Hints on how to encourage children to read
February 28, 2005
Hints from Ruowen Wang
? Keep a small basket filled with joke books, magazines, short stories, books of questions and answers, and books like Ripley’s Believe It or Not in each bathroom of your house.
? Put a map of the solar system, a map of the world, or a map of your local community on the wall. Refer to them often whenever possible, and create map quizzes or games to play with your kids.
? Take your children to the bookstores regularly. Make visiting bookstores your family recreation and eventually part of your "family culture". Get books on many subjects and make them accessible for your children at all times.
? Secondhand bookstores, Salvation Army stores, Value Villages, yard sales and Book Events are the best places to fine inexpensive books.
? When it comes to teaching some "boring stuff", like Math, Phonics and Grammar, a car is often the best place. Kids in car seats have nothing better to do than to pay attention and work out abstract lessons.
? Play with words and letters to explore word formation in the English language. Ask children to identify compound words like "playground", "bathtub". Or add "dis-" before some words, and "-less" after others to show the function of prefixes and suffixes.
? Always ask questions on a given subject to raise your child’s interest or inspire their curiosity before teaching something new.
? If your child declares that he or she does not want to learn, you can "play" instead. Incorporate your teaching into your play activities or game rules, and let your child win. This will increase their confidence.
Learning involves exploring and risk-taking; it is therefore exciting to a child if presented in the right way. With a good teacher, all children can learn to achieve.
Academic Achievers was founded by Ms. Ruowen Wang, a high school teacher and an English as a Second Language specialist. Ms. Wang taught for both Toronto Board of Education and North York Board of Education from 1988 to 1998, when she switched to a career into business administrations.
In 2001, Ms. Wang decided to become a full-time mother and started part-time home schooling her two young children, Kevin and Robin. Under Ms. Wang’s coaching Kevin’s book reports have earned him a great deal of respect from his English teacher. Robin started reading chapter books independently in Senior Kindergarten. (To read about Kevin and Robin’s academic achievements, please see Kid’s Press and Our Family Story on our web.)
Ms. Wang’s interest in home schooling fueled her plans to open a quality learning center for kids of all ages. Ms. Wang believes strongly in the concept of education as a lifetime investment. Early childhood education sets the stage for life.
Since there is no one-size-fits-all in teaching and learning, each child needs to be assessed as a unique individual. To discover, respect and follow a child’s own interest and learning style makes teaching and learning ten times more effective.
Comparing Types Of Conservatory Blinds
February 28, 2005
The cost of furnishing a conservatory can catch many people out, in fact it can often cost more than the conservatory itself. Conservatory Blinds can be very expensive so it is important to know what the choices are and what value a particular blind will bring. This article looks at the most common types and discusses the individual merits of each one.
Pleated Blinds
Pleated blinds are argueably the most attractive conservatory blind. They are available in a huge range of frabics and colours and have a modern elaborate look. They are a value alternative to pinoleum blinds and can be made with reflective material, which will help to maintain a more pleasing temperature. Typically, the pleats come in 25mm width but are increasingly available in 20mm. Pleated blinds are very versatile and can be used in any style of conservatory. Made to measure pleated blinds are readily available.
Pinoleum Blinds
Pinoleum blinds are the most traditional type of conservatory blind. Pinoleum is the name given to strips of thin wood which are woven together in different patterns. Roman or Rolled-up Pinoleum blinds are available. One of the great advantages of pinoleum blinds is that they let in a diffused light between the strips of wood. This gives them a great look. However, the downside is that maintaining the temperature is harder as heat comes in as well as light. This is obviously a problem is controlling temperature is the major concern, in which case this type of blind is probably not the right choice. Having said that it is possible to fix a reflective material to the back of the blind, but then the pleasant light effect is lost which is one of the major attribute of pinoleum blinds.
Roller Blinds
As previously discussed, conservatories are often tarnished by the high and low temperatures and the glare of bright sunlight. Also, bright light can damage furniture and ruin your favourite plants. However, you do not want to block out all light completely otherwise what would the point of a conservatory be. Roller blinds are a very versatile solution, while not as attractive as pinoleum or pleated blinds, they do offer a very practical solution. Also, they are great value and are usually at the lower end of the budget range. Roller blinds come in either standard sizes or made to measure. Or you can even adjust them yourself. Another advantage is that as they are typically made from synthetic material, roller blinds can be easily cleaned. Also, you can get reflective material to help keep the conservatory cool in winter and the heat out in the summer. Roller blinds are the easiest type of blind to fit yourself. The blind sits between two brackets that are fixed to the inside or outside of the window recess.
Hopefully this brief discussion will provide some assistant in choosing your blinds. As a general rule it is always a good idea to learn from other people’s experience and so tap into friends and family who have already gone through this process. In addition talk to some experts and get some no obligation quotes, but make sure you know what is being quoted for.
Garry John is a regular contributor to uk home improvement websites such as http://www.uk-conservatories-online.co.uk and http://www.uk-conservatory-blinds.co.uk
Give Bad Habits the Boot!
February 28, 2005
Everybody has bad habits. Everybody. Now granted, some people have less than others and some people’s bad habits are more grating than those of others, but we all have them. What is great is that we don’t have to!
Imagine a life where you couldn’t change? What kind of life would that be? But we can, so let’s!
There are two kinds of bad habits: Those you know you have that others may or may not know about, and those you don’t know you have but everybody else knows you have!
For the sake of everybody involved we ought to get rid of them all, right?
Well Chris, how can I get rid of a bad habit if I don’t know I have it? Simple, but hard. Ask somebody to be brutally honest with you! You might think, “Yeah, but I’ll be embarrassed.” Would you rather everyone talk behind your back? Get up the courage and ask. Ask somebody who loves you and has your best interest in mind. Be gracious and don’t defend your self. Just accept it and work on it.
What about the ones we know about - which are all of them once your good friend tells you the ones you were missing? Those are the tough ones. How do I know they are tough? They must be tough if you know about them and yet you still have them! If they weren’t tough, they would be FORMER bad habits! Got me? Good!
So how do you break a bad habit? How do you give it the boot out of your life? Here are a few things that must be a part of the plan in order to see that stuff gone forever!
1. You must want them to go. That’s right, some people want them to stick around. I have seen dads choose alcohol over their grandchildren. I have seen smokers continue smoking while watching their parents die of emphysema. They don’t want them to go. The first thing is to go deep into the recesses of your heart and ask, “Do I really want to give this up?”
2. You do? Good. Step two: Make up a list of all of the reasons you want to quit your bad habits. Make them positive. Make the list long! Start with the really powerful and dramatic if you need to. Now memorize them. Put them in your mind. You are making connections between stopping the bad behavior with what good things you will get from doing so. If you want to lose weight, then picture yourself slim and looking good in those skinny people clothes! If you want to stop smoking, picture your wife actually kissing you rather than sending you to the bathroom to brush your teeth!
3. Choose. That is right. Once you have the information, this comes down to one thing: It is an act of the will. Choose to do it. Say to yourself throughout the day, “I am choosing to…” Eisenhower rightly said, “The history of free men is written not by chance but by choice, their choice.” It is your choice. You can write your history.
4. Take action! Point four is tricky because there are two philosophies about this. One theory is that you must take massive action. You must go all or nothing. Using the weight loss example, this person would go spend $500 to join a gym, rework their schedule and hit the treadmill everyday for a year. They will get rid of all fat in the house. They go all out! That works for some. Others would burn out on that, feel like failures and be worse off than before. They should start out slow, taking baby steps, but working diligently toward a planned goal. This person would decide to start walking three days a week. They would decide to limit dessert to two nights a week, down from seven. See how this works? Either way is okay as long as you get to the goal eventually. Which one am I? The first two people to email me with the correct guess will win a “Best Test” CD.
5. Tell somebody. This is your accountability partner. Tell them your goal and tell them your plan. Write it down for them and have them ask you on regular intervals about your progress. This will prove invaluable!
6. Recover from failure. Inevitably most people will have setbacks. The key is to have them be setbacks and not turnbacks! Pick yourself up and get going again. Some people may want to lose 30 pounds and after losing fifteen they eat a gallon of ice cream. Then they feel bad and give up. Don’t! Reset your goal for another two weeks and get going again. Chalk it off to experience! Say to yourself, “Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn.”
7. Reward yourself. That’s right. You should regularly congratulate yourself by rewarding yourself with some gift to yourself. Start small with small victories and plan a big one when you are finally and for sure over the habit.
Is it that simple? Most of the time, no. Habits are hard to break. There are so many intangibles that it would be hard to cover them all. But this is a simple and workable plan that will help you make great strides if you apply the principles.
Get going! Give those bad habits a boot! Good luck!
About The Author:
Chris Widener is a popular speaker and writer as well as the President of Made for Success, a company helping individuals and organizations turn their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their lives and achieve their dreams.
To see Chris “live” at the upcoming Jim Rohn Weekend Event as he speaks on the subject of Secrets of Influence go to http://Chris-Widener.InspiresYOU.com/ or call 800-929-0434.
Just What Is A Learning Disability?
February 28, 2005
A learning disability is defined as a permanent problem that affects a person with average to above average intelligence, in the way that he/she receives, stores, and processes information.
There are many wrong ideas out there about learning disabilities. For example:
1) A learning disability will go away in time. Unfortunately, this is not true. The good news is, you can learn ways to get around the problem. For example, kids who have trouble taking notes in class, like Michele did, can record the class on audiotape. Other students can make copies of the notes they have taken for them. The teacher can make copies of the notes they are lecturing from. Or, when the notes are written on an overhead transparency during the lecture, they can be copied after class and given to the student.
For children who have trouble reading, tapes of many of the textbooks are made available through the publishing companies. At one school where I taught volunteers did the taping. We also used tapes that were recorded by a company called Recordings for the Blind.
2) A person with a learning disability has a low IQ. Again - not true. A person with a learning disability has an average or better IQ. There are many people who are very smart, but for some reason, they cannot learn as well as their IQ suggests they should. I tell my students that having a learning disability is really a compliment because it means that they are very smart! Unfortunately, because a negative by-product of a learning disability is often low self-esteem they don’t always believe me. So remember, the self-esteem issue is as important to deal with as the learning disability itself!
3) A person with a learning disability is just lazy. There has to be a reason why the person with LD doesn’t learn the way he should. Perhaps his brain doesn’t process the information the right way. He may process information much slower than other people. Or he may not process what he sees effectively. Some people can’t process what they hear as well as what they see. Other people can’t remember information unless it’s repeated again and again, and some people have real trouble getting the information out of that filing system they have in their brain. Typically people with learning disabilities work harder than others - but with lesser results. It’s not about hard work - it’s a learning disability.
4) A person with a learning disability can’t do anything right. Even though a child may have a learning disability in one or two areas, it doesn’t mean they can’t do anything right. My daughter struggled with a disability in math, but what a wonderful writer she is! And she has more knowledge about how to get around a computer than many people have - I envy that ability because I think I have a learning disability in that area! I’ve known students who, even though they struggled with math or reading, were excellent around heavy equipment or automobile engines or carpentry or drafting. Many could do things with a computer that seemed impossible.
The important thing is that, if your child has a learning disability, or even if you suspect he might have one, learn everything you can so that you will know what to expect and what not to expect from him as well as from his teachers and his educational program. That way you will be able to understand and help him in the best way possible.
While none of us wishes our child to have a learning disability, if he or she does, recognizing and dealing with that fact is the intelligent approach to take. It’s only when we recognize the truth about our child’s condition, that we can learn how to maximize his or her abilities and minimize their dis-abilities.
Want to be an advocate for your child? Read “10 Ways You Can Advocate for Your Child with a Learning Disability” at http://www.ldperspectives.com/freeinfo.6.asp.
For more up-to-date plain talk about learning disabilities, please visit us at www.ldperspectives.com.
About the Author
Sandy Gauvin is a retired educator who has seen learning disabilities from many perspectives - as the parent of a daughter with learning disabilities, as the teacher of children with learning disabilities, and as an advocate for others who have diagnosed and unrecognized learning disabilities. Sandy shares her wisdom and her resources at www.LDPerspectives.com.
What Diet Your Skin Needs: Find Out!
February 28, 2005
There is no denying the fact that appropriate diet not only benefits your health, but also your SKIN. A stressful life (inadequate care) and unhealthy eating are two major reasons for poor skin and various skin problems like rashes, dry skin, black circles under your eyes, pimples, acne, pigmentation etc. There are other secondary reasons too which can affect your skin like at the time of pregnancy when there is hormonal change or genetic problem i.e either you have oily or dry skin because of your genes. But more than 70% of the affected skin is due to the primary reasons and one of the major primary reason is inappropriate diet.
Different skin needs different type of diet. But there are few general rules for healthy skin which are universal for everyone.
Here is the list of the rules:
a) Water, the magical drink, acts as the best medicine for the skin. It not only refreshes you and make your skin glow but also purifies your body which makes the body run most effectively. Read the benefits of water and how it helps your skin glow just a click away at http://www.weightloss-health.com/Water_Benifits.htm.
b) Vitamins are as essential to skin as oxygen to body. Some vitamins do a world of good to your skin. These vitamins are mandatory for glowing and healthy skin.
List of Vitamins essential for your glowing skin and their sources (natural):
1) Vitamin C : It can be easily found in all citric fruits like orange etc.
2) Vitamin A : Sources for Vitamin A are papaya, orange, egg yolk etc.
3) Vitamin B : It is found in all leafy vegetables along with fruits. Other sources are Whole grains , brewers yeast etc.
4) Vitamin E : It is found in oilseeds, vegetables like broccoli , nuts etc.
Trust me, it isnt that difficult to maintain a healthy skin. All you need to take care of it properly and make sure you eat well. You can always consult your skin specialist for the right diet and simply follow it.
More on healthy food ( http://www.weightloss-health.com/healthy%20food.htm ) and free healthy recipes ( http://www.weightloss-health.com/Recipes.htm ) of all kinds .
About the Author
Jasdeep: for http://www.weightloss-health.com your complete and most comprehensive family guide on Health.
Also get free tips and tricks on weight loss, diet and muscle Building at Healthy Diet Tips, Myths and Facts
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Letting Go Of Perfection
February 28, 2005
“The power of discovery enables us to achieve excellence without having to be “perfect.’”
? Thomas Crum, The Magic of Conflict
I arrived at the conference center ready to present my workshop. Almost immediately I noticed the room was too small and it was not set up as requested. There were no flipcharts and there were tables, though I had specifically asked for open space. I caught myself and smiled. I drew the word D I S C O V E R Y in large letters on a piece of newsprint and put it at the front of the room as a reminder.
Discovery.
One of my favorite words, the concept of Discovery excites the brain, conjures up lost treasure, desert islands, new inventions, and old relics, something that was ?- up to now ?- unknown. Explorers discover new lands, scientists discover cures for diseases, and philosophers seek to discover the truth.
What about discovering each other? Learning what is new and important in each of our neighbors, friends, family, colleagues; what has been lost in the daily grind of work; truths, values, and hopes that are yet to be revealed? Discovery. A lovely word.
I first came to appreciate Discovery in The Magic of Conflict, where Thomas Crum describes it as a magical domain that “allows us to move beyond the fight, beyond success, to an open realm of possibility.” When we’re in Discovery mode, we are spontaneous, curious, fascinated, and appreciative of life in all its diversity.
Young children live in Discovery and sometimes we do. Katharine Hepburn lived a life of stardom but never lost her childlike fascination with people and life. Thomas Edison’s famous quotation after many attempts at inventing the light bulb shows a person in Discovery mode: “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work!”
Perfection.
What’s the opposite of Discovery? Perfection ?- a place with which we’re all too familiar. In Perfection, things have to be done right, we have to look good, get good grades, and win the games we play. Our standards are high, and failure is to be avoided at all costs. In daily conflicts, sometimes at the expense of our dearest relationships, we have to prevail. When we feel attacked we fight back, sometimes with our own hurtful words, or with behavior calculated to control, manipulate and diminish.
Shifting Gears.
According to Tom Crum, when we shift into Discovery, we treat mistakes as outcomes and conflicts as opportunities to learn and understand more of the world and our partners. We stop being afraid to fail because there is no failure, only increased awareness and experience. We enter a world of wonder, spontaneity, and fun.
What Can I Learn Here?
We shift into Discovery, not with judgment, but with awareness -?by moving from “How can I be right about this?” to: “What can I learn here?”
When I’m angry because I just missed a three-foot putt, Discovery changes self-judgment into an opportunity for learning.
In the middle of a tough meeting with your department manager, try asking yourself — “What can I learn here?” What is it about this issue that’s important to each of us?
Upon arriving home, you find your life partner upset.Your first reaction is that it’s something you did. But wait! “What can I learn here?” jumps into your thoughts, and you ask: “Honey, you seem upset. Anything I can help with?” And you hear: “I’m just worried that I won’t finish this new project they gave me at work in time.”
Or your teenager is exhibiting new habits that have you worried. It’s worth checking out what the worldview is from her perspective before reaching a judgment.
We’ve all experienced moments of Discovery when we break through to a new understanding. It’s a powerful place that we like and want to revisit. The challenge is to choose to go there on purpose, especially in difficult situations. Katharine Hepburn has been quoted as saying, “Wouldn’t it be great if people could get to live suddenly as often as they die suddenly?” Shifting from Perfection to Discovery is the way. Try it. Discover for yourself.
© 2004 Judy Ringer, Power & Presence Training
You’re welcome to reprint this story. If you do, please include this reference: Judy Ringer is a conflict and communication skills trainer, black belt in aikido, and sole owner of Power & Presence Training. For ideas and inspiration on conflict, communication, and creating the life you want, visit us online at http://www.JudyRinger.com/
