Making Education Fun for Kids

Anatex makes the best waiting room toys! They’re not just for waiting rooms anymore though. They are great for anywhere kids play or anywhere kids have to wait. They are great for grandma’s house because there is so little cleanup involved. They are great at places like the post office, where parents have to wait in line. The kids can play safely where the parent can see them while they are waiting.

You might not realize it, but kids are learning while they are playing with Anatex toys because it teaches them sorting, colors, counting, shapes, sequence and much more. Check out the Anatex toys at http://www.4thekidstoystore.com/anatextoys.html

Anatex Sensory Toys

The Children’s Factory has so many colorful products that are especially great for daycare, preschool, grade school, or for your home. They have several mats that are perfect for tumbling. Play panels that are great for dividing rooms or creating play areas. Soft play toys that are safe for children to play with. There are adorable decorative mirrors to decorate children’s bedrooms, play areas, or waiting rooms. They have items that help children with manual dexterity. And adorable furniture for classrooms, play rooms, waiting rooms, or bedrooms.
I am very impressed with the Children’s Factory and their dedication to providing safe, imaginative, fun products for children and child care providers!

With all the new changes our new administration is making, what will become of our education system? So many other big industries are receiving bailouts because they have been mismanaged, but what about our own education system? Do they get any bailouts?

Now days you have to buy all of your child’s school supplies - pens, pencils, paper, etc. Back when I went to school those things were provided for by the schools and paid for by our tax dollars. Well, our taxes have gone up over the years, but what is being supplied has gone down.

So, here we are going into trillions more in debt to pay bailout monies to companies who are misusing it to pay their big-wigs massive bonuses while our own children are going without. What is wrong with this picture?

Are you or your child a fan of the NBA? Can’t get enough of it and miss it through the off-season? Now you can decorate your kid’s room with official NBA furniture made by Guidecraft. Choose from table and chair sets, director’s chairs, rocking chairs, lamps, toy boxes, and step-stools with storage.

Laker's Table and Chair Set

Who is your favorite team and why? Who is your favorite player? Michael Jordan is probably an all-time favorite for most fans. He was a really classy guy and made Chicago a very popular team for a while.

Do you know who the top 10 NBA players for 2009 are? What about the top 10 NBA player salaries?

Who is your least favorite player? Did they make the top 10 most hated NBA player list?

Basketball can teach you strategies that you can use in every day life. If your child enjoys watching or playing basketball take the time to observe the lessons and use them as teaching opportunities. There are many examples that can be used. Being a “team player” and the importance of it on the court and in life. Which players are team players and which are ball hogs? Or, what about those times when your teammates are struggling and you have to take control and make things happen? And there are multiple examples of players who have worked hard after an injury to make it back on the court. Of course there are a lot of rags to riches stories where boys have made it out of the ghettos with a LOT of practice.

So, even though basketball is very entertaining, children will benefit much more if their parents take the time to use basketball as a teaching opportunity.

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I had to wait in a very long line at the post office to ship a package. For some reason children are even more impatient that adults are when it comes to standing around (or sitting) waiting. It was so nice when the post office actually added a couple of rollercoaster tables to keep the kids entertained (but still observable).
I would have never thought to put waiting room toys in a post office, but it sure made the wait more enjoyable for not only the kids, but also for the adults waiting in line. These toys come as one piece with no loose parts to lose or choke on. They are washable, so they are easy to keep clean and disinfected. They are very durable and last a long time.
Kudos to the post office for keeping the children entertained, making our wait much more enjoyable!

Most people remember a favorite toy from their childhood. It doesn’t matter if it was one of the best selling toys of that era or not. It was just YOUR favorite toy.
I remember one of mine….. it was a red Murray Tot Rod. A great little pedal car made in the 60’s that could spark your imagination as you climbed in and took the wheel. It wasn’t hard to feel as if you were on the same peer level as your father, because after all, you could drive too. You could go anywhere you wanted. I remember riding mine on some trails in a field next door. It felt like I was a world away and I could drive for hours on end. Sometimes you would have to stop and get out to take care of some road repairs, but that was part of the fun on a warm summer afternoon. A lot of make believe came to life while I was “driving” my tot rod and seeing the countryside.
Although I had a few favorites that I’ll always remember, the toys that got played with the most when I was younger were those that were kept in my toy box. That’s where they got there rest. You could be sure they were ready to play when you opened the lid. There were some of everything including educational toys, wooden toys, books and cars. It was like a toy library in there and they all had to be quiet when they were in the library. If you put a list together of your top 10 toys, I would bet that at least one has been one of the top selling toys of its era. Regardless of how simple or spectacular a toy may be, they are for a young heart’s entertainment, education, enjoyment and Inspiration!

How do you really know if school vouchers are good or bad in the long run? Is there proof one way or another?

There is proof one way or another, sort of. You will have to take into consideration the legal jargon behind the particular vouchers to accurately compare anything. If you can even get the particulars on any voucher, you’ll have fun trying to wade through the fine or not so fine print.

Are vouchers good or bad? I suppose that depends on what side of the table you are on.

If you belong to a teacher’s union, you are a school administrator, or a lousy teacher who doesn’t belong in a school at all, then vouchers are bad. However, if you are a student, a parent, a great teacher, or a regular citizen concerned with what our future communities hold, then school vouchers are good. And I’m sure you’d like me to back my statement so I will.

Keep in mind that the legal wording behind any school program really needs to be carefully studied to REALLY know all the ins and outs of the program. That also goes for the public school system the way it is today. Have you ever looked into your local school system? I mean REALLY looked into it? Let me tell you…the deeper you look the more disgusted you will get.

Public schools need competition in order to force them to become better. As it is now, public schools have a monopoly. Because of their monopoly, if a child gets a lousy teacher and tries to get out of that class, GOOD LUCK! It’s worse than pulling teeth. What if a public school teacher sends in appropriate messages to their students? Fire them right? Wrong. With the public school systems the way they are it is virtually impossible to fire a teacher, even if they are a threat to kids. Don’t you think this kind of thing needs to change in our schools? It’s not going to until there are choices/competition for parents to put their kids into other schools.

Schools need to be responsible for their results and the only way they will ever do that is if their jobs are on the line. That’s when they will finally step it up and improve their system.

Won’t vouchers cause our taxes to increase? No. They are designed to save money not cost more. How many times has your school district asked for increased funding or bonds to build a new school, remodel an old school, or whatever the case may be? Those things will raise our taxes more than you can imagine. Where as, if a private school needs a new roof or needs to expand or needs a new building, they will be doing it with private funds. They aren’t going to get tax payer money for that, but public schools do. Public schools receive ample amount of money every year and could set aside money for regular wear and tear on their schools, but why do that when they can just run schools down to pitiful conditions and then cry for more money for the sake of our kids. It’s ridiculous and the more you dig into the policies of your own school districts the more you’ll discover these same tactics and then some.

To really sum up why school vouchers are good, check out the following 20/20 report done over a year ago regarding our American Public Schools.

Have you ever thought about the value of all the papers and miscellaneous stuff that your kids bring home from school? It might be worth its weight in gold!

While surfing the web, I came across a novel idea. The website www.origamiboulder.com takes paper waded into a ball and then sells it to the general public. For $10 you can buy an Origami Boulder OR you can upgrade that for $15 and can get a boulder with a Haiku written on it. (That doesn’t include shipping, by the way.)

There must be a marketing and business professor at some university who is just beaming with pride at this student’s inventiveness and ingenuity. Talk about thinking outside the box, well really for $29 you can get your boulder in a box.

The way I see it, there are three types of people. First, the ones who don’t sit around and let the world pass them by but use their time to become great at any endeavor. Second, those who sit around and buy the ’stuff’ others so ingeniously come up with. Third, the rest of use who wish we had thought of it first.

What does this have to do with education and why you shouldn’t throw those papers away? Your guess is as good as mine. Had I thought of the Origami Boulder, I could have profited from my child’s hundreds of school papers and put me in the realms of the great thinkers of our time. Who knows, that backpack might have put my child through college. Then they could be the next to come up with the newest novel idea. Their idea might just spark the next pet rock craze!!

The more you catch your children doing something good or right, the more they do things good or right. So how do we get in the practice of catching them doing good? And what is the best way to reward their behavior? Well, there is obviously more than just one answer, but since we want to educate kids as well as teach them good behavior we suggest the following:

Make a chart of 100 boxes - 10 x 10. I know, I know, I don’t like charts either, but this idea was cool. So, you make a chart of 10 squares x 10 squares (just like the good old times tables charts). Number or letter up the side and along the bottom to make it more like a graph. (This is to help teach plotting points) Now, everytime your children do something good (do what they are told right away, put their things away instead of leaving a mess, showing respect or good manners, etc) you have them put their name on the “Oh WOW” chart–or what ever you decide to call it.

When the chart is filled with names then you get to roll dice or draw the coordinances out of a hat. The more things they did right, the more times their name is on the chart, the more likely they are to get a prize. Prizes can be anything you find is most appropriate for your income & your kids’ interests. They really shouldn’t be a HUGE deal because you really want them to do good because they want to and not because they will get a REALLY COOL PRIZE if they do. So, you get a random coordinant, now have your children find who’s name is in the corresponding square. (Catch everyone doing good sometimes & have plots where everyone could win the prize.)

Note: When you catch them doing good, it’s a great idea to praise the act and not the person. (This goes with critisism too.) If you praise the act they then, in their own minds, praise themselves & build their own self-esteem. Self-esteem is just that…SELF-esteem. They have to build it themselves, NOBODY can do that for them. That’s why the technic of praising or critisizing the ACT & not the child is SOOOO effective.

Now let’s see:
We catch them doing good
The good ACT is recognized
They build self-esteem
They desire to do good more often
They learn probiblity
They learn how to plot points

Learning is FUN! Just be creative!