Saturday, December 29, 2007

Cooking for the Picky by Judy Lyden



There is no greater obstacle than a child who refuses to eat almost everything that's put in front of him. Plate after plate goes into the trash. It happens at home, school, and in restaurants. The parents of picky eaters take all kinds of routes to get kids to eat, and for the most part, the rule of thumb is, you can't make someone eat. It's generally a control issue.

Early, somewhere in a picky eater's life he or she discovered that one thing tasted better than another and decided that that one thing was all he or she was going to eat. Mostly, the one thing has a lot of sugar.

Why is it always sugar? Why don't children gravitate toward pickles or cheese or whole wheat bread? Because sugar goes down easily, is mostly digested instantly and give a lot of on the spot power better known as instant energy. Rarely do children throw up sugar. Sugar tastes good to children. It mimics breast milk, it's satisfying; you can eat a lot or a little and it's always familiar to the taste buds. Sugar is seductive, and for the most part, it doesn't need to be prepared - it's just right there in that cereal box or that box of snacks.

There are several models of picky child: there's the archetype model - "I'll eat it if it looks like I expect it to look - you know, out of the 'right package' - no substitutions, no homemade facsimiles!"

Then there is the limited index model - "I only eat: macaroni and cheese, saltine crackers, cheese pizza from Dominoes, bread sticks, Cinnamon Crunch cereal and sliced deli cheese, but it has to be in the bag from the deli, and I have to see it."

There is the child who simply never puts the fork into the mouth. He or she eats several foods, but just can't seem to do it most days.

Then there is the extremest who only eats one thing: Barbie Cereal

There is the child who scoffs at anything that's not fast food or cereal won't even try something new because he or she knows that something fast is on the way.

What creates the picky eater? One story I know began with breast feeding. Every time the poor infant nursed, he'd get an upset stomach because mom was not paying attention to her diet. It was only after several months of screaming and putting him on formula that the problem was partially solved. The feeding of this child was always a nightmare. Consequently the child never really enjoyed eating and always found food a suspicious part of his early childhood. He was all of the above picky eaters, but he is not the norm.

The norm begins with simple actions begun by the parent, namely taking food along in the car, packaged instant snacks given to children all day long as infants and toddlers, and finally, doing too much fast food. Parents create the monster, not children. Parents buy the food, not children.

Lots of infants have both an appetite and a desire to try new things and that's normal. Toddlers will eat mostly anything. One of my grandson's favorites was anything on his mother's plate. He would eat Caesar Salad, broccoli, sweet potatoes, sushi, calamari, and lasagna and anything in between. Then suddenly, he stopped about age three. He closed his jaws and bit down hard and hasn't opened them since.

Convenience makes for bad habits. At home it's easier to pull a box of crackers out of the closet than to make cookies. It's easier to pull in at a fast food restaurant than to go home and make hamburgers and French fries. It's easier to offer cereal than getting up and making a variety of breakfasts. The habit of taste comes early and quickly and takes only weeks to establish, and at three, there is a window of opportunity where a child suddenly understands what he is eating and how there is a choice of foods - his, and he grabs that choice in favor of anything else.

It's a lot easier to create a monster than to un-create him. Thankfully the monster eater only lasts a couple of years. By six, the calorie need surpasses any pickyness if parents are smart and push the child out the door to play for long hours. Then hunger causes those jaws to once again open.

Creating a monster begins with convenience and the idea that children need to eat all day. They don't. Never take food in your car to quiet a child. Never take food to church as a toy. Never give a child a full sippy cup to drain again and again. They don't need it. Food is not something that should placate a human being.

A good schedule for children is eating every four hours with a small snack in between. Treating food like entertainment is not the best idea. In other words we don't eat all day because we are bored. We don't drink all day because we are bored.

Waiting for meals is a normal thing and hunger is also normal. The idea that a child is uncomfortable for a short time seems to be the enemy of today's child rearing. The question is why? Getting good and hungry for a half hour stimulates the desire to eat. Yes, children will cry for snacks, beg, borrow and steal to get that sugar, that special cereal or the no- taste crackers, but this is the ploy to not be hungry at the table. Without those interferences, they will come to the table hungry.

Establishing times to eat is a good thing. Most people eat too early. Most people allow their children to get up early and grab the sugar. Then by breakfast, if there is one, the child is not hungry. Snacking through the morning drives any thought of lunch out the window unless it's a stop at the drive through at 11:00 a.m., and even then it's not really eaten. Then we snack all afternoon so that by the time dinner is ready at 6:00, it's a foregone conclusion, that Mr. Child has taken in all the calories he can, and the table, if there is one, becomes a battle zone.

What to do? Get up before your child. Have one family breakfast at an appropriate time that corresponds to your particular schedule and then close down the kitchen. Hungry at 8:00? Really? Or is the child bored? Crying for food at 9:00? Offer carrot sticks or an apple. If it's not accepted, the child is not hungry, he's bored and he's battling for his own way and his bad habits.
Who established a child's lunch time between 10:00 and 11:00? Children do better with lunch if it's offered at Noon. I always serve at 12:30 just so the picky eaters are really hungry. A lunch that's a compromise between what a child wants and what he should have is a good thing. This gives him sustenance and choices. A good lunch means a parent or provider is offering a child at least 1.5 ounces of protein, two fruits or two vegetables or a fruit and a vegetable, some whole grain product and milk. Too much? It's not too much if a child is hungry.

Don't substitute juice drink or soda because children will fill up on drink rather than eat. At home, the best lunches for picky children are at least two things they will eat and two things they might eat.

Snack in the afternoon should be asked for. Ideally it should be something homemade that includes calories and fat but has health elements as well. I think a snack is a treat and not something just thrown at a child. It's supposed to be a fun thing. This is the ice cream sundae moment, the cake with goo moment, the "How many cookies can I eat moment."

Many children will not eat after 4:00 p.m. They seem to shut down shop at 4:00- 4:30. If your child is one of these, don't expect him to sit through an adult dinner. Instead of snack in the afternoon, try feeding a light dinner at 4:00 - cheese, fruits, whole wheat toast with butter not margarine, some raw vegetables, a small pizza, a boiled egg cut in slices, some tuna, chicken chunks, or sliced meat. Then if he chooses your bigger adult dinner, great, but your battle zone has already been won.

Food is a compromise and not a convenience. It's an important part of life that should be met with as much force from the parent as the child, but not angry force. Remember to offer food as if it's a fun idea. Then if a child is rude or plays with it, throw it away. The next meal is just around the corner about four hours away.

Next time: quick homemade foods that work.

Learning To Eat: Inova Researcher Says Education Is Key To Solving Childhood Obesity

December 27, 2007 - 2:12pm
by Shannon Sollinger @ Loudoun Times-Mirror
by Shannon Sollinger @ Loudoun Times-Mirror

RICHMOND, Va. - Nearly one-third of the 10- to 17-year olds in Virginia are overweight or obese, according to a 2003 National Survey of Children's Heath.

The trend, some call it an epidemic, has led to alarming increases in ailments long confined to the adult population – diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Recent headlines suggest this may be "the heart attack generation."

The schools, suggests a recent study conducted in Loudoun, might be the ideal place to start educating both children and their parents about nutrition and exercise.

As Americans over the last three decades started eating more processed and fast foods, they, and their children, started spending more time in front of the TV or a video game console. Obesity, according to a Mayo Clinic study, "is greater among children and adolescents who frequently watch television."

Obesity can be caused by genetic mutations and an out-of-kilter metabolism, but the culprit is nearly always taking in more calories than are used up by exercise, aka overeating. And the answer to that is education: Educate the parents, educate the children. Educate the children to educate the parents.

A 24-week study of the effect of teaching nutrition and offering structured exercise programs at four Loudoun elementary schools led researcher Karen G. Speroni to conclude that school nurses might use their position as "role models and spokespersons to foster increased activity and improved nutritional education in their schools and communities."

Speroni, director of nursing research at Inova Loudoun Hospital, concedes that "school nurses and/or school staff cannot solve the childhood obesity epidemic." But it's a place to start.

In her study, students at four elementary schools volunteered for an afterschool exercise and nutrition pilot program based on the local franchise Kids Living Fit. Speroni, with fellow researchers Cynthia Early, research nurse at Inova Loudoun Hospital, and Martin Atherton, George Mason University adjunct professor, added registered dietitians and registered nurses.

The children also participated in afterschool activities, and for four of the 24 weeks wore a pedometer and recorded how many steps they took in a week.

The object of the study, Speroni said, was to determine whether children can be taught to make "best choices" with respect to activities and the food they consume.

The answer was "yes." The body mass index – ratio of body fat to height and weight – decreased in the study group at the end of the 24 weeks.

Dietitians met with the students four times, 30 minutes per session, to discuss "best choice" lunches, the Food Guide Pyramid and serving size, healthy choices and “portion distortion,” and fast food evaluation.

The schools serve up about 24,000 lunches a day that meet or exceed national and state nutritional guidelines. But the schools value choice, Speroni said, and there is no way to ensure that an individual diner chooses well.

Speroni said she has watched a cafeteria line and observed children opt for, say, the "mac and cheese with wheat roll" over the "ham, turkey and cheese deli sandwich," and then walk straight past the fruit, the vegetables and the milk.

She recommended to the school board, at the conclusion of her study, that choice may not be the best path to health. Better, she suggested, to put out the "best choice" tray – the child can still choose between the two main entrees, but everything else will already be on the tray. The diner will not have the option of passing up the fruit and the vegetable.

That will lead to some waste, she admitted, but the portions could be smaller and the health benefits will outweigh the waste.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Food at Home by Judy Lyden



One day at the grocery store many years ago, I had just come from the baby food isle and had deposited 70 jars of baby food into my cart when a woman stopped me and said, "What is all that for?" I answered that my son ate 10 jars of baby food every day. This very kind and astute woman took me aside and spend half an hour telling me how I could make all of my son's baby food at home and not have to shell out the 10 cents a jar it was costing me to buy. From that moment on, I became a free woman.

If, I thought, I could make his baby food, then, I thought I could make everything else he ate, and I began the long journey of a scratch cook. I stopped buying instant anything, processed dinner makings and canned food and began buying the ingredients and parts for nearly everything I cooked, and my food costs fell like a stone. I was spending half of what the processed food cost me previously and we were eating so much better -- taste, quantity, quality and nutrition factors were satisfied with very little effort. When the other children came along, it was a snap to make just about anything. I even bought a baby food grinder that fit into my purse.

Over the years I've experimented with just about every kind of homemade you can think of including making potato chips, cheddaring cheese, yogurt, noodles, and all kinds of breads, candy that's good for you, and so many other things, it's hard to post. Right now I'm experimenting with homemade ice cream. It's fun and it tastes good most of the time. But kitchen experiments take time and patience and a desire to do it. And for those who are reading this and really don't like cooking, the good news is, cooking begins with the easy stuff and a little equipment and in a short time, one thing leads to another and your children are reaping the health rewards of homemade.

What I've learned about cooking over the years is that cooking and a deep sense of emotional trust go hand in hand. The thought behind cooking, the act of cooking, the presentation all seem to develop a kind of communication that encourages children to bridge a deeply needed emotional place that often goes untouched by those parents who offer a diet of convenience food and pre-prepared meals. Making food builds a trust from the very beginning of life. It's an exchange between mother and child that continues and continues right into adulthood.

It begins in infancy with nursing. Those women who have chosen to breast feed understand the homemade food thing from the beginning. When your own milk feeds your baby, there is a certain kind of joy that creates a deep and lasting bond between mother and child. When your milk first comes in, the child will look up at you and smile. It's the real miracle of homemade food. So why spoil it like I did with someone else's jarred food later?

I know when I nursed my son, I was discouraged and looked down on by my doctor and his staff. I continued anyway. Because I was nursing, I was supposed to feed my child cereal and fruit at ten days. It was a nightmare of confusions, but that was a long time ago, and since then I've learned a lot. It doesn't have to be that way; it can be such a wonderful experience.

It's easy to fall into the formula gig and the jarred food routine because it seems to be easier and more sanitary in a rush, rush, rush world we cater to. People will tell you that it's better because it's store bought. But the truth is, it's not as store bought as factory made with a certain amount of bacteria and foreign objects like rat hair. When you can overlook what's in store bought for an infant, it graces the path to thinking that dashing something high salt, fat, and nearly not food into the oven, or buying dinner out, or stopping at the drive is a right rather than a treat. Drive in food offers a three day supply of fat for anyone eating it, including children. Constant fast food clogs the arteries and causes pre-mature heart disease. Opening a can, a box, a package and zapping it in the microwave suddenly puts food on the convenience list.

Should food offered a child be a convenience? Only if it's raw. Food means sustenance, health, care, time, effort and should never seem to be a convenience. It should always be an effort of the heart and hands. If you are thinking, "I don't have time," think how much time you spend doing other things that don't go into your child's mouth and don't sustain and nourish his body. Then think about the effort it takes to stop at a drive in. Or think about going to the market and buying very expensive pre-made food? Why not make the more simple effort to make it yourself?

Children are funny and what they see mom do for them creates a whole world of possibilities.

Many women say they just hate to cook. The question to ask then is, "Do you hate to eat as well?" There is a faction of the society who really does hate to eat. These people find eating to be an annoyance and would rather go through life not eating. Someone who hates to eat is not going to like to cook. But for the rest of us, food is usually a real delight. Now what happened in life that causes the love for one and the hatred of the other and can that bridge be repaired for the sake of family, health and that emotional bond once found in the nursing mother and child? It's possible one step at a time.

There is also the fear of food. Many children are traumatized by food in early childhood because of an incident or an angry spot or a fearful spot in rearing that causes what we call a kindergarten palate. Cleaning your plate by force, having to constantly eat something that's unpalatable, having fights at dinner time that turn dinner time into a war zone, having bathroom issues that follow forced eating, or being hungry, or even having a yen for something that's forbidden by a too strict parent can disturb the palate and give eating a disordered role in life.

The primary goal of food is that it becomes a nutritional fun zone. Food should be fun to buy, to make, to eat and finally to reap the nutritional rewards. It doesn't have to be elaborate or take a tremendous amount of time. The best meals are usually the easy ones. Children don't require lasagna, Caesar salad and garlic bread. They only require the cheese, the noodles or a bread or cracker substitute and some fresh fruit. Makes a nice homemade easy meal and you really didn't have to cook - but you did make it yourself.

Plan to cook two meals a week this January. Tune in again for some really easy recipes that will help the emotional food bridges to be rebuilt.

Next time: Cooking for the picky.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

The Home by Judy Lyden



Look around you. If you're home, what do you see? What do you feel? What does home represent? If you've never thought about it, think about it for a minute. Here are some helpers:

Home is a place of safety where no one bothers me.
Home is lonely.
Home is dull and boring.
Home is an investment.
Home is a chore.
Home is more work tacked on to the end of the day.
Home is noisy and unfriendly.
Home is demanding.
Home is a break from the world.
Home is where the garbage is.
Home is where I change my clothes and personality.
Home is a work of art.
Home is a war zone.
Home is my magnet.
Home is the last place I want to be.

When I was a girl growing up, my home was a work of art. It was the thing my parents loved best. I was an ornament in their museum. Ornaments don't have needs, of course, so in the rare instance when this ornament had a need, my home became a war zone because I was in the way of the first priority. I lived in seventeen different beautiful and elaborate homes in seventeen years. At nineteen I ran from the last place I wanted to be. Surely not an auspicious beginning.

As a young woman, married and ready to buy a home myself, I thought I wanted my home to be a work of art too, but I quickly found that it's expensive to buy museum pieces, and in an active home with real children, not ornaments, museum pieces break with a speed not unlike the jet -sound combination.

Somewhere early I discovered that a work of art is a relative thing. Art is something very personal and very subjective a lot like wine. Is a pricey bottle of wine really "good" if it tastes like gasoline to me? It's the same with art. If you like something plain and simple, that simple something can provide the same joy to the heart that a financially or tastefully out of range something might never provide.

I settled my scope on children's art - my children's art - to fill my walls and grace my home. When I framed a couple of my children's art pieces as a Christmas gift for my husband, my home suddenly took on a new reality - a workshop. The idea that a home is a work of art changed overnight to the living model of "a work in progress." I really like the idea of home as a workshop because workshop allows kids to do, to discover in a safety zone a million things they would never discover otherwise.

Today my home is still a workshop. It's filled with tools of discovery and baubles and ornaments and toys and colors and interesting odds and ends on a mixture of old and new furniture where my family can relax and enjoy life. The furniture is comfortable and plentiful and the floors are mostly bare so spills and crashes that naturally happen can happen without too much damage. There is something to look at in every spot in all twelve rooms and it changes frequently and unexpectedly especially when one of the little little drags it out to play with and discover something they had never seen before.

And in the process of learning myself, what have I hoped to teach my children about home? Home is very much a part of self. It's a mirror of what is going on inside the head. If home is a competitive thing, a race to some imaginary financial or collective finishing line, then home is going to be exhausting to a child who lives there. If home is a museum with furniture and art work numbered and untouchable, like my growing up homes, then the child is going to search himself for numbers and wonder about being a part of it all. If home is a place that says clearly that "This is just more work, a chore, another thing to get passed," then it's going to be an unfriendly and uncomfortable place for a child.

Establishing a home that is comfortable for children is harder for those who have enormous expectations. Keeping up with the best house on the block, or the idea of what our parents had for the established couple back in the seventies, eighties or nineties is often not possible today. Young people don't make enough money to copy their parents lives, nor do they have the time.

I think my daughter, Molly, has the right idea at the turn of the 21st century. She lives in a neighborhood where there are children. She wants a home where her three boys can play, can invite their friends and where she can manage their very full lives. Her boys feel comfortable at home and freely come and go always finding things to do and entertaining themselves inside and out - and so do the other kids in the neighborhood. Molly's home is a kid friendly zone, and Molly is a kid friendly mom on the block. It works.

Does home always need to be spotless and run on the clock? In a time when we as Americans have become as casual and open as we've become, it seems nearly senseless to manage dirt and mess with much more than a casual eye. Some people meet the challenge of busy and mess with the "one room in the house" approach. One room remains clean at all times in case the priest arrives and can't think to move the mountain of toys off the chair in the corner.

I remember what I called "close down time" when at a particular time in the day, probably somewhere close to 4:30, we stopped everything for the day. Today, young mothers seem to stretch the afternoon right into the evening, and stop time has become closer to 6:00. But any stop time that is established is helpful in putting toys away, cleaning surfaces that need it so that the workshop idea is tidied for the next day of discovery.

I think today the primary thing to strive for is "warmth." Children want to play in an environment of casual rules and endless possibilities. They want to always be close to mom or dad, have an eye on the world outside, be free enough to spread out their toys within the family activity, and know that someone will recognize what they do with a smile not a shout.

While you are wondering about what your home represents, think about what children are gleaning from you and your home. New Years is coming soon!

Next time, food in the home and what it means.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Christmas Cheer - The Garden School Tattler

Well today's the day - the big Santa visit is nearly here. We're very busy at school finishing up lessons in the morning and projects all afternoon. It's been a real push for goodness. The children are excited about winning angels for their string. Yesterday, two little boys were neck in neck.

Behavior is an interesting development at this age. When school starts in August, there's a hush about the kids that says, "I'm leery; I'll be good for a while." Then one at a time, the children relax and begin to show their comfort zone. They try everything out once or twice. By the end of September, there's a little more order, but it's still pretty much a free-for all. Getting kids quiet at circle time is still about as hard as lifting a car.

Then by Halloween, the kids are beginning to really listen in small groups, they begin to see how the day runs, but the holiday thing descends upon all of us like a bad ghost, and some of the personal behavior reaches an all time low. Teachers are ready to pull their hair out, but help is around the corner!

Once play rehearsals start, the kids begin to settle into cooler weather and a kind of cohesion with the play that brings everyone together. Circle time is productive. The kids begin to know the prayer and say it, and the pledge. They take pride in what they can do. By the end of the play, there is group consciousness that makes the whole atmosphere change.

When play is done, there is a break of sorts, and then the Christmas push for the angels which changes a lot of things. Children with defiant behaviors often turn around. Children are quite good with a few momentary exceptions. By the end of Christmas, this is what we've accomplished:

Children have become a class. That's important. Instead of being 12 different Indians, they are a tribe. They work together, they have built friendships and trusts. They are ready to enter the next part of the year as a team. It takes a long time, but it's the way it should be. All of these children will be ready to move on, when the time comes, to being a solid member of any school group. They know how; they are motivated.

The push from January through Easter is our big academic push. If it's warm at Easter, the kids are done with regular school. They want other things to do, so that's the time the academic extras are important. We can move into things like charting the maps, identifying rocks, talking about history as a story, focusing on foreign language, music and fine arts. The big kids have learned to read and can plunder a book and figure stuff out for themselves. Math becomes a game and the kids who can do the best math games feel an extra sense of superiority.

Every year it's more or less the same. Every season brings new thrills and chills, and that's important. Taking the seasons for what they are and living them to the top and sometimes over the top helps children understand their culture and their own hearts.

When summer begins, it's outside exploring - where are we going and what are we doing?

It's a year of school - our school - but we never promised a regular curriculum!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Walnuts!



Here's a thing to get kids interested in soon. Walnuts actually appeal to many children as a sandwich addition, and look how good they are for you! This is from World's Healthiest Foods.

Food of the Week . . . Walnuts

Did you know that just one-quarter cup of walnuts contains over 90% of the daily value for those hard to find omega 3 essential fatty acids? They are called essential because they are a special protective type of fat that cannot be manufactured by our body and therefore must be supplied by the foods we eat. Researchers believe that about 60% of Americans are deficient in omega-3 fatty acids, and about 20% have so little that tests cannot even detect any in their blood. The list of benefits derived from omega-3s is impressive, ranging from improving cholesterol levels and reducing the risk of stroke to acting as anti-inflammatory agents and improving bone density. Enjoying walnuts as part of your Healthiest Way of Eating not only adds wonderful taste and texture to your meals, but it is an easy way to include more omega-3s into your diet. Walnuts also contain ellagic acid, a compound that supports the immune system and appears to have anticancer properties.

The Senses - Some Stuff to Consider by Judy Lyden



It's a go, go, go week once again. Today is cranberry and popcorn strings. The children should really like this activity. Parents are invited. What does this teach? It's an activity that explores the properties of touch. Too often we forget to reach out and touch. There are some personalities who rarely if ever use their hands to understand. The idea that through sight we understand all things, is a sad thing because sight is only one of the senses. Touching allows us to more fully understand the nuances of being alive and what that life is all about. It's through touch that we demonstrate kindness, affection, and get those feelings returned.

Too often we neglect the senses all together. We abuse taste by clinging to an archetype of what "food should taste like." Tasting new things is often as difficult as jumping from a 50 foot tower, so we stick with white bread and canned soup and the right brand of peanut butter never dreaming that peanut butter can be mixed with a hundred different things and served on a hundred different things. Ever thought of horseradish and peanut butter on lamb?

We use our vision to look, but do we really see, and is that sight making an impact, or is what we see pushed aside for just the important mundane? If we need to watch the sidewalk to see where we are going, do we notice the clouds today, or what's in the window or who is in the parking lot? I'm not a visual person. I often drive someplace and not remember how I got there. My visuals are often imagination. When I do stop to look around, I am always delighted by what I see. Children need to look to really see the world. That's what taking time out for field trips and watching for snow, and going out side for another "look on the world."

We hear but do we really listen? What are we listening for? We always joke that men listen for the dinner chime and the word "yes," but are we ladies listening for anything better? Are we listening to what is really being said? What about the music we listen to? Are we aware of new things in that music or do we just pass the time? Teaching children to sing means being very aware of "how the music goes." It's not an easy thing to do.

Do we really listen to what others are saying, or do we just expect others to say what we think they should say. Are we listening for the response we want, and do we get mad when the response is other. Getting a new or funny response should make us laugh. Too often it just makes us angry, and that's a shame. When a child responds to, "You have your shoes on the wrong feet," and they respond, "But, Miss Judy, they're the only feet I have," it should make me laugh. Life does not happen in a box. Life happens outside the box. Boxes are for storage not for living.

And smells. I joke with the children that I like the smell of skunk and they laugh because they are taught to hate that smell. Personally, I hate the smell of bleach - especially old bleach. We are taught to like and dislike certain smells. Smells teach us about the world and other people. They teach us about health and safety when it comes to food. Smell teaches us about beauty.

So today we will take on the job of making holiday strings of popcorn and cranberries. In stringing the popcorn, we will experience the course feel of the corn, the brittleness, the question, where to I put the needle? It's a discovery zone for kids as they work out the logistics of the soft pliable corn. The cranberries are the opposite. They are hard and slick. They are juicy rather than dry and they are bright rather than dull.

The last, and perhaps the most interesting part of today's activity is the one to one correspondence of stringing one kernel and one berry for a pattern. This is a hard math concept for many children. They don't see it until about age 4. Patterns are important in math skills because upper math has definite patterns which must be understood. If patterns - any patterns - are a new concept for children in grammar school, they will be behind and they may never understand. The project in preschool is to teach and learn about all kinds of patterns and activities that lend themselves to learning about patterns. Patterns don't just exist in the math arena, they exist all over the place, and children need to learn to pick them out.

So it's a project worth doing. Hopefully, at the end of the project, the children will have something nice to take home with them. And that's another thing... taking things home, but maybe we'll leave that for next time.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Cookie Side Up




For all of you who are baking these days, here's a little something I got from World's Healthiest Foods.


Can too much fruit cause weight gain?

Yes, too much fruit can cause weight gain. Too much intake of any food can cause weight gain—although some foods are much safer to eat in excess than other foods.

Fresh fruits contain about 15-20 calories per ounce; for example, a medium-sized apple contains about 120 calories. Most people would be able to include about 2 times that level of fruit calories in their daily meal plan without overeating.

Fruit juice is a little different story because many people could drink one 12-ounce bottle of fruit juice at a single meal, and that bottle by itself would contain about 200 calories. One bottle per day would probably work for many meal plans, but whole fresh fruits still provide better nourishment.

Dried fruit is the most problematic type of fruit in terms of calories. Six ounces of raisins contain about 500 calories. Most people would not be able to successfully fit this many calories of fruit into their daily meal plan.

Weight gain occurs when a person consumes more calories than they he or she expends. Therefore, let's say, hypothetically, that based upon your individual energy needs, you need to consume 2,000 calories to maintain your weight. If, in addition to your regular 2,000 calories, you ate 500 additional calories worth of fruit each day, in 7 days you would gain one pound (one pound is roughly equal to 3,500 calories of excess energy stored up in the form of body fat).

In general, although we encourage daily intake of fresh fruit as part of a healthy meal plan, it's much easier to "overdose" on vegetables versus fruits when it comes to weight management and maintenance of an optimally nourishing diet. Vegetables generally contain about 5-10 calories per ounce—about half the calories of fruit. Always remember, however, that it's your overall meal plan and exercise plan that determines whether you'll gain or lose weight.

Teaching Music



Here's a wonderful article by Marlene Rattigan from Submityourarticle.com. It's a great way for parents and teachers to teach young children just about anything. While you're cooking, cleaning, decorating, singing, shopping, or anything else this season or any time, you might want to remember these ten steps.


Ten Steps to Successful Music Teaching in The Early Childhood Classroom

Young children learn by doing, by being actively involved in their learning through exploring and experimenting, through copying and acting out. And so it is with learning music, the foundations for which are best learnt while developing primary language. As such, a successful early childhood music program must incorporate movement and should quite naturally involve learning across the curriculum. The music program, therefore, can form the basis for the whole curriculum.

1. Make it Fun. They are not in your class to learn music, but learning music is what happens while they're having fun. It it's not fun you've lost them. Fun for them may not be fun for you. If it's not fun for you, you'll NEVER be able to convince them that you're enjoying it. You'll start using every excuse not to do the music session because you'll see it as a chore. If, on the other hand, you have a song, a piece of music or an activity you think is really cool, you'll have no trouble engaging the kids as your enthusiasm will carry them through. Sounds pretty logical, yet few class teachers conduct music lessons as part of the daily curriculum. Find a resource that suits you and do something every day - even if for only five minutes.

2. Establish clear rules from day one. Without this your class will quickly disintegrate into a shambles. They must stop when the music stops. This encourages listening skills. Listening is a skill that has to be learnt. Hearing is a sense we are born with. There's a huge difference. If they can listen, they can respond, and they can learn. Teach them about "space bubbles". Have them stand with arms outstretched and gently swing around. No-one is allowed to go inside their space bubble. Anyone who does must sit to the side. They will not want to miss out on the fun so encourage them to join in for the next track of music or next activity. Do not allow "time out" to be a preferred option. Not every child will feel confident enough to participate fully but sitting out is not an option.

3. Young children learn by doing. Get them actively involved. Music at this age is music and movement. This will incorporate story telling through use of percussion instruments or drama; it will involve dance and action songs and also singing. It will also involve interpretive movement - play some gentle classical music and use scarves to stimulate the imagination.

4. Include motor co-ordination activities. This will stimulate and integrate right and left sides of the brain. Musical instruments are played with both hands. This subject is the topic of a great body of research. Children today are generally not physically active enough to get sufficient stimulation to establish neural pathways. If you can do something daily in the way of motor skills, especially cross-patterning activities conducted to music, it will help enormously.

5. Relate activities to their level of understanding. Engage their imaginations. They live in a fantasy world ' take advantage of it. You personally may not feel inclined towards fantasy. It doesn't matter. Whatever engages them is what matters. Whatever you are wanting them to learn can be done best by engaging their imaginations, and fantasy is the easiest. Use drama in any way to engage their imaginations.

6. Praise them often. They respond best to positive reinforcement. A baby is born fearless. No matter how many times the baby falls over when attempting to walk, and despite injuries along the way, he or she will get up and try again, over and over until that skill is finally mastered. It never occurs to the child, or anyone else, that you have to get it perfect the first time. Everyone encourages them which is an added bonus. Somehow along the way though, by the time many children are in mid primary school, they have already been given so many negatives which erode their self-esteem that they give up trying new things.

7. Remember the K.I.S.S. principle and Keep It Simple Sunshine. Only do a few activities or songs at a time in your music lesson. Repeat them often and only when mastered do you add modifications or a new activity. Keep the whole lesson simple but fun. Do not confuse simple with easy. If the class structure is simple, you can easily add in a more challenging activity.

8. If the children are unused to music and movement sessions, do not try to be too ambitious. Five minutes a day may be enough for the first few weeks, depending on the children. Repeat the lesson (maybe up to three or four times) until confidence and competence improve. They need the repetition. You can add modifications for greater complexity and variation or change one or two activities before moving onto a new lesson. Set them up to succeed.

9. Initially the teacher should model the movements but not necessarily do all the running around. Choose a child to model for you (or the Teaching Assistant or even a parent) if you prefer not to or are unable to model the movements yourself. Observe the children's ability to perform the skills in movement, music, drama, listening and social interaction. The music lesson thus contains so many more outcomes. You are then leveraging your time by combining learning areas. That is why the movements need to be modeled appropriately.

10. Finish each session with stretching and relaxation. (Stretches should never hurt.) After a "mat session" music lesson the stretch only needs to be a full body stretch on the floor, after which the children close their eyes and listen to the music. Initially -

Tell them what you want them to listen for, or, tell them a story of what the music is about, or, ask them to tell you what they think the music is telling them.

If you don't relax the children at the end of the lesson, thus utilizing this time for the affective aspect of music, they'll be unsettled for the rest of the day, especially if it's a dance and drama session. When they are used to relaxing at the end of the lesson they will happily lie down and relax but they need to be taught how to first. Each relaxation session, therefore, does not necessarily have to involve active listening but initially it must. Children are sometimes loud and boisterous because they think that's how they are expected to behave. Give them permission to be still and silent and teach them how. They need it.

Friday, December 14, 2007

The Importance of Early Education



Here's an article from the Harvard Gazette. It's an interesting read. As a grass roots person, I'm not sure any "formula" early childhood program works. I think success in any program comes from the staff and the goals of the program. This did come from Harvard...so give the eggheads a chance.

The importance of early education

Panel stresses need for funding to implement variety of programs

Harvard News Office


Forty-six years ago, a working-class town in Michigan began a program that changed lives. “Mind-blowing,” one scholar called it at Harvard last week.

The Perry Preschool was a program for 3- and 4-year-olds that used a problem-solving approach to learning, a focus on social development, and the engagement of parents in their child’s education.

More than four decades later, the effects of the hands-on curriculum administered by well-trained teachers are hard to ignore. When measured in a comprehensive, longitudinal study against their adult counterparts who didn’t attend the preschool, the Perry students are much better off. Now in their 40s, the former pre-schoolers have more family stability, earn more money, are less likely to receive welfare, and are less involved in crime.

The preschool and its findings figure prominently in a new book by David Kirp LL.B. ’68, professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, founding director of the Harvard Center on Law and Education, and noted author and journalist. “The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics” examines the movement towards national preschool education and reviews the scientific and economic research on the subject. It also tells of an increasingly receptive political climate and the public support behind it. In addition, the book addresses how politics and policy can mean the movement’s success or failure.

On Nov. 29, Kirp was part of an Askwith Education Forum on early education, sponsored by the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), along with education experts Kathleen McCartney and Jack Shonkoff.

The group agreed that early experiences can influence learning, and that quality preschool can mean immediate as well as long-term benefits. But they questioned a dogmatic approach to the benefits of preschool education, and stressed that contemporary attitudes on the subject are shaped by limited and possibly outdated science. Important learning and development, they said, can happen well before preschool and long after it. The questions to tackle now, they agreed, are how to go about strengthening all early education — and how to fund the efforts.

“It’s no longer an issue in the scientific community about whether early experiences shape brain circuitry,” said Shonkoff, Julius B. Richmond FAMRI Professor of Child Health and Development and director of Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child. “But it’s still a very complex question in the scientific community when you get beyond the why question, of what should we do, and when should we begin.”

The panel also acknowledged the argument that the science that propels the debate has been oversold. Many experts question the drive to apply the findings in neuroscience and brain development — the widely accepted research that shows the early brain is a hotbed of neural activity — to the creation of school curricula; and many suspect the economic research that suggests phenomenal rates of return on the investment of children who attend preschool.

“We are three people who have used the research to support policies for young children,” said panelist McCartney, HGSE dean and Gerald S. Lesser Professor in Early Childhood Development, who asked the panel to examine the issue. “I could imagine myself putting on my quantitative policy analysis hat and actually embracing some of the criticism.”

Kirp agreed that the science can be useful, but he also offered words of caution. He noted much of the brain science dates back 20 to 30 years with very little of it saying anything new “other than [that] children who live in an extraordinarily deprived environment for some period of time are going to be in some way, shape, or form disabled in the long term. It certainly doesn’t [lead] to baby Einstein or Mozart in the cradle,” he said.

In addition, he warned, there is more to shaping significant policy than just the numbers.

“We have ‘fetishized’ in the academy a statistical archetype and made it mean something … more than is useful … and so made ourselves less useful in policy conversations.”

Shonkoff argued for a broader empirical approach going forward, one that could make the most out of the important early learning period for children.

“How do we build a stronger knowledge base to answer the question really of what should we do?” he asked.

The development and implementation of an effective, universal early education model, the three agreed, is another question entirely.

Much is known about how to develop quality programs. Well-trained educators, better salaries, smaller class sizes, and parent and neighborhood involvement, said Kirp, are all part of the solution. The main problem, he argued, is funding, specifically, where to get the money and where best to spend it.

Shonkoff, a pediatrician, used the analogy of the potential pitfalls of universal health care for children to illustrate his concern for the fate of universal early education. He said giving a child health insurance doesn’t mean the child will have access to good health care. The same could be said of preschool, he said. It’s wrong to assume that just giving children access to decent preschool programs will mean they will all graduate from high school, get a good job, and avoid unintended pregnancies, he contended.

“We are going to have to learn what to do more in the early childhood years to improve outcomes beyond just making people think that somehow preschool is going to solve these problems,” he said.

A developmental scientist in the audience voiced a concern that, with contradictory and uneven data, it was hard even to make a case for the effectiveness of early education programs.

“Try to make me not depressed,” he said.

The panel was optimistic about the new wave of attention on the issue, the broad understanding that it requires adequate investment, and the public will behind it. They agreed the movement represents a sharp departure from the past. And that is reason for hope.

“The reason we are excited is that there is a focus on the early childhood period … [and] we collectively believe that there should be,” said McCartney.

“We’re excited compared to where we used to be.”

The Christmas Season




We had a curious parent who asked this week why we did so much at Christmas time. Lots of things have become our little traditions over the years. I suppose because we've gotten good feedback, and for us at the Garden School, the "always" word is "possibilities." We never really say, "Well, that's not possible," or "Other places don't do that," or "We can't." We're a do place and if it's a possibility, why not give it our best shot.

The holiday season, not my favorite, begins with Halloween and escalates quietly through Thanksgiving and commences with Christmas. It's a one thing after another time. We begin with an all day dress up and pretend day with Halloween. Getting the kids out in costumes is a battle, but it's something the kids really love. This year we went to my mother's nursing home. It was very special indeed to me personally.

With Halloween over, it was time to plunge into the play. Plays are probably the most memorable of all primary years. When you ask a child, "What do you remember about your school years?" or "What was your favorite school memory?" he will likely remember a play. Plays build cohesion, they build solidarity, they build self confidence, and they build a sense of begin, do, and complete - a group of actions too often left unfinished in the modern world.

But writing, learning, practicing, costuming, and directing is a lot of work and can't be done at recess time or after school. It's a school hour two weeks. That means a classroom hiatus must give way for the play. Is it worth it? For the most part, it's my experience that the break actually produces a clearer picture of school work. In my class, after the play, the children suddenly knew all their letters. It's been noted that the more children are in desks at school, the lower the test scores. The less time children are social and discuss school among themselves, the lower the test scores. People learn by sharing and sharing does not mean hours and hours of silent independent work.

Theatre, art, imagination, creativity, spontaneity, possibility all broadens the child and allows him to think outside the box. These are right brained activities that you can't get from a steady stream of worksheets and a nose to the grindstone approach to learning. By thinking outside the box, the child begins to explore the disciplines. He is no longer content with the limiting reach of the textbook. He wants to know why and how. This builds scientists and mathematicians.

When the play is over, it's time to do Christmas around the world. What do other people think of Christmas? What IS Christmas and why is it important? What do we DO at Christmas and why? These are questions that need to be answered for the young child in early childhood or they will not be important. The foundations don't begin in early adult hood; they begin in early childhood, and in the community. It's a trust issue. We spend a morning decorating the Christmas tree and making ornaments because that's our Western Tradition.

We start learning Christmas songs early so that children can really sing them. It takes three weeks of practice, but it's a life time of remembering. We read children's stories about Christmas, learn stories about miracles at Christmas time like the story of Our Lady of Guadeloupe, and St. Nicholas, and this year, we are learning the poem, T'was the Night Before Christmas.

During the Christmas season, we try to touch all the bases for those children who don't get to touch any bases. We will take the children to the Nutcracker today. This performance is a one of a kind in Evansville. It could be the only ballet these children ever see. The information gained today at this ballet could be a part of a child's imagination that allows him to do any number of things in his life. Ballet offers an out of the ordinary art form that encourages the idea that beauty of motion is very much a part of the human desire to be beautiful, to be flawless.

We produce an art show as a way for parents to inexpensively complete their shopping lists. Miss Amy has displayed the artwork in her classroom with a lot of love and affection for the kids. The children are delighted with their work, and will be delighted to see the smiles on the faces of the grandparents who receive it at Christmas time. It took about 40 hours of teacher work to produce the framing. Why do we do this at a rush, rush, rush time at Christmas? Because we've gotten feedback from parents who love it, so it becomes our pleasure. Most of my prominent artwork at my own house is my children's work from childhood. These things I treasure.

We do an golden angel of the day award and gift which is awarded to a special child every day. The child receives a box of goodies. Why a box? In the story, The Littlest Angel, such a box became the star that led the shepherds and the kings to the Christ child. It's a beautiful story that we read every year. Children earn angels every day, and one child who has been especially wonderful gets the golden angel. What does this teach? In my experience, the last of the behavior problems often subside with this little activity. The very idea that anything is possible - even really responsible behavior - and that pride and understanding comes from this behavior is often learned through little paper angels and a little box of treats. It's concrete; it makes sense; it works.

Then there is the last push to make gifts for parents in the last dash to the big Santa party.

For the party, parents are asked to secretly bring a little trinket toy that looks like it was made in Santa's workshop, and we have a visit from Santa who brings these things in an enormous green bag. There is a prize for the best behaved child, and a bean feast of cookies and cupcakes, and then it's over.

For parents, we usually have a charity we're collecting for because someone in the school community has a need. We have supplied some of our poorer families with whole Christmases right down to the turkey in some years. This year we are collecting for the ill who have been forgotten.

So that's the ticket. When it's all over, teachers dash home to do their own Christmas prep. At my house, I have 15 family members and lots of friends and out of town company to think about, so it never really ends until December 26.

And if you think Holiday season is busy, just wait until summer...

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Just for Fun

We've had a lot of printer problems this week, and Miss Molly had to go out and buy another one for the office. I'm sure the following is not our problem because poor Maestro...

But it could be a problem for you at home if you find your printed goods are somewhat in a mess.


Gambia



Here's another Africa story. I think it's interesting how African countries are working to bring education to a standard everyone understands.

Gambia: Butterfly No.1 Nursery School Inaugurated

Hatab Fadara

A nursey school built at the tune of D500,000 by the Norwegian Butterfuly Association, Friends of Ebo Town and One People was on Saturday innaugurated at Kiang Nema, Lower River Region.

The school has a capacity of over two hundred students and provides free access to early childhood education with free clothing.

The philanthropists also off-loaded a 40-foot container containing educational materials such as furniture, books, sports equipment and cartons of second hand clothing, amongst others.

In his inaugural speech on behalf of the governor of Lower River Region, Lamin Darboe, deputy governor lauded the project, describing it as an important milestone in the annals of Nema Village.

According to him, a nursey school is not only a preparatory room for learning but helps the child to acquire good character and discipline that will make them become responsible future leaders. He added that it is obligatory upon all human beings to seek knowledge in any form as according to him, it is only through education that sustainable development can be achieved.

"Development in the true sense is not mapped in a single route. It is apparent that the best tool to any meaningful and lasting standard of living is through education. Therefore, the sponsors of this nursery school in Nema have done it all, since the importance of early childhood education cannot be over-emphasised," he noted.

According to deputy governor Darboe, the descision by the sponsors to build a nursery school in Nema that will provide free childhood education to two hundred students, is in line with the Gambia government policies and priorities in providing quality, accessible and affordable education to all.

He challenged parents to inculcate good morals and learning aptitude into their children as well as to nurture discipline, which he said, is the cornerstone of any viable and decent society. He then assured the sponsors of his office's unflinching support to the nursery school.

Speaking on behalf of the sponsors, Anbjorg Juliussen, head of the Norwegian group expressed his delight. She hailed the people of Kiang Nema for their loyalty towards the project, adding that more projects for the village are in the pipeline.

Mrs Juliussen used the occasion to disclose some of their projects in the country such as the Butterfly Number 1 ursery school, Jeshwang health centre and the Ebo Town school projects amongst others.

Relevant Links

Lamin B Fadera, an intermediary between the sponsors and the village, said the initiative could not have come at a better time than now to help children of the village start their early childhood education at the primary level.

Mama Jarssey-Jawara, president of Nema Keita Kafo echoed similar sentiments and appealed to the donors to assist the village with more project.

Other speakers at the ceremony were Chief Demba Sanyang of Kiang Central and Bakary Seedy Fadera. The ceremony was entertained with a cultural performances.




Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Study about Preschool Behavior

Study Links Preschool Behavior to Academic Success

Results found that every seven-point increase in behavioral regulation over the school year predicted between three weeks and 2.8 months of learning gains in vocabulary, math and literacy.


Results found that every seven-point increase in behavioral regulation over the school year predicted between three weeks and 2.8 months of learning gains in vocabulary, math and literacy.

(CORVALLIS, Ore.) - A study by an Oregon State University faculty member shows that preschool age children who do not master basic self-regulation skills such as paying attention and following instructions may fall behind in academic subjects including math and reading.

Megan McClelland, an associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at OSU, and her colleagues used a game called the Head-to-Toes Task to assess a child’s ability to listen, pay attention and regulate their own behavior.

The researchers found that children’s performance on the behavioral regulation game significantly and positively predicted early literacy, vocabulary and math skills even after controlling for initial skills in those areas.

These findings contradict a recent controversial study that found weak or no association between children’s socioemotional skills – including attention – and learning.

In contrast, McClelland and other leading child development experts across the country find a direct correlation between specific aspects of school readiness such as self-regulation and academic success.

“How can a child have strong reading or math skills if they can't sit still, pay attention or remember instructions?” McClelland said. “We found that the gains children made on a five-minute, self-regulation game over the preschool year predicted the gains they made in early reading, math, and vocabulary.”

The Head-to-Toes Task that McClelland and her co-authors used as a measure of behavioral regulation requires attention, working memory and inhibitory control.

More than 300 preschool children were tested at two different sites in Michigan and Oregon. The study controlled for age, gender and other background variables.

Results found that every seven-point increase in behavioral regulation over the school year predicted between three weeks and 2.8 months of learning gains in vocabulary, math and literacy.

McClelland said that some of the new research pointing to the overriding importance of early math and reading skills was based on less sensitive measurement of social skills and self-regulation, compared to relatively strong measures of early achievement.

“I don’t think you can separate a child’s behavior from their achievement during the early years of school,” she said. “When you give a 5-year-old a test to assess early math skills, you might be testing their ability to sit still, pay attention and follow direction just as much as testing their math ability.”

McClelland said the Head-to-Toes Task is a strong predictor of early achievement because it does not rely on parent or teacher reports, which can often be biased. Instead, it independently assessed the child’s ability to follow multiple instructions in the game and tracked their progress over the school year.

McClelland’s findings on the link between behavioral regulation and academic skills came out in the summer edition of Developmental Psychology.

Another paper that assesses the reliability and developmental trends of the Head-to-Toes Task, authored by McClelland and lead author Claire Cameron Ponitz of the University of Virginia, will be published in Early Childhood Research Quarterly in early 2008.

What's Going on in Africa



I think Africa is a most interesting place. Here's an article about Rwanda. There is still a discrimination against girls there, and sadly, in the article it describes the ill treatment of young females a thing we can't even imagine here in the U.S.

Covance and Care Partner on Rwanda Early Childhood Development Initiative

PRINCETON, N.J., Dec. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Covance Inc. , a global drug development services company, and CARE, a leading humanitarian organization, announced today that they are partnering to support the Covance-CARE Early Childhood Development (ECD) Initiative for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Rwanda. Covance will contribute to help transform three existing buildings into community day care centers for children ages two to four and renovate two existing nursery schools. Covance will also support the daycare center operations that will provide a safe and secure environment for pre-school children and assist in their physical, emotional, and cognitive development.

A delegation of Covance and CARE representatives visited Rwanda recently to meet many of the community leaders as well as the children and their families participating in this program.

"CARE and Covance share the core belief that education is fundamental in alleviating poverty around the world," said Donald Kraft, Covance Corporate Senior Vice President of Human Resources, who led the delegation with Deborah Tanner, Covance Corporate Senior Vice President and President of Central Laboratory Services. "We are honored to partner with CARE in its efforts to bridge the educational, social, and developmental gap among the most vulnerable children in Rwanda. The dedication and professionalism of the CARE teams in Rwanda are outstanding."

"Our employees have demonstrated a strong commitment to making a difference in these children's lives and contributing to their developmental needs and well-being," said Deborah Tanner. "Together with CARE, we are looking forward to the development of sustainable learning environments that will help empower and shape these children, who serve as the future of Rwanda."

CARE International developed the innovative 5x5 ECD Model, which is being implemented in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Rwanda. Its aim is to promote the well-being of vulnerable children below school age and address the significant gap in programming for preschool Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) in Africa. The model also builds on CARE's strengths in fostering community economic development, OVC support, and child health, nutrition, education, as well as their rights. In Rwanda, CARE International is piloting the ECD project in the district of Kamonyi, which will assist communities to set-up and run three ECD centers for children ages two to four in Musambira, Karama, and Nyarubaka sectors. The organization will also support two nursery schools for children ages four to six in Gacurabwenge and Karama sectors.

"We have been truly impressed with the strong support and commitment from the Covance employees for this important cause," said Elie Nduwayesu, CARE International Orphans and Vulnerable Children Program Manager in Rwanda. "The long-term impact of deprivation in early childhood has been well documented. The majority of children who are not in school in Africa are girls and are more likely to experience abuse, neglect, and child domestic labor. The ECD program will protect these children from all types of abuse and contribute significantly to their healthy development."

Up to 16 percent of all orphans in Africa are under five years of age. An estimated 70.9 million children in this age group are living in conditions of extreme poverty and disadvantage; one out of ten will not see their fifth birthday. The sheer scale and complexity of the problems of AIDS, conflict, natural disasters, diseases, and poverty are eroding traditional support networks and leaving these young children without the care that is critical to growth and development. These vulnerable children face unprecedented threats from arrested cognitive and emotional development, preventable illnesses, malnutrition, HIV infection, and child rights violations. CARE International's objective is to learn from the pilot in order to scale-up the 5X5 ECD model in Rwanda in the near future.

About CARE

CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE places a special focus on working alongside poor women because, equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty. Women are at the heart of CARE's community-based efforts to improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity, and protect natural resources. CARE also delivers emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters, and helps people rebuild their lives. For further information on CARE's mission and programming, please visit www.care.org.

About Covance Inc.

Covance, with headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, is one of the world's largest and most comprehensive drug development services companies with revenues over the last twelve months of approximately $1.5 billion, global operations in more than 20 countries, and approximately 8,700 employees worldwide. Information on Covance's products and services, recent press releases, and SEC filings can be obtained through its website at www.covance.com

Monday, December 10, 2007

Soft Drinks and Other Sugary Stuff

It's the Christmas season and kids are going to eat a lot of sugar, but that doesn't mean we need to increase the already unnatural load with sugary drinks. While reading a list of new articles from Food Navigator, I stumbled on this and thought it was interesting.

At school, we find that those children who drink soda at home are those who learn at a much slower pace. These kids are often the ones who respond, "huh" to a question, to a problem to an interaction. Forming nice clear ideas is often tough for the child bound to a diet of soft drinks and junk food. To be behind the other children in academics and then to be behind in health is a problem that begins in the home. There are a dozen children who come to school and won't drink milk because it's not soda, and that's a shame.

The whole process of drinking is a quick way of getting food and calories into the body quickly. Did you know that drinking a 10 ounce glass of juice is like eating ten oranges with as many calories.

So read the article and see what you think:

Sugary drinks linked to Alzheimer's, says study

By Lorraine Heller









12/10/2007 - Researchers in the US have found that mice given a sugar solution as part of their daily diets showed increased signs of developing Alzheimer's disease.

The findings, by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), could place more pressure on soft drinks manufacturers, who are already under attack for their role in the rising obesity epidemic.

Although both obesity and diabetes have already been linked to the development of Alzheimer's disease, researchers Ling Li and her colleagues aimed to examine whether high sugar consumption in an otherwise normal diet would affect Alzheimer's progression.

Using a genetic mouse model that develops Alzheimer's-like symptoms in adulthood, the scientists supplemented the balanced diet of half of the animals with 10 per cent sugar water.

After 25 weeks, they found that the sugar-fed mice had gained around 17 per cent more weight than the controls, had higher cholesterol levels, and developed insulin resistance.

Following memory skill and brain composition tests, the sugar-fed mice were also found to have worse learning and memory retention and their brains contained over twice as many amyloid plaque deposits, an anatomical hallmark of Alzheimer's.

The researchers stated they "cannot be certain if the increased mental impairment resulted specifically from the higher sugar intake or higher calories in general".

However, they said their findings "highlight the potential risk of sugary beverages".

"The human equivalent of the mouse diet would be roughly five cans of soda per day, although since mice have a higher metabolism, it may actually take less sugar intake in humans," they said.

Currently, about 12 million people in the US plus the EU suffer from Alzheimer's, with some estimates predicting this figure will have tripled by 2050. The direct and indirect cost of Alzheimer care is over $100 bn (€ 81 bn) in the US alone. The direct cost of Alzheimer care in the UK was estimated at £15 bn (€ 22 bn).

Evidence has emerged over the last five years that many of the conditions that raise the risk for heart disease, such as obesity, uncontrolled diabetes and hypercholesterolemia, also increase the risk for Alzheimer's.

A study published last year in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease found a "strong correlation" between obesity and Alzheimer's.

Scientists at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and Edith Cowan University in Joondalup, Western Australia, found that the fatter a person, the higher their blood levels of beta-amyloid, a sticky protein substance that builds up in the Alzheimer's brain.

According to the researchers, beta-amyloid is thought to play a major role in destroying nerve cells and in cognitive and behavioral problems associated with the disease.

The researchers claimed their study was one of the first attempts to try to find out on both the pathological and the molecular levels how obesity was increasing the risk of Alzheimer's.

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Kindness and Manners by Judy Lyden

I'm posting this comment from a reader because it's so near and dear to my heart. The little girl mentioned here has about the best manners of any child I know. She is also intelligent, artistic, interested and beautiful. But these attributes won't take her as far as her brilliant manners:

The best compliment someone can give me as a parent is to tell me my child is well mannered. This is something we talk about and work on nearly every day - it's that important to our family. We even discuss situations that she has experienced when other children were ill mannered and how that makes her feel. I think sometimes she learns more from the bad manners of others and how it makes her feel than anything we could teach her. Hopefully the lessons she has learned at home and her time spent at GS will carry through her lifetime.

Who is noticed in a classroom today? Mostly it's the kids who can't sit, can't keep quiet, can't put their own desires second to the order of the group. But the experienced teacher sees that the few who always sit quietly, always listen will recognize these children as their golden kids.

Why is it that so few children understand that the order of the day, the order of the group is important to the very life of things at hand? Because the very idea that you come before me has become an alien idea in a push shove world. We have pampered ourselves to the point that our needs, our likes and dislikes, our desires come first. The person next to us only matters if they can add to our lives and what we want. So the idea that kindness to others for the sake of kindness becomes lame. Why should I?

Does a life of kindness towards others mean our own life becomes meaningless? Must we depend on tax money to be our "kind" agent? Children don't know about tax money yet, so do we just nix the idea of kindness toward one another until they do understand?

Every day there are thousands of opportunities to be kind to those around us. Kindness is the route of good manners because kindness is the emotion that surfaces in the human heart when we recognize the needs of others and rally to their cause. Teaching children to recognize the needs of others seems almost impossible sometimes unless parents are teaching the same lesson at home.

Here's a classroom scenario: A child raises her hand and is called on. "Miss Jones, Brian doesn't understand this page, can you help him please?"

"That's none of your business," snaps the teacher.

Brian continues to egg on the other child for the answer. The teacher sees the two children talking and punishes both.

In a fast paced careless age, it's easy to think the one child is tattling on the other and the two children are making mischief in the back of the classroom. But by listening with the heart to the two, another result should have emerged. It's not always easy to be a listener - especially when half the class is poorly mannered. Sometimes a tired teacher will take the low road and learn from the kids, and that's a shame.

The question to ask the self is: What do I see when I look at another person I don't know? Do I see a potential friend or a potential enemy? Do other people pose a threat or are other people mostly benign? The way you see the world is probably the way your children will enter the world because they will be watching you watch the world. Personalities are often developed by unspoken information.

When children enter the world at school, they watch the adults and they often emulate what they see. Teachers who restrict kindness, who pull away from children, who refuse to personally and emotionally enter the life of the classroom will only strengthen the idea in a child that self matters most. On the other hand, great kindness and great involvement will teach children that other people can be a great source of pleasure to them and will add immeasurably to their lives.

A life of kindness and compassion is a life of joy. You can't teach this; you can only experience this when you copy the life of someone who behaves that way. To say that loving one's neighbor first hand makes time spent in the world delightful goes lame and becomes a dead end if the intent behind it only strengthens the selfish side.

In the same way, manners put on for "a result" are not manners at all. "Getting something" because I said the right words or played the game for fifteen seconds is not the mirror of kindness. Real manners come from a way of life - putting the self after the next person for the sake of harmony is the beginning of a life of kindness.

And children need to learn that everyone won't receive their kindness with the same enthusiasm with which it's delivered. A child's disappointment needs to be worked out at home by a loving parent. In time, and with maturity, children will learn that no act of kindness is wasted even if it's not received well. They should learn that some people will refuse to participate in good manners and a life of kindness no matter what he or she does.

The lesson to learn is that loving those around us is the core of good manners. It's a whole other world of understanding some people will learn and others won't. That's what the child in the italics learned very early, and she learned this from her parents who also live that way.