kids

A Video Series That’s Fighting Obesity

- Adam Clare

The obesity problem in North America keeps growing larger and it’s within all of our interests to ensure that we trim the fat. An online video series directed at kids is making a difference. The Adventure to Fitness series educates kids about animals, geography, and other fun things while keeping kids moving. This is really great because any parent or teacher can use the series to bring more activity and learning into a kid’s day.

According to Dr. Jenny Delfin, the Adventure to Fitness medical advisor and a cardiologist at New York University Langone Medical Center, the program’s effectiveness stems from how well the videos engage with each child. Kids retain the valuable lifestyle lessons without even realizing it because of their physical, mental and emotional connection to what they’re watching. And 30 minutes of moderate to intense exercise each day goes a long way.

The Adventure to Fitness program is currently being used in more than 22,000 schools and 100,000 classrooms worldwide, according to the company website, providing a strong recess alternative for rainy days and the winter months. Some of the schools utilize the videos as a component of after-school programming, giving kids an additional opportunity to jump around, work up a sweat and have a great time before they head home. Teachers and parents alike have found the videos to be an effective tool to help high-energy kids focus in the classroom.

Read more.

A New Zealand School Abandons Rules, Ends Bullying

- Adam Clare

Having zero tolerance policies in schools is a truly horrible way to treat children. It can blunt curiosity and punish severely for minor infractions, combine such oppressive control with bizarre rules (like no playing schoolyard games) and you’ll bored, agitated and disengaged kids. When children aren’t able to express themselves in more traditional ways (like play), they tend to lash out.

With all of that in mind, a school in Aukland decided to toss out the rules. The results were a decrease in bullying and an increase in attentive learning!

Instead of a playground, children used their imagination to play in a “loose parts pit” which contained junk such as wood, tyres and an old fire hose.

“The kids were motivated, busy and engaged. In my experience, the time children get into trouble is when they are not busy, motivated and engaged. It’s during that time they bully other kids, graffiti or wreck things around the school.”

Parents were happy too because their children were happy, he said.

But this wasn’t a playtime revolution, it was just a return to the days before health and safety policies came to rule.

AUT professor of public health Grant Schofield, who worked on the research project, said there are too many rules in modern playgrounds.

“The great paradox of cotton-woolling children is it’s more dangerous in the long-run.”

Society’s obsession with protecting children ignores the benefits of risk-taking, he said.

Read more at tvnz.

Earth Rangers Launches Battery Blitz

- Adam Clare

Earth Rangers has launched a new campaign for kids to learn about the potential danger of batteries. Battery Blitz Mission encourages kids to collect used household batteries and dispose of them properly. When batteries are improbably thrown out it can cause a lot of harm to the environment due to the dangerous chemicals inside.

Since batteries provide energy for so many of the things we use every day, what to do with batteries once they are dead is a big problem. When batteries are thrown out in the trash, they end up in landfills where they add to solid waste and can also leak dangerous chemicals into the environment. These chemicals are not only harmful to humans but to animals as well.

Even though there are many places where you can dispose of used batteries properly – you can’t recycle batteries in your regular recycling bin – only 5% of alkaline batteries are recycled in Canada each year. In 2010, Canadians threw out 745 million household batteries! Did you know that parts from recycled batteries can be re-used to make new batteries or stainless steel products, like the pots in your kitchen?

Encourage your young Earth Rangers to accept the Battery Blitz Mission and we’ll send you a Mission Brief and a biodegradable bag to keep track of all the batteries. The website will also allow you to find the nearest recycling station and tell Earth Rangers about your mission once you have completed the challenge.

Sign up here

Earth Rangers Wants You to Bring Back the Wild

- Adam Clare

Earth Rangers is a conservation organization focused on getting kids engaged in protecting and learning about the environment. They have a program currently focused on having kids actively engage in protecting wildlife and their ecosystems. Earth Day happens later this month but there’s no reason why you can’t be thinking about the planet everyday. Get inspired by all the great kids making a difference!

In September 2010, Earth Rangers developed Bring Back the Wild, a national education and fundraising program that educates children about the importance of protecting animals by preserving their natural habitats, while raising funds to support the acquisition and restoration of endangered habitats across Canada. Since launching the program, over 200,000 kids have registered to become an Earth Ranger and over $1,000,000 has been raised for conservation projects.

For Earth Rangers, every day is Earth Day and Earth Month is the perfect time to showcase some kids making a difference. Earth Rangers supports children who launch environmental initiatives, act as conservation leaders in their community and engage in fundraising activities of their own to help protect endangered species.

Check out the Bring Back the Wild program.

Kids Should Fail

- Adam Clare

A prevailing attitude in North American schools is that students shouldn’t be able to fail, but really what better place than a school to learn from mistakes? Thankfully people are noticing that letting kids not excel at something is actually a good thing. Interestingly, it’s in the world of games that parents and educators let students fail.

It would be great to see kids being encouraged to explore knowledge and new ways of learning beyond the environment of a modern classroom.

3. Progress must be transparent. Lee Peng Yee, one of the main thinkers behind the system of math instruction in Singapore, once told me: “If you think you can catch the bus, you will run for it.” It’s a great image, and good games keep players in a recurring cycle of running to catch one bus after another, all leading to reachable goals. Look for games that keep the next milestone in sight and constantly show progress toward it. Seeing yourself get better at something is incredibly motivating.

Read more here.

Thanks Mike!

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