The Joy of Learning

Baby Einstein DVDs, which were promoted as educational for babies but recently determined to be not-quite-educational, are going through a PR mess.

In the US, they’re offering a $15.99 refund no matter the original purchase price on any Baby Einstein DVD purchased between 2004 and Sept 2009. See details here.You can fill up the form on that page and tell them the date that you purchased it, and send in the DVD… up to 4 per household.

You may happened to have bought yours used on Amazon or Ebay at approx $2 each plus $3 shipping each, spending only $20 to get 4 Baby Einstein DVDs, and then let’s say you spend a couple bucks to send all four in together (just fill out separate forms).

You’ll receive $64 back as a refund, which they say is current market value. So… $42 bucks ahead if you recently bought them used. Or $64 if you already owned some. But this is only for people who already purchased these DVDs in the past. If you were to buy it today, it wouldn’t be honest to list an earlier date on that form. I guess you may have to use your best estimate, if you can’t recall exactly. Offer is valid until March 2010.

Here in the United States, the libraries host book sales every now and then. It’s usually a fund raiser event runs by Friends of the library. There are tons of books for sale for a dime a dozen, mostly donated from the public and the money raised from the book sale benefits the local library system and its patrons.

I like to go to this book sales to pick up books. Father in law collects old books, so if I see one that I think he would like, I would buy it for him. A friend of mine actually go to this book sales to pick up books for resell. She has a barcode scanner that she could scan to find out the reselling price of the used books, isn’t that cool. She will pick up tons of books that have good resell values and resell them online!

Our friend’s teenage daughter just came home after spending a year in Peru as an exchange student. She had taken what the Europeans called “A Gap Year”. She left after her SPM to join the exchange program. So, she would be going back to school to do her sixth form, a year later than her peers. Her parents are extremely supportive of her decision, in fact, they are the ones who were instrumental in getting her to apply to the exchange program!

Some people may think it’s a waste of a year as she will be graduating and getting out to work a year later than her peers. But, I think the experience she had as an exchange student in a foreign country is a fatastic learning adventure for her. She might have learned about South America’s history and geography in the classroom and have seen the beautiful pictures of the Andes in the text books or dreamed about a Machu Picchu travel. But, nothing beats living in a foreign land for a year while trying to learn a new language. The experience certainly opened up her eyes and mind to many new and exciting things.

It’s so disheartening to read in the newspaper that an irresponsible mother was arrested for hosting an underage drinking party! In this small college town, you have drive-through liquor stores at every corner of the streets! A few weeks ago, there was also a news about a drunk driver who crashed into a store front!

The statistics tells us motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens, accounting for more than one in three deaths in this age group. In 2005, twelve teens ages 16 to 19 died every day from motor vehicle injuries. No wonder you have to say goodbye to cheap auto insurance when you have a teen driver in the household!

Equestrian Therapy is horseback riding for the disabled children and adults with cerebral palsy, mental retardation, autism, learning disability, stroke and accident victims.The riding exercises aim to build muscle strength, balance and coordination, thus increase joint mobility and perceptual skills.

By combining equestrian techniques with concepts of physical therapy,  this creates therapeutic riding for mentally and physically disabled people. Rather than the routine of other therapies, equestrian therapy is practiced in an atmosphere of fun and sport.

The rider learns traditional horsemanship skills to control the horse, thus increasing his or her self-esteem as well as improving their physical abilities. Equestrian Therapy also challenges students in a way they have seldom been challenged before.

The opportunity to lead a horse, to groom and help saddle it, are very real sources of excitement and accomplishment. The natural affinity between people and horses is a powerful way of encouraging the disabled to achieve their full potential.

Almost every disabled person can benefit from therapeutic riding. In less than fifteen minutes a walking horse takes a thousand steps. Each one requires the rider to use their muscles to maintain balance and their mind to control the horse.

Most of the non-profit organizations dedicated to teaching horseback riding to children and adults with physical and mental disabilities are in need of volunteers and cash donations to buy saddles, bridles, horse supplements and other tack items.

As a child develops along mentally, emotionally, and physically, he is eager to move and explore the ever enlarging environment. But in order to give the child this wonderful freedom to explore, the home environment needs to be prepared with a fine-tooth comb.

Montessori encourages using a floor bed instead of a crib so that the child is free to leave his floor bed to move about the room, and later the other rooms. This is possible only if the environment is child proof i.e. plugs are covered, wires are taped to the wall or floor, no poisonous plants or chemical within reach, any sharp objects that could harm the child are removed.

As the child begins to crawl quickly and to walk, the adults must continue to childproof the house. A 2-foot high gate which can be stepped over by the adult, creates a safe and interesting spaces for the child through the house. At first the gate can be kept at the door of the bedroom. Later, when the child is exploring outside his room, it can be used to protect the child from unsafe rooms i.e. home office, the kitchen, or any other place that is not yet childproofed. The glassware, knives and your favorite paella pan all need to be kept out from the reach of young children.

It’s important to guide our children to proper etiquettes, as how children behave mostly reflect on the parents. How do you teach grace and courtesy to your children?

Here are some basic grace and courtesy lessons we need to teach our children, the earlier we get them familiar will be the better.

Do you still remember the news of a van driver who accidentally left a six year old girl in a van parked in the heat and the girl died of dehydration? The girl apparently fell asleep at the back seat of the van and the driver didn’t notice she was still there because he was in a hurry to rush off. He came back to the van about an hour later to find the girl dead.

Despite of all this news, I saw a mother who left her toddler alone in a locked car with engine running  and a pink Sony Vaio on the front seat, while she went into the bank for about 5 minutes! Her toddler was climbing back and forth from the front seat to the back seat while her mother was away! It was so dangerous!!

You should never leave your child alone in the car unattended nor let your child holds the car keys. Have you heard about the story of a mother who had her child accidentally locked in a car parked in the heat? What happened was : she put her child with the keys at the back seat, between the time of shutting the back door and opening the front door, the little child pushed the “lock” button!

So, always make sure that you have everything ready before putting your children into the car. You should keep the car keys out of reach from your child and keep spare keys of your car and your house as well!!

As a little girl, whenever I am asked what present I would like for my birthday, my answer has always been “Books!”. Books were all I need to immerse and drown in the beautiful world of the story, or to allow myself to think hard trying to understand what’s being read.

I enjoy reading so much that it influences my younger siblings, they grew up reading all my book collections and inherited my habit of splurging big portion of salary on books. The best gifts I have ever received are books. In fact, the gifts I would buy for children are books.

What about you? Have you bought a book for yourself or your beloved kids this week? The next time when your children receive birthday invitations from their friends, get them some of their favorite books !

Not all Montessori schools are created the same, especially not all Montessori that called themselves Montessori are true to the philosophy of Montessori education.

As parents who are going to pay good money for a Montessori education, it’s important that you educate yourself on what is Montessori, so that you get what you pay for and your child gets what he deserves.

You may find this “Montessori 101” helpful in giving you some basic information that you should know so that you can differentiate the pearls from fish eyes.