If drawing on the walls at home is a no-no, drawing on the walls at a museum is a massive dont-even-think-about-it. Or it was, until the playful design duo behind Matheny Studio teamed up with Melbournes National Gallery of Victoria to create a new on-site space where kids can strap on crayon studded helmets, shoes, and all kinds of wacky gear and go completely nuts. All. Over. Everything.
READ MORE” This Museum Gave Kids Crayon Helmets And Let Them Go Wild | Gizmodo
Little kids may insist you read the same books over and over at bedtime (sometimes more than once in the same night), but that doesn’t mean you can’t stop trying to add variety to the mix. This new list, compiled by Reach Out and Read, a nonprofit organization that advocates for literacy, and book recommendation site Goodreads will help you do just that.
Goodreads came up with the idea for this list as a way to celebrate Reach Out and Read’s 25th anniversary. Together, the two put together fifty top picks published in that time period. Whether you are looking for popular classics or a few unknown gems, you’ll certainly find something great to add to the rotation here.
VIEW: 50 Of The Best Kids’ Books Published In The Last 25 Years | HuffPost
I learned to print my name almost before I could read it — for the sole purpose of getting my own library card. I was so young I had to stand on tiptoe to see over the check-out desk and hand the librarian my application. When the librarian, in turn, handed me a library card with my own name typed on it — not my mother’s — I was ecstatic. I literally wore out the card in a few months, off and running toward becoming a lifelong reader.
Recognizing the role the library played in my becoming a book lover (and a career children’s editor), I herded my kids into the library as soon as they could toddle. Libraries had changed a lot, of course, but — just as I did — my kids quickly felt at home there. The children’s librarian came to know them, helped them select books, and, even better, encouraged them to also choose their own books. Libraries have played such an essential role in our family that I’m almost gobsmacked when I encounter families who don’t share my enthusiasm. Some say that the children’s rooms of libraries are an anachronism in a world of mobile screens with books on demand. But I say that while childhood has changed quite a bit, children have not. Read more: 5 Good Reasons to Take Your Kids to the Library Today | Christine French Cully | HuffPo
Dan Shapiro’s Robot Turtles board game Kickstarter showed there is serious appetite for kids’ games that aren’t just fun to play with but also sneakily teach core coding principles. Instead of the $25,000 he was aiming for, Shapiro raised more than $630,000. Geeky moms and dads clearly have money, and will spend it on the right bit of educational kit.
With that kind of Kickstarter community response, it’s pretty likely we’re set to see a wave of educational toys doing cool fun stuff with programming principles. To wit, meet Primo: a physical programming interface that teaches children programming logic while they control the movements of an Arduino-powered robot.
Read: Primo Is An Arduino Robot That Teaches Kids Programming Logic Through Play | TechCrunch.
Learning to code is a popular topic in educational circles these days. For good reason. When young people code their own apps, games, stories, or websites they have a chance to think critically, troubleshoot, problem solve, and collaborate. It’s a way to create something real that can be seen and used by lots of different people.
Of course, not all teachers or library staff are proficient coders. But, we don’t have to be. There are several apps and Web-based tools that make it possible to learn, with kids, the basics of coding. These also give young people the chance to try things out on their own and even teach adults how to create with code.
Sceencast tutorials for Daisy the Dinosaur, Hopscotch, Scratch and Tynker. Read: From Scratch to Tynker: Tools to Teach Kids How to Code | The Digital Shift.
Did you hear the one about the 7-year-old boy who opened a Wii on Christmas morning and when his parents finally checked on him, he’d played for 18 hours? Or the one about the 13-year-old girl who accidentally “butt-dialed” an old acquaintance whose number now belonged to a transsexual prostitute, who then launched a vendetta against the girl? Catherine Steiner-Adair, a psychologist whom parents seem to call whenever there’s a digital/psychological crisis at home, has heard all these stories and more, and shares them in “The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age.”
A new policy statement issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics on October 28 recommends parents control the quantity and content of the media their children consume, keep tech gadgets out of kids’ bedrooms, and model good behavior for kids by limiting their own tech use. Steiner-Adair advises the same limits, and backs these up with examples from the children and families she works with as a counselor. Here are the key lessons “The Big Disconnect” taught me, and the grades I’d give myself for how well I’m handling tech at each age.
Read: ‘Big Disconnect’ Offers Guidance for Parents in a Tech-Crazed World | Mediashift | PBS.
Learning to read is a massive adventure in itself, but discovering the library—a magical place where the stories are plentiful and the books are free—is downright mind-blowing. In an effort to match the fun between the pages, the Mexican branding studio Anagrama transformed the interior of a local heritage site into Niños Conarte, a geometric mountain range of literature.
See all the pics: A Mountain Range of Shelves Turns This Kids’ Library Into a Playground | Gizmodo.
Jamie Oliver has banned his children from social media – and in many families there is a constant battle between demands for privacy and safety. Here, parents share the lessons they have learned and the techniques they use.
Read: Children and the internet: a parent’s guide | Technology | The Observer | theguardian.
A day-long liveblog covering the latest research, trends and views on childrens changing media habits…blending research links, videos, infographics and snapshots of previous Guardian coverage on children’s changing media habits, as well as some first-hand views from kids.
Includes clinks to media literacy reports, charts, survey results, etc.
Sample of the topics/questions:
Read: Digital Kids: how children are using devices, apps and media in 2013 | Technology | theguardian.com.
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