Secret No. 1: You don’t make bedtimes happen. Your children learn to get to bed on time.

Anytime you keep forcing something to happen with your kids, you’ll find yourself in a losing situation over the long term. In other words, if you have to force something to happen, you can win the battle today. But tomorrow comes with another battle - and it only gets worse over time.

This means you can’t force your kids to go to sleep. You can’t force them to go to bed. The more you try to force it, the more it escalates out of control.
But don’t give up - this doesn’t mean that you can’t get them to bed on time. You can have peaceful bedtimes with everyone in bed on time…

Secret No. 2: Establish a consistent routine with clear consequences.

Write down the evening routine, and do so in a way that gives you some leverage. In other words, after dinner, the kids need to help clear the table, take a bath, put on their PJs, and make sure that their schoolbag is packed and at the door. All of this happens before the TV comes on or before you read a book or before there’s any playtime…

Secret No. 3: Teach them it’s bedtime by shutting down their world.

Rather than engaging in prolonged requests to cut off the TV, to put away their toys or to cut off their computer, take control of the things that they care about rather than trying to control the kids. Simply shut down their world.

Source: The Saratogian
http://tinyurl.com/292lmd

Some say computers are revolutionizing education. It’s true: Computers provide information at all hours, night and day. But information alone is not education. That’s what we have to remember when we tally up how much good computers really can do. It will take years to understand truly the benefits and detriments of computers…

Understanding how to balance time is not a competency children are born with. They have to be taught — by parents modeling balance in their own lives, helping children schedule other activities, discussing together the differences between the virtual and the real world…

Source: timesunion.com
http://tinyurl.com/yo3w63

High school students nationwide are taking seemingly tougher courses and earning better grades, but their reading skills are not improving through the effort, according to two federal reports released here Thursday that cite grade inflation as a possible explanation…

The test results also showed that the overwhelming majority of high school seniors have not fully mastered high-school-level math…

… The share of 12th-grade students lacking even basic high school reading skills — meaning they could not, for example, extract data about train fares at different times of day from a brochure — rose to 27 percent from 20 percent in 1992.

The share of students proficient in reading dropped to 35 percent from 40 percent in 1992. At the same time, the gap between boys and girls grew, with girls’ reading skills more than a year ahead those of boys.

In math, only 23 percent of all 12th graders were proficient, but the exam has been revamped, so the results could not be compared with those from earlier years, officials said. The new test has fewer questions requiring arithmetic and more using algebra and geometry. Some 39 percent of 12th graders lacked even basic high school math skills.

Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/education/23tests.html?ref=us

Some children never see a dentist before the age of 5, which is a huge mistake, Singer said. According to the American Dental Association, children should be seen by a dentist as soon as their first teeth come in.

Dr. Amy Monti, D.D.S., at Adventure Dental in Valencia, emphasized that for babies and small children, early childhood caries are mostly caused by night feedings with a bottle that contains juice or milk as well as in children who breast feed at night.

“We don’t want parents to think we are saying breast milk, milk, or juice is bad for the child, but at night the risk of decay is greater since the liquid can sit on the teeth for a prolonged length of time,” she said. “Children tend to fall asleep without swallowing, causing decay on their upper front teeth. The first sign of decay are white lesions on these teeth.”

To prevent this problem, Monti suggests gently wiping infant’s teeth after having a bottle and helping toddlers to brush their teeth, especially before bedtime…

The best time to brush is before children go to bed. To make bedtime brushing a more enjoyable, Monti recommends playing your child’s favorite song to make them brush longer, or for at least two minutes.

“It makes it fun and the time goes faster,” Monti said.

Singer said parents need not be concerned what their children use to brush their teeth, just as long as they brush.

“Any toothbrush will do, the regular ones work just as well; it all depends on how close they get the bristles to the teeth,” he said. “I don’t care how they brush their teeth, just as long as they remove the plaque.” …

Singer said parents need to take an active role in supervising their children’s oral hygiene and set a good example themselves. “I have parents come in to say their children have a drawer full of the latest whiz bang toothbrushes and paste, but complain their kids don’t use them,” he said. “Parents have to get into the bathroom and supervise if the kid is reluctant to brush; a toothbrush does no good if it is not used.”

He said small children especially want to mimic their parents, so it’s important to be a good role model.

Source: The Signal
http://www.the-signal.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=46572&format=html

A Democratic lawmaker on Thursday abandoned her heavily ridiculed campaign to make spanking a crime, acknowledging that the bill which had become fodder for late-night comedians would get whacked even in California’s sometimes whimsical Legislature.

Instead, San Francisco Bay-area Assemblywoman Sally Lieber introduced a more narrow bill she said would help district attorneys more easily prosecute parents who cross the line from punishment into physical abuse…

“Clearly, I take exception with that part of the law, but the votes are simply not there” to change it, Lieber said, facing a bank of eight television cameras and the largest media spotlight the soft-spoken Democrat has ever encountered…

“We welcome the attention - positive or negative - because we want to get people talking about it,” Lieber said, noting that several California newspapers that ran editorials blasting her idea also published articles on nonviolent parenting.

Source: Contra Costa Times
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/state/16761292.htm

A study by The Conference Board has concluded that the “learning by rote” culture of the Chinese education system means its graduates often lack the practical experiences and softer creative and leadership skills required in the modern business world.

China’s educational system, it argued, relied too heavily on “memorization”, meaning that skills such as creative writing, public speaking, teamwork and leadership were not being taught well in most of China’s universities and graduate programmes…

“Making the talent search more difficult is the fact that the more experienced managers are in short supply and command high salaries,” said Judith Banister, director of global demographics at The Conference Board…

The fact that a lot of young people now wanted to work for multinationals, mainly because of the high status it gave them, had persuaded some multinationals to forge links with universities to bring about change.

In some universities, this approach has been well received and multinationals were reporting success in getting whatever skills they want. “It is an approach that should be mutually beneficial because it allows students to be trained in a way that is useful to the multinational,” said Banister.

Source: management-issues
http://tinyurl.com/2jbd3l

In Japan, fathers traditionally have little to do with child-rearing. But in now, fatherhood is fashionable, and new magazines devoted to young fathers are highlighting the trend…

It is stylish to be a “cool dad” in Japan these days, and it is not uncommon to see young fathers playing with their children in the park. This is in sharp contrast to the previous generation of fathers who were devoted to work, spent little time at home, and rarely communicated with their children…

Tomohiro Shimizu, editor-in-chief of FQ Quarterly, says he published the magazine because he wanted to take the stigma out of being a doting dad and to help men take a more active role in parenting.
“First of all, fathers should not be ashamed of being indulgent and enjoy their time with their children,” he said. “Although they are busy working, they should feel that family is more important than work. Fathers in Japan play much less of a role in raising children than fathers in Western countries and we need to catch up.” …

… According to the International Comparative Research on Home Education, the average Japanese father spends about three hours each weekday with his children. Only South Korean fathers spend less time. Fathers in Thailand spent the most time with their children, almost six hours a day…

Japanese fathers traditionally spent little time with their children because their loyalty was to their company. From the 1960s to the early 80s, many Japanese believed that workplace success was the top priority for men. The absent father was a sign of a successful man…

While Watanabe’s children may grow up to with fond memories of their dad spending time with them, many Japanese men in their 30s and 40s say they do not remember their fathers playing or even communicating with them.

Source: mensnewsdaily.com
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2007/02/21/fathers-are-a-hot-topic-in-japan/

U.S. health officials on Wednesday told manufacturers of all drugs used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder that they must develop patient medication guides warning of possible cardiovascular and psychiatric risks…

“A warning like this is important because it makes people think twice before they do this, and it stimulates more investigation,” said Dr. Steven Lipshultz, chairman of the pediatrics department at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “I think this is excellent, and can only be beneficial.” …

Spiraling growth in use of these medicines — the number of adults aged 20 to 44 using ADHD drugs surged more than 139 percent from 2000 to 2005 — has already prompted safety questions…

Officials hope that the guides, which are given to patients at the time the drug is dispensed, will alert doctors and patients to the importance of taking a careful medical history, doing a physical exam, and carefully monitoring patients for symptoms that may indicate a problem.

Source: 14WFIE
http://www.14wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=6122016&nav=3w6r

English-language programs are flooding South Korean universities — and they are creating a backlash from Koreans who fear a loss of their culture and professors who worry about a loss of control…

Already, concern about the issue has led in part to the ouster of a president of Korea University, one of the two top private universities in South Korea. With 30 percent of its courses taught in English, Korea University is currently the frontrunner among South Korean universities using English as a medium of instruction…

“With several top universities leading the way, the pattern will be followed by other universities in Korea,” said James Larson, deputy director of the Fulbright Korean-American Educational Commission…

Many South Korean universities are setting their sights on creating an Asian education hub like Singapore and Hong Kong in order to retain more Korean students and to attract more foreign students…

Student reactions to classes being taught in English are mixed. Although students see the advantages of being able to communicate in English, the global language, they worry about the quality of the instruction they will receive.

Source: insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/02/20/korea

As a faculty, as a staff, as a student body, our primary interest at the Garden School is learning and doing. That’s what we do as a group. Sometimes it’s formal learning and sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s a teachable moment and sometimes it’s one child who found out something all by himself.

When one of our young students told me that her favorite part of the day was classroom time when she could learn, we realized that her ability to discuss this was a high point of our success. Verbalization, independence, and motivation; these are the mind builders.

One of the problems in early childhood is in knowing what to teach. Lots of people believe that virtually nothing should be “taught” to children under five. They feel a child’s day should be entirely his own to do with as he chooses.

As the mother of four and the grandmother of six, I’ve watched children for many years wander in the “I don’t know what to do, so I’m going to go back to my toddler roots and just smash this toy.” I’ve spent a lifetime showing how to, how not to, and what to do. Sometimes it’s a simple measure of “try this,” and other times it’s a “sit down and let’s start at the beginning.”

Children really need to be taught. In older generations, parents taught the first child, and then it was the job of the older children to teach the younger guys how to do life stuff, and it worked. That is not readily available anymore. What is available is a classroom adult who is supposed to know enough to do the teaching.

So what do you teach a three or four or five year old? Reggio Emila, a program started in Italy back during WWII, which is very popular now, says that children should be taught anything they ask about. And there’s the clincher.

If they ask about writing their name, how does one bypass the letters to get to the name? If you don’t teach children about the months of the year and the days of the week, how will they appreciate the circular system of space design, the seasons and time in general?

A few days ago we explored numbers and tried to understand time. During what I thought was a teachable moment, I took a regular piece of colored paper after repeating the names of the months of the year and talking about how those months got their names and then I took a scissors and began to cut the months away from the sheet of orange paper. I named the months as I cut, and at the end, we had twelve strips of paper. The children could understand that there were twelve parts to the whole.

Then I cut each of the strips into four pieces or weeks. Then we built weeks into months and months into a year. Then we cut the four pieces into seven days each and continued to build again.

Does this kind of learning help all children understand time? It depends upon the child. Every child learns differently. For one of the children or two or three, it might have been the lesson that “bingoed” the mind. Or, time might have to wait for another day. The teacher keeps teaching; keeps trying; keeps presenting because no child can understand space, time, seasons all on his own.

Teachable moments are not every time and not every child and not even every day. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but the idea that there is always something brewing, something happening, something in the hopper, is what allows the atmosphere of teaching and learning to continue day after day.

What parents looking at curriculum should know is that children are bored with restriction and retention. They come alive with an advance on a day much like explorers crossing new territory.

Source: 14WFIE
http://www.14wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=6109709&nav=menu54_9_10_1