Teenagers and their cell phones

Teenagers and their cell phones.

Teenagers are ‘die hard’ users of electronic media; they are busy on their computers, cell phones, and personal digital assistants 24x7.  Experts propose meeting youth where they are—‘riding the airwaves’—with positive messages that compete with and offer attractive alternatives to the negative, unhealthful, or illegal messages they are exposed to every minute

What are we afraid of? Early sexual activity, drugs, violence? Then it’s time for parents to speak up and face the reality that technology is here to stay and thus what is required is a change in parenting, stop trying to keep your teen away from it and start educating your teen about it.  It’s time to change, change our ways of looking at technology rather than thrashing technology use of teenagers lets teach them technology literacy.  Worried that social media, video games will drive them off course from a healthy life of learning? Well, this quote should help us understand and relieve our worry,

When flying between the Earth and the Moon, the Apollo spacecraft was off course more than 90 percent of the time. On their lunar voyages the crew would constantly bring the craft back to its intended trajectory. They were not on a perfect path but a critical path. Because they knew their intended target they could correct their spacecraft whenever it wandered off- Anon

Teenagers are on a voyage to adulthood, they will veer off course like the Apollo but we need to know that as long as they come back to the intended trajectory which in their case is a healthy, happy life, we can be there to correct their spacecraft as and when required. No teenager will be perfect what is critical is that they are given a perfect chance.

Kids are fascinated with all kinds of technology not only because it fulfills their need for ‘exploring’ but also fulfills their need for ‘independent exploring’. This is where we adults lose touch with them, we are unable to share their enthusiasm for this kind of quick learning and hence are unable to talk, share, discuss the uses or abuses of technology to them, we end up nagging, lecturing them on the abuses and that drives them away into their technological world.

Teenager's Use of Electronic Media- According to a survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project covering media use by adolescents aged twelve to seventeen has increased rapidly in recent years and continues to grow! One important trend captured by the Pew survey is that nearly 65 percent of teens who use the internet are now actively creating content—sharing artwork, photos, stories, or videos; creating Web pages or blogs for themselves or for friends or organizations they support; writing online journals; maintaining a personal Web page; and remixing content from online sources to create their own material. Isn’t that wonderful? So then lets ensure that they seek out the correct programs, apps to learn and grow with. (Reference- Fools Gold report on technology)

Here are some interesting apps being used by global teenagers that are interesting for teenagers and help them with their focus in learning and help them take charge of their lives. (References- Karen Finucan Clarkson- - Washington parent.)

·         Distractibility is something that teenagers grapple with; make them responsible for their own distraction with these apps. An app named Self control- allows teenagers to decide which applications to block out for a given period of time while they are concentrating on exams, deadlines, tests etc. it’s like the parental lock on television but instead of the parent the teen decides and takes responsibility. Another app Freedom also does the same.

·         iStudiezPro app is an organizer for kids, helps them keep track of project deadlines, homework. So it’s like having your own personal assistant. Teach your teenager to use this and no need to nag him/her all the time.

·         myHomework app helps track homework assignments, teachers can use this app to send student’s announcements, links, written materials, also links with desktop. Maybe parents too can try using this app, since teenagers respond more to something that comes on the screen!

·         epicWin, this is a fantastic app, it is a video game cum organizer, it helps the child roleplay a character that completes each task of homework etc, and thus earning them points , it is also like a task alarm clock.

·         studyBlue. Is a fantastic app that allows kids to prepare memory cards in the form of flashcards  from their notes to test themselves. It  also helps them see 30 of the top cards created by others and helps them compete with peers and check scores.

·         cheggFlashcards also has similar features. flashcards+ designed by Harvard is another favorite with an additional benefit of multiple languages.

·         ankiDroid is another app for lesson videos, audios etc.

·         eduPort allows them to search lectures, videos on the topic of their choice from you tube, Khan academy etc

Some of the above are paid apps and some are free. Many of them may have different versions in India. The whole point of these apps is to help your teenager become independent from you and take charge of his/her life and learning.

Let’s not forget that the ultimate goal of parenting ‘teens’ is to reach youth with positive messaging rather than criticism and nagging. . Embracing positive media rather than trying to counteract media use, will be a more effective way in shaping teen behaviour. Let us help them become ‘netizens’ and teach them ‘netiquette’ after all this is the cyber generation!

PLAY IS NOT A 4 LETTER WORD

PLAY IS NOT A 4 LETTER WORD- Understanding why play is the work of childhood and how it stimulates brain development.

In India, the focus in most early childhood centers’ is on teaching kids reading, writing, number work and so ‘rote and drill’ methods are a preferred teaching styles. But if 98% of the brain develops in the first five years- then is a foundation of ‘drill and rote’ learning good for kids? Ofcourse not! This kind of foundation is creating students that lack logic, thinking and questioning skills. Whereas, a play based curriculum helps stimulate brain growth and nurtures the growing executive functions of the brain. Play helps children learn better, retain better and enjoy the learning process. Play teaches kids to reason, use logic, plan, work with others, sometimes lead and sometimes follow, to win or lose, to shake hands and make up after a fight.

So should we do away with all ‘learning’ in Kindergartens?

Play is not the enemy of learning. It is “learning’s” partner. Play is the fertilizer for brain growth. Play is learning for kids. Did you know that the foundation of geometry and physics is laid in the kindergarten years? Yes, it is. Children interact with the basic principles of geometry and physics when they play with blocks! This why the kindergarten years are important and so is play in these years, because after all play is the work of childhood.  

Every child goes through kindergarten, but how many teachers and parents actually know the meaning or the founder of kindergarten. Today in India, kindergarten has become K.G and it stands for reading, writing and number work, only. However, is that the real kindergarten?

Friedrich Froebel, a German educationist was the founder of the kindergarten system. “Kindergarten” is a German word which means “children’s garden’, i.e., a place in which young human minds are cultivated. According to him, “the development of the child is to be through play. In play, the child makes the internal external and so the work of teaching in the kindergarten system is to be done in the play spirit.  The child will be and should be taught everything through play.”

PLAY IS THE WORK OF CHILDHOOD, SO LET KIDS PLAY.

Saving kids from the Monsters.

 53% of Indian kids suffer from some form of sexual abuse. 53% of those are boys.

Bringing to the fore many such shocking facts about child sexual abuse is the recently launched book titled ‘A New Normal – Understand. Prevent. Heal.-winning the battle against child sexual abuse’ The key partners in this initiative include Podar Education Network, Early Childhood Association, Yowoto parenting website among others.  What’s best about this book is – it’s contemporary, offers practical solutions, and educates parents, teachers and relatives. One of the key topics discussed are the prevalent myths that have existed in our society from time immemorial. Here’s a lowdown:

1)    Only strangers abuse children- One of the biggest hidden truths of India is that people known to the children abuse them. In more than 50% of such cases, the accused is someone very close to the family. Recently it has been found that in many instances, the child’s father is the abuser.

2)    Only men sexually abuse children- Though in most cases, the male gender is the abuser lot, there have been many instances where women too have sexually exploited children.

3)    Child sexual abuse happens only in the poor strata of the society- This menace has not restricted to any class, caste, religion or educational barriers. It occurs irrespective of what the background of the abuser and the child is.

Why people don’t talk and discuss openly about good touch bad touch.

·         The main reason is that parents think that child abuse especially sexual abuse cannot happen to urban children or ‘my’ child.

·         Parents of very young children feel that because kids are too young to understand about ‘sexual abuse’, it will not happen to them.

·         Also when it does happen, parents go into denial and refuse to acknowledge or report about it. More often than not it is a friend of the family or a relative or an older cousin and hence the fear of family feuds and incase it is a worker like servant, driver, etc then the social stigma is what parents are worried about.

·         The book helps a parent understand the myths related to child sexual abuse, how to handle if you are in doubt, how to teach kids about good touch bad touch and why to teach them and incase if they want to report about the abuse then how to go about it.

·         Parents are fine if the school teaches about it but are little embarrassed to talk to the child about it.It is for this reason that the preschools and daycares have a greater responsibility and should teach about good touch bad touch to the kids.

·         If young kids can learn about red light, green light and other traffic songs when they are not going to cross the road or drive then it is important to teach them about body safety after all they are learning about body parts/.

·         Let us not  refer to it as ‘sex education’ but call it ‘body intelligence’.

And why has child abuse become an unaddressed problem.

·         Because young kids thrive on touch (it is their primary need for socio-emotional and brain stimulation) they are the easiest targets.

·         It is easy for the perpetrators as kids won’t tell! They lack the language development. And even if they do, parents won’t believe, ‘they are lying, imagining things’.

·         Even if parents find out about it, they are unaware about the law or fear the law, and so this book that tells them that they can come to organizations like us and we will help them maintain the anonymity and yet get the justice.

·         The book educates parents about the legal clause that no one can quote or report the child’s name or other details.

·         Press too should maintain the anonymity. Some times newspapers write about the name of the school or the building and the social stigma starts.

·         Because these perverts are never brought to book, they continue to do so.

·         Parents also need to stop spanking and threatening children as part of their parenting style. Because research has shown that these abusers usually use some form of ‘threatening’ to make kids keep quiet about it.

·         The ‘ostrich’ attitude of ‘if I don’t acknowledge it, it does not happen’ needs to stop and only then will touch never become trouble for another child.

Download the book free from yowoto.com or jumbokids.com/downloads or buy a copy from ecaorg@yahoo.com, proceeds will be donated for CSA awareness.

Video on good touch bad touch- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCgtNSU4kg4&feature=youtu.be

India laughed. Pakistan smiled. China giggled

India laughed out loud, Pakistan smiled and China giggled at a joke cracked by America. Inter country happiness? This can happen only at the World Forum on Early Childhood. Welcome to the World Forum 2014 at Puerto Rico. It has been a long wait but we are back with friends, colleagues sharing our work, our dreams, our problems and our solutions. The Sheraton is the host hotel and is buzzing with people checking in and then lounging at the pool. The working groups start their meetings and the first two days are abuzz with reports, plans and reviews. I am in the Nature Action Group and we are excitedly planning for a conference in New Zealand next March. We have a stone art session and true to our passion of early childhood we all design around children.

Patrick from Zimbabwe and I are to be the master of ceremony for the opening ceremony, we meet at the club lounge. Patrick is ready with his thoughts and speech and I am still clueless about what I am going to be saying. But in around an hour we have our thoughts in sync and are ready with a ‘smile cracking’ opening! That is the charm of the World Forum, you meet a complete stranger and in the next 10 minutes you are friends forever. We then move on to our most important task…exchanging blocks! This fascinating activity given to us first drove us into a frenzy of pouncing on anyone who had the block we wanted, and then slowly we toned down the competiveness and concentrated on the real reason for the activity, exchange blocks and make friends.

It’s time for the opening ceremony and I have yet to meet Pia Britto from UNICEF, USA, who I am supposed to introduce, well it’s time for the presenters and moderators introductory session which is meticulously planned by Bonnie with the little ‘worry dolls’, the stars, the certificates and hilariously conducted by Luis Hernandez, that man’s sense of humor should be patented. I turn around and there is Pia, we introduce ourselves and realize that we were on a panel at Malaysia World Forum, what a small world!

It’s the opening ceremony and wow the planning is down to each breath, each step and every small detail. Patrick and I manage to do a great job. World forum 2014 has begun with 840 delegates from 81 countries (1 goal-quality early childhood around the world) great speeches, and votes for the UNICEF petition so passionately roused by Pia.  Receptions for the national representatives and for the international organizing committee help me meet up with long lost friends, new friends and perspectives. Henry our great astronaut leader of the national representatives is constantly making sure we are all there, comfortable and acknowledged at next morning’s national representative walk on the dais. What a brilliant speech by Henry (he even acknowledged our work on the policy comparisons) and a collection of sunrises and smiling national rep faces organized by Selena Fox.

The World Forum is then a magnificent blur of sessions, plenary, wofonet, no host lunches, dinners, centre tours, Lakeshore activity room, discussions about early childhood, deliberations on the plenary, coffees, hugs, smiles, guffaws, giggles, yawns (only because of jet lag), exchanging cards, blocks and rushing across the long corridors searching for the session rooms, book exchange, more friends and lots of networking and actual working too!

I am speaking on a session on technology, about our ipad curriculum on Van Gogh and Mahatma Gandhi and how we made it developmentally appropriate and relevant. It is wonderful that there are hard core techies and non tech softies all part of the group! This is the world of World Forum you can be for or against an idea in early childhood but you are in it together, talking, discussing, debating, convincing, getting convinced but never ignored or rejected. Angela Fowler was our moderator and Sam Hall was my co speaker and very committed to technology in the early years, he had a very strong and relevant point to make, if young kids ears can listen to music recording and not live musical instrument then what is the harm if the eyes see things on the screen? I guess when the first human drew a picture on the cave walls; he must have been heavily criticized by all others that he will destroy the world, as pictures will replace real things! That is change; we take time to adjust to it. Another perspective at the same session, young toddlers do not need screen time as they are at the stage of making attachments and so need real humans. Good point till she said, ‘but my little granddaughter has made a connection with me solely through our regular Skype sessions as my daughter is in another continent!’ BALANCE. That is what I believe we need in everything in early childhood.

Is that the Early Childhood Association (ECA) logo as an alliance partner of the World Forum? Yippee, yes it is. It is a moment of great pride to see our very own association from India, which we have nurtured for last 3 years, is an alliance member of the World Forum community with other associations like naeyc. Thank you WoFo, thanks Roger and thanks to our great team at ECA.

I was excited to read about the article by Roger on early childhood policies in the latest Exchange magazine. This project of comparing the early childhood policies of almost 39 countries was all thanks to the national representatives who sent me the information, checked, rechecked and with Bonnie and Roger’s support and encouragement, a fantastic document is ready. Why did I start the project? Good question. I was visiting schools in Singapore while back in India the early childhood policy of the government was being passed. The questions that were foremost in my mind were,

1.     Why does every country reinvent the wheel? When many countries have successful early childhood policies, frameworks then why do countries not take the time to study, compare and take the best of what has worked for other countries and adapt accordingly?

2.     Why are the basic guidelines or the non negotiable not similar in policies around the world? After all  children deserve quality, right?

3.     Now that brain research has proven the importance of the early childhood years, isn’t it time to have a dedicated ministry for early childhood care, development and education?

4.     Should there not be a ministry that invests in our future?

5.     Or are we still complacent about relegating early childhood to be a part of women welfare or education or health ministries. Isn’t it getting lost?

6.     I know it is difficult but surely not impossible?

The national representative session on early childhood policies was a unique experience. I was the moderator and Henry the provocateur. Henry was at his patient best. And I was at my excited best! We were like Yin and Yang. Roger’s presence was appreciated and required. Group discussions followed. Some were passionate about their views, some happy with the way things were in their respective governments and some were willing to start a thought process. Change always begins with a small step… maybe a decade later when the first world government dedicates a ministry to early childhood, we will think of the World Forum as the starting point.

Sessions on community involvement and family engagement were of interest to me this year as my company is launching a unique family engagement website with expert involvement from Stephen Rushton (USA), Karen Graham (Wales) Toni Christie(New Zealand) and myself (India). The sessions I attended on family engagement were all interesting with so many new views to offer. Made more connections for our website. Watch out for news about our website in June 2014. The first people to view the ‘first look’ of the website were Bonnie and Roger.

What? It’s time for the closing ceremony? Wow, how time flies when you are happy, learning and making connections. I have a unique tradition for World Forum closing ceremonies, I never sit with people I know. Just because I want the last opportunity to make friends. And I did, Lisa Goodman from USA, who invited me to her centre as I was visiting New York on the way back home.

Brain research, research in early childhood, infants and toddlers, technology, early childhood policies, curriculum in the early years, designing spaces for children, family engagement and community involvement are just some of the sessions that I learnt from and revisited my knowledge with this year. The session on twitter and face book conducted by next generation Neugebauer was extremely interesting. I learnt about the importance of # in a tweet….really, I did not know.

My last evening was spent exploring the old San Juan city with my friend Irma, it was a great evening. What did I miss at the World Forum? Just home and vegetarian food ( America needs a lesson on vegetarian food) but then when you are at ‘a home away from home’ with so much food for thought you don’t miss it so much. I joined two new working groups, child rights and family engagement. On the way back home met up with Laura Henry in London, so much sharing and caring.

Will the next World Forum be in India? Maybe India is not ready for the World Forum or maybe the World Forum is not ready for India, wherever it is, we wait with excitement. Thanks Bonnie, Roger, Selena, Henry, all national representatives and all of the fantastic friends of WoFo. And a special thanks to Dr Podar for encouraging me to go on this trip, a voyage of learning and discovery and a pilgrimage of dedication and passion for early childhood care, development and education. – Swati Popat Vats. National Representative of World Forum for India. swatipopat@podar.net

Every Dot Counts...a message from every child to their parents.

Hi Parents, here is a cute letter from your kids...

 

Dear mummy and daddy,                                 

 

‘Every Dot Counts’- The ‘Dot’ has been an important part of my life every since I was born. Remember the little black ‘dot’ that you would apply on my forehead so that ‘no evil eye’ can harm me? As I grow older a lot of dots will be important and make a difference. You will tell me to ‘Dot’ my ‘i’. When I start writing sentences you will tell me to put a ‘Dot’ (full stop) at the end of the sentence. ‘Dot to dot’ activities of join the dots will teach me how to see the whole picture by joining the parts.

 

But there is another ‘Dot’ dear mummy and daddy that is very important for my future, the ‘Dot’ on your pointer finger! And this ‘Dot’, only you can get for me………by going to vote.

 

This ‘Dot’ will teach me about responsibility, when I see my parents taking their responsibility seriously I will learn a life long lesson on responsibility. This ‘Dot’ will also inculcate in me the ability to take informed decisions. I will see you discuss and debate and decide and it will teach me that for important decisions in life it is better to be informed. And did you know that this ‘Dot’ of yours is also very much like that ‘dot to dot’ activity that you give me? well, just like by joining all the dots I get to see a picture in my book, similarly by joining all the ‘Dots’ that each one of you gets on your pointer finger, the future of this country will be decided, the country where I am going to grow up. 

 

 

So mummy and daddy teach me all of the above and more, teach me that if you want to point a finger then it should be the one with a ‘Dot’! So please go and get a ‘Dot’ this year on your pointer finger as Every Dot Counts’.

 

My school has asked me to remind you to go and vote and get a ‘Dot’. So, this year make it count for me and my future. This year on voting day I will sing this song for you-

Where is pointer?

Where is pointer?

Here I am, here I am

Do I see a dot here?

Do I see a dot here?

Yes I do, yes I do.

I love you, I love you.

From your loving child.

 

So parents listen to your kids and when you choose who to vote for, think of your child’s future.