How to shape your child to an excellent character!

This is a free e-book for parents, and educators, who are concerned not only about their children's future, but about development of their young ones as a good human, a good muslim. This parenting book is a short manual, but it would be a very useful and informative for all.

This book is from "Islamic World.net and book is an effort from "Women's club, University Kebangsaan,Kuala Lumper, MALAYSIA"

In the introduction section it says:

"According to Imam Al-Ghazali, a child is like an uncut diamond. The parent's responsibility is to cut, shape, and polish their child's soul until it becomes a glitteringly beautiful jewel, pleasing to the eye of Allah. Clearly, it is the parents who determine whether their children will become of fine character or not.

Every parent wishes to raise their children to become noble souls, good in every way; but, many do not know how to achieve that goal in an effective manner.

There are two primary requirements:

1- Parents have to know how a child's character or personality is developed.

2- Parents must themselves possess right values that will act as the basis for shaping their children's character; these right values are the traditional values of Islamic Character, and children must be raised to understand their role as Representative of Allah in this world (Khalifah Allah).

By combining these two necessary aspects of character development, parents will be able to shape their children to be excellent individuals in this world and the next.

And summary of the book says:
* It is best to shape your children's good character from an early age, but it is still not too late to correct the character of children of any age group.

* Children should be encouraged to be well behaved through directed positive influence. Reward them immediately when they do good. Gently admonish them immediately when they do wrong. Explain to them what they have done wrong, and clarify why it should not be repeated.

* Children need to be educated to observe certain limits in their freedom of action, and these are the limits that have been clearly set out for us by Allah when he gave us Islam as our perfect plan for a right life.

* We need to be consistent in encouraging positive values at every time and in every place.

* The application of Islamic values in raising our children is the best way to encourage the development of positive character.


Start downloading from this page:
Shaping Excellent Character-A manual for parents e-book


(I have taken these images from the book.)
This book is also available for non-muslim parents:
Shaping excellent character- A manual for parents (For non-muslims)

Review: "Enchanted Mind"--helping you to be more creative!

I believe that God has given the gift of self improvement to every human. Creativity is one of the talent, which can be developed as well, but how to do it?

Enchanted Mind is designed to help anyone, from age 5 to 105, to develop your latent creativity and have fun in the process.
Creativity explained at the site:

"Creativity is an attitude that can be cultivated and expanded. Once you have learned how to maintain a creative attitude, you can apply it to anything you set your mind to. The way to develop a creative attitude is to stretch and stimulate the mind daily to keep it flexible and resilient."

In their own words:

"Everyone has latent creativity waiting to unfold. Add flexibility to your mind with these simple techniques.

Science has speculated that we are using 10% of our brain capacity. If you want to access and cultivate that other 90% of unrealized potential, read on.

Expanding your brain and mind will accelerate your creative potential. Everyone has natural creative talent. We can help you unfold and expand your creativity through simple fun techniques."

Enchanted Mind has a lot of informative and interesting articles. I have taken a part of an article which might be interesting for all:

"Life magazine ran an article in July of 1994 about a group of nuns that were in their 80's, 90's and centenarians. All of these women were alert, articulate and showed no signs of Alzheimer's disease or any other form of mental degeneration. Why? They said they loved to do puzzles every day. They exercised their minds daily. This article focused on the fact that we think by creating dendrite connections in the neural pathways of the brain. Neurologically this is called "use dependent plasticity." If we don't continue to create new neural connections, the brain will begin to atrophy."

Link to the article: Attributes

Enchanted learning has a lot of link pages but better to check the Site map link first.

The site provides link to other creativity related sites: Great creativity sites

Free access to information and books at "Bartleby.com"

Bartleby.com is the place, where you may read classics of literature, nonfiction, and reference free of charge. It is equally a free resource for teachers, students and reading lovers.

Bartleby.com began as a personal research experiment in 1993 and within one year published the first classic book on the Web (Whitman’s Leaves of Grass).

More about Bartleby.com:

According to .Wikipedia:

"Bartleby.com is an electronic text archive, headquartered in New York and named after Herman Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener. It was founded under the name "Project Bartleby" in January 1993 by Steven H. van Leeuwen as a personal, non-profit collection of classic literature on the website of Columbia University. The original founder is now chairman and president of the privately held company. Its main source of revenue seems to be web advertising."

Since its incorporation in 1999 and the release of preeminent contemporary reference works, Bartleby.com becomes the most comprehensive reference publisher on the web, meeting the needs of students, educators, and the intellectually curious. Among its references works are the Columbia Encyclopedia, the American Heritage Dictionary, and guides to anatomy, etiquette and mythology.

Site has search boxes for easy navigation, so you can enter the word and it brings the related results within seconds.

You can narrow your search by searching through subject link.

Dictionary link would take you to "The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language" page where you can search for more information.

"Kids Konnect"- A safe internet gateway for kids!

This is a free to use edutainment site, which was first created to fulfill the requirements of a model technology school in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. But later when this site went upto the internet, it was decided to make this site available free worldwide.

Kids Konnect.com

An interactive and entertaining, educational site for kids from a retired teacher "Jan Belzer". She has an experience of 34 years in elementary school.
Kids Konnect.com was established in 1999.

Primary goal:
To find the best sites available and provide the students with the safest and most effective way of utilizing the Internet.

The main goal behind creating the site can be divided into 4 parts:

- Allowing children to safely and effectively utilize the Internet.
- Site covers the curriculm areas taught in school, so site is also helpful in studies.
- Lots of fun site links for kids to visit.
- Keeping the site free.

Target:

For teachers, students, and parents who utilize KidsKonnect at school and at home.

Achievement: Kids Konnect receives 280,000 unique visitors each month, with an average of 700,000 pages viewed monthly with 2 pages per visit. It has over 413 pages right now, adding more pages whenever needed.

A very impressive and informative report about internet safety from the Kids Konnect.com:

I have taken a part of the article which is about "important facts to think about"

1. In a study of 4 million children between the ages of 7 and 17 who use the Internet, 29% indicated they would give out their home address and 14% would give out their email address if asked (NOP Research Group, 2002).

2. 81% of parents of online teens say that teens aren’t careful enough when giving out information about themselves online and 79% of online teens agree with this (Pew Internet & American Life Project, March 17, 2005).

3. Approximately 89% of sexual solicitations of youth were made in either chat rooms or through Instant Messaging (Pew Study reported in JAMA, 2001).

4. 1 in 5 youth ages 10 to 17 received sexual solicitation or approach in last year (Online Victimization, NCMEC, June 2000).

5. “30% of teenage girls polled by the Girl Scout Research Institute said they had been sexually harassed in a chatroom. Only 7% told their parent because they were worried that their parents would ban them from going online” (Girl Scout Research Institute, 2002).

6. "86% of the girls polled said they could chat online without their parents’ knowledge, 57% could read their parents’ e-mail, and 54% could conduct a cyber relationship” (Girl Scout Research Institute, 2002).

7. Law enforcement officials estimate that as many as 50,000 sexual predators are online at any given moment (Dateline, 2006).

8. 42% of parents do not review the content of what their teenager(s) read and/or type in chat rooms or via instant messaging (The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and NetSmartz, June 2005).

9. 95% of parents didn’t recognize common chat room lingo that teenagers use to let people they’re chatting with know that their parents are watching. Those phrases are POS (parent over shoulder), P911 (parent alert), BRB (be right back), LOL (laughing out loud) and A/S/L (age/sex/location) (The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and NetSmartz, June 2005).

10. 30% of parents allow their teenagers to use the computer in private areas of the house such as a bedroom or a home office. Parents say they are more vigilant about where their teen(s) go online if the computer is in a public area of the household (NCMEC/ Cox5/24/05).

11. Nearly three out of 10 (28%) of parents don't know or are not sure if their teens talk to strangers online (NCMEC/ Cox5/24/05).

12. One-third of youth ages 8-18 have talked about meeting someone they have only met through the Internet (Polly Klaas Foundation, December 21, 2005).

To read full report:
Internet safety for kids and parents

Search at the site, taking time as there is a lot to discover. For example I searched for "stories online and the page came up with 68 site links.

I have searched through some links and providing the page link as well for easy browsing:

* Doorway to the internet providing you with very cool links to other kids sites.
* Online encyclopedia and reference guide
* Fun sites for kids
* Word games sites
* Primary Mathe sites
* Maths sites
* Phonics sites
* Quotables

Review: "Random acts of kindness"-inspiring you to practice kindness!

The Random Acts of Kindness provides free educational and community ideas, guidance, and other resources to kindness participants.

About the foundation: As people tap into their own generous human spirit and share kindness with one another, they discover for themselves the power of kindness to effect positive change. When kindness is expressed, healthy relationships are created, community connections are nourished, and people are inspired to pass kindness on.

Established in 1995 as a nonprofit organization, The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation is a resource for people committed to spreading kindness. We provide a wide variety of materials on our website, including activity ideas, lesson plans, project plans, teacher's guide, project planning guide, publicity guide, and workplace resources on our website at http://www.actsofkindness.org/ all free of charge.

The Foundation has no religious or organizational affiliations; we encourage the practice of kindness in all sectors of society.

The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation is the United States delegate to the World Kindness Movement, an organization that includes various nations. People in these countries promote kindness within their countries' borders and are creating a global network of kindness and compassion.

As people from different cultures and from all walks of life are joining to spread kindness, they are creating a powerful, synergistic action throughout the world.

Download link: FREE kindness stuff

Becoming a member is easy and FREE.

Another exciting service site offers free is that you can create your own kindness site. The purpose of the site would be to share your kindness activity or project with other people.

Link to start your own kindness site, but you have to register first to do it: Start your own web site

Read and download FREE e-books!

You would be surprise to know that internet has 1 million free electronic books. Reading lovers who enjoyed reading and downloading free e-books from "World eBook Fair", which was held from July to August4th-2007.

World eBook Fair grants you free access to a variety of 1/3 million free eBooks that you can download for personal use, for the month from July 4 - August 4, 2006.
In the following years, they plan free access to 1/2 million eBooks in 2007, 3/4 million in 2008, and ONE million in 2009.

Visit the World eBook Fair, World eBook Fair, July 4th to August 4th 2008 to download for FREE your sellection of One Million eBooks.

Project Gutenberg has been joined by The World Public Library and Digital Pulp Publishing, Internet Archive, along with Jim Baen [R.I.P.], in the creation
of The World eBook Fair, providing you million of e-books free. Let's have more information about Project Gutenberg where you can still download and read FREE e-books.

Project Gutenberg: It is the first producer of FREE electronic books(ebooks). It has the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks.
Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.

According to WikiPedia-free encyclopedia "As of October 2007, Project Gutenberg claimed over 22,000 items in its collection, with an average of over fifty new e-books being added each week.

These are primarily works of literature from the Western cultural tradition. In addition to literature such as novels, poetry, short stories and drama, Project Gutenberg also has cookbooks, reference works and issues of periodicals. The Project Gutenberg collection also has a few non-text items such as audio files and music notation files. Most releases are in English, but there are also significant numbers in many other languages."

According to The Wall St. Journal, 10/29/91 report:
" Today There Are 1 Million Free Electronic Books On The Internet. In large part, this is the result of efforts by Project Gutenberg, and their 50,000+ volunteers, who have been creating just such collections of electronic library materials starting two decades before their word "Internet" ever appeared on the front page or cover story of any major modern media outlet."

Project Gutenberg has over 100,000 electronic books available, and the target audience they have in mind is 1.5% of the world in this decade, and 15% of the world in the next decade.
Don't laugh, 15% of the world is already on the Internet now. . . .
However, even at only 1.5%, that is 100 million people.
Just 1/2 of the current United States population. . . .
If we get the average one of those 100,000 eBooks to those 100,000,000 people we are targeting. . .that is TEN TRILLION eBOOKS!!!

Project Gutenberg has never received even one million dollars in total donations over all these years yet has given away ONE TRILLION dollars worth of eBooks at just 10 cents a copy for 10 trillion eBooks.

Don't forget to "Visit the World eBook Fair, WorldeBookFair.com, July 4th to August 4th 2008 to download for FREE your sellection of One Million eBooks."

Link:
World eBook Fair

Review: "Dr.toy's Guide" --dealing in educational toys and products!

The Institute for Childhood Resources, a not-for-profit organization has created this award winning site.

"Dr.Toy's Guide" is called world's first website to provide information on the best in toys and educational products, offers year-round, award-winning toy and children's product information plus timely articles, useful resources, links and much more. These include toys, dolls, games, puzzles, books, software, CDs, audio and video discs and tapes, creative materials, construction toys etc.

Behind the scene: The person or expert behind the site is "Stevanne Auerbach, PhD"

More about Dr.Toy:
Dr. Auerbach, an established speaker, consultant, and author, is trained in child psychology, education, special education, and child development. Dr. Auerbach has a well-earned title, "Dr. Toy", dating to her first assignment with "Creative Playthings" (1968) where she developed its first education marketing program

Dr. Toy, Stevanne Auerbach, PhD, has been for many years one of the nation's and world’s leading experts on play, toys, and children's products. With 30 years of direct experience, Dr. Auerbach includes educationally oriented, developmental and skill building products from the best large and small companies in her four annual award programs. Many parents, teachers and toy buyers use Dr. Toy’s guidance in making selections.

Dr. Toy has written 15 books and many dozens of articles about play and toys for national and regional magazines and newspapers, has been featured as an expert in articles by others, and has been a featured guest on radio and television programs throughout the country and outside of the USA.

* Dr. Toy's Tips on Selecting Toys and Other Children's Products
* You can also ask any question relating kids toys at thisLink
* Enter your e-mail at provided box and get ready to receive their newsletter at your inbox. Click here

Some of the Dr. Toy's favourite sites

Edutainment sites for kids and parenets!

Edutainment is a term deriving from two words "Education" and "Entertainment" and it is well understood that the sites which are educational based but provide entertaining stuff are called "Edutainment" sites.

"Circle 1 Network" is an edutainment company, Combining learning with laughing and growing by sharing.
"Circle 1 Network" specializes in Web sites for parents and teachers looking for appropriate and educational online play to capture the interest of kids of all ages.
It was established in 1995. They have 3 sites,


1- KidsCom Jr., a Web site for kids and preschoolers. There are kids' games, educational and learning games, online coloring books, preschool activities and other games for preschoolers. (For kids 3-7 age)

Tips for internet safety from KIdscomjr.com

* Always have good manners and be polite when talking to someone else online.

* Ask your parents to spend time with you while online so that you can show them some of the neat things you can find online.

* Only use the Internet when your parents tell you it's OK, and only for as long as you are supposed to.

* Don't give out personal information like your address, telephone number or school name to anyone unless you have permission from your parents.

* Never meet with a cyberfriend or key pal unless your parents go with you or you have their permission to go alone.

* Don't break copyright rules by taking words, pictures or sound from someone else's Web site without their permission.

* Don't respond to any e-mail messages you get if they are strange, mean or upsetting to you, and tell your parents or teachers right away.

* Don't send pictures of yourself or your family to anyone unless you have permission from your parents.

* Stop right away if you see or read something on a Web site that upsets you and tell your parents or teachers about it.

* Don't put words, pictures or sounds on other people's Web sites without their permission.


2- "KidsCom" has kids games, chat rooms for kids, a virtual world, virtual pets and other child activities. kids' games focus on fun, learning and Internet safety. (For kids ages 8-15)
Link to the site: Kidscom.com

3- The third site is Parents talk which is a parenting magazine with parenting tips, family activities, crafts for children, help with a difficult child and other parenting information. Get parenting advice from parent experts. Share your stories and insights on the parent message boards.

If you want to ask any question go to the Link
- Register at their message board section to share your feelings on everything from parenting to health and well being.
Message board link

You may read articles about variety of topics like:

- Building self esteem, foundation for learning