit-ups were all wrong and the poor instruction caused my abdominal muscles to protrude outward. Already being challenged, the two C-sections did not help. This is the region of my body that can run all the way down to my knees.
What is most effective for my lower abdominal area is to do leg lifts. If I just do eight leg lifts along with a modified side plank for my obliques every other day, it keeps my midsection from running like jello.
Playing Dominoes a Summer Picnic Pastime is Good for Your Children
We have also started playing dominoes. With my four year old son, we started with just matching the dots and matching the pictures on his Cars dominoes. This helps him develop visual discrimination which is a necessary pre-reading skill and pre-math skill. Children have to be able to recognize the difference between letters to begin reading and number quantities to do begin doing math. My son does not play dominoes often enough to be able to manipulate fives as well as he does twos. Basketball is his game and groups of five are larger quantities to visualize when applying them in addition. All concepts take time and should be accomplished at the child’s pace for them to enjoy learning. My six year old daughter understands how to match dominoes to count by fives and add points. The sooner children master early concepts such as skip counting and adding; the more confident they will be about solving math problems later.
Playing Summer Basketball Can Improve Math Skills
My son just turned four years old. He can count by twos and not just two – four – six – eight – ten. Now, we did start there. One of the easiest ways is to have children learn to count by twos is to pull out pairs of shoes. When children count two-four-six-eight and so on using shoes, they connect the concept of two as a pair. This is skip counting just like counting by fives for 5 – 10 – 15 – 20 etc. and 10 – 20 – 30 and so on. Once they have skip counting by twos down, they will continue growing math patterns on their own. My son, who again just turned four, can count by two with any number. We were playing basketball and he had 79 points. He made a two pointer and said, “I got 81.” He understands the concept of skip counting very well. Once when he had 54 points and made a 3 pointer (in his world), he said, “I have 57.” From here, he is beginning the concept of adding. He will routinely give the right response when you add 1 to a number. He remembers that the answer just goes up one number. He adds by using counters such as fingers. You will be amazed at how children can take concepts further when introduced to them early and with routine visual aids like shoes.
Teaching Children to Read Begins with Phonetics
My daughter read by age 5 and now my 4 year old son is learning to spell and sound out words. They have known their alphabet sounds since they were about 18 months. That maybe a bit young for some. But, I was always drawn to educational toys.
We played alot with alphabet and numbers toys. I read to them alot and they became engaged with books and language.
The first step is that learn their alphabet sounds. Then they liked to look at books and began to understand that the letters on the page form words.
Before I tried to have them read from a page. I had them spell out loud. A child can sound out single syllable words such as c-a-t. Then they begin to make the connection between sounding out words on the page.
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