Paging Dr. Suess! A new study finds that kids ages three to eight really love being read to at bedtime, and the little bookworms would like more stories, mom and dad.
Almost two-thirds of kids surveyed said that they wished that their mother and father would spend more time reading to them. Kids ages three and four were the most hungry for more storytime, with three-quarters of them clamoring for it. And more than half of children ages 3 to 8 said that storytime was their favorite thing to do with their parents, Reuters reports.
“The results of our research confirm the traditional activity of storytelling continues to be a powerful learning and emotional resource in children’s lives,” said child psychologist Richard Woolfson, who conducted the study. “It can be very difficult for parents to find the time to read with their children, but these moments can help build strong bonds and play a vital part in their child’s development.”
Disney/Pixar commissioned the study, which also found that storytime ranked higher than TV or videogames among pasttimes for kids.
It’s touching that the world’s kids are eager to hear a whole stack of books at bedtime, but the cynical parent has to wonder how much that desire really has to do with a budding lust for literature. It could also be part of a savvy ploy to delay bedtime just a few more minutes.
Photo by khrawlings
The 11-month-old boy was mauled to death inside his Detroit area home on Wednesday afternoon. The boy’s father apparently shot the famiy’s pit bull with a handgun, and the dog was dead by the time officers arrived. One neighbor said that the child’s mother was out on the porch, screaming that the dog had the baby by the head.
Friends told the Detroit Free Press that the baby was the family’s “miracle child.” The couple had been told they were unable to have children, but then the mother got pregnant. Police did not release the names of the parents or child.
Way to set an example, mom and dad. One parent kept yelling at a referee after a call. Another parent even screamed at the ref’s daughter, “Your father should be fired!”
So now all the parents whose middle-school teens play on a Bethesda, Md., soccer team are barred from coming within 100 yards of the playing field. Individual parents being punished for unsportsmanlike behavior is increasingly common, but it’s unusual for a big group of parents to be red-carded.
Kathie Diapoullis, league president, that officials had to take a stronger stance. She said that the league had tried to fine parents previously, but parents would just shell out the cash and continue misbehaving.”For the parents to be shrieking on the sidelines and belittling people goes against everything we’re trying to do,” she told the Washington Post.
The ban lasts for two games, and hopefully the parents will come back to the sidelines a little humbled.
Sirdeaner L. Walker says she called her son’s school repeatedly to get teachers to stop the bullies. But she says, school officials, didn’t do enough. On Monday, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover hung himself with an extension cord in his home. He had been a sixth grader at New Leadership Charter School in Springfield, Mass.
“I just want to help some other child. I know there are other kids being picked on,” Walker told WCVB TV News. She said that her son had had a hard time making friends since transferring to New Leadership this year. Classmates allegedly called him gay, mocked his clothes and threatened to hurt him. School officials declined comment.
About 30 percent of kids are either a bully or the victim of bullying, according to the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center. Unfortunately, many of the incidents only come to the attention of adults after a tragedy. Read more about teen suicides and bullying here.
A 4-year-old in Tacoma, Wash., took a wild ride last Thursday, when he somehow managed to slip a parked 1995 Cadillac into gear. While his mom and her boyfriend were in a payday loan store, the child was left buckled in his car seat in the back.
The mother took the keys with her into the store. Turns out, this little speed racer didn’t need no stinking keys.
The child, 11 years shy of a learner’s permit, somehow managed to unbuckle his car seat, climb up front and put the car into neutral, according to MSNBC. The Cadillac rolled backwards, out of the parking lot and onto a very busy street. It then did a U-turn and crashed through the front of a CompuCare store.
“First thing I did was thank God we weren’t open yet because, usually, there’s someone sitting by the window that the kid ran through,” said Jeremy Franklin, CompuCare assistant manager.
For obvious reasons, it’s illegal to leave a child unattended in a vehicle.
The Rev. Todd Thomas knew that Travis Buffington had been convicted in 2006 of possession of child porn, but said he didn’t think the man was a threat. The pastor hired Buffington, 33, as a maintenance man last year for his Maryland church, which also houses a large nursery school. He also said that the hire was cleared by Buffington’s probation officer.
But last week, parents got wind of Buffington’s history. Several pulled their kids out of the Bethesda Cooperative Nursery School. Hell probably has less fury than angry parents, as the pastor found out.
On Sunday, the Church in Bethesda, Md., announced that Buffington had resigned, the Associated Press reported. He is no longer allowed to live in a church-owned house next to the church. He’s still a member of the congregation but is banned from church grounds during school days.
It’s unlikely, even if your kid is spending time outside, according to a new study. Researchers who looked at 3, 4 and 5-year-olds enrolled in 24 community preschool programs found that the children spent 89 percent of their time in activities that could only be characterized as sedentary.
Maybe the sandbox is just too tempting; even when the children spent time outside 56 percent of their activities were sedentary, too. The study also found that preschool teachers very rarely encouraged kids to be active.
“The low levels of children’s activity and the lack of adult encouragement point to a need for teachers to organize, model, and encourage physical activity,” said William H. Brown, professor in the College of Education at USC and the study’s lead author.
Parents who are looking for a preschool should ask teachers what exactly they do to encourage the kids to run around and get their yah-yahs out.
Photo by Jason Tromm
Age is really just a number these days, eh?
Ranjit Hayer delivered twin boys by C-section on Tuesday morning, becoming the oldest woman in Canada to give birth. She and her husband of 43 years had been refused treatment at Canadian fertility clinics because of her age. So Hayer went to India, where she was born, to get donor eggs, the Toronto Globe & Mail reported.
The twins were born seven weeks premature, but seem to be doing fine. Hayer had been pregnant with triplets, but one fetus had to be aborted because of complications.
Canada doesn’t allow fertility treatments for women over age 50. Clinics in the United States and Europe follow similar guidelines. But if you’ve got the cash, doctors in other places are willing to oblige. Frieda Birnbaum of New Jersey gave birth to twin sons in May 2007 after receiving treatments in South Africa. She’s the oldest American woman to give birth to twins.
Last year, two 70-year-old women in India gave birth. One delivered twins, a boy and a girl, and the other gave birth to a girl.
The little girl’s body was found a half mile from her home in upstate New York on Wednesday morning. Cassandra Weronick, 3, was wearing only a T-shirt and diaper, the Daily Freeman reported.
It’s unclear how she managed to leave her house in Mountaindale, NY, or how long she was out. Her parents noticed her missing and called police around 7 a.m., authorities said. A passerby noticed the child’s body, lying in the snow. The temperature hovered in the single digits.
Young children, sometimes sleepwalking, have often wandered out of houses, and occassionally parents have been charged with child neglect. Read about other cases here.
Minee Subee daycare in suburban Chicago was ordered closed on Friday until state officials finish their investigation in the Jan. 24 death of a toddler.
Employee Melissa M. Calusinski is accused of throwing 16-month-old Benjamin Kingan to the floor so hard that he suffered massive head trauma and later died. Calusinski, 22, allegedly had been frustrated because the child was too noisy. Benjamin’s twin sister was one of eight children in the room but was not injured.
Minee Subee in Lincolnshire, which took care of 145 children, briefly closed after the incident but reopened a couple of days after Calusinski was charged with first-degree murder. Calusinski has pleaded not guilty.
The Chicago Tribune has reported that the daycare was cited for three violations during a 2007 state inspection. One of the violations was for failing to supervise children and another was for failing to notify the state agency about an emergency or unusual incident. A Department of Children and Family Services spokesman declined to give details.
A parent and a former co-worker of Calusinski told the Tribune that they had previously voiced concerns about Calusinski’s maturity. The parent said that the employee “wasn’t there mentally” and wrote a letter last year to daycare managers suggesting that she get additional training.