KIDS STUFF: Reading

GETTING A GOOD READ ON BOOKS FOR KIDS

Of course, parents need to provide books that kids will find compelling. Since it's probably been a while since most parents have read a children's novel, allow us to suggest some Web sites that offer plenty of help.

Check out kidsblogs.national geographic.com/dogeared for advice written by 8- to 12-year-olds who review the books they loved, from adventure tales to cookbooks.

Schoollibraryjournal.co offers another list of books; go to the Web site and look for "Best Books of 2008." And Oprah doesn't just recommend books for grown-ups - oprah.com suggests books for kids of all ages as well.

Surprise! Most Kids are Gamers

Is every kid a gamer today? Well, almost.
According to a new survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project 97% of young people today play video games in one form or another--boys and girls alike.
And when they play video games, they often play them with someone else, ether in person or online. Two-thirds play face-to-face, the survey found, while a quarter play online with other people.
"It shows that gamers are social people," says Amanda Lenhart, a senior researcher at Pew. "They communicate just as much. They spend time face-to-face, just as much as other kids. They e-mail and text."
The kids these days game fairly often, too, with 50% of them saying they had played a video game the previous day.
And even though many underage respondents said they had played or owned several M- and AO-rated games, the Pew researchers were quick to distance themselves from making any proclamations about video games and real world violence.
Instead, Joseph Kahne, a study co-author and dean of the education school at Mills College in California, said games like Halo--while violent--provided "more than average opportunities for players to help one another."
Unfortunately, the survey did not ask whether or not the kids were the ones screaming their heads off and swearing like drunken sailors in Xbox Live when they get owned in Halo 3. That particular portion of the population, it would seem, will remain a mystery for now.

Be Prepared in Every Situation

Are you ready to put your planning skills to good use? Are you ready to help your family get prepared for the unexpected? Your family can use this Web site to create a plan that will help you be ready for many different kinds of unexpected situations!

You're already a great planner! Every day you get your homework done, get to music or sports practice on time, and plan where and when you'll meet up with friends. But how do you get prepared for emergencies?

It's simple! It just takes planning and practice, and these fun activities from Ready Kids can help!

Click on these easy steps, talk to your family, and make a plan and put it in a safe place. When you're all through, you'll be ready to graduate from Readiness U!

http://www.ready.gov/kids/home.html

When Your Child Gets Moody

“The trick is what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable—or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.”—Carlos Castaneda, author

Moods. All kids and teenagers go through moods when they’re negative, overly serious—and surly. Although child development experts say moodiness is common for all kids, some kids tend to be more moody than others, and some even suffer from clinical depression. How do you know what’s normal and what’s not? Consider these tips.Try it...

For all parents

All kids go through periods of moodiness, negativity, or “disequilibrium”—where they attempt to make sense of their rapid growth spurts. Researchers at the Gesell Institute of Human Development say these are normal, and they tend to happen during the half years until age 6 1/2 (starting at 6 months) and then tend to occur during the odd-numbered ages (ages 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15, for example). Read Child Behavior by Frances L. Ilg, M.D., for more information, http://www.gesellinstitute.org/.

Always value your child’s perspective, even when it seems overly negative. If you don’t know what to say sometimes, consider saying, “It seems like you’re having a bad day. Is that true?”

Realize that sometimes “down” moods are fine for kids to have, and it’s okay (as long as it’s not a serious situation) not to lighten them up. If you try to get your child to lighten up at the wrong time, your child may think you’re not valuing his true feelings.

If your child ever says she wants to kill herself, take her seriously. Get professional help immediately.

One of the best ways to get yourself—or your child—to lighten up is to put experiences into a broader context. Sometimes comparisons don’t work, but sometimes they do. For example, if your child gets upset when a stranger yells at him for no apparent reason, point out that it’s upsetting to get yelled at, but maybe the person doing the yelling had just lost a job or found out he or she has a terminal illness.

Model how to handle life’s challenges with humor and even-temperedness. It’s important to model how to lighten up and still be responsible. For example, if you’re driving and someone cuts you off, you may talk about how you don’t like being cut off, but don’t try to get back at the driver.

For parents with children ages birth to 5

Be sensitive to the rapid growth your child is experiencing during this age. Young children often get frustrated and upset when they see what they want to do but don’t have the physical or cognitive abilities to accomplish their wishes.

Keep young children in predictable, comforting routines. Young children are more likely to thrive (and become less negative) when they know what to expect every day. Hungry, tired children are more likely to have bad moods than kids who aren’t hungry or tired.

Point out the progress you see your child making. If your child gets frustrated while stacking five blocks, talk about how she has mastered stacking four blocks.

For parents with children ages 6 - 9

Be sensitive to the energy it requires to attend school. Even children who attended an all-day child-care center or preschool may become exhausted when they start going to school and are required to learn in ways that are different from the preschool years. Make sure kids get extra time to unwind, rest, and recharge.

Encourage your child to articulate what he is feeling and why. Start with simple feelings, such as feeling mad, sad, or glad, and then gradually expand the feelings to frustration, being scared, and being worried. Talking about feelings helps kids work through their emotions with words instead of by hitting, getting depressed, or getting stomachaches or headaches.

Kids often can get in bad moods when they’re doing too many things that they don’t like to do. Follow your child’s interests. If your child enjoys reading, visit the library often and check out lots of books. If your child loves to play soccer, go outside and play with your child. Continue to emphasize responsibility (such as doing homework and chores), but make sure there is a balance with responsibility and your child’s interests.

For parents with children ages 10 - 15

Don’t be surprised if your child’s mood seems to change easily—or by the day. Early adolescence is the time of rapid change and rapid mood swings. Be patient. Read more about moods in Parenting at the Speed of Teens.

Give your child space if your child wants it. Sometimes kids at this age need more time to unwind and make sense of what’s happening to them. Some kids, for example, don’t understand why some kids at this age become so mean.

When children are in a good mood, enjoy it. Laugh with them. Tease them (in ways that you both enjoy). Tell kids how much you enjoy being with them.

For parents with children ages 16 - 18

Monitor your teenager’s schedule. High school counselors say that teenagers tend to overextend themselves and get overwhelmed or cut out too many activities and get bored. Help your teenager try to find a balance in his lifestyle, which often can help create a balance in his moods.
Watch your teenager’s moods. All teenagers have a bad day now and then, but most aren’t as moody as they were during early adolescence. If you’re concerned about your teen’s moods, check in with a high school counselor or teacher.

Ask your teenager about her passions and interests. Make sure your teenager has time to do things she really wants to do—in addition to taking responsibility at school and at home.

Discuss current events with your teenager. Expanding your teenager’s worldview often helps him engage more in the world—and in his own life.

Who knew cruising with kids could be such a delight?

If you had asked me a few years ago what the only thing my husband might find more excruciating than making small talk with a handful of strangers over the breakfast table at a B&B, I would have said "doing the Electric Slide with 3,000 strangers on the lido deck of a cruise ship."

But having a child does strange things to you, not the least of which is make you eat crow on innumerable vows of "I will never ..." (see entry under: "I will never use the TV as a babysitter," and "I will never take my kid to McDonald's"). So when my son, Rowan, was 3, and we decided to see Alaska, we considered our various BC (before child) travel options and concluded that trekking through the tundra with someone who can't hold his own water - in a canteen or otherwise - was not the grand wilderness adventure we had envisioned. With much trepidation, we booked a Holland America cruise headed for Glacier Bay.

At 3, Rowan was a little young to take full advantage of the Club Hal kids program, but a cruise ship, it turns out, is a lot like a giant playground - only stocked with people who are paid to push you on the swing, bring you treats and perform endless magic shows. Which leaves plenty of time for grownups to do things like drink hot toddies while watching orcas leap in triplicate.

Somewhere between the kitchen tour, where we got to watch chefs carve ice sculptures; the parade of baked Alaskas, in which 20 white-coated waiters promenade down a grand staircase carrying enormous plates of sparkler-topped puff pastry; and our entry into Glacier Bay, when we silently slipped past the Marjorie Glacier as enormous chunks of ice and snow broke off and tumbled like dice into the sea - we drank the cruise Kool-Aid.

That first experience inspired us a year or so later to go the Full Monty on a Princess Caribbean cruise out of New York. No sedate nature lovers here. This was a serious cruise, complete with a rum Hurricane sail-away party, George Hamilton look-alikes sipping mai tais in the hot tub, and limbo contests.

After the culture shock wore off, we decided there were a lot more things to like about tropical cruises than the smell of cocoa butter. For one, it's hot in the Caribbean, and a pool is never more than a deck's length away. Our ship had five pools (and seven hot tubs), including a splash pool for little kids and one that sported a 300-square-foot movie screen. For another, you never have to worry about schlepping your suitcase anywhere. Ever. And once aboard, you can go a week and never put on a pair of shoes. Or pants.

Beyond that there is the kids program, which, for parents like us, was something of a revelation. Where else can you find really nice people with degrees in early childhood education whose sole job is to entertain your child round-the-clock? For Princess Pelicans (ages 3-7) there's T-shirt decorating, mini-climbing walls, PlayStation programs, pajama parties, movie and pizza nights, scavenger hunts, and of course, babysitting.

One day the International Piazza was transformed into a carnival with clowns, face painting, balloons, and a make-a-cookie station. Other days, there was a revolving cavalcade of jugglers, stilt walkers, magicians, barbershop singers - even a string quartet.

One evening, as my husband and I sat on the deck of the fancy Italian restaurant eating scampi, sipping Cabernet and watching the moon dance in the ship's wake - and Rowan was off playing musical chairs, or making bracelets, or doing karaoke - it occurred to me that for the first time in a long while, I was really relaxed.

Here are few more things cruising taught me:
-- Whoever came up with the idea of issuing parents of young children a vibrating pager to reassure them that all is well will surely have a special place in heaven.

-- The confines of a ship go from claustrophobic to breathtakingly reassuring when you have a 4-year-old who likes to play the old elevator game of "guess which floor I'm on?"

-- That ship can also feel as big as an ocean when your kid's at one end frolicking in the Pelican playroom and you're at the other end by the adults-only pool getting shiatsued upside and back.
-- The average age of the cruising public sounds geriatric until you realize that you now have 3,000 potential doting grandparents at your beck and call.

-- There is no shame in taking three petit fours, a pile of cream puffs, a slice of black forest cake, and Sachertorte from the midnight dessert extravaganza buffet, as long as you take them back to your room. There is only small shame in eating three of them before you get there.

Weight issues can affect kids' performance at school

OVERWEIGHT kids are at risk for a host of health complications, including elevated cholesterol, diabetes and high blood pressure. They also may do more poorly in school.

When grade point averages were compared among 566 middle school students in a suburb of Philadelphia, overweight students came in at about half a grade point lower than normal-weight kids.

The study, published in the July issue of the journal Obesity, also found that overweight students had lower reading comprehension scores on a nationally standardized test, ranking in the 66th percentile; normal-weight kids ranked in the 75th percentile.

Heavier kids were also five times more likely to have six or more detentions than their normal-weight peers, had more school absences and lower physical fitness test scores, and were less inclined to participate on athletic teams -- 37% compared with 75% of normal-weight students.

Stuart Shore, a doctoral candidate in kinesiology at Temple University in Philadelphia, and lead author of the study, speculates that overweight kids who have low self-esteem might be less inclined to attend school and may not relate well with their teachers.

Five U.S. Children Selected to Participate in First-Ever McDonald's Champion Kids(TM) Program

OAK BROOK, Ill., July 25, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Today, at the Junior Olympic Skills Competition in Chicago, McDonald's along with U.S. Olympic wrestler Patricia Miranda announced the selection of five children to represent the U.S. as McDonald's Champion Kids.

Kamaile Aluli from Hauula, Hawaii and Abigail Muesse from Winder, Georgia will travel to Beijing to experience the 2008 Olympic Games, joining 200 other McDonald's Champion Kids from around the world. Chisu Edwards (Morristown, NJ), Cameron Loftis (San Jose, CA) and Emily McGuire (Broken Arrow, OK) will be treated to an exclusive tour of the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.