Old-fashioned Ways To Inspire ChildrenWritten by Nicole Dean
Walk through any toy store and you will see walls and walls of toys that are loud -- toys that require batteries, have flashing lights, or that look like your child's favorite movie character.But, what about those of us who want to raise children with imagination and curiosity? I'll tell you what we do. We choose to fill our houses with some of following old-fashioned items. Books No house can have enough books. Make sure your house has a representation of great Fiction Books and non-fiction books. A mix of two is very important. Most homes have a deficit of non-fiction books, so fill your home with Science, History and Art books. Children need to learn to read and appreciate non-fiction books in order to do well in research when they reach higher levels of study. Felt Boards Children love to tell stories with felt. You'll need a felt board to start. You can make your own board from a sheet of felt or purchase a board from one of suppliers below. Once you have board, let fun begin. Go to a craft or fabric store and buy sheets of felt in all colors. Then, cut out shapes in all colors and sizes. (You'll be amazed at how quickly a child will make an alien, ship, house, or person out of nothing but a few circles, rectangles, and triangles.) Blocks and Legos Children can play for hours building towers, bridges, cities, creatures, and more with these toys that inspire creativity, patience, and small-motor skills. When masterpiece is finished, have your child pretend to be a giant and smash through blocks -- or grab a few small cars and drive around new city! Be sure to name city and have your child tell you all about it. Art Supplies Give your child some crayons, scissors, junk mail, and glue. He or she will be entertained for hours if given encouragement. Please SUPERVISE closely if you don't want your child to have a self-induced bad haircut or attach dog to her artwork!
| | Protecting Your Kids On the InternetWritten by Aaron T. Hyde
The Internet is a great tool for many things, such as doing research, reading latest news, shopping and staying in touch with family and friends. To borrow from title of a Clint Eastwood movie, along with good comes "the bad and ugly". Freedom on Internet also opens door for illegal activity, such as emails pretending to be your bank (aka phishing), expression of various ideas - whether you agree with them or not, scams to separate people from their money and content that some find objectionable, like pornography. While searching Internet for homeschool support groups, to ask for permission to list their web site as a resource in HomeSchoolEXPOs' Support Groups & Organizations directory, I became a victim of porn-napping. I didn't know this term existed until I decided to do research for this newsletter. My purpose was to help other parents, who are short on time, learn about what they can do to protect their children who use Internet. Porn-napping happens when a non-pornography domain or web site address becomes inactive and it is purchased by a pornography business. The site might have closed down or owner didn't renew their ownership. Once pornography business owns address, they post their content on it. Below is an example of how I was porn-napped. Let's say there is a homeschool support group called Family Homeschooling. Their web site address is www.familyhomeschooling.com. The group discontinues because all of children have graduated high school and have gone to college. The parents decide not to renew ownership of their website address. A pornography business discovers support groups' web address is available and decides to buy it. Now that they own address, they post their content under domain www.familyhomeschooling.com, with no warning of content that is coming. Another tactic they may employ is something called a re-direct. This happens when you click on or type in a web site address they have purchased, e.g. www.familyhomeschooling.com, and you are re-directed to another site with their content. Re-directing is not illegal. Many web sites use this feature for functions such as load balancing or redirecting users to a sites new web address because it has changed.
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