Parenting: All Joy, No Fun?

During a recent trip through our Western New York frozen winter wonderland I had the radio on and I was able to catch part of an author interview on my local NPR station.  The @ 40 minute segment was on the Fresh Air program and was titled “Are We Having Fun Yet? New Book Explores The Paradox Of Parenting“.  I only caught a portion of the show but the parts I caught were pretty thought provoking.  As stated on the NPR summary of the interview with Jennifer Senior:

In her new book, Senior writes about how about children change the lives of their parents — for better and sometimes for worse. ‘All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood‘ considers the impact of children on marriage, sex, work, friendships and one’s sense of self. Senior draws on a wide variety of studies, surveys and histories, as well as her own interviews with parents.

Topics discussed in the interview included:

• Defining the Role of Parents Today
• Housewives vs. Stay-At-Home Mom
• Teaching Happiness
• “Drone” vs. “Helicopter” Parenting
• The Correlation Between Parental Happiness & Government-Subsidized Social Services

I did not listen to the entire show yet, nor have I read the book but the portions I did catch were intriguing.  I love history and Ms. Senior discusses the history of parenting and how it changed dramatically when child labor became frowned upon in most developed countries during the progressive era between 1890 and 1920. She also shows some depth to her book by citing research done by sociologists, anthropologists, educators and other social scientists.

Listening I had a few ‘aha’s!’, a couple of ‘hummms?’ and a point or two of contention.  To me that adds up to something I should explore more as I continue to learn this parenting thing!  I also thought it something our readers might want to explore more.

Keeping Math Fun

Image Source: http://www.sumdog.com/

So in yesterdays post we explored a bit of the new common core learning shift related to reading and provided some suggestions to help your child meet the challenge. The common core has also raised the bar on math for students.  Our daughter is pretty good in math as she enters 1st grade but to keep her skills up we have been working with her over the summer with addition, subtraction, greater-than and less-than.

About three weeks ago a parent of one of my students mentioned an online site that one of her daughters teachers for the coming year asked her students to use.  She gave me a great overview of the program and I checked it out.  It did look great and much of the math was free to use.  Our daughter has been using it for the last three weeks and there have been times where after 2-3 hours we have had to actually pull her away from it.

The site is Sumdog and is aimed at children from PreK – 5th grade.  Sumdog’s math games cover over 100 numeracy topics, split into 10 levels.  The games can be played either at home or at school and if you create an account your child’s results will be saved.  The site also has a parent function so a parent can see how their child is doing.

Most of the games in Sumdog are multiplayer, so your child can play against thousands of students worldwide.  As i said earlier the games are very engaging so students generally enjoy developing their numeracy skills as they collect coins and modify their avatar.

I don’t mean to plug just one math skill building site, but Sumdog is the best I have seen to date.  If you have another suggestion please let us know.

Free Play Time … An Example

Image Source: http://katydiddys.blogspot.com/2012/04/puppet-theater-tutorial.html

Yesterday we mentioned the use of puppets and a puppet theater as a means to facilitate free play in a library setting. Space didn’t permit much elaboration then, but in today’s post I’d like to adapt the article written by the schools librarian, Mrs. Shriver.

Students in grades K-5 anxiously wait for their turn to use the puppets. The helper for the day goes first, choosing a friend and they create a one minute play for their fellow students to observe. The students are learning about many things during this Free Play time including:

• How to be a good audience
  How to share
  How to act out a story with a beginning, middle and end

The American Academy of Pediatric’s Clinical Report published in 2007 and titled ‘The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds‘ states that Free Play is a necessary component of a child’s day. The article also reports that Play is so important to optimal child development that it has been recognized by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a right of every child.

For the library classes Free Play:

• allows kids to use their creativity and develop their imagination, dexterity, and other strengths and encourages kids to interact with the world around them.
• helps kids to conquer their fears and builds their confidence
• teaches kids to work in groups, so they learn to share and resolve conflicts
• helps kids practice decision-making skills
• IS FUN

It is important to note that this kind of play is meant to be unstructured, child driven play. It is not the kind of play time that is totally controlled by adults and doesn’t include passive play, such as sitting in front of a video game, computer, or TV.

The puppet theater for the library was purchased through grant funds and most of the puppets were donated. It is very possible to make your own puppet theater at a minimal cost. There are many designs and instructions on the internet including ‘Puppet Theater Tutorial‘ Lowes and Squidoo. Puppets can be very expensive, but usually if you ask around you will be able to find individuals who have some lying around which they are happy to donate.  Parents should also remember that puppet theaters are a great ‘learning toy’ for the home.

Once you have your theater remember to provide limited instruction, supervision and direction to the children/students. After all True Free Play is any kind of unstructured activity that encourages your child to use his/her imagination, such as playing with blocks and dolls. It wouldn’t include playing with most electronic games.

Buffalo Navy Week

Sometimes, when your schedule is crazy, the only thing to do is add more things into it to keep your mind off how stressful everything is! A great local event (that ends the 17th) is Buffalo Navy Week. Last night we took a trip down to the beautiful Buffalo waterfront and got to see a few of the ships that have docked, including the very majestic 1812-era tall ship. While school makes it difficult to get to many of the events, which occur throughout the day, there are a lot of events planned for Saturday that families with school-age children can take advantage of.

Have you taken a trip down to the Buffalo waterfront to enjoy Navy Week yet?

A little history lesson never hurt anybody, and the War of 1812 is often under-discussed in schools though it was incredibly relevant for WNY. (Image Credit:http://navaltoday.com/2012/09/11/sailors-assigned-to-uss-constitution-kick-off-participation-in-buffalo-navy-week/)

Erie County Fair Summer 2012

It isn’t quite summer in Western New York until you’ve taken a trip to the Erie County Fair. While I can’t say with any certainty that I’ve attended the fair every year since my birth, it has definitely become a staple in my life. Aside from all the food and the rides, there are plenty of opportunities for education. Here are a few educational things that stood out to me on my trip today. Feel free to add more in the comments!

Not that you need an excuse to go to the fair, but incorporating education into everyday events is a great way to enhance learning! (Image Credit:http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2010/08/day-at-fair-report.html)

Where Does Food Come From?

A huge part of nutrition, I believe, is education on where food comes from. Whether it’s seeing the dairy cows in the animal barn or viewing prize-winning vegetables, the fair is a crash course in food education. 4-H does a great job putting up factual signs in their exhibits, so make sure to have your family stop and read them. A particular highlight is the full-sized cow replica in the Ag-sperience building, where you can learn how to “milk” a cow!

Mad Skills

Seeing all the ribbons on everything from azaleas to quilts makes me want to become more skilled in certain fields, and it may have the same effect on your child. Whether its the 8-foot tall crocheted giraffe in the former casino building or the amazing carved fish in the woodworking building, your child might be inspired to try something new. Encourage your child to talk to the volunteers who are around the buildings. Many of them seem to have first-hand knowledge of the exhibits they work at and if not, are able to point you in the right direction.

Inspirational

The fair provides plenty of opportunities to exercise your creative side. This year, they even had a section of the fine arts exhibit dedicated to photos that were taken at last year’s fair! Whether it’s the inspiration to try a new craft (like crocheting) or to take a picture of a baby cow or to draw a Ferris wheel, the fair offers a unique opportunity to get the creative juices flowing.

Math Whiz

Whether it’s figuring out prices at food stands or counting out how many tickets needed for a ride, there are lots of ways that math can be easily incorporated into a day at the fair. The rabbit barn provides a great opportunity for young learners to practice their counting in a fun way. Asking a child to count how many white rabbits or black rabbits they see is great, but why not take it a step further and have him or her create a graph when they return home?