Should your child go for the football practice 5 days a week or is 3 days plenty enough?

Just about every parent experiences a little confusion when it comes to deciding how much is too much with reference to after school activities.                                                                                                                     Don’t fall in to the, “since most of the activities are fun my child will simply jump for joy over these activities”, state of mind that many parents fall into.                                                                                                        Every child has a different personality (that thing that makes us all unique) and thus, different likes and dislikes. One child may love football where as another may prefer soccer, baseball or even spelling bees, believe it or not.

But, just like too much chocolate or candy, too much fun can be just as harmful. Heat exhaustion and dehydration can occur during sultry, balmy(fry an egg on the road or sidewalk) summer days from to much outdoor activity as well as sun burns, even if sun block is applied, if it washes off from sweating or swimming. Frostbites may occur during extended excursions outside during those icy winter days. The danger of the recently mentioned ailments more readily tend to occur to older children, normally preteens and teenagers due to the fact that parents monitor younger siblings more closely when it comes to outdoor activities. Continues excessive running and jumping or high exertion physical activities can be harmful to anyone at any age and more so at extremely high or low ambient temperatures. 

The fallowing is a simple guide to aid you with deciding just how much is too much for your child.

Kindergarten:                                                                                                                                                     Your child is just beginning to learn to interact and getting used to discipline. His or her after-school life should be simple and carefree. One or two activities per week are enough at the beginning. Once the child settles down, look for more challenging activities like a music program.

Grade 1:                                                                                                                                                            One or two activities per week are recommended. Such as play dates and playground visits. Avoid competitive sports activities. Your child may still be too young to understand about winning and losing and losing now could harm their confidence later. After the rigors of a full day at school, he or she needs a healthy outlet for pent up energy. Physical activities and noncompetitive sports are best for this age.

Grade 2:                                                                                                                                                             Your child is old enough to voice opinions on what activities he or she likes and dislikes which may include sports, skating, swimming or computers. Help to steer them towards things they like but don‘t force him or her towards activities you yourself like or dislike and not away from activities you think they will fail at. Always keep in mind that these activities are life lessons and learning development tools and not just for fun only.         Many children begin lessons on a musical instrument around this age. (Your child’s likes and dislikes change with time the same as your likes and dislikes do. Your child may prefer football in the 9th grade and then track in the 11th grade or start in cheerleading in middle school and change to choir or band during their freshman year.) Children should be allotted some ‘alone time’, at this stage in their life, during which time he/she can unwind and just do whatever they wishes as long as, “whatever”, is safe and does not break your set rules. Doing this will also help you to prepare for the teen years when they will want to spend more time with friends than family or just be alone. Sorry to say, but yes those years are coming.

Grade 3:                                                                                                                                                       Socialization begins to take center stage. Team sports are a good choice for your child now. These types of sports will help develop team work and socialization skills. Finding activities that help in the developing of motor skills such as painting, drawing etc. is a good idea. Let the child explore areas of interests. But leave aside enough time for fun family activities.

Grade 4:                                                                                                                                                               At this age, the child will tell you what they like and do not like. They need to get involved in activities that will boost their confidence. This will also help them manage stress as this is the time when they begin to experience social pressure. But, beware of the homework demon. Your child needs more time with studies. Balancing schoolwork with other activities is very important.

Grade 5:                                                                                                                                                             The fifth grader is bubbling with energy and will want to do just about everything. But she or he may conveniently push studies to the background. So, close supervision is needed. Now is a great time to get your child interested in community service.

Middle school:                                                                                                                                                      Steer your child away from TV at this age. Get them engaged in activities that reinforce learning. Academic performance can be improved by encouraging your preteen to join clubs like the Girl/Boy Scouts program, language clubs, chess clubs etc. Set a limit of 16-20 hours a week of extra activity. This should be more than enough. But look out for signs of burnout.

Which activities your child may select and how long they will work at it will basically depend on your child’s personality and how much encouragement you give them. As a parent, you should seek feedback from the child. You may want to read up on the activiteis they chose so as to be able to answer questions they may have while they learn the activity. Ask the child how the game is played once they have been playing for awhile and have learned the game or activity rules even though you may already know. This will show them that you care about, and are interested in, what they have chosen for an activity. It also helps to instill that all important parent/child communication. Be sociable and get to know the parents of the other children involved in the activity. This will serve as an example to your child on how to sociably interact. You may already know some of the parents.

The main thing is, allow your child to chose what activities they want to try and not force them into activities you want them to try. But, you as the parent decide how many activities they can try or do at each age level.

I hope you enjoyed this article and found some information in it that will be helpful to you. Thank you very much for your time in reading it.

 Lesson by Bella Luna

This lesson plan format was adapted from the e-mints constructivist lesson plan form found at http://www.emints.org/tools/index.shtml

Outcome: To learn about symmetry.  To re-enforce the concept of creating halves and quarters of a whole, and to show a repeated pattern in the round, instead of a linear repeated pattern.

Materials: white typing paper, 8 ½ by 11 that is thin enough to see a black line drawing through with a perfect circle drawn or copied onto the paper, one for each student.  Card stock quarters of the same circle that was on the paper, one for each student. Pencils. Black drawing pens or fine tipped markers, and either markers, crayons or colored pencils to color the design.  Scissors, glue and black or a dark neutral color of paper to mount mandalas on.

Art History:  Show some mandalas from the middle east (Moroccan architecture and tiles are a good resource) and mandalas from the far east, such as what can be found in many eastern religions.   A resource for free mandala coloring pages on the web would be http://www.123coloring.com/digits-and-forms/coloriages,mandalas,mandalas-11-a-22.html

There is a good page on mandala art at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandala

with a little bit of back ground and terminology.

Finished Product: A mandala to hang in the room.

Steps:

1. Introduce project with poster or other examples of mandalas.  Talk about the repeated patterns and whole, half and quarter.  Have children look at and talk about what things they see repeated and how many times it is repeated in the circle.  Talk about where each piece is from and how they were used-to meditate on, to add peace to a space, etc.
2. Show a quarter of the circle, and show how to lay it on the circle, holding it carefully.  Using a pencil and the quarter circle as a stencil, draw the straight lines on the quarter circle.  Pick up the stencil and lay it against one of the previously drawn lines to form a half circle, and again trace the line.  Pick up the stencil and repeat again, forming four quarters.  They may not be perfect, but that is okay.
3. Pass out pencils, paper and quarters.  Write name on the back of the paper and the quarter in pencil.
4. Have the children do step 2, following along each quarter again with them.
5. Show quarter of circle again.  On that circle draw on line (squiggly, straight, whatever) going from one side of the quarter to the other, either up and down or side to side.
6. Pass out the pens and have the children make a line.  Put down pens.
7. On the teachers example, place two to four shapes anywhere on the quarter circle with the black pen.
8. Have the children make two to four shapes on their quarter, not more than four so that tracing it will be possible, but more than two for interest, using the black pen.  Put pens down.
9. Next, demonstrate putting the stencil quarter underneath the circle on the paper and lining it up with one of the quarters penciled in.  Have the children do this and quickly check to make sure they are lined up correctly and everyone understands what it is they are supposed to be doing.
10. Showing how to carefully hold the stencil still, trace the black lines seen through the paper onto the circle using the black pen.  Remove stencil and show the children the result.  Have the children then do the same, reminding that they need to hold the stencil still under the paper to trace it and to take their time.
11. Repeat until all four quarters of the circle are filled with design.
12. Color the mandala using the same colors for each quarter, to enforce the symmetry. 
13. Pass out scissors and have the children cut out the mandala.
14. Pass out glue and black paper and have the children mount their mandala for display.  Enjoy!

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

According to many mothers as many as 73% feel the headaches of trying to help their children with there homework. The Internet is a great source fro help.

• Struggling with math? Ask Dr. Math for help which is at this website www.mathforum.com/drmath. More than 300 volunteers math whizzes staff this site, which lets you e-mail a question or search a for help. You can also go to www.webmath.com type in a math problem and the site does the work for you. You will get the answer an explanation of how it was solved.
• Need help with a book report? Find tips on everything from how to come up with a topic to compiling a bibliography at www.factmonster.com/homework/writingskills1.html. This award winning site also boasts a virtual library of dictionaries, almanacs, excyclopedias.
• Stuck on Science? Log on to the Mad Scientist Network, www.madsci.org, which bills itself as a laboratory that never sleeps. The archives contain answers to a whopping 36,000 common asked questions. Need ideas for science projects? Log onto http://school.discovery.com/students and click on Science Fair Central fro cool suggestions.
• Ready for recess? When your child needs a quick break from studying or reward for finishing his/her homework direct him/her to www.funbrain.com. This site is picked with colorful interactive games K-8. By playing Math Baseball, Grammar Gorillas, and many other your children will have fun and get smart too.

Materials: Five half sheets of standard white paper per student, one half sheet of card stock per student for cover of book, two pieces of lined notebook paper per student, pencils, colored pencils, hole punch and yarn for putting the books together, many popular picture books to show illustration.

Art History: Look at and read “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak, “The Mixed up Chameleon” by Eric Carle, and “The Mitten” by Jan Brett.  (Just suggestions of excellent writer/illustrators.)

Steps:

1. Talk about what an illustrator and author does, and then read one of the books above.
2. Talk about how the illustrations in the book helped tell the story.  What illustrations do you remember?  How did that one help move the story along for you?
3. Talk about how the story had a beginning, middle and end.  What were they?
4. Using a white board or chalk board write three simple sentences that tell a story with a beginning, middle and end.  Example:  Suzy loved flowers.  She planted a flower garden.  Her garden grew and she was happy. 
5. Using simple shapes, illustrate the story next to the sentences.  Ask for ideas from the children.
6. Name the story, getting ideas from the children.
7. Pass out the pencils and notebook paper.  Have each child write three simple sentences, creating a story with a beginning, middle and end.  Encourage them to be creative, and they may have more than three sentences if they wish.  Help as needed, but the words do not have to be spelled correctly. 
8. When they get done with their sentences, have the children do an ‘idea’ sketch, like the one on the board next to each sentence.
9. After the ‘ideas’ are done, have each child write a title to their story.
10. When they have an idea of what they want to draw, have each child draw that picture on a half sheet of paper, and then color it with the colored pencils. Encourage them to use the entire space. The words will be typed up and put on the opposite page from the illustration. 
11. When pictures are complete, pass out the card stock half sheets and have the children create a cover for their book that includes the title, clearly written in black colored pencil or with large ‘bubble’ letters, and the name of the author and illustrator.  Put those on the board, so that they can copy the big words.  Example:  Illustrated by: Suzy Smith   Author:  Suzy Smith
12. When books are completed, the teacher will punch two to three holes in each page in the same place and then use the yarn to tie them together.  The words for each story can be typed quickly up, printed and then glued onto the opposite page from the illustration.  Sounds like a lot of work, but it’s really not, and well worth the results.
13. Display the books on a bookshelf, encouraging the children to explore one another’s work during free reading time, and make it available for parents to look through during pick up times. 

Other lesson plans by me:

/A-Lesson-Plan-for-Kindergarten-Art-Clay-Tiles

Art-Project-for-Third-to-Fourth-Grade–Impressionist-Landscapes

A-Lesson-Plan-for-Kindergarten-Art-Paper-Houses