Personal Education Blog

Archive for the ‘Children Education’ Category

There are many millions of people who buy and use educational media products for their children and even their infants.  I wonder if the parents stop to think about how this honestly affects their children both good and bad.  The American Pediatric Association (APA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) agree that educational media can be beneficial to children when used in the proper context.  I fully agree with the idea, the problem is that many parents don’t follow the recommendations of groups such as the APA and AAP.  Either these parents believe that the advertisers who make these products know more about the development of children than the groups of people who have PhD’s and study how these things affect children, or they would just rather use educational media as a sort of baby-sitter because it makes them feel better about putting infants in front of a television if what they are putting them in front of is at least educational.  This is what I disagree with, programming our children to occupy themselves by sitting in front of television sets all day long.  Let’s get our children out from in front of the television sets and computers and let them learn and explore with their bodies and minds instead of watching someone else on a screen.
Guidelines written by the APA and the AAP suggest no television for children under the age of two.  They state that between birth and two years, children learn best from interaction with a parent or other caregiver rather than media sources.  Alissa Quart stated in her article Extreme Parenting that Charles Nelson, a professor at Harvard Medical School and permanent scholar of the infant brain, said “There is no proof of the value of the early-enrichment toys and videos in terms of brain science.”  In other words, there is no proof that these toys and videos will actually teach a child any better or any differently than they would have learned that same information from actual interaction with other human beings.  According to Quart, “in one study by a University of Massachusetts researcher, a sample group of infants learned to use a puppet from a live teacher, while another group studied a video.  The group who had a teacher learned to use the puppet almost immediately, but the video-watchers had to view the instruction six times before they learned the same skill.”  According to this study, infants learn better from interaction with other people than what they do from educational media which supports the claims of Charles Nelson.  Also, along the same lines as this idea, is that Thompson, Ross, and Yoshikawa from the group Zero to Three state that in their research they have found that when the adults in children’s lives make the viewing experience an interactive one, the children benefit more from it.  In other words, if we are going to have our young children watching TV or videos then we should share the experience with them to make it a more fulfilling and enriching one.  One way to do this would be to remind them of something that was watched together when it is seen somewhere aside from the video or TV program, or remind them while watching the video or program of the same thing seen elsewhere.
Every parent wants to give his or her children all the opportunities in the world.  All these early-enrichment companies know this and they try to use it to their advantage as much as possible.  They do this by playing on parents fears that many learning opportunities are time-limited to the first three years of life.  They speak of things like infant brain-cell death and limited brain plasticity.  As Quart says, “what they don’t tell us is that scientists have proven that the brain maintains at least some amount of plasticity throughout ones life.  They also don’t tell parents that according to many professionals; like Charles Zorn a neuropsychological education specialist; intelligence, knowledge, and ability to learn are not measured by brain cell counts.  Every time we learn something we are killing brain cells to create a pathway, cell death is how our nervous systems refine their circuits.  Therefore, reducing or preventing infant brain cell death is counter productive, contrary to what the educational media companies would have people believe.”  In other words, we have to kill brain cells to actually learn, that is just the way it works, and companies that tell us that we are not doing right by our children for letting their brain cells die off are just trying to play on parental fears to get more money.
These claims the co9mpanies have made, although proven scientifically inaccurate, have become popular belief and are enough to make any parent, especially new ones, nervous.  To gain an accurate perspective, one needs to separate themselves from popular ideas such as “brain plasticity”, “crucial stages”, and “imprinting”, since some of these only apply to learned activities that are experience-expectant (bound by crucial periods in an child’s life) and not to activities that are experience-dependant (not bound by any period), to look at the scientific side and take a look into history at some of the most intelligent people.  According to the article ”Was Einstein’s Brain Different” by the Center for History of Physics, Einstein himself didn’t speak until he was three and was still hesitant to speak at the age of 9.  Maybe there was a mild form of autism or maybe he was just shy, but either way, his parents feared that he was below average intelligence because of this.  This is a statistic that should prove to us that we need not push our children.  Einstein’s parents were wrong, and maybe we are too.  Yet, there is a company that has named their product after Einstein expecting us to believe that Einstein was in fact showing his extreme intelligence as early as infancy.  If we were in fact raising Baby Einstein’s as this product’s name suggests, then we wouldn’t be pushing our infants to do so much so early, we would have a world full of “late bloomers”.

More Children Education Articles

1. An educated woman is a better person

An educated woman is definitely a better person. Her education gives her qualities and it makes an effort to remove her faults. She becomes more civilized and knows how to handle things around. Education inculcates ideals within a woman and makes her a better person. Education also removes all sorts of prejudices and ignorance. Education also instils ambition in a woman and encourages her to strive harder in order to become better.

2. An educated woman is a knowledgeable person

It goes without saying that an educated woman is a knowledgeable person. Education gives a woman the skills to meet the challenges that the world will throw at her. An educated woman knows a lot about the world around her. An educated woman is not ignorant. In fact, an educated woman is a person who tries to be more learned and she tries to acquire more knowledge with time.

3. An educated woman can tackle challenges more effectively

Education provides a woman with skills that is required to effectively tackle the challenges that she will face later on in life. Education provides not only the way in which she can tackle the problem, but it also provides a very crucial factor in order to help a person tackle a problem successfully, and that is courage. Knowledge gives a person the courage to tackle the problem easily and more effectively.

4. An educated woman is a better mother and is good for the family

An educated woman is a better mother because she knows how to tackle the challenges of life. She will be equipped to provide a better life for the children. She knows how to bring them up so that they would grow up to be good, law abiding citizens. She knows the value of hard work and she will definitely do her best to try and inculcate such values into the minds of her children. Now we also have trends where mothers home-school their children than sending them to a school. That shows that women now have the courage to teach their children about life. An educated woman who works and is highly paid will invest more in her children and her family in order to secure their future. Families are a unit of the society and better families with educated women will ensure a better society.

5. An educated woman is good for the economy

An educated woman puts her education to good use. She works and earns her own money. Many women are high-earners due to their high levels of education. Women like to spend money on things. Women also like to spend money on their families. They are good consumers and when you increase their capacity and ability to consume, they are going to use that to the fullest. She will buy more goods for herself, her family and her friends. Her consumption will boost the economy because her consumption is paving way for more demand and her demand means that there will be more people producing more goods in order to satisfy her demand. When the economy grows there will be more jobs created for women, that in turn forms this great cycle which will ensure that our economy grows, all thanks to educated women!

6. An educated woman provides a better workforce for the nation

An educated woman will provide a better workforce for the nation. Though this does not happen a lot, let us just assume that there are as many women in the country as there are men. Let us imagine a scenario where only the men work. So only half of the population will actually have jobs when there are much more needed in order to fuel the economy. An educated woman can provide for that workforce. The education a woman receives will be used to make a good professional out of her. Her expertise can be used to make a contribution to the productivity. In fact, many management experts claim that there are certain qualities in women that enable the organization to be more efficient and more organized and these qualities are not found in men. So women will be able to contribute to a more functional and efficient workforce for the nation.

7. An educated woman inculcates ideals in society

An educated woman is a civilized woman. Her education reinforces certain values and ideals. Her understanding of the world is enhanced due to her education and she tries to apply it in her own life. She also tries inculcating and spreading such values within her family and amongst her children. She makes moral choices and thinks about doing good. She makes her family realize the importance of moral values in society and tries to be an example of a good, law-abiding citizen.

When buying toys for your children you have to consider several different things including if they will like them and if they will learn anything. Educational toys for children do not need to be boring and you will be amazed at the choices out there.

There are many different educational toys for you to choose from. They range in style and ability but have one thing in common which is fun. The best way to get your child to learn is whilst they are playing as they do not realize they are learning. If you buy the right toys then they will be having loads of fun and learning all at the same time.

The toys that are now available to buy are endless and you can have every style, size, design and type that you could have ever dreamed of. Your children will be lost when trying to decide what they want to play with. Educational toys for children look similar to any other style of toy so your child will not realize they are in fact learning through their play. Your child will be learning so many new skills without even realizing it.

Educational toys often will teach your children several different things at the same time which is ideal when they are growing up. They may be learning speech skills, focus, sports, music, balance and imagination. All of these are part of growing up and if they can sit and play and be having fun whilst learning them then this is great.

Construction toys and toys that need to be built are fantastic educational toys for children. These help to engage their brains and help their skills of building and focusing. Anything that your child has to put together is perfect and at the end of it they will be proud that they built it.

When looking at buying toys for your child you have to consider your child’s age and what they will learn from the toy. Even the smallest of toys may serve a purpose for teaching your child something even if it simply counting or staking.

Building blocks are ideal for very small children as they help them to recognize shapes, colors and sizes. They also have to learn to stack them and what happens when they fall. You can begin to buy educational toys at a very young age for your child as they will love the challenge the toy brings.

Researching the best educational toys for children may be an idea as this will help you to decide which ones are good. Although the educational side of the toys is very important you have to still remember the fun side of things as well. You do not want to focus on the educational side of the toy so much that it becomes boring.

Your child will still want to play with the toys as well as learning from them. The toy will therefore need to interest your child and be something that they will enjoy playing with. If you look at both sides to the toy then you will be successful in finding the perfect educational toys.

There are many types of education that can be provided to children during the early stages of life. The more traditional education opportunities are pursued because it is required by Law, but some educational endeavors such as pursuing and completing a college degree program will continue on a volunteer basis when the child is much older. The most popular traditional education method in the United States will use the public school system platform for educating children.
The Law requires parents to comply with the traditional approach to educating children, in which the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic are learned at a training level that will eventually earn the student a high school diploma. This diploma certifies that they have completed all of the courses of instruction mandated by Law and are certified to be competent in performing the basic skills.

The traditional education methods are meant to develop children to an intellectual level that will prepare them for life.

The early years of the education process will require children to go to school five days a week for a certain number of hours. This usually occurs when the children are five or six years old, and the policies surrounding the start date of school are based on the child’s birth date.
Traditional education practices will evolve around subjects that are designed for learning at specific ages in life. Some children will learn quicker than others and show exceptional learning abilities that require special care and handling. These gifted children are rare but the traditional education system is designed to be able to accommodate the advancement of their learning skills and allow them to advance to a higher grade level than those in their age group.

The traditional education practices used by the public school system are trimmed down considerably due to budget constraints. Some public school systems employ the bare minimum number of teachers on staff but task them to teach more children than the classrooms were designed for. Some educators turn away from teaching careers because the pay they receive is not enough to support a family.

The habitability issues that some children must face in the classroom have a severe effect on the way that they are schooled. Some classrooms are literally falling apart because the State government does not have money available in the budget to get them repaired. The degradation of the learning process is compounded by these conditions and other issues that come from overcrowding. The quality of education that a child has received by the time they reach the high school level is considered inadequate and some students are not able to pass the certification tests to graduate from school.

Our children are very important to us, so it’s obvious that we want to ensure that their educational years are the best they can get. The educational system can be a complex and difficult one to get your head around, yes we’ve all been there but each year, schools change something to make it completely different, and over the years, the schooling system has changing beyond recognition to today’s parents. O levels are now A levels, SATs are soon going to be removed from the system, so it’s important we gain a good perspective on the systems as they stand today.

The educational system in Britain has always been overseen by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, as well as the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Full-time education is compulsory for all children between the ages of 5 and 16, once these years have been completed, students then have the opportunity to partake in a further 2 years of education in the forms of ‘college’ or ‘sixth form’, by taking this extended education, students have the chance to gain A level qualifications. After these years have been completed, students can then choose to embark upon higher education, this usually lasts for around 3 years, and students can gain anything from a bachelor’s degree up to a Masters Degree. University is the only educational stage that you must pay for, unless of course you choose to go private during your child’s younger years, but funding can often be received through financing from the state, or a ‘student loan’.