Archive Category: Baby & Kids
Don’t Stop Believin’
(vimeo link)
Eight-year-old Riley Silos sings in this video recorded and edited by his dad. It was a Fathers Day project they did together. -via Buzzfeed
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Life Imitates Unbreakable: Boy Survived Being Hit by a Car Unscathed
Four-year-old Turkish boy Muhammet Dirlik is one lucky boy: he was hit by a car, which sent him tumbling down a flight of stairs. But what seems like a surely fatal accident left Muhammet unscathed.
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube], and quick, someone stop M. Night Shyamalan before Signs or The Happening happens or we’re doomed!
Previously: Life Imitates Final Destination: Woman Who Missed Air France Flight 447 Died in a Car Crash 2 Weeks Later
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The Girl Who Does Not Age
At 16 years of age and weighing only 16 pounds, Brooke Greenberg has a previously-undescribed condition which in many aspects seems to show an absence of aging of the body.
She is infantile in size, but she does not have ordinary dwarfism. She still has her baby teeth. Her cognition is that of a child. Her bone age is only that of a 10-year old.
Does Brooke hold the secret to the fountain of youth? Her physicians are hopeful that sorting out the mechanism for her persistent youthful characteristics might lead to more insights on the normal process of aging:
Brooke hasn’t aged in the conventional sense. Dr. Richard Walker of the University of South Florida College of Medicine, in Tampa, says Brooke’s body is not developing as a coordinated unit, but as independent parts that are out of sync. She has never been diagnosed with any known genetic syndrome or chromosomal abnormality that would help explain why.
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8th Grader’s Amazing Basketball Shot
[YouTube - Link]
Aaron Shutway, an 8th grader from Brecksville-Broadview Heights Middle School, makes an amazing half court shot to put his class in a frenzy.
- via sports
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Pixar Grants Last Wish
10-year-old Colby Curtin of Huntington Beach, California had been anxiously looking forward to the movie Up since she saw the first previews. Colby battled vascular cancer for three years, and when the movie was released, she was too sick to go to the theater.
After a family friend made frantic calls to Pixar to help grant Colby her dying wish, Pixar came to the rescue.
The company flew an employee with a DVD of Up, which is only in theaters, to the Curtins’ Huntington Beach home on June 10 for a private viewing of the movie.
The animated movie begins with scenes showing the evolution of a relationship between a husband and wife. After losing his wife in old age, the now grumpy man deals with his loss by attaching thousands of balloons to his house, flying into the sky, and going on an adventure with a little boy.
Colby died about seven hours after seeing the film.
Be warned, reading the entire story will make you cry. Pixar declined to make a statement about Colby or the employee who visited her. Link -via Boing Boing
(image credit: Carole Lynch)
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The Bathroom Song
Joel Veitch of rathergood.com and his wife just wanted to record a simple song with/for their kids. The second half of the video shows how difficult that process is! Oh, the “for” part is simple, but the “with” part can take all day. Link -via b3ta
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The Best of School District Bureaucracy: No Summer Break For You!
Summer is nearly here and school’s out! Except for hundreds of poor students in Chino, California, who got an unwelcome surprise news that they have to sit for 34 more days of school because of a clerical error. If they didn’t, the school district would lose millions in funding.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the mindboggling bureaucracy and arcane rules that is the school system:
"We made an error on the minimum days of about five minutes," said Dickson Principal Sue Pederson. "Realistically, that’s our accounting mistake as adults. We’re unfortunately making the children pay for it by making them give up their summer."
Students at each school exceeded the state’s requirement of at least 54,000 minutes of annual classroom time, but the problem arose in the district’s minimum days. Schools typically have one shortened day per week, allowing teachers to use the remaining time for planning and parent conferences. Under state law, these days must be at least 180 minutes, and the daily average classroom time over 10 consecutive days must be 240 minutes.
An internal audit in early May discovered that 34 minimum days had been 175 minutes at Dickson and 170 at Rolling Ridge, said district spokeswoman Julie Gobin. That adds up to a shortage of 170 and 340 minutes, respectively, which could be made up in one or two school days. But under state law, these too-short days do not count at all, meaning that all 34 must be made up to avoid a state penalty of more than $7 million.
Seema Mehta of the Los Angeles Times has the report: Link
(Photo: Christine Cotter / LA Times)
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Snake Charming School for Kids
When other kids are going to kindergarten, the children of the nomadic Indian tribe of Vadi are also going to school of sorts. Except that the ABCs aren’t in the curriculum - instead, these kids are learning to be snake charmers with real cobras:
Divided between the sexes, the act of snake charming with traditional flute is the role of the men, while the Vadi women care for the snakes and handle them when their husbands or brothers are not around.
‘The training begins at two, the children then are then taught the ancient ways of snake charming until they are ready to take up their roles in our community,’ said chief snake charmer Babanath Mithunath Madari, 60.
‘At twelve the children will know everything that they can know about snakes.
‘They are then ready to continue the traditions of the Vadi tribe which can be stretched back over one thousands years to India’s great Raja’s (kings).’
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Very Cool Dragon Cake
Tired of commercialism? Make your own cake! This sleepy dragon with Dragon Eggs (for a 4 year old’s birthday party) is very fun… and all homemade!
If you’re doing your own party, the matching dragon illustration for the Party Invitation is available free for download (CC licensed) here.
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Secret Weapon in the War on Terror: Boy Scout SWAT Team
Photo: Todd Krainin/NY Times
Boy Scouts’s motto "Be Prepared" apparently extends all the way to modern day’s terrorism. In this post 9/11 world, you can’t be too careful, so the Border Patrol in Imperial County, California, has a - shall we say, unique - program for the Scouts:
The Explorers program, a coeducational affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America that began 60 years ago, is training thousands of young people in skills used to confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence — an intense ratcheting up of one of the group’s longtime missions to prepare youths for more traditional jobs as police officers and firefighters.
“This is about being a true-blooded American guy and girl,” said A. J. Lowenthal, a sheriff’s deputy here in Imperial County, whose life clock, he says, is set around the Explorers events he helps run. “It fits right in with the honor and bravery of the Boy Scouts.”
The training, which leaders say is not intended to be applied outside the simulated Explorer setting, can involve chasing down illegal border crossers as well as more dangerous situations that include facing down terrorists and taking out “active shooters,” like those who bring gunfire and death to college campuses. In a simulation here of a raid on a marijuana field, several Explorers were instructed on how to quiet an obstreperous lookout.
Jennifer Steinhauer of The New York Times has more: Link
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World’s Youngest Pool Shark
Whatever you do, don’t bet on a game of pool with two-year-old Keith O’Dell Jr! Neatoramanauts, meet the world’s youngest pool shark. He may still in diapers, but this pool prodigy can surely whip my butt!
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
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An Entire Site Dedicated Uncomfortable Family Photography
We all have them - those horrible moments when we are crowded, pushed and shoved into position so that Uncle X can take a photo of us. Rarely, however, is one enough. Sometimes this process gets repeated over and over again for what seems like ages. One industrious blogger has set about collecting the most memorably terrible such images online in one place. The site does not have much to say about itself but then again: the images really do speak for themselves.
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Tear Gas and Tasers: Kids Get in on the … Fun?
It is hard to resist a Florida joke here but really, it is a wonderful state … for the most part. What is truly amazing is not that dozens of children were tazered in the same state, nor that it was all on the same day, nor that some of them were also tear gassed. No, what is amazing is that this was done almost entirely with parental consent - and on take-your-child-to-work day no less.
Children held hands so that 50,000 volts could pass through their fingers. Other children were exposed to tear gas.
A total of 43 children were directly and indirectly shocked by electric stun guns during simultaneous Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day events gone wrong at three state prisons last month. One was a warden’s daughter.
None of the children required medical attention or were notably harmed, McNeil said. He said the victims, who ranged in age from 5 to 17, were all children of prison officials. In nearly every case, the guards who administered the “electronic immobilization devices” had permission from parents or grandparents.
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Total Momsense 2 by Anita Renfroe
Remember Anita Renfroe’s song about motherhood Total Momsense that went round the Interweb a while ago? Well, she’s back with version no. 2.
Here’s it is: Link [embedded YouTube clip] | Anita’s website
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Dad Photographed Kids Every Day for 13 Years
Photo: Munish Bansal, South West News
Munish Bansal is a proud father of two, with a bit of a photography obsession: he has photographed his children every day for 13 years (so far)!
Accountant Munish, 36, from Gillingham, Kent, said: ‘It started when I took a picture of Suman on the day she was born.
‘I did the same the following day, and the day after, and the day after that. Before I knew it, she had turned one and I had 365 images.
‘It seemed a shame to stop, so I kept going - and did the same when Jay came along. Now I’ve got thousands and thousands of pictures of my two beautiful kids in each and every stage of their lives.’
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7 Kids Guaranteed to Become Trekkies
Momlogic posted a collection of YouTube videos featuring babies and young children who are taking on the roles of Star Trek characters, including Starfleet crew members, Klingons, Ferengi, and even the Enterprise itself. Beam me up, Teddy! Link -via Buzzfeed
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Village of Twins
The worldwide rate of twins is one in every 80 births. In India, the normal rate is lower, only one 250 births. But in the village of Kodinhi, in the Indian state of Kerala, there are at least 250 sets of twins in a population of 2,000 families. And the rate of twin births has been increasing over the past decades. Dr Krishnan Sribiju has been studying the phenomenon.
“Without access to detailed biochemical analysis equipment I cannot say for certain what the reason for the twinning is, but I feel that it is something to do with what the villagers eat and drink.
“If that is the case then maybe whatever is causing this exceptional level of twinning can be bottled and provide help for infertile couples.” Categorising the twin phenomenon as a naturally occurring anomaly, Dr Sribiju has ruled out genetic factors as the cause due to the localised nature of the village.
He also dismisses any suggestion that the unusual level of twins could be caused by an unknown pollutant pointing to the high number of healthy twins born without any deformities.
Preciously at Neatorama: the village of Brazilian Twins.
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Mothers, According to Elementary School Children
Miss Cellania has great posts (as usual) on her blog about Mother’s Day. This particular one really brightened up my day - it’s about a Q&A session with elementary school children about mothers:
Who’s the boss at your house?
1. Mom doesn’t want to be boss, but she has to because dad’s such a goof ball.
2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.
3. I guess Mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.What does your Mom do in her spare time?
1. Mothers don’t do spare time.
2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.What would it take to make your Mom perfect?
1. On the inside she’s already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.
2. Diet. You know, her hair. I’d diet, maybe blue.
Happy Mother’s Day, everybody!
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How to Get Fathers to Share the Workload in Parenting: Let Him
Psst, moms! Want to know the secret of having your husbands pick up some of the workload at home? Here’s the secret:
New research into the idea of "maternal gatekeeping" shows how attitudes and actions by the mother may promote or impede father involvement.
"For women who insist they have the gold standard around parenting and housework, men just tend to walk away," says Joshua Coleman, a clinical psychologist in San Francisco and Oakland. "They feel their own ideas about how the house should look or … how the children should be raised aren’t given equal share."
Kenney presented research she co-wrote at a meeting of the Population Association of America over the weekend. The study of 1,023 couples from 20 large cities in the USA found mothers were protective of their caregiving and educational engagement with the child but were less so for playtime activities that "were not considered threats to the mother’s caregiving identity," the paper says.
"Maybe he’s not more involved because mom is holding him back," Kenney says.
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Goldilocks Gone Bad: Toddlers Ransacked Sleeping Neighbor’s Home
When 2- and 3-year old toddlers John and Matthew Farrar disappeared from their home, neighbors and the police launched a frantic search.
Little did they know that the two were having the time of their young lives playing Goldilocks gone bad, ransacking a sleeping neighbor’s home:
And while [Angie Lovorn] slept, the toddlers ransacked her cupboards, munching on Teddy Grahams, marshmallows and chips. [...]
“They even got on the top bunk," Lovorn said. "These items — stuffed animals — were on the top bunk."
From the looks of the house, the boys enjoyed their visit.
Link - Thanks Tiffany!
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The DMV Never Forgets …
Fifteen-year-old Jesse Jakan passed the written exam and taken a driving course, so he was excited to get his driving permit … except for one teeny tiny glitch: he caused a car accident when he was 6, and the DMV never forgets.
Jesse said the DMV asked him if he had ever driven before. He said "No." He said a DMV supervisor then told him he had a driving record and needed to have his license/permit reinstated.
"At the time, I was furious," said Chris Jakan, Jesse’s dad. "I thought it was the most absurd thing I had ever heard."
When Jesse was 6 years old he was playing around in his mom’s car and popped it out of gear. The car rolled down the driveway and crashed into another car.
"This is ridiculous. A 6-year-old should not be held accountable for his actions at that age," said Chris Jakan. "I am just wondering why a 6-year-old would have been ticketed for driving a car when he wasn’t driving. He popped it out of gear by accident."
Link - Thanks Tiffany!
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Oscar Child For Sale: Father Tried to Sell Slumdog Millionaire’s Rubina Ali
Slumdog Millionaire may have won the Oscars a few weeks ago, but the drama didn’t end when the curtains came down.
Reporter Mazher Mahmood of The News of the World set off a firestorm of controversy when he went undercover in India to buy Slumdog actress Rubina Ali from her poverty-stricken father:
In a bid to escape India’s real-life slums, Rafiq Qureshi put angel-faced darling of the Oscars Rubina up for adoption, demanding millions of rupees worth £200,000.
As he offered the shocking deal to the News of the World’s undercover fake sheik this week, Rafiq declared: "I have to consider what’s best for me, my family and Rubina’s future."
Rafiq tried to blame Hollywood bosses for forcing him to put his daughter up for SALE. As he tried to fix the illegal adoption deal, real-life slum dweller Rafiq declared: "We’ve got nothing out of this film."
Then, almost embarrassed to speak it out loud, he whispered to an accomplice the price tag he has put on his innocent young daughter: "It’s £200,000!"
That was an astonishing FOURFOLD increase on his opening demand. But Rafiq’s equally demanding brother Mohiuddin insisted: "The child is special now. This is NOT an ordinary child. This is an Oscar child!"
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5-year-old Gets Racing Legs
Ellie May Challis of Little Clacton, Essex, England battled meningitis as an infant. She recovered, but her arms and legs had to be amputated. She has since used normal prosthetic legs which were were painful and slow. Now five years old, Ellie has new carbon framed legs, the kind amputee sprinters use.
She was fitted with them three weeks ago – making her the youngest person in the world to have the £10,000 a pair special limbs.
Paul Challis, 45, said: “Ellie can walk twice as fast on these new legs. She is so full of determination.”
The company’s managing director Bob Watts said: “We had to make them especially for Ellie as they had never been made this small before. We were worried that she wouldn’t be able to balance properly on them, but she has made amazing progress.
Ellie’s legs will be replaced every two years as she grows. Link -via Arbroath
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The Secret to Happiness: Sisters!
What’s the secret to happiness? According to a study by the University of Ulster, the answer is: having sisters!
Lead researcher Professor Tony Cassidy said: "Sisters appear to encourage more open communication and cohesion in families.
"However, brothers seemed to have the alternative effect. Emotional expression is fundamental to good psychological health and having sisters promotes this in families."
He said many of the participants had been brought up in families where parents had split and the impact of sisters was even more marked in these circumstances.
"I think these findings could be used by people offering support to families and children during distressing times. We may have to think carefully about the way we deal with families with lots of boys."
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Snuggling with Puppy May Have Saved a Wandering Toddler
When 2-year-old toddler Nathaniel wandered away from his home, his mother Ashley Teafatiller and fellow searchers frantically looked for him … thankfully the story has a happy ending, and an unlikely hero: Nathaniel’s puppy Stanley who kept him warm (and probably alive) during the cold night:
About 150 searchers spread out look for Nathaniel, who had managed to walk more than a mile away from his home, Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield said.
By 11 p.m., a Toldeo firefighter with a portable infrared scanner spotted a heat signal that turned out to be the boy.
"They think Stanley is what kept him going because it was obviously really cold last night," said Teafatiller. Nathaniel was found laying on the cold ground with Stanley snuggled next to him. During his adventure, the boy stripped off his pants and diaper and was found in only a t-shirt and socks.
Link - Thanks Tiffany!
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Kinda Sutra
People talk about the “misconceptions” they had as children concerning sex and reproduction in the film Kinda Sutra.
Where exactly do babies come from? And how are they really made?
Mixing humorous animation and interviews, Jessica Yu poses these questions to a variety of adults and youngsters who explore their earliest understanding of sex, conception and how the two, uh, intersect.
Cute and funny, but probably NSFW unless you wear headphones. Link -via Metafilter
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The Secret of Being Smart AND Popular In School
Can kids be smart and popular with their classmates at the same time? Apparently so: English researchers have found the secret of how high-achieving students can avoid being called "nerds." First: be attractive (and/or athletic) …
Research in nine state secondary schools in England found that the vast majority of "alpha" girls were thought of as physically attractive by classmates, had long straight hair, wore make-up to school and used lots of hair accessories, when this was allowed by the uniform code.
The "alpha" boys, were perceived to be "cute". Many had gelled or styled shorter hair, carried banded sports bags and wore their ties in a "jaunty" or casual way.
Bright boys’ prowess on the playing field was also an important factor in ensuring they avoided derision.
… and two: have a "fall guy" as a friend:
Researchers also identified a "fall guy" phenomenon whereby alpha pupils gain kudos by having a best friend who is more disruptive at school, while avoiding facing the discipline that is meted out to the friend.
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Food Face Dinner Plates
These are a great idea and are certain to get children to play with their food -of course, that may not really help get them to eat their veggies. They will be availible on April 10th and are a reasonable $10.
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Diaper-Free Baby
There’s plenty of things I don’t like about diapers - they’re expensive, they often leak, and they cause bum rash because babies sit in their poo for too long - but I can’t imagine taking care of babies without diapers (my parents told me that they raised me without disposable diapers not because they didn’t want to - but because they didn’t have disposable diapers back then when I was growing up. So they used cloth diapers, which leaked but it wasn’t as bad as wearing no diaper at all they said).
Anyways, apparently there is a movement of sort of promoting a "natural approach" (i.e. diaper-less) to this whole baby poo business:
Elimination Communication, Infant Potty Training, Natural Infant Hygiene, Potty Whispering…whatever you choose to call it, it all refers to the modern adaption of an ancient method of childcare. Traditionally this method was seen and practiced by the whole community, learned naturally over a lifetime. This aspect has largely been lost, yet you can rediscover it on the Practicing EC pages. Think of these as the wisdom of your grandmother, the support of your aunt, the encouragement of your best friend. Celebrate undertaking a journey where caregivers and babies learn and discover together.
Shenanigans or not, to learn more about "potty whispering" (I just love that term!), check out DiaperFreeBaby - via The Zeray Gazette
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Student Protest School’s “No-Touching” Policy
Patrick Abbazia attends his class bound in blue duct tape. He’s not doing it just to be weird - instead, he’s protesting a strange policy of the East Shore Middle School in Milford Connecticut: a "no-touching’ policy that bans physical contact between students!
"Going down the halls it is so cramped that it is hard not to touch anyone," Amanda Bollano said. "But if it is accidental, they won’t do anything. If it is intentional, you might get detention."
Patrick Abbazia said that he and his friends like to give each other "knuckles" and to high-five, and that to ban those actions — when fighting is the problem — doesn’t seem right.
"My mom says it’s not good for a person to go all day without touching,” the eighth-grader said.
(Photo: B.K. Angeletti / Connecticut Post)
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