Choosing Preschool

Picking the right preschool

By DANIELLE RUSH
KOKOMO TRIBUNE (KOKOMO, Ind.)

Comment: A good article. True in most things. Not convinced about the easels. I think easels are defeating for little kids. I think flat painting is best.

KOKOMO, Ind.— In one classroom at First Presbyterian Little School, 4-year-olds waddle like penguins, making the sound of the letter “P.”

Next door, another group of children listens to a Bible story, while the next class settles back into its seats after playing outside on the playground. It’s all in a day’s work for a preschooler.

Karen Dikeman, Little School director, said this is the time of year parents are searching for a preschool for their children for this fall. Kokomo resident Pat Schreckenghaust chose her grandson’s preschool after asking several people for recommendations.

One person in particular spoke highly of her son’s two years at Little School, so Schreckenghaust visited the school and talked to teachers before enrolling Dylan in the program. She said it was the right decision for her grandson, who will be 3 in June. “He loves it. He’s so proud of his little folder” of papers he brings home after each week’s session. She thought it was important for Dylan, an only child, to have a preschool experience, so he could interact with other children.
“He’s learning how to play with other kids and learning rules. When they’re the only kid at home, they don’t learn how to share.”

Dr. Marilyn Skinner, director of Indiana University Kokomo’s Early Childhood Education Center, suggests visiting several preschools before making a selection.

“You would want to go there when there were actually children there, so you can see how they interact with the children, and if they are kind to them and have soft voices and maintain good control ... If you can’t go yourself, talk to someone who has sent their children there.”

Parents should also be sure the school has plenty of books being used, words hanging on the walls, weather charts, posters with children’s activities, activity centers such as water and sand tables, blocks, and other toys to encourage creative play. She said signs of creativity are important.

“Are they allowing them to be creative, or are they trying to make them all look the same? If you walk in and every piece of art looks alike, you know they’re not allowing creativity.”

Parents should also ask if the school has curriculum it follows, and if there is time for physical activity indoors and outside. “Children should be outside a lot when the weather is good,” for muscle development, she said, and there should be an appropriate place for indoor play as well.
Skinner said activities should be age-appropriate, and adapted for the child’s abilities. A bright child may need accelerated activities, while others may not catch on as quickly and may need to repeat some activities.

She said teachers should either have a degree in early childhood education or some non-degree training in early childhood education. Dikeman, at Little School, added that parents should ask about teachers’ training in first aid and CPR, and if teachers’ have had a background check, in addition to asking about their academic credentials.

She agreed that classroom visits are important, to see if a particular school is the right fit for a particular child. She said because Little School is a Christian-based program, she makes sure parents understand that “sharing the love of Christ is part of our curriculum.”

She said parents should also look for a program that develops a child’s cognitive, physical, emotional and social skills. In addition, she said, parents may ask about pre-kindergarten skills, to be sure their child will be prepared for kindergarten. At her school, teachers work with Kokomo-Center Schools and Northwestern School Corp., to be sure the children leave with the skills they need for kindergarten.

“It seems more and more is being required. Preschool now is probably what kindergarten was.”
Dikeman said the preschool day varies in length, depending on the age of the child, and should include time for play. “They learn so much through their play,” she said. She said not every child is ready for preschool at the same time, and parents need to consider their child’s readiness before enrolling. Younger children often have separation anxiety when parents drop them off, and those who seem very upset might want to wait another year, she said.

“It varies with children. Not every 3-year-old or 4-year-old is at the same place. You can’t look at a 4-year-old as a cookie cutter.” Skinner said preschool can be a valuable learning experience, but it is not necessary for every child. Parents may do many of the activities preschool offers in their own home, if they have the time and ability.

“I would say it depends on if you as a parent have lots of time to work with your child and take your child places for socializing and being involved with other children, especially an only child. If you’re a parent who has lots of time and several children, it wouldn’t be nearly as important.”

Danielle Rush writes for the Kokomo (Ind.) Tribune.

10 signs of a great preschool
1. The right student/teacher ratio: There should be one teacher for every seven to 10 children and no more than 20 in a classroom.
2. Daily circle time: During this time, children learn skills such as taking turns, listening to each other and sitting still. They can improve their language skills by listening to stories and singing songs.
3. A language-rich environment: Children should be read to every day. The preschool should have lots of books, as well as words posted all around the room.
4. An art center: Look for easels, paint brushes, crayons, clay and other art materials.
5. A block center: Stacking and arranging blocks helps children develop spatial and problem-solving skills.
6. Rotating chores: Handling tasks gives children a sense of responsibility and accomplishment.
7. Manipulatives: These are objects children can pick up and work with their hands. Doing so helps them build fine motor skills for future writing and strengthen spatial skills, eye-hand coordination and early math skills.
8. A water table and sand table: Children learn about space, size, weight, force, pressure and volume while playing with water and sand.
9. Physical activity every day: Active play develops children’s coordination and gives them a chance to practice their basic physical skills.
10. New materials introduced frequently.
Source: www.parents.com


Preschool questions
Parents magazine published this list of questions parents should ask when searching for a preschool:
• What are the schedule options?
• What is the tuition?
• How old are children when they enter your school?
• What is the cutoff date for new students?
• Do you have openings for next September?
• How many children are in each class?
• How many adults supervise each class?
• What are the qualifications of the teachers?
• What training does the director have?
• Is the program licensed or accredited?

If the program meets your basic needs, ask about the enrollment process and schedule a time to visit. Parents should meet the director, take a tour and spend an hour or two in a classroom. Try to revisit your top choices before making your final pick.
Source: www.parents.com

The New Study on Day Care

The Kids Are Alright
What the latest day-care study really found.
By Emily Bazelon

Comment: As I've said infinitum ad nauseum, the primary educator is the parent. Ask Carl. He knows.

The headlines blared this week. "Does Day Care Make Kids Behave Badly? Study Says Yes" (ABC). "Child Care Leads to More Behavior Problems" (Fox). "Day-care Kids Have Problems Later in Life" (NBC). "Poor Behavior Is Linked to Time in Day Care" (New York Times). And, ironically, "Bad Mommies" (Slate).

It's useless to rail at the press for leading with the bad news and for ignoring the researchers' caveats that no cause-and-effect conclusions can be drawn from their data. Still, coverage like this feels designed to twit working parents. And it turns out that in the case of day care, the headlines and the stories really were alarmist—even wrong.

The source of the fuss is the latest installment of a long-running $200 million effort by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Since 1991, a team of researchers has been tracking more than 1,300 children, following them from infancy through various child-care settings (home with mother, home with another relative, home with nanny, or at day care) and into elementary school. In the March/April issue of Child Development, the team asks "Are There Long-Term Effects of Early Child Care?" To answer that question, the researchers report their findings about the kids' academic achievement and behavior through sixth grade. The study controls for a host of variables, like socioeconomic status, quality of parenting (annoyingly, this measure involves only mothers), quality of child care, and quality of the elementary-school classroom. It's all very well-done and careful.

By sixth grade, the researchers detected few differences between the day-care center kids and the others—shall we just call them the Children Whose Parents Truly Love Them?—who had stay-at-home moms or nannies or some other arrangement. What mattered more than early child care, in terms of school performance and behavior, were parenting and genes. "Parenting quality significantly predicted all the developmental outcomes and much more strongly than did any of the child-care predictors," the researchers wrote. Never mind that central, important finding. The downside of day care is what everyone wants to talk about.

Let's lead with the good news for working parents: The study found that kids who went to high-quality day-care centers had an edge over all the other kids on vocabulary scores. This association didn't decrease as the kids got older. But then there is the finding that inspired the headlines: "Teachers reported more problem behaviors for children who spent more time in centers." This effect also held steady over time. And as the New York Times put it, "the finding held up regardless of the child's sex or family income, and regardless of the quality of the day care center." As in, Beware of Day Care. No matter how good you think your kid's is, it's making him unruly and disruptive, two favorite media adjectives for kids who cause trouble at school.

Stop. When I reached the study's author, Margaret Burchinal, yesterday, she asked if she could explain something she feared had been missed. "I'm not sure we communicated this, but the kids who had one to two years of daycare by age 4½—which was typical for our sample—had exactly the level of problem behavior you'd expect for kids of their age. Most people use center care for one or two years, and for those kids we're not seeing anything problematic."

In other words, the higher-than-average incidence of bad behavior showed up only among kids who spent three or four years in day care before the age of 4½. Burchinal and her co-authors used a behavior measure on which a score of 50 is exactly average (and the higher the score, the brattier the kid). The mean score of kids who spent one or two years in day care before kindergarten was 50. The mean for kids who spent three years was 51.4. The mean for kids who spent four years was 52. Kids who spent no time at all in day care had a mean score of 49.6—lowest, yes, but to an extremely small degree. Also, only 5 percent of the kids in the study spent four years in day care, and only 10 percent spent three years.

Here's a key question: What was the quality of the day care this 15 percent received? Were their centers as good? Burchinal ran the numbers for me, and the answer is no. The study rated all child-care arrangements on a scale from 1 for abysmal to 4 for excellent. The mean score for kids who were cared for entirely at home was 2.85. The mean for kids who spent less than a year in day care was 2.84. One to two years in day care: 2.82. Three to four years: 2.76. And four or more years: 2.71. In other words, the kids with more reported behavior problems in elementary school were the ones who spent three or four years in day care and whose care was, on average, of lower quality.

The differences in quality of care among all settings are small, and the correlation between a longer time spent in day care and a reduction in the quality of care is modest. But then the uptick in bad behavior scores is slight, too. "We found that more time in day-care centers correlates to higher problem behavior scores," Burchinal said. "This raises the question whether it could be the quality within those centers" that accounts for the effect.

Burchinal points out that on average, day care for infants and toddlers is worse than for preschoolers. It's more expensive because states require more staff for babies. And the littlest kids don't get much out of being in a group like the older ones do. The youngest thrive on one-on-one attention, and it takes considerable skill and experience to deftly juggle the needs of a bunch of them. So maybe the real lesson here is a reminder: Day care for infants and toddlers is the hardest to do well. And lower-quality care, coupled with three or four years spent at a center, doesn't appear to serve kids quite as well as other arrangements (though the difference in slight).

This is not exactly heartening. Day care for infants and toddlers is often the most economical choice for families in which both parents work and no grandparent or cousin can lend a hand with the baby. We should figure out how to improve day care for infants and toddlers, not give up on it. Still, the study's results, properly explained, do not suggest that kids who spent a year or two in day care when they are 3 and 4—or, in my opinion at least, kids who go to excellent day care for longer periods—will talk back to their teachers and throw more than their share of spitballs when they get older. These kids will behave themselves just fine. As long as their parents don't screw them up.

I would say that this comes as a relief, since each of my own two sons spent (or in 4-year-old Simon's case is spending) four years in day care before kindergarten. Except that I stopped taking the bad rap on day care personally a long time ago.

There is an enormous difference between excellent day care and mediocre day care—when Simon had one year of the latter, believe me, I could tell. But that distinction, crucial as it is to the kids who experience it and to their parents, often is lost on the rest of the world. One day when my older son Eli was about 2, he charmed the woman ahead of us in line at the supermarket. They grinned and goo-goo-ed at each other, and then Eli's new friend turned to me with a big smile and said, "He must be at home with you." I stammered no and started babbling: Eli was in day care, but it was really wonderful day care, with only 12 kids and five teachers, and really if you visited him there you would see … But the woman's smile had vanished. We stood in embarrassed silence until her groceries were bagged. It probably doesn't matter what the data really show. Day care is supposed to be bad for kids, so it is. The headlines don't change.

Emily Bazelon is a Slate senior editor.

Legos Are Political

March 27, 2007, 7:00 a.m. Banning Legos And building a world where “all structures will be standard sizes.” By John J. Miller Comment: Can the Garden School have their Legos? I'd be happy to pay postage! Perhaps you’ve heard about the schools that have banned tag. Or dodgeball. Or stories about pigs. If so, you won’t be surprised to hear that the Hilltop Children’s Center in Seattle has banned Legos. A pair of teachers at the center, which provides afterschool activities for elementary-school kids, recently described their policy in a Rethinking Schools cover story called “Why We Banned Legos.” (See the magazine’s cover here.) It has something to do with “social justice learning.” My vision of social justice for children of elementary-school age is as follows: If you’re tagged, you’re it; if the ball hits you, you’re out; and pig stories are fun, especially when told over microwaveable hot dogs. But I try to keep an open mind, so I read the article on why Hilltop banned Legos. As most aficionados know, Legos are made by a Danish company. The company name comes from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means play well. “Lego became a national treasure and one of the strongest brands in the toy industry,” wrote The Economist last year. “Its colorful bricks are sold in over 130 countries: everyone on earth has, on average, 52 of them.” In their Rethinking Schools article, teachers Ann Pelo and Kendra Pelojoaquin describe how the kids at Hilltop built “a massive series of Lego structures we named Legotown.” I sensed that something was rotten in the state of Legotown when I read this description of it: “a collection of homes, shops, public facilities, and community meeting places.” My children have spent a large portion of their young lives playing with Legos. They have never, to my knowledge, constructed “community meeting places.” Instead, they make monster trucks, space ships, and war machines. These little creations are usually loaded with ion guns, nuclear missiles, bunker-busting bombs, force-field projectors, and death-ray cannons. Alien empires have risen and fallen in epic conflicts waged in the upstairs bedrooms of my home. Perhaps kids in Seattle, under the careful watch of their latte-sipping guardians, are different. But I don’t think so. At Hilltop, however, the teachers strive to make them different. “We recognized that children are political beings, actively shaping their social and political understandings of ownership and economic equity,” write Pelo and Pelojoaquin. “We agreed that we want to take part in shaping the children’s understandings from a perspective of social justice. So we decided to take the Legos out of the classroom.” The root cause of Hilltop’s Lego problem was that, well, the kids were being kids: There were disputes over “cool pieces,” instances of bigger kids bossing around little ones, and so on. An ordinary person might recognize this as child’s play. But the social theorists at Hilltop saw something else: “The children were building their assumptions about ownership and the social power it conveys — assumptions that mirrored those of a class-based, capitalist society — a society that we teachers believe to be unjust and oppressive.” Pelo and Pelojoaquin continue: “As we watched the children build, we became increasingly concerned.” So they banned the Legos and began their program of re-education. “Our intention was to promote a contrasting set of values: collectivity, collaboration, resource-sharing, and full democratic participation,” they write. Instead of practicing phonics or memorizing multiplication tables, the children played a special game: “In the game, the children could experience what they’d not been able to acknowledge in Legotown: When people are shut out of participation in the power structure, they are disenfranchised — and angry, discouraged, and hurt. ... The rules of the game — which mirrored the rules of our capitalist meritocracy — were a setup for winning and losing. ... Our analysis of the game, as teachers, guided our planning for the rest of the investigation into the issues of power, privilege, and authority that spanned the rest of the year.” After “months of social justice exploration,” the teachers finally agreed it was time to return the Legos to the classroom. That’s because the children at last had bought into the concept that “collectivity is a good thing.” And in Hilltop’s new Lego regime, there would be three immutable laws: All structures are public structures. Everyone can use all the Lego structures. But only the builder or people who have her or his permission are allowed to change a structure. Lego people can be saved only by a “team” of kids, not by individuals. All structures will be standard sizes. You can almost feel the liberating spirit of that last rule. All structures will be standard sizes? At Hilltop Children’s Center, all imaginations will be a standard size as well: small.

---

Pizza is Still King of the Table!

Scientists make 'healthy' pizzas

Scientists say they have come up with a way of making pizzas more healthy.

Comment: I know this might seem boring, but it's really quite important that we understand what is killing us and what is making us thrive - especially our children!

Story:
US researchers have developed a way of baking and fermenting dough which can increase levels of antioxidants, which protect against cell and tissue damage.

The team from the University of Maryland told the American Chemical Society longer baking and higher temperatures are the key.

But a UK diet expert said a healthier pizza base might lead people to choose more unhealthy toppings.

Chemical reactions

The researchers looked at the effect of different baking conditions on the dough.

I would rather people ate their five portions of fruit and vegetables each day, than ate more pizza Jacqui Lowdon, British Dietetic Association

They cooked two different kinds of whole grain pizza dough, made from two different varieties of wheat, at a range of temperatures from 204C to 285C, and to different baking times - from seven to 14 minutes.

The dough was also checked for its antioxidant properties.

Antioxidant levels increased by up to 60% during longer baking times and by as much as 82% during higher baking temperatures, depending on the type of wheat flour and the antioxidant test used, the researcher says.

Letting the pizza dough ferment for longer, up to 48 hours, also appeared to increase antioxidants significantly, the researchers found.

It is thought chemical reactions induced by yeasts might explain the increased levels.

The researchers suggest longer baking time, higher temperature and longer fermentation will also boost antioxidant levels in refined pizza dough, though to a lesser degree.

Jeffrey Moore, who led the study, said the findings could be particularly good for people who like deep-pan pizzas which "may have the potential to deliver higher levels of antioxidants in comparison to other pizza styles."

The research was funded by grain producing organisations, but received no money from the pizza industry.

But Jacqui Lowdon of the British Dietetic Association said: "I would rather people ate their five portions of fruit and vegetables each day, than ate more pizza.

"They will be getting a high fat intake, and it may make them more likely to choose extra cheese and salami.

"This isn't teaching people about healthy eating."

I couldn't Resist!

World's tallest man gets hitched

March 28, 2007 03:45 PM

New Media Producer: Rachel Chambliss

Comment: I couldn't resist this. As you read the story it just gets better and better.

After searching high and low, the world's tallest man has married a woman two-thirds his height a Chinese newspaper reported Wednesday.

The Beijing New reported, Bao Xishun, a 7-foot-9-inch (2.36-meter) herdsman from Inner Mongolia, married saleswoman Xia Shujian, who is 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 meters) tall.

Bao's 28-year-old bride is half his age and hailed from his hometown of Chifeng, even though marriage advertisements were sent around the world.

"After a long and careful selection, the effort has been finally paid off," the newspaper said.

Bao was confirmed last year by the Guinness World Records as the world's tallest person.

Bao was in the news in December after he used his long arms to save two dolphins by pulling out plastic from their stomachs.

The dolphins got sick after nibbling on plastic from the edge of their pool at an aquarium in Liaoning province.

Attempts to use surgical instruments to remove the plastic failed because the dolphins' stomachs contracted in response to the instruments Chinese media reported.

Child Development Study

Study links extensive child care with more aggressive behavior in school
By Associated Press
Sunday, March 25, 2007 -

WASHINGTON -- Children who got quality child care before entering kindergarten had better vocabulary scores in the fifth grade than did youngsters who received lower quality care.
Also, the more time that children spent in child care, the more likely their sixth grade teachers were to report problem behavior.
The findings come from the largest study of child care and development conducted in the United States. The 1,364 children in the analysis had been tracked since birth as part of a study by the National Institutes of Health.
In the study’s latest installment, being released Monday, researchers evaluated whether characteristics observed between kindergarten and third grade were still present in fifth grade or sixth grade. The researchers found that the vocabulary and behavior patterns did continue, though many other characteristics did dissipate.
The researchers said the increase in vocabulary and problem behaviors was small, and that parenting quality was a much more important predictor of child development.
In the study, child care was defined as care by anyone other than the child’s mother who was regularly scheduled for at least 10 hours per week.
The researchers said the enduring effect of child care quality is consistent with other evidence showing that children’s early experiences matter to their language development.
The long-term effect on behavior also may have a logical explanation, the researchers said.
”One possible reason why relations between center care and problem behavior may endure is that primary school teachers lack the training as well as the time to address behavior problems, given their primary focus on academics,” the researchers said.
The study appears in the current issue of Child Development. The authors emphasized that the children’s behavior was within a normal range and that it would be impossible to go into a classroom, and with no additional information, pick out those who had been in child care.

The Garden School Tattler

Someone asked about Spring Break. We will be on Spring Break Thursday and Friday of this week. We will go to the zoo on Wednesday until about 2:00. We will picnic at Wesselman Park depending on the weather. This upcoming break is our first since Christmas.

Yesterday we did an obstacle course and bobbed for apples. No matter how often you do this, the kids are never bored with it -soaking wet, yes; bored, no. It's hilarious. There are children who actually have bobbing styles. The bigger boys will throw their heads under the water and come up with an apple every time. The more timid will push the apples to the side and try to get the apple with a biting motion. The smarties will try to get a stem. Then there are the emotional breakdowns where a child will throw himself into tantrum because the apple didn't just pop into his mouth.

The children did some really cute arts and crafts yesterday. They asked to do this, and we encouraged it. Today we will resurrect beading and practice on some lace edges. I would like to introduce knitting or crochet, but I'm not sure they are old enough - let's see. They sure are smart enough.

I think we might create paper dolls today as well. This is something girls can entertain themselves with for a long time.

I love these extra days when the children have grown up enough to really teach the creative arts. People disregard the creative arts because they can "buy" it made. But I always say to the children, you need to know how to sew, to cook, to plant, to make something from nothing because you never know when you will be someplace, even home, when the lights will go out for a long long time, and we need to know what to do and how to do it. I once wrote a passage in one of my novels about embroidery and how the intricate stitching is useful to mend clothes as well as decorate.

We are in the process of recruiting new students. We have new brochures and new bulletin board posters. If you have a bulletin board at work or you have a place we can put our brochures, please let us know. The more students we have the lower the tuition.

Asparagus

The George Mateljan Foundation is a non-profit organization free of commercial influence, which provides this website for you free of charge. Our purpose is to provide you with unbiased scientific information about how nutrient-rich World's Healthiest Foods can promote vibrant health and energy and fit your personal needs and busy lifestyle.

Comment: I think this article from "The World's Healthiest Foods" site is timely because I bought asparagus yesterday as our new food for the week. I'm hoping that the children will want to try them.

Asparagus

The fleshy green spears of asparagus are both succulent and tender and have been considered a delicacy since ancient times. This highly prized vegetable arrives with the coming of spring. In California the first crops are picked as early as February, however, their season generally is considered to run from April through May. The growing season in the Midwest and East extends through July.

Asparagus is a perennial, an almost leafless member of the lily family. The spears we buy in the store are actually the shoots from an underground crown. It takes up to 3 years for crowns to develop enough to begin producing shoots, but once they do, they can produce for up to 20 years.

Health Benefits

Heart Health

Folate is essential for a healthy cardiovascular system. Folate is involved in the methylation cycle, a biochemical event in which a methyl group--one atom of carbon and three atoms of hydrogen--is transferred from one molecule to another. Methylation reactions are the body's biochemical "spark plugs" in a wide variety of very important reactions. For example, methylation is crucial for the proper transcription of DNA, and transforms norepinephrine into adrenaline, and serotonin into melatonin. When the methylation cycle flows smoothly, the amino acid methionine is transformed into homocysteine, which is quickly converted into cysteine, and then back into methionine. Folate (along with vitamins B6 and B12) is necessary for the conversion of homocysteine into cysteine. When folate levels are low, blood levels of homocysteine rise, a situation that significantly increases the risk for heart disease. Homocysteine promotes atherosclerosis by reducing the integrity of blood vessel walls and by interfering with the formation of collagen (the main protein in connective tissue). Elevations in homocysteine are found in approximately 20-40% of patients with heart disease, and it is estimated that consumption of 400 mcg of folate daily would reduce the number of heart attacks suffered by Americans each year by 10%. Just one serving of asparagus supplies almost 66% of the daily recommended intake of folate.

A Natural Diuretic

Asparagus is a very good source of potassium (288 mg per cup) and quite low in sodium (19.8 mg per cup. Its mineral profile, combined with an active amino acid in asparagus, asparagine, gives asparagus a diuretic effect. Although some popular articles on asparagine link this amino acid to the distinct urinary odor that can follow along after consumption of asparagus, research studies suggest that this odor stems from a variety of sulfur-containing compounds (discussed in detail under the "Safety" section below). Historically, asparagus has been used to treat problems involving swelling, such as arthritis and rheumatism, and may also be useful for PMS-related water retention.

Food for Healthy Gut Flora

Asparagus contains a special kind of carbohydrate called inulin that we don't digest, but the health-promoting friendly bacteria in our large intestine, such as Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli, do. When our diet contains good amounts of inulin, the growth and activity of these friendly bacteria increase. And when populations of health-promoting bacteria are large, it is much more difficult for unfriendly bacteria to gain a foothold in our intestinal tract.

A Birth Defect Fighter

Especially if you're thinking about becoming pregnant or are in the early stages of pregnancy, make asparagus a frequent addition to your meals. A cup of asparagus supplies approximately 263 mcg of folate, a B-vitamin essential for proper cellular division because it is necessary in DNA synthesis. Without folate, the fetus' nervous system cells do not divide properly. Inadequate folate during pregnancy has been linked to several birth defects, including neural tube defects like spina bifida. Despite folate's wide availability in food (it's name comes from the Latin word folium, meaning "foliage," because it's found in green leafy vegetables), folate deficiency is the most common vitamin deficiency in the world.

Description

Asparagus is a perennial garden plant belonging to the Lily family (Liliaceae). While approximately 300 varieties of asparagus have been noted, only 20 are edible.

Asparagus, its fleshy spears topped with bud-like compact heads, is often thought of as a luxury vegetable, prized for its succulent taste and tender texture. It is harvested in the spring when it is 6 to 8 inches tall. While the most common variety of asparagus is green in color, two other edible varieties are available. White asparagus, with its more delicate flavor and tender texture, is grown underground to inhibit its development of chlorophyll content, therefore creating its distinctive white coloring. It is generally found canned, although you may find it fresh in some select gourmet shops, and it is generally more expensive than the green variety since its production is more labor intensive. The other edible variety of asparagus is purple in color. It is much smaller than the green or white variety (usually just 2 to 3 inches tall) and features a fruitier flavor. It also provides benefits from phytonutrients called anthocyanins that give it its purple color. With prolonged cooking, the purple color may disappear.

India

The Times of India Editorial

Comment: This is a sad article, but well worth reading. A lot of what is said here about a country like India can be said about our own country. We have yet to understand what the consequence is of keeping children from learning till the cut of line. We still don't understand the necessity of feeding children properly.

Go to any school you consider good, enter Class II, and write these words on the blackboard in neat letters: 'When you read this, stand up'. Children will read the words aloud, but nobody will stand up. Why? Because, by the end of Grade I, reading has already been dissociated from meaning. The methods employed to teach how to read and the material given to read ensure that reading is mastered as a mechanical activity. For it to be a meaningful activity, an agenda of drastic reforms in early childhood education is required.

Early childhood is a stage of education we do not fully recognise. Even the amendment made to the Constitution, making elementary education a fundamental right, leaves out the first five years of life. That is when the secret powers of childhood are at their most intense. From health care and emotional security to the cultivation of language and other natural endowments, needs of pre-school children are self-evident, but they are yet to be accepted as national priorities.

Fulfilling the demands of early childhood is crucial for later development. We bumble along, with shoestring provision for a handful of programmes in the state sector, while the private sector is happy catering to middle class parents' demand for the earliest possible attainment of literacy and compliant behaviour. Pushed when they have no power to resist, our children suffer cognitive and emotional damage at the hands of poorly paid and trained teachers. Those who come straight to Class I are somewhat luckier, but not for long because their encounter with learning in the primary school years is equally lopsided.

Any listing of the common problems that pre-school education faces must start with the lack of adequate institutional provisions. The current scramble for seats in Delhi has more to do with the paucity of nurseries than with the correctness of admission formula. Why doesn’t Delhi spend more public funds on children, schools, libraries? No one knows. Private provision can never match the demand, but even in terms of quality, most private nurseries offer nothing different from those run by the government. Exceptions apart, both lack the imagination to engage the young child with experiences derived from resources like water, sand, clay, sounds, colours and shapes.

Classically known to enrich development, the most significant activities require purely natural resources, such as a patch of land to grow plants and to keep pets. Others call for equipment, such as toys, cardboard and paper, old tyres and building blocks. Most Delhi nurseries are poor in both kinds of resources.

They have no open space to let children grow plants or comfortably move about from one activity to another. The kind of apparatus Montessori had developed is rarely seen, though many nurseries flaunt her name. The quality of play equipment is poor too, partly because India’s toy industry is rudimentary and because governments have been indifferent to the advice available from the National Institute of Design.

It is a strange fact that India, which now produces ballistic missiles, does not manufacture a high quality ball for little children to play with. The same is sadly true of the equipment and training available in training institutes.
Teachers' training as a whole is in crisis, but training for pre-school is simply not recognised as a professional activity comparable with paediatrics.

The level of funding needed to push early childhood out of an area of darkness is far too vast for private investors to contemplate. In teacher training alone, if we were to plan for leadership and coverage within the foreseeable future, we need at least five IIM-type national institutes of early childhood, serving each region with training and equipment.

Unfortunately, district institutes of education and training are generally not in a happy state though the
increased allocation announced recently for teacher education can make a difference if funds are utilised in the context of a wider reform strategy. National Curriculum Framework (NCF 2005) and its accompanying paper on early childhood by the National Focus Group chaired by Mina Swaminathan provides the outline of such a strategy, but the details need to be worked out.

Making pre-school education a part of primary schooling requires a deep curricular reform. Shanta Sinha had suggested during NCF discussions that we should recognise the needs of four- to eight-year-olds in an integrated manner. This is the period when each child develops along an individual trajectory of growth. By insisting on normative patterns, our nurseries and schools discourage individuality and the potential for creative growth. By subjecting children to learn reading within a fixed schedule and with the help of a single standard text, our system promotes mechanical decoding in the name of reading.

Reading for pleasure is replaced by pronouncing every sound correctly to avoid the teacher's wrath. The child's natural search for meaning is muzzled. The long road to survival by rote memorising starts. Early childhood has suffered for another reason. It carries the full burden of economic and cultural discrimination that women face.

Neither the family nor the state is willing to recognise what it means for a woman to care for a little child. Whether it is the challenge of poverty in the face of food scarcity and inflation, or the problem of looking after the small child's health and daily needs while working for a living, women seldom find adequate support within the family or outside to play these multiple roles. Malnourishment among mothers is as common as among children.

The writer is director, NCERT.

The Day

Energy Boosts at Work

Comment: I really love this article. Everyone's day is different, but there are some wonderful suggestions here. At school, we don't get breaks except a quick 30 second run to the bathroom. Finding time to even sit down is tough. But going home drained and exhausted is not a good day. I love the standing quiet for two minutes. The one thing we can do that most people can't is to catch a yoga move in the middle of nearly anything. At our morning meetings aka circle time, we can dive into a yoga move without a response. Try that at one of your morning meetings! I think the whole idea is to finish the day without that awful feeling that it's bed time.


Stay Alert All Day, Every Day
-- By Mike Kramer and Liz Noelcke, Staff Writers of Babyfit

You see the computer screen, but you really don’t. It’s more like a two-foot blur. Your eyes are between open and closed, although you’re not sure where. At the moment, you have no idea what you’re working on. And it’s only 3 p.m. Sound familiar? Is this a typical afternoon or morning? Are you looking for an energy boost at your desk? Office life can suck the energy right out of you, if you let it. But, there are numerous ways to take advantage of your workspace and stay energetic all day.

Did you realize bad posture alone can give your brain up to 30% less blood and oxygen? Along with good posture, the most effective way to fight energy lulls is with heavy doses of good stretching and good breathing. Shoot for five minutes of mental or physical activity per hour, every hour at the computer.

Here are more, different ideas for rejuvenating your mind and body. Each will only take a few minutes.

• Find a few sturdy, thick phonebooks and do some step aerobics.
• Massage your head and shoulders. Find trigger points of tension in the shoulders and base of the skull. Hold pressure for 6-10 seconds. Don’t forget your face and jaw.
• Take two steps back from your desk and lean forward until you’re at an angled push-up position against the edge of your desk. Do a couple quick sets.
• Lift 1-3 packs of printer paper in each hand. Curl them like weights or lift them over your head.
• Close your door and shadow box. Imagining a stressor while you’re punching will increase your energy, guaranteed.
• Jumping jacks. Simple, quick and pumps you up.
• Squeeze a stress ball. Relieves stress while strengthening forearms and wrists for typing.
• Try word puzzles. Keep a jigsaw puzzle in your office.
• Switch hands with whatever you’re doing.
• Stand perfectly still for two minutes. Regroup.
• When you first arrive at work, take as long as possible before sitting down.
• Forget the boardroom. Hold walking meetings.
• Hand-deliver mail, memos and faxes.
• Chat face-to-face instead of by e-mail or phone.
• Use a bathroom on the other side of the building or another floor.
• Have a lot of phone time? Buy a cordless and move around while talking.

Another approach, one that adults rarely consider but could greatly benefit from, is a nap.

A 2001 survey by the National Sleep Foundation found that 63% of Americans don’t get enough sleep. Naps will combat this. They cannot replace a good night’s sleep, but they can help you perform at your peek throughout the day. Plus you can save that daily $4 on Starbucks, because the energy you gain from a nap is better and longer lasting than caffeine. The ideal nap length is 20 minutes, easily squeezable into the workday.

No matter the method, try to find tricks that work for you. Remember, if you don’t want to feel drained at the end of the work day, you don’t have to.

The Garden School Tattler

It's been just beautiful outdoors, and we are gearing up for the summer. Kids are already "hot" which is hilarious. We tell them, "It's going to get a lot hotter. "

In class, my 4Ks are writing sentences, and today we will play with the number chart. Miss Kelly and I are talking about handwriting a lot and letter recognition.

At play, we've been doing some Medieval arts with beading cloth. I was hoping the next step would be knitting, but it's a challenge. Children should learn these old arts now, so they will have them later. Perhaps we should do some needle painting or some ribbon painting.

Yesterday, Mrs. St. Louis did some "directed drawing." It's a fine arts drawing lesson. The children drew and then painted sheep. They are the dearest things. We will hang some of them in the entrance way.

Today is geography day. We will be working on our world map again, and focus on directions. We did a map test with Miss Amy's new song, and three of the children could pick out California, Arkansas, Alabama, Alaska, Connecticut, and Colorado correctly. This is not something we've taught. It's something they learned by interest.

Today, Miss Anne is cooking for a private party for 30 in Henderson. Let's wish her well.

Miss Molly is working diligently on the website and bringing it up to date. If you have pictures you think would be great on the site, please email them to her.

Does anyone know that Miss Kelly does Pampered Chef parties? She has supplied the school with the greatest cookware. Some of their things are just fabulous and make cooking so much easier. If you want to see a brochure, please ask her.

Life is really sweet right now...

The Garden School Tattler

I love this picture. The ladies are spectacular. It really shows the different personalities of our girls. Aren't they beautiful?

It's another rainy day, so getting out doors might be tricky today. Getting out doors for a run is always a good idea.

Today is social studies day. Not sure what Kelly has up her sleeve. We'll do Spanish in the morning just before lunch. And later, we might focus on a song Miss Amy is interested in teaching the children - about the 50 American states. Children should be aware of where our own states are at least as much as they are the other geographical features of our world.

Today I have a meeting with the Evansville Childcare Coalition Nutrition group. Not sure what this will be about. I hope what we do at the Garden School will be helpful. I've been doing a lot of reading about foods that work for you, and the workshop and the health and fitness table I did last week were very well received.

Summer is coming. If you know someone who is without summer care, please tell them about our program.

The Garden School Tattler

Well it's back to school today. Let's see what everyone forgot or remembered. Normally, we are all very pleased by what they remember. The basic idea is that if a child is old enough to learn it, it will stay with him - practice or not. You can teach a two year old their letters, but if you don't keep at it, they will forget. That means they are not old enough to remember. It's an individual thing, of course. Some twos remember and most don't.

The real question is, what do they remember at four and five. Most "experts" say they are not ready to do anything until they reach kindergarten at public school. Our teachers have found with 99 percent of children that's simply not true. Children learn about what interests them. That's why they need a full score of what's in the world. If you only teach them 1% of what's in the world, how are they going to make decisions about what they like and don't like?

Setting the stage for likes and dislikes, interests and connections begins before a child is six. And each subject is connected somehow to other subjects. My son puts cyclotrons together and his initial interest began when he was 18 months old and I handed him a Bell telephone and a screwdriver. By the time he was 18 years old, he was building a nuclear accelerator in his room.

The play last week held lots of opportunities for children's exploration of theatre, art, communication, speech, presentation, humor, and teamwork.

This week -- who knows.

Something New for Scrapbookers

Here's a little something for those of you who are interested in Scrapbooking on the computer:

New Digital Scrapbook MAX Combines Technological Advances With Traditional Trends.
www.scrapbookmax.com

(Kansas City) - It's the first scrapbooking software to fully
integrate the advances of digital photography with the look and
feel of traditional paper scrapbooking, providing the best of
both worlds. Scrapbook MAX, a complete computerized digital
scrapbooking kit, bridges the gap between paper and digital with
a unique combination of features inspired by traditional
scrapbooking. The downloadable software offers a user-friendly
drag-and-drop workspace that makes digital scrapbooking fast,
fun and easy for all ages.

Scrapbook MAX provides users with creative embellishments,
journal text, speech bubbles, frames, borders, and much more to
use with their digital photos. It also includes a great
selection of professionally designed themes and layouts, and
hundreds of captions, clipart, paper scraps, as well as a
variety of images, colors, patterns and textures. The unique
software allows users to add exciting background music and even
includes professional features like rotation, resizing, rulers,
and alignment tools.

"Everyone has friends and family who scrapbook," says Indigo
Rose Software Design President Colin Adams. "According to a
recent survey, more than 25 million households throughout North
America take part in scrapbooking and this year some 89 million
digital cameras will be used, so you've got a lot of people who
are looking for something to do with their photos."

Adams says his software company, Indigo Rose Design Corp., got
into the scrapbooking market when they discovered the current
market was lacking. "One day about a year ago, we went out
looking for a software package to create scrapbooks on the
computer. It was pretty clear that the existing products didn't
get the whole scrapbooking concept." Adams says he felt the
existing scrapbooking software wasn't using the familiar
scrapbooking terms, or weren't compatible with all the great,
and often free, digital papers, embellishments and scrapbooking
kits found on the Internet. "Above all, the software was either
too complicated to be fun or so simple that there was no room
left for creativity. So, we created Scrapbook MAX Digital
Scrapbooking Software to address all of those issues."

Scrapbook MAX can publish a scrapbook directly to video CD for
viewing on TV screen or monitor. It also helps make fantastic
slideshows and can send the entire scrapbook as an email
attachment, post it on a website, or turn it into a screen
saver. Scrapbook pages can be posted online for free in the
Scrapbook MAX members gallery area or be printed in high
resolution.

In addition to the unique combination of technology and
tradition, what also sets Scrapbook MAX apart is that it is
extremely easy to use even for the complete novice, yet it also
provides 100% creative control over scrapbook layouts of any
size, even 8x8 and 12x12. It also offers picture perfect photo
retouching options like red eye reduction, cropping, scratch
removal and sharpening.

Scrapbook MAX sells for $39.95 and can be purchased at select
retailers, online at www.scrapbookmax.com or by calling:
800.665.9668 Scrapbook MAX is compatible for Windows 98 and up
and is available by download for a 30-day trial version.

St. Patrick's Day Play

It was a wonderful event. The children were delightful. We congratulate Hadley for her reading ability and her presence and her courage. We host the other little stars as well. Faith was a wonderful Queenie, a funny delightful little actress. We salute Justin for his steadfast St. Patrick, and Adyson for his convincing "Chickenface" king of the Druids.

The O'Learys were earnest in their third century farming. Camryn, Dawson, Eli and Bethany started the play with great resolve.

The Druid Princesses were lovely and charming, Lexi was smashing, Abby was hilarious, Madison was fetching in her ruffles, Morgan was charming, Jasmin was stunning, and Hadley was brilliant.

The Leps were delightful, Ian, Nickolai, Aidan, MJ, Alex, and David presented the problem and the fix and earned their way back into the pearly gates with energy and right actions!

Addie, Bryce and Phoebe were wonderful snakes and their tiny ages seemed so big on stage.

The brownies were brownies - Queen Briana kept all her little ones together like Jaylen, Cole, Jacob, Emma, India, and William when he decided to join them half way through. Brady preferred his mother's lap to the stage.

We especially thank Miss Amy who came in mid week and took over play duties mid stream. People like Miss Amy are "Stars in the sky."

Mrs. St. Louis designed and made the costumes. Her talent and expertise in so many ways is often not heard, but always seen. She is a veteran's veteran.

Putting a play together always has it's moments, and that's why children need to do this. The end product is the tell tale sign whether or not it worked. Being able to do something from start to finish says something about people. The children have accomplished this beautifully. Without their talents and their abilities, we could not do it.

The plays are very important to we veteran teachers because we understand from a grandmother's perspective how much it's appreciated by the students down the way. None of them will remember work sheets, tests, or even text books in years to come. They will, however, remember their lines, their costumes, the fun of presenting, and these are the things that really teach. Dropping the play because it's "too hard" or it "takes too much time" or "too much energy" is saying that the children take...

In April, we will have a spring sing and a book fair.

Now something about St. Patrick:

Details of his life are uncertain. Current research places his dates of birth and death a little later than earlier accounts. Patrick may have been born in Dunbarton, Scotland, Cumberland, England, or in northern Wales. He called himself both a Roman and a Briton. At 16, he and a large number of his father’s slaves and vassals were captured by Irish raiders and sold as slaves in Ireland. Forced to work as a shepherd, he suffered greatly from hunger and cold.

After six years, Patrick escaped, probably to France, and later returned to Britain at the age of 22. His captivity had meant spiritual conversion. He may have studied at Lerins, off the French coast; he spent years at Auxerre, France, and was consecrated bishop at the age of 43. His great desire was to proclaim the Good News to the Irish.

In a dream vision it seemed “all the children of Ireland from their mothers’ wombs were stretching out their hands” to him. He understood the vision to be a call to do mission work in pagan Ireland. Despite opposition from those who felt his education had been defective, he was sent to carry out the task. He went to the west and north, where the faith had never been preached, obtained the protection of local kings and made numerous converts.

Because of the island’s pagan background, Patrick was emphatic in encouraging widows to remain chaste and young women to consecrate their virginity to Christ. He ordained many priests, divided the country into dioceses, held Church councils, founded several monasteries and continually urged his people to greater holiness in Christ.

He suffered much opposition from pagan druids, and was criticized in both England and Ireland for the way he conducted his mission.

In a relatively short time the island had experienced deeply the Christian spirit, and was prepared to send out missionaries whose efforts were greatly responsible for Christianizing Europe.

Patrick was a man of action, with little inclination toward learning. He had a rocklike belief in his vocation, in the cause he had espoused.

One of the few certainly authentic writings is his Confessio, above all an act of homage to God for having called Patrick, unworthy sinner, to the apostolate.

There is hope rather than irony in the fact that his burial place is said to be in strife-torn Ulster, in County Down.

Quote

“Christ shield me this day: Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every person who thinks of me, Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ in the ear that hears me” (from “The Breastplate of St. Patrick”).

The Garden School Tattler

Yesterday I was out of the building most of the day doing a health and fitness fair table at Health South. We are the healthy choice place for little people. The public seemed to love what we are doing. We are on the cutting edge of early childhood simply because we are not afraid, as a school, to do so much.

I had a "not so good" call from my husband about Maestro. Apparently about 9:30 in the morning, Terry took him out, and Maestro liked the outdoors very much. Later Maestro took off and did not return. I came home early and walked Newburgh to look for him, and didn't see him at all. I figured he was gone. Edith suggested he might be trying to find his way back to school. About 9:00 last night, the cat returned and spent the rest of the night snoring in a chair. Looks like it's lucky for me he will spend most of his time "away." Anyway, chapter two of the Maestro is Expelled and Goes to Judy's House saga.

Today is play. It's a fun day all day. We will try to keep the lid down as much as possible because by any Friday, the kids are exhausted, and today is worse. We will costume about 2:20 and start promptly at 3:00. Please remember to keep as quiet as possible because their voices are thin.

We hope you like this production. The kids have done an exceptional job.

The Garden School Tattler

Just a note to say that I received a letter from the health department yesterday afternoon that said Maestro was a critical violation to our food establishment and would have to go. I had written David last week, and he kindly replied he had no alternative, after seven years, but to enforce the law.

I took Maestro home last night. It was quite a battle to get him out of the building. Needless to say, he likes the house. It's quiet and he can roam around the rooms and has a nice neighborhood to defend and explore. His main obstacle will be my 20+ year old cat, Clonmacnoise. They have been rudely introduced, and have held name calling contests and posing contests, but neither has taken the first bite. Maestro seems frightened, if you can believe it. He spent the night in my bird cage curled up among the plants on a pillow. He had his cat box and water, but he wasn't coming out.

Maestro was very tame last night and didn't bite or scratch or growl at me. He was a perfect gentlemen. I'm thinking maybe I should apply this kind of thing to some of the kids!

Tomorrow is play. In practice, it is absolutely darling. The costumes, thanks to Edith, are magnificent. The extras this year were well worth doing. I'm so proud of the children, it brings tears to my eyes.

We have suspended classroom activities for the play and will return to paper and pencil next week. We feel that plays and productions teach children a lot, and the doing of them creates a real social platform. Just getting on stage, when one has been created for them, is a big deal and a first deal.

Thanks to Amy Russell for all her help. She has been an outstanding asset to the school.

New Zealand

Stuff.co.nz

Why preschools need men

Falling rates of men teaching in kindergartens and daycares could be turning boys off learning for life, education experts say.

The number of men in teacher- staffed preschools has halved to less than 1% in the past decade.

That's below other countries - Australia has about 4 per cent and has made lifting male participation a key goal. Both England and Wales have 2-3 per cent male childcare teachers and have set a target of 6 per cent, while Denmark boasts 8 per cent.

Dr Sarah Farquhar, of the Childforum Research Network, blames "a veiled form of sexism" for deterring men from a career in early childhood teaching. She's organising a conference this month to look at the role of men in the sector.

In 1997, her research found the infamous Christchurch Civic Creche case, which resulted in Peter Ellis's conviction for multiple sex offences, had driven many men from teaching.

"There was a feeling men had to watch their backs in case they were falsely accused of abuse.

"I think that fear has dissipated as common sense has taken hold, but men still feel unwelcome."

Dunedin early childhood teacher Russell Ballantyne, who has 23 years' experience in the sector, said the gender imbalance within early childhood was "not only tolerated but also closely protected".

"There's an underlying belief that men shouldn't be involved in early childhood education, and any man who chooses to be is suspect."

Despite the chronic shortage of trained early childhood teachers, the Ministry of Education was doing little to entice men into the profession, he said. "In all their promotional material, there's not a single male face."

In many early childhood centres there was more value placed on passive activities - such as art and reading - than on the physical activities favoured by boys.

"If the dominant perspective is always female, they feel left out. The way to challenge beliefs is to disprove them: it should be normal for children to see men caring for them."

Education campaigner and writer Celia Lashlie, the author of He'll Be OK - Growing Gorgeous Boys into Good Men, says the "feminisation of the education system" was handicapping boys. "I think there is a link between the fact boys are falling behind academically and the way in which they are increasingly marginalised."

Just because "girls can do anything" does not mean they should do everything, she said.

Farquhar, who is organising this month's conference for men in early childhood education, says more male involvement would be good for women, both within the profession and in the community.

"If men are encouraged to be more involved in the care of young children, if that's seen as `normal', it would take some of the burden off women.

"Female-dominated occupations also tend to have lower rates of pay, so more male representation could mean the profession receives better recognition in general."

A spokeswoman for Education Minister Steve Maharey, Helen Vaughan, said the number of male early childhood teachers has risen from just 40 in 2001 to 132 today - compared with more than 13,600 women.

Comment: I love this article because it's so true. Well guys?

Out of the Box

APPLES to APPLES Harvest: 3 Million Games!

The Fastest Growing Game in the Country Celebrates Bumper Crop Sales.

Richland Center, Wisconsin - Out of the Box Publishing is proud to announce a milestone for its best selling game: APPLES to APPLES®. This year, APPLES to APPLES has reached sales of over three million units! APPLES to APPLES is the wild, award-winning card and party game that provides instant fun for four to ten players. Each round is filled with surprising and outrageous comparisons from a wide range of people, places, things and events.

"The sky's the limit," says Mark Osterhaus, President of Out of the Box Publishing. "APPLES to APPLES is one of those games that virtually everyone can play.and enjoy. Three million units is just the beginning!"

In an additional milestone, Out of the Box Publishing's MyCard® system now hosts over 50,000 Customized APPLES to APPLES cards. MyCard is a free web-based program that allows players to add personalized cards to their favorite Out of the Box game. For more information on MyCard: http://www.otb-games.com/mycard/index.html

APPLES to APPLES is for 4 to 10 players, teen to adult. APPLES to APPLES is available at retailers nationwide - at a suggested retail of $29.99.

Since 1999, Out of the Box Publishing has been recognized as an industry leader in the design of award-winning card and board games. Headquartered in Richland Center Wisconsin, Out of the Box Publishing produces a full line of games for the whole family.

Out of the Box games include:

. Apples to Apples® . Abridged® . Balancing AliensT . Basari® . Blink® . Bosworth®

. Cineplexity® . Pin Games® . Cloud 9® . Cover-UPT . Easy Come, Easy GoT . Fire and IceT

. Fish Eat Fish® . Gavitt's Stock Exchange® . Gold Digger® . Harry's Grand Slam BaseballT

. Letterflip® . MyWord!® . Mix-UPT . PepperT . Qwitch® . Shipwrecked® . Snorta!®

. Squint® . Tutankhamen® ! . Wallamoppi® . Whad' Ya Know?® . Wheedle® . Wild Side®

. 10 Days in AfricaT . 10 Days in EuropeT . 10 Days in the USAT

Good News About Chocolate!

Chocolate!

Two recent studies suggest compounds in natural cocoa have significant health-giving properties.

One study by Prof Norman K. Hollenberg from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, US was published in the International Journal of Medical Sciences.

Hollenberg spent years studying the effects of cocoa-drinking on the Kuna people in Panama. He suggests that epicatechin, a flavanol found in high levels in natural cocoa, should be classed as a vitamin and is as important as penicillin and anaesthesia in terms of its potential to impact public health.

Although only an observational study, Hollenberg's results from his work with the Kuna has been described as "so impressive" by Daniel Fabricant, a nutrition expert, that it "may even warrant a rethink of how vitamins are defined".

Hollenberg and colleagues used death certificates from 2000 to 2004 to look at causes of death between the Kuna who live on the San Blas islands and those on mainland Panama. The Kuna on the mainland do not drink the flavanol-rich cocoa.

They found that the risk of 4 of the 5 most common killer diseases: cancer, diabetes, stroke and heart failure, is reduced to less than 10% in the island-based Kuna people, who drink up to 40 cups of epicatechin-rich cocoa a week.

Fabricant is vice president for scientific affairs at the Natural Products Association. He suggests that: "the link between high epicatechin consumption and a decreased risk of killer disease is so striking, it should be investigated further. It may be that these diseases are the result of epicatechin deficiency."

The other study, sponsored by Mars Incorporated and conducted in Germany, was published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology. It suggests that drinking cocoa rich in flavanols can reverse impairment in the functioning of blood vessels, such as that caused by atherosclerosis.

In this study the participants were male smokers - a group known to have problems with blood vessel function. The participants were given cocoa drinks made with different levels of flavanol: from 28 to 918 milligrams.

In each case, the optimal effect in the blood flow happened after two hours.

179 milligram of flavanols gave a 50 per cent improvement in blood vessel performance, which carried on increasing in proportion to flavanol increase.

The improvement in blood vessel function for the highest level of flavanol, 918 mg, was so great that it was equal to that found in a person with no known cardiovascular risk factors.

They followed this up with a seven day sustained trial, where participants were given three drinks a day, totalling 918 mg, and monitored their blood vessel performance at intervals over the day, and then for a week after they stopped taking the drink.

The researchers said that the blood vessel benefits from consuming the flavanol-rich cocoa for a week was comparable to "long-term drug therapy with statins".

While the improved performance was sustained while they continued to drink the cocoa, after a week of not drinking it, the blood vessel performance returned to their previous levels.

Commercial cocoa production removes flavanols like epicatechin because they taste bitter. They can also be destroyed by many conventional cocoa and chocolate processing methods. Tea, wine, chocolate and some fruit and vegetable also contain epicatechin.

According to a statement that accompanies an announcement of the second study, Mars has patented methods of processing cocoa beans to keep the naturally occurring flavanols in the cocoa and chocolate.

The statement emphasizes that consumers should be aware that "contrary to repeated reports, the percent cacao or cocoa does not indicate cocoa flavanol content. Only careful handling of the cocoa can help to retain cocoa flavanol content."

Nutrionists advise members of the public not to take this news as a reason to increase their consumption of chocolate and cocoa.

Comment: Does this give new perspective on treats?

The Garden School Tattler

This is play week and we will be doing some stage decoration work. In the interim of practicing our lines, we will do helter skelter class work and something new I've brought for the older girls. We will be trying out some beading embroidery. It's a busy time for us.

Thursday, Miss Jana and I will be doing a table at the health fair at Health South. We will be showing off the GS as the premier healthy childcare spot in the city.

Saturday, I did a nutrition workshop for 4-C. I heard about some of the meals served in other childcare facilities in the city. Here's a tasty lunch: a boiled egg, green beans and kidney beans and white bread. Yuck.

Each one of the components is fine but together it's a culinary disaster. This week we will be serving hardboiled eggs on Friday, but we will serve them with cubed cheese, homemade bread, and several fresh fruits and vegetables as a picnic. We will serve the eggs with several kinds of dips for fun and food adventure.

Why is this so important? It's an investment in a child's whole life. Good habits reduce obesity and other health related problems while they increase brain function, energy and an overall sense of well being.

Childcare Ranking

Group gives Indiana mixed reviews on child care

March 1, 2007 04:30 PM

Tom Walker/Eyewitness News

Washington, DC - Child care is a daily fact of life for millions of working Americans. But who's keeping an eye on the caregivers? For the first time, a national group surveyed states, and it says what it found is disturbing. Indiana got a mixed verdict.

The statistics say 12 million children under 5 are in the care of someone other than their parents each week. Child care advocates say there's a common assumption.

"Most parents believe that programs are regulated, that they're visited frequently," said Marsha Thompson, Indiana Child Care networker.

Thompson runs a child care referral network in Indianapolis. She helped unveil a report that says parents' assumptions may well be wrong.

While a few kids do get the highest quality care, it says much of the child care in the US remains unregulated, uninspected and most of the workforce is untrained, too often with no criminal history checks.

The report faults Indiana for not licensing all day care where a fee is involved, for requiring inspections only once a year and for not requiring operators to have college degrees.

The report ranked Indiana 18th, but it said all states could learn from the Defense Department which ranked at the top, partly for the extensive background checks it requires of the workers at its daycare facilities. The department requires daycare workers to go through an FBI fingerprint check, a state criminal history record check and a local agency check as well.

Child care advocates hope this report will help focus attention on making the system better. "On getting providers licensed, helping them meet the standards and get the training," said Thompson.

Activists are lobbying on Capitol Hill, saying they don't want Washington to dictate standards for day care.. but they do want states to set higher standards, then be forced by the federal government to live by them.

The report graded Indiana higher than many states, partly due to health and safety training required of day care center staff.

Comment: Problem one: Few people including public officials believe the job of caring for children is important or real work. Secondly, few parents can afford good childcare. Third, few people want or "can" do the job, and lastly, employers of people who do the job don't want to pay them. Pulling childcare from the dustbin will take more than a few bills in congress. It will take a complete overhaul. It begins not with getting money from taxpayers; it begins with understanding the child and what he needs and rebuilding early childhood places to serve the child first and the investors last.