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Check out this amazing method for learning how to multiply! Well, it’s an amazing story for learning, specifically, what 4 x 9 is. Or maybe it’s not so much amazing as it is baffling.

Darren Michalczuk’s YouTube channel The Brick School has several videos along this line. They are a few years old, but Michalczuk continues to push his learning method at his website Brain Magic. You can even buy apps to teach your child this method! Michalczuk has written quite a few education articles about the magic of learning that are as incomprehensible as the Magic Numbers series.

Of course it’s satire, but it’s played so straight across the web for so many years that it’s a masterful feat. You have to wonder if anyone ever took it seriously. My guess is that it would be easy to take it seriously if you just read the ads for the apps. The articles, well, someone with less-than-stellar critical thinking skills might swallow them whole, but the videos area real WTF moment. -via Digg

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Dr. Michael Darden is a highly trained pediatrician and allergist. But he's more than just a man of science. He also has a gifted bedside manner. Here he is in his D.C.-area clinic giving two shots to a toddler. This would normally cause a young child to howl in pain. But Dr. Darden is so entertaining that instead the little boy laughs.

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Here's another interesting video. It's an interview with Dr. Darden. At the 5:10 mark, he shares a fascinating story. When he was still in high school, he worked in a hospital. At the age of about 16 or 17, he had the opportunity to observe an autopsy. The body was that of someone that he knew well. It was, for Dr. Darden, an early encounter with the mysterious boundary between life and death.

-via Huffington Post

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Russian drummer Lyonya Shilovsky is three years old, but he’s already a pro! Watch him play drums with the Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra. The song is Jacques Offenbach’s “Orpheus in the Underworld,” which most of just call “The Can-Can.” Lyonya only loses the beat twice: when he drops his sticks, and when his father interupts him to pose for a picture. How does that compare to your concentration when you were three years old? -via Daily Picks and Flicks

Married couple David and Kelly Sopp (previously at Neatorama) wrote a book full of comic advice they call "Safe Baby Pregnancy Tips." The book, perfect for expectant parents, is a lighthearted look at a time when couples (particularly mothers-to-be) are often overwhelmed by solicited and not-so-solicited bits of advice on pregnancy and child rearing. See more at Trend Hunter.

Noah and Lucas Aldrich are inseparable brothers. Lucas was born with the brain disorder lissencephaly, which affects his growth and development. Lucas does not walk or talk, but thanks to his parents and brother, he gets to do a lot of things able-bodied kids do. Eight-year-old Noah recently entered a youth triathlon, and he took Lucas along. He pulled him on a bicycle, towed him while swimming, and pushed him while running. Sing it with me now: “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.” See more pictures of Noah and Lucas at Buzzfeed.

(Image credit: Lucas House at Facebook)

When he was 3 years old, Gagan Satish's parents gave him a pair of roller skates. He showed remarkable proficiency with them. They approached a professional skating trainer and asked for his help. Soon Gagan was mastering the art of limbo skating. That's skating very low to the ground.

Gagan can split so far that he can skate while rising no higher than 7 inches off the ground. Recently, Gagan, now 6 years old, tried to break a Guinness World Record for limbo skating under cars. He skated under 39 cars for a total of about 230 feet in 29.8 seconds!

Guinness has yet to confirm his new record, but it appears to break the current record of 158 feet.

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-via Gizmodo

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Chris Grava did a semester abroad at Cape Town University in South Africa. When his term was almost up, his brother Nick went there to spend two weeks. Nick ended up staying permanently to work at the Home of Safety in Khayelitsha, a foster home for orphans and vulnerable children, where he is now managing director. Chris and his parents visit when they can, and when Chris recently went for a visit, he was wearing his GoPro camera. The joy on the kids’ faces at seeing their old friend is a treat, and pretty soon the youngsters had to try out the camera for themselves. Learn more about Nick Grava’s work in South Africa at Intsikelelo. -via reddit

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You know how they make video ads in Thailand, so go ahead and get your hanky ready. This one won’t tear your heart out over someone’s horrible plight, though -it’s a simple vignette featuring an adorable baby and his/her parents. And even though it’s from a mobile phone company, the tag line is killer. -via Boing Boing

(Image Via Orlando-Florida.net)

Contrary to popular belief, not every young girl is obsessed with Disney princesses, some have moved on to more mature interests, like fine dining and world travel, and these girls simply aren’t impressed by Disney royalty.

One such unimpressed ten-year-old left a scathing one star review on TripAdvisor after visiting Cinderella’s Royal Table restaurant in Walt Disney World because she wasn’t there to get a pic with Cinderella and Prince Charming- she was there for the “highly recommended” menu.

(Image Via Brasil VIP)

She was appalled when the Prince and Princess insisted on a photo, mortified when the waiter tried to hand her a kid’s menu full of chicken nugget level fare, and downright irate when her dinner arrived “cold and relatively tasteless”.

And here’s how she felt about the clientele and staff:

"Let it be said that the entire time we spent there, [there] were little children running around screaming and yelling, chasing the princesses, and hitting each other with the little plastic wands."

"the experience was not what was expected and was a complete madhouse with a lackluster staff. Save your money and go to basically anywhere else in WDW."

Don't get on that little girl's bad side Disney, or Mickey Mouse is next!

-Via Grubstreet

Raising children is an art, a science, and exhausting. Melissa Sher, the blogger known as Mammalingo, has done a lot of hands-on research on the subject. She's here to lay down some knowledge on you in 17 charts that have undoubtedly been peer-reviewed and subjected to experimental replication.

Yes, the color of the cup is very important. And the earlier in the morning it is, the more important the color becomes. You may not understand why, but your toddler does.

A few days ago, Nathan Steffel (redditor steffel07) posted a heartbreaking request: "My daughter recently passed away after a long battle in the children's hospital. Since she was in the hospital her whole life we never were able to get a photo without all her tubes. Can someone remove the tubes from this photo?"

Sophia was born with a liver tumor, and was waiting for a transplant when she died from complications on July 10. She was six weeks old. Photoshop artists immediately went to work, and produced many versions of Sophia’s picture. Continue to see some of the highest-rated.

Kids love to draw, and they don’t care what those drawings look like because why should they? They’re kids, having fun doing something that also helps them develop skills like hand eye coordination, spatial awareness, and proportion, skills that might someday develop into serious art skills.

Dutch muralist Telmo Pieper was one of those free sketching kids over twenty years ago, and to show how his artistic skills have blossomed over the years he created a series of digital paintings that reprise masterpieces created by his four-year-old self.

Telmo tries to match the forms from the original kid drawings, while adding shading and dimension to each piece, which only serves to make them look even more odd than the original sketch! Still, I would totally drive that stretchy car...

-Via Bored Panda

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Yup. This basically summarizes my kids reaction to PDA. Ilikepiforbreakfast shares this cute family photo showing two young children horrified by their parents kissing in public.

This photo series by French photographer Laure Fauvel shifts the power in favor of the children in the classic monster under the bed/in the closet scenario. These armed kids come out on top in Fauvel's photographs, as their monsters wave the proverbial white flag of surrender. It would certainly be an empowering photo to hang on the bedroom walls of children who are fearful of "things that go bump in the night." Via Trendhunter

Images Credit: Laurie Fauvel
 

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Troy Dickerson had the presence of mind to attach a GoPro camera to his hat so he could record the birth of his baby when the time came. Then it happened. His wife Kristen said it was time to go to the hospital. She said, “Hurry!” And he kept saying they’re almost there, hold on. Can she hold on? Will they make it to hospital before the baby comes? They sure are cutting it close! -via Viral Viral Videos