Code Pink shares the mothers day inventor from 1870~Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation Arise then…women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts..

Last year Code Pink reclaimed Mother’s Day with powerful actions in Congress, a Women’s Congress at our DC Activist House, a Children’s Peace Festival across from the White House in DC and beautiful actions around the country- from coast to coast! This year they need your support to help suffering mothers and children of the war we wish would end. It feels good to give on Mother’s day!

For more information on the projects, Code Pink is partnering with the Collateral Repair Project.

The students are listening and learning. One father (who happens to be a coal mining equipment distributor) candidly remarked that he does not want his daughter influenced and becoming one of those “tree huggers”. His daughter, a student of Miss Litton’s, respectfully comments that in her opinion her father’s generation does not understand the damage that has been done to the environment. Miss Litton sticks to scientific questions and research. She has her students read Meltdown a book written by Patrick Michaels, a professor at the University of Virginia. The book holds the view that Global Warming is cyclical and that the news coverage has been dominated by hysteria. On the other hand, she teaches her students about green house gases and reducing the use of non-renewable energy sources. Her students research and discuss how long energy sources such as coal and oil will last. Miss Litton encourages pursuing clean renewable energy sources.

The president of the National Science Teachers Association states that Miss Litton is an exception to the rule. Most high school science teachers do not hold degrees in this field. He also states that most local school districts in our country view environmental science in the same manner as the evolution debate. He said they consider it “too hot” and stay away from offering classes in the subject.

This brings us to the question, is this possible? Can we educate our children about environmental science without the politics that often accompanies such discussions? Do environmental efforts have to be political or even politically motivated? I think we can embrace this together, from all sides. I agree with and applaud Miss Litton in her efforts!

Photo Credit: Riah’s Photography

Previous posts on the Great Copy Machine Epidemic:

• The Great Copy Machine Epidemic

• Has Your Child’s School Copy Machine Caught Global Warming Disease?

Gorilla  in the Greenhouse, an episodic show premiering today, doesn’t preach at kids, but instead engages them on their terms and empowers them to take action. Animated by the people behind such web classics as The Meatrix, it features four smart kids and a wise green gorilla, facing the big green challenges of our day, with inventiveness, action, and most importantly, a rockin’ song.

Not many people could pull off making a catchy tune about a garbage island in the Pacific Ocean, but in the first episode, “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” they show otherwise. With people such as Ralph Guggenheim, one of Pixar’s founders producing, this moves beyond merely being entertainment to being a bridge to further conversation with your children about things happening in the real world, and what can be done about them.

As Eli Noyes, director of the show puts it, “It is by nature interactive, because kids can do in the real world what they see our virtual kids doing. Every imaginary character and action in the show has an analogous real life counterpart.”

For example, in the first episode, the kids overcome a plot by Dr. Morlon Huffelbot to create a trash bag island (sound familiar?) They go undercover at the plastic bag factory, get out their positive green message to counteract Huffelbot’s actions through their social networks, rally cities to ban plastic bags and then create their own eco friendly alternative.  And, in a nod to how times have changed since we watched Schoolhouse Rock, this time it’s the kids making the music, in their band The Greenhouse Gang.

Giving structure and resources to build on your child’s enthusiasm, they’ve created a curriculum to go along with each episode with actions to take, and additional videos to deepen their knowledge. Beyond the garbage island, future episodes will cover sustainable food production, deforestation, global warming, and energy efficiency.

Readers: What other ways do you know of to creatively and actively engage your kids in greening the world?

More Resources:

From Inspiration to Action: 18+

Plastic: Your Worst Nightmare

Children’s Music Parents Can Enjoy

To help children learn how the sun moves across the sky and how shadows are formed, the human sundial project takes a whole day.  First thing in the morning when the sun is up, go outside with your child and trace their shadow with some chalk.  Mark an X where your child is standing so they can return to the same spot.  Switch roles and have your child trace your shadow in a different spot. Then, return every hour and repeat tracing your shadows and recording the time on each shadow. By the end of the day, your child will see how their shadow moves in accordance with the sun’s path, as well as changes shape.

Learning to tell time is a mathematical content standard taught during the primary grade levels; however, most children are not taught the connection between and the passage of time and the Earth’s movements.  By becoming a human sundial, children learn these connections in a way that makes sense to them. Planet Earth is a unique place!

Happy Earth Day!

Image: Flikr chez_sugi 

Comptoir d’Enfance is a new online store started by a French mother who recently moved to North America. This store features French wooden toys, accessories, and babywear. One featured toy company is Kapla. Kapla creates safe, ecological, innovative alternative toys. The wooden planks inspire hours of imagination and learning, accompanied by the pleasure of accomplishment, discovery and creation.

When I do shop for toys for my family, I always seek out family run companies that match my green family values. Comptoir d’Enfance is one such company:

We also put all our attention into the respect of environmental and social conditions of the fabrication of our brands’products. For Earth Day, enjoy 10% discount on our green products: Kapla wooden toys, environmental stickers and our cute organic babywear collection.

The importance of childhood play cannot be understated, and quality eco-toys help promote sophisticated play in children. As Howard Chudacoff, a cultural historian at Brown University explains, today’s children’s toys focus on things rather than activity:

It’s interesting to me that when we talk about play today, the first thing that comes to mind are toys. Whereas when I would think of play in the 19th century, I would think of activity rather than an object.

Today’s toys do a great disservice to children, in that they do not promote the activity mentioned by Chudacoff. As discussed in “Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills“, Chudacoff explains how modern toys have contributed to a deficit in children’s play:

But during the second half of the 20th century, Chudacoff argues, play changed radically. Instead of spending their time in autonomous shifting make-believe, children were supplied with ever more specific toys for play and predetermined scripts. Essentially, instead of playing pirate with a tree branch they played Star Wars with a toy light saber. Chudacoff calls this the commercialization and co-optation of child’s play — a trend which begins to shrink the size of children’s imaginative space.

Quality wooden toys, such as Kapla Blocks, bring the quality of play back into children’s lives. We need to protect our children from the commericalization of childhood and bring imaginative play back into their lives. We will have smarter children as a result!

Related posts:
Selecta Natural Baby Toys
No More Junk Toys!
Every Child Deserves a Set of Blocks

Malaria, the dreaded and life-threatening disease continues to kill between 1 million and 3 million people each year, many of them pregnant women in Africa.

A two-month long 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) expedition on the Zambezi, one of Africa’s longest rivers, that begun on 29 March 2008 led by two adventurers, Helge Bendl, a journalist, and Andy Leemann, a boating enthusiast, partnering with the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, covering six nations in southern Africa aims to put a spotlight on the plight of malaria-stricken communities on the continent which contributes 90 percent of the global annual death toll.

The rough terrain in Africa means that the delivery of mosquito nets and medications to remote villages ravaged by the disease could sometimes be a matter between life and death. But with inflatable boats through Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, the Zambezi Expedition will attempt to get even deeper to reach to many potential victims as possible.

Sponsored by Sumitomo Chemical, the expedition includes medical teams carrying ecologically safe mosquito nets and medicine. The organizers hope it will also raise more local and global awareness to scale up malaria control and prevention and provide renewed life for malaria prevention in Africa as well as educate families with the knowledge and resources to combat the disease. Nearly 40% of the world’s population lives in malaria-endemic areas.

Previously marked as Africa Malaria Day since 2001, World Malaria Day is an attempt to raise greater awareness and global commitment to rolling back malaria and meeting the United Nations malaria-related Millennium Development Goals.

Caused by a parasite that is transmitted by mosquitoes that typically bite their victims at night, malaria can kill very quickly if untreated and remains the leading cause of death in many developing countries, particularly among children.

Unlike many parts of the world where it has been eliminated, malaria infections have, over the last three decades, increased in Africa, compounded with very efficient mosquito vectors, increasing drug resistance and struggling health systems.

Approaches like providing insecticide-treated bed nets, spraying the inside walls of houses with insecticides, providing access to diagnosis and antimalarial drugs, and providing a packet of interventions through strengthened antenatal care services for pregnant women have been known to be effective against the disease.

Long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets (LLINs), that have no adverse effects on the environment such as those distributed during the expedition, work by creating a protective barrier against mosquitoes. These can accommodate more than one person - a mother and an infant or a few siblings - for up to three to five years.

A net treated with special insecticides offers about twice the protection of an untreated net, and through its repellency, can even protect other people in the room outside the net.

Resources: World Health Organisation: Global Malaria Programme

Photo Credit: Lamerie via Flickr

The problems we are faced with today are the results of unethical leadership. Our business and political leaders have had the best education, yet many would sacrifice human wellbeing end the environment for the love of money.

Growing up in Soweto, near Johannesburg, South Africa has taught me to value “ubuntu,” or “I am because we are.”

Ethical problems can only be solved if the leaders are humanistically centered, have a love of nature, and agree not to enrich themselves unethically. This is the call to all leaders in the world to understand the purpose of life, which has been outshone by the illusionary world of money.

Who would hurt others for personal gain?

• Political leaders who caused or are still causing human suffering.
• Businesses and business people who promote harmful products that are of danger to human health for the love of money.
• People who oppressed my ancestors by making them to feel inferior because of their pigmentation.

Now, almost everyone in the list above had an opportunity to go school to acquire education. So, is our educational system really working to promote positive progress?

I am lectured by highly educated people who can’t even manage their own lives. Medical Doctors who preach that smoking is harmful and yet they smoke like there’s no tomorrow. Problems like global warming are the result of an education system where people studied how to manipulate nature irresponsibly.

Such severe problems as global warming and poverty are ultimately the result of our ignorance of our own essential nature, which is universal and the source of infinite energy and intelligence. The ignorance of one’s own self is the basis of all the problems, shortcomings in life.

Scientists have provided some obvious technical answers. Global warming is caused by greenhouse gas emissions and the solution to the dilemma of global warming is to reduce emissions via improved technologies, policies, and regulations where necessary. (One of the most recent ideas in the U.S. along these lines is a change in the federal tax code to encourage the use and development of alternate energy sources by corporations).

The solution to all the challenges is to have a system of education that gives completeness to the curriculum so that students coming out of the educational institutions will be fully developed and completely responsible citizens. Students must be brought up in the values of life, which is developed in higher awareness and understanding.

I learned to value ubuntu growing up helping my grandmother in her garden. Our education system fills our brain with knowledge, but not our hearts with compassion or love. Ubuntu is the pillar of all morality, peace and development. Our education system must develop the mind, spirit, and body of a student.

Photo: Flickr

This university has a special program, called the Nelson Mandela extranet. In this program, Students go back to their communities and teach them about HIV/AIDS , bio-intensive farming, and money management. Remembering your ancestors and going back to the community to raise the consciousness level of the society is a fundamental principle of ethical leadership.

The bio-intensive team consists of more than ten students who are planning to start their own projects in their communities. These projects will give people skills in bio-intensive farming so that communities will be able to feed themselves.

The program will also benefit orphans who lost their parents through HIV/AIDS. Nutritious food organically grown will help the HIV people to boost their immune system. The immune system becomes vulnerable to diseases because of lack of proper diet. “You are what you eat.”

One recent study published in the April issue of Pediatrics suggests that answer is yes, by an amazing fifty percent less incidence of obesity. The study, called the School Nutrition Policy Initiative, was conducted at ten schools in the Philadelphia area. Five of the schools eliminated all candy from the premises, and replaced soda with water, 100 percent juice, and milk for beverages. The schools also improved the quality of food and offered nutritious snacks. Additionally, students received about fifty hours of nutrition education over the course of the year and were given some incentives toward increasing physical activity.

The results of these small changes were an impressive fifty percent reduction in obesity rates among children in grades K-8 for the experimental group. This result was particularly important since the schools selected have a mostly urban population, where the obesity rate can be nearly 42 percent. Many of these children have little access to physical activity in their home environments due to safety concerns and less access to nutritious foods.
The program was developed by Temple University and The Food Trust, a non-profit organization dedicated to making better food and nutrition affordable and available to all. The success of the program with just a few small changes is encouraging news. However, the Food Trust and the pediatricians involved view the results also as a sign that more can be done by extending the reach of the program to outside the schools and into the neighborhood and home environment.

As the costs of food rise, issues like childhood obesity rates and access to better food choices will become a greater issue as well. Ultimately, we all benefit from a healthier next generation. In order for most schools to change, however, the push to do so has to come from the community and involved parents, as well as outreach programs to the communities with lower income families face so many barriers to a healthy diet.

You can find more information on the program at the Food Trust web site.

While the AIA has another program it also began last year titled “Walk the Walk” that offers a good number of resources on sustainability both for architectural clients and the general public, as well as for architects and other building professionals, the topic is not highlighted in the Architecture Week program in any significant way.

Architecture Week provides a chance for the architectural profession to draw some attention to the issues of buildings and energy use.  And while sustainability is only one of a number of issues that architects must address in meeting their clients’ needs, the opportunity seems to have been missed for a stronger message and more outreach to educate clients and building owners (from individual homeowners to corporate office managers) about the importance of buildings in the perspective of energy use and energy savings.

While increasing the efficiency of every vehicle on the road today by 10% would require a huge technological development, it would only save a bit less than 3% of our present national consumption of energy.  Transportation represents slightly more than 25% of the national energy consumption, while buildings represent nearly half of all energy used in this country.  So while research into improving vehicle efficiency is an important step to be taken, improving the efficiency of buildings will have a significantly larger overall impact.

Moreover, many of the developments needed to improve the efficiency of buildings are known and existing technologies, rather than requiring new technological developments.  By taking better advantage of daylighting, passive heating and cooling and other design techniques, we can build better buildings that will not leave a legacy of wasteful energy use.  And, new and improved technologies will help further improve building performance to be able to reach a goal of carbon-neutral buildings as a standard by 2030.

Better buildings need to be part of the steps we take today in order to move toward creating a sustainable future.  Architects should use the opportunity of being in the public spotlight to encourage greater public awareness of these issues.

Links:

AIA Architecture Week

Article about Architecture 2030

Architecture2030.org

You are about to go on an amazing journey-one that will help you and the planet. It will be fun, challenging, and exciting. Over a five week period you will learn how to take action to use our Earth’s precious and limited natural resources with greater care.

The journey begins with Earthy, a friendly earthworm. Each week has its own special animal guide that offers special knowledge to children. The five weeks are divided into:

1. Dumping on Garbage
2. Wasting Water Is All Wet
3. Getting a Charge Out of Saving Energy
4. Good Buys are Forever
5. Watch Out Planet, Here I Come!

Each week children decide what actions they are going to take, get help from their parents, keep track of actions completed, and then get “Global Hero Points”. These points could be used for children to compete against each other in teams in the classroom, a perfect unit for the approaching Earth Day. Suggested actions include:

• Bringing your own container for leftovers at a restaurant rather than accepting a “doggie” bag.
• Using a cup of water when brushing your teeth rather than running the tap water.
• Turn out the lights when you leave a room.
• Become a loaner and let friends borrow toys, books, etc.

I like how this book gives children choices and does not expect them to complete all of the actions. I also like how children earn points, thus making a game out of it which could easily be adapted for the classroom. Journey for the Planet is a kid-friendly book published by the Empowerment Institute.

This past week, I went into a Wal-Mart for the first time in about two years and I thought my head was going to explode just from the sheer volume of stuff and the incessant beeping of the registers! As I looked around all I could see was next year’s landfill! I was pretty close; in The Story of Stuff you will find the shocking statistic that 99% of the stuff we buy, we toss out.

Like any other bad behavior that is perpetuated generationally, we adults not only have to be come aware of, and change, our own habits, but find effective means to help our children not repeat our mistakes.

Older kids, 12 and up, may enjoy the Story of Stuff and be thoughtful about the implications. Younger children may just end up feeling helpless. I’ve mentioned Eco-phobia before and feel it necessary to reiterate that we risk making children numb to issues if they get too much bad news too soon. I thought it was great the the Story of Stuff blog links to kid-produced You Tube responses!

The reality is, $15 BILLION dollars is spent by marketers to turn your child into a good consumer. It is now “accepted” that children as young as 2 can identify brand logos and are therefore target markets. According to Juliet Schor, author of Born to Buy, kindergardners can identify almost 300 logos. UGH.

New American Dream has wonderful, download-able resources. They also point out that schools are often marketing vehicles. Do you know what your school’s policies are regarding advertising in the school?

I appreciated Jennifer’s post on swapping kiddie gear and think this is the kind of steps we need to take to get our kids from getting on the consumer treadmill in the first place. What are you doing to stymie the marketing?

Well, the video is a little hokey, and the band a little odd, but this is one of my preschool students’ favorite songs.  We sing it a lot! The Banana Slug String Band’s songs are filled with messages of conservation and connectedness to nature, like “Dirt Made My Lunch”.

The Banana Slug String Band is committed to educational entertainment for children and families through interactive music and performance. We are dedicated to fostering positive attitudes about the environment, providing accurate information about natural history and science, promoting music appreciation, building self esteem in children, honoring creativity, supporting the arts in education and sparking in people a joyful sense of wonder. Through the production of tapes, CD’s, videos, songbooks, picture books, curriculum, activity guides, teacher workshops and concerts, we hope to make these values accessible to an increasingly wider audience. We endorse and support collaboration with other individuals and organizations that promote the well being of children, family and the environment. We believe that music is a powerful instrument for honoring diversity while uniting people for the common good.

Banana Slug String Band even performs at schools!

But hold on. You’re the type who wants to help make the world a better place. Frappuccinos, Guinness, and burritos are not the be all and end all of cultural exchange. Then you’ll be happy to know that environmental values are making their way into Korea as well.

Many Koreans are taking note of the global environmental movement, which is already in full swing in much of the world, with increasing interest.

Children in South Korea are exposed to both their parent’s traditional environmental values and the environmental values of their foreign teachers in their English academies. They’re therefore a good barometer for the evolving environmental consciousness in South Korea. In one informal survey that I conducted with all 44 of my Korean students, I found that 77% of them said they were “very interested in the environment.”

Students who study for the TOEFL (the Test Of English as a Foreign Language) have an additional influence when it comes to matters of the environment: the TOEFL test materials themselves. Today’s TOEFL test prep books concentrate heavily on readings about such environmentally germane topics as species extinction and renewable energy.

Through school and media influences, interest in the environment is strong enough here to sway even the greatest of forces in Korean culture, the Korean mother. A New York Times article about Eco-Moms, which recently circulated around the Korean media, has only added to the interest in parenting with environmental values.

Still, for all of the growing numbers of foreigners and increasingly international dialogue on the environment, in much of South Korea the environmental movement remains distinctly Korean. The chamsari, or well-being, movement is a uniquely Korean green movement. It’s centered on healthy eating, exercising, and avoiding unhealthy activities.

Cultural colonialism or a healthy exchange of ideas?

In some ways, I can’t get over the feeling that I’m a neo-colonialist. My job as an English teacher is to spread the dominant language and culture. In my classroom, I’m a linguistic bouncer, kicking out Korean wherever it crops up and stamping everyone with new English terms. Many of my students have even chosen English names, like the little tyke in the picture above.

Linguists would say that I’m replacing the substrate language and culture with the superstrate language and culture. If these terms sound familiar, you’re either a linguist or you’ve lived in San Francisco, like me. Sure, we have a straight culture… a super straight culture.

But for whatever negatives there are in spreading the most dominant language around the world, being an English teacher also allows for some very positive cultural exchanges. Sometimes, I’m able to help my students take pride in their country’s great strides toward renewable energy, personal health, and recycling. More often than not, I’m the one who’s learning.

When the middle school English books talk about organic foods, I can ask, “Did you know that organics are a rapidly growing industry in North America?” When the TOEFL prep books give a reading on wind energy, I can point to Gangneung’s wind energy farm, which is on the mountains right above the city. And with my small kids, we all enjoy seeing YouTube footage of whales and other amazing animals before class starts.

Outside of the classroom, I’m the one on the receiving end of cultural lessons. Here in rural Korea, westerners make up about 0.02% of the population by my calculations. When you’re one in 5,000, you tend to draw attention. When I go into a restaurant by myself for lunch–already a faux pas in Korea’s group-centered culture–the word wegugin, or foreigner, excites people’s tongues and hangs in the air, strung up by sideways stares like squid drying in the sun. I feel like the squid. The other diners casually throw out guesses amongst themselves as to where I’m probably from, or they swap stories about previous encounters with foreigners. Cultural lesson number one: Confucius says, “value community.”

Photo: Flickr

1. Put together a team of the most creative, fun-loving, eco-conscious students and friends that you can find.

2. Perform a proper medical inspection to “diagnose” your copy machine and determine what disease you believe is making it chew up paper at such an enormous rate. Unfortunately, creating paper uses lots of energy, so it creates lots of CO2 that’s contributing to global warming and making the planet sick.

3. Send an email to the copy crisis team at copycrisisteam (@) gmail (dot) com confirming that your school photocopier has been struck by the disease, and include the name of your school, town, state, and the number of teachers and students who are being affected by it.

4. Then ask the teachers and students in your building not to make or use any photocopies in classes on Wednesday, April 17th as part of a national day of action to stop global warming.

5. On April 17th dress up your photocopier with the disease you’ve diagnosed. Remember, it can be real or imaginary as long as it demonstrates the fact that global warming is real and that we can do something about it by making better choices when it comes to the use of photocopies.

6. Take a photo of your copy machine displaying the “symptoms” you’re observing and email it to the copy crisis team at the address above by 9 pm EST on Friday April 19th, 2008.

7. Then come back on Earth Day to see if your entry is among the top 10 finalists chosen by our crack team of experts here in North Babylon and posted on this website.

8. Cast your vote to determine which of the top 10 diagnoses most accurately depicts the disease behind the Great Copy Machine Epidemic TM of 2008. After all, even a crack team of experts needs the help of everyone else to solve a problem like global warming.

9. Voting will close at 9pm EST on May 2, 2008. At which time the winner will be posted here and notified via email.

10. Remember to think twice before you make or use that extra photocopy in the future!

*** The school who “solves” this year’s epidemic will receive the title of “Copy Crisis Team of the Year” along with a $125 “tree-planting” grant for their school, generously provided by 3 teachers who have pooled their funds to make a difference.

Please visit the Great Copy Epidemic to learn more about how your child’s school can become involved and for updates on this spreading climate change disease.

So far, our Healthy Children, Healthy Planet discussion group has tackled family dinners, consumer-free holidays, the over-programming of children’s activities, advertisements, and whether parents deserve a Bill of Rights, and what kind of moments can be used to pass down values. This week, the conversation turns to everyone’s favorite enemy: junk food.

Ah, junk food. It’s true what they say: we have become a junk food nation. We are a nation of processed food, of food in boxes, of omnipresent vending machines, of gas stations that stop selling gas, because the real money is in snacks.

You guys are smart, right? You don’t need me to tell you that some artificial food additives appear to cause hyperactivity in kids. Or that a sugar-filled diet is linked with asthma. Or that junk food causes learning disabilities and behavior problems. Or that it increases the risk of diabetes. Or that it rots their teeth. Never mind that, oh yeah, it makes them overweight; since I was a kid, for example, the number of overweight kids has doubled. Thanks to these factors, this generation of children is the first in all of American history to have a lower life expectancy than their parents — a dubious honor if I’ve ever heard one.

What struck me as we talked about the issues, though, is how alone we have all felt in tackling them. For many of us, it literally feels like Lone Parent vs. The Rest of the World, because junk food is just so ubiquitous. First graders do math with skittles. Kindergarteners are given M&Ms as rewards. Well-meaning other parents bring in cupcakes for no reason. And have you noticed that every single holiday — not just Halloween and Easter, but holidays like St. Patty’s Day and Thanksgiving — all have candy attached to them.

Meanwhile, all of us — every single one of us — has felt like that parent. The crazy parent, the unreasonable, hysterical one. The Food Freak. Because, you know, we think that an apple is an appropriate snack.

Which is one of the reasons that this discussion group has been so great. Because we can look around, see other people who look normal, who seem smart, and we can say, “Oh, you mean this bothers you, too?” And then we start jumping up and down, screaming like a couple of 13-year-old girls, because suddenly we don’t feel quite so alone. Now, for the first time, we can point another parent who offers grapes before an Oreo, or who bothers to wonder “is trans-fat laden cookie dough an appropriate fundraiser for the school?”

Now, it’s a Handful of Us vs. The Rest of the World. It’s not just me. It’s me and a room full of friends. A small room, admittedly, but a room nonetheless. We’re short of an army, but I feel a little less like I’m shouting into the wind. For that alone, it’s worth it.

Related posts:
Healthy Children, Healthy Planet Week One

Consumerism vs. Family Ritual: Healthy Children, Healthy Planet 2

Do Ads Hurt Families? (And If So, What to Do?): Healthy Children, Healthy Planet 3

We would go to the grassy field, form a circle, and flow through this vinyasa each morning. On rainy days, we modified this practice in the classroom. I’ve recently come across several articles about yoga in the classroom and the benefits to children.

Library’s Combined Reading, Yoga Program for Children Stretches Bodies, Minds: A program in south Florida combines literacy with yoga. Children in grades preK through second grade learn different yoga poses as they read Eric Carle’s classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Linda Citron, a yoga instructor that runs the program and holds a master’s degree in dance movement therapy, believes:

The program introduces children to yoga in an exciting, fun-filled way. It is a unique approach to integrate learning using yoga as a pathway. Reading, storytelling, music, creative arts blend seamlessly with yoga movements to educate the whole child. It enhances motor coordination, works on cognitive development, works on focus, concentration, relaxation, develops flexibility and strength in the body.

In a related story, last summer a South Carolina library program shut down after being accused of promoting “witchcraft” and “drug use.” Some parents objected to the yoga programs as “promoting other religions.”

Kids Use Yoga to Learn Mythology, Fight Pre-test Jitters: In Georgia, teachers are using yoga to help children concentrate, as well as learn the symbols of Greek Gods. According to school counselor June Neal, “We’ve seen an improvement in test scores and test-taking skills because their stress level is decreased after yoga.” The teachers received training from Yoga Kids International. Now that’s an inservice day I would enjoy!

Teaching to the Mind, Body and Spirit of Our Students: This informative article was written by Christine McArdle-Oquendo, co-founder of World Family Yoga. As Christine explains,

As teachers we know that a student who is physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually healthy is a student who is in optimum learning and growing form, while those who are more challenged in any of these areas aren’t often our highest-performing students. By introducing simple yogic practices into your classes, including simple breathing techniques, stretches or physical postures, visualizations and/or meditations, you will touch your students in a profound way. You will potentially touch a child’s core and ignite their inner fire.

Although I have never used yoga to teach other subject areas, as I believe the benefits of yoga warrant yoga for yoga’s sake, I see there are a lot of connections yoga can help children make physically and cognitively in the classroom. As a preK teacher, I will look for new opportunities to use asanas in the classroom and perhaps volunteer in my daughter’s classroom to add yoga to her curriculm.

Image source: CNN

Update 3-19-08: Rumors of an outbreak now spreading to schools in Florida and Maine. Visit Treehugger for the latest news on this crisis!

Recently, schools across the country have been experiencing increased absences due to a nasty strain of the flu. It appears that children and teachers aren’t the only ones falling ill, but school office equipment has succumb to a different, common disease.

According to Kenny Luna of Treehugger:

In a report just in from the Robert Moses Middle School in North Babylon NY, students and staff there have become concerned by the fact that the school photocopy machine is exhibiting signs of a strange illness. They’re not yet quite certain what it is, but a key symptom they’re reporting is a propensity to chew up trees at an amazing rate before spitting them out in shreds with some sort of toxic goo all over them. And all while consuming vast amounts of water, paper, and energy that’s leading to global warming through the release of CO2.

Mr Luna is well known for his bright idea: to give every child in America one compact fluorescent bulb for their home. Perhaps Mr. Luna will solve the current crisis facing school copy machines. If you suspect your child’s school photocopier may be affected please contact copycrisisteam (@) gmail (dot) com. Expect statements from the presidential candidates and the CDC on this mysterious illness soon.

Image courtesy of Treehugger

The crocus and hyacinth have not pushed through the still frozen ground. No migratory birds were bouncing around my still-brown lawn. Spring has not shown her face. So I asked Greg Budney, curator of the Macaulay Library at Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology, if I was crazy. Was something really different?

He alerted me to the fact that many year-round residential birds were now going into a song-mode of reclaiming territory. For example, the female cardinals will now be doing their version of the male’s song. (To hear this, click here and type 49063 into the “advanced search” box) He also pointed out that this is exactly why so many birds sing…you don’t have to see ‘em to know they’re there!

Sure enough, the chrrrrrring of a red-winged blackbird met me this morning. Later, while walking home from a meeting, I heard the laughing of an American Robin. After stopping my trek to search diligently, I found my first-robin-of-spring perched in a tree announcing his arrival. I can relax now; the earth is really, truly, tipping back toward the sun and warm days are most surely ahead!

What are your ears “showing” you? Ask your kids what they notice is different. It is possible that you have“auditory learners” in your household.

I find it ironic that I discovered my auditory tendencies only when I began to work in the visual medium of writing! In hindsight, my childhood habit of constantly humming, drumming, singing, hooting, and otherwise filling the space with sound should have been a clue. I was the kid that learned almost everything from listening to the teacher, not reading the book.

I approach the world with my ears and that, I think, heightens my awareness of the changing of the seasons. The Spring Equinox approaches and the clues of this dependable, cyclic change range from the buds bursting to the peepers awakening. Close your eyes ask yourself, “what’s that sound?”