(Photo: Winfield Parks/National Geographic)
This photo from 1964 shows an unusual and awesome seesaw in Tokyo. One child pulls down and the other flies into the air.
Okay, I understand why most kids were never allowed to play on these risky toys. But now that I'm legally an adult, can I have one? Please?
Karl Taro Greenfeld was concerned about the amount of homework his eighth-grade daughter was doing -several hours every night. She wasn't getting enough sleep. Was the homework that hard? So he decided to find out in the most personal way possible: he would do the same homework every night for a week. It was an eye-opening experience, as homework was different when he was a student.
In Southern California in the late ’70s, it was totally plausible that an eighth grader would have no homework at all.
If my daughter came home and said she had no homework, I would know she was lying. It is inconceivable that her teachers wouldn’t assign any.
What has changed? It seems that while there has been widespread panic about American students’ falling behind their peers in Singapore, Shanghai, Helsinki, and everywhere else in science and mathematics, the length of the school day is about the same. The school year hasn’t been extended. Student-teacher ratios don’t seem to have changed much. No, our children are going to catch up with those East Asian kids on their own damn time.
Other parents were concerned about homework, too, but when Greenfeld discussed it with them, he was admonished by the vice-principal. Check out his week of homework assignments and see if you could keep up. How much homework does your child do each night? Link -via Digg
Peter Dinklage, the actor who plays Tyrion Lannister on Game of Thrones, visited Sesame Street. In this clip, he sings about the children's game "Simon Says." At the link, you can see another Sesame Street video starring Lena Headey, who plays Cersei Lannister.
But where is Joffrey? I want to see Joffrey on Sesame Street because Grover wouldn't miss the chance for vengeance, even if it costs him his life.
Karen Suffern is the mother of 8-year old twins, Ryan and Amber. To plan her budget, she asked her kids to write letters to Santa Claus, describing what they want. Ryan had the right priorities:
Her son, Ryan's, letter to Santa started off normally:
"Dear Santa ... I wanted a (remote control) car and helicopter, but I don't want that anymor. Kid at school are still picking on Amber and its not fair," he wrote. "I prayed that they will stop but god is bisy and needs your help."
Suffern felt tears fill her eyes as she read her son's letter asking Santa to help stop the bullying his overweight sister was experiencing at school.
Reading the letter was tough for Suffern. "I try to build up my daughter's self-esteem and tell her she is beautiful, but people say hurtful things to me, because I also have a weight problem, and that hurts me," she said. "I can't imagine what she goes through."
She had a vague idea that Amber was teased on the bus, but she didn't know the extent of the bullying. Amber, who has attention-deficit (hyperactivity) disorder and other mental and mood disorders, never mentioned the teasing.
Link -via Letters of Note
Now that the weather finally is cooling down, it's time for a fun rainy day activity for the youngsters. While you'll do the fun part on a sunny day by applying NeverWet to your sidewalk with a stencil, the real pay off occurs when it rains and the area you painted stays dry.
To celebrate National Play-Doh Day (which happens every September 16th), Stacy Conradt put together ten bits of trivia about the edible molding compound. For example:
2. We might not have Play-Doh if it weren't for Captain Kangaroo. When it was just a fledgling company with no advertising budget, inventor Joe McVicker talked his way in to visit Bob Keeshan, A.K.A. Captain K. Although the company couldn’t pay the show outright, McVicker offered them two percent of Play-Doh sales for featuring the product once a week. Keeshan loved the compound and began featuring it three times weekly. After that, it caught on like wildfire and was featured on DingDongSchool and Romper Room.
The one fact that isn't in the list is why September 16th is National Play-Doh Day. Read the rest at mental_floss. Link
(Image credit: Play-Doh)
Every youngster needs to learn to walk at some point, but it's a lot easier when someone shows you how to do it -especially when that teacher is a cute little fur ball.
For those space geeks who want their children to grow up to appreciate the miracles of the universe, this space-themed alphabet poster by Brad Woodard and Jordan Whittlick is the ultimate nursery poster. Just hope your little one doesn't become too fascinated with the zodiac chart and get into astrology instead.
Link Via Design Taxi
This is so cute! Jeff Highsmith realized that with the vast increase in world population over the past few centuries, the Tooth Fairy must be increasingly pressed for time. So he built a pneumatic tube system that delivers his son's teeth from their home to the Tooth Fairy's house.
Link -via Hack a Day
Little Finn here just happens to be the son of John Nettles, photographer at City Light Studios, and a huge fan of Adventure Time. All he needs now is a Jake to follow him around.
The children's book above looks cute, but pretty boring, right? But shine a flashlight underneath the page and all kinds of new details pop up.
The delightful creation, titled Hide and Eek!, was designed by artist Rebecca Sutherland and design studio Hat Trick.
Link Via Design Taxi
In the first of a five-part series, Reuters looks at how some people who adopt a child and then change their minds can go on the internet to find new homes for them, a procedure called "private re-homing." The process is run without oversight, and things can go very wrong. We are introduced to Quita, who was adopted from Liberia as a teenager. Two years later, her parents gave up on the difficult and sometimes-violent daughter, and handed custody of her over to a couple they found through the internet.
Giving away a child in America can be surprisingly easy. Legal adoptions must be handled through the courts, and prospective parents must be vetted. But there are ways around such oversight. Children can be sent to new families quickly through a basic "power of attorney" document – a notarized statement declaring the child to be in the care of another adult.
In many cases, this flexibility is good for the child. It allows parents experiencing hard times to send their kids to stay with a trusted relative, for instance. But with the rise of the Internet, parents are increasingly able to find complete strangers willing to take in unwanted children. By obtaining a power of attorney, the new guardians are able to enroll a child in school or secure government benefits – actions that can effectively mask changes of custody that take place illegally outside the purview of child welfare authorities.
A few days after the handover, Quita's new family was nowhere to be found. Quita's story hints at poor preparation and oversight in the initial adoption, but the series focuses on what happens afterward, which also involves poor oversight, plus lax law enforcement and the desperation of unprepared parents with nowhere else to turn. Part two in the series is also available, and is even more disturbing. Link
Apparently, this wolf is pretty damned concerned about the happiness of this baby. In fact, whenever she starts crying, the pup starts singing to help calm her down.
Even if you could care less about Madonna, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis or David Bowie, there's just something fantastic about seeing young kids dressed up like these famous celebrities. Especially when photographer April Maciborka is behind the lens.
You can check out more of her fantastic images at the link.
Link Via Design Taxi
Stephanie Ellwanger of Hanford, California, took her two daughters and three of their friends to a pool party. By the next morning, the girls looked to be badly sunburnt. All five girls developed burns to the point of blisters, and were taken to a hospital. They were all admitted with second-degree burns over 15% of their bodies. Doctors suspected chemical burns.
Then she remembered the lime tree.
A neighbor had a large lime tree that grew over the fence into the backyard where the girls went swimming. They had picked some of the fruits and squeezed them out into imaginary tea cups in their play lemonade stand.
Was there something on the limes? Ellwanger wondered about pesticides. She mentioned this to the doctors, then went home to do some research.
A few attempts on Google yielded a term she’d never heard before: Phytophotodermatitis, a chemical reaction that makes bare skin hypersensitive to ultraviolet light. It’s caused by contact with photosensitizing compounds which occur naturally in some fruits and vegetables — like limes.
The girls spent two weeks in the hospital, and now have to be home schooled to avoid sunlight. Phytophotodermatitis can be caused by lemon, lime, celery, carrot, and other foods. When I was a kid, my friends and I would put lemon juice on our hair before outdoor sports to help the sun bleach it. Little did I know we were playing with fire! Link -via Arbroath
(Image credit: Gary Feinstein/The Sentinel)
