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In This Issue
What's New at AES
"Nutrition: What's it got to do
with education?"
"Bullying: What you can
do for your child"
"Bullying: School involvement is only part of the
solution"
Product Spotlight: Kids' Thinking Games
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Just so you don't miss it...we are mentioning the
Back-to-School saving coupon code right upfront!
Check out the bottom of the newsletter and learn how to
save 20% on your next purchase of educational
software from
All Educational Software.
Start your child off right with school subject software and
jumpstart their learning.
Back to school means the lunch struggles begin again. Our
Parents' section offers some suggestions for improving
your child's nutrition that they won't balk at. Read it
and learn how nutrition and learning go hand-in-hand.
This newsletter features a lengthy news article on
bullying. It's a critically important issue to all
parents, educators and mostly, kids. Everyone should read
both sections, then please visit the resource pages we
cite.
We can't do too much to recognize and prevent this
situation.
Our Product Spotlight this time is on
Kids' Thinking Games. Learn how educational software
can help your child develop problem-solving and strategy
skills.
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For Parents
Nutrition: What's it got to do with education?
Today, feeding children is based on concerns about
heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and high blood
pressure. There is reason to be concerned. More than
20 percent of American children are overweight with
a good chance that 50 to 70 percent of them will
remain overweight as adults. Research shows that
children develop eating habits similar to those of
their parents so it is important for parents to set
good examples of healthful eating.
In a news release dated April 2006, Howard Taras,
M.D., Acting Chief of Community Pediatrics at the
University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of
Medicine reported that a healthy breakfast is an
effective means to improve academic performance and
cognitive functioning among
undernourished kids. But, are American kids
undernourished? If there diet consists largely of
fat and sugar, the answer is yes.
Let's review some nutritional basics: Children
should consume about 2200 calories a day. These
calories should be provided from 9 servings from the
bread group, 4 from the vegetable group, 3 from the
fruit group, 2-3 from
the milk group and 2 (total of 6 ounces) from the
meat group.
If you send your child off with a healthy breakfast
and make sure his or her lunch is appealing and
healthy (so it will be eaten), you are 66% of the
way there! Visit
Family Fun for healthy, fun food ideas for your
kids.
Here are some ideas for healthy breakfasts and
lunches:
For breakfast, be sure to have a blender, fresh or
frozen fruit, fruit juice, whole grain cereal and
breads and eggs on hand. It's quick and easy to
simply blend half a banana, a half cup of any frozen
or fresh berries, and one cup of milk. Non-sugary
cereal topped with fruit is a great breakfast, as is
any whole grain muffin or bagel. It only takes 3
minutes to scramble an egg, add crumbled pre-cooked
bacon and a tablespoon of shredded
cheese and roll up in a tortilla. Healthy, instant
breakfast to go!
Tortillas make a versatile sandwich option. Spread
the bottom with cream cheese, soft herbed cheese or
refried beans. Top with shredded vegetables and
thinly sliced meat and roll. Salsa is an nutritious
addition to lunch, even when paired with low fat
pita or tortilla chips. Peanut butter is a favorite
paired with peanut butter, apples, celery, bananas
or even pickles!
Make an apple pie pita by seasoning cubed apples
with cinnamon, sugar and lemon juice and stuffing
them into a warm, buttered pita. Wrap in foil.
If your child's idea of a great lunch is those
pre-portioned lunch-able snacks, make your own.
Cube cheese, lunch meat, add crackers, colorful
pepper strips and serve in a reusable plastic
sectioned container. Add a small size
yogurt with raisins or granola to sprinkle on top
and you've created your own hit lunch.
At home, try brainstorming a rough list of lunch
ingredients that you both agree on, and don't forget
to include a few fun items that your kids can help
prepare. After all, if your kids have a little time
invested in their lunches, they may be less likely to
reject them.
Once in a while, be sure to pack a lunch-box
surprise, such as a cupcake with a special message
on an important day. It's a simple gesture that will
let your kids know your thoughts are with them even
when they are at school.
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 Bullying:
What you can do for your child
The facts:
- Studies show that between 15-25% of U.S.
students are bullied with some frequency
("sometimes or more often") while 15-20% report
that they bully others with some frequency.
(Melton et al, 1998; Nansel et al, 2001)
- Boys are more likely than girls to bully
others
- Girls frequently report being bullied by both
boys and girls, but boys are most often bullied
only by other boys
What are the consequences of bullying?
- Children and youth who are bullied are more
likely than other children to be depressed,
lonely, anxious, have low self-esteem, feel
unwell, and think about suicide.
Recognize the signs:
- Your child may be being bullied if he or she:
a. comes home with torn, damaged or
missing pieces of clothing, books or other
belongings
b. has few, if any friendsews
c. seems afraid of going to school, walking to
and from school, riding the school bus or taking
part in organized activities with peers such as
clubs or athletics).
d. takes a long, illogical route when walking to
or from school
e. has lost interest in school work or suddenly
begins to do poorly in school
f. appears sad, moody, teary, or depressed when he
or she comes home
g. complains frequently of headaches, stomachaches
or other physical ailments
h. has trouble sleeping or has frequent bad dreams
i. experiences a loss of appetite or appears
anxious and suffers from low self-esteem.
Empowering your child to cope:
- Talk to your child about bullying. Tell him
or her that if they are being bullied they can use
these tactics:
a. Talk to an adult, parent,
teacher or principal. This is not tattling.
b. Don't fight back and don't show anger or fear.
c. Calmly tell the bully to stop or to go away.
d. If humor comes easily to your child, let him
make a joke out of it.
e. Try to avoid situations where the bullying
happens (don't go in the bathroom alone, sit near
the front of the bus, sit with a groups of friends
at lunch, don't bring expensive things to school,
take a different hallway to class, walk with
friends or ask a teacher).
Above all, arm yourself and your child with
information, keep open channels of communication and
enlist the help of the schoolteachers and
professionals. Visit this site for more
information:
Stop Bullying Now.
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For Educators (and Parents):
 Bullying:
School Involvement is only part of the solution
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One mention of recent school tragedies and the
potential consequences of bullying become
frighteningly clear. We feel so strongly about the
importance of this issue that we are providing the
information contained here and urge you to visit and
read the resources on
Stop Bullying Now. This material is excerpted
from that site.
Recognizing the
signs of bullying
Bullying is
aggressive behavior that is intentional
and that involves
an imbalance of power or strength. Often, it is
repeated over time and can take many forms.
Best Practices in
Bullying Prevention and Intervention
Focus on the social environment of the school.
To reduce bullying, it is important to change the
climate of the school and the social norms with
regard to bullying. It must become "uncool" to
bully, "cool" to help out students who are
bullied, and normative for staff and students to
notice when a child is bullied or left out. This
requires the efforts of everyone in the school
environment.
Anonymous questionnaire to students about
bullying.
What are the possible benefits of conducting a
survey of students? Frequently we are quite
surprised by the amount of bullying that students
experience, the types of bullying that are most
common, or the "hot spots" where bullying
happens.
- Data can help administrators and other
educators tailor a bullying prevention strategy
to the particular needs of the school;
- Data can serve as a baseline from which
administrators and other educators can measure
their progress in reducing bullying.
Garner staff and parent support for bullying
prevention.
- Bullying prevention should not be the sole
responsibility of an administrator, counselor,
teacher-or any single individual at a school. To
be most effective, bullying prevention efforts
require buy-in from the majority of the staff and
from parents.
- Form a group to coordinate the school's
bullying prevention activities.
- All administrators, faculty, and staff at your
school should be trained in bullying prevention
and intervention. Training should not be available
only for teaching staff, but for ALL staff,
including lunch room aides.
Establish and enforce school rules and policies
related to bullying.
- Although many school behavior codes implicitly
forbid bullying, many codes do not use the term or
make explicit our expectations for student
behavior.
- It is important to make clear that the school
not only expects students not to bully, but that
it also expects them to be good citizens, not
passive bystanders, if they are aware of bullying
or students who appear troubled, possibly from
bullying.
- One comprehensive program, the Olweus Bullying
Prevention Program (see resources section on the
Web site) recommends that schools adopt four
straightforward rules about bullying:
We will not bully others.
We will try to help students who are bullied.
We will make it a point to include students who
are easily left out.
If we know someone is being bullied, we will tell
an adult at school and an adult at home.
4. Supervision in hot spots where
bullying occurs.
5. Intervene consistently and
appropriately in
situations to deal with bullying.
6. Focus some class time on bullying
prevention.
7. Continue these efforts over time.
There should be
no "end date" for bullying intervention activities. |
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Product Spotlight
Kids' Thinking Games |
Besides learning to read, learning to problem-solve is
arguably the most important skill a child can acquire. If
the world operated entirely by rote, then memorization
would serve us well enough, but the world throws problems
at all of us everyday and learning to anticipate, work
with and learn from these situations is what will create a
confident,
competent person. The challenging, interactive games in
the
Kids' Thinking games
section will help kids learn to identify problems, plan
strategies and reasoning skills and learn to work with
others to achieve goals.
Children ages 4-6 direct a skill-building journey in
Clifford The Big Red Dog - Thinking Adventures. Kids
journey through Clifford's neighborhood looking for ways
to make his party big fun!. Throughout the adventure,
entertaining activities encourage each child to use their
thinking and reasoning skills as well as their
imagination. In addition, kids are presented with
challenges that require them to use their problem solving
skills to complete various steps.
Thinkin' Things Galactic Brain Benders
is brimming with learning opportunities for students ages
8-12 working on their own or with others. The software
includes five stellar game environments with hundreds of
problem-solving challenges and dozens of skill levels the
user can control. The activities build logic and reasoning
skills and let children explore gravity, motion, inertia
and more!
In
Zoombinis - Logical Journey for ages 8
and up, Diabolical Bloats have seized Zoombini
Isle, and it will take a clever mind to help the Zoombinis
navigate their way to safety. Standing between the user
and his or her destination are twelve perilous puzzles,
with four levels of difficulty each. But beware, this is
no ordinary challenge.
Zoombinis' captivating gameplay features math without
numbers. Solving Zoombinis puzzles uses the process of
mathematical thinking. This process includes organizing
information, reasoning with evidence, and testing
systematically. rations of activities kids can
perform on
their own.
For kids ages 10 & up, there's
Code Head: Calculated Risk. Race
against the clock to answer tons of questions that test
knowledge of math, technology, and scientific info. Go for
it against the computer or friends, and steal the game
right out from under them!
Interactive educational software in
Kids' Thinking Games
will help your kids learn these life skills:
Problem-solving
Deductive and inductive reasoning
Critical thinking
Decision-making and
consequences
Goal-setting and teamwork
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Coming Next Issue (Winter)
What's
NEW!
Holiday discount coupons
What's in your (kid's) backpack?
Keeping control in the classroom-is Ron Clark's method
for you?
Learning a language with educational software
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