Activities to Engage your Kids

1. Explore the neighbourhood

Have you ever brought your kids on a walk around the neighbourhood? A leisurely, unhurried, without-an-agenda walk? Try it and see what you and your kids get to notice as you explore your neighbourhood. To make it more fun, let them bring along a camera to take photos of whatever things that interest them. You can even print out those photos and create a scrapbook!

2. Do housework
Here is another chore that we are so used to doing and which most of us dread. However, most kids, especially those who are still far from the teenage years, love doing household chores! Hand them the vacuum cleaner, mop and cloth, and let them help with some spring cleaning of the house.

3. Science experiments

Are there any Science experiments that your kids have been wanting to try out but you’ve not had the time to do them during schooldays? Now is the best time to get the materials and spend a few hours letting the kids be little Scientists.
4. Build a city

Use Lego, building blocks, recycled boxes to build a city. Make it more challenging and fun by using these paper house templates. Add in toy vehicles and your kids can spend hours creating and playing with their little city.
5. Have an indoor picnic



Jokes for the week

 

 

Jokes for the week

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

If a Child Lives With... 

 

If a child lives with criticism He learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility He learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule He learns to be shy.
If a child lives with jealousy He learns to feel guilty.
But if a child lives with tolerance He learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement He learns self-confidence.
If a child lives with praise He learns to appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness He learns justice.
If a child lives with approval He learns to like himself.
If a child lives with security He learns to have faith.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship He learns to find love in the world.

By: Dorothy Law Nolte

Indoor Fun this holiday for children

Small spaces and bored kids are detrimental to parents’ peace of mind. With the weather in Singapore being rather unpredictable, plan for some fun activities you can do together with your children at home. Switch off the television and computer games as these gadgets occupy all the senses and keep family members from relating to one another.

1. Spring Cleaning

Organise the family. Pick a room in the home to clean. Make it a game. Kids do not mind the chores as long as they can spend time with you. As you pick up an old family album, tell them about your roots. These special moments will create a canvas of memories that last a life time.

2. Cookery Classes

Get the kids into the kitchen. This real-life lab is a great place to have fun and learn important life skills. You do no have to cook like a gourmet chef to teach your kids how to cook up a meal or prepare a drink.

3. Art Escape

Pull out the drawing block, the crayons, paints, scissors or paper. Work together with your kids to create family art pieces that you can proudly archive. Change the theme or the art medium to add fun to each session.

4. Board and Card Games

Good old fashioned board and card games are a great way to keep kids from getting bored. Monopoly, Scrabble, Snakes and Ladders, Checkers, and Snap are all great games that allow the players to have a great time.

5. Music and Drama

Set kids out to put up a play or a musical at the end of the holiday. You may invite proud grandparents, aunts and uncles to watch the show. Use the game plan to teach new songs, learn dance steps and practice the parts in a small play. Create costumes and backdrops to host the event and before you know it, by the end of the holiday your little one has learnt so many skills that will build confidence.

Top education apps for the holidays

This Holiday, children need a break from the structure of school, but subtle learning can continue with these apps, says Sebastien Breteau

 

 

    

Children have a natural curiosity to explore, so learning through play can be highly engaging and effective for children. When playing, a child is an active learner and can acquire both social and intellectual skills.

The recent explosion of educational apps available for children to play with on tablet computers is transforming education in schools and at home. When using apps, children are in control, they can experiment, learn from their mistakes, and progress at their own speed.

Through our work with children and teachers both in the UK and in developing countries, we are seeing very positive results from children learning through play with educational apps in the areas of numeracy, literacy, critical thinking and creativity. These results are independent of nationality, ability and household income.

Over the holidays, children need a break from the structure of classroom learning with self-directed play, reconnecting with siblings, friends and family. It’s important not to spend all day on devices, particularly at this time of the year, but I believe a lot can be learned with well-selected apps.

A child’s opportunities to learn in their pre-school years has a significant impact on their success in primary school and thereafter. Apps like Montessori Crosswords (iPhone) build an early foundation of literacy for the under-fives, with animations and sounds specially suited to young children, to develop their reading, writing and spelling.

 

Learning at a pace that is right for them is so important for children at primary-school level and there are many apps that allow them to do this, including Montessori 1st Operations (Android/ iPhone). It offers a clear and simple approach to maths - with added monsters - that adapts to a child’s progress.

Slice Fractions (Android/ iPhone) is another app that makes maths fun for primary school children, as they help a cartoon mammoth make its way through ice and lava by solving fractions.
Built on a strong pedagogical foundation, Slice Fractions enables a deeper understanding of fractions as children explore and play to learn.
 
It is not only specific skills that apps can develop but those that are broad and transferable as well. Logic and creativity will serve children well throughout their education, and Pettson’s Inventions Deluxe (Android/ iPhone) suits all ages, with the options of challenging a friend or competing against the clock to complete clever inventions.

If you have more than just the little ones to entertain over Christmas then introduce the whole family to the Little Things app (Android/ iPhone) - a seek and find puzzle-solving game with lively music and graphics.

The doctors of the future will be left spell-bound by Tinybop’s Human Body app (Android/ iPone), which is an animated and interactive working model of the body. Children will enjoy seeing the results of feeding, tickling and poking the body.

One skill that will be in the limelight for years to come is coding. In September, a new curriculum introduced it to all children from the age of five in England and, earlier this month, schools all around the world took part in the Hour of Code, an online event teaching the basics of coding.

There are a number of apps to help children gain an understanding of coding, including The Foos (Android/ iPhone), which helps them learn core computer science concepts by programming cute characters in a virtual world.

Technology will be fundamental to how children study and socialise in their teenage years and how they work in adult life. But now it should be enjoyed for the fun that it offers and its potential to excite and inspire young minds.

By: Sebastien Breteau, president of The Breteau Foundation

Scouting for a school?

If you want to change your child’s school when the new school year begins, the key to choosing the right school for your child is doing thorough research. Make sure any and all questions you have are answered comprehensively so that you have a complete understanding of the school, and its educational philosophy.

 

How to engage children during holidays

For children, holidays are the best time to have fun and play. But not the same story for most parents. To many parents, entertaining children can be a tricky venture especially during a long vacation like this.

While this is the best time for parents to know their children better, they are sometimes bereft of ideas on how to engage them.

Helpless and don’t know how to ward off the hustle and bustle of kids this holiday? These tips should help keep you on top of the situation no matter what age they are.

– Get them in the kitchen

This is the time to take them on some cooking lessons. There are loads of recipes you can try out with your children but you can start with the simplest ones. Be sure to allow them try out their hands at dishes they simply adore. They may not particularly enjoy the results, but you’re teaching them about taste, as well as having fun!

– Get them gardening

Growing plants is great fun and it’s even more fun, if they can watch their work get bigger and flower before their eyes. There are lots of plants that even a young child can grow without too much trouble, from small trees to herbs and vegetables.

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If you don’t have a garden, then a window box or small pots are the answer and it won’t matter what time of the year you plant them. Try growing vegetables, or fruits – that way they can eat them once they’ve grown.

– Play some sports

Look out for local leisure centres and enroll your kids. They have loads of opportunities to learn new sports, from martial arts to badminton, football to trampolining, swimming to tennis. What’s more? They usually provide the equipment so you won’t have to shell out for lots of expensive kit, until they’re totally hooked!

– Check out your local library

If you haven’t managed to create a bookworm, then this could be the perfect place to start. There’s something for everyone here, regardless of whether they’re a sports buff, adventure fan or prefer something more girly. Best of all, if they find some they like, it costs nothing to take them out!

– Visit the zoo

Introduce your children to animals by taking them to a farm or a zoo where they can see first hand, those animals they have only seen and read about on paper. Many of them cost less to get into. It’s a great opportunity to get up close to wildlife, especially if your child’s only previous contact has been with a cat or dog.

 Visit a museum

Let your child learn a bit of history by taking them on a visit to the museum. There are loads of interesting things to be seen and it’s a sure way of pampering their curiosity.

– Take them to their grandparents

Most kids love visiting their grandparents. So, this time, why not get your son or daughter to ask them what it was like when they were kids? What did they do to pass the time? What were their favourite toys? Did they watch TV? They’ll be surprised by the answers.

-Teach them to knit

While this one’s probably for the girls, some boys might be interested. Teach them how to knit simple things like head warmers, gloves, pencil cases, socks and mufflers. Encourage them to wear or use these things after they might have finished making them.

-Send them to summer camp

Summer camps are a great way to enhance your child’s socialising skills. Also it’s a good place for them to learn new skills and put it into practice.

 

5 Ways to Share Your Passion for Learning

           

 

Many passionate teachers would verify that they entered the field of teaching because they love it. Not only do they love teaching others, but the subject material they teach thrills them. Stories abound of would-be teachers switching out of college majors to pursue the career they love. In other cases, teachers work with their subject material – whether it be English, Math, Science, or whatever – in arenas beyond just their classroom. They gravitate towards those venues. They feel complete when they work with and talk about what they love.
And then they meet students who are, shall we say, not quite as enthusiastic. Some teachers can be caught up in a moment of pure passion when talking about a topic without realizing their audience doesn’t exactly sympathize with their sentiment.
The truth is that teachers regularly love “this stuff,” whatever it is they may be teaching. The question is, “How can passionate teachers get their students to be passionate, too?” After all, unless students have some degree of interest in the topic, they are not going to be motivated to excel.

1. Be open with your own passion. It’s unbelievably boring to learn from someone who doesn’t even seem to care about what they are saying. It’s incredibly inspiring, on the other hand, to have someone talk about a topic with pure joy. If you love something, then show it. It’s contagious.
2. Regularly apply your passion, and tell your students. Be an example. If you were thinking about something, working on a project, or just walking along and found something interest that relates to class, tell you students about the experience. What you and your students talk about doesn’t have to be isolated to your classroom. Let them see how what you’re teaching applies to the world beyond the classroom.
3. Get students to apply it, too. Whatever your content is, if students have experience applying that knowledge to more than a test, they’ll be hooked. The world is diverse and fascinating. Classrooms, on the other hand, are abysmally isolating at times. Give them a glimpse of the real world.
4. Passion is cool. At least, that what we adults think. Students often shy away from becoming too “academic” or “nerdy” because school isn’t always presented as something cool. But it is. Constantly remind students that being smart, passionate, engaged people is cool – and give them plenty of opportunities to be cool.
5. Set goals and reward improvement. When students set a goal for their own academic growth, half the battle is already won. Now they have an internal motivating factor that will help propel them to that next level of success. And lavishly reward students who make any improvements.

Turning even just one student onto a particular topic is not easy, and getting an entire class passionate is a true challenge. But with the right enthusiastic atmosphere, students might just realize that learning can be really, really cool.

By: Jordan Catapano

Now you tell us: how do you share your passion for the subject you teach? Leave your reply in the comments section, below

Jokes for the week

For a quick giggle, some side-splitting teacher’s jokes have been compiled and concocted for us to laugh our way through next week.

* Kid comes home from 1st day at school. Mum asks, 'What did you learn today?' Kid replies, 'Not enough. I have to go back tomorrow.'

* Pupil: Teacher, would you punish me for something I didn't do?
    Teacher: Of course not

Pupil: Good, because I didn't do my homework

* Stressing the importance of a good vocabulary, the teacher told her young charges, "Use a word ten times, and it shall be yours for life."

From somewhere in the back of the room, came a small male voice chanting, "Amanda, Amanda, Amanda, Amanda, Amanda, Amanda, Amanda, Amanda, Amanda, Amanda."

* Does it count as differentiated instruction if I print their worksheets in different colours?

* Pupil: I don't think I deserved zero on this test!
Teacher: I agree, but that's the lowest mark I could give you!

* What do you call a teacher without students?
Happy

* Teachers deserve a lot of credit. Of course, if we paid them more, they wouldn’t need it.

* Teacher: I want you to tell me the longest sentence you can think of
Pupil: Life imprisonment!

What do you call a teacher without students?
Broke…oh wait, that’s a regular teacher