Portraits of Children Telling Stories

By Mimi Say

Why should we teach children to be storytellers?

By Sheila of Living Books Curriculum

That question reminds me of a story:

"One night an elderly man seated before a fire somewhere in foothills of the Caucuses Mountains near the Caspian Sea turned to the boy beside him who had listened the  night through to the men tell stories, and he said “Now it is your turn to tell one.”

“I cannot,” the boy said, “I do not know how to begin...and I might not remember every word of the story right.”

“What difference does that make,” said the man, “No two people ever tell any story the same way. Why should they? A story is a letter that comes to us from yesterday. Each one who tells it adds his words to the message and sends it on to tomorrow. So begin.”

Still the boy hesitated.

“Go on,” said the man, “Or you have no right to listen any more. To listen to stories without ever telling one is harvesting grain without sowing seeds; it is picking fruit without pruning the tree.”

When the boy heard this, he knew he could hesitate no longer, and so he began, ‘Once there was and was not.”

(from the preface to  Russian Fairy Tales Pantheon Books,  1945)

By teaching your children to tell stories you are giving them far more than the enjoyment of stories. You are giving your children a foundation in orality. Just as literacy is the ability to read and write, orality is the ability to speak and listen. All four modes—reading, writing, speaking, and listening—make up human communication. Orality is the hand and literacy is the glove. Storytelling is the highest form of orality. Being a storyteller means you have a rich store of language and images to draw from in writing, reading,  and  speaking.

Five tips for teaching children to tell stories:

1. Tell a story of when you were little. Then, ask your child to tell one to you.

2. Read a story from a folktale collection and ask your child to retell (narrate) the story. Rule of thumb: The younger the child, the simpler the story. Best-Loved Folktales is one of the finest collections I know.

3. Listen to a storytelling tape as a family and have a "round- robin" narration to see if all listening can reconstruct the story.

4. Plan a story circle with other homeschooling families in which you have one or two children prepare a story to tell.

5. Make up a story together at the dinner table or driving in the car. The first person says, “Once there was...” and the next adds their bit and the next and so on.

http://www.storynet.org

http://www.storytellingcenter.com

Guideline on Teaching Storytelling

• last edited 4 years, 12 months ago
• content history

A Position Statement from the Committee on Storytelling, 1992

Once upon a time, oral storytelling ruled. It was the medium through which people learned their history, settled their arguments, and came to make sense of the phenomena of their world. Then along came the written word with its mysterious symbols. For a while, only the rich and privileged had access to its wonders. But in time, books, signs, pamphlets, memos, cereal boxes, constitutions—countless kinds of writing appeared everywhere people turned. The ability to read and write now ruled many lands. Oral storytelling, like the simpleminded youngest brother in the olden tales, was foolishly cast aside. Oh, in casual ways people continued to tell each other stories at bedtime, across dinner tables, and around campfires, but the respect for storytelling as a tool of learning was almost forgotten.

Luckily, a few wise librarians, camp counselors, folklorists, and traditional tellers from cultures which still highly valued the oral tale kept storytelling alive. Schoolchildren at the feet of a storyteller sat mesmerized and remembered the stories till the teller came again. Teachers discovered that children could easily recall whatever historical or scientific facts they learned through story. Children realized they made pictures in their minds as they heard stories told, and they kept making pictures even as they read silently to themselves. Just hearing stories made children want to tell and write their own tales. Parents who wanted their children to have a sense of history found eager ears for the kind of story that begins, "When I was little ...." Stories, told simply from mouth to ear, once again traveled the land.

What Is Storytelling?

Storytelling is relating a tale to one or more listeners through voice and gesture. It is not the same as reading a story aloud or reciting a piece from memory or acting out a drama—though it shares common characteristics with these arts. The storyteller looks into the eyes of the audience and together they compose the tale. The storyteller begins to see and re-create, through voice and gesture, a series of mental images; the audience, from the first moment of listening, squints, stares, smiles, leans forward or falls asleep, letting the teller know whether to slow down, speed up, elaborate, or just finish. Each listener, as well as each teller, actually composes a unique set of story images derived from meanings associated with words, gestures, and sounds. The experience can be profound, exercising the thinking and touching the emotions of both teller and listener.

Why Include Storytelling in School?

Everyone who can speak can tell stories. We tell them informally as we relate the mishaps and wonders of our day-to-day lives. We gesture, exaggerate our voices, pause for effect. Listeners lean in and compose the scene of our tale in their minds. Often they are likely to be reminded of a similar tale from their own lives. These naturally learned oral skills can be used and built on in our classrooms in many ways.

Students who search their memories for details about an event as they are telling it orally will later find those details easier to capture in writing. Writing theorists value the rehearsal, or prewriting, stage of composing. Sitting in a circle and swapping personal or fictional tales is one of the best ways to help writers rehearse.

Listeners encounter both familiar and new language patterns through story. They learn new words or new contexts for already familiar words. Those who regularly hear stories, subconsciously acquire familiarity with narrative patterns and begin to predict upcoming events. Both beginning and experienced readers call on their understanding of patterns as they tackle unfamiliar texts. Then they re-create those patterns in both oral and written compositions. Learners who regularly tell stories become aware of how an audience affects a telling, and they carry that awareness into their writing.

Both tellers and listeners find a reflection of themselves in stories. Through the language of symbol, children and adults can act out through a story the fears and understandings not so easily expressed in everyday talk. Story characters represent the best and worst in humans. By exploring story territory orally, we explore ourselves—whether it be through ancient myths and folktales, literary short stories, modern picture books, or poems. Teachers who value a personal understanding of their students can learn much by noting what story a child chooses to tell and how that story is uniquely composed in the telling. Through this same process, teachers can learn a great deal about themselves.

Story is the best vehicle for passing on factual information. Historical figures and events linger in children's minds when communicated by way of a narrative. The ways of other cultures, both ancient and living, acquire honor in story. The facts about how plants and animals develop, how numbers work, or how government policy influences history—any topic, for that matter—can be incorporated into story form and made more memorable if the listener takes the story to heart.

Children at any level of schooling who do not feel as competent as their peers in reading or writing are often masterful at storytelling. The comfort zone of the oral tale can be the path by which they reach the written one. Tellers who become very familiar with even one tale by retelling it often, learn that literature carries new meaning with each new encounter. Students working in pairs or in small storytelling groups learn to negotiate the meaning of a tale.

How Do You Include Storytelling in School?

Teachers who tell personal stories about their past or present lives model for students the way to recall sensory detail. Listeners can relate the most vivid images from the stories they have heard or tell back a memory the story evokes in them. They can be instructed to observe the natural storytelling taking place around them each day, noting how people use gesture and facial expression, body language, and variety in tone of voice to get the story across.

Stories can also be rehearsed. Again, the teacher's modeling of a prepared telling can introduce students to the techniques of eye contact, dramatic placement of a character within a scene, use of character voices, and more. If students spend time rehearsing a story, they become comfortable using a variety of techniques. However, it is important to remember that storytelling is communication, from the teller to the audience, not just acting or performing.

Storytellers can draft a story the same way writers draft. Audiotape or videotape recordings can offer the storyteller a chance to be reflective about the process of telling. Listeners can give feedback about where the telling engaged them most. Learning logs kept throughout a storytelling unit allow both teacher and students to write about the thinking that goes into choosing a story, mapping its scenes, coming to know its characters, deciding on detail to include or exclude.

Like writers, student storytellers learn from models. Teachers who tell personal stories or go through the process of learning to tell folk or literary tales make the most credible models. Visiting storytellers or professional tellers on audiotapes or videotapes offer students a variety of styles. Often a community historian or folklorist has a repertoire of local tales. Older students both learn and teach when they take their tales to younger audiences or community agencies. Once you get storytelling going, there is no telling where it will take you.

Oral storytelling is regaining its position of respect in communities where hundreds of people of every age gather together for festivals in celebration of its power. Schools and preservice college courses are gradually giving it curriculum space as well. It is unsurpassed as a tool for learning about ourselves, about the ever-increasing information available to us, and about the thoughts and feelings of others.

The simpleminded youngest brother in olden tales, while disregarded for a while, won the treasure in the end every time. The NCTE Committee on Storytelling invites you to reach for a treasure—the riches of storytelling.

This position statement may be printed, copied, and disseminated without permission from NCTE.

Healthy Lifestyle For Children

Healthy Lifestyle For Children: Create it, Live it, and Enjoy it!

http://everychildhealthy.com/blog/healthy-lifestyle-for-children

The goal of any parent is to ultimately create a healthy lifestyle for children. Creating it, living it and enjoying it however, require some strategies for achievement.

The healthy lifestyle that you create for your children now will determine, mainly, their lifestyle as an adult. Creating ahealthy lifestyle for children includes how they eat, behave, and most of all their daily life habits –responsibility, respect and appreciation for their body, mind and spirit.

So what is a healthy lifestyle for children? It’s a choice. That choice starts with parents who consciously choose to live and lead a healthy lifestyle. Kids follow the choices their parents make, and kids will justify their behaviors, thoughts and actions by saying, “my parents do it,” so therefore it’s okay. In other words, YOU become your child’s reasons for challenges, failures and misbehaviors.

Imagine for a moment, all the things you have learned in your life as an adult. Wouldn’t your life be different if you knew then what you know now? I cannot tell you how many parents have shared with me, “if my parents had taught me how to create and live a healthy lifestyle as a child, my life would have been far better off than it is now. I had to learn the hard way.”

And they’re right. Not only would their lives have been different, they would have become more powerful and joyful at an early age.

A healthy lifestyle for children does not have to be difficult, but it can become difficult later on when your children become adults, if they don’t begin learning now. There are simple things you can do right now that children and teens love. Let’s take a look at them.

Here are some tips for creating, living and enjoying a healthy lifestyle for children:

Parents MUST take care of themselves FIRST: Sounds difficult doesn’t it? When will you have the time to take care of you first? A healthy lifestyle for children starts with VALUES. When you have a child, sometimes your core values can change, mainly temporarily. For the most part, parents often sacrifice their core values for their child. Although that is noble and often required, parents must return to their core values so their child can develop their own.

If parents don’t take care of themselves, who will? Who will teach your children core values? We all do what we think is most important to us in any given moment. Parent must continue to live their values regardless of their circumstances. Don’t sell out on yourself just because you have children. They are NOT to blame. In fact, children are inspired more by parents who “live a healthy lifestyle” and live from their values.

Creating a healthy lifestyle for children starts with parents living their own healthy lifestyle.

Here are 12 more actionable tips:

#1 Role modeling: I bet you’ve heard this one before, right? You don’t have to try to be a good role model if you’re living a healthy lifestyle. It’s a matter of choosing to live in the most productive, effective and conscious way. It’s a choice. Making the choice is simple, getting to the choice is where many people find themselves stuck.

Many younger parents focus on creating a healthy lifestyle for children, and that is important. But if you don t know how, then re-read the paragraph above; you’re not connected to your values if you think you don’t know how to create a healthy lifestyle. Creating a healthy lifestyle for children is about the way you show up, the emotions that dominate your life as much as what you’re doing.  Keep that in mind. It’s not just about what you’re doing, but feelings you infuse into what you’re doing. That is how your children will experientially learn how to develop a healthy lifestyle, or not.

#2 Consultative Parenting: We’re 11 years into the 21^st Century, the old school parenting model of yelling, telling, and lecturing and, my most despised strategy, spanking is OUT. In fact it does not work and never has. But many parents did not know a better way; they simply did what their parents did.

A main part of creating a healthy lifestyle for children is to understand the world they live in. Kids today are electronic babies. They want collaboration, not dictatorship. They want to be a part of team, not be ruled. They want to feel important, to feel like they are contributing, and ultimately they want to know they are loved — not spoiled love, but loved for who they are not by what they do.

A consultative parent creates a healthy lifestyle for children by asking questions. Great consultants ask great questions and let their clients figure things out. Your role as a parent is toREMOVE the stress from your life by keeping your children’s problems their problems. Consult with your kids about their problems so they can solve them on their own.

Consultants, like parents who are committed to creating a healthy lifestyle for children, offersolutions and choices when their clients/kids cannot figure out what to do. How can you create a healthy lifestyle for your children if you solve, rescue and fix their lives for them? Having faith in your child and supporting them in figuring things out on their own builds character, courage and responsibility for life.

Creating a healthy lifestyle for children means consulting with them so they can take responsibility for their own problems and life. It’s better they learn this at home, from their parents, than have the world teach them the hard way. Naturally, they will not figure out everything — that is why offering solutions and choices is vital.

#3 Love Me Enough to Set Healthy Boundaries: A key to creating a healthy lifestyle for children is to create boundaries so your child knows how to show up, to live and enjoy life, but also so they know what is going to happen if things are not working. You cannot realistically expect your child to magically create a healthy lifestyle if they don’t know the boundaries of the game beforehand, can you?

I attended a Love and Logic parent teach training program a while back. It’s a great course that I recommend. I bought a poster from the course and hung it on my daughter’s door.

So, here is what the poster says:

“I will respect you at all times so you know how to treat me.”

“Feel free to do anything as long as it’s healthy and does not cause a problem for you or anyone else.”

“If you cause a problem I will ask you to solve it.”

“If you cannot solve it or you’re unwilling to solve it, then I will solve it for you.”

“I choose to solve it based upon the special person and circumstance.”

“If at any time you feel something is unfair just whisper in my ear, “That’s not fair,” and we can talk about it.

My daughter is too young to read yet, but each time she sees the poster, she asks me to read it. She loves it. The very first day I hung the poster up, she asked me to read it to her 4 times. Then she said, “So when are you going to start doing this to me.” I said, “You rarely create problems.”

So now anytime she is upset or wants something, she whispers. Never does she yell, scream or throw tantrums, and I have never experienced her doing it. Why? Because she knows the healthy boundaries now, she knows how to show up, handle her emotions (at age 4) and she whisper to me. If she does yell or get upset, then I know something serious is happening. It works. It’s easier and more fun parenting as a consultant who is committed to creating a healthy lifestyle for children.

Children are brilliant aren’t they? So brilliant that most of them are starving for a healthy lifestyle. The next day after we discussed the poster, my daughter was painting and I said to her that I am going downstairs to type a quick email. By the time I got downstairs I could hear her feet run into the kitchen to grab some chocolate, which I had already told her she could have after dinner.

I knew she was creating a healthy lifestyle situation; she wanted me to hold her to the boundaries so she created a problem (children are starving for healthy boundaries). I stuck my head out the office door and said, “If you are choosing to create a problem, I am happy to solve it for you — unless you want to solve it for yourself?”

Instantly, she slammed the cupboard door and ran back into her room laughing, she said, “I will wait until after dinner.”

I said, “Great choice.”

Creating a healthy lifestyle for children is not complicated and children are starving for it. They need to know how to live, know their boundaries, and know how to create a healthy lifestyle. Every year, kids will start to outgrow their boundaries and push the limits. That is what kids do in order to grow. When that happens, just update the boundaries based upon their ability, age, behaviors and such.

Creating a healthy lifestyle for children includes loving them enough to set healthy boundaries.

#4 Environment: Recently I became a CASA, shot for Court Appointment Special Advocate. I am a volunteer for family court judges who have cases where parents are getting a divorce and there are children involved who may be in some kind of danger, or the parents have been in trouble with the law and the judge wants to ensure the child is safe.

I have no decision-making power. I simply protect the child so he or she feels safe and inform the judge of how the child is doing so the judge knows how to keep the family together, basically helping the family create a healthy lifestyle for children and themselves.

I cannot tell you many cases I’ve seen and read about in which the environment some children are in causes them to misbehave, to experience fear, rejection, pain and criticism. Some of these kids don’t feel safe at home or school. Their environment is set up for them NOT to experience their greatness, love or personal development mainly because the parents are NOT living their core values and creating a healthy lifestyle for their children, how could they? And they are not living a healthy lifestyle for themselves.

What is the environment that you can create to support a healthy lifestyle for children?

What feelings do you want to permeate your environment in order to create a healthy lifestyle for children?

What atmosphere do you want to create in order for your kids to experience a healthy lifestyle?

#5 Quality foods: Creating a healthy lifestyle for children also means quality food choices. My daughter does not expect to eat tons of sugar or carbohydrates in my house because I don’t keep them in the house. I’ve removed toxic food from her life; our living environment does not contain garbage so she does not ask for it nor crave it.

Creating and living a healthy lifestyle for children in regards to food is simpler than you might think. PALEO food is the best, it keeps kids well balanced, healthy, and full of nutrition — and most of allyou don’t have to count calories, manage food portions, or cook for long hours.

Paleo food consists of organic meat, chicken and fish, vegetables galore, small amount of fruit, and all sorts of nuts and seeds. The closer you eat to what has roots, and is fed by roots and grass, the better off you are.

How long does it take to BBQ fish or chicken and steam veggies? Hmmm, maybe 15 minutes. Even better, you can BBQ every Sunday and have meals for the rest of the week. This is not hard; it’s easy and can be done by anyone.

Living the healthy lifestyle for children in regards to food is simple; if healthy food is available they will eat it, and tons of it. You cannot go wrong with eating nutrition rich food, can you? I’ve never met an obese person who said, “I got fat eating veggies and fresh fish.”

A healthy lifestyle for children demands they eat nutrition rich food all the time. They are growing and changing, their bodies need to be fed healthy foods and lots of it.

Parents choose the food that determines a healthy lifestyle for their children. Parent’s food choices create a healthy lifestyle for children not the other way around.

#6 Developing Passion: Creating a healthy lifestyle for children is an inside-out process. Kids have varying degrees of passion and are often passionate about some things. However, passion is passion. You want your kids to be passionate so that passion is who they are, not something they do.

Some kids are passionate about golf, Baseball, math — but what about the rest of their lives? Creating a healthy lifestyle for children means that whatever and wherever kids are, they are infusing passion into that area of their life. Does that make sense?

Passion is not something that is taught in schools, nor can it really be taught. At the very least, kids should be able to start identifying their passions at an early age. I would rather have a child who is passionate about who she is, about life, about people and humanity, than a child who is just passionate about one thing.

Why? Creating and living a healthy lifestyle for children is about experiencing passion no matter what they are doing. It simply creates a well-rounded child and a purposeful and successful adult.

Parents can begin creating a healthy lifestyle for children by engaging in a curious conversation about the following:

• What makes you feel happy?
• What makes you feel like you having fun?
• What about these things do you really like?
• Which ones do you really like the most?
• If you could spend the rest of your life doing just one healthy thing, what would it be and why?

These questions support creating and living a healthy lifestyle because they inspire and ignite children into realizing what’s really underneath what they are doing. It’s passion that creates the feeling of being ALIVE, AWAKE and turned on. Passion is the KEY to creating a healthy lifestyle for children.

#7 Emotional Leadership: Definitely not taught at school and it should be. Children spend 12+ years in school and they are encouraged to become emotionally resilient.

I am going to refer back to the consultative parent. Consulting with your children to help them understand emotions, to discuss them, and for parents to be able to provide strategies for their children so they can learn to manage, overcome and communicate their own emotions is vital to creating a healthy lifestyle for children.

Kids do experience stress, more so now than ever. They are pressured more in school and in this chaotic world we live in.

A child’s ability to lead his or her own emotions determines if they will choose, focus and stay consistent with living a healthy lifestyle or not. Like many parents, when children’s emotions change, so do their actions, attitudes and thoughts. Emotional resilience is a child’s ability to see through their fear.

Of all the doctors I have coached, not one reported to me, “John Doe died because he felt scared.” Just telling your kids it’s okay to experience fear is NOT enough; discussing it, shifting that energy into love, passion and determination will benefit them for life.

Living a healthy lifestyle for children is determined by how well a parent creates emotional intelligence for their child. I would recommend reading the book, The Mouse, The Monster and Me, found on my website www.EveryChildHealthy.com .

Creating a healthy lifestyle for children means exploring feelings, not analyzing or rationalizing. Explore, discover and act from a place of passion and resilience.

#8 Responsibility: “If your child does what you tell them, does that mean your child is responsible?”

“If they do all their chores and homework, does that mean your children are responsible?”

Not necessarily. Children do what is asked to be accepted, to be loved and to not upset mom and dad –but that does not necessarily mean they are responsible. You’ll know if they are responsible when they make smart decisions and follow through when they are NOT asked and no one is watching them.

Responsibility is simply a child’s ability to respond, not react. Living a healthy lifestyle for children is about willingly choosing to act consciously rather than being told what to do.

Telling your child what to do inactivates their brain and does not create responsibility; in fact, it makes the parent more stressed and responsible.

In order to live a healthy lifestyle, parents need to keep their children’s challenges their challenges and consult with them. If you take your child’s problems away from them, rescue them or tell them what to do, you’re taking away your child’s ability to build their responsibility muscles.

Living a healthy lifestyle for children means solving some of their own challenges, physically, emotionally and mentally. They want to be challenged and succeed, and the more success they can have in their early life, the more success they will have as an adult.

Responsibility is power and a healthy lifestyle for children means parents need to start believing, trusting and having faith in their ability early on.

#9 Down Time: Down time is incredible important. A healthy lifestyle for children means making sure kids take a break, quiet their minds and simply relax.

Can you imagine how your life would be affected if you had learned how to quiet your mind as a child?

Or how to relax deeply and be totally present?

Stress would not be the #1 reason for dis-ease and physical & emotional problems in the world today.

Kids are more stressed and pressured today than ever. They’ve got to learn to be able to relax and reflect.

Recently my daughter had a headache, which rarely occurs. The easy way would be to give her Motrin and move on. Instead I had her sit in my lap and focus on breathing. Then I said, “Describe the headache you have.”

15 minutes later she opened her eyes and the headache was gone. She’s 4 years old. Learning, school, making new friends and growing all at the same time is tough. Her body needed to relax and rejuvenate. Now she knows how to act responsibly and to listen to her body so she can take care of herself.

A healthy lifestyle for children means time to relax and reflect. It plays a major role in taking responsibility for their lives and being able to rejuvenate their body, minds and spirits.

#10 Friendship & Socialization: The quality of socialization has changed from riding bikes after school to text messaging friends and emails. This has caused kids to have more challenges with “in person” relationships and socialization. A healthy lifestyle for children means they still need to learn basic rapport skills, conflict skills and being in authentic face-to-face relationships.

To combat this, it’s best to continue to arrange chat time with your kids. The average American family spends 38 minutes per week “talking with their kids in meaningful conversation.” To create and live a healthy lifestyle for children, 15 minutes per day is a great start and is nearly 3x the average time.

Healthy lifestyle children’s camps are a fabulous way for children to create new relationships, and to develop them and sustain them — as long as camps are actually teaching these skills in a productive fashion. Its been my experience that most of the real learning in camps is incidental, not intentional, when it comes to the development and life skills kids are capable of learning, and camps should provide.

But then again, most camps don’t have a camp leader, only hired older kids looking for a summer job.

I would recommend the following for creating and living a healthy lifestyle for children:

• Public speaking
• Camps
• Kids nights in your local town
• 15 minute date nights with your kids
• Fun activities with family
• Camping or competitions in your local area
• Crossfit for kids

There are many camps, and there are more qualified than the average camps out there, that actually teach kids skills, success principles and strategies they can use in their life now and as an adult. See my camps page at www.EveryChildHealthy.com

#11 Environment: We all know children are creatures of habit in their environment. Creating and living a healthy lifestyle for children does depend on the feelings, atmosphere and support in a child’s environment.

Although a sponge can soak up anything, it can only take so much. Children are the same way; they can only take so much positive and or negative stimulation.

Parents have called me to discuss why their child is not sleeping, or showing signs of ADD. Too many doctors make the mistake of NEVER asking about a child’s diet, home environment, parental and sibling relationship before jumping the gun and labeling a child ADD.

One parent in particular, Tina, told me that once she changed the energy in her daughter’s room her nightmares went away.

Another parent, Dr. Rick, shared with me, “once we changed the colors to our house, reduced electronics and ate more Paleo type foods, my son was able to come off Ritalin in 6 months.”

Environment is the major player in transformation, improving one’s life, self-esteem and creating a healthy lifestyle for children.

In order to create a healthy lifestyle for children, there are three things to look at to reduce stress and chaos, and improve health and well-being: People: the people in the environment play a role in how they affect kids, for better or worse.

1. Things: items, colors, furniture, food, electronics and other tangible things in the environment can cause children to react either positively or negatively.
2. Places: There are some places where children feel safer than other places. Identify those places and do your best to create a healthy lifestyle house so your child feels safe and empowered in every area of their environment.

A healthy lifestyle for children can be achieved in doing any of the above tips, but if the environment is hindering a healthy lifestyle for children, then true change won’t happen for the long term.

A healthy lifestyle for children can be obtained successfully and simply. It truly does not take a lot of time. It requires energy and effort. It’s both healthy for the parents and kids.

Parents can reduce the stresses that parenting often brings by making a commitment to creating, living and enjoying a healthy lifestyle for children.

Many thanks to my team members at EveryChildHealthy, for their participation in creating these tips.

Blessings,

Coach Carl

Filed under: Health

Kids Say the Darndest Things

by http://www.stargazersrealm.com/MAIN/funnies/kidssaydarndestthings.html

A kindergarten student told his teacher he'd found a cat, but it was dead. "How do you know that the cat was dead?" she asked her student. "Because I pissed in its ear and it didn't move," answered the child innocently. "You did WHAT?!?!?!" the teacher yelled in shock. "You know," explained the boy, "I leaned over and went 'Pssst!' and it didn't move." 



A mother and her young son returned from the grocery store and began putting away the groceries. The boy opened the box of animal crackers and spread them all over the table. "What are you doing?" his mother asked. "The box says not to eat them if the seal is broken" the boy explained. "I'm looking for the seal." 



One day the first grade teacher was reading the story of Chicken Little to her class. She came to the part of the story where Chicken Little tried to warn the farmer. She read, ".... and so Chicken Little went up to the farmer and said, "The sky is falling, the sky is falling!" The teacher paused then asked the class, "And what do you think that farmer said?" One little gir l raised her hand and said, "I think he said: 'Holy Shit! A talking chicken!'" 



A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin, 5, and Ryan, 3. The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake. Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson. "If Jesus were sitting here, He would say, 'Let my brother have the first pancake. I can wait.'" Kevin turned to his younger brother and said, "Ryan, you be Jesus. 



A father was at the beach with his children when his four-year-old son ran up to him, grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore, where a seagull lay dead in the sand. "Daddy, what happened to him?" the son asked. "He died and went to Heaven," the dad replied. The boy thought a moment and then said, "Did God throw him back down?" 



When I was six months pregnant with my third child, my three year old came into the room when I was just getting ready to get into the shower. She said, "Mommy, you are getting fat!" I replied, "Yes, honey, remember Mommy has a baby growing in her tummy." "I know," she replied, but what's growing in your butt?" 



Several years ago, I returned home from a trip just when a storm hit, with crashing thunder and severe lightning. As I came into my bedroom about 2 a.m., I found my two children in bed with my wife, apparently scared by the loud storm. I resigned myself to sleep in the guest bedroom that night. The next day, I talked to the children, and explained that it was O.K. to sleep with Mom when the storm was bad, but when I was expected home, please don't sleep with Mom that night. They said OK. After my next trip several weeks later, my wife and the children picked me up in the terminal at the appointed time. Since the plane was late, everyone had come into the terminal to wait for my plane's arrival, along with hundreds of other folks waiting for their arriving passengers. As I entered the waiting area, my son saw me, and came running shouting, " Hi, Dad! I've got some good news!" As I waved back, I said loudly, "What's the good news?" My son shouted very excitedly, "Nobody slept with Mommy while you were away this time!" 



A physician and her 4 year old daughter were in the car on the way to preschool. The doctor/mother had left her stethoscope on the car seat, and her little girl picked it up and began playing with it. "Be still, my heart," thought the mother, "my daughter wants to follow in my footsteps!" Then the child spoke into the instrument: "Welcome to McDonald's. May I take your order?" 



A father was reading Bible stories to his young son. He read, "The man named Lot was warned to take his wife and flee out of the city, but his wife looked back and was turned to salt." His son asked, "What happened to the flea?" 



TEACHER: George Washington not only chopped down his father's cherry tree, but also admitted it. Now, Louis, do you know why his father didn't punish him? 
LOUIS: Because George still had the ax in his hand. 

TEACHER: Clyde, your composition on "My Dog" is exactly the same as your brother's. Did you copy his? 
CLYDE: No, teacher, it's the same dog. 

TEACHER: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested? 
HAROLD: A teacher. 

TEACHER: Cindy, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor? 
CINDY: You told me to do it without using tables! 

TEACHER: Now, Sam, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating? 
SAM: No sir, I don't have to, my Mom is a good cook. 



A little girl asked her mother, "Can I go outside and play with the boys?" Her mother replied, "No, you can't play with the boys, they're too rough." The little girl thought about it for a few moments and asked, "If I can find a smooth one, can I play with him?" 



It was the end of the day when a K-9 officer parked his police van in front of the station. While he was gathering his equipment, his K-9 partner started barking at a little boy staring into the van. "Is that a dog you got back there?" he asked the officer. "It sure is," the officer replied. Puzzled, the boy looked at him and then towards the dog. Finally the boy said, "What'd he do?" 



A Sunday school teacher asked her little children, as they were on the way to church service, "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?" One bright little girl replied, "Because people are sleeping." 



A little girl goes to the barbershop with her father as usual. She stands next to the barber chair eating a snack cake, while her dad gets his hair cut. The barber says to her, "Sweetheart, you're gonna get hair on your Twinkie one of these days." She says, "Yes, I know, and I'm gonna get boobs too." 



A mother was away one weekend at a business conference. During a break, she decided to call home collect. Her six-year-old son picked up the phone and heard a stranger's voice say "We have a Marcia on the line. Will you accept the charges?" Frantic, he dropped the phone and ran outside screaming, "Dad! Dad! They've got mom!! And they want money!!!" 



A wife invited some people to dinner. At the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said, Would you like to say the blessing?" "I wouldn't know what to say," the girl replied. "Just say what you hear Mommy say," the wife answered. The daughter bowed her head and said,"Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?" 



At the beginning of a children's sermon, one girl came up to the altar wearing a beautiful dress. As the children were sitting down around the pastor, he leaned over and said to the girl, "That is a very pretty dress. Is it your Easter dress?" The girl replied almost directly into the pastor's clip-on mike,"Yes, and my Mom says it's a bitch to iron." 



A three-year-old boy went with his dad to see a litter of kittens. On returning home, he breathlessly informed his mother, "There were 2 boy kittens and 2 girl kittens." How did you know?" his mother asked. "Daddy picked them up and looked underneath," he replied. "I think it's printed on the bottom." 



A three-year-old put his shoes on by himself. His mother noticed that the left shoe was on the right foot. She said, "Son, your shoes are on the wrong feet." He looked up at her with a raised brow and said, "Don't kid me, Mom. They're the only feet I got!." 



On the first day of school, about mid-morning, the kindergarten teacher said, "If anyone has to go to the bathroom, hold up two fingers." A little voice from the back of the room asked, "How will that help?" 



A teacher was doing a study testing the senses of first graders, using a bowl of lifesavers. The children began to say: 
"Red............cherry" 
"Yellow.........lemon" 
"Green..........lime" 
"Orange.........orange" 
Finally the teacher gave them all honey lifesavers. After eating them none of the children could identify the taste. "Well," she said, "I'll give you all a clue, it's what your mother may sometimes call your father." One little girl looked up in horror, spit her lifesaver out and yelled: "Oh My God!!!! They're assholes! 



A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small. The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible. The little girl said, "When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah." The teacher asked, "What if Jonah went to hell?" The little girl replied, "Then you ask him." 



A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small. The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible. The little girl said, "When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah." The teacher asked, "What if Jonah went to hell?" The little girl replied, "Then you ask him." 



A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's work. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was. The girl replied, "I'm drawing God." The teacher paused and said, "But no one knows what God looks like." Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, "They will in a minute." 



The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray: "Take only ONE. God is watching." Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies. A child had written a note, "Take all you want. God is watching the apples. 



On class photo day, after The children had all been photographed, the teacher was trying to persuade them each to buy a copy of the group picture. "Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, 'There's Jennifer, she's a lawyer,' or 'That's Michael, he's a doctor.'" A small voice at the back of the room rang out, "And there's the teacher, she's dead." 



One Sunday morning, the pastor noticed little Alex standing in the foyer of the church staring up at a large plaque. It was covered with names and small American flags mounted on either side of it. The six-year old had been staring at the plaque for some time, so the pastor walked up, stood beside the little boy, and said quietly, 'Good morning Alex.' 'Good morning Pastor,' he replied, still focused on the plaque. 'Pastor, what is this?' The pastor said, 'Well son, it's a memorial to all the young men and women who died in the service.' Soberly, they just stood together, staring at the large plaque. Finally, little Alex's voice, barely audible and trembling with fear asked, 'Which service, the 8:30 or the 10:45?' 

Children Quotes

Read more athttp://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/children.html#rJJO3wvlrwLvVYTz.99

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.
Mahatma Gandhi
The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.
Mark Twain

Tell the children the truth.
Bob Marley

Your children will see what you're all about by what you live rather than what you say.
Wayne Dyer

Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.
Aristotle

No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.
Plato

Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.
Plato

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
Khalil Gibran

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
Helen Keller

It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today.
Barack Obama

This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.
Barack Obama

Human beings are the only creatures on earth that allow their children to come back home.

Bill Cosby

Nothing I've ever done has given me more joys and rewards than being a father to my children.
Bill Cosby

If you must hold yourself up to your children as an object lesson, hold yourself up as a warning and not as an example.
George Bernard Shaw

How true Daddy's words were when he said: all children must look after their own upbringing. Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.
Anne Frank

Benefits for Children of Play in Nature

By Randy White

 

The children's play gardens (naturalized playgrounds) that our company designs for clients emphasize a rich natural environment as the play setting and nature as the play element. Our designs are based upon an extensive body of research and literature on:

• the significant benefits for children of regular play experiences in nature,
• children's play preferences, and
• the most effective designs to support children's development.

Following is a summary of the many benefits that regular play in nature has for children:

• Children with symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are better able to concentrate after contact with nature (Taylor et al. 2001).
• Children with views of and contact with nature score higher on tests of concentration and self-discipline. The greener, the better the scores (Wells 2000, Taylor et al. 2002).
• Children who play regularly in natural environments show more advanced motor fitness, including coordination, balance and agility, and they are sick less often (Grahn, et al. 1997, Fjortoft & Sageie 2001).
• When children play in natural environments, their play is more diverse with imaginative and creative play that fosters language and collaborative skills (Moore & Wong 1997, Taylor, et al. 1998, Fjortoft 2000).
• Exposure to natural environments improves children's cognitive development by improving their awareness, reasoning and observational skills (Pyle 2002).
• Nature buffers the impact of life's stresses on children and helps them deal with adversity. The greater the amount of nature exposure, the greater the benefits (Wells & Evans 2003).
• Play in a diverse natural environment reduces or eliminates bullying (Malone & Tranter 2003).
• Nature helps children develop powers of observation and creativity and instills a sense of peace and being at one with the world (Crain 2001).
• Early experiences with the natural world have been positively linked with the development of imagination and the sense of wonder (Cobb 1977, Louv 1991). Wonder is an important motivator for life long learning (Wilson 1997).
• Children who play in nature have more positive feelings about each other (Moore 1996).
• Natural environments stimulate social interaction between children (Moore 1986, Bixler et al. 2002).
• Outdoor environments are important to children's development of independence and autonomy (Bartlett 1996).
• Play in outdoor environments stimulates all aspects of children development more readily than indoor environments (Moore & Wong 1997).
• An affinity to and love of nature, along with a positive environmental ethic, grow out of regular contact with and play in the natural world during early childhood. Children's loss of regular contact with the natural world can result in a biophobic future generation not interested in preserving nature and its diversity (Bunting & Cousins 1985; Chawla 1988; Wilson 1993; Pyle 1993; Chipeniuk 1994; Sobel 1996, 2002 & 2004; Hart 1997; Wilson 1997, Kals et al. 1999; Moore & Cosco 2000; Fisman 2001; Kellert 2002; Bixler et al. 2002; Kals & Ittner 2003; Schultz et al. 2004).

"There's no way that we can help children to learn to love and preserve this planet, if we don't give them direct experiences with the miracles and blessings of nature."

Anita Olds

NATURE’S NEURONS: Do Early Experiences in the Natural World Help Shape Children’s Brain Architecture?

About the Author

Richard Louv is Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Children and Nature Network. He is the author of eight books, including "The Nature Principle: Reconnecting to Life in a Virtual Age" and "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder" which has been translated into ten languages and published in fifteen countries.

By Richard Louv on July 26th, 2012

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What role do early childhood experiences in nearby nature play in the formation of brain architecture? It’s time for science to ask that question.
In January, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof reported on the American Academy of Pediatrics’ “landmark warning that toxic stress can harm children for life.” This was, he wrote, a “’policy statement’ from the premier association of pediatricians, based on two decades of scientific research,” and he added that the statement “has revolutionary implications for medicine and for how we can more effectively chip away at poverty and crime.”

Understanding the “plasticity” of the brain is a key to this relatively new approach. While genetics are responsible for the brain’s basic foundation, its architecture – structure and connections – can literally be shaped by factors outside the body.

From conception through early childhood, brain architecture is particularly malleable and influenced by environment and relationships with primary caregivers, including toxic stress caused by abuse or chronic neglect. By interfering with healthy brain development, such stress can undermine the cognitive skills and health of a child, leading to learning difficulty and behavior problems, as well as psychological and behavior problems, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and other physical ailments later in life.
“We’re beginning to get a pretty compelling biological model of why kids who have experienced adversity have trouble learning,” according to Jack Shonkoff, a pediatrician and director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard. “You can modify behavior later, but you can’t rewire disrupted brain circuits,” he told Kristof. Does this mean that brain development stops at age three? No. Original circuits may be disrupted, but the brain does have a remarkable ability to create neural detours throughout a lifetime, especially during periodic windows of brain-development opportunity. So don’t write off teen-agers or the rest of us. Still, neuroscientists believe that it’s vastly better to get brain circuitry right the first time, during the first years of life.
To reduce toxic stress in early childhood, Shonkoff and others call for early intervention, including home visitation by childcare experts to vulnerable women pregnant for the first time. Kristof reports on one such program: “The nurse warns against smoking and alcohol and drug abuse, and later encourages breast-feeding and good nutrition, while coaxing mothers to cuddle their children and read to them. This program continues until the child is 2.” In addition, better urban design and public health and economic policies could relieve toxic stresses caused by excessive noise, pollution, traffic, the threat of crime, and unemployment.
Unfortunately, researchers have not focused on the impact a child’s attachment to the natural world may have on brain development. On related fronts, here’s what we do know.
A growing body of primarily correlative evidence suggests that, even in the densest urban neighborhoods, negative stress, obesity and other health problems are reduced and psychological and physical health improved when children and adults experience more nature in their everyday lives. These studies suggest that nearby nature can also stimulate learning abilities and reduce the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and we know that therapies using gardening or animal companions do improve psychological health. We also know that parks with the richest biodiversity appear to have a positive impact on psychological well-being and social bonding among humans.
While we can’t say with certainty that these influences play a direct role in early brain development, it’s fair to suggest that the presence of nature can soften the blow of toxic stress in early childhood and throughout our lives. It’s understandable that researchers have yet to explore the natural world’s impact on brain development because the topic itself is rather new. Also, scientists have a hard time coming up with an agreed-upon definition of nature – or of life itself.
Several years ago, I worked with the Center on the Developing Child, then associated with Brandeis University, to help with communications. When I would ask the neuroscientists how the natural world itself affects brain development, they in turn would ask, rhetorically, “How do you define nature?” Ironically, these same scientists were simulating more “natural” conditions for control groups of animal subjects in their labs. Defining nature may be a scientific stumbling block, but it shouldn’t be an insurmountable problem.

For all of human history and prehistory, experience in the natural world has helped shape our species, including our brains. That huge and ongoing influence cannot be ignored.

So here are a few questions to challenge neuroscientists and other researchers to explore these questions: What is nature’s role in reducing toxic stress early in life and improving parent-child attachment? Does disconnection from nature help cause toxic stress? What is already being done by people in vulnerable neighborhoods to create more naturally nurturing environments? Are proliferating community gardens, especially in urban neighborhoods, already having a positive impact on early childhood development, including brain development? And could one form of early intervention be to assure early, positive childhood experiences in the natural world?

It’s time for science to ask these questions, and more, about the shaping of young brains. Defining nature will be the easy part.
____________________________
Richard Louv is Chairman Emeritus of The Children and Nature Network and the author of “THE NATURE PRINCIPLE: Reconnecting with Life in a Digital Age” and “LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.”
Photo by R.L.

Further Reading and Resources

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

Reports & Working Papers: Center on the Developing Child

“Shared Nature Experience as a Pathway to Family Bonds” by Martha Ferrell Erickson, PH.D.

“‘Vitamin N’ and the American Academy of Pediatrics” by Mary Brown, M.D.

“A Poverty Solution that Starts with a Hug” by Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times