Gupta set out to find a way to teach very young children the basics of coding–sequences of instructions, subroutines, events, conditional statements–in a playful way. Today Play-i launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise $250,000 to manufacture two kid-friendly robots called Bo and Yana, which teach high-level programming concepts to children as as young as five.
Read more: Screw Teaching Your Kids–Get This Robot Instead ⚙ Co.Labs ⚙ code + community.
Study: 38 Percent of Toddlers Have Used a Mobile Device | PCMag
According to a recent Common Sense Media research study, 38 percent of kids under two years old have used a mobile device — with a watchful eye from their parents, surely. In 2011, that number reached only 10 percent.
Pediatricians: Limit kids’ media use to 2 hours a day | CNET
American Academy of Pediatrics also tells parents to discourage any screen time for children 2 and younger and keep Internet-connected devices out of kids’ bedrooms.
Report: Piracy Isn’t Killing Content | Gizmodo
Contrary to what the popular press might have us believe, piracy isn’t killing content. At least, that’s what a team of scholars from the London School of Economics has found after conducting a deep analysis of the situation.
Deloitte Survey Finds 18% of U.S. College Students Own Tablets, 14% Own E-Readers | InfoDocket
The Maker Movement has inspired progressive educators to bring more hands-on learning and tinkering into classrooms, and educator Gary Stager would like to see formal schooling be influenced by the Maker Movement, which has inspired young learners to tinker, to learn by doing, and take agency for their learning.
Articles based on remarks made delivering the second annual Reading Agency lecture on October 14, 2013 at the Barbican centre in London. Neil Gaiman delivers our second annual lecture | The Reading Agency. Here’s the full transcript.
Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming | theguardian
A lecture explaining why using our imaginations, and providing for others to use theirs, is an obligation for all citizens.
Neil Gaiman: Let children read the books they love | theguardian
Author says physical books are here to stay during keynote speech on what he sees as future of books, reading and libraries.
Gaiman: Closing libraries ‘like stopping vaccinations’ | The Bookseller
Author Neil Gaiman has said that closing libraries is “like stopping vaccinations”, and that the “insidious” effects will be felt by our children.
Neil Gaiman: ‘No such thing as a bad book for children’ | BBC News
Fantasy author Neil Gaiman has said “snobbery and foolishness” by adults about certain books can easily destroy a child’s love of reading.
The National Literacy Trust is partnering with McDonald’s to provide “reading tips” to its child diners.
The fast-food chain already offers a “Happy Reader” voucher in every Happy Meal box sold, which allows parents to acquire a children’s book worth around £4.99, for just £1 from high street retailer W H Smith.
Now the National Literacy Trust has teamed up to advise on suitable recommendations for Happy Meal book promotions and to review and advise on the design and content of all text-based elements of the McDonald’s Happy Meal, including the Happy Meal box and activity sheets. The charity will also share industry research and insight to help develop the Happy Readers programme “in a way that will add most value for children, parents and families”.
Read: National Literacy Trust partners with McDonalds | The Bookseller.
Related: McDonalds to stuff kids books into Happy Meals next month | USA Today
McDonalds, the kingpin of fast food and lightning rod for consumer activist groups, plans to distribute more than 20 million paperback books inside its Happy Meals in the U.S. during the two-week period between Nov. 1 and 14.
Snips:
[T]he four books are based on McDonald’s own animated animals, including a goat, ant, dodo bird and, yes, a dinosaur…The books, whose titles include The Goat Who Ate Everything and Doddi the Dodo Goes to Orlando, will focus on nutrition, imagination and active play.
McComb says McDonald’s will partner with literacy non-profit Reading Is Fundamental to give out an additional 100,000 books. The Nov. 1 roll-out is a tie-in with National Family Literacy Day, she says. Each book is 24-28 pages. McDonald’s declined to give a dollar value for each book.
Read: McDonalds to stuff kids books into Happy Meals next month | USA Today.
The New York Public Library releases a list of the top 100 greatest children’s books from the past 100 years. You can browse the list on the website or download a pdf of the list.
Great stories never grow old! Chosen by children’s librarians at The New York Public Library, these 100 inspiring tales have thrilled generations of children and their parents — and are still flying off our shelves. Use this list and your library card to discover new worlds of wonder and adventure!
via 100 Great Children’s Books | 100 Years | The New York Public Library.
Nielsen Book data suggests that 32% of children read books every day, and 60% every week. But these percentages are falling as digital entertainment rises.
Read the full story: Children’s reading shrinking due to apps, games and YouTube | Technology | theguardian.com.
Teachers have a strong desire to teach reading for pleasure but feel frustrated by a restrictive curriculum, a lack of support from parents and a drop-off in school librarian numbers, according to publisher Egmont.
In the latest instalment of Egmont’s Reading Street study into children’s reading habits, the publisher’s consumer insight team surveyed 250 teachers about their pupils’ reading. The majority were classroom teachers, with 77% teaching children at primary stage and 66% having been in the profession for more than a decade.
Over half the teachers surveyed said there had been a decline in the number of children who read for pleasure over the course of their career, with the majority observing this trend over the past decade.
Read the full story: Teachers ‘frustrated’ over Reading for Pleasure | The Bookseller.
Story posted June 25, 2013.
When it comes to diversity, children’s books are sorely lacking; instead of presenting a representative range of faces, they’re overwhelmingly white. How bad is the disconnect? A report by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that only 3 percent of children’s books are by or about Latinos — even though nearly a quarter of all public school children today are Latino.
Read: As Demographics Shift, Kids’ Books Stay Stubbornly White | NPR.
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