Safe internet use for your child

Internet is a world of interactive and informative sites but it is our responsibility to teach our child 'safe use of internet'. These tips would help the parents and teachers for the safe and wise use of internet.

1. Be aware and involved. It's up to us to teach kids how to use the Internet — and all media — safely and responsibly. Just as we teach them how to eat properly and drive safely, we must teach them how to be safe, responsible and respectful on the Internet.

2. Do your homework. Check out sites, investigate ratings, explore safety and privacy tools, and parental control features. Don't be intimidated by the Internet.

3. Talk to your kids. Ask them questions about where they're going online and who their buddies are.

4. Teach safety. Make sure your kids know how to avoid dangers. No party postings, no personal information, no meeting strangers — ever.

5. Set rules. Time limits, place limits, codes of conduct. Try to keep computers with Internet access in a central room in your house if younger kids are online.

6. Report suspicious activity to your Internet service provider or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

7. Help kids view online information with a critical eye. Not everything that appears on the Web is true. Teach them to be savvy consumers of Internet information.

8. View your own online habits with a critical eye. Our kids watch everything we do.
If you don't want your kid doing what you're doing online you might want to think twice about your own habits.

9. Embrace their world. Download music, IM your kids, play an online game, visit MySpace. Not only will your kids appreciate it, you'll know what you're dealing with!
Remember, the Internet is here to stay. It's our job to help our kids be Internet safe and Internet smart.

By: Common Sense Media

How to choose age appropriate toys for children?

Last year a parent asked me to suggest the toys for her 5 year old daughter with some learning disability symptoms. I personally prefer to provide blocks, and other educational toys for that specif age because my son enjoyed playing with blocks for hours and it definitely helped him in skill development. This article would help you choose age appropriate toys for your children and this guide is also useful to select and buy gifts for children.

Selecting toys for young children is an important task that involves decisions about the kinds of interests, motivation, and skills we want children to develop. Any toy given to a child should match his or her developmental age and individual needs.

When choosing a toy, careful attention should be paid to safety and durability--materials should have lasting play value and help provide a foundation for future development.

Following are some ideas for inexpensive, and most important, fun play materials for the early years:

Birth through six months

Toys for young infants should promote their interest in looking, listening, sucking, and grasping. Well-secured, unbreakable crib mirrors, rag dolls, stuffed toys and simple hand puppets moved by an adult are all age appropriate gifts that can either be made or purchased for a minimal amount of money.

6 to 12 months

Infants from 6-12 months are able to enjoy a wider variety of toys which support their social, cognitive, and physical development. Floating objects for bath play, construction materials, simple puzzles, cloth and board books, and balls are durable options for young children at this stage.
1 to 2 years

Toddlers are increasingly mobile and independent. Dressing, lacing, and stringing materials, picture and nursery rhyme books, nontoxic crayons for scribbling, and stacking materials will be enjoyed by one-year-olds, while role-playing toys, pegboards, and large balls to kick, throw, and catch are good choices for older toddlers.

3 to 5 years

Three- to five-year-olds often find enjoyment from materials that promote pretend play and foster their language and social skills. A large variety of books suitable for this age are available, as well as an assortment of blocks, dress-up clothes and simple games, including dominoes, bingo boards, and card games.

6 through 8 years

Primary-school age children show interest in and benefit from a number of specific skill-development toys. They can spend hours with art and crafts materials, particularly washable paints, clay, collage equipment, and small beads for jewelry making. Books and more complex games with rules and turn-taking are also appropriate, and natural objects (stones and shells) can pique an interest in science and the environment.

Keep in mind that the holiday season can also be stressful for children. It isn't necessary to give a child a room full of toys in order for him to have fun. Sometimes the simplest pleasures are the most enjoyable.

Link: Simple Gift Giving For The Early Years

http://www.naeyc.org/

'Child Psychology Research Blog' helping us understand child behavior

It is sometimes very difficult to understand child behavior until we get some experience of dealing with children from some time. As an educator our teaching experience helps us understand the child development and its complications but still we need to learn more about our children. Research based child psychology posts or articles are really helpful for parents and educators in dealing with the children.

Child Psychology Research Blog offers research based commentary on child psychology.

The author of the blog is 'Nestor L. Lopez-Duran, PhD.' who is a clinical child psychologist and neuroscience researcher working at a large Midwest University. She currently conduct research on mood disorders in children and adolescents, and she is the editor of Child-Psych, where she discusses the latest research findings on parenting, child disorders, and child development.

More about the 'Child Psychology Research Blog:

It is a research-based informational blog about child psychology, parenting, and childhood disorders. It provides reviews of the latest scientific findings on a number of psychiatric and neuro developmental disorders in a style that is accessible to parents, educations, and clinicians.

Their mission is to become the most comprehensive online resource of science-supported information on child psychology. They provide a framework that helps readers understand the studies and provide information on how each study fits within previous research.

Follow them at 'twitter'

Keep your kids busy with 'free learning games'

Mainly video games are played to have fun 'either they are played at PCs, hand held or play station type gaming devices. As a parent or teacher we discourage our kids to play offline or online video games as these activities kill a large amount of time and when kids are addict to these games, usually their studies are affected. This post is mainly about useful links and resources about educational or learning games. These links offer free leaning games so you only need to check the links, bookmark your favorite ones and let your child have fun while learning.

* Browser-based, Free Learning Games: '36 Learning Games to Change the World'

* Educational Games at 'Nobel Prize organization' site. These games and simulations, based on Nobel Prize-awarded achievements, will teach and inspire you while you're having FUN!

Top 10 most visited educational games are:

* 1. The Laser Challenge Game
* 2. The Blood Typing Game
* 3. The Pavlov's Dog Game
* 4. The DNA - the Double Helix Game
* 5. The Lord of the Flies Game
* 6. The Electrocardiogram Game
* 7. The Control of the Cell Cycle Game
* 8. The Peace Doves Game
* 9. The Immune System Game
* 10. The Split Brain Experiments Game

* 'Educational Games Research' is a blog which discusses the research based studies concerning instructional video games.

John Rice is an educator, author and speaker specializing in educational technology and instructional gaming. He serves as technology director for a school district in Texas and is a doctoral student in educational computing at University of North Texas. Among the several published articles and conference papers he has written, many have dealt with the subject of educational video games. The topic remains his primary research interest.

Top posts are:
* The Top 10 Most Influential Educational Video Games from the 1980s
* 10 Great Sites for Finding Free Educational Games
* The Top 10 Free Educational Video Games
* Educational Uses for the Nintendo DS
* Latest Nielsen Findings Show Interesting Video Game Statistics


* '88 Free EduGames to Spice Up Your Course!'

'Zaid Learn' - An educational blog

Zaid Learn is a learning blog which is created by 'Zaid Ali Alsagoff' from Malaysia, who is from education field and an 'e-Learning Researcher'.

More about Zaid in his own words:

'I am an e-learning manager and researcher. I have done research in several key e-learning areas, including educational gaming, role-play simulation, virtual classrooms, learning (content) management systems, e-learning standards, instructional design and courseware development. In addition, I have two (2) years experience in courseware development (as an ID), and an educational background in Psychology and IT management. My strengths include creative and critical thinking, content development, instructional design, system analysis (and visualization), analytical thinking, writing e-learning proposals, conducting workshops, giving presentations, interpersonal communication and pro-activeness.'

His career and interests are reflected at his blogs posts. Blog is about 3 years old but quality of articles and research proves that it has got google page rank 5. I personally found many links and resources at his blog. There are many articles about other resources as well.

Helping you learn 'Mission to learn'

Mission to learn is another educational blog. You can read articles on a wide range of learning resources, insights about what it means to be a lifelong learner on the social Web, and news about topics like open education, serious games, brain science, and more.

Blog posts are really informative and valuable

35+ Free Online Business Education Sites
26 Learning Games to Change the World
More Than 100 Free Places to Learn Online - And Counting
More Than 50 Web Widgets for Your Learning Mix

Another post 'Is Your Brain in a Box?' is very unique on 'learning and brain plasticity' topic which might be interesting for the teachers who want to know more about the brain and learning.

* Mission to Learn Blog - Postings 2-3 times per week on new learning resources, news, and insights about learning.

* Radio Free Learning - An occasional (aiming for one to two times per month) podcast in which I interview thinkers and doers in the world of lifelong learning. Subscribe to the Radio Free Learning Podcast via RSS or with iTunes.

You can also explore each of the channels to get a better feel for what they offer. Check our the Free Learning Monitor archives, listen to some of the recent Radio Free Learning podcasts.

Best way to get informed about the updated post is to subscribe to the blog newsletter. You would receive a monthly digest of free and low-cost online courses, tutorials, videos, podcasts, games, and blogs.

Get free subscription of their newsletter: 'free learning monitor'

Get in touch with your community at - 'twitter for teachers'

'twitter' is the name of new micro blogging way of getting in contact with each other. This social community site has broken the many records of other social networking sites. I have also realized the power and effectiveness of 'twitter' and after joining it I noticed that I can get in touch with other online bloggers or people having same interests and moreover it is the best way to know 'what you are doing?' in few lines. You just scan your profile page and read or go to the tweets or links which you have bookmarked or followed.

Many teachers have their accounts at 'twitter' and if you are interested to get connected to them, simply go to 'twellow' and search of 'teachers' or similar category. 'twellow' is the yellow pages of 'twitter'. You can edit your profile for 'twitter' with the help of 'twellow'.

Link to my page at 'twellow'

Second best place to find the educators or educational stuff is to sign in for 'twitter for teachers'.

Link to the site: http://twitter4teachers.pbwiki.com/

This wiki was created to easily help educators find other educators on Twitter that have the same interests as them (that teach in the same content area).

Check out the list of educators on the pages linked there and add your Twitter name to the appropriate list too. You can browse through the subject or area if you need to look for other educators.

Create your own free web site for educational purpose

You can get free blog around the net very easily but some of us don't like or not comfortable with the blogging platform and need to set up a site for educational purposes.

There is a difference between web site and blog which is that at web sites you can keep the data unchanged but blogs need you to write or update on regular basis.

Recently I read a post at 'freetech 4 teachers' about 8 ways to build web site, which I am going to share with this blog reader because it is a very useful link for educators who want to create a web site for their school, class or for themselves.

* 8 ways to build web sites for free

Related posts:

* Links for teachers to start educational blogs

* Free Micro-Blogging Site For Teachers and Students