The Art of Storytelling

There is no other way better than storytelling to grab the attention and stimulate the minds of children. Why children love stories? How to choose a story apt for a particular age group? What are the benefits of storytelling? Yes, stories and storytelling involve many things and here we are bringing important elements involved in a good story and the art of storytelling.

Storytelling is an art and it is an activity of learning. It helps learning about different cultures, values, traditions, and the lives of unfamiliar people, creatures, and places. You can use stories for different purposes. Using stories for relaxation doesn’t require much preparation because your aim is just to change the monotonous and droning atmosphere of the classroom and students. However, when you use stories for learning purposes, you must be more cautious. For example, bedtime stories are an excellent way to help children wind down and absorb important life lessons in a calming, non-stressful way.

First of all remember, storytelling is a three-way relationship between the story teller, the story and children.

Stories
Simple stories are always good for classrooms rather than stories with complicated plot. When you select stories for kids below 10 years, choose a simple story with good moral values in it where king helps beggar, hard work leads to success, life of poor people, what is true wealth, greed isn’t good, wisdom and folly etc. When you present a story before kids, remember to use simple and common words that help learn English words and pronunciation. Avoid complicated nouns and reduce use of adjectives.

When you narrate a story, the usage of facial expressions, voice modulation and tempo are very important. Use your whole body, eyes, hands, and legs so as to bring feeling and action. Shouldn’t deviate from the topic and do not say unnecessary comments and questions breaking the mood of the listeners. Use your space dynamically and regulate your pace as per the situation of the story. Remember you can also communicate with a timely silence and pause which can bring dramatic effect to the story.

There are thousands of short stories for kids available online. Read it and narrate it beautifully before your kids. Stories help your kids to acquire a host of skills such as Listening Skills, Word Recognition Skills, Word Pronunciation and Usage etc. Storytelling is also a good way to Inculcate Good Reading Habits in Children.

Math Activities for Kids

One subject that many kids seem to find challenging is math because they have to learn addition and subtraction before they can ever go onto multiplication and division.  Let’s face it – memorizing all these steps could be boring and frustrating for kids. Find math activities for kids is a better way for the kids to learn how to deal and solve math problems, and it works because it seems more like a maths game than a learning exercise. There are different levels of exercises that are targeted for each age group.  The games get more difficult as the child gets better and continues with the more advanced games.   There are also worksheets that can be printed which motivate the kids to practice even without the help of a computer.

Different math activities provide opportunity for kids to learn maths and have fun while they are learning. Many of them include exceptional activities that make every kid excited asif they are playing a game.  Therefore this is an enriching learning experience for the kids which will make them very excited about reaching each subsequent level of the “game”.

There are even on-line workshops for the parents to help them learn even better methods of motivating the kid.  Parents will learn some of the most effective ways of motivating their kids to learn even more.  Some of the maths games include specific levels within each learning center, there are a variety of shelves that they can pull these games from and tackle the next great game.  Whether it’s identifying odd and even numbers, making change, challenges for addition and subtraction, and some games even use knives, forks, and spoons in a game to teach the kids another fun way of learning math.

Find various maths activities and games like Maths Tricks, Number Fun and Magic Squares. If your children a bit older, bring them a little more complex games that utilize geometry and even algebra that allows the kids to learn, not only geometric designs, but ways that math fits into these designs.   Then take deserts and divide the cakes and pies to help the kids work more effectively with fractions.  These games are interesting and fun and there are many ways to teach math but make it fun at the same time.

Take a look at these assorted math activities for kids and watch the kids get more and more motivated and excited about practicing their math problems.

What Parents Can Do To Help Children Read

Does your child detest reading? Would he rather color books and draw images rather than go through his reading assignments? You do not have to worry because there are several strategies to help children read that you can employ as a parent. Here are some tips that can transform your kid from a reluctant reader to a full-pledged bookworm.

Bring Your Child to the Library

Gone are the days when libraries used to be strict reading areas where noise and fun are not allowed. Nowadays, libraries have managed to update their reputations with the addition of kid-friendly environments, such as children’s corners, story times, and puppet shows. Exposing your kid to these ‘fun’ libraries will definitely change your tot’s perception of children’s books.

Talk To Him About Books

If you want your child to be a good reader, then one thing you should do is to talk to him about books. Tell him the stories of your favorite books, and encourage him to read these books as well. These stories can serve as common ground – one of the things that can make your bond stronger and deeper.

Make Reading a Part of Your Child’s Daily Activities

Reading is not just about reading hardbound books and magazines. Another way that can help your child is by encouraging him to make reading a part of his daily life. Urge him to read restaurant menus, signage, as well as your brochures in the doctor’s waiting area. By incorporating reading to his daily life, you can help improve his skills even further.

Conduct a “Reading Role Play”

If your child likes to hear a bedtime story before he goes to sleep, you can use this to make him a great reader. Read his favorite short stories with emotion and gusto, and encourage your child to take the role of a character in the story. Urge him to read his role, and for sure, he will look forward to reading stores even before his nighttime!

Be An Example

Kids idolize their parents, so make it a point to be a role model to your child. If you want your kid to be a voracious reader, then you need to set an example – be an avid reader yourself! If your child sees that you enjoy reading, he will surely make reading a habit too.

Reading can take your child to places. As a parent, you can fascinate your kid once again with the power of books by following these proven-effective tips.

Reading Comprehension Strategies

Reading comprehension refers to a person’s understanding of the text he is reading. Unfortunately, if a child is required to browse through a thick book, he might find it hard to digest the wealth of information that is presented to him.

Reading comprehension is a vital skill, especially for kids. If you want your children to absorb all the important information in his books, then here are reading comprehension strategies that can help him out:

Help Him Draw a Mental Picture

Kids find text boring and images more interesting, which is why they prefer comics and picture books to lengthy manuscripts. In order to help your kid comprehend the story they are reading, it will help if you encourage your child to draw a mental picture in his head. Let him use his imagination – and he will be able to grasp the story fully – and ask for more children’s books! For an even more engaging experience, consider incorporating a read aloud story, which can bring the story to life and make it more interactive for your child. This way, they not only visualize the plot but also connect more deeply with the characters and themes as the narrative unfolds – and he will be able to grasp the story fully – and ask for more children’s books!

Encourage Him to Speak Out

Most of the time, kids do not like to ask questions from their parents or teachers because of embarrassment, as well as fear of what they have to say to him. If you want your child to improve his reading comprehension skills, then motivate him to speak out in case he does not understand certain words or sentences in books or e-books. Giving him the freedom to raise questions, as well as answering his questions empathically, can help him understand what he is reading, and not just fake his understanding of reading.

Let Him Mark “Strange” Words or Passes

There might be words and passes that your child finds confusing. Urge him to mark these words and sentences by encircling or underlining them. Get back to these passes and help him browse through and understand these phrases after he is done reading.

Ask Your Child Questions After Reading

One way to check if your child has understood the text he read is by asking questions after he has finished the book. Do not make him feel like you are his teacher, expecting him to answer correctly. Ask questions casually, as if you are just starting a conversation with him. Not only will it foster parent-child bonding, but it can encourage your kid to understand the stories better so he can share his thoughts with you. For example, exploring Bible stories for children can offer great opportunities for meaningful conversations, teaching important lessons while promoting understanding through storytelling.

Improving your child’s reading comprehension skills can take some time. However, if you follow these strategies, you can help your kid exceed in school because of his hastened ability to digest and absorb pertinent information.

How to Help Kids Learn

Every kid is different – different personalities, skills and behavior. This difference can be seen in their studies and interest to other activities. Some kids find studying a boring chore so much so that their minds are flying elsewhere whenever they are in school, but show too much interest in extracurricular activities. As a result, they oftentimes end up failing the subject.

Sometimes your kids may be guilty with these kinds of thoughts. KidsWorldFun try to share some of the useful tips on how can help your child learn lessons in a fun and entertaining manner.

Games

Online games are entertaining yet effective ways of helping your kid learn different subjects. There are brain games, which can improve your child’s memory and concentration, as there are math and science games which can boost your kid’s grades in the said subjects. Just as long as you monitor the games he plays, he is sure to learn lessons as he enjoys himself with the interactivity of the game.

Videos

Does your child dislike reading books? If you cannot get him to sit down and finish a book, then the best way you can make him study the lesson is by allowing him to watch animated movies of the story online. For sure, he will be glued on the seat, and he will end up understanding and finishing the entire story.

Animated Stories

Another way to help your child learn a lengthy lesson is by letting him watch animated stories online. For example, he might find some history or religion books hard to read. In order to boost his knowledge of the pertinent characters without bullying him to read a book, you can let him browse through animated stories such as that of Jack and the Beanstalk, as well as Goldilocks and the three bears, among many others.

Art Applications

Apart from improving your child’s scholastic knowledge, you can also help him work on his creativity with the use of art applications and projects online. For example, the “Paint” program can give your child with an outlet for imagination, because he can draw virtually anything with this application.

There are also instructional manuals for art projects, which you can find online. After downloading the manual, you can start a project with your child and finish it together. Not only will this project provide a good ground for parent-child bonding, it can help you become more creative as well!

With the availability of learning aids such as games, interactive lessons and videos, your kids can learn lessons effectively even outside the classroom. Just follow these tips and you can help your children excel in school without boring and tedious tutorial lessons.

Positive Effects of Video Games on Children

While video games have long been touted as negative influences to kids, several researches have shown that they actually bear benefits to a child’s mental and physical faculties. Instead of banning your kids from playing games for good, then here are their positive effects – maybe they could just change your mind.

Improves Memory and Concentration

Memory and concentration are essential factors for a child’s academic success. Those who retain memory poorly, or those who are not able to concentrate on a certain task, usually lag behind class. If this is your kid’s problems, then you can help him boost his recall and attentiveness with the help of brain games, such as Memory Match and Memory Matrix. By allowing your kid to play these games at least 30 minutes every day, you can expect him to improve his recollection and focus in just a few weeks. Here are some Gear For Gaming Reviews to help you understand these games better.

Improves a Kid’s Problem Solving Skills

Problems take place every day, and even if your kid is still young, he needs to solve the small obstacles that come his way, such as how to pass by without toppling the blocks in front of him. You can help improve this aspect by allowing him to play games from this site slotomania, but before that, the kid can watch and study Twitch stream overlay to enhance his mind and sharpen their memory. With the complexity associated with these games, your child will be able to decipher problems easily after a few weeks.

Enhances a Child’s Analytical and Decision-Making Skills

Video games, such as strategy and action games can enhance a child’s analytical and decision-making skills. That is because the game puts him in a situation which requires him to act and make a decision right away. This is specifically important, especially as the kid gets older, since he has to make choices as he goes through daily life activities.

Develops your Youngster’s Fine Motor Skills

Apart from conditioning the mind, video games can also develop your tot’s fine motor skills. For example, racing and battle games require the player to hit a certain button at a certain time in order to win the conquest. By playing certain video games on a regular basis, your child can improve his fine motor skills, and consequently perform better in sports, cooking and shop classes, to name a few and they can improve even more with the help of the best keyboards for gaming. For these you will need different products and all these products you can find it in Reviews site with descriptions and uses for each one.

While there are video games that can adversely affect a child’s psyche and behavior, there are certain games that can improve his knowledge, concentration and memory. Just make sure that these are the games he plays so he can benefit from the many positive effects of video games on children, games as League of Legends which are not so violent and more fictional help the kids be entertained and more focus, and they can even get services as ELO Boosting to improve in the gaming as well.

League of Legends can be awesome to play for both beginners and veteran players because of its replayability. But it could be boring if you are using a new account since you would be playing with bots and you wouldn’t have that many characters unlocked. If you want to skip the boring AI matches and heavy grinding just to get your account to level 30, you can easily get smurf League of Legends accounts from LOL Script. 

Educational Websites for Kids

The Internet is not only a source of entertainment it also serves as a repository of information, where kids and even elder learners can find educational and less known aspects of anything and everything. It is true that there is no single resource to show, which is accessible and infinite like INTERNET. So is the reason why Google (term which is almost synonymous with internet) is described as ‘god’ and the believers ‘the Church of Google’. Here are several educational websites which can make learning fun for your kid.

Kidsworldfun, an online free education portal for kids, attempts to bring an array of scholastic websites that can help boost the mind of children in different spheres. If you’re also running an educational website, make sure to hire a professional web designers to make the website interactive and appealing for the kids.

National Geographic Kids

If you want improve your child’s knowledge of science and general information, visit the National Geographic Kids website. It talks about interesting information about animals, as well as detailed data about the different countries. Best of all, it has games and videos that make learning fun and enjoyable.

Fun Brain

Does your child find casual learning boring and tedious? One way to let him study and enjoy all at the same time is to lead him to the Fun Brain website. Here, he can learn math through interactive games and quizzes. Fun brain also offers entertaining activities that can improve your child’s reading skills. Your kid can definitely have intelligent fun with Fun Brain.

Cool Math

Another website that can hone your child’s mathematical skills is Cool Math. True to its commitment to being ‘an amusement park of math,’ this website can provide games and lessons that make math easily learnable. Apart from teaching basic math concepts, Cool Math also delivers lessons to advanced learners with its algebra, geometry and calculus programs.

Make Me Genius

When it comes to learning Science concepts, one of the best educational websites to visit is Make Me Genius. True to its name, it can hone your child’s intelligence just after a few days. The website is brimming with science videos for kids, featuring Newton’s laws of motions, the carbon cycle, states of matter, to name a few. It also plays home to hundreds of cool facts, as well as educational powerpoints that can make the learning process easy as pie.

Starfall

Help your child learn English easily with the help of the Starfall website. Ideal for young kids, this website features the basics of reading, as well as reading with phonics. With its interactive interface, it is perfect for kindergartners, as well as special education students.

Contrary to popular beliefs, GUIDED SURFING can actually improve a child’s mental capacity, especially if he makes it a point to visit the aforementioned websites. By monitoring your kid as he browses through these educational websites, you can help him learn complex lessons in a fun and entertaining.

Why Are Short Poems Good For Kids

Children are our most precious resource. Our future is in their hands, and so it becomes our moral responsibility to give them the best education and values, which they will benefit from and in return, give their best to the society they belong to. There are various ways through which you can teach your kids moral values – poems being one of them. When we were small, our teachers used to recite short poems like “Baba Black Sheep…”, “Twinkle Twinkle…” etc. The reason was that these short poems captured the young kids attention. Once they were rapt, you could teach them almost anything.

Children are very creative and they want means to express themselves. If you read short poems to them, it will surely capture their attention and accelerate their thoughts in their creative minds. These poems are a consortium of phrases, which are placed so intelligently that the thoughts and situations are very nicely conveyed. Brevity is the essence of these poems, and with fascinating rhymes they convey a lot more than the mere sentences over there. Better than long books, poems can often relax your soul.

Importance of inculcating good habits in children is not an unknown notion and parents across the globe who wants that their kids enjoy the learning process. For this reason you must choose a poem for your child, which is witty as well as brilliant. There are several beautiful poems that can be found online or in print that can not only prove to be educational, but also help children form reading and writing habits. Children will get inspired to create their own version of poems.

Small poems help increasing your kid’s vocabulary. They contain words, which you don’t use in your daily common language. You can always tell your child’s inquisitive mind about those words. Besides increasing the vocabulary of your child, these short poems enhance their grasping power without entangling them in the jargon of words. Poems present a fresh approach to moral values that will stir the young minds in a way that their creative bent is nurtured bringing about a higher level of engagement.

Once your child starts loving the short poems, they will enjoy a wide range of poetry – ones that entail various forms of life, nature or emotions. Small poems for children are a perfect gift on festive occasions or birthdays. They are available on online stores on affordable prices.

Who knows your child surprises you with a collection of his or her poem one day!

How To Inculcate Good Reading Habits In Children

Good habits not only enhance your life, but they also help in sharpening your mind. You feel relaxed and motivated every time you carry them out successfully. One of those habits is reading, whereby the reader is emotionally enriched. Well, the fact is that this is one of those habits, which cannot be developed overnight. You have to have that flair and a love to gorge that idea, those words and those epitaphs. If you are looking to inculcate that reading habit in your child, you have to start from the beginning.

When your child is at a tender age of 4 or 5, you can introduce small fairy tale books, which have elaborate pictorial depictions. These books have enough words to create inquisitiveness in your kids and just enough pictures to bring about revolution in his or her little brain results in a fancy and creative world. Besides fairy tales, you can introduce books like Noddy. Noody has been an all time favorite amongst kids. The fiction character by Enid Blyton became so popular that it got converted into a television series, which is liked by both adults as well as kids.

That being said, what is the best way to inculcate good reading habits in the kids? It is important to understand when they are ready for this. Present them with a small gift that contains these books as soon as they can start reading sentences. If you feel they are having trouble in reading books, you can simply read out the stories to them. Here’s how you can set up a good routine…

  1. You can read out the books to them every night before going to bed. There are numerous bedtime stories, which you can download from the Internet. However, if your child wants you to read out the books at any other time of the day, you should concede.
  2. It is a good idea to read small number of pages instead of reading out the whole book. You can slowly build the speed when your child starts absorbing the details.
  3. If your child has started reading himself or herself, you should get books that are a level above.

There are many benefits of good reading habits. It enhances your child’s vocabulary. Reading helps building good diction and comprehension, which is one of the most essential elements of college applications acceptance.

If you don’t have time to buy books, you can simply download free eBooks online from the Internet.

What are the benefits of eBooks for kids? We all know how kids are glued to the computers, iPhones, iPads or your android phone. These platforms allow easy access to Internet and you can download eBook for kids on these mobile devices. If your child is playing games on your cell-phone, then once in a while he or she will be tempted to read the eBook that you have downloaded. However, if you have a desktop/laptop at home, you can download free eBooks in there and allow your kids to read. This is one of the best use of technology whereby you don’t have to go out to the retail outlets, rather download free eBooks for your kids in the comfortable zone of your home.

Fun and Safe Social Networks for Children

If you have young children on Facebook or MySpace, they shouldn’t be — at least legally. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) prevents websites from collecting personal information about children who are under the age of 13 without their parents’ permission.

Many children bypass this law, even on sites that enforce it, by simply adjusting their birthday. In a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 75% of seventh through 12th graders surveyed said they had a profile on a social media site.

Clearly children want to use social media, and the evidence suggests that they will do so despite COPPA or the many justified parental fears that helped create it. Parents can, however, make the experience safer by directing their children to one of these five age-appropriate social networks.

1. Togetherville

Parents can sign up their children by using their own Facebook accounts to create a profile for their kids on this Facebook-like site. Once parents have selected friends for their children by searching other students at their child’s schools, adding family friends from their own Facebook profiles, and sending e-mail invites, children have access to selected YouTube videos, games, and creative projects. The site has other features that mirror Facebook, like the ability to “heart it,” buy and send gifts using a virtual currency (the twist is that parents give the currency to their children free of cost as “allowance”), and share videos and other parts of the site with their friends. This will be a great start for your children to learn how to manage money so as they grow older and start learning about investments, they´ll learn why it´s important to Invest in bitcoin.

Where the site departs from Facebook puts many parents’ minds at rest: no outside links, no unapproved friends, and no private conversations. In order to post original comments instead of pre-set options, children must agree to this code of conduct: “I agree to not say anything mean or hurtful, not say embarrassing things about myself, my friends, or my family, and take responsibility for what I say on Togetherville.”

Togetherville’s target age group is under 10, which makes pre-set comment options like “Hampsters are so CUTE!” understandable. The site also facilitates parents’ participation in their children’s introduction to social media by encouraging parent-child interaction. Not only can parents view their child’s social network activity, but they can also post messages to his or her wall, allocate “virtual allowances,” and send virtual gifts.

2. What’s What

This site is probably the most secure social network for kids on this list. In order to sign their children up, parents need to submit their credit card information to verify their identity and they must submit three mug shots (taken with a webcam) of their child for the site’s records. As with every site on this list, I was still able to create a profile as an adult and therefore browse friends in “my grade,” which I selected as seventh. Unlike the other sites, however, the What’s What team had discovered my adult presence (via those mug shots) within about six hours and blocked my profile.

While children are free to interact with people they don’t know, they can’t make friends with people who are out of their age group (in their grade or one grade below or above theirs) without parental permission. Beyond this, the network functions much like the others: users can exchange messages, make friends, join and create groups, and view their friends’ profiles. Parents can edit or delete their children’s profiles at any time, and everything posted on the site is monitored.

The intended age group for the site is between 8 and 14, which seems realistic given that two big draws of social networking — the ability to “make friends” with new people and share your thoughts with others — are retained.

3. ScuttlePad

To sign up for ScuttlePad, kids provide their birthday, favorite color, first name, and parent’s e-mail address, and they’re not allowed on the site until their parents approve it. Once logged in, they’re free to post messages, make friends, upload photos, and make comments — but with a catch. All comments on the site need to follow a given format and use a given set of words. Messages are composed within the framework, “I’m click, click, click,” with each click leading to a choice of words. Photos are manually approved by ScuttlePad, and only first names are used on the site.

The comment outline feature makes the site more secure. Realistically, anyone of any age, with any malicious intention, could sign up, but it’s hard to do much damage with the pre-set communication options. Similarly, it’s impossible to cyber bully or even really hurt anyone’s feelings using the preset options.

On the other hand, this feature can be restricting to the point of making the online experience dull to older kids. The site is intended to teach children ages 6 to 11 about how to use a social media site, and it definitely accomplishes that goal. It might be most engaging, however, for kids on the younger end of that age group.

4. giantHello

Parents can verify their identities and sign their children up for giantHello by either providing the last four digits of their social security number or by charging one cent to a credit card. Beyond that, the site provides the social networking experience that comes closest to mainstream social media networks, making it more appealing to older children who want more autonomy than is allowed on some of the other sites.

Profile pages function much like a Facebook wall: friends can leave comments, children can update their status, and activity on the site — like joining groups — is reported on their page. Children also have options to send private message, upload photos, and join the fan pages of celebrities like the Jonas Brothers and Ryan Seacrest, which are updated via the celebrities’ Twitter feeds.

As far as the social media experience goes, giantHello parts from its mainstream counterpart by removing the “search for friends” function, much like the sites that buy Instagram followers, they remove all of those features. Children need to either invite friends via an e-mail or print out as page with an invitation code to give them. Therefore, they can’t make friends with people who they don’t know.

5. Skid-e Kids

Skid-e kids relies on staff moderators for most of its security features: if a comment is flagged by a filter for inappropriate language or disclosure of personally identifiable information, it is sent to human moderation; all photos are checked by a moderators; users submit articles and stories for a “written by you” section that are edited for inappropriate language and personal information before they’re posted; and interest group pages are moderated.

Unlike most sites, parents and children both are encouraged to create profiles on the same network. Users can exchange messages, update their statuses, upload video (which needs to be approved before it is posted), and compete against each other for high scores on any of the free games on the site. Unfortunately most of these games are prefaced by ads, and although they are advertised as educational, it’s hard to see how something like “Powerpuff coloring” fits this description.

The advantage of this site, especially for older children, is that much of the moderation is provided by the site itself. Parents aren’t required to constantly check in or approve decisions, but can instead focus on interacting with their children on the same network.

Smart ways to keep yourself safe

Body
You are the boss of your body. No one is allowed to hurt your body in any way.

Private Body Parts
The parts of your body covered by your undergarments are your very own private body parts. It is never all right for someone to touch, talk about or look at your private body parts except for health reasons.

Hugs
Hugs and Kisses are nice especially from people you like. But it someone asks you to keep it a secret, make sure you tell a grown up you trusts.

Gifts
Sometimes people try and trick you by giving you sweets, money or gifts in return to do something that makes you feel uncomfortable, confused or unsafe. Refuse to do what they ask and don’t take gifts they give you!

Secret
Secrets about touching are not okay. Always tell your trusted adult if someone tries to break the touching rules and asks you to keep it a secret.

No
If someone tries to break this touching rule, it is very important to learn to use this word. Use it loudly. NO!

Shout and Get Away
Practice shouting – because that’s what you need to do when someone is trying to hurt you or touch you in a way you don’t like, or which makes you feel confused, scared or uncomfortable.

Tell
If you are worried, confused or scared by the way someone touches you or makes you feel, tell a grown up you trust about it if the person you tell doesn’t help you then tell someone else. And keep on telling till you get the help you need. Some examples of grown ups you may want to tell are parents, teachers or grandparents.

It Is never your fault
It is never your fault when someone breaks the touching rule to hurt you. And sometimes even if you can’t say no or get away or are too afraid to tell, always remember to think ‘NO’ that you did not ask to be hurt and it is NOT your fault. Think ‘NO’ and tell when you can.

Courtesy: Tulir, Chennai